Wired Strong

by Toby Neal

  “I thank you.” The tension that Nam’s skillful hands had conveyed to Connor began to ease. The man worked Connor’s back, glutes, and legs, then turned him over and did his front, starting with his arms and shoulders.

  Connor fell asleep, deeply grateful to have both Nine and Nam, two men he trusted, so close to him.

  Connor woke to find that the Healer’s chamber, where he got his massages, had grown cool with evening. He swung his legs off the side of the stone table, feeling loose and relaxed, ready to resume nighttime work in the upper room. He donned his white gi and headed up the stairs to the Yām Khûmkạn’s computer lab.

  Once inside, he logged onto his rigs and surfed quickly through the correspondence he monitored for the compound. While a program was loading, he looked around the ascetic space, enjoying the sight of his violin on the wall—and noticing that his personal cell phone was flashing with an alert.

  He picked up the phone, logging in quickly, and his pulse raced when he saw that he had a message from Sophie in their low-tech, secret chat room.

  His spirits sank as he read her message about cutting him off, removing the chip, her pregnancy, and the actions of the task force that were forcing her to withdraw to her father’s.

  A line had been added separately at the bottom: P.S. If I communicate here again, it’s because I’ve been forced to. Do not heed it!

  Connor felt a deep throb of loss, of abandonment, of grief.

  He was losing her.

  He would no longer get even the glimpses that he’d had of her life, of his beloved honorary niece Momi, of his dog Anubis. Their time together on Phi Ni, each day perfect, seemed like a fading dream.

  How had things come to this?

  When he’d chosen to study with the Master, it had been to help Jake while dodging the FBI, and to add skills to his arsenal as the Ghost. With Jake gone, could the passion he and Sophie once had be re-ignited?

  Connor shut his eyes to check in with himself. Yes. He still loved Sophie. He always would. He enjoyed his role as playful uncle with Momi; another baby was just more to love.

  Perhaps, with time and proximity, they could find their way to each other as a couple again. But that was even more impossible now, because Connor was a liability to her and her growing family.

  His eyes stung. His chest heaved.

  He was trapped here. Trapped by his choices, by being anointed Number One, the Master’s successor. Sophie would never consent to come live here in the fortress; nor would he want her to.

  Connor stood up, needing to move around the upper room. It was a large, stone-walled space, with small, slit-like windows set high near the roof to admit airflow. The roof itself was made of unfinished wooden timbers; the interior lined with woven matting. Tables lined the walls, stacked with computer equipment. His violin, safe in its case, was the only adornment on the wall.

  Connor paced, swinging his arms, burning off his angst. Then he reached for the violin case, took it down, and opened it. He removed the instrument, stroking its curves with his fingertips. The Master had obtained his beloved violin and installed it here as a surprise. That was not the gesture of someone who didn’t care about Connor’s happiness. If he were to tell the Master he wanted to be released from his vows, that he wanted to build a life with Sophie somewhere else—would the Master let him go?

  “No, he would not,” Connor whispered aloud. “The Master has allowed himself to need me. He is aging. He wants to hand the reins to someone he trusts. If he knew what I was thinking, he would make sure Sophie was eliminated as a threat to my succession.”

  A chill ripped down Connor’s spine. He’d spoken aloud to himself, but it was as if another voice had taken his over to speak the truth to him. That insight had come straight from Spirit.

  Connor placed the violin beneath his chin and set the bow on the strings. Gently, softly, he drew it, and began to play scales. Warming up the strings. Warming up his fingers, his arms. The massage Nam had given him had loosened the tightness in his shoulders enough to be able to play again.

  If what the Master had told him in the garden was true, Connor was a force for good that must be balanced in some universal way by someone evil—like Pim Wat.

  Connor continued to mull over what the Master told him about duality as his body went through the discipline of the scales.

  He still wasn’t sure he bought that duality philosophy. In his own estimation, people like Pim Wat were cancers in the body of humanity. If she hadn’t been the Master’s woman, he’d have found a way to make sure she was cut out long before this, no matter that she was Sophie’s mother.

