Cabal

by David Delaney

  Sebastian noticed a small group of two men and one woman lingering near the Singularity BBQ truck. He watched as Jessie, Megan, and Kerri turned their attention to the three. He felt a momentary pang of jealousy. Why did those three merit special attention? The two men looked like they had been cloned in a Brooks Brothers factory and had MBA stamped on the bottom of their feet. The woman was dressed in scrubs, obviously she had wandered down from the county hospital up the street. Doctor or nurse? He wasn’t sure because everybody in the medical profession seemed to dress the same these days. He wasn’t impressed by any of these interlopers and couldn’t understand why the ladies were wasting time with them.

  Sebastian tensed as the small pang of jealousy blossomed into full-blown dislike. They were exchanging contact information. The men fumbled cards out of their pockets. The nurse—Sebastian had decided that she didn’t look smart enough to be a doctor—handed her phone over to Megan, who quickly typed in some information. All three ladies were laughing and finding reasons to reach out and touch the other three. Sebastian was fascinated. He shook his head to clear out the foggy feelings of jealousy and anger he was experiencing. He focused on the interaction going on in front of him. It was subtle, but it was there. Jessie, Megan, and Kerri were flirting and drawing the other three in. It was as if they were weaving some kind of spell.

  The idea of predator versus prey flitted through his mind once again, but he dismissed it. Hunting was definitely occurring, but it was of the sexual kind.

  The ladies were amazing to watch. Every move had a purpose: Jessie reaching out to tuck a lock of hair behind Megan’s ear . . . Kerri laughing while she coyly pulled up on her skirt to reveal even more thigh.

  Who were these women?

  And, more importantly, why the hell were they running a food truck? He found it hard to believe that it was to finance their so-called real work. How much money could they be making selling lunch to hungry professionals? What did their real work consist of, and what could it possibly have to do with this Singularity thing?

  Sebastian’s perfectly crafted career plans may have been blown up, but he still had the instincts of a journalist. And he sensed a story—a big story. Smartphones were amazing tools, but he needed to log onto a real computer and do some serious research. Sebastian turned toward his car but only made it two steps before he heard Jessie shouting his name.

  “T. Sebastian! Where are you going?”

  He looked behind him and was surprised at how quickly she had crossed the distance between them. Jessie moved around in front of him and flashed that brilliant smile. Sebastian felt his breath catch, but he still managed to speak. “I can’t believe you can run in those heels.”

  “These are wedges, not heels, I would never run in heels, T. Sebastian.” Jessie cocked her head, placed her hands on her hips, and pouted. “You weren’t going to leave without saying good-bye, were you? What about the story you promised?”

  “I was just on my way back to the office to work on it, I swear.” He smiled and gestured toward the two suits and the supposed nurse. “Besides, you three look like you have your hands full.”

  “Oh, those are just super-loyal customers who’ve become good friends.” She reached out for his hand, and there was no way he could stop himself from letting her have it. As she closed both of her hands around his and pulled him in close, his hand nestled beneath her incredible breasts. “Don’t you want to be our friend, too?”

  It was the most loaded question he had ever heard. She obviously knew exactly what she was doing. Sebastian once again thought about a predator zeroing in on prey, but he was hopeless to do anything about it. If Jessie and her partners wanted to add him to their trophy case, he would go willingly.

  “Of course. I was just going to start getting some ideas down on paper and then,” he held up the menu he had grabbed from truck, “call you later to set up a more in-depth interview.”

  “Tonight.” It was a statement, not a question.

  “Tonight what?” Sebastian asked.

  “We should do the interview tonight. I don’t want you to lose interest and forget about us.”

  Sebastian thought that if he lived to be a hundred years old, where his days consisted of drooling on himself, he would still remember these three women in perfect detail.

  “You guys are available?” He found it hard to believe that they wouldn’t have dates scheduled a year into the future.

  “Actually, we’re having a very small dinner party, and we’d love for you to be there. You’ll be able to observe us in our natural habitat. Won’t that help with your story? Add background and color?”

