by Michael Todd
“No phone or anything, and I don’t think we should give out home addresses,” Higgs said with a shrug. “But you’ll find him working out at the gym right about now.”
“Right. Thanks, guys.” Sal pushed himself out of his seat. He really didn’t feel like going to a gym right now, not in the state he was in. But the reality was that if he intended to contact this guy, it might as well be now. He could live with his hangover getting worse in order to check out this potential new member of their squad.
“We’ll let you know when the vehicle is ready for you to pick up,” Higgs said with a grin. “It should only be a couple of days.”
“Hey, Sal.” Top, the guy in charge of the gym, greeted him cheerfully when he pushed his way inside. “I haven’t seen you in a while. I thought you had a place to work out at your new compound or whatever.”
“We do,” Sal said. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to replace you, but I don’t really like working out anyway, and especially not when I have to commute for a few hours every day to get to the gym.”
“Hey, no hard feelings.” Top raised his hand in a dismissive gesture. “So, what are you here for, big guy?”
“Hah, not that big yet,” Sal said and unconsciously flexed his arms a little. “No, I’m here to steal one of your regulars—maybe offer him a job at the compound.”
“Oh, which one?”
“Uh…Gutierrez?” Sal said and watched the man’s reaction carefully. He still couldn’t be sure the mechanics hadn’t screwed with him because their odd behavior suggested they knew things he didn’t. “I was told that he would be working out around now and thought I might catch him and have a couple of words before he goes to work.”
“Him? Oh, him,” Top said and nodded. “Gutierrez does seem like the right kind of person, but only if you offer…him the right stuff. He has had a lot of offers over the past couple of months and always turned them down. Anyways, you’ll probably find him over on the squat machine at this time.”
“Right…thanks,” Sal said. Everyone acted strange about this. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to expect from this Gutierrez, but some odd scenarios now played out in his head as he moved to the squat machines. The place was deserted except for a young blonde woman dressed in a tank top and yoga pants.
Sal suddenly remembered that nothing had happened the night before with Kennedy, and the realization made his head pound a little harder. There didn’t seem to be any guys around, though. Was he having second thoughts about bringing a guy onto the crew? Sure, but he wasn’t married to Courtney and Madigan, and all things considered, he was the last person who could claim any moral grounds when it came to jealousy. They’d simply have to figure it all out.
The woman finished her set and turned to look suspiciously at him. “Can I help you?”
“Uh, yeah,” Sal said. He wondered if she thought he’d been staring and quickly looked away. “I’m looking for Gutierrez. He was supposed to be working out around here.”
“I’m Gutierrez,” she said and leaned on the machine she’d been working on. “SPC Amanda Gutierrez, and I can tell you that there isn’t any guy by that name around here. So, how can I help you?”
“You’re Gutierrez?” Sal asked. “You work in the chop shop?”
“That’s me,” she said and now looked annoyed.
“Oh…oh!” Sal said once the penny dropped. “Fuck…yeah, now I realize why everyone’s acted so weirdly when I asked about you. The guys at the chop shop said that you were a guy…well, I assumed it, and they played along. I guess they thought it would be funny.”
She smirked. “It is a little when I see you floundering like that. But it’s less funny to know that the boys at the shop tried to play it themselves without cluing me in.”
“Right.” He shook his head and winced at the quick stab of pain. As first interviews went, this hadn’t gone very well, but if things went bad, what exactly did he have to lose? “Anyway, I’m sorry for the misunderstanding. I’m Sal. Sal Jacobs.”
“Nice to meet you, Sal, Sal Jacobs,” she said with a smirk, took his hand, and shook it firmly. “No military rank or doctor at the start of that name, and you don’t look like the skeevy lawyer types that I’ve seen around here before. What can I do for you?”
