Chapter 316
The rain began. It’d been overcast since early morning, but now the fog and early stillness was replaced with a near constant drizzle. Jackson navigated in a way few people could without GPS assistance, switching from thoroughfares to side roads to alleys and back again, all while maintaining a near constant state of momentum.
“Ever drive professionally?” I asked, making idle conversation as I composed another message.
“Not really. A little in the sandbox.” Jackson squinted, following the brake lights of a not-Range Rover that’d just blown the light in front of us. “Mostly just Ubered in the early twenty twenties, while I was figuring shit out.”
“Rough time to pick up Uber.”
“Eh, kept me locked in. Sense of danger and all. The downtime meant plenty of time to think, which made it conducive to said figuring-of-shit. Spun my wheels while I was spinning my wheels, if that makes sense.”
It did. But between the logical jumps at Miles’ flat, and the timing of him clearing the evaluation, the small, paranoid part of my mind wouldn’t shut the hell up. Miles’ had a lot of military and federal contacts. He had experience running undercover ops. So if he’d been more suspicious of me than I’d realized, it wasn’t much of a jump to imagine him pushing some of his civilian friends in the direction of Kinsley’s ever growing workforce.
“You drove here? In Dallas?”
“I did.” Jackson confirmed. “Primary source of income for a while, pathetic as it was. Kept me buoyant until some of the squaddie chuckle fucks that went private got in touch and roped me in.”
I tilted my head, deciding whether or not the question was even worth asking. It was relatively common knowledge. Especially if you’d actually worked the gig. But with the internet shuttered, common wasn’t as common as it used to be.