  “Uh yeah . . . yes. That would be great. Please tell me Kerri will be cooking?”

  “Of course, silly, and you’re going to love the menu.” Jessie was still holding his hand and gave it a little squeeze. Sebastian wasn’t sure a hand squeeze could be described as erotic, but damn if that wasn’t exactly what she had accomplished.

  He had to concentrate on keeping his voice from cracking “Really? What’s she making?”

  “It’s a surprise, but I promise it will be delicious and unforgettable.”

  Unforgettable? He had never heard food described quite in that manner. He noticed a glimmer in Jessie’s eye. Was she messing with him? Was this part of a whole sexy mystique thing that she and her partners had created around their business . . . maybe the possible genesis of a viral ad campaign?

  He was going to enjoy finding out.

  “Where and when?” Sebastian asked.

  Jessie bounced up and down, confirming Sebastian’s suspicion that she wasn’t wearing a bra beneath her tight tank top.

  “I’m so excited you can come. Give me your phone so I can give you the address. The contact info on the menu is a P.O. box at the UPS Store.”

  He handed over his iPhone. As Jessie typed, he noticed that Megan and Kerri were saying good-bye to the other three customers. There were long hugs and kisses on cheeks all around. One of the suits even gave Kerri a pat on the butt. Sebastian was stunned. What modern man thought that was acceptable? To his surprise, Kerri laughed it off and swatted at the guy playfully.

  “Okay. You’re all set,” Jessie said, handing his phone back.

  Sebastian checked the screen. The address was in Santa Monica.

  “You guys are by the beach?” he asked.

  “If you’re going to live in LA, the beach is the only way to go. Don’t let the industrial neighborhood throw you. We have a warehouse so we can park the truck inside at night. We eat at 7:30 sharp, okay?”

  “Okay. I’ll be there.”

  “Be where?” Megan asked as she and Kerri walked up.

  “T. Sebastian is coming to dinner,” Jessie announced.

  “Wonderful,” Kerri said, looping her arm through Sebastian’s. “You can sit by me, and I’ll tell you everything you want to know about these two.”

  “Alright, ladies, we need to stop playing with our young journalist friend and get home to prepare for our guests,” Jessie said, pulling Megan and Kerri toward the truck. “T. Sebastian, we’ll see you at 7:30. Come hungry.” She winked at him and pushed her partners up into the truck, her hand cupping their bottoms seductively.

  Sebastian watched them drive away. Jessie waved out the passenger window. He waved back and couldn’t help once again wondering who these women were and what their story was. He pulled himself out of his reverie. He needed to get a bunch of work done before 7:30. He dialed Lucy at the office and told her he was going to need her help on background checks for the owners of Singularity BBQ.

  Chapter Three

  Lucy was waiting for Sebastian when he walked back into the office. She was holding a handful of printouts and started chattering at him immediately.

  “I found some really weird stuff about that company and the owners. Did you know that they are all Cal Tech graduates and certified geniuses . . . like total real-deal geniuses. And when they graduated, they were all courted by the who�
��s who in tech and . . .”

  “Lucy!” He shouted in frustration. “Stop. Breathe. Calm. I need one thing at a time. Give me the printouts and start over, but slower please.”

  Lucy took a deep breath and started over. She had compiled quite a bit of information, and all of it was gold. Sebastian sat sipping a Coke Zero as he listened to Lucy, stopping her to ask questions whenever he needed clarification.

  Megan hadn’t been lying when she’d said that they had a combined IQ north of six hundred. All three of them were Einstein-level geniuses with IQs in the two hundreds. Sebastian understood that a high IQ didn’t necessarily equate to super smart. Dustin Hoffman’s character in Rain Man was the perfect, if fictional, example—a person who had the ability to crunch numbers like a super computer but can’t take care of their basic daily needs. But it was clear from articles chronicling their childhoods that these three were able to function just fine, they were just super, super smart.

  “They didn’t meet each other until Cal Tech. It’s easy to see why they would be drawn to each other, their young ages alone would have probably weirded the other students out. So they became the four musketeers, doing everything together,” Lucy said, finishing the quick summary of her research.