“Well, I know that I didn’t make the best first impression,” Sal said and decided to steer into the slide, as the metaphor went. “I started a company out here called Heavy Metal, and we recently got our hands on a small compound just outside the Staging Area. We’re in need of someone who can make hands-on repairs on both vehicles and armored suits while out in the Zoo. I talked to Higgs and he said that you were the…woman for the job.”
Sal drew a business card from his pocket that they’d had printed a couple of weeks before. Gutierrez took it and studied it closely.
“Look, Jacobs,” she said, “you’re not one of these military jerk-offs or the pompous doctor types, which is a plus for you in my book, but you don’t got what I like to play with. Besides, I’m not really looking for a job right now.”
Sal was tempted to make a bet on that, but he decided not to. From the way she talked, he could make a safe bet that she had to deal with a long, long list of assholes, all things considered. He didn’t want to be included on that list.
“No problem,” he said with a smile. “But think about it. I have a job for you that might work if you plan to stay around the Zoo in the near future. We have a compound, so I’m easy to reach. Let me know if you change your mind.”
She nodded and raised the card in acknowledgment as he turned and walked away. As he did, he passed another soldier headed toward the squat machines, and he heard Gutierrez call him over.
“Hey, Perez,” she said, “what do you know about this Salinger Jacobs?”
Sal slowed and tried unobtrusively to listen. It wasn’t often that he heard what people said about him behind his back, after all.
“Sal Jacobs?” Perez asked. “Oh, yeah, I made a run with him into the Zoo once. Young, but knows what he’s doing. Dude’s got a pair of titanium cajones.”
“That so?” Gutierrez said.
“Yeah, he goes into the Zoo a lot more often than most other freelancer teams,” the man continued. “He’s got…you know Sergeant Kennedy? Yeah, she’s on his team too, and I hear they have a full-time specialist working with them now too. Oh, yeah, he put Corporal Brandon to sleep over a drinking game yesterday. Once the guy was down, dude took the guy’s last shot and downed it himself. They call themselves…uh, Heavy Metal or something like that. Fun bunch and they make a lot of money. They have some trade secrets that they only share with the teams that go into the Zoo with them.”
“Is that all?” Gutierrez asked.
Perez shrugged and walked toward the squat machines again.
“Okay, thanks.” She turned back to her own workout. “Remember to keep your back straight this time, coño. You don’t want to have to call a medic again because you can’t do leg day properly.”
Sal kept walking and couldn’t prevent the smirk that crept over his face. He’d always assumed that his reputation was a lot worse than that. A man could have a worse rep than having titanium cajones.
Chapter Four
Sal gripped his beer and stared at it as the droplets of condensation started to form. He’d hydrated all day, but his sense of taste was still influenced by the vodka that he’d had the night before. It wasn’t a bad thing, but his stomach roiled as he looked at the pale gold of the beer in his glass and watched as the foam dissipated from the top. Sure, he could drink without getting drunk too quickly, but now, he simply didn’t want to try it anymore.
He drew a deep breath and looked at the pictures of the jobs that were posted up on the board.
A couple of people would make deep runs, but that wasn’t what he was looking for at the moment. They had recently completed some deeper runs, and he didn’t want to get them too involved too quickly. Even between the three of them, there was the risk of
burning out too quickly. Also, as they’d dropped massive investments into the area, he didn’t want to risk something like that.
Sal rubbed his temples, picked his beer up again, and took it back to the bar. He returned with a tall glass of iced water and a jug of the same. Keep hydrating, he thought to himself. This feeling has to pass eventually, right? He really hoped so, anyway.
He returned his attention to the board and one job in particular that looked interesting. It seemed to be a quick research job that needed specialists as well as gunners.
His phone buzzed and vibrated against his leg.
“Oh, for the days when you could make phones stay in one fucking place,” he growled to himself as he pulled it out of his pocket.
“Hey, Sal,” Kennedy said over the sound of a vehicle’s engine, “how are you feeling?”
“I can still taste sounds,” Sal replied and rubbed absently at his temples. “But only the bad ones, like nails on a chalkboard.”
