The Fold: A Novel Part 31

The smile returned to her face. "I'm glad you came here."

"Thanks. Have I answered your question?"

She straightened up in her chair. "I believe so," she said.

"How did you go through all the code so fast?"

She studied his face for almost a minute. Once her eyes darted to the rings. Twice to the computer screen. She bit her lip, looked at the Door, and the lights flicked on in the control room. Her eyes widened, just for a moment, even as her shoulders relaxed. "I think that counts as another question you're not supposed to ask," she said.

Mike sighed.

"My turn," she said a little louder. "Which one of us is paying for dinner?"

"What?"

"Dinner," she said. "Someone has to pay. You or me?"

"Why don't we just each pay for ourselves?"

Jamie shook her head. "You're kind of missing the point," she said. "If I don't have to say 'buy me dinner first,' it's your big chance to look like a gentleman."

He stared at her for a minute.

"Okay, fine," she said. She fished a quarter out of her jeans and flipped it into the air. "Call it."

"Heads."

Her fingers s.n.a.t.c.hed the coin out of the air and slapped it onto the back of her palm. "It's your lucky night," she said. "You're buying dinner."

"Ahhh." He looked away and bit his lip.

"Something wrong with that?"

Mike studied the rings. He watched the lights. He checked the readings on the screen. They still hadn't changed.

"Well?"

"Did Arthur put you up to all this?"

"What?"

"You've become a lot more friendly toward me ever since I threatened him." He ran through a list of potential words and phrases. "Some might say aggressively friendly."

Jamie studied his face for a minute. "Are you politely asking if Arthur's pimping me out to you in exchange for your cooperation?"

"I thought I'd done a fairly good job of not saying that."

"Did it occur to you that this could just be a woman attracted to a coworker in a very normal part-admiration, part-l.u.s.tful way?"

He shook his head. "I can honestly say it did not."

"You weren't kidding about the social problems and relations.h.i.+p issues, were you?"

"Apparently not."

The control room light blinked out.

"No, Arthur did not put me up to this. I am asking you to take me to dinner all on my own."

"Telling me to, really."

"Well, clearly if I waited for you to ask, I'd starve to death."

They both made a point of studying their monitors and checking the rings.

"Was there someplace you'd like to go?"

"Go?"

"For dinner."

"Oh, gosh, I thought you'd never ask."

THIRTY-ONE.

Mike's fingers wiggled on the steering wheel. "So, where am I going?"

"Is there anything you don't like?"

He shrugged. "There's a lot of stuff I haven't tried."

"Thai? Italian? Mexican?" Jamie paused and frowned. "You're not one of those people who thinks Taco Bell is real Mexican food, are you?"

"I was able to figure that one out on my own."

She stretched in the pa.s.senger seat and put her feet up on the dashboard. "So what do you want?"

"We're in San Diego," he said. "I'm guessing there's good Mexican food?"

"Great food," she said. "I know a little hole-in-the-wall place. You'll love it."

"Where am I going?"

"Freeway. Go left."

Mike flicked the directional, changed lanes, and made the turn just as the light flipped to yellow. She waved him onto a southbound ramp. "How far are we going?"

"I'll let you know."

He nodded, and they drove in silence for a moment. "You want to talk some more about the code?"

"Not really," she said.

A few dozen responses flitted through his mind. He could push her for more information about the Door. He could be subtle about it and see what she let slip.

Or he could try to let it slide for a night and just enjoy being out with her.

"Here." Jamie gestured at another ramp. "Stay in the first lane."

"Okay."

"So what's up with Mike?"

He glanced away from the road. "Sorry?"

"Your name's Leland, right?"

He sighed. "Yeah."

"I'm guessing one of your parents was drunk when picking baby names?"

"Family name. Grandfather and great-grandfather were both Leland. Mom insisted."

"How do you get Mike from Leland?"

"You don't."

She pointed at a sign. "South again," she said. "Where'd it come from?"

"Why are we talking so much about me?"

"Because I spilled my guts the other night at the bar and all you want to talk about is work. Where'd Mike come from?"

"Reggie gave it to me back in junior high, about a year after we met."

"Mike? That's the best nickname he could come up with for you?"

"It's a nickname for a nickname."

"Now this sounds kind of dirty," Jamie said with a grin.

"It's short for Mycroft. Mycroft Holmes."

"Related to Sherlock?"

"His older brother. Mycroft was introduced in 'The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter.' We had to read six of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories for English cla.s.s in tenth grade. Mr. Jones. Most boring teacher ever."

"I'm still not getting it."

"Mycroft was the superior Holmes. Smarter, more observant, better at deduction. But he never did anything with it. He didn't study or sharpen his gifts, he just used them as a party trick now and then. He was the embarra.s.sment who always frustrated Sherlock."

"So Reggie called you Mycroft?"

"Everyone else called me Mycroft," he said. "They'd all been in cla.s.ses with me for years. Even after I decided I didn't want to be special, I still couldn't help blowing the bell curve. And they all knew I wasn't trying at that point, which made it even worse. We read that story, and they all had me pegged. h.e.l.l, two of the teachers slipped and used it in cla.s.s when they called on me."

"Ahhh. No offense, but it sounds like a lot of your formative years sucked."

He shrugged.

"Get off here," she said, pointing at another sign. "East exit. The ramp's almost going to go around in a full circle."

Mike tugged the wheel and a car behind them honked. He glanced in his mirror and the other driver flashed lights. The car accelerated and pulled around them, roaring off down the freeway.

"So everyone called you Mycroft," Jamie said.

"Yeah. It went on for about a week and then Reggie put a stop to it. He just started calling me Mike. And, well, he's one of those guys who can get people to do what he wants, so three weeks later everyone was calling me Mike."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that. It was kind of a double blessing. I didn't have to deal with Mycroft or Leland."

"Follow the road around the curve," she said.

"Okay."

"You're going to turn left at the light up there."

He glanced over his shoulder and tapped the directional again.

"I would've figured you as one of those guys who'd make a name like Leland work for you," she said. "That you'd just own it and make it cool."

"There is no way Leland would ever be a cool name. I say this as someone who grew up in the decade of Twin Peaks."

"That's what people thought about Hugo," said Jamie. "And then Hugo Weaving came along and suddenly there's a hundred kids named Hugo."

"Really?"

"I don't know. Maybe. I'd name a kid Hugo."

The area looked more residential, but with lots of smaller businesses. They pa.s.sed a coffee shop, a bookstore, and a small garage. "Where am I going now?"