"Yeah, well, I'll be checking in with him shortly. McNab?"
"What?" He was caught in the middle of another wink at Peabody, coughed wildly. "Ah, sorry. Yes, sir?"
"You developing a tic or something?"
"Tic?" He looked anywhere but at Peabody, who was struggling to turn a laughing snort into a sneeze. "No, Lieutenant."
"Then maybe you'd entertain us with your report."
"My report?" How the hell was a guy supposed to think straight when the blood kept insisting on draining out of his head and into his lap? "After contacting Roarke with your request for a long-range scanner, I took Driscol from E and B to the lab at Trojan Securities. At that time we met with Roarke and his lab manager. They demonstrated a scanner currently in development. Man, oh man, it's a beauty, Lieutenant."
Warming up, he leaned forward. "It can scan, triangulate, and scope through six inches of steel with a range of five hundred yards. Driscol nearly wet his pants."
"We can leave out Driscol's bladder problems," Eve said dryly. "Is the equipment developed enough for use?"
"They haven't done the fine tuning, but yeah. It's more sensitive and powerful than anything we have available through NYPSD. Roarke put a round-the-clock in manufacturing. We can have four of them, maybe five, by tomorrow."
"Anne, will that be enough?"
"If the units are as sensitive as Driscol reported—and I'm pretty sure he did wet his pants—it'll go a long way. I've had teams doing scans on arenas and sports complexes all day. We haven't found anything, but it's slow work. I'm short of men with so many assigned to the Plaza site."
"Our problem is time," Eve put in. "If Cassandra sticks to the timetable used by the Apollo group, we've got a couple of days. But we can't count on that. At this point, we've got everything in place we can have in place. I suggest everyone go home, try to get a decent night's sleep, and be ready to kick back into gear in the morning."
Peabody and McNab sprang up immediately, making Eve eye them balefully. "Bladder problems?"
"I…I need to call my brother," Peabody said.
"Me, too. I mean…" McNab laughed nervously. "I've got a call to make."
"Just remember, you're on call until this is over." She shook her head as they hurried out. "What's with those two lately?"
"I didn't see anything, I don't know anything." Feeney got to his feet. "That warrant comes through, I'll arrange the tap."
"See what anything?" she demanded, but he was already heading out. "Something's weird around here."
"We're all wired." Anne got to her feet. "And, oh joy, it's my turn to put dinner on the table. See you in the morning, Dallas."
"Yeah." Absently, Eve picked up her jacket, and alone, turned to study the boards one last time.
• • •
McNab's apartment was three blocks away. They took it at a fast clip with the wind directly in their faces and the beginnings of an icy rain pricking their skin.
"Here's how it's going to be," Peabody began. She had to take control from the get-go, she'd decided, to avoid any chance of disaster.
"I've got a pretty good idea how it's going to be." Once they were far enough away from Central, he patted a hand on her butt.
"This is a one-time deal." Though she liked his hand where it was, she knocked it aside. "We go to your place, we do it, and it's done. Then that's it, that's all. We get back to the way things were."
"Fine." At that point, he'd have agreed to strip naked and walk on his hands through Times Square just to get her out of that uniform.
"I'm calling my brother." She pulled her palm-link out of her pocket. "To tell him I'll be a little late."
"Tell him you'll be a lot late." With that suggestion, he bit her ear and pulled her into the skinny lobby of his building.
Heat washed through her, nearly as annoying as it was arousing. "He's not home yet. Keep out of range, will you? I don't want my brother knowing I'm stopping off for a bounce on a bony EDD guy."
&nb