“Jesse?”
“Viljo?” He sounded different on the phone. Younger, maybe. “What the hell?”
“Shut your machine down. They were hacking through your security clearance.”
I eyed the now-smoking ruin. “I don’t think that’s going to be a problem. Did you get him?”
“No, dammit. I threw everything I had at him, and he walked through it like nothing. I had to use the air firewall.”
“The what?”
“You know-yank the cords out of the walls. No Net connection, no hack.”
“You’re sure he didn’t get anything?” I could hear Mira coming down the hallway, no doubt drawn by the aroma of charred motherboard. I was doomed.
“I do not think he did. It is going to take me a bit to be sure. Tell Ivan, until further notice, Grapevine is off-line.”
I groaned. Ivan was going to chew me a new asshole, as soon as Mira was done throttling me for nuking her computer. “I’m a dead man.”
“What?”
“Nothing. You gotta get it up and functional again, Viljo. We need a way to keep an eye on everyone, and you’re it right now.”
I could almost see him straighten up, emboldened by his sworn duty. “I will. A day, maybe two. I need to put some extra security in place. It will take equipment I cannot get easily.”
“While you’re at it, order the stuff to build Mira a new computer.” I sighed, shaking my head. “This one is toast.”
“Ouch. You are a dead man. I will call when things are up again.”
“Take care of yourself, Viljo. And here, talk to Mira about her new computer.” I tossed the phone at my startled wife as she entered the room, then fled toward the safety of the shower.
I stayed under the running water until I was certain that Viljo had time to talk Mira out of any retaliatory rages. I also ran out of hot water.
The shower eased my aching muscles, but the right calf still wasn’t sound. Testing it as I moved around the bathroom, I kept thinking that they used to shoot lame horses. The thought of two weeks, two weeks beat inside my skull like a bass drum. I had two weeks to get better again. Two weeks to keep Mira from ending up a widow, and Annabelle from going fatherless.
As I limped out of the bathroom, I could hear my cell phone ringing in the den. “I got it!” I did my best to run down the hall with a towel draped around my hips, grabbing the phone just before it went to voice mail. “H’lo?”
There was a puzzled pause, then, “Dawson?”
“Ivan!”
“I am to be interrupting? You are to be sounding out of breath.”
I flopped into my chair, keeping my weight off the right arm lest I wind up sprawled on the floor. “Nah, you caught me in the shower is all. What’s the word?” Water dripped from my hair to puddle around the castors of my chair as I talked.
“I was wishing to ask you the same question. What news are you to be having?”
Well, let’s see, I had a Mohawked demon stalking me, a blue car tried to run me off the road a couple times, someone just blew up Mira’s computer, there was probably a warrant out for my arrest, and I was gimpy as hell in one leg with a fight coming up. I told him none of these things.
“We have a problem with Grapevine. Someone tried to get in again today, and Viljo had to take the whole system off-line to keep them out.”
A string of Ukrainian curses flowed from my phone, and I waited patiently for the flood to subside. “Was any information to being compromised?”
Viljo hadn’t really said, but I was willing to elaborate on his behalf. “No. Viljo shut it down before they got to anything.” I hoped.
“Is there any news that is not to being bad?”
“Well… the phone number was a prepaid cell, as he thought. But right before the system went down, he said that Miguel’s credit card was used a week ago in Del Rio, Texas.” I mentally cursed the mysterious hacker who had interrupted that conversation. “If he found anything else, he didn’t get a chance to tell me before everything went haywire.”
“Then we are to be having two choices. Either Miguel’s brother has taken the card or…”
“Or? Miguel was dead a week ago. It has to be the brother. He either grabbed the machete and went demon hunting or…”
“Or?”
“Or he’s running, Ivan. I mean, he’s seventeen, and his family expects him to take up the mantle next. I wouldn’t have wanted that job at seventeen.” I still didn’t want it.
“We are only guessing that the boy has taken Miguel’s weapons and armor. What if Miguel has them still? What if he is traveling… somewhere?”
Hope is a cruel, cruel thing. I ruthlessly crushed even the first glimmer. “Without calling Rosaline or checking in?” He was grasping at straws. Calling him on it probably made me a bastard, but it was easier to believe that Miguel was dead. It was better than having the hope crushed later, when the worst was confirmed.
“ Tak. You are right, of course. Most likely, it is Esteban.” The old man sighed wearily. This thing was really getting to him. “I am to be taking an airplane to Kansas City in two days, to be dealing with your contract. I will continue investigating once I am to be releasing you from that.”
“I told you no.”
“I am to be ignoring you.”
Ugh, the man was infuriating. I wanted to bang my head on my desk. “Ivan, I really don’t like the idea…” There were too many ways to screw up, too many ways to hang yourself. There was too much at stake.
“I am not to be asking permission.” Yeah, he’d definitely been military at some point. It never occurred to him to expect anything other than absolute obedience.
And really, what was I going to say? “Sorry, Ivan, I’m just gonna go get my ass killed on my own, thanks.” “Yessir.” The champions were loosely associated at best, but when Ivan snapped, we all jumped.
“God to be blessing you, Dawson. I will be there soon.” He hung up in my ear. Once again, I mentally vowed to stop doing that to people.
Much to my own annoyance and despite my misgivings, I felt better knowing that Ivan would be on the scene relatively soon. It was much akin to the relief felt when, though you knew you were in deep crap, your father showed up to talk to the angry man whose window you just broke.
I had my own little lake pooling on the floor when I stood up. It was amazing how much water my hair could hold even as short as it was now. After fetching another towel to mop that up, I went to get dressed. The T-shirt of the day read IT’S ALWAYS FUN UNTIL SOMEONE LOSES AN EYE. THEN IT’S FREAKIN’ HILARIOUS! Mira hated that shirt, but it always got rave reviews at It.
“Gimme hugs, button. Daddy’s gotta go to work!” The redheaded imp came barreling down the hallway to squeeze my knees tightly, and I bit back a wince. “Be extra good for Mommy, okay?”
Anna nodded solemnly. “I will, Daddy. I promise.”
Passing through the kitchen, I gave Mira a quick kiss. “You gonna be okay today?” She nodded. “Did Viljo get the computer issue worked out?”
“He says he’s going to put green lights all over it. Why do I need green lights on it?”
I had to chuckle. “Honey, by the time he’s done, you’ll be able to pilot the Space Shuttle from it.”
She rolled her eyes at me. “We need to ship him the dead one. He’s going to see if he can recover anything off the drive.”
“Can do.” I slipped my cell phone into her hand. “Answer it, just in case it’s Ivan, okay?”
She nodded, then threw her arms around me, nearly squeezing my breath from my lungs.
“Oof!” I leaned back to look down at her. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
She bit her lip, the familiar gesture meaning she was trying to put whatever it was into words. “Something feels wrong today. Everything’s unsettled.” Her eyes were troubled, but finally, she just shook her head. “It’s probably just the storm making me all jittery. Or PMS or something.” I wasn’t about to touch that one. There’s no right answer to that.
“You sure?” She nodded after a short hesitation. I kissed her forehead. “Okay, I’m gonna head out. Call me at work if you need anything. You guys have fun at Dixie’s.”