  And was he ready to accept a life without Sophie in it? Was he going to let her go so meekly? Or was there some way he could use the Ghost software to counteract this multi-agency task force attack? Not to mention the Master’s inconvenient anointing of him as Number One.

  Pim Wat had to go, first. She was a threat to Sophie and her children. Maybe he was the only one who could make sure she was eliminated. But if he betrayed the Master in this way, how long would he survive?

  And if Pim Wat was turned over to the task force, how could he prevent her being rescued again? The way the Master had broken her out from Guantánamo amply demonstrated how easily he could’ve taken her back anytime. The man was above the law, above the laws of physics, even. There was nowhere in the world that could hold Pim Wat if the Master wanted her back alive.

  Therefore, Pim Wat had to die.

  Connor’s gaze darted around the empty room. Sweat broke out on his forehead. Just thinking what he was thinking filled him with fear.

  He would have to be very, very careful.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Raveaux

  Day 3, afternoon

  Rex Gibson, the head of the Kama`aina Board, was a tall, skeletally thin man with a tonsure of hair garlanding his sun-spotted pate. He bent at the waist as he shook Leede’s hand. “We regret the necessity of your services.”

  “I promise I will make the audit as painless as possible. I brought an associate to assist me.” Leede gestured to Raveaux.

  “Pierre Raveaux.” Raveaux stepped forward to introduce himself.

  “Welcome to our campus. This is Beverly Cho, CEO of Peerless Accounting, and Dr. Stuart Ka`ula, Headmaster of Kama`aina Schools.”

  More handshakes and polite murmurings. Raveaux assessed each of the officials: Cho was a mixed Hawaiian Asian woman dressed in the kind of burlap sack dress and chunky jewelry he associated with artist types; Ka`ula, a stocky man, wore the usual Hawaii business casual and a scowl.

  “I appreciate being apprised of this audit, but my role is the day-to-day running of the schools. I’m not sure what I can add to these proceedings,” Ka`ula said.

  “I asked to meet because I have specific items I require from each of you.” Leede spoke in her most precise British upper-crust tones. “Is there somewhere private where we can meet? I promise not to take up too much of your valuable time.”

  Soon they were seated in a conference room with a sizable coat-of-arms emblem on the wall and several whiteboards that faced a bank of windows. The table was gleaming native hardwood; the chairs were excellent quality. An assistant brought in a tray with water glasses and a carafe.

  Raveaux seated himself beside Leede, who took a chair at the head of the table. Enthroned there, she somehow seemed much larger than her diminutive stature as her sharp gaze speared each person. “I understand that these proceedings are to be considered highly confidential, so please don’t speak of this inquiry, our process, or what we are doing, to any of your staff. The reason for that should be self-explanatory.”

  Ka`ula poured himself some water. “I’d still like to hear it put into words, Ms. Leede.” He appeared the most resentful of the probe.

  “All right. To put it baldly, a case of embezzling is, at least ninety-nine percent of the time, what they call an ‘inside job.’ ” Leede made air quotes with her fingers. “We don’t know who among your sta
ff is skimming this money, so the fewer people that know we’re looking into it, the more likely we will be able to catch them before they can cover their tracks.” She lifted her messenger bag onto the table and removed four pieces of paper. She handed one each to Ka`ula, Cho, and Gibson. “Detailed on this memo is what I need from you and your staff, to be delivered to my office address on the letterhead by tonight.” She turned to Raveaux and handed him the fourth copy. “You will hold the master list of required documentation and accesses. Please go with Ms. Cho to her accounting firm right now, and pick up any computers used in working with Kama`aina Schools, and deliver them directly to Ms. Smithson, so she can copy their hard drives.” She turned back to the group. “We’ll also need each of your personal computers, both desktop and laptop. Mr. Raveaux will take them to the car.”

