by JT Kalnay
Bill had mentioned something about some equipment as a signing bonus, but a brand new SPARC 10, multiprocessing workstation?
"I'll have more computing power in my room than most small businesses and colleges have,” Jay murmured.
"What?" the doorman asked. Though he looked like he could handle himself, the sturdy front desk man was sweating and huffing with the effort of lifting the boxes. Jay fished around in his pockets and stealthily pulled a ten dollar bill out. The two men pushed to cart to the service elevator. Jay noted the key the doorman used to open the door.
"One of those might come in handy for when I go running,” he said.
"Sorry,” the doorman answered. The two men looked at each other for a minute. The little power that the guard had was wielded effectively and ruthlessly. Residents always wanted the service elevator key, he never gave it.
"I'll take it from here okay,” Jay offered, the ten dollar bill in his outstretched hand.
"Sure,” the older man said, pocketing the bill.
"Just leave the elevator door open on your floor and bring the cart back when you're done.”
"No problem,” Jay said. He worked the elevator and moved the boxes to his apartment and returned the cart then returned to his apartment. A flurry of boxes and plastic and Styrofoam packing material and bubble wrap flew through the air as Jay unwrapped and organized. He immediately began to set things up. Hours later, when he had his new machine set up and had a graphics demonstration program running, the phone rang.
"Hey. Where the hell are you?" Bill Beck shouted over the bar noise.
"I got the machine. It's great. I was just setting it up,” Jay answered.
"Shoulda known. Well quit playing and get the hell over here,” Bill ordered. Jay looked at his watch. It was eight thirty. He'd been working with the computer for four hours. It was like that with him. When he focused on a problem, minutes and hours and sometimes months would slip away without his being aware of the passing of time. There was just him and the problem and whatever was necessary to keep him working. Food and sleep became ritual annoyances only to be tolerated long enough to keep the machine running. Human company became mostly unnecessary.
Jay pulled himself away from the new computer.
"I'll be there in half an hour,” Jay said.
As Jay was getting up, he heard his computer make the distinctive "EMAIL ARRIVED" sound. Jay sat back down to see who had found him on the Internet already.
"Well I'll be damned,” Jay said. He saw that his student, C. Daniel Kinchon, from Peowee Valley Kentucky, had found him and sent him an email message. Jay typed up a quick 'thanks, keep in touch, no time to talk now' message and sent it back. Jay clicked off the computer before he could get distracted again.
“I didn’t see what was on his screen. Did you?”
“No. Once we know he’s at the bar, let’s have a look. We’re supposed to see what’s on his screen on our screen.”
Chapter
"Jay, over here,” Bill Beck called out as he waved to Jay Calloway. Jay worked his way through the crowded room to where Bill was seated at the head of several tables that had been pushed together. Jay noted the large number of empty beer pitchers and remnants of chicken wings from an entire flock of birds.
Jay settled in after the introductions were made all around. The talk was the regular after work bar talk. Work, sports, tits, and ass. Jay downed a beer and mixed with the new crowd. One of the guys, Ted Spencer, regaled the group with a story about his latest conquest. As the clock ticked later the married guys drifted off and the crowd thinned a bit and some of the tables were reclaimed by other drinkers, other groups. A threesome of well-dressed young women drinking daiquiris moved in next to Jay and the remaining guys from work. Before he knew it, they were all mixed in together, talking in the way and about the things young men and women always do.
Ted Spencer paired off with a hot looking blonde girl. Jay found himself next to a small, darkly tanned woman. She said her name was ‘Maria’ and that she was a salesperson in a small gallery in Soho.
"So do you live around here?" Maria asked.
"Yeah, just down and over a few blocks,” he answered. “In Battery Park.”
"Do you want another beer?" she asked. She had to lean closer to him to be heard over the rowdy bar crowd. Jay noticed the way her blouse hung open when she leaned near him. He found his eyes roaming from her face down her low cut top to her lacy black bra. A small shake passed through Jay's body and he felt his dormant parts starting to recall their intended purpose. There was a strange tightness in his throat.
