Geek Mafia by Rick Dakan (beach read txt) 📖

the imagination needed to make him a real software innovator. At the same time, Frank’s world view was all practical and all about getting the job done as quickly and efficiently as possible, which kept him from getting mired down in minutiae. Paul on the other hand had been the official dreamer of big dreams at the company, and the two of them often came into conflict whenever his pie in the sky dreams collided with Frank’s pragmatism. Both men had a habit of slowly but surely raising their voices during a discussion, and design meetings often resulted in them yelling at each other, although neither of them were really all that mad.

Up until the day Frank had proposed firing him, Paul had always thought they had a kind of mutual respect. As it turned out, while Paul respected Frank’s abilities, the lead programmer had always viewed him as a flighty, unprofessional slacker. Once he had the other partners on board, he’d jumped at the chance he’d been waiting for to show Paul the door.

And now, here they were again, facing one another and Paul realized that he had forgotten one thing about Frank. The fourth thing about Frank, besides the code, the music, and the sailboats. Frank was a Republican. 

“Fuck,” said Paul once more, because he honestly didn’t know what else to say. He was flashing back to the boardroom. To how angry Frank had been. Fuck, he thought, what was he going to do?

“Nice moustache,” said Frank. “You buy that yourself?”

Paul just stared as he backed up a step towards the kitchen door. 

“What’s going on, man?” Frank persisted, his mouth twisted into his trademark smirk that managed to convey massive disdain with just the slightest twitch of the upper lip. “Don’t you have anything to say to your old business partner?”

In fact, Paul didn’t have anything to say. Somewhere in his mind he thought that maybe he could still play this off as a case of mistaken identity. Somehow convince Frank that he wasn’t Paul at all. But the sheer ridiculousness of this idea kept him silent, prevented him from forming any kind of speech. His back pressed up against the kitchen door and he flinched in surprise. 

“I always thought you were a liberal, Paul,” said Frank. “I remember all those talks about worker’s rights for our employees and what things we can and can’t say in the office without offending women or gays. That doesn’t sound like the kind of guy who’d be in charge of something like this.” He waved a casual arm towards the room behind them. “What gives?”

Frozen. Mind blank except for visions of everything going down in flames. He retreated through the door. Frank, always one to press the advantage in an argument, followed him right in without thinking about it twice.

“What’s up, Paul?” said Raff, who was looking down at the PDA in his hand, monitoring the bids. “That was great. I think…” and then he stopped and looked up as Frank walked into the kitchen. “Who’s this?”

Chloe, who had been overseeing the Crew members working as caterers whipped around at the sudden change in Raff’s tone. As Paul shrank back towards Raff for support, he opened up a clear line of sight between Frank and Chloe, who locked eyes. Frank’s gaze narrowed and recognition dawned immediately. Even with a different wig and glasses on, it he recognized her. 

“Well this is some party,” said Frank. “You even brought your lawyer.”

Raff stepped forward and extended his hand towards Frank with a friendly smile. “Hi there. Randy Mitchell, Coalition for the American Family. Nice to meet you. Are you enjoying the party?” Paul hoped that Frank wouldn’t notice that he was dressed like a caterer.

“Sure, sure,” said Frank as he smiled in return, his eyes full of mischief. “Me and Paul here go way back. Way back.”

“That’s great,” said Raff. “We’re certainly glad you could make it tonight.”

“When I got the invitation in the mail I didn’t think I was going to come. This sort of thing isn’t really all that interesting to me, but now I’m very glad I did.”

“Well, again, thanks for coming down,” said Raff. In the background Chloe was moving up towards the front where the three men stood talking. Paul, feeling slightly more confident with his friends at his side, was actually coming close to the point where he could speak again. Raff continued to try and sweet talk Frank. “Now, we’ve got a bunch of details we need to sort out right this moment, so if you could just give us ten minutes then I’m sure you and your old friend here can catch up later.”

Ignoring Raff, Frank turned to Chloe. “I know all about you now.”

“Excuse me?” said Chloe. “Have we met?”

“You’re no more a lawyer than Paul here is a conservative fund raiser.”

“I’m afraid you have me confused with someone else,” said Chloe. “You’re right, I’m not a lawyer, but I’ve never said I was.”

“Gretchen is from the Republican National Committee,” said Raff. “She flew in from Washington to help organize this event. Now please, if you’ll…”

“The hair’s different. The glasses,” said Frank. “But it’s you. I won’t be forgetting you any time soon.”  He nodded towards Paul. “How could I forget either of you?”

Raff turned his gaze on Chloe and Paul and feigned confusion. “Gretchen, Paul, what is this gentleman talking about?”

“I have no idea,” said Chloe. “I’ve never seen him before.” She put a hand on Paul’s shoulder to steady him. “You don’t know him, do you Paul?”

“Yes, I…” Paul took a deep breath. “Yes.”