  Cho reached for her phone, but Leede smiled and held out a hand. “I will hold all of your phones right now, for just a few moments, while Mr. Raveaux goes to the offices here in the building and picks up your computers and then delivers them to my car.” She nodded to Raveaux. “Go. Have the girl who brought in the refreshments show you where their computers are. Stow them in the trunk.” She handed Raveaux the car’s keys.

  Raveaux slanted Leede a quick glance—she really did need him as muscle.

  An eruption of indignant protests ensued from the administrators.

  Raveaux rose and tugged down his jacket, happy to exit the room where the three bigwigs in charge of Kama`aina Schools had just had their privacy and sense of power removed. They weren’t enjoying that—nor being without their computers for the time it would take for their hard drives to be copied by Sophie.

  The receptionist needed to be brusquely told by the headmaster to cooperate; but soon she was helping Raveaux carry Gibson and Ka`ula’s laptops, while Raveaux lugged the desktops, all the way out to the Cadillac. They stowed the units in the capacious trunk.

  Raveaux returned to the conference room. “Done.”

  “Thank you for your cooperation,” Leede told the three administrators. “Mr. Raveaux, please keep Ms. Cho’s phone, and accompany her to her office. You may keep the keys and drive to the Peerless Accounting office, pick up the computers, and then deliver them to Ms. Smithson for duplication. Dr. Ka`ula is allowing me physical access to the records stored here at the Administration Building; they are being delivered to this conference room so that I can review them on site. I’ll await your return.”

  “Oui, Madame.” No other response was possible. “Ms. Cho, after you.”

  Leede winked at him as he followed the stiff-backed accountant out of the conference room, and he almost smiled back.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Raveaux

  Raveaux called Sophie from the car as he followed Cho’s shiny black Mercedes toward the Peerless Accounting offices downtown. Sophie picked up on the third ring, sounding out of breath. “Yes, Pierre?”

  “I’ve just witnessed our new client, Hermione Leede, perform a hostile takeover,” Raveaux said. “I’m holding the phone of the CEO of Peerless Accounting in my pocket so the woman can’t communicate with anyone, and we’re headed to her office to pick up all the computers used in accounting for the Kama`aina Schools. I hope you have a work area prepped and are prepared to duplicate at least ten computers.”

  Sophie emitted a liquid stream of syllables that sounded distinctly profane. “I will be. When will you get back to the Security Solutions building?”

  “Soon. Less than an hour. I’ll just be dropping them off, then returning to pick up Heri, as she goes by to her friends.” He slowed behind Cho’s Mercedes as she took a left. The Cadillac glided over a pothole like it wasn’t there. “Ms. Leede is quite a surprise. She’s ex-Scotland Yard, has a photographic memory, and is younger than she lets people think she is—no older than fifty, tops.”

  “You sound intrigued.” Sophie’s smile was readily apparent in her warm tone. “Maybe she’s the woman for you. I’ll be ready for the computers by the time you get back here to my office. Use the back entrance.” She ended the call.

  “Merde. Heri is not the woman for me. You are,” Raveaux muttered, stowing his phone.

  Cho entered a parking garage under an office building using a key card; Raveaux cursed again, as the arm on the gate refused to open for him. She was ditching him! Apparently, a forensic accounting investigation required anticipation and brutal efficiency.

  Cho wanted to stonewall him? Fine. He’d inconvenience her in return.

  Raveaux put the car in Park and locked it, leaving it parked squarely in front of the entry gate’s retractable arm. He jogged into the garage and was just in time to see Cho exiting her vehicle near the stairs.

  “Ms. Cho!” He ran toward her, noting the frustration in her expression. “I was forced to leave my vehicle outside your turnstile. If it’s towed, we will bill your firm for our time and expenses.”

  “Humpf.” Cho grunted. “We won’t be long.” She whirled to head up the stairs instead of using the elevator. Raveaux dogged her sensibly-sandaled heels as they thumped up an aluminum stairwell, heading for the fourth floor.