  “You mean the three musketeers,” Sebastian said half to himself as he finished a quick perusal of Jessie’s biographic information—divorced parents, no siblings.

  “No. Originally, there were four of them,” Lucy said, and she passed him a picture of four teenage girls wearing goggles, huddled around a Bunsen burner.

  Sebastian was startled. If Lucy hadn’t told him that three of the girls in the picture were the same three ladies he had met earlier, he wouldn’t have recognized them. It wasn’t that they were unattractive, it was just that they weren’t the hyper-sexual superwomen he had encountered.

  Yes, people grow into their looks, but this was on a whole other level. He recalled his initial reaction—that they were so perfect they seemed to have been created in a lab. Maybe they had all gone under the knife? L.A. was famous for its cosmetic surgery industry. If so, he needed to get the number of the surgeon because he was an artist.

  Lucy snapped her fingers at him. “Earth to Sebastian. What’s up?”

  He pulled out his phone and thumbed to the group photo he had taken. “These are the three,” he emphasized the number, “ladies of Singularity Barbecue.”

  Lucy whistled. “Wow. If I can look like that by eating barbecue all day, sign me up.”

  “Right? It’s crazy,” Sebastian said, holding up the photo next to the picture on his phone and comparing the two. “People change, but this . . . it’s . . .”

  “A complete transformation,” Lucy suggested.

  “Exactly, and I’m telling you, if they’ve had plastic surgery, I couldn’t tell. They looked perfectly natural.”

  Sebastian stared at the two photos for a moment longer. He then set his phone aside and pointed at the fourth teenager in the Cal Tech photo, a pretty African-American girl with serious eyes and a soft smile. “Who is she?”

  “That is Heidi Aldridge. She graduated from high school at the ripe old age of fourteen, was accepted to Cal Tech, and graduated a year ago with double degrees in biotechnology and computer science. Her specialty is genetic modification.”

  Sebastian looked up, his eyebrows arched.

  “Modifying crops like corn and stuff. Her research would have put her smack in the middle of the whole GMO-Monsanto thing. You know . . . Frankenstein food,” Lucy offered.

  “How about the other three? Same specialty?” He asked, flipping through the stack of paper in front of him.

  Lucy waved him off. “Hold on.” She quickly found what she was looking for and handed him the printout. “Basically, yes. It looks like they all got biotech degrees, but their secondary degrees are all different—pharmacology, epidemiology . . .” Lucy paused, “Huh?” She pointed at the photo, her finger tapping Kerri’s young face. “This one—Kerri Greene—graduated early and then enrolled in culinary school. Weird.”

  Sebastian looked at the paper in his hand. Separately, none of it made sense, but together, it had a weird kind of logic. The three—no four—of them had studied overlapping fields . . . fields that, in the booming tech world, would complement each other. But how did a food truck figure into the picture? And then there was the odd focus on the Singularity, a strange idea all on its own. Sebastian was confused and excited. He knew he had stumbled onto something here. Exactly what it was was still unclear, but he could feel it.

  “Anything else on the Singularity?” he asked hopefully.

  “Yes.” Lucy walked over to her cubicle, rummaged around for a second, and came up with a book, which she presented handed to him. “The Singularity Is Near . . . Kurzweil’s book. I found a copy at the local used book store and had it messengered over.”

  Sebastian flipped through the pages and stopped at the table of contents. He read from the list, “Genetics, computers, nanotechnology? How does this fit with that?” He gestured to the pile of information on Jessie, Megan, Kerri, and Heidi. “How did these women go from cutting-edge biotech research and development to selling beef wraps out of the back of a truck? And what happened to the fourth musketeer, Heidi?”

  “What are we going to do next?” Lucy asked.

  Sebastian glanced at the time. “Crap. I’m running late. I’ve been invited to a party at the home of these three mysterious ladies. You should start reading,” he tapped the copy of Kurzweil’s book on his desk, “so you can give me the short version.”

