The question put Kenny’s unease at being in the center of Kierra, Monica and Lane’s situation for the past few moments to the side and conjured up another discomfort. He felt as if he was back at The Academy and walking into a pop quiz. He sat up a little straighter in his chair and began to recite everything he knew for sure and a few things he’d gleaned from intel on other missions about the Albanian crime syndicate.
“They have their hands in every illicit thing you can imagine,” Kenny stated. “Political corruption, drugs, human trafficking. But they’ve recently started dealing in arms.”
“Very recently,” Monica agreed with a short nod of her head for him to continue as she tapped on the computer and the smart screen booted up.
“From what I can tell, the arms trade is the youngest brother Joseph’s area. He started with a few transactions locally; barely noticeable. But there’s been some speculation that he’s started buying more weapons from Russian dealers and is looking to move into the US.”
“Good,” Monica said. Kenny had to force himself not to smile under her approval. “We’ve been chasing down some rumors about Joseph’s American contacts. There are whispers that he has a connect in the Midwest and maybe even the US government. We thought for a while that there wasn’t any validity to it; probably just Joseph boasting to raise his profile in the family. But two weeks ago we got confirmation of a deal with a white supremacist cell in West Virginia; purely by chance. The ATF was dispatched to intervene, but somehow Mehmeti found out about their plans.”
Kenny was sitting at the edge of his seat.
Monica directed his attention to the screen. There was a spreadsheet with three columns there. He studied it. It took a few seconds to decipher the columns as dates, weights and IP addresses. But he knew not to assume. “What’s this?”
“Transactions,” Monica answered, giving him the barest amount of help.
“And the IP addresses?” Kenny thought he saw a ghost of a smile on Monica’s face, but couldn’t be sure.
Just then Kierra sauntered into the room, Lane on her heels, a coffee pot and three mugs balanced on top of a tray in his hands. Lane placed the tray onto the table and moved to a seat at the front of the room. Monica nodded to acknowledge his presence but began to answer Kenny’s question.
“We know these are confirmed shipments of arms sales the Mehmeti family has brokered in the past month.”
“Month?” Kenny asked, shocked. There were at least a dozen items on the list.
“Exactly. They’re moving heavy weight and quickly. But we can’t be certain of the exact kinds of weapons they’re selling since the only information we have about the shipments is weight,” she indicated toward the middle column, “and buyer.” This time she pointed at the final column and Kenny nodded.
“Got it,” he said.
“No, you don’t,” Lane responded, accepting a mug of coffee from Kierra.
Kierra walked to the podium, put a mug in front of Monica and turned back to the table.
“What am I missing?” Kenny asked.
At his question, Monica clicked one of the IP addresses and Kenny felt the air rush out of his lungs. He knew the website that popped up. Very well. His eyes darted to Kierra, whose hands were frozen over the third mug, her gaze fixed on the screen.
The ChatBot home page was a jumble of flashing text and large videos on loops of people in various shades of undress. It was the most popular cam site on the internet, with tens of thousands of channels offering a range of content, from daily lifestyle livestreams to the most hardcore sexual content and everything in between. With millions of unique hits an hour, even the smallest channels were finding audiences willing to part with every global currency – converted into virtual gold coins, the site’s universal payment method.
“Why are you on ChatBot?” Kierra asked the question. Kenny noted that her hands were shaking.
“Part of the reason we had such a hard time tracking the shipments was because we were looking in the wrong places,” Monica said, her voice all business.
“We assumed they’d be using the dark web. But they’re clever,” Lane added. “We compiled this list of shipments trolling through the public chatrooms on ChatBot.”
“We think they’re selecting random but popular models and then conducting the deals right out in the open. There’s so much going on in the comments that it’s hard to keep track of all of the conversations. And when someone is masturbating themselves on screen, who gives a shit about the two weirdos chatting in Russian?”
Kenny nodded. “It’s smart.”
