by David Archer
He sighed. “Yeah,” he said. “Take a right at the next light.”
Steve followed Pete’s directions and ended up in a residential area of Daly City, just south of San Francisco. The houses were all so close together that they were almost touching, and Steve couldn't tell one from another if his life depended on it, but Pete pointed out one of them and told him to stop there.
“Come on,” he said. “This is my sister’s place. She’s about the only person in the world I trust right now.”
Summer and Jade opened the back doors and Pete got out with them. Steve and Walter also got out of the car, but Pete motioned for them to wait. “Cindy is not too fond of men she don’t know,” he said. “You guys better wait here while I explain to her what’s going on.” He started walking toward the front door, then motioned for the two women to follow him.
The door opened before they got to it, and the woman who stood there came as a complete surprise to Summer and Jade. They had been expecting an Asian woman, but a tall black girl stood there staring at the two of them.
“Pete?” she asked. “What you doing, bringing people up in my house?”
“Chill, Cindy,” he said. “If it wasn't necessary, you know I wouldn't do it. Cindy, this is…” He trailed off and looked at Summer and Jade. “Hey, you haven’t even told me your names yet.”
Summer smiled at Cindy. “I’m Summer,” she said, “and this is Jade. Pete’s been trying to help us out, and he actually saved our lives a little while ago.”
Cindy looked at Pete. “What the hell is going on? Why she got blood all over her?”
“Because somebody tried to shoot us all, but we ducked. We made it into the sewers and got out of there, but she’s been hit and needs to clean it up, and we all stink and need to get some clean clothes. Now, can we come inside?”
“What this looks like, the Salvation Army? And who those guys out there by the car?”
“Those are friends of ours,” Jade said. “They’ll wait out there. Please, we need to see how badly my friend is wounded.”
Cindy scowled and shook her head, but then she stepped aside and held the door open for them. Pete went in first, with Summer and Jade following, and he led them to the bathroom. “You girls go first,” he said. “I’ll find you something to wear.”
Jade looked at Cindy, then turned back to Pete. “I don’t think she’s going to have anything about that will fit either of us,” she said.
He chuckled. “Don’t worry,” he said. “While this might not be the Salvation Army, Cindy runs the clothing bank for her church. I can find you something to wear, just go ahead and get her checked out.”
“Just hold on a minute,” Cindy said, still scowling. She stepped into another room and came back a moment later holding a first aid kit. She shoved it at Jade and then pushed both women into the bathroom.
Jade shut the door behind them while Summer removed her sweater. She was only wearing a bra underneath, and Jade’s eyes went wide when she saw that there was a hole in the left breast. She leaned around to look better and saw that there was a second hole. The bullet had passed right through Summer’s left breast.
“Grazed, my ass,” she said. “That’s going to have to be cleaned out. The bullet went through, which means there’s bits of your sweater and your bra in there.”
“Hell, I know how to clean a wound. See if there’s any Q-tips in the first aid kit, and maybe some alcohol.”
Jade stared at her and shook her head, but she set the first aid kit on the vanity and opened it. “No alcohol,” she said. “There’s triple antibiotic ointment.”
“Look—ah,” she winced, “look under the sink, would you? I’d really like to clean it, first.”
Jade bent down and opened the cabinet door, then fumbled around with the things she found inside for a moment. “Got it,” she said after a few seconds, and stood up with a bottle of rubbing alcohol in her hand. “This stuff?”
“That’ll work,” Summer said. She took the bottle and removed its cap, set it on the counter and then took off her bra. She carefully held her left breast in her left hand, then picked up the alcohol and poured it directly into the wound.
She set the bottle down quickly, and then began jumping up and down. “Son of a bitch,” she said. “Damn, that burns!” She hopped from one foot to the other for several seconds, then picked up the bottle and did it again.
