Geek Mafia: Mile Zero

by Dakan

  This assertion surprised Paul. "Why not?"

  "It's not what you do. Nor is it what we do except in the direst of circumstances. We gather information and use it to our advantage, and I find that you're not likely to gain the kind of information you want by kidnapping people and forcibly questioning them. Besides, it's a messy business. A messy, dangerous business that attracts cops."

  Paul didn't know if he agreed, and Isaiah must have read his doubt on his face. "If things need to become physical, you'll know it. But don't be the one to escalate matters. Not until you have to," said Isaiah.

  "It might be too late for that."

  Isaiah shrugged. "The decision is yours." He stood up and held out a hand to Paul, who shook it. "In the meantime, we'll proceed as before. I'll meet with Eddie again, but I won't let him know that we've discovered his connection to Raff. We'll see how he wants this situation to play out. But until we have more evidence, I won't help you move directly against Raff."

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  "All right," said Paul. "I'll send you the info on Raff and keep you up to date. And if you talk to Winston before I do, tell him to call in."

  "Of course," Isaiah replied, releasing Paul's hand. "Best of luck."

  Paul turned and headed for the door, but before he could open it Isaiah said, "I have to tell you something."

  Paul turned to look back at Isaiah.

  "I've been impressed with what I've seen from you so far," he told Paul. "If you and Chloe can sort this situation with Raff and Eddie out in a tidy manner, I'd be willing to offer you a larger role in our little project."

  "Tidy?" asked Paul.

  "Only two goals are important to me right now, Paul. Finding Raquel's killer and keeping Eddie's cruise ship network intact. Eddie's Crew's network, I should say. As for Raff or Eddie or any other individual, well..." he shrugged.

  "Ok," said Paul, who didn't really care about having a bigger role in Isaiah's shadow corporation but was very interested in fucking over Raff. "Good to know. I'll let you know if there's anything you can do to help achieve those two goals."

  "Please do."

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  Chapter 21

  CHLOE could hear Cassie before she could see her. She'd just parked her scooter at the beach lot on the south side of the island when she became aware of a sort of wailing/singing moving off key up and down the scales.

  Chloe turned and there she was, Cassie on her rollerblades, shouting her crazy person song as she sped along the sidewalk, waving a faded, torn American flag that was stapled to a stained and rotting length of two by four. A nearby family of fat tourists in the parking lot pointed and laughed as she zoomed toward them.

  "AAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEE!!!!" she shouted as she zipped by Chloe's parking place.

  "Cassie! Wait!" Chloe shouted, but the homeless girl sped right past her, leaning into a hard right turn as she skidded into the parking lot and circled back toward the tourists, holding the flag in front of her like a lance.

  The pasty family scattered as she bore down on them, the little boy screaming as he clutched his mother's thigh. But Cassie braked hard at the last possible moment, halting just a few feet from their car. She waved the flag back and forth in front of them and, more shouting than singing, said "GOD BLESS A-MER-I-CA!"

  Then she lowered the flag and took a deep, theatrical bow, holding out her hand in expectation of a tip. The father said something in what Chloe thought might have been German. With a wary smile, he handed Cassie a couple of crumpled up bills. She saluted him, spun on her skates and started to roll at a leisurely pace back toward the road.

  "Cassie!" Chloe called again. "Over here."

  The crazy girl's face lit up when she recognized Chloe, and she dropped the flag and skated over to where Chloe waited. "Chloe, Chloe, Chloe," she said in a sing-song voice. "We going to your place now? Maybe have some enchiladas?"

  "Not right now Cass," said Chloe.

  "Really? I like your enchiladas."

  "Some other time," said Chloe, who had never cooked anyone enchiladas in her life, much less Cassie. "But I've got a job for you if you want."

  "I'm not taking off my clothes," said Cassie. "Unless it's for something artistic."

  "No, the clothes stay on if you want. Actually, I'm going to have to insist that they do."

  "You sure?" said Cassie, with a disappointment that confused Chloe.