“Very,” Lane agreed.
“Are the models in danger?” Kierra asked.
Monica turned and gave her a sympathetic look. “No,” she said in the gentlest voice Kenny had ever heard from her. “Your roommate is perfectly safe.”
Kierra visibly relaxed. She turned to Kenny with a smile, “My best friend Maya has a channel on ChatBot.”
Kenny smiled faintly, his tongue felt heavy in his mouth.
“He knows,” Lane said over the rim of his coffee cup. “That’s why he’s here.” He took a sip, his eyes dancing with mirth.
Kenny’s eyes widened and his mouth fell open. Kierra’s head swiveled between the three of them as she searched for an explanation. Kenny wanted to punch Lane in his smiling face but since Monica would probably punch him in return, he tamped down on that impulse with clenched fists.
Monica was the one who answered. “When Stepanov put the hit out on you, we had to dig into every part of your life to figure out any potential security risks, just in case. That included your roommate.”
“You put my roommate under surveillance?” Kierra yelled, curiously, at Lane.
“We did not,” Monica said as she turned to Kenny. “Kenny was supposed to investigate Maya’s potential security risk, log it and move on. But you never moved on, did you, Kenny?”
Kenny’s entire body felt hot. He wanted to completely disappear. Just cease to exist. But that wasn’t going to happen. His chickens had finally come home to roost.
He’d always dismissed the warning at The Academy about getting too attached to surveillance subjects and assets, because he’d been so certain that he never would. The job was the job. But from the minute he’d logged into Maya’s public chatroom and seen her – she was laughing and taking selfies, while her viewers looked on – he’d been hooked; completely mesmerized. He watched her for two days officially, confirming fairly quickly that she had no idea what her roommate did for a living and was actually very strict about not communicating with clients about her personal life. The likelihood that she was a security risk Stepanov could exploit was very low. He filed his report and moved on to the next potential threat in Kierra’s file. But at home that night he’d sat at his desk with a cold bottle of beer and logged into cam model ThickaThanASnicka’s public chatroom. He was already a few yards down a slippery slope and teetering on the edge of no return. But he couldn’t make himself care.
For the past six months he’d been a regular viewer. At first he’d promised himself that he would just look, there was no harm in that. But then some asshole had been a dick to her, clogging up the chatroom with rude and derogatory comments and Kenny had cussed the guy out and reported his account for harassment before he could even register what he was doing.
Maya had thanked him, her face lighting up with a shy smile just for him, and he knew he was a goner. He’d started logging in every few days, deluding himself into thinking the way she bit her lip and grinned when she saw his screen name meant something more; or anything at all. Eventually he was logging in every day and he couldn’t have stopped the growing infatuation if he’d wanted; which he didn’t.
Sometimes he lied to himself that it had been innocent once. That he was just protecting Kierra and Monica, hell, even Lane. But that was bullshit. Logging into Maya’s chatroom was his most selfish act. It was the only time in the day where all of his other responsibilities fell away. He qui
ckly gathered all of his feelings of shame and worry and locked them away inside his chest and requested the first of many private sessions. He’d felt nothing but joy as he reached into his sweats, grasped his dick and stroked himself while she moved a bright pink dildo between her smooth thighs. Knowing that those smiles were actually – finally – just for him; that every time she touched herself was to please him. It was too late to save himself, so he didn’t try. For months he’d refused to think any further into the future than the next Thursday and the Thursday after that; to the next time he could have Maya all to himself again. In just a matter of days, Maya became the singular focus of his fantasies. No matter where he was in the world, no matter the danger he was in, he never missed a Thursday night.
But something had changed since Berlin. His brain was filled with foreboding that this would all blow up in his face and soon. And apparently he’d been right. He hadn’t expected his comeuppance to look quite like this. He’d assumed that the setting would be more memorable and – pathetically – that he’d be in a room with Maya, close enough to smell her perfume and, if she’d let him, touch her. Instead he was sitting in a boardroom watching the shrapnel of his career falling from the heights of his own hubris.