When the impromptu dance finally settled down, she took the antibiotic ointment and squeezed it into the wounds on both sides of her breast, then used a Q-tip to push it all the way through, muttering curses through her clenched teeth as she did so. When she finished, the wounds were bleeding again, so she applied one of the large Band-Aids in the first aid kit to each side. “That’s going to be sore for a few days,” she said.
Jade was staring at her, her own eyes wide. “I don’t believe you,” she said. “There is no way in hell I could ever do that. Not to myself, anyway.”
“You’d be surprised what you can do when you have to,” Summer said. “That’s not the first time I've had to clean my own wounds.” She unfastened her jeans and shoved them down her legs, pointing at a round white scar on her upper thigh. “That one happened in Afghanistan,” she said. “I was on the security detail for some politician and ISIS tried to take him out. I took a bullet for the asshole, and all I got was a Purple Heart. We were away from the rear, so I had to clean and bandage it myself.”
There was a knock on the bathroom door. Summer hid behind it while Jade opened it partway, and Pete pushed a big pile of clothes in to her.
“I brought several things,” he said. “It may not be new, but it’s all clean. Cindy washes everything that comes in.”
“We’ll manage,” Jade said. She closed the door and set the clothing on the lid of the toilet. “It doesn’t look too bad,” she said.
“I’m not that picky,” Summer replied. “I’m going to get a quick shower. It may be all in my head, but I swear I can still smell the sewers all over me.”
“It's not in your head. I think we both must have brushed up against the wall or something.”
Summer turned on the shower and got the water warm, then got inside and found a bottle of shampoo. She ducked her head under the spray and got her hair wet, then lathered it and scrubbed her head, leaving the shampoo lather in place while she washed the rest of her body with a bar of soap. When she rinsed off, she pulled the shower curtain aside to look for a towel, and found Jade holding one out to her. She dried her hair the best she could with it, then wiped down the rest of her body as she got out of the shower.
She had left the water running, so Jade took her place instantly. Summer continued to dry herself off and then began looking at the clothes Pete had brought them.
He had actually done a decent job of selecting clothes. Summer found a couple of bras and chose one that was a size too big, but she drew the line at used panties. Hers were still clean enough, and she put them back on. There were a couple of pairs of jeans in the stack and one of them fit her perfectly, and she completed her ensemble with a rather nice peasant blouse. A glance in the mirror told her that she looked like a throwback to the seventies, but this was California. That look never went entirely out of style in California. She transferred everything from her pockets to the new pants.
The water in the shower cut off, and Jade accepted the towel Summer offered. It took her only a few minutes to dry off and choose an outfit for herself, and then they each took a moment to wipe off their shoes. That seemed to get rid of most of the odor, and they stepped out of the bathroom holding their dirty clothes out away from themselves. Pete, holding clothes for himself, pushed into the bathroom as soon as they were out.
Cindy was standing in the hallway and holding an empty trash bag. “I thought you might need this,” she said, and they gratefully dropped their clothes inside. Jade squeezed the air out and rolled it up, then tied it shut.
“We greatly appreciate this,” Summer said. She reached int
o her pocket and came out with a hundred dollar bill, then offered it to Cindy. “Pete said these clothes were actually for your church,” she said. “I hope this will cover them.”
“Cover them? Honey, that would buy out everything I've got. You ain’t got to give me that.”
“Thanks, but I want to. You didn’t have to help us, either, but you did. We do appreciate it.”
Cindy took the money and shoved it into her own pocket. “Well, thank you,” she said. “Now, Pete been telling me what’s going on. You ain’t fixing to get my brother killed, are you?”
“We certainly hope not,” Jade said. “If you don’t mind me asking, is he really your brother?”
Cindy smiled. “Darn right he is,” she said. “Foster brother. We were in foster care together, spent eight years in the same foster homes. When I was about ten, one of the men decided I was exactly what he wanted, and Pete beat him off me with a ball bat. He weren’t but nine at the time, but he broke that sucker’s leg, and then he refused to back down until they moved us to a new home. He couldn't be more my brother if we was Siamese twins.”