  "Yeah, I'm sure. I need you to find someone for me."

  "Oooh? Do you need a date? Because Lazlo was talking about how hot you are the other day and..."

  "No, no. I need you to find a specific guy for me," said Chloe, pulling a sheaf of papers from her shoulder bag, each with the murderer's picture on it. "This guy here."

  "Who's this guy?" asked Cassie as she took one of the papers.

  "Just some guy," said Chloe.

  "He's kinda mean looking," Cassie observed.

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  "That's because he's more than kind of mean. So you need to be careful. But I have to know where he is as soon as possible."

  "ASAP!" said Cassie. "That stands for..."

  "As soon as possible," interrupted Chloe. "Exactly right." She pulled out a disposable cell phone from the bag as well. "And I got this for you, so you can call me as soon as you find him."

  Cassie took the phone gently in both hands, holding it like it was a Faberge Egg. "For me?"

  "My number's programmed in. And if you find him, I'll give you $100. Cash." Chloe could've afforded much more, of course, but a reward too high would make Cassie suspicious or, just as likely, make her think that she'd dreamed the whole thing up. $100 was real enough that she could visualize it.

  "That sounds real good. Then I could afford to make you enchiladas."

  "Sure thing," said Chloe. "And tell your other friends, too. Give them pictures and tell them - and if anyone you give a pic to finds the guy, I'll still pay you the hundred bucks."

  "And pay them a hundred bucks too?" asked Cassie.

  "Of course," said Chloe, guaranteeing that Cassie would bring in a partner, if only to get another $100 out of Chloe.

  "And if two other friends help me?" she asked, testing Chloe's limits.

  "Two is fine," said Chloe. "But it can't be more. But show everyone you know the picture and call me, ok? As soon as you find him, call me."

  "As soon as me and up to two friends find him."

  "Yeah. As soon as that happens." Chloe pulled a $10 bill from her pocket and handed it to Cassie.

  "What's this for?" she asked as she pocketed the bill.

  "It's for expenses," said Chloe.

  "You mean like gas money?"

  "I guess if you had a car, you could use it for gas."

  "Beans give me gas," Cassie pointed out as if this were one of the more profound observations she could make.

  "Um... ok."

  "And boats need gas," Cassie pointed out.

  "True," Chloe agreed. "Listen, hon. This is important, ok? So if you could..."

  "That's why I don't like bean enchiladas," Cassie pronounced with authority. "I'll find Mr. Man here. And I'll call you."

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  "Thanks, sweetie," Chloe said, giving Cassie a hug despite the smell.

  "And then we'll spend gas money," Cassie assured her.

  "If you say so."

  CHLOE left the killer's picture with everyone she knew in town, including most of the bartenders, cabbies and pedi-cab drivers. If the fucker popped his head up in public, she'd hear about it. That was the plan anyway.

  With his pic all over town, it was possible that he would notice it before someone noticed him. Then, if he had any brains, he'd go into hiding and they might never find him. But Chloe and Paul had decided that their biggest advantage was their network of contacts on the island, and if they wanted to catch him soon, they needed to come out with all their guns blazing.

  Back at the hou
se, Chloe found Bee up in her room. Bee was almost always in her room these days unless she had to venture outside to install a new camera or do some maintenance work on one of the existing setups.

  Chloe and Paul tried to get her to come to the party once in a while, but she preferred to watch from afar. It worried her that Bee was withdrawing into herself so much, but Chloe wasn't her mother and couldn't make the woman get out in the sunlight.

  The door to Bee's suite was locked, and Chloe had to knock and wait five minutes while she unsealed the wire mesh tape around the door and undo the locks. When she finally let Chloe in, Chloe said, "I thought you swept the place for bugs?"

  "I did," said Bee, shuffling back to her seat in front of the monitor wall. "But with Raff in town I decided that, you know, you can't be too careful and stuff."

  "Makes sense," said Chloe, although she wasn't sure that it did. She looked at the map display and saw Eddie's name still next to the Hyatt complex. "What have you got here?"

