Shadow Men – 55 – Anders and Grant

"The next meeting's set up," Anders told Steele an hour later as they waited at the taxi stand. "Tomorrow night."

"Good," was Steele's terse reply. He seemed more edgy than usual.

"Trouble?" Anders asked, sotto voce.

"Tell you when we get back."

Anders nodded as he stepped forward to commandeer the next cab in line before a well-dressed couple could. The man started to say something, took one look at Anders and Steele and backed away.

The cab ride ended at an elite hotel in midtown. They walked through the front lobby, down a long hall and out through a service entrance into an alley as if they belonged there. Somehow along the way Steele had managed to pick up two jackets and a coat. He handed the jackets to Anders and Grant. Grant's was too large but better that than too small he figured as he put it on.

"Glasses and lenses off," Anders told him.

Grant did so, wrapping the lenses in a torn slip of paper Steele handed him before putting them in his pocket. By the time he'd finished Anders looked more like his normal self although his hair, usually well combed, now looked like he'd gelled it to spike up. Grant figured it was a possibility if there was gel in it from the start.

The whole thing took less than two minutes, during which they'd also been moving down the alley. When they reached the sidewalk they walked away from the hotel. Once again Anders and Steele seemed to be hyper-aware of everything around them. Two blocks from the hotel Anders led the way down to a subway platform, which even at that hour of the night was crowded. When the train came they took it several stops down, exited and returned to street level. By now Grant was totally lost so he followed them meekly as they seemed to wind their way, with no apparent destination, through various streets until finally they reached the apartment building. Rather than go in through the front entrance, which Steele suggested might not be their wisest move, they again went down an alley. Anders took the key ring from his pocket, selected one and seconds later they were in a dim back hall.

When they got to the apartment, Grant collapsed on the sofa. "Is it always like this?" he asked.

"Not always, but often," Anders admitted.

"I think I'll pass on being a spy, or whatever you two call yourselves. I thought it was bad just getting across country, this is ten times worse."

"Try getting from England to the tip of Italy and then back to Chicago without being caught," Steele told him from where he stood by the window. His eyes unfocused momentarily and Grant got the feeling he was remembering doing just that with Rafe.

Anders dropped down on the sofa, too, once he'd shed the jacket. "So what has you jumpy, Steele?"

"I wish I knew. A feeling, something I saw that didn't quite fit but damned if I know what, a person who maybe wasn't where they belonged. I'll figure it out."

"At the opera house?"

Steele nodded, pressing his fingertips to his eyes. "In the crowd at the refreshment bar just before your contact approached you. It wasn't him but…"

When Grant started to ask something Anders shook his head and he shut up.