Summer grinned. “Seems like he makes a habit of coming to the rescue,” she said. “Cindy, we may have to put him in hiding for a while, like in witness protection. It may be some time before you see him again. Are you going to be in any danger over this?”
“Oh, hell, no,” she said. “We know all about Fei in this neighborhood. Them China boys come down here, things don’t go so good for them. They ain’t gonna bother me.”
Pete came out of the bathroom a few minutes later and gave Cindy a hug. “I don’t know how long I’ll be gone,” he said, “but I’ll be back when I can. You can bet on that.”
“You just be safe,” she said. “You need anything, you know how to get hold of me.”
Cindy pulled a business card for the church clothing bank out of her pocket and handed it to Summer. “Same to you,” she said. “You take care of my brother, I’ll do anything I can for you.”
Summer and Jade thanked her one more time, and the three of them left the house. Steve and Walter were sitting in the car, and started it up as they climbed into the back seat again.
“I got somebody to go to the hotel and get our things,” Steve said. “We’re being moved to another one, but nobody will say where over the phone. Oh, and they want to know where your car is.”
“We’ll take care of that when we get back there,” Summer said. “Come on, old man, let’s go. I want to get Pete somewhere I can properly interrogate him.”
Steve looked at her in the rear view mirror again. “Poor kid,” he said.
Summer stuck her tongue out at him. “No, not that way,” she said. “The normal way.”
Pete was looking from one of them to the other, his eyes moving as if he were following a tennis match. “Guys? What am I missing, here?”
“Everything,” Steve said. “And you don’t want to know.”
“First things first,” Jade said. “One way or another, we’ve got to deal with the police over the shooting. There were people shot, and the police will be all over the security video. They’ll know we were there; if we don’t go in, there’ll be warrants out for us.”
Pete huffed. “Fine. Then we don’t call them, we go in. Mission station. They’re the only ones Fei don’t have somebody inside.”
Summer looked at Steve in the mirror. “You heard the man,” she said. “Let’s go.”
Steve rolled his eyes and put the car in gear while Jade got directions on her phone. Fifteen minutes later, Steve and Walter waited in the car again while she, Summer, and Pete walked into the station and straight to the front counter.
“Help you?” asked a desk officer.
“Yes,” Jade said, showing her ID. “We escaped an attempt on our lives at the Hurricane Bar a little while ago, and thought we ought to come and talk to you nice folks.”
The officer stared at her for a moment, then picked up a phone and dialed a number. Moments later, their IDs were collected, and they were escorted into a room and told to wait. They sat around a table, and were joined a minute later by a man and a woman.
“I’m Detective Lincoln,” the woman said, “and this is Detective Vincenzo. You were at the shooting at the Hurricane?”
“Yes,” Jade said. “We were almost certainly the targets, and if it hadn’t been for the quick thinking of our friend, here,” she indicated Pete, “we’d be dead. He took us out through the sewers and we called for a ride to come here.”
Lincoln looked at her, then at Summer and Pete. “That shooting happened almost an hour ago. Why are you just now getting here?”
“Have you ever walked through the sewers and tried to find a way out?” Pete asked. He had insisted they not involve Cindy, and the women had agreed. “It takes a while. We came out through the grates near Market and Seventh, and this was the closest station.”
“And you managed to stay clean?” Vincenzo asked. “Last time I was in the sewers, it was pretty nasty.”
Pete shrugged. “We’re lucky, I guess.”
“Can we get back on the point?” Summer demanded. “We’re working on the CerebroLink prototype theft, and we were following up a lead. We’d been asking around Chinatown, and someone told us to meet them at the Hurricane. We hadn’t been there ten minutes when Pete noticed a pretty little red dot on my chest, and we dived to the floor as the shooting started. Was anyone hurt?”
Lincoln scowled at her. “We’ve got one dead, eight wounded. One of those is critical. Detectives over there were thinking the dead guy was the target, since he’s got some pretty serious OC connections. What makes you think they were after you?”