  "Well, I watched Raff 's movements after Sandee beat him up. He pretty much followed Eddie's course and actually went back into the Hyatt. I haven't seen any sign of any of them since, but that doesn't mean much.

  They could've gone out the side or taken a cab or even a boat and I wouldn't know."

  "But Eddie's still there?" asked Chloe, pointing to the dot with his name.

  "Well, maybe," said Bee. "I got a reading off the RFID there near the entrance, but that was a while ago. He could've left by another way where I don't have any receivers, or he could've taken the card out of his pocket and then I wouldn't know. But he hasn't shown up on any of the cameras, either."

  "So, let's assume he's still in there," said Chloe. "And we can assume Raff 's there with him."

  "Why would Raff go in there if he just met Eddie out on the street a few hours ago?" asked Bee.

  "Because he knows we were following him, but he doesn't know how many of us there are. More to the point, he doesn't know how fucking few of us there are. He saw me and Paul and Sandee and he heard us mention you..."

  "He did?" asked Bee, a note of alarm in her voice.

  "Yeah, when we were snatching that little black box thingy."

  "Oh yeah..." Bee pointed over her shoulder at the table behind her where Chloe saw that the box had been Chapter 21

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  pried open and its electronic guts carefully laid out on top of a piece of newspaper. It was normally the kind of thing Bee would do in her workshop, but Chloe guessed she didn't want to be away from her cameras. "That's actually pretty cool. I got it opened up..."

  "Great," interrupted Chloe, not wanting to be distracted from her train of thought. "We'll get to that in a sec..."

  "Sorry..." said Bee.

  "No worries. Anyway, Raff knows we're on to him, but he doesn't know how small our Crew is. Or at least I don't think he does. So he's got to assume that we have other people out there and that they're watching him (which would be nice). So he's not going to go back to wherever he's staying because he doesn't want to lead us to his other Crewmembers..."

  "Do you think these are the same people he was working with in secret when we were all in San Jose? That the... detective guy was with?" asked Bee.

  "Maybe," said Chloe. "No way of telling really. But the point is, we've got to assume that he's with people.

  Eddie as much as said that he was making a deal with another group."

  "So Raff is hiding out with Eddie, in order to protect his friends."

  "Exactly," Chloe concluded. "Which I can't imagine is going over very well with Eddie. He doesn't seem like the kind of fella who likes uninvited guests. Unless they're women anyway."

  "I wonder what he told him?" asked Bee.

  "What do you mean?"

  "Raff had to have some excuse, right? Some reason for being there. Did he tell them that it was you and Paul and Sandee that attacked him? Or did he come up with some other story?"

  "Hmmmm, good question," Chloe mused, thinking things over for a minute. "It would depend on what their relationship was like. If they're close and have worked together before, then he probably told Eddie something closer to the truth. He'd want to turn Eddie against us. On the other hand, if it's a less trusting relationship, then he might make up a story of some sort, because Eddie wouldn't want to risk getting Winston and Isaiah angry at him by siding with an enemy of ours."

  "This is getting complicated..."

  "Yeah, it is, isn't it? But this part here is pretty straightforward. We need to find out where Raff and Eddie stand with each other."

  "We could try and get a bug or camera into Eddie's rooms at the Hyatt," suggested Bee.

  "Maybe. But we don't even know what room they're in, and I doubt it's under his name, so getting into the reservation system won't work. We'd have to get in with the maid service or something. That could take a while. And we need to act fast."

  "We could maybe try and get them apart again," said Bee. "Try and get each of them alone or maybe try and make Raff go back to his other friends."

  "That would be ideal," agreed Chloe. "But I don't see how."

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  "I'd like to talk with Raff," Bee said, her voice barely a whisper.

  "So the fuck would I," said Chloe. "All I need is a cattle prod, some duct tape and..."

  "No, really," insisted Bee. "I want to talk with him. I think maybe... I think that I..."

  "What is it?" asked Chloe.

  "I want to ask him about the man I killed. His friend. The detective."