  “You get to party with the Einstein triplets, and I have to do a book report? Why can’t I come?” Lucy demanded.

  “Because I’m the reporter, and you’re the intern. Plus I’m not bringing a date to a dinner with three hot women.”

  “Pig,” Lucy said disgusted.

  “I’ve been called worse. I’ll text you later . . . unless of course I get lucky.”

  “Pig,” Lucy repeated.

  Sebastian pulled the take-out bag from his mini fridge. “Here. Heat this up for three minutes. It will change your world. Seriously, it’s one of the best barbecue wrap thingies I’ve ever had.”

  When Lucy didn’t immediately reach for the bag, he set it down in front of her and began to stuff things into his laptop bag.

  “A sandwich? Do you really think I can be distracted by a sandwich?”

  “It’s not a sandwich. It’s a wrap, and you are not coming.”

  Lucy ramped up into full sales pitch mode. “Please take me. Two sets of eyes are better than one. I can totally help.”

  She didn’t actually whine, which Sebastian was grateful for, but she did pout. And he had to admit that it was a sexy pout, she must have practiced it in the mirror to be so good at it. A combination of innocent and sultry, she could open an acting school that specialized in just that facial expression and make a fortune.

  Sebastian shook his head to focus.

  “Absolutely not going to happen.”

  He caught a flash of something else cross her face, replacing the pout for just a fraction of an instant—concern mixed with anger.

  Strange.

  He focused on Lucy’s features more intently, but whatever he thought he had seen was gone, firmly replaced with the sexy pout. She didn’t say anything else, she just watched him gather his things, her eyes following his every move.

  Sebastian paused at the door. “Look, whatever I get tonight we’ll go over tomorrow. You can help me sort through and connect any dots that need connecting. I promise.”

  Lucy rolled her eyes, giving her head a slight shake. Her message was loud and clear, another perfected expression for her acting school curriculum.

  Well Sebastian could play that game, too. “Have a great night.” He paused. “I know I will.” And then he winked.

  Lucy’s face went blank, and then she laughed. The laughter froze him in place. It wasn’t a ha-ha funny laugh. No, it was a deep, knowing laugh. She ga
ve him a little wave. He turned and walked briskly to the elevators. Lucy’s laugh trailed after him, mocking him, until the doors of the elevator slid shut. It kind of freaked him out.

  Chapter Four

  Sebastian followed the directions the robotic voice from his phone provided to an industrial park on the outskirts of Santa Monica. He parked and verified the address. This was the place. A generic-looking cluster of small warehouses with small nondescript office fronts. The offices faced the parking lot he was standing in. It was the kind of place where you would find a small plumbing company or print shop. But the ladies had been clear that they were throwing a dinner party here.

  Weird.

  It almost felt deserted. There were no other cars in the lot, and the only noise came from the early evening traffic a few blocks over.

  Sebastian checked the battery level on his phone, popped a mint in his mouth, and ran his fingers through his hair. The intense attraction he had felt earlier in the day began to stir again in his chest. His journalistic instincts were piqued, but the desire to see the ladies, to be on the receiving end of their sexy, flirty attention, was the overriding emotion driving him forward.

  Sebastian crossed to the office door with the correct suite number. There was no signage on the door—nothing to indicate that this was the headquarters of Singularity BBQ. He cupped his eyes and peered through the glass. It was an empty reception area. No furniture just bare, white walls, cheap gray carpet, and a door on the far side of the room, presumably leading back into more offices and the warehouse.

  Curiouser and curiouser.

  Sebastian located a white button next to the door and gave it a push. After a moment, the door buzzed and clicked. He waited a moment and, after no further instructions came, pushed on the door. It silently swung open. He stood in the open doorway. He couldn’t explain it, but he suddenly felt apprehensive, as if he was standing at the mouth of a cave instead of an office in the middle of a busy city. A cave whose dark recesses hid . . . what? Some unseen, unnamed danger? Was his primitive brain—the part that instinctively knew to fear the dark—flashing him a warning signal?