by M. D. Cooper
She expected him to make a joke, but he didn’t.
“I don’t like this hiding stuff,” he said. “Staying off the grid, as you call it. It’s not a good feeling.”
She paused her research, knowing he wouldn’t mention it if it wasn’t really bothering him. “I don’t either. Not only is it wildly inconvenient, but it also makes me feel like a criminal or second-class citizen. I had enough of that when I was a kid.”
He nodded slowly. “Yeah, that’s the feeling. We haven’t done anything we weren’t supposed to do as part of our job. Why are we suddenly the ones in hiding? It has me wondering if I made the wrong choice in landing here.”
He’d worked his way through a number of star systems, looking for a place to settle down and call home. Was he thinking of moving on?
With surprise, Reece realized how much she disliked that idea. She’d only just gotten accustomed to the push and pull of having someone relying on her, but also having someone she could rely on. “It’s just a bad turn of events,” she assured him. “But we’ll figure it out and set things right.”
“You sure?”
There was no way for her to know that for certain, but he needed reassurance, so she said, decisively, “Yes. Of course.”
She couldn’t tell if he believed her or not, but he nodded. Maybe it was enough that she said it, even if it weren’t entirely certain.
His eyes lost focus, indicating he’d gone back to digging up what he could find on Carvel and Paul, the two contractors who had abducted Erving.
Poor Erving. Reece had barely spared his experience and feelings any thought. She didn’t know how he’d handle something like this. Though kidnapping could happen to anyone, it wasn’t a common occurrence for assistants.
Carvel and Paul looked to her like any low-level pair of people willing to do dirty work for others. They’d only become contractors to Pritney-Dax four months ago, which must have been a boon to them, but not enough to keep them from also picking up a security gig here or a creditor shakedown there. It was all smalltime stuff, though. Nothing linked them to anyone significant.
So smalltime contractors had gotten pulled in to keep a corporate executive assistant under wraps.
Why?
There was only one way to find out.
Reece waited until Trey’s eyes refocused on her and nodded.
“Let’s go,” he said.
She was ready.
* * * * *
They took a taxi to a back alley that led to the apartment. Reece hoped Erving was in good shape. She’d always thought of him as a sensitive, thoughtful kind of guy, and doubted he’d do well under abusive conditions.
The back entrance didn’t have cameras, but it did have a sturdy lock. However, it was an old, uncomplicated lock that Trey was able to simply break apart.
As much as she disliked augments on principle, they really did come in handy sometimes.
They slid inside the building and hurried up the stairwell.
Reece was in full assault mode when they got to the third floor, made two turns, and Trey smashed the door right in.
It felt pretty good to burst right in, Righty and Lefty in her hands, and demand, “Everyone on the ground!”
Yeah, pretty good indeed. Much better than all that waiting around stuff.
A man—the guard named Paul, though Reece wasn’t certain—lay on the floor. It appeared he’d dropped to his knees, then simply put his chest to the ground, because he’d stuck his ass straight up in the air. It was an odd choice, but sometimes people performed poorly under pressure.
Reece nodded to Trey and he stood guard over the man. She pushed further into the apartment, ready for someone to jump out at any second. But they didn’t.
She pushed open the door to the only bedroom.
Erving blinked up at her from a rocking chair. “Oh, hello. I was wondering when you’d get here.”
* * * * *
“So you expected me to come?” Reece asked.
They’d secured the guard and Trey watched the entry in case someone else arrived. Meanwhile, Reece talked to Erving within earshot of Trey. Not a difficult thing to ensure, since the apartment was economy-sized.
“Of course. You expected me to meet you, and suspicious events had already begun to unfold. I figured it would only be a matter of time until you found me.” Erving seemed fine. Calm. Unharmed.
His confidence in her might be a little bit too high, but since that might benefit her in the future, she chose not to address it.
Reece said, “What information can you give me? Most important things first.”
Erving paused for a moment, then said, “I believe I was taken as leverage against Schramm. I’m not sure why. My captors know he’s missing, but don’t seem to know his location. I think it means that either they’re not working for whoever took Schramm, or Schramm disappeared on his own.”
“Do you have any idea why he’d do that?” she asked.
“I have a couple of theories.”
Those theories would wait until later. Reece had to deal with the immediate situation first. Plus, she didn’t want the person they’d captured listening to that conversation.
“What about that guy?” She jerked a thumb over her shoulder, in the man’s direction.
“I’ve been treated well, other than being forced to stay here and not have any outside contact.” He pointed to a collar-style necklace he wore. “This blocks me from using the Link. They slapped it on me immediately.”
She nodded. “I figured they had you blocked. Otherwise, I’d have heard from you. Unless you were in on it all, of course.”
Erving’s eyes widened and he started to speak, but Reece cut him off.
“It was an outside possibility. I didn’t think it was true.”
Erving closed his mouth and nodded, mollified.
Reece continued, “Any idea who wanted you locked down? Who the three captors are working for?”