"Okay, one last one then I've gotta go,” Jay said. Maria had plans. She slid her chair right up beside his. She laid her hand gently on his thigh, placed her lips softly against his ear, worked her tongue very gently in his ear as she spoke in a husky, sensual breath.
“Buy me another drink and I'll need a little while before I can drive home. Maybe we'll go back to your place for some coffee.” Her hand tightened on his thigh. Jay, the somewhat naive though hardly innocent Midwesterner realized he might get laid. They ordered and drank quickly.
"Hey buddy, if you need a place, I've got a little love nest on the Upper East Side,” Ted Spencer said in a not-so-conspiratorial whisper to Jay. “Not even my wife knows where it is.”
Jay declined the offer.
Jay and Maria finished their drinks and left the bar. Through the suddenly sultry evening they walked the few blocks to Jay's place. The doorman gave Jay a sly wink as they passed him by on their way to the elevator.
"What's all this stuff?" she asked, looking at the piles of computer equipment and recently emptied cartons arranged around the apartment.
"Who cares?" Jay said lasciviously. He was on his turf now. His previously comatose but now fully aroused parts had no current interest in computers. He was focused entirely on the exotic woman whose scent now dominated the small room. Thus, he didn’t notice that the computer had an additional icon on its screen and that the chair wasn’t exactly where he’d left it.
"Yeah right,” Maria answered. She noticed the new tone in his voice, the urgency, the need. She too instantly forgot about the computers and walked over to Jay. She put her arms around him, sliding her hands down to his butt and giving him a gentle squeeze. "Do you like that?" she breathed into his ear.
"Uh huh,” Jay gasped. He hugged her tightly, thrusting himself against her. He moved in and out, the friction between them driving him crazy. His excitement grew. He began walking her backwards, towards the bedroom.
"Where are we going?" she asked, teasing him. He didn't answer. He kept walking her and kissing her and working his hands on her back, her shoulders, her ass. They tumbled onto the rumpled queen sized bed.
They kissed and touched and before Jay could make his next move Maria reached down and tugged at his belt, her hand brushing against the mound in his Dockers.
"Oh my God,” Jay moaned. His eyes rolled back in his head and he flopped over on his back. Maria worked his belt off and removed his shoes and tugged off his jeans and shorts. The urgency was increasing, the clothes were coming off faster. Jay's breath came in short gasps. He pulled off his shirt and began to sit up, meaning to undress her but in a split second she was on top of him.
She grabbed him in her tanned hand and began to work her warm soft palm up and down. Jay writhed beneath her touch. He was powerless to do anything but enjoy.
"Oh God, Oh God. I'm going to blow,” he panted. She stopped. She looked in his eyes. She licked her deep red lips and lowered her head down towards him. She smiled a sly snarling smile and greedily took him in her mouth. She rocked up and down with her lips tight around him, her hand tensing and releasing, driving him around the bend. Jay arched his hips, the muscles in his stomach clenched, his ass quivered. Jay uttered a guttural, primordial scream as he released.
Maria smiled. She looked up at him and saw him nearly ready to faint with post-come exhaustion. She slapped his haunches, hard.<
br />
"Oh no! You're not going to sleep yet,” she said. She raised up her diminutive form, towering over him where he lay. She pulled off her blouse and draped it across his chest. She removed her bra and dropped it on his face, pulling it back and forth under his nose so he could smell her musk. Her scent on the flimsy clothing aroused a primitive instinct in him. She worked out of her painted on pants and hovered over him. She was open and he could see she was ready to take him. He arched his hips, trying to reach into that soft, warm escape of pleasure.
"Let's take a shower,” she ordered. She stepped down off the bed and pulled him towards the small shower stall. There was just enough room for the both of them to stand pressed together. She turned the water on so that it was lukewarm, stinging and refreshing. Jay was coming back to life. He pulled the soap from the dish and started to lather her glistening naked body. His hands worked over her breasts. The round, firm mounds yielding to his press.
