by Don Bruns
I had one hundred dollars on me. Not much more until the bonuses and commission came in. I reached in my pocket and pulled out three twenties. “Can this be the down payment?” I was netting a minimum of $10,000 from Carol Conroy. Another $5,000 if this camera picked up any evidence that she was interested in. James was right. I had to make this investment.
“Sure. I can take that. And I can expect the rest in what? A week?”
“Maybe two?”
“Because we go back, Skip.” He winked at Em. I never did like the guy too much, but he had good taste in women.
Jody dropped the detector in a plastic bag, wrote a receipt longhand, and we concluded the transaction.
“There’s one other thing you should be aware of.”
“What’s that?”
“There’s a camera detector that’s pretty hot right now.”
James leaned in. “A camera detector? To detect the camera that is used to detect something else?”
Jody gave him a funny look. “Let me show you.” He walked to one of the shelves and pulled off a small chrome mechanism with an eyepiece. “Here. Look through this at any of the cameras I’ve mentioned.”
James aimed at the smoke detector. “There’s a red light.”
“Yep. Try the motion detector.”
“Wow. There’s a red light.”
“And on it goes. If you ever want to see if someone has infiltrated your place with a camera, all you have to do is—”
“The Teddy Bear has a red light.”
“All you have to do is—”
“And the calendar. Wow. This is so cool.”
Jody cleared his throat. “All you have to do is aim this at everything in your home or office and you’ll know immediately if there’s a camera, secretly recording what goes on. If you want, I can add that to the sale.”
Em was faintly smiling. “Ah, the tangled webs we weave.”
“No.” I was emphatic.
“Skip, it may come in handy, pard, I mean—”
“James. No.” I turned to Jody. “So, we’re all set.” I was anxious to leave.
“Um, Skip. We’d talked about another GPS to switch out while the other was charging.”
Jody smiled. “Can’t let you try two of them out, but I can make you a great deal. Why don’t I wrap up the second one and—”
“No. No thanks. We’ll recharge the other one and take our chances.” I glared at James. I knew very well he’d demand an equal split of the money, but he had yet to pay a cent. “A fake smoke alarm and we’re in business. That’s all we need for now.”
“Fake?” Jody looked very disappointed. “Skip, not so fast.” He pulled a pack of matches from his pants pocket and tore one off. He struck it on the pad, let the flame burn down and held it up to the ceiling. The piercing siren started immediately.
“What the heck?” I plugged my ears.
“It actually works.” He was shouting against the loud noise. He waved his hands, apparently stirring up an air current, and the noise abruptly ceased. “Nothing fake about it.”
“Son of a gun.” James had that toothy grin on his face. “That’s even better.”
Jody walked back into the rear of the store, and James put his arm around my shoulders. “Wise decision, my man. Wise decision.”
Em rolled those eyes. “I doubt if you’ve ever made one yourself, James.”
“Teaming up with your boyfriend, miss. That’s always been a good decision.”
And what was she going to say about that?
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
On the way back I pulled out the laptop, stuck in the card, pulled out the short antenna, and logged on. With the stroke of a key I had Feng’s car. “James, you won’t believe this. He’s back at the laundry.”
“Guy has issues with clean clothes. Maybe it’s the place all the guards have their uniforms cleaned. You’ve got nine guards over there, pally.”
“And,” Em pointed out, “you can’t be sure he didn’t figure out you had installed a GPS on his car. He might have planted it somewhere else and we’re following someone else.”
That would mean he was as smart as I was, and I doubted that. “We’ll know in a minute.” I pointed at the screen. “He’s leaving, and—” I waited, watching the little blip on the map, “it appears he’s headed back to Synco Systems.”
“We should arrive about the same time he does, pard. We’ll just see.”
Everyone was quiet as we drove back. The truck ran rough, and James managed to hit most of the potholes in the narrow streets, but other than that the ride was uneventful. We were probably going to arrive about twenty minutes late, but no one from my company was watching the clock. Wireman would probably notice, but he’d never say anything. He never seemed to sweat the small stuff. Until after work when he was loaded.
I was thinking how I could get the smoke detector installed. It was similar to the ones my company used, but ours were connected by phone line. I would have to concoct some story about how we had to install a separate detector in office one.
“James,” I broke the silence, “Jody seemed to be pretty sure that no one installing this thing would know it contained a camera.”
“Pretty sure.”
“So there’s only the one drawback.”
“Getting that chip in and out. Yep. There’s that.”
We didn’t say anything else until we got back to Synco Systems.
When we pulled into the parking lot, Feng’s car was there and our UPS truck was parked in front of Synco Systems. I wondered if the little guy had figured it out yet. Or was he tracking a large brown truck and a guy with brown shorts and shirt? And the scary part was, if he knew we’d switched the GPS unit, then he’d figured out that we knew he was a suspicious character.
Em left in her brand new powder blue 335i BMW, heading back to her luxurious condo, and James and I went back to work. Eden gave James a big smile when he walked in, and I had a hunch that their date on Friday would go very well. She was a good-looking girl, even in her uniform, and if I didn’t have two girlfriends at the moment, I would have been interested.