“The name Boyce slipped out of them twice. It’s an unusual name, so I believe it refers to a mid-level exec at Pitney-Dax.”
That lined up with the information Apolla had given Reece and Trey.
“What do you know about this Boyce?” she asked. “Does he have a reason to want you out of the picture? Or to have a grudge against Schramm?”
“On the contrary. Boyce Greenley has worked closely with Schramm in the past. They went to school together.”
Reece frowned. She hadn’t expected that answer. “Could they be friends? I mean, as much as execs can be friends with other execs.”
Erving nodded. “I believe they’re at least on friendly terms.”
That put a new spin on things. She had a passing familiarity with Boyce Greenley, and given what she knew of him, she could imagine a friendly relationship between him and Schramm.
“Are we going to leave this place?” Erving asked. “I’m sure my mother is very worried.”
“Not yet,” Reece said. “We’ve walked into the middle of something, and I don’t want to mix things up until I have a better picture of things.”
“What, then?”
“I’m going to contact Boyce Greenley and invite him over here for a chat. He may be the connection we need to make things start falling into place.”
* * * * *
Two hours later, Boyce arrived. The woman who had been guarding Erving had also arrived for her shift. That meant that the small apartment was now crammed with six people, which was a bit much for the tight space.
Trey stood with his back to the door, which Reece thought was a good space saver, while also ensuring that no one tried to make a break for it—it was also necessary to keep the door in place as he’d broken the upper hinge when he’d kicked it in.
She, Erving, and Boyce sat compliantly, leaving the two low-level emp
loyees to sit on the floor, looking uneasy.
Reece didn’t blame them for looking uncomfortable. They’d failed in one of their primary duties—not getting caught. Depending on how Boyce viewed the situation, this could end very badly for them.
“I’ll get straight to the point,” Reece said. “Because frankly, I’m tired of being in the dark and tired of waiting around. It appears that we all know that Schramm Matthews has gone missing. Meanwhile, you’ve imprisoned Schramm’s assistant. And yet Erving here believes you’re not responsible for Schramm’s disappearance. I, however, am not so sure.”
Boyce nodded to her. “I understand your distrust. If I were in your place, I’d feel the same way. But if you look at the facts, you’ll see that it makes no sense for me to have had Schramm abducted. There’s no way for me to benefit from it, since we work for rival corporations. Unless you think I’d go for a tawdry kidnap-for-ransom scenario, which would be breathtakingly stupid, considering my career track. I’ll be an upper level management within three years. Why would I risk that when the golden apple is within my reach?”
Reece shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“I wouldn’t. Like I said, there’s nothing to gain, long term, and much to lose.”
Trey spoke up, arms crossed over his chest looking terribly imposing. “So why kidnap Erving here? Were you hoping to blackmail Schramm with him? There are few worse things to do to an exec than making a personal assistant disappear.”
“Not a bad theory,” Boyce said. “But Schramm and I are on good terms. He and I can negotiate, and that makes us allies, not rivals. I would never kill that relationship by committing such an act.”
“Then what?” Trey asked.
“I’m protecting Erving. Surprised?” Boyce’s mouth turned up into a small smile.
Trey and Reece exchanged a look. As odd at it seemed for Boyce to protect Erving, it had a certain ring of truth.
“Why?” Reece asked.
“Because just as you had homed in on him, so had others. From my company and the other three. Nothing good was going to happen.” Boyce’s expression turned grim.
“Why not just tell me that, then?” Erving demanded, looking annoyed.
Boyce looked at him. “If I had said, ‘You’re in danger, come with me if you want to live, because I can provide you with a place to hide and people to guard you’ would you have believed me? Or would you have assumed I was planning to make you disappear?”
Erving admitted, “I’d have thought you had a bullseye on my face.” He straightened. “You mean these people were looking out for me and keeping me away from the people you mentioned?”
“Yep. They were under orders to get you secured, by any means necessary. And to keep you secured, because I suspected that if you found out—even after the fact—that you weren’t actually a captive, you’d insist on contacting people or doing something that would expose you.”
Erving’s guilty expression confirmed Boyce’s suspicion.
Trey rubbed his forehead. “This is getting convoluted. Okay. So you know Schramm is missing. You have some suspicions as to why. You protected Erving, through devious but effective means. So, who has Schramm?”
Boyce hesitated. “I’m not certain of this, but I suspect no one does. I think he’s gone into hiding on his own.”
That didn’t sound right. “Why would he go into hiding without telling me?” Reece demanded.
“Two possibilities,” Boyce said. “Either he’s protecting you, or he wants you to come looking for him.”
Reece rubbed her face with her hands. Trey was right. This was getting convoluted, all this chess-game gambit stuff. Move and countermove. Why did it have to be so complicated? She much preferred a good point-and-shoot scenario.
She needed to distill all of this into a plan of action. “Okay. So, if he wants me to find him, it should be fairly easy, because he’d have left clues. And if he’s trying to protect me, he’d have done the exact opposite. Either way, we need to start looking for him. So where do we start?”