Her supple nipples leapt to attention, her head fell back in pleasure and anticipation. Slowly, ever so slowly, Jay moved his slithery hands down her sleek tummy. He reached his hands around her and held her heaving chest with one hand while he parted her tangles with his free hand. A tiny moan escaped Maria's mouth.
He thought about her lips on his dick and worked his fingers inside her. She grabbed his hand and pulled it out of her and guided his middle finger onto her most tender spot. Jay wasn't certain exactly what to do.
She started working his finger in little circles. First around one way, then around the other, with just the slightest pressure. After a minute she left him to his own patterns, flopping her head back against him in pleasure. He flicked and prodded and gently pushed and rocked his finger back and forth. The water and soap made her so slippery to his touch. Jay moved his hand faster and faster, now back and forth, now in circles. Maria was raising onto her toes, being racked with convulsions. Jay had never seen a woman this way, he didn't even know they could feel this way. Her excitement was infectious. He hardened again, firm against her ass.
He wanted to throw her down on the bed and pump and rock until he blew again and then sleep until noon. But she forced his hand back against her mound. He kept working it. She kept shaking and shivering and rising up on her toes and wiggling her ass against him until she wailed out loud in shrieking animal pleasure as the last of several ever larger orgasms washed over her in an exquisite climax. Her body slumped back against him, her hand finally releasing his.
"Now you can have me,” she whispered. The words came out heavy and sensual and tired. Jay didn't need to be told twice. He helped the weakened Maria into the bed where she lay on her wet back, half unconscious from the shower. She spread her legs and guided him deep inside her. He started slow but quickly abandoned the easy rhythm. The urgency was on him.
They worked together, picking up the rhythm until the bed shook and the lamp on the bedside table rocked and fell to the floor. At last Jay could feel the incredible welling pressure again. At that very instant it seemed that Maria's insides ran liquid on him. It was running out of her, dripping off his dick, soaking the sheets between her legs.
He came in a massive convulsive fit. His entire body tensed in giant spasms, throwing him back and forth across the bed. He hadn’t even known a man could come twice in one night.
They lay there, exhausted, sated, soaking wet. Neither one could move. A riotous thunderstorm later deluged the city with three inches of rain and hundreds of lightning strikes. Neither of them heard it. Sometime during the night one of them pulled up a blanket to cover them.
In the room next door, not three feet from where Jay and Maria lay comatose from their sexual escapades, two men looked up from the electronic equipment they had been monitoring.
"Holy shit,” the one said.
"Holy shit indeed!" the other said.
"And what a babe,” the first said. They each thought dirty thoughts for a minute.
“That was not in his profile,” the one said.
“Guess it answers the ‘is he hetero’ question,” the other said.
“Definitely not in the profile,” the one said.
“Definitely not,” the other aped.
"The boss ain't gonna like this,” the one said.
"Might have to get the blonde back on him sooner than they wanted,” said the other.
"Think she'll do that?" he asked, pointing to the wall.
"She better. The kid'll be mooning all over Manhattan for this piece of ass if she don't.”
"Yeah. We better call the boss on this one."
Jay awoke to an empty bed. His mouth tasted of beer. His back was sore, his dick felt raw. A large smile slowly spread across his face as he heard water running in the shower and his mind drifted back to the incredible night he'd spent with Maria.
He pulled his naked body out of bed and shuffled into the bathroom. He could see her small tight body limned through the steamy shower door.
"I have to go the bathroom. Don't look okay?" he called over the shower door.
"Okay stud,” she answered. "But be quick about it and get your ass in here.”
The morning began the way the night had ended. They screwed long and hard in the shower, in the bed, on the couch in the living room, on the floor. By noon they were exhausted, chaffed and so hungry that for the first time they thought about something other than sex. Nothing in Jay’s few hurried experiences in college had prepared him for this.
