Chapter 5
Michael dozed off in the chair. When Fiona finally awoke it was late afternoon. She looked over and saw Michael with his head resting in his hand. "Smart move, buddy. Not sharing the bed." Fiona recognized she needed space. She also knew they were bonded. In order to shake management free, she needed Michael's help. He was the reason she was in this mess. She sighed. It was a lie. She never had to come here to start. She was a big girl and she knew what she was getting into.
Fiona got up and went to the frig. Yogurt, always yogurt. She took a strawberry and leaned against the bench and watched her mark. God, he was handsome. She knew he was thinking about all the angles. "Michael, time to wake up. What did you find out?"
Michael shook himself loose from the chair and moved to the sink. He splashed water over his face and gestured to behind the workbench. Fiona watched as Michael pulled a flash drive from under the wood. "Fi, what do you think about Japanese tonight?"
"Sure. Let's head out.
Fiona grabbed her purse and a pad of paper while Michael went up to the top level and pulled his laptop from the charger. He came down and slipped it into Fi purse.
After he had been brought back in, during the six months he hunted down management, Michael decided it might be a good idea to take his files and have them scanned into PDF form. It turned out to be a lifesaver. He told Fi that he was doing it so he could get rid of them. He remembered Fi, "Sure, I believe that one," look. He was really glad he ignored it. He hired Maddie to scan all of the materials in to his laptop and then transferred them on to the thumb drives. The payment for this service had been steep. Two week of dinners out with his mom and cash payments to allow her to redecorate the house. The cash payment had been easy. The two weeks of dinners, well, that was a like a "Miami Restaurant Tour" for the sixty something set. After the first seven days he had lost 10 pounds. After two weeks, he developed a sinus infection from the smoking. On the hand, he had all the documents related to his burning on two flash drives. He found a slick that Fi didn't know about and placed them there for safekeeping.
When Pearce cleared out his loft of all the boxes of burned spy memorabilia, the flash drives remained. He knew that somehow Anson had gotten those files and used them. He also knew that Anson thought that without those files, Michael would never get his hands on all the discrepancies. These files might hold a key.
"Lincoln Dr? Sushi Samba? Such good memories, Michael."
"And free WiFi at the Starbucks down the street," Michael thought to himself.