Generation of Liars by Camilla Marks Read Free Book Online

the person who shot me.”
    “What do you mean you know him?
Have we done business with him in the past?”
    “No, it’s not like that. I know him
from my old life. His name is Pressley Connard.”
    “Who is Pressley Connard, and of
what relation is he to you?”
    “He was my boyfriend back home, and
when I ran away three years ago I didn’t tell him why I was running or where I
was going. It seems like pure coincidence that he showed up here in Paris.”
    “Alice, the fact that you have a
personal past with this man poses a big conflict of interest for you.”
    “No conflict. I swear.”
    “You know how it works in this business,
Alice. The reason we cut off all the people from our past is because emotions
can fog our judgment. We are meant to be free agents.”
    I swung the bathroom door open and
zipped by Rabbit on my way to his liquor stash. I poured a drink from Rabbit’s
mini bar, gulped it entirely too fast, and fell backwards onto the bed. “I’m
fine. Trust me. I don’t have any feelings for this guy, and any feelings that
might have lingered evaporated when he aimed a gun at me and pulled the trigger.”
    “Did you at least get any of the
information I sent you up there to get before this ex-boyfriend of yours pulled
the gun?”
    I rubbed my shoulder. The soreness
of the bullet wound was breeding down my arm now. “No. I doubt there was any
real information to get. I think it was some kind of setup.”
    "That won’t help lead us to
the dynamite stick, now will it, Alice?"
    “Probably not.”
    “And now I have to worry about some
person out there in the real world being able to positively identify someone
who is employed by me. Can you see how much of a headache this is for me?”
    The liquor wasn’t calming me. I
rolled onto my stomach and lit another cigarette over the edge of the bed and
dangled it between my fingers. Rabbit shot me a dirty look for stinking up his
sheets with smoke. I rolled my eyes at Rabbit and pleaded into the phone,
“Motley, please, let’s just think rationally. There’s a chance he didn’t even
recognize me.”
    “I think it would be smart if we
got you out of Paris immediately.” The tone was nonnegotiable. “I am going to
investigate the motive of this ex-boyfriend of yours. I want to know who he is
working for and if we were set up by somebody. In the meantime, I have a more
low profile job for you to carry out.”
    “What does the job entail?”
    “Nebraska.”
    “Nebraska?” I bellowed. “I know I
messed up, but sending me to Nebraska is cruel and unusual punishment.”
    “No, Alice, as in Benny Nebraska.”
    “Benny Nebraska?”
    “Benny is a hacker who works out of
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He supports himself by hacking Hollywood bank accounts
from South America.”
    “Oh. Thank God I don’t really have
to go to Nebraska. I’m not built for snow piles and strip malls,” I said. “So
why am I visiting this Benny guy in Rio? Does he have information on the
dynamite stick?”
    “Mr. Nebraska claims to have been
able to track the last computer the disk was plugged into and he might be
willing to shop it around to the highest bidder.”
    “How soon does my plane take off?”
I asked, well versed with the quickness with which Motley made arrangements. No
doubt my flight would be first class since Motley seemed to have limitless
financial resources at his disposal. The unspoken rule was that we never asked
where his fortune came from.
    “Thirty minutes. I will have a ticket
waiting for you at de Gaulleairport.”
    “Once I’m in Rio, where should I
go?”
    “I will send an address to your
phone while you’re in flight.” Motley hung up without saying goodbye and I
agitatedly bounced my phone down on the mattress.
    Rabbit rolled next to me on the bed
and propped a pillow under his chin. He waved my cigarette smoke away from his
nose. “How pissed did he sound?”
    “It was hard to tell.”
    “Well, was it as pissed as he gets
when you drink the