“Because we’d been warned that someone named Fei had put out the word that no one was to talk to us, and anyone who did would be killed. We were supposed to be meeting someone at the bar, but instead we got lasers aimed at us.”
Lincoln looked at Pete. “Pei To Cho,” she said. “You seem to be around the edges of a lot of things, lately. Why are you going by Pete?”
“It's a nickname,” he said sarcastically. “Initials P.T.? Somebody thought Pete was easier, and it stuck.”
“What do you know about all this? Why are you with these investigators?” The last word held a hint of sarcasm.
Pete winked at her. “Because they’re hot, and I like hot babes. We were just talking when I saw the laser and then I just wanted out of there. Seemed like taking them with me was a good idea, kinda the ‘gentlemanly’ thing to do, right?”
The interrogation went on for almost an hour, and got heated when Jade made it clear that she couldn't reveal any details about their case. However, as far as the shooting was concerned, they were only considered witnesses, rather than targets, because no one else could corroborate their stories. Since they had come in voluntarily and given their statements, there was no reason to hold them.
“Don’t leave San Fran without letting us know,” Lincoln said as they were released. “We may have more questions before this is over.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Summer said. They got their IDs back and left the building. Steve was asleep in the car, but Walter was playing a complicated mathematical game on his phone when they got there. Summer leaned in through the driver’s window and kissed Steve on the nose three times before he woke up, swatting at what he thought was a fly.
Forty-five minutes later, the five of them sat down in an extra conference room at C-Link’s headquarters building. Pete was sitting between the two women on one side of a table, while Steve and Walter sat on the other side, facing them.
“Okay,” Jade said. “Tell us about this leverage you were talking about. You’re safe, and we’ll keep you that way. Now it’s your turn to give us something.”
He grinned. “Okay, so here’s the deal. I’m gonna guess you all know what that chip is for, right? I mean, you know it goes inside your head, right?”
“Yes, we know,” Summer said. “The question is, how do you know that? Th
at’s supposed to be a big secret.”
“It's all over the street. It's some kind of super chip that goes in your head and turns you into a walking, talking computer. I don’t know if that’s really true or not, but that’s what everybody in Chinatown believes. Now, the way I understand it, there’s only a few doctors in the world who can do this particular operation to put it in there, and the main one is dead. Whoever got the chip also needs a doctor who can do the deed, and that’s who they’re waiting for now.”
“Wait a minute,” Jade said. “You mean they’re trying to find a doctor who can actually implant the chip into someone now?”
Pete gave her a smug grin. “Every headhunter in the city is trying to find a brain surgeon,” he said. “If you don’t believe me, look at all the employment websites for doctors and such. There’s probably a hundred ads for a brain surgeon, and they have to come to San Francisco. You tell me, wouldn’t that be an awfully big coincidence?”
“Big? More like astronomical.” Summer turned to Walter. “Walter? What do you think about this?”
Walter sat perfectly still for several seconds, his eyes locked on hers the entire time, but she was quite certain that he wasn't seeing her at all. Walter Rawlins was seeing something far away, probably both in space and time.
“Williamson wouldn’t,” Walter said. “They need another doctor because Williamson wouldn’t do it, and that’s probably why they really killed him. They didn’t get the chip to sell it. Somebody wants it in his head.”
Summer, Jade, and Steve all looked at one another. “Who the hell,” Steve began, “could afford to spend a hundred million dollars that easily, just to get something he wanted?”
“I can think of a few people,” Summer said. “Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Donald Trump, that old guy who tells everybody else how to invest their money—no, wait, did he die?”
“No, he’s alive,” Walter said.
“Okay, so there might be a few billionaires around who could do it,” Jade said, “but why would they? I mean, what could it really do for one of them? We all saw Joel, back at HQ. He might have a little better internet connection than anyone else, but there really wasn't anything all that special about him. Why would anybody want to go to such ridiculous lengths to be able to google something from inside their heads?”