  "Fake detective," Chloe pointed out.

  "The man I killed."

  "The man about to shoot us."

  "That I killed," Bee insisted.

  "What do you think he's going to tell you?" asked Chloe.

  "Who he was..." Bee replied. "I don't even know his name. I don't know if he had any..."

  "Honey, nothing Raff tells you is going to be the truth. He's a fucking degenerate liar. He's either going to tell you what he thinks you want to hear to try and win you over or tell you what he thinks you don't want to hear in order to fuck with your head."

  "I know that," said Bee. "But there will be some truth in there."

  "Or not."

  "But that's not the reason why," said Bee. "I know he's going to lie, and I know he can't be trusted. But listen.

  Neither can I."

  "What?" asked Chloe. "I don't understand."

  "He has to be as surprised as you were that I killed that guy. He has to know that it probably fucked with my head and made me crazy."

  "You're not crazy, Bee."

  "I think that maybe I am. A little. I know I haven't been normal."

  "If you need to talk about this..." Chloe started. "If you want to, that's great. I mean, we totally can." Bee had brushed off every one of Paul and Chloe's attempts to talk with her about the shooting over the past year. She was excited that her friend was finally opening up, although the timing could have been better. "But with Raff? It's just a dangerous..."

  "That's why I want to do it," said Bee. "It's going to be the last thing he expects. I can go to him. And I can say I'm on my own. That I'm going behind your back because I'm obsessed with this guy I killed. He might believe that."

  "Maybe," said Chloe, although she doubted Raff would fall for something like that so soon after being beat Chapter 21

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  up.

  "Ok, even if he doesn't believe it, I think the curiosity alone would bring him out. Or maybe the chance that I am a weak link in the Crew that he can exploit. He'll want the chance to find out more about us."

  Chloe thought about this, staring at the bank of screens. They needed to keep the initiative, keep Raff from getting back on his feet. He'd already had a few hours to recover, and according to Paul's call, Isaiah was unwilling to put any pressure on Eddie yet. At this point, until they heard something about the killer or Eddie made a move, Bee's plan seemed like the only course of action that was, well,
actually an action.

  "Ok, let's say I sign onto this plan of yours," said Chloe. "How do we arrange a meeting? We don't know how to get a hold of Raff."

  "Well, we know how to get in touch with Eddie, don't we?"

  "Yeah..."

  "We just call him and ask him to hand the phone to Raff."

  "Then we're giving away the fact that we know Raff and Eddie are together!" said Chloe, surprised. Giving away information like that went against every instinct.

  "I know," said Bee sheepishly. "But it would be simple..."

  "Simple isn't always good..." Chloe replied, but even as she was saying it, she started to suss out the full implications of Bee's suggestion. "Although, despite my better judgment, there is a case to be made for it..."

  "There is?" asked Bee, sounding surprised.

  "Remember our two scenarios. Eddie and Raff are tight and therefore Raff has already told him about us. Or, they're not so tight, and he doesn't want them to know about us. If it's option A, then we're not telling him anything he doesn't know. If it's option B, then our call will make Eddie more suspicious of Raff. He might even get pissed at Raff for not telling him about us."

  "That's what I was thinking!" said Bee with a smile.

  "Liar," said Chloe, giving her a playful punch in the shoulder.

  "I'm just practicing for when I meet Raff," said Bee.

  "Well you need to keep practicing, cuz you suck at it."

  "Where should I ask to meet him?"

  "Someplace public so he'll feel safe, but someplace we can control a little. And someplace that we already have cameras in. Plus, someplace that will throw him off his game. Make him uncomfortable."

  "Oooh!" said Bee. "I have just the place!" She swung around in her chair and seized the mouse, clicking through her cameras. Chloe watched as scenes from a rooftop bar lit up the screens.

  "You have cameras in the Garden of Eden?" asked Chloe. "When did you...?"

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  "They're not mine. They're the bar's. I just figured out how to tap into the wireless signal on them. I think the owner or manager or someone must like to keep an eye on the place when they're at home or something."