“You only met her a couple of hours ago and you’ve bonked her three times.”
“Who’s counting? Now, what’s the time?”
“Ten past two, Sydney time.” She answered, curtly,
“It’s two-ten, Adrianna.”
“I better check in.” She got up and went back to the ocean to wash the sand away. I watched her and marveled at her figure. “Can you get some towels?”
I stood up. “Better idea, let’s go straight to your place.” Adrianna had a two-thousand-foot apartment on the tenth floor in Sydney.
“It’s so damn easy,” she grinned. “Man, I like travelling this way.”
We gathered our clothes, I told her to wrap her hand around my arm. “The bathroom, I don’t want to drip salt water on the carpet.” She said.
“Your wish is my command,” and moments later we were standing in her small en-suite bathroom.
“Ooh, weird feeling, even when you know what to expect.”
We both eyed the shower at the same time, neither of us said a word.
“Oh God, not again!”
Chapter 40
CAUGHT
Adrianna went back to the studio. Before we parted I gave her instructions on how to contact me. She would set up the interview and I’d turn up at the appropriate time. I bounced back to San Francisco and fixed a drink, then called up Sally. It was a good minute before she appeared. I didn’t comment.
“You want to wake up Yerchenkov?” I asked.
“Whatever, Jo-el.”
“I thought you liked whacking people?”
“It’s your game.”
“You don’t like her, do you?”
“Who?”
“Adrianna.”
“You only met her for five minutes and you’re in the sack.”
“Why do you care, Sally?”
“They use you, Jo-el. Don’t you see that?”
“Some might say, I’m a lucky guy, she’s a doll.”
“And I’m chopped liver?”
Oh crap! I wasn’t going to win this one. I stood up from the sofa, then knelt at her chair taking her hands in mine, well sort of. “No, Sally, you’re not chopped liver. You’re very beautiful. In fact, you’re my image of the most beautiful woman in the world.” I smiled and looked into her eyes.
“When you were twelve!”
“I love you Sally; you look after me.”
“But.”
“But what?”
“But I can’t do it.”
What was I supposed to say?
Sally continued, “I couldn’t even get you horny in the shower, you love playing with yourself in the shower.”
Oh Jesus! I was going down in flames.
“You kissed me!” I said.
Sally was quiet, I could see the joy that brought to her face. It had meant that much to her. She hated to see me with another woman, she was just a holographic image produced by a computer, but she was developing feelings and she had figured out a way to kiss me and it was incredibly important to her and what had I done, I’d run off to a beach with the next girl I’d met and made love to her in the sand.
“How did you do that?” I asked, but she didn’t answer, I left it alone.
I woke up the Russian Yerchenkov, whose business involved kidnapping young girls and women in poor ex-Russian republics and selling them to pimps and brothels all over Europe. He was none too pleased; it was very early in the morning. We had a similar conversation as I’d had with Espinosa, except he didn’t have a bodyguard with him and he was naked, which didn’t improve his negotiating position. He did tell me to ‘fuck-off’ in a broad Russian accent, but that goes with the territory, so I didn’t. Sally got to whack him in the leg, just like Espinosa, which I’m sure she appreciated. That seemed to knock the sleep out of Yerchenkov, but to be honest, I didn’t think he was likely to take a blind bit of notice of my sincere request that he shut down his business. I was wrapping up my conversation when Sally literally shouted in my ear.
“Oh Fuck! They know who you are!”
“What are you saying, Sally?”
“There’s a Delta team and about thirty military guys heading for your house in San Francisco.”
“How long?” My heart began to race, Yerchenkov recognized the change in me and moved from his position on the bed. I took no notice.
“Two minutes.”
“Bounce me home.”
I was in the family room trying to think. The disc monitors. I grabbed the little container and the one I’d been using. The life pills, I leapt up the stairs two at a time, by the time I was half-way I remembered I could have bounced up to the bathroom. I picked up the box of pills. I was sweating profusely, my breathing was heavy, I needed to get out of there. What else did I need?
“They’re in the street.”
“Bounce me to the park, somewhere.”
Sally picked the public bathrooms, it was dark, no one around. I changed my look to an Asian man, baggy jacket, black, greying hair, fortyish. I wondered outside, breathing deeply, there were a few joggers in the distance, but no walkers. Slowly I calmed down and headed to a café I knew was open on a Sunday night on the outskirt of the park. When I arrived it was almost empty, I sat at the back facing the window to the street, for what reason I don’t know, it just felt right. I ordered coffee and begun to relax.
“Sally, what’s happening?”
“They’ve cordoned off your street and are in your house. The neighbors are all outside asking questions, nobody is telling them anything.”
“How did they find me?”
There was a pause for a minute, I felt alone, “Sally,” I called out in my head.
“It was the coloring book. Fingerprints.”
“The one I bought for Billy?”
“Yes, she took it with her when you bounced them back to her condo.”
“Shit! That bloody woman.”
“I told you she was a bitch.”
“Where did they match the fingerprints? I don’t have a record.”
“TSA, when you come into the country.”
Of course, every non-citizen is finger-printed, I was still on a Green Card. Mary didn’t want to take citizenship, she thought we might go home one day.
“I’ve got some bad news, Jo-el.” I could hear the fear in Sally’s voice, I’d never heard it quite like that.
“What?” I asked, not sure if I wanted to know.
Again, a pause. “They’ve arrested Maggie and Sean.”
I placed my hands over my face and felt tears well up in my eyes. I shook with horror and breathed in and out so hard, I must have looked like I was hyperventilating. A man from behind the counter came over to me and inquired if I was okay. I shooed him away.
“Where are they, Sally?”
“Maggie is at a police station here in San Francisco, it only just happened. They’ve taken her to a two-story basement, deepest place close by. Sean is in a similar situation in Costa Mesa, no basement, they don’t have one.”
My initial instinct was to get them out. But what would I say to them and where would I take them. They didn’t know who their father had become. They couldn’t tell anyone anything about me, they were useless to these assholes. Except for one thing and that was as plain as the eye can see. They were a bargaining chip to get at me.