Read F Paul Wilson - Sims 05 for Free Online Page A

thinking, you know, there’s a lot of dirty old white vans
with New
York plates, but maybe this is the one I spotted in Brooklyn , you know, when Palmer and Jackson
disappeared from that op. And I was wishing I had the tag number handy when—”
                 “Get
to the goddamn point!”
                 “Okay,
okay. So I’m watching the van and I see the rear door swing open. No big deal,
but then this sim hops out of the bushes and jumps inside.”
                 The
PCA’s seams let out a faint squeak as Luca’s grip tightened. “Was it her?”
                 “Nah. This was a skinny male, but you could tell from his
coveralls he’s from the crib.”
                 “He’s
leading them to her! Where are they now?”
                 “About
twenty-five yards ahead of me, heading back toward the crib.”
                 “Don’t
lose them. You hear me, Snyder? Do…not…lose them. And don’t let them spot you
either. You spook them, they’ll take off.”
                 “Maybe
I should contact the others so we can tag team them on the tail.”
                 “Good
idea. No, wait.”
                 Luca’s
mind raced over the possibilities. These people had fooled him before. Was it
sheer luck that Snyder spotted the sim jumping into the van, or was he supposed
to see it? The expected response was to mobilize the entire surveillance team,
which would leave the sim crib unguarded. Could that be their real purpose?
                 “Do
it this way. Lowery and Stritch have the front door. While Lowery takes the car
to back you up, tell Stritch to go inside and find out from that jerk Morales
which of his sims is missing. If the sim from the van
somehow makes it back to the crib, I want to know which one it is.”
                 “Got
it,” Snyder said.
                 “I’m
on my way over now. I can’t emphasize how important this is, Snyder. Don’t blow
it.”
                 He
returned to Lister. “Gotta go. Tell the folks upstairs
our ‘big manpower commitment’ just paid off.”
                 He
ended the call without waiting for a response. He told Maria not to wait up as
he rushed for the door.
                  
                 “You
did a good job, Tome,” Romy said, feeling for the agitated old sim.
                 Tome
sat hunched on a rear seat of the van, distraught that he’d failed to find
Meerm. Romy had moved out of the front. She and Zero flanked him.
                 “Yes,”
Zero added. “An excellent job. But now tell us again
what Beece said. Try to remember exactly.”
                 Romy
listened closely to Tome’s recitation of Beece’s fractured directions to
Meerm’s hiding place, trying to fathom a way to put them to practical use.
                 And
then from the front seat Patrick said, “I think we’ve got trouble.”
                 Zero
leaned forward. “What’s wrong?”
                 “A
green Taurus has been following us since McDonald’s.”
                 Romy
tensed. “You’re sure?”
                 “He’s
hanging back, but I just made a couple of turns and he’s still with us.”
                 “Let’s
leave the neighborhood, then,” Zero said. “Head for one of the highways—22, 78,
doesn’t matter, just so long as it takes us to the
airport.”
                 “ Newark Airport ?”
                 “It’s
a maze, and a traffic nightmare. If we can’t lose them there, we never will.”
                 “But what about Meerm?” Romy said.
                 Zero
shook his head. “Too risky to look for her now. We’d
lead them right to her.”
                 Romy
hung on as they bounced along. She saw a red, white, and blue TO 78