There really wasn’t a way to explain himself besides the truth. He’d already tried out every possible excuse – hoping to come clean to Maya at some point. So he knew that any explanation he came up with sounded like bullshit. There was no artful lie that could make sense of this mess. Kenny flinched as he locked eyes with Kierra, the fire in her stare was so at odds with her normally bubbly personality.
“I couldn’t help myself,” was all he could think to say, pathetically.
And then Lane laughed, actually fucking laughed like this wasn’t the worst thing that had ever happened to Kenny and his career wasn’t over before it really began.
“I know that feeling,” Lane said and took another sip of his coffee.
Kenny really wanted to punch him.
***
“Calm down, sweet girl,” Monica said in that gentle voice again.
“Pervert,” Kierra hissed at Kenny.
He wanted to point out that people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones and gesture broadly at the three of them, but he’d learned in Europe that Monica’s reaction to people hurting Kierra was to swiftly introduce them to her fist or worse. So he kept his mouth shut.
He turned to Monica, “Why approve my transfer if you’re just going to report me for fraternizing with an asset?” He tried to hide the hurt in his voice, but he wasn’t sure how well he did.
Lane snickered. “Who said we’re gonna report you?” He pulled a very angry Kierra into his lap.
“If you’re not going to report me, then why are you doing this?” Kenny pushed out of his chair and began to pace the length of the room.
“We’ve noticed something about the transactions,” Monica said, again as if this soap opera was just business as usual.
Kenny turned to see her move behind Lane’s chair and stroke Kierra’s hair lovingly. She was still mad, but Kierra melted under her touch. Kenny watched the scene and wanted to turn away because it felt even more intimate than the flirting and it opened a well of longing inside his chest.
He’d never had that, but he wanted it. His job, however, didn’t allow much time for a social life and he wasn’t interested in dating another spy. But most tragically, his image of an ideal girlfriend had been refined over the past few months to exactly one person. He wanted that kind of closeness with a very specific cam model, who laughed when she climaxed, read cozy mysteries and biographies, and who wouldn’t recognize him if he bumped into her on a city street.
“What about the transactions?” Kenny asked, tearing his eyes away from their tableau.
Monica seemed to have gotten lost in the moment and it took a second for her to regain her train of thought. “Joseph handles all of the negotiations personally.”
“What?” Kenny asked, shocked again. He couldn’t have heard that right.
“It’s dumb as hell,” Lane said.
“Why would he do that?”
Monica smiled a kind of feral smile that Kenny had seen before and it made him shiver in fear and awe. “Turns out Joseph chose ChatBot because he loves the site. It wasn’t a genius move to evade detection, just convenient. He’s in the chatrooms for hours most days, so why not get his rocks off and sell some illegal weapons at the same time?”
Kenny laughed at the beautiful absurdity of it all.
Monica continued, “Once we realized that, we went back and took a look at all of the cam model rooms he’d chosen and it looks like Joseph has a type.”
Kenny felt a shiver run down his spine.
“No,” Kierra said.
“Sorry, sweet girl. But Joseph likes Black women, the thicker the better. And your roommate is already on his radar.”
Kenny felt his blood run cold and he clenched his fists. “No,” he echoed Kierra in word and resolve.
“As far as we know, he hasn’t done any deals in her chatrooms yet. He’s only logged into her room a few times and for relatively short periods of time. But if she can get his attention we can use that. We can identify his buyers.”
“Is that the mission?” Kenny’s voice was hard, tight with anger. “Identify his contacts??”
“That’s phase one of the mission, yes,” Monica responded.
“What’s phase two?”
“There’s some evidence that if he really likes a girl, he’ll ask her to meet him in person,” Lane said.
Kierra jumped out of his lap, shaking her head.
“We’d like to bring Maya in as an asset and use her as a honey pot.”