“Fun times,” Kennedy laughed. “How goes the job hunt?”
“I found one that calls for help on retrieving some company equipment. Suit computers and hard drives, that sort of thing.”
“And they’ll pay for this?” Kennedy asked.
“Oh yeah, and full price too,” Sal replied. “Although, since it’s only a couple of days, it won’t actually end up being that much on its own. The reason it caught my eye is because it’ll pass close by the GPS signal, which is still in place.”
“Oh, right,” Kennedy said. “I almost forgot about that. Look, my armor will be ready tonight, so if they leave in the morning, I won’t even need to rent.”
“That’s perfect.” He chuckled. “I’ll text you the details and we’ll talk about it when I get back to the compound.”
“Sounds good,” she responded. “I’m headed back myself, so I’ll see you there.”
“Wait, did you take our JLTV?” Sal asked. “The one that I parked outside the bar?”
“Oh, no. The guys at the shop sent me a message that we can bill them to rent a vehicle while they have one in the shop,” Kennedy said. “It’s an incentive to make sure that they don’t overcharge us or keep our vehicle longer than they have to.”
“Oh…awesome,” he said. “They didn’t say anything about that to me.”
“That’s probably because I have boobs,” she retorted with a chuckle.
“Right. How could I forget?”
“Well, I’ll give you a reminder when you get back to the compound,” she replied and left him speechless for a split second before she laughed and hung up. Sal kept his phone pressed to his ear for a long moment as he struggled to move his mind out of the gutter that Kennedy’s comment had left it in.
Courtney checked her laptop. It wasn’t like her to be this anxious about something, but with her as the dedicated specialist of their little team, it felt like it was her job to make sure that all the whitepapers went through without a problem. Sal had done the alterations on the whitepaper on the acid-spitting lizards that nobody could remember the ridiculously long name for and she had edited it before sending it in.
She was good at this but it wasn’t only about her experience. She actually enjoyed being out there. Did she want to be at the top of her field? Sure! Did she want some sort of recognition for what she’d done so far in the form of a Nobel prize or a research grant or something like that? Of course, but none of that mattered so long as she did something that she really cared about. Especially if it was with someone whom she really cared about.
Someones, rather.
She remembered the conversation she’d had with Sal about wanting to impress her father. That was still true, as much as she hated to admit it. She wanted out of her father’s shadow, and in order to do that, she had to make sure that what she put out there was as amazing as what he had done, if not more so. She was competitive and damned if she didn’t get that from the man himself.
Once the payment cleared for the whitepaper, she shut the browser down and opened a writing document. She paused when she was asked to name it. It would have to be a working title for a rough draft, she knew. Courtney tilted her head and typed Everything You Wanted to Know About the Zoo but Were Afraid to Ask – by Dr. Courtney Monroe.
She smirked and nodded. That would be the kind of thing that would get her noticed.
Before she could start, though, her concentration was broken when the doorbell rang. Of course, the compound didn’t have an actual door, but there was a doorbell, apparently. When she checked the camera that covered the front entrance, she saw a JLTV parked outside.
“Um…hello,” she said into the mic. “How can I help you?”
“Hi,” a woman’s voice responded. “I’m Specialist Amanda Gutierrez. Is this the Heavy Metal compound?”
“Uh…yes, it is,” Courtney confirmed.
“Salinger Jacobs gave me his card and said that he was interested in having me work for him,” Amanda replied. “I thought I’d come and check to see if he was serious about the offer.”
“Oh, okay,” Courtney replied. “Come on in.” She pressed the button that opened the gate into the compound, and the vehicle eased inside.
Once Amanda was indoors and had turned down the offer for something to drink, Courtney led her into the meeting room. As they walked, she couldn’t help but admire the woman Sal had found. She knew that he had something of an appetite, but she never thought that she’d have to fend off someone who looked like that. Her blue eyes and curly blonde hair contrasted perfectly with deeply tanned skin and a body that had a lot of work put into it and with all the Hispanic emphasis on the curves. She didn’t seem the kind to put in that much work simply for appearances, though. The woman looked like the perfect cross of a Latina beauty and a sexy tomboy, perfectly encased in combat fatigues.