J.J. came up and patted me on the back. “Hey, Skip, we got all the old cabling out of the ceiling and the walls. It was easier than we thought. So, we’re ready to start installation this afternoon. Thought you’d be happy about that.”
I nodded, looking around for Andy Wireman.
“You looking for Andy?”
“Um, yeah, sort of.”
“Got pulled off the job this afternoon. I guess you guys needed him at another location. He asked me to kind of run the show till tomorrow when he gets back.”
I couldn’t believe it. Andy Wireman had turned over this job to Jim Jobs? I was as surprised as I was pissed off. This was my project, and I trusted Andy. And furthermore, I needed to get someone to do my dirty work. I studied him for a moment, then figured he’d have to get it done. “Listen, Jim, did you know that we are short a bunch of smoke detectors?”
“We’re short twenty some motion detectors. We have enough smoke detectors, but they’re the wrong style.”
Where did this guy come from? I was in charge of the project and I couldn’t even remember that.
“Regardless, the president, Sandy Conroy, needs a smoke detector in office number one.”
“You want me to install a smoke detector that’s the wrong style? Why would we do that?”
Andy would have just done it. This guy was taking his temporary power way too far.
“I’ve got one I’d like you to install.”
“If we put it in, we’ll just have to take it back out when the actual ones arrive.”
“Jim, I don’t care.” I held out the plastic bag with the detector/camera/microphone inside. Can you have one of the installers put this detector in office one?”
J.J. glared at me. His face was red and the spiky hair on his head made him look like a short devil.
“Please.”
“Am I in charge or n
ot?”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t think it’s a good idea to switch things all around like that. That’s why.”
“Then no. You’re not in charge. I am. And if you have any questions about that, call my office.”
“Okay, okay. No need to get all upset.” He was scratching himself between his legs. I handed him the plastic bag, and he looked inside. Reaching in he pulled out a piece of paper.
“No.” I panicked and grabbed it from his hand, tearing the receipt in the process. I glanced down and saw I’d managed to snag the part that said Spy Store and the price.
“This is highly irregular.”
“Irregular?” If he’d seen that receipt, he would really have thought it was irregular. “You’ve never worked for us before in your life. You’ve already pushed us back by two or three days because of your little ‘discovery’ that a third system was in the walls. And now you’re telling me how to run my operation?” I surprised myself as I got worked up. Pushing my index finger against the guy’s breastbone I continued. “You have no idea who we are or how we operate. All I’m asking is that you have someone install this smoke detector in office one. Is that clear?”
J.J. stared right through me.
I continued. “Because if it’s not clear, I can arrange to have you back at your apartment by the end of the day. Maybe you could spend the afternoon fixing your rear screen door.”
My neighbor gave me a frown, brow all wrinkled. “Jeez, Skip. I’m just trying to do my job.”
“So am I.” I was breathing fast and my heart rate was up. Just getting my cardio exercise. “Then I guess it’s clear.”
He nodded.
“Great.” I started to walk away, aware that Eden Callahan had observed the entire interaction. I was hoping she wouldn’t mention it to Feng. Or worse yet, mention it to Sandy Conroy.
“But I will mention this to Andy.” His back was to me. “This isn’t the way I’d run an installation if this was my account.” He shrugged and turned back to his ladder.
“Thank God it’s not your installation, J.J.” I caught myself. “Jim. Albert. Whatever your name is.”
“You’ll have it in that office before five. Is that soon enough?” He kept his back turned toward me, but his message was strong.
Eden was watching us, her eyes shifting back and forth.
“We thought it would be a good idea to make sure the president was protected against a fire.” I smiled at her and she just gave me a puzzled look, shrugging her shoulders.
“Okay.”
“Good idea, huh?”
She nodded and turned away. Maybe not the brightest girl. James liked them just slightly dense. Pretty, but dense.
“Thanks, Jim.”
He grumbled and worked his way up the ladder.
What the heck was Andy thinking putting this bozo in charge?
“I’ll talk to Andy tomorrow morning.”
“You do that, Jim. If you’re still working here.” I walked away, hoping I didn’t have to deal with the guy the rest of the afternoon.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
I caught up with James in the hallway and told him that Jim Jobs’s temporary assignment had gone to his head.
“So J.J. is showing some attitude, pard. I wouldn’t worry. It’s still your show.” He just shrugged. “Might want to take it easy on him. After all, we do have to live next to him.”
James was taking charge again. Jim Jobs was taking charge. I needed to step up and deal with this. There should be only one person in charge. Me. And there was a lot of money riding on this project. Forget James, J.J., Wireman, Feng. This was my project and I was in charge of getting it done. I couldn’t, I wouldn’t, let anybody screw it up.
“So, what about the smoke detector?” James whispered the question.
“He promised to install it. Before five o’clock. Of course I had to threaten him. And he also promised to talk to Andy tomorrow about the proper way to supervise an installation.”