“Don’t call it a honey pot,” Kenny hissed. “Don’t make it sound pretty. You want to use her as bait.”
“No,” Kierra said. “You can’t do that. I’m saying no. She has a brother and sister who need her. Her mother died and she’s all they have. She’s my best friend. I’m saying no.” She practically screamed that last word.
Kenny filed away that bit of personal information about Maya like the starving man he was and nodded his agreement. “I’m saying no, too,” he said.
Lane sighed and rose from his chair. “We realize that this might be scary for you two. But first of all, this isn’t your decision to make. And second of all, don’t you want to know why we actually brought you here?” He posed the question to Kenny like he knew the answer. Like he knew every thought Kenny had ever had about Maya while she touched herself and talked to him in that deep sultry voice that he loved.
Kenny squinted. “Why did you bring me here?”
Monica turned to Kierra. “Kierra’s moving in with us.”
Kierra scoffed, and Monica flinched, but she kept going. “And Maya is going to need a new roommate.”
***
Kenny tried to walk with sure steps out of the conference room, but his back was aching from the built-up tension of the last few minutes. He shut the boardroom door behind him harder than he planned, but the slam didn’t stop Kierra’s yelling. She probably hadn’t even noticed Kenny leave. The sound of her voice followed him down the hall.
He ended up back at the Command foyer and turned around in a circle. He didn’t know where his office was located. He had no idea where to go. He took the steps up to the pantry and burst through the kitchen at a run. He sped through the living room and out of the front door. His heart was pounding and there was a slight sheen of sweat on his forehead. He walked to his car and considered hopping inside; driving as far away from here as he could get. But he didn’t.
He pulled his phone from his front pocket and pulled up the ChatBot app.
There was a green light next to Maya’s avatar. His thumb hovered over it. He shouldn’t talk to her. Especially not now. But he knew that he would. Even just seeing her small picture had calmed his breathing.
When he logged into her chatroom, she noticed immediately.
Th
ickaThanASnicka
Hey stranger :D
MasquerAsiaN
Morning beautiful
ThickaThanASnicka
Is it morning where you are too?
His lips quirked. He considered for a moment blurting out the truth, telling her exactly who he was and begging for her forgiveness. But he didn’t. If Monica and Lane’s intel was correct, then doing that would probably blow any chance they had to intercept the Mehmeti family’s arms trade. But, as had been the case for months, his mission directive didn’t top the list of most important things in his head. He didn’t bare his soul for the simple fact that he couldn’t handle being the reason she was sad or angry. It was a selfish impulse. And he didn’t care.
MasquerAsiaN
I had a sudden urge to see your face.
Behind him the front door opened.
“Kenny,” Monica called.
ThickaThanASnicka
That’s so sweet! Just my face…? ;)
MasquerAsiaN
If I had time, I’d want to see all of you. But I have to go.
ThickaThanASnicka
So soon?
MasquerAsiaN
Sorry work…
ThickaThanASnicka
: ( okay. Have a good day sweetheart.
MasquerAsiaN
You too, beautiful.
“Kenny,” Monica called out to him again.
He slipped his phone back into his front pocket, took a deep breath and turned back to the house. He followed Monica through the pantry silently. Back in the conference room the mood between his new bosses and their PA was decidedly chillier than when he’d arrived less than an hour ago, fresh-faced and excited to start working under Monica’s tutelage. Back when he thought no one knew about his secret online relationship. He couldn’t believe so much had changed in so little time.
Now Kierra sat in a chair as far away from Monica and Lane as possible, sullen. Monica and Lane stood ramrod straight at the head of the room, their eyes on her. Their gazes were intense and maybe even mournful. Kenny stood off to the side, too anxious to sit back down.
Lane took a deep breath and tore his eyes from Kierra. “Change of plans. Kierra is going to stay in her apartment until we’ve caught Joseph.”
Private Eye Page 3