* * * * *
Boyce hadn’t stayed long enough for their meeting, in Reece’s opinion. However, for him, it was the beginning of the workday and he had to continue as if nothing were amiss.
Erving had agreed to remain, and to avoid contacting anyone. Meanwhile, Reece and Trey had some time to process the situation and change tactics.
She wished she could visit the Ringtoad. Reece did some of her best thinking bellied up to the bar with a whiskey in her hand. Such a public venue involved more risk than she wanted to take, though. They needed to stay out of sight—not to mention painting a target on Kippy’s head was not the sort of thing that friends—or whatever they were now—did to one another.
That left her back at the safehouse, getting her head around the situation.
First question: Did Schramm want her to find him, or was he protecting her?
If he had intentionally left a trail for her to follow, she hadn’t found it yet. Not by accident and not by searching for the rest of that day. Nothing stood out to her. No clues, no possibilities to follow up on.
It seemed unlikely he’d make it so hard if he wanted her to figure it out.
Second question: Assuming he was trying to protect her by concealing his whereabouts, how would he go about that?
He’d go somewhere she wouldn’t think of. Somewhere that couldn’t be easily researched.
Where?
That was the question that stumped her. Schramm was too smart to use his accounts, so she couldn’t trace that. He’d have told no one but Erving about a retreat or hideaway, and Erving sure didn’t know of one.
Schramm would have to get money from somewhere, though. Travel, food, and other essentials were unavoidable. He’d have to pay for them somehow.
One of Reece’s more powerful methods of working as a fixer was tracking where money went, or where it came from. It almost always provided illuminating answers.
Okay, then. How to find the hidden money source of a hidden person, when she had no associated transactions?
Reece needed more.
She didn’t have more.
“Ugh.”
Lying down on the bed, she put her hands over her eyes. There was no trail. Nothing to follow.
Wait. Reece sat upright. If she couldn’t find Schramm, then she had to make him want to reach out to her.
But how?
An idea formed in her brain and she laughed. Yep. That’d do it. Schramm would be sure to notice it, too—wherever he was.
It would work. She was sure of it.
* * * * *
“Are you sure, honey? It seems like the last kind of attention you want to have. Once I sound the alarm, there’s no taking it back.” Aunt Ruth sounded anxious over the audible call connection.
“I’m sure,” Reece promised. “If you report me as a missing person, that will put some things into motion that I need to happen.”
Schramm would surely notice, and realize she’d gotten caught up in what was happening with him. He’d reach out.
“Plus,” Reece added, “it lends credence to the idea that you don’t know where I am.”
“I don’t know where you are,” Aunt Ruth pointed out.
“Which is also good.”
“Okay. If you’re sure, I’ll do it right away.”
“Good.” Reece wished she didn’t have to worry her aunt. “I’m sorry about all this. Are you doing okay?”
“Fine. We’re all just fine. Dex and Rio miss you, but Kippy and I are keeping them busy.”
“Wait, do you have Dex at your house?” Reece asked.
“Yes, the poor thing gets too anxious when he’s left alone for long, so I had Kippy bring him over. And Kippy visits frequently.”
“That’s good. I hope I’ll be able to come home soon. I have to get some things worked out first, though.” Reece didn’t want to underscore just how serious the situation was, but her aunt wasn’t dumb. Aunt Ruth would know the
situation had to be significant if Reece wanted to be reported as missing.
“Just do what you need to do, sweetie. I’ll be here when you get home just like always.”
“Thanks, Aunt Ruth. You’re the best.”
“I sure am. Love you, kiddo.”
Reece smiled. “Love you, too.”
The connection closed, and Reece felt unexpectedly melancholy.
At least things had been put into motion. Schramm would reach out once he saw she was listed as missing.
Unless he was dead. Or somehow involved in something.
No, he’d reach out.
He had to.
INCOMMUNICADO
DATE: 05.27.8948 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Tommy’s Safehouse, Near Ohiyo, Akonwara
REGION: Machete System, PED 4B, Orion Freedom Alliance
For a full day, Reece had been officially missing—and she hadn’t heard from Schramm.
If he was alive, and able to check the Link, he’d have found out about it almost immediately. He had customized alerts for notices about people who had close contact with him. There was no way he’d miss it.
A terrible feeling started to grow inside her as she roamed around the safehouse. What if Schramm were dead? Or comatose? Or simply imprisoned and cut off from Link access?
She’d never find him.
Further, if he was dead, and Rexcare was also after Reece, it didn’t bode well.
A knock at her room door—which she’d left ajar—snapped her out of her reverie.
“Come in.”
Trey edged in cautiously. “You’ve been quiet.”
“I’ve been trying to think us out of this. I haven’t been very successful. I’m starting to believe we’ve got no avenues left to follow.”
Trey sat on the edge of her bed, and his weight made it shift beneath Reece. “I’m reluctant to suggest it, but I think it may be time to get out of Machete,” he said soberly. “Go someplace where just going out in public won’t be a risk. We really don’t have a fighting chance here, long term.”
