Page 10 of The Proving Ground

I jerked a thumb over my shoulder at the Mosler in the corner. I did not tell him that the safe had come with the warehouse and was so old that the combination was lost to time and the locking mechanism was disabled.

“Fuck it,” McEvoy said. “Give me a pen.”

“You sure?” I asked. “You’re not going to be able to say later that I coerced you.”

I pointed up to the corner of the ceiling over the office door. McEvoy turned and looked up at the camera I’d had installed after taking over the space.

“Records sound too,” I said.

“Just give me a pen,” McEvoy said.

I opened a drawer and took out a blue felt-tip pen I used for signing contracts.

“I thought all writers carried pens,” I said.

“Well, I guess I left mine at home,” McEvoy said.

I handed the pen across the desk and watched as McEvoy scanned each page of each document and then signed and initialed where appropriate.

“Sort of ironic, isn’t it?” he said as he was signing.

“What is?” I asked.

“You making me sign an NDA while last week in court you were making NDAs sound like the instruments of corporate devils.”

“Yeah, well, that was in court. I don’t think we’ll ever get to court on this one.”

He finished signing the documents and slid them back across the desk to me. I squared them up in one stack and then swiveled my chair around to the Mosler. After turning the handle and pulling theheavy iron door open, I put them on a shelf that I assumed had once been stacked with cash for cabdrivers to make change with.

After closing the safe, I turned back to McEvoy.

“Welcome to the team,” I said.

McEvoy nodded and spread his arms wide.

“What do you want me to do?” he asked.

“This case is going to be won or lost in discovery,” I said. “I want you in the cage. Work with Lorna. Tidalwaiv is hiding something in the redactions of the documents they turned over, I know it. If we find it, I think we win.”

6

I WALKED McEVOYback to the cage to leave him with Lorna. He looked at the stacks on the tables, all of them at least six inches high.

“Anyplace in particular you want me to start?” he asked.

“Lorna, which one is training and testing?” I asked.

“That one,” Lorna said. She pointed to the shortest stack.

“Start there,” I said. “Take notes. Look for flaws, look for shortcuts. Figure out what they’re hiding.”

“Sure,” McEvoy said. “Easy enough.”

I noted the sarcasm. McEvoy moved toward the table.

“Cisco, you’re with me,” I said. “Let’s go.”

“Where we going?” Cisco asked.