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

He really didn’t. “I really don’t,” he said.

“So you want me to.”

“We could ask Bee to do it.”

“Let’s do that,” Chloe said and she stood up. “That’s a good plan.”

“It’s certainly a plan,” said Paul as he took the hand she offered and lifted himself off the couch.

They went upstairs and knocked on Bee’s door. “Come in,” she said, but of course when Paul turned the knob, it was locked. They waited while she undid the deadbolts and removed the security tape. She was in full crisis mode, and Paul looked around the hallway with some trepidation, knowing that Bee’s homemade defense systems were active and hoping that they wouldn’t go off when they weren’t supposed to.

“Hi, guys,” Bee said as she opened the door and ushered them in. “I was just about to call you.”

“You mean come see us?” asked Chloe.

“With the door locked, it’s faster and safer to call.”

“Fine. What were you going to call us about?”

“We just got an e-mail from Eddie.”

“Is it an e-vite to his birthday party?” Paul asked.

“No,” said Bee. “It’s a picture of you and Chloe and Sandee and that guy down in the shed.”

“That’s not good,” said Chloe. “Let’s see.”

Bee pointed to one of the screens, which showed an open e-mail addressed to the public account Paul had given the other Crews to use as a contact. It contained a pic of the four of them getting into their car out by the salt marshes. It showed just their heads and shoulders, so you couldn’t tell that the killer had his hands bound. The caption said, “Nice company you keep - Eddie.”

“Fuck,” he said. “They were following us.”

“We’ll worry about this later,” Chloe stated. “At least he tipped us off that he knows we have Jimmy.”

“Why would he do that?” asked Paul.

“Because he’s showing off. Or because he’s stupid.”

“Or because he’s forcing our hand,” Paul said. “We have to assume he sent one of these to Isaiah too.”

“Or at the very least he’s letting us know that he will send it to Isaiah if we don’t…” Paul lost his train of thought. “If we don’t what? What’s he trying to force our hand into doing?”

“Assuming it’s really Eddie who sent it,” Bee said. “I mean, it’s just from some anonymous Yahoo account. It could’ve been Isaiah or Winston who sent it.”

“Or Raff,” Chloe added.

“Or fucking Raff,” said Paul. “I wondered what had become of him.”

“Oh well, like I said, let’s worry about this later. Even if it’s only ten minutes later.” Chloe turned to Bee. “Can you call Winston and ask him to come by here as soon as possible? Tell him we found something.”

“And tell him to come through the back.” Paul added. “We’re probably being watched.”

“I’m not picking up anybody on our external cameras. We can’t be being watched. I’d see it. I’d know.” Bee said in a rush, pointing over her shoulder to the wall of screens. Her voice was nervous, almost shrill.

“Winston doesn’t know that. The more paranoid he is, the better,” Paul said, although in truth he thought they probably were being watched, but he didn’t want Bee to panic. He glanced at Chloe and she gave him the nod. She understood.

“Thanks, Bee,” said Chloe. “Just call Win and get him over here. We’ll go get ready for him.”

THEY waited for him on the back porch, having decided that it was better not to let him back into the house if at all possible. Paul’s gaming laptop was still there where he’d left it earlier, and he fought the urge to pass the time by checking in on his character in Metropolis 2.0. He knew it would just piss Chloe off. She was busy pacing back and forth. They’d agreed upon a tactic to take once Win got there and there wasn’t anything else they needed to talk about. Getting too specific would just make them sound rehearsed when they actually talked to him, and Winston was good enough to notice the tiniest chink in their armor.

“You’ll wear a hole in your floor,” said a voice from beyond the screen door, startling Paul. It was Winston, who hadn’t made a sound as he approached.

Chloe opened the door and said, “Hey.”

“What have you found?” asked Winston. He had started to move toward the door that led into the rest of the house, but Chloe had gone back over to sit next to Paul. She gestured for Winston to take the seat opposite her.

“It’s been a tough few hours,” Chloe said, her voice weary.

“These are the times that try men’s souls,” her former mentor replied. “But we must stay focused.”

“I know,” said Chloe. “It’s just hard, you know?”