“Don’t let him get to you. Andy Wireman will do it your way, amigo. You told me you’ve worked with him before. I feel certain he’ll let you call the shots.”
James saluted me, as if that confirmed I was in charge, and walked away, carrying a box of connectors.
I needed a cigarette, but I’d given up smoking. I needed a beer, but couldn’t indulge myself for three more hours. I took about five deep breaths, felt dizzy for a moment, then decided to see how my project was progressing.
I walked into the room where all the offices were located. Number two was open, and Feng stood in the doorway, surveying the activity in the main room. He had his hand to his mouth and it appeared he was picking his teeth with something. When he observed me, he gave me a wry smile from across the way. I felt like waving, but I didn’t.
Three installers were on ladders, working up in the substructure of the ceiling. James walked over, handing them tools from below. It reminded me of a acene from Grey’s Anatomy where the nurse hands Dr. McDreamy his tools.
“Scalpel.”
“Yes doctor.”
“Clamp. Retractor.”
And all around them sat the silent men and woman at their computers, all wearing white lab coats like they were in an old James Bond movie where Ernst Blofeld had his minions in uniforms, working on a diabolical plot to capture the world. They pecked like chickens at their keyboards, never even looking up. James and I would have been playing games, poker and black jack, and checking on possible porn sites. I wasn’t sure that these people weren’t. It was just that they were supposed to be inventing something for the Department of Defense, and watching porn and playing black jack were never really that productive. At least in my experience.
An installer walked by me with a ladder and headed for office one. The door was shut. He knocked, then opened it. A moment later Sandler Conroy walked out, frowning. I could guess why. His workday was being interrupted so that our camera could be installed. I had a hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach and my heart jumped. I said a silent prayer that no one would ever find out what was inside that smoke detector.
Conroy spoke to Feng for a few seconds then turned and pointed at me. He walked over and looked me straight in the eyes. I froze. How he’d figured it out in this brief amount of time I had no idea.
“Mr. Conroy—”
Conroy’s rage was obvious. The red from his face broke through the tan, and I was afraid I was not only to be arrested, but possibly to be taken behind the building and beaten to death. He’d figured it all out.
“How much longer?”
I didn’t say anything, but the fear in my eyes had to give me away.
“I said how much longer?”
“How much longer what?”
He pointed to the installers.
“Do you mean how much longer will we be here? How much longer will it take to finish the installation?”
Conroy nodded.
I felt weak. Like you do after the first shot of whiskey at the end of a long day. You feel that sense of release.
“Well, sir, we had a shipment problem. I would expect the motion detectors and the alarms to be here tomorrow, and I—”
“How much longer?”
“As I said, it all depends on—”
“Young man, I asked you a question.”
“Two more days?” I’d learned in school that you can’t answer a question with a question, but I tried.
“Get it done.” He spun on his heel and walked out of the room.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
“Does he always lock the office?”
I’d been watching. Sometimes he did, sometimes he didn’t. But regardless, Feng the oppressor was hanging out almost all the time. So just waltzing in to retrieve the card would be under Feng’s watchful eye. Well, so was the UPS truck. Under Feng’s watchful eye.
“You know, pal, we can’t ask one of J.J.’s henchmen to go in and retrieve that chip.”
“We knew that going
in. It was part of the problem. You thought the smoke alarm was a good idea, James.” We knew it would be a problem. And I didn’t like the installation crew referred to as J.J.’s henchmen.
I studied the door to office one. Conroy had gone in and the door had been closed for probably over two hours. If he was on the phone, we might have something. But one of us had to retrieve it.
James and I were standing at the entrance to the hallway that led outside. Maybe seventy feet from the entrance to all of the offices.
“Have you kept an eye on his office?”
“Well, not for the full two hours. But I figure if he talked on the phone we’d get some good audio.”
“No one else with him?” James was watching the closed door.
“I didn’t watch the whole time.” There could have been someone who walked in. I’d only seen maybe half the action.
“Yeah. We’re going to have to keep an eye on that office.”
“We’re going to have to do more than that. James, we’re going to have to retrieve the card. This is such a bad idea.” It really was.
James put his elbow in my ribs. I jerked my head in his direction and he nodded to the office one door. Sarah, lovely Sarah, was walking out.
“Whoa!”
James watched as she walked back to her office. “I’ll get that card, Skip. I will. I just thought of a way.”
My selfless roommate. My best friend. Looking out for me. And I knew the real reason.
“Man, can you imagine the video tonight if something was going on between those two?”
My childhood compadre, looking out for me. It was ten minutes till five and if I was going to report to Carol Conroy the next day, I had to get that card.
“I’m going in, sarge.” James nodded to me. I’d half expected the salute.
“What are you going to tell him?”
“We have a problem.”
“What kind of a problem, Mr. Lessor?”
“There’s a technical glitch with the smoke detector.”
“And?”
“This will only take a minute.”
“Okay.” I’d bought into it.