"What do you want to do for breakfast?" he asked.
"Order Chinese. Lots of it. I don’t care what. A big variety. And wake me up when it gets here," she answered. Jay watched Maria's naked butt disappear into the bedroom. By Sunday night Jay had known Maria in every way there was to know a woman, more than one of which ways he’d not even imagined just the day before.
"I've gotta go to work tomorrow,” Jay Calloway said. Maria looked up him from the bed.
"So what are you saying?" she asked, suddenly suspicious and defensive.
"I'm saying that I've gotta get up at seven and go to work.”
"So you want me to go home?" Maria asked too quickly.
"No no no. That's not what I'm saying. I've gotta get to bed and get my clothes ready and everything. You're welcome to stay. Don't you have to work tomorrow too?"
"Yeah. But I thought I might call in sick if you did.”
"I can't.”
"Why not?" she teased hopefully.
"I can't,” he managed to blurt out. "It's my first day at this new job. I can't call in sick.”
"Okay, okay,” she pouted. "One more time, then give me a ride home and then you can meet me for dinner and dessert after your first day.” Jay knew what she meant by dessert.
Later, after they'd finished, and he'd driven her to where she'd parked her car on Friday night, Jay got ready for his first day on the job. He had no idea that he'd never see Maria alive again.
"You sure about the address?" the serious looking woman asked.
"Yes.”
"Alright then, you know what to do. Make it look like a robbery.”
"Yes ma'am.”
“And maybe leave a shirt or something of his over there. Something with some DNA on it. Just in case we ever need to help NYPD out with a cold case…”
“Yes ma’am.”
Chapter
The newest employee of MacKenzie Lazarus walked into the twelfth floor reception area.
"Good morning,” Bill Beck beamed at Jay Calloway. "Ready to get to work?" Bill asked.
"You know it,” Jay answered. The two men shook hands and then Bill walked Jay to his office.
"I'm sure people will be dropping by to say hello and all that but I'd really like you to get focused right away on a big problem we've got,” Bill said.
"Point me towards danger,” Jay said. The 'problem' was already on Jay's desk.
Bill explained, "this system doesn't work as well as it should. We've got 40,000 person hours on this project and 10 million invested in hardware
. This system should work like a champ, but it doesn't. We want the system to be faster than our competitors’. Much faster if possible, but even just a little faster is a big win. We want it to reach its decisions a full second before other currency trading programs. This is also a political hot potato. People are pointing fingers at each other all over the place on this one.”
"Great. So what's my goal and timeline?" Jay asked. He'd been listening intently.
"Simple. We need you to figure out what's wrong with it and if possible, how to fix it.” Jay sat down at his desk and surveyed the equipment arranged around him and the stacks of design documents, source code listings, system diagrams, and user manuals. "I think you've got everything you need,” Bill said.
"I'm on it boss,” Jay said. He took off his jacket, pulled a pencil from his shirt pocket protector and started to work. Bill left him bent over the documents. It was 8:05 am. At 12 noon, Bill came back. Jay was still bent over the documents but now there were several piles and three or four empty diet coke cans and two of the computer monitors had screens from the system up and running. Bill was impressed.
"Lunch time,” Bill announced. Jay literally jumped out of his chair. He'd not heard Bill approach and had been scared nearly half to death. Bill jumped back. The two men looked at each other, shock and confusion in Jay's eyes, surprise and the hint of a growing grin on Bill's face. He'd heard Jay could get absorbed in his work. It was nice to see, if somewhat amusing and disturbing at the same time.
"Holy shit you scared me,” Jay panted.
"Sorry,” Bill laughed. The fright was gone as quickly as it had come. "Thought you might want to get some lunch?" Bill asked.
"No thanks Bill. I'm going to go up to the fitness center and stretch and jog and then catch a sandwich at my desk a little later. What's the deal on lunch hours anyway? Half hour? Hour?"
