It sounded like the Southerner laughed and then said “Tell Sarah Ah said hi,” or something like that. He sounded like he was from East Tennessee, and not from the rich side of town. I quickly scribbled “Sarah?” after the note for Control.
“How are you doing?” she asked. That was real concern. I was right. There was some emotion there.
“I’m fine. Had a close one today, but I’m fine,” Nightcrawler answered slowly. The kid didn’t just sound physically tired, but weary, burned out. Good. From what I’d heard in the last little while, their operational tempo was brutal. They were being driven hard, and hopefully that meant they would slip up soon.
“What happened?” Control asked.
“It was that girl. The one Bureaucrat wanted so bad. I don’t know. I just . . . she caught me off guard.” I glanced over at Jill and gave her a big thumbs-up. It would have been better if she had shot him in the face, but she was new at this and wouldn’t have thought of a vest. Jill shrugged. Nightcrawler continued. “Then there was that other guy, the one with the tricked-out 1911. The girl called him Lorenzo. He’s good. He, I don’t know, fell off the roof of this mosque, landed on our truck, and started shooting.”
“He fell off the roof? He kept shooting after that?”
“It wasn’t that high. I mean, I fell off the roof of the barn once when I was a kid. I ended up in the emergency room, though.”
“I didn’t fall,” I said to the others. “I meant to do that.”
“Don’t worry,” Control said. “We’ll find him. I need you to be careful out there.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.”
Damn right you’re fine. You didn’t report my sack of money, either, you piece of shit. “They’re sloppy on the radio,” I said.
“You’re just annoyed,” Jill said.
Control came back. “They want to debrief you right away. Big Boss is sending a car to pick you up. I’ll . . . I’ll see you soon.” She was trying to be professional, but was . . . she was in love with him. Holy crap, this gets better and better.
Nightcrawler came right back. “I’ll—wait a second. What?” There was some commotion in the background. “I don’t have your radio. . . . What do you . . . Son of a bitch! Control, Xbox’s radio is missing. Repeat, his radio is gone.”
“Are you sure?”
Brief pause. “Yes. It’s missing.”
“No!” I shouted as I leapt from my chair. “Damn it, no!”
“Hang on.” Sarah, or whatever her name was, went right into full-blown damage control. “Attention on the net. ComSec breach. I say again, ComSec breach. Emergency protocol in force, Zulu One. I repeat, Zulu One.”
Then the radio went to static.
They’d changed to a different encrypted channel. “Reaper!”
“They’re gone,” he replied.
“Not good enough! Find them,” I bellowed.
“I’m trying, but this stuff is hard.”
Gone!
A bubble of rage uncorked from my soul, rumbled to the top, and erupted like a festering boil. All this work, all the killing, all the effort, all for nothing.
I just lost it.
With an incoherent roar, I picked up my chair and hurled it into the kitchen, shattering it against the far wall. “This Nightcrawler asshole has screwed me three times now! Three times!” I slammed my fist through the nearby Sheetrock, scattering tacked-up photos of the Zubaran underworld like confetti. “Falah, Adar, and now Hosani! And I even kind of liked Hosani! Worthless asshole cock-sucking son of a bitch!”
Jill and Reaper recoiled as I stomped past. “Every step of the way, every part of this suicide mission, complicated because of that piece of shit. Damn it! Not only does he have my box—he’s got my money! And I’ve got—” I kicked a hole through the kitchen door. “Nothing! It isn’t enough for him to ruin my life, but no, I get to make him rich, too. I swear I’m going to gut him like a fish. I’m going to pull his eyes out and skull-fuck him to death! I’ll tear his throat out with my teeth!”
Carl, having seen a few of my outbursts over the years, calmly turned up the TV volume and sipped his beer.
The neighbors started banging on the wall, demanding quiet. My first inclination was to pull my gun and shoot them through the wall. If they wanted loud, I’d show them loud. But I just stood there, breathing hard, chest heaving, veins popping out in my neck, left eye spasmodically twitching, fists clenched so hard that I was shaking. Big Eddie was going to murder everyone, and all because I couldn’t catch Dead Six.
So what the hell do I do now?
“Are you done throwing your sissy tantrum?” Carl asked over the sounds of Walker, Texas Ranger speaking in Arabic. “Or should I go get more furniture for you to break?”
Deflated, back to the wall, I sank slowly to the floor. “I’m out of ideas.”
Reaper had instinctively moved his body to protect his precious computer equipment from my fury. He’d rather me toss him across the room than one of those hard drives. “I can keep trying,” he assured me. The kid wasn’t used to me not having all the answers. “There’s got to be a way. You always figure out something.”
I shook my head. “We need to start thinking about how we can protect our families. How can we get all of them out of Big Eddie’s reach?” But I knew that was futile before the words even left my mouth. He had us by the short hairs, and there was nothing we could do. “Jill, you did your part. I’ll get you out of the country. I’ve got resources, friends. You—”
“Lorenzo!” Jill snapped. “You’re not out of options yet.”
I laughed, and it wasn’t a happy noise. If only she knew. Up until a few hours ago, she had been my final option. But somehow things had changed. I stood up. “You don’t have a clue what you’re talking about,” I said.
Jill’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “Yes, I do.” Her voice was barely a whisper, but somehow that got everyone’s attention more than my ranting. “We all heard what they said. This Bureaucrat wants me dead, and I’ll bet you money that’s Gordon. You can still use me to get to them. I know you’ve already thought of that.”
That perked Carl’s interest, and he turned down the TV to listen to my response.
“I wouldn’t do that.”
“Yes, you would. I’m not stupid, Lorenzo. That’s why you’ve kept me around. I figured that out in the last few days. I could see it in your eyes. You didn’t like it, but I was insurance.”
“I wouldn’t do that now.” That time I said it with more force.
And she knew I was telling the truth. “What changed?”
I didn’t have an answer. “Nothing.”
But she wasn’t going to be deterred. “There’s no such thing as nothing.”
Reaper shook his head. “No way, man. Bullshit. Lorenzo wouldn’t sell you out. That’s . . .” He turned to me, scowling. “No way.”