Well, that’s fucking great, Courtney thought acidly.
“So what kind of work did Sal…Jacobs say that you would do around here?” she asked when she had difficulty deciding how to handle the situation.
“He said that he needs someone to cover repairs,” Amanda said with a nod. “Not only the mechanic stuff. I could stay in the shop for that, but he said there’s a need for someone to go into the Zoo for repairs while on the job, and since I know how to work as a gunner in there too… I’m sick of being stuck in the garage, you know?”
“Well, if you call that a reason,” Courtney said under her breath.
“What was that?” the woman asked.
“Oh, that’s a good reason,” she added quickly, louder this time. “I mean, I know what you’re talking about, at least in part. So, you’re good with suits, huh?”
“Oh, yeah.” Amanda nodded. “I got my degree in mechanical engineering, and Boulos has called me in a couple of times to help him fix the suits. Okay, more than a couple of times. All the time, really. I virtually spend more time at the armory than at the shop.”
Courtney looked at her phone, which had buzzed with a new message. It was from Madigan.
Sal said that there might be a new recruit showing up at the compound for an interview, it read.
“Sorry, I have to take this,” she said to explain why she moved away quickly and tapped at her phone’s keypad.
She’s here now. Did Sal tell you that he’s recruiting a total hottie? she replied, took a picture surreptitiously of the woman who sat on their couch, and sent it with the message.
Not a problem, Madigan replied almost instantly. I’m already close but hire her if you can. It’s the best thing we can do.
Courtney rolled her eyes but thankfully, her gaze on the camera that covered the entrance was rewarded with the sight of Kennedy rolling into the compound. It wasn’t long before she came into the room where the two women were seated.
“Gutierrez!” Madigan called as she entered the room. “It’s really good to see you, girl!”
“Kennedy!” Amanda responded with the same enthusiasm. She grinned and stood to shake Madigan’s hand. “I heard
that you’d gone all corporate on us.”
“Well, you know us greedy Fortune Five-Hundred types,” Madigan said with a grin.
“Is that why you’re looking to hire more people?” Gutierrez asked.
“We’re bringing in more vehicles and suits and stuff, and we could really use someone who has the company’s interests at heart working on them,” Kennedy explained. She walked over to the fridge and pulled a beer out. “Could I interest you in something to drink?”
“No thanks.” Amanda smiled and winked at Courtney. “I have to drive back to the Staging Area.”
“Everyone knows how treacherous those long drives can be at night,” Madigan said with a grin.
“Tell that to the shocks on your vehicle,” Amanda retorted.
“Smartass.”
“What was that?”
“Oh, nothing,” Kennedy amended quickly. “Let’s talk about the job. I don’t know how much you make at the shop, but I can tell you now that the basic salary won’t be that high. You’ll have food, board, supplies, and some drinking money. You do get a bonus with the jobs you do, though, and you can take a few side jobs on top of that. Jacobs wants everyone to work out here without the overbearing presence of the assholes who run the Staging Area.”
“Right, about Jacobs,” Amanda said and narrowed her eyes. “I caught him staring at the ladies when he came by. He’s young, so he gets a pass for the wandering eyes, but I want to make sure that sleeping with him isn’t a prerequisite for this job.”
Courtney and Kennedy shared a quick look, and the woman laughed. “You’re kidding me. Both of you are sleeping with him? I mean, he’s a fucking kid. How does that work?”
“For a kid, he has a surprising amount of stamina,” Madigan said, and Monroe blushed furiously. “That, coupled with a young man’s enthusiasm and adventurous nature, it’s…a lot of fun.”
“But not necessary for the job, right?” Amanda asked. “Because that’s a deal-breaker.”