  “Ms. Leede’s methods are a bit unconventional.” Raveaux ventured an olive branch as he beat Cho to the door to her level, opening and holding the heavy panel ajar in a gentlemanly way. “Thank you for being gracious with the process. I’m sure you want to catch this thief and clear your firm’s name as much as we do.”

  Cho slanted an unfriendly glance over her shoulder. “Let’s discuss this in my office.”

  Staffers in cubicles glanced at them curiously as they passed. Raveaux mentally cringed at the number of computers Sophie might be dealing with.

  Cho unlocked her office, ushered him in, then turned to close the door. She put her hands on her hips. “I know you think my firm has something to do with this.” Her brown eyes were wide and angry. “And I don’t appreciate it.”

  Raveaux raised his brows. “Madame, I assure you I have no opinion whatsoever on any of this. I am merely Ms. Leede’s associate, and as you can see, she uses me mostly for muscle.” He tried a wink. “I’m just here to fetch and carry.”

  Cho seemed to thaw. She turned away and slipped off her Birkenstocks. Her brown socks looked hand-knit from the hair of some unknown animal. “All right then. I will save my frustration for Ms. Leede. I don’t personally handle the Kama`aina Schools’ accounts, but we can get a computer trolley and pick up the units of those who do, right now. Also, I want my phone back.” She padded over to her desk and depressed a button on the phone, summoning an assistant to bring the trolley.

  She returned to face Raveaux and mustered a smile, seeming to really see him for the first time. Cho was attractive when she smiled. She patted her flyaway hair, tucking it behind her ears. “This investigation has been something of a shock. I didn’t know about the audit until I was summoned to the campus this morning. Very stressful. I’m sure you understand.”

  “Absolutely.” Raveaux turned and meandered around the office, noting the striking fiber art on the walls, the natural wood credenza, the meeting table and seating lounge. “Have you been with Peerless long?”

  “Five years. I was an IRS analyst before I came to work for Peerless.” She seated herself in her chair. “I’m from Seattle originally. This job has been practically a vacation, compared to my government one.”

  “I understand. I was with the French police for my entire career, and nothing ever came without sixteen forms to be filled out and submitted to different departments. We never caught up with the workload, either. I used to say I should wear a miner’s light on the front of my hat, I was so buried in cases.” He got her to smile again as the assistant came in with the computer cart. “Let’s pick up the units, I’ll give you your phone, and I’ll be on my way.” He took her device out of his pocket. “Would you unlock it, please? I’ll put my number into your contacts, in case you need to reach me for any reason.”

  Cho accepted the phone and unlocked it. “I’d
appreciate that.”

  “Of course, madame. Never know when you might need a little muscle.” He winked, and added his number to her contacts.

  Cho took the phone back, slipping it into the pocket of her baggy dress. “I’ll be in touch, Monsieur Raveaux, should I need to reach you.”

  “Call me Pierre.” He gave her some eye contact.

  Cho looked down, flustered. “Follow me and we’ll go get those computers.”

  Raveaux pulled into the alley behind the Security Solutions building. He’d texted Sophie that he was on his way; he wasn’t surprised to see her standing, arms crossed, with a dolly and three strapping security operatives. The four of them wore all-black outfits marked with the Security Solutions logo. Where was that red outfit she’d worn in the morning?

  “Quite a car,” Sophie commented, as Raveaux got out of the vehicle. “That belong to Ms. Leede?”

  “Yes.” Raveaux popped the enormous trunk and the men began loading the equipment onto the dolly. “She is compensating for her size, I believe.”

  “Apparently, not only men do that,” Sophie smiled. “My father likes Cadillacs too, though.” She picked up one of the laptops. “In case you need to know where the equipment is, I’ve set up a workroom for us in the basement of the building. Our case workstation will be in Storage Room 2A. I only have time to set up the duplicating software for these rigs tonight; it takes a couple of hours to copy each hard drive, so I’ll be working on this through tomorrow. Once we have all of them copied, I’d like to meet Ms. Leede and discuss who’s doing what. I cannot be the only one sifting through these computers.”