“Of course he knows me,” said Frank. “We worked together night and day for years. Well, day anyway. Paul wasn’t around much at night.” He laughed and then pointed an accusing finger directly at Chloe. “And you’re the bitch of a lawyer. I’m sorry, fake lawyer, who helped him out the day we fired him.”

“I’ve told you before…” Chloe started to say.

“You think I’m that stupid? You think I don’t recognize you because you’ve got a different wig on? Jesus Christ, lady, who else could you be, standing next to him like that.”

Chloe, instead of getting mad, took a bemused air. “Listen sir, I don’t know what your problem is, but it’s got nothing to do with me.”

Before Frank could reply, Raff stepped between him and Chloe and snaked a hand up onto Frank’s shoulder. A good six inches taller than Frank, Raff was looking straight down at the programmer from less than a foot away. He lowered his voice to an almost conspiratorial whisper. “Sir, I appreciate that you’ve got some issues to resolve with Paul here, and I’d be more than happy to let you sort them out later. But right now we’ve got a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it. This is an important event for us and, since you came out here tonight to support it, I assume it’s important to you as well. I promise you, you can speak with Paul and Gretchen in just a little while, but please give us some space to finish our work, Ok?”

Frank looked up at Raff for a long moment, as if deciding whether or not to trust him. Finally he shrugged off the hand on his shoulder and took a step backward. “Ok, ok, I’ll leave you guys to it. You’ve got to get things ready for the congressman, right?”

“Exactly,” said Raff. “And afterwards we can all get together and get to the bottom of this.”

“Fine,” said Frank. “Heck, maybe that’s even better. Maybe the Congressman himself would be interested to know the kind of criminals and con women he’s got fundraising for him. I’m sure Sam Evers will have a lot of fun with it on the radio when he finds out.” He turned and started back towards the dining room.

“Wait,” said Chloe. “Come here.”

Startled, Frank turned around and looked at Chloe. 

“Let’s settle this right now,” said Chloe. “Come here.”

“Why?” asked Frank, his voice less confrontational than before in the face of Chloe’s commanding tone.

“So we can settle this nonsense right now. Come. Here.”

Frank took a few tentative steps towards Chloe. Not knowing what to expect next, Paul backed well out of the way. He noticed Chloe’s eyes dart towards Raff, who was now behind Frank. He made the slightest nod of acknowledgement. 

“What?” asked Frank, “Are you going to take off your wig for me or something?”

“I’m going to settle this,” Chloe was reaching into the small purse she had slung over one shoulder. “I’m going to show you my driver’s license.”

“Ok, let’s see it.” Frank was now less than three feet from Chloe, whose attention was still squarely focused on digging through her purse for something. 

“Here.” She said as she started to pull something out of her bag. Then her eyes flicked up to Raff and she shouted, “Now!”

Raff grabbed Frank from behind, one long arm wrapping around the unsuspecting programmer’s torso, the other clamping down over his mouth. Chloe’s hand whipped out of the bag with her stun gun. It crackled with electricity as she thumbed the power on and jabbed it into Frank’s chest. 

Frank convulsed and strained and then fell to the floor, twitching and stunned, but not unconscious.

Chloe and Raff both immediately knelt beside Frank and started securing him. Raff whipped off Frank’s belt and used it to bind his hands. Chloe took a kitchen rag and stuffed it in his mouth. “Come on,” she hissed to the Crew members still dressed as waiters. “Help us move him quick, before someone from outside comes in.”

Paul watched as they secured Frank in a pantry. He was agog. His mind raced, trying to conceive of some scenario where this could possibly turn out well. He leaned against a countertop, breathing hard.

Popper came through the kitchen door. “The congressman’s here,” she said and then looked at Paul. “Fuck, are you ok? You’re pale as a sheet.”

“I’m ok,” gasped Paul. “Just need a sec here.”

“You need to get out there and introduce him,” she said. “Like, right now.”

“I’ll do it,” said a voice from behind him. It was Chloe.

“No, I’ll be fine,” protested Paul.

“Not right now you won’t be,” she said, walking right past him and out the door. “I’ll do it.”

Paul stood there and watched her go. Thirty seconds later he heard her give the speech he had written for himself, welcoming Congressman Felson and praising him for his ultra-conservative track record. He was still breathing too hard and too fast. The crowd cheered as Felson took the stage.

Raff leaned on the counter beside him and handed him a glass of water. “Here, have a drink.” 

Paul sipped at the water. “Thanks.” They both sat there in silence for a moment, listening to the muffled sounds of the Congressman’s speech. He had opened up with an attack on those responsible for the prank in the park, just as they’d hoped. “Is he ok?”

“Your friend? He’ll be fine. The cleaning staff will find him tied up and gagged in the closet once we’re gone.”

“Are we totally fucked?” asked Paul.

“Depends. Did you see if he came in with anyone? Is someone waiting for him?”

“I don’t know.”

“If there is, well, that’d be a problem.”

“But if there’s not?”

“Then we might be ok in the short term. Of course he’s going to call the cops as soon