Geek Mafia: Mile Zero by Rick Dakan (reading tree txt) 📖

IT was getting close to midnight, and down on Duval Street, Key West was jumping. Paul watched the night life unfold on Bee’s wall of computer monitors and for a moment got lost in the flow of tourists across the screens, wishing he could join them and just forget about murders and conspiracies and everything else.

“I think this is her, right?” asked Bee, clicking her control screen and putting up a single image on the main flat panel display that she usually used for the city map. It showed the older woman, “Jeanie,” walking down Catherine Street, looking as calm and nonchalant as one could imagine. The time code at the bottom of the screen said the image was only ten minutes old.

“That’s her,” agreed Paul.

“Ok,” Bee said. “I’ll track her by hand now.”

The facial recognition software had found the woman within the records of all the footage the cameras had taken in over the last hour, but the search itself had taken over twenty minutes to process. If they had more advanced software, they could probably figure out a way to track her automatically, but they didn’t. All they could do is run the search again, which would take another twenty minutes. Instead, Bee would have to go through the various camera feeds herself, guessing which ones might have picked up Jeanie on her route through the city. Just another reason they needed a hacker in the Crew. At least Chloe was downstairs and couldn’t point it out to him for the hundredth time.

“Can you print me out that screen grab?” asked Paul.

“It’d be faster to e-mail it to your PDA or laptop,” Bee replied. She hated paper.

“That’s fine,” said Paul. “Go ahead and send it to Chloe’s machine too.”

Bee swiveled in her chair to face a different keyboard and mouse, clicked and tapped for a few seconds and then swung back around to her camera controls. “Done,” she said.

“Thanks, Bee,” said Paul. He started to head downstairs but stopped and turned back to her. She seemed intense, which was normal for Bee, but also terse, which really wasn’t. “You doing ok?” he asked.

“Mmm hmm,” she said, nodding without looking away from the screens in front of her.

“Chloe said that things with Raff got pretty intense.”

“He’s a liar,” Bee said. “I know that. That’s why we’re going to nail him for helping to kill that woman.” Paul wasn’t convinced that she believed her own words, but he couldn’t argue with her sentiment.

“Damn straight,” said Paul. “We’ll get ‘em all.” Bee didn’t respond, and Paul gave up trying to cheer her up and headed downstairs.

There, to his surprise, he found Chloe and Winston, sitting on the couch, laughing. Paul found it hard to imagine what could be so funny, but was glad at least someone could keep a light heart at a time like this.

“Hey, kids,” said Paul, who was actually younger than either of them - Chloe by one year and Winston by at least twenty-five. “Got something for you.” They both looked up at him, still smiling at whatever had set them chuckling in the first place.

“Hello again, Paul,” Winston said, standing up and shaking his hand. “I hear you’ve had a busy day.”

“And night,” Paul replied. “I’ll bet yours hasn’t been any less eventful.”

“No, no,” Winston agreed. “It is a time for courage and resolve to be sure.”

Paul turned to Chloe, gesturing to her laptop, which was on the coffee table. “Bee just sent you something. We found Jeanie.”

“Oh, great,” said Chloe, leaning forward and tapping the shift key to wake the computer from its sleep mode. “Ok, here it is.” She clicked a few times then picked up the laptop and turned it around, showing the display to Paul and Winston. It had a full screen video-cap of the image of Jeanie Paul had just seen up in Bee’s room. “Win, do you recognize this lady?”

Winston took a pair of reading glasses out of his front shirt pocket, put them on and then peered close at the image. “No, I don’t recognize her. You say her name’s Jeanie?” he said.

“Raff ‘s the one who said her name was Jeanie,” Chloe said. “I think he was spinning bullshit for Bee and me, knowing I was listening in. But whoever she is, she’s working with Raff.”

“Raff also said she was partnered with a man named Owen,” said Paul, who’d listened to the recording of the conversation. “He claimed that you and Owen were old friends.”

“Do we have a picture of him too?” asked Winston. “The name doesn’t ring any particular bells.”

“We don’t anymore,” said Chloe. “Raff says Owen is the man who shot you back in San Jose.”

“Really?” said Winston, “That’s rather intriguing. I never did see that man’s face. And you think he’s here now?”

Paul and Chloe looked at each other. They’d never told anyone about Bee shooting the man in the motel room in San Jose. They’d all agreed that the fewer people who knew they’d killed a man, the better. The only reason Sandee knew was because Bee had told him herself - he was very easy to talk to. But since Paul had told Isaiah, it only made sense to tell Winston too. Paul gave the slightest shrug, which Chloe responded to with something that was almost a nod. Through their own unspoken sign language, they’d just agree to let Winston in on the big secret.

“No,” said Chloe. “He’s dead.”

“Recently departed?” asked Winston.

“No, he died about a year ago,” Chloe responded.

Winston just nodded. He could probably put together the rest of the story for himself without having to ask any awkward questions. “Well then, if what Raff has said is true and Jeanie really was this Owen person’s partner, then she’s probably quite upset with you. But Raff has already lied about Owen and I knowing each other, so of course there’s no reason to believe that he’s telling the truth about her either.”

“Agreed,” said Chloe.

“Maybe,” countered Paul. “There was another, younger woman with Jeanie tonight. Someone I recognized from San Jose as being with Raff.”

“Someone you think you might have recognized,” Chloe pointed out.

“Ok, fine,” Paul said, annoyed but also knowing that she was right. “I’m not by any means one hundred percent sure. My point is that we know Raff ‘s lying, but we also know he’s probably telling some truth with his lies. We can’t make any assumptions about what’s true and what’s not.”

“Of course,” said Winston. “The question is what to do now?”

“Bee’s trying to track her back through our records,” said Paul. “Then she’s going to search for any time where she and our killer, or Raff and our killer might have met. If we find that, we can bring it to Isaiah and then get his help.”

“That does seem the best course,” Winston said. “Although you must be careful dealing with Isaiah.”

“We’re trying to be careful dealing with everyone,” Paul said.

“Naturally, but with Isaiah you must take special care. He certainly has more than enough resources to resolve this situation one way or another, once he decides how to act. More than enough resources. You just need to be very certain he applies his power on your behalf.”

Paul already had his own fears about dealing with Isaiah. Now, hearing Winston talk about him in hushed, worrisome tones, his blood ran cold.

“I don’t see that we have much of a choice,” said Chloe. “We don’t have the strength to take on Raff and company straight on. Especially not if he’s got Eddie supporting him. But everyone seems to respect and fear Isaiah, so we have to get him on our side.”

“And I’m sure we will,” Winston said, his voice warming with hope. “There is another summit tomorrow. Isaiah, Eddie, myself and of course you are all invited. I wouldn’t be surprised if Eddie brought along Raff or this Jeanie person as well. Or at least had them waiting in the wings. Ideally, we should try and find some resolution by then. Then being noon tomorrow at the