Chapter Fourteen
Riley couldn't hold off any longer. He flipped open his cell phone and dialed Tanya's number. After a few rings, she answered. "Thank God. I thought you dropped off the face of the earth," he said.
"Riley, it's been two weeks," she replied flatly.
"But seriously, where've you been?"
"Somewhere in the crowd, if I leave here at all."
"And where is 'here'?"
"The last place you'll look."
"Okay, cryptic much. Care to be a little simpler?"
"I can't, and don't think of tracing this call. I'm about to hang up soon."
"What, you don't want to go to the cops? Is that it?"
"Yes. Almost time. Be careful when and how often you call me, and only tell your friends about my progress, when I tell you. I need to disappear, for all intents and purposes. Do you understand?"
"Yeah."
"Fantastic. I'll be in touch." The line went dead, and Riley checked the call duration: two minutes and thirty seconds. Sly as a fox.
NTNT
Tanya lay her phone on the table and returned to the symbol key and her translation of the page, as it appeared on the image Ben had sent her via email. That translation would lead to another symbol key, but beyond that, she couldn't be sure how long it would be before she reached the alphabet key. But she could only do so much without the help of her notes.
Just worry about this one first, she told herself, and staying away from Nathaniel and his goons. Except Phil, the spy. Phil was safe to deal with, and proving to be a reliable contact, when he was in contact, which was sporadically and for brief amounts of time. His last message was a text, telling her Nathaniel had been stabilized and to be careful. She forwarded this message to Sadusky with the proviso that he tell Ian. Now it was all a matter of trusting Sadusky, and so far, he hadn't given her a reason not to. She then sent a message to Phil, indicating only that he should keep a close eye on Nathaniel and make sure nothing "untoward" happened.
Tanya turned her phone off and picked up her pencil.