“I do know.”

“I mean, sometimes we make decisions in the heat of things that turn out to be big mistakes.”

“We all do,” Winston agreed. “The real test though is how long it takes for us to realize we’ve made a mistake and how quickly we can turn around and do the right thing.”

“That’s what Paul was saying,” Chloe said, patting him on the knee.

“We’ve kind of screwed things up,” Paul said, taking his cue. “We didn’t know it at the time, but now we might’ve really messed things up.”

Winston gave him a reassuring smile and leaned back in his chair. He seemed to be enjoying the role of wise teacher. “I’m sure it’s not as bad as it seems. It’s often impossible to get perspective when you’re caught in the eye of the storm.”

“You have to understand,” said Chloe, “We were just reacting to circumstances. So much was happening we had to do something. How were we to know it would fuck things up?”

“We were just going off the information we had,” Paul added. “Which is all you can ever do, right?”

“Of course,” said Winston. “It is the way of the world.”

Paul continued. “And now we’ve got Eddie breathing down our necks and Isaiah has all these expectations. And someone’s screwing with our cameras and we’re understaffed and…”

“And we’re really sorry,” said Chloe. There were tears in her eyes. “We didn’t mean to.”

“Didn’t mean to do what?” asked Winston.

“Catch your friend,” Chloe responded, looking Winston right in the eye.

“What friend?” Winston asked. Although it didn’t surprise him, Paul was disappointed that Winston hadn’t shown the slightest bit of surprise or fear. His face was a mask of curiosity.

“Your friend you sent to the salt marshes,” said Chloe. “Your friend you met on the boat last night. You know, your friend who killed Raquel.”

Winston smiled in apparent confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“You’re not really going to make me get the pictures, are you?” asked Chloe. “The pictures of the two of you together on that boat. The pictures of him trying to jump that park ranger in the marshes. The pictures of Sandee disguised as that park ranger kicking his ass. The pictures of him tied up with a gun to his head.”

“Or we could play you the tape of him telling us to call you,” said Paul. “Telling us that you would explain everything. So go ahead. If you could just explain everything, that would be nice.”

“Really fucking nice,” said Chloe.

Winston sat in his seat, the smile frozen on his face. And although nothing had changed in his expression, what had at first seemed a confused grin to Paul now somehow looked like a smug sneer. “I should make you play the tape and show the pictures. Just to teach you a lesson about bluffing. But I suppose it’s not strictly necessary.” He looked around the porch. “But I’d prefer to talk inside, out of the line of sight of directional microphones.”

“That’s fine,” said Chloe, standing up. “We’ve already cleared all the bugs you planted inside, so no one who shouldn’t be can listen in.” She opened the back door into the rest of the house.

Paul and Winston stood at the same time, but before Winston could walk through the door, Paul stopped him. “We just need to make sure you’re not carrying anything,” he said, grabbing Winston’s arm.

Winston gently removed Paul’s hand from him, saying, “Careful, son. That arm’s tender. I got shot in that shoulder helping a friend out of a jam.” Not the most subtle reminder that Paul and Chloe had indeed once gotten Winston shot. Winston pulled his cell phone, wallet, and key ring from his pocket and handed them to Paul, who placed them on the table next to his gaming laptop. Chloe patted him down but didn’t find anything else. “Satisfied?” he asked.

“No,” said Chloe. “Wait here.” She went inside and came back out a few seconds later with a white robe from the Hilton draped over her arm. “Here,” she said.

Winston looked ruefully at the robe and sighed in resignation. He kicked off his shoes, dropped his shorts and unbuttoned his shirt. He stood naked on the porch for a moment, arms stretched out to each side as he turned slowly in place. He cocked his head to one side and looked at Chloe. She nodded that she was satisfied. Winston took the robe and put it on. “This is a nice robe.”

“You can keep it,” said Chloe as she stepped inside. “Assuming we get an explanation and don’t have to lock you in the shed with your friend.”

Paul glanced around, wondering how many of Winston’s Crewmembers were waiting just out of sight and just how long they had before they came storming to his rescue. He wondered if Bee’s defenses would hold up.