SIMS

SIMS Page 91

"Here's what we've got on her," Lowery said, unfolding his notes behind the wheel of the surveillance car.

Luca stared at Dr. Cannon's two-story colonial from the passenger seat. He'd wanted a personal look at the lay of the land, and he didn't like it one bit.

"Elizabeth Cannon, age forty-eight, never married, no kids, lives alone. In solo obstetrics-gynecology practice. Works out of a home office, on the staff of Nassau County Community Hospital."

"Home office?" Luca said.

"Yeah. That extension on the left side there."

"Where are her patients?"

"I called about that. Her answering service said she'd canceled her office hours from today through next week but would still be seeing her hospital patients and doing her deliveries."

"Odd, don't you think?"

Lowery shrugged. "Hey, it's Christmas Eve. And she took Christmas week off. Do the same if I could."

"We don't find that sim," he told Lowery, "you'll have the longest Christmas vacation of your life."

The scanner squawked - Lowery was tuned into the local cop frequency. Something about a fender bender on Maple Street.

"So far she's been a good little girl. Made her hospital rounds this morning, then went grocery shopping."

"Buy a lot?" Luca asked.

"Come to think of it, yeah. Watched her load six bags in the back of her wagon - a blue Volvo, by the way."

Luca straightened in his seat. Interesting. "Six bags for one woman living alone?"

"Like I said, it's Christmas. Maybe she's planning a big family dinner."

"Read your own notes - she'sgot no family."

The more Luca thought about Dr. Elizabeth Cannon, the more he liked her as a real possibility. A loner with tons of experience delivering sims, she'd probably jump at the chance to shut down a place she thought of as a "slave factory." Now here she was, stocking up on groceries - enough to feed a sim and the missing Cadman and Sullivan perhaps? Plus she had a home office, the perfect place to deliver a sim. Was that why she'd canceled her office hours? Wouldn't do to have one of her patients spot a pregnant sim, would it.

He felt some of his fatigue lifting.

"All right," Lowery said, "let's just say this sim is in there. How - ?"

"Sheis in there," Luca said. "I feel it in my gut."

"Okay. I'll go with that, because my gut's giving me the same message, but does your gut have any idea how we get her the fuck out of there? Look at this neighborhood, will you? It'sLeave It To Beaver -ville. There's no room to operate."

Luca had already noticed that. Neat, middle-size houses, most sporting Christmas decorations, nestled side by side and back to back on quarter-acre lots, with wide streets that nobody parked on. Sitting here like this, their car looked as alien as a flying saucer. Only a matter of time before -  Another squawk on the scanner, this one about a suspicious car parked on Cavendish Drive.

"Shit!" Lowery said. "That's us."

Luca slapped the dashboard. "Move. I don't want any local heat seeing our faces."

"So what do we do?" Lowery said as he put the car in gear.

"A raid. Oh-four-hundred tomorrow morning."

"Are you kidding? On Christmas?"

"Can you think of a time it'll be less expected? Six of us hit the place front and back wearing FBI jackets and full assault gear. If we find the sim we secure her, terminate everyone else, and take off. If we don't find her, we apologize for raiding the wrong address, and disappear."

"FBI?"

"Hey, it's not like they never raid private homes and it's not like they've never fucked up before either. Everybody still remembers Waco. It'll take days, maybe weeks, before the feds convince the public they weren't involved."

Lowery grinned. "And by then we'll be long gone. I like it."

"It's win-win," Luca said. "If I'm right, we'll have the sim. If I'm wrong, no more wasting time watching Cannon."

But I'mnot wrong, he told himself. That sim's in there. I can smell her.