Risk

by Raquel Belle

  The gate rolls open on its track and Derrick pulls open the steel door of the main building to greet us.

  “Wow, you made good time,” he says, “I wasn’t expecting you guys for a little while longer.” He’s 5’9”, dark-haired, cleanshaven with a buzzcut and wearing military fatigues. He goes straight for Charlotte, “How’re you doing hot stuff? It’s been too long.” They hug. He playfully squeezes her butt and she lets out a laugh.

  “Get off me, creep,” she jokes, and pushes him away.

  He comes to me next, “Jack attack!” We shake hands and clap each other on the shoulder. I give him a smile. “And who do we have here?” he turns to Deanna.

  “Deanna Madison,” she puts out her tiny hand.

  He lifts her hand up and kisses the back of it, “Well, Ms. Madison, welcome to my humble abode.”

  “Easy, tiger,” I tell him, “she’s taken.”

  “Sorry, boss!” he laughs, and puts his palms up. He looks at all of us and gestures with a jerk of his head, “Come on in guys, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

  “We need to find out what’s on this,” I hold up the flash drive as I walk, “oh, and Brenner is still alive.”

  “What?” He stops and turns to me in shock.

  “He was behind everything, he set us up, and he’s behind this too.”

  “What the hell are you talking about? Our Brenner?”

  “The same, and this thing has a tracker of some kind on it because when I plugged it into a computer, him and his Russian fuck-heads stormed the place minutes later.”

  “That’s a lot of information to unpack,” he says.

  He just stands there, staring at me.

  “We’ll explain as we go,” Charlotte says, “get your ass in gear Derrick,” she turns him and pushes him toward the door.

  We go inside and head upstairs. Charlotte, Deanna and I recount the events of the last few days along the way.

  While we talk we take some extra chairs from the conference room and wheel them into his office with the massive workstation. There are three rows of monitors. The top has four, the middle has five and there are two bigger monitors at the bottom.

  The room is dark, about 20 x 20 feet, and there’s a soft hum from all the computer equipment. There’s a leather couch against one wall. He told me before that it’s to take naps while models render on the computer.

  Derrick has a ton of questions, but when the story is finally done he’s left there with his jaw hanging open. Charlotte reaches over and uses her hand to push his mouth closed.

  “You still with us, dude?” Charlotte asks.

  “Wow,” he shakes his head, “that’s heavy.”

  I chose to leave out a few of the peripheral details, particularly those about me and Deanna, we focused on the heist and the details around it instead.

  I hand him the flash drive.

  “Damn, now I’m dying to know what’s on this. Let’s see what we’ve got here,” Derrick turns to the keyboard and gets to work.

  “Remember the tracer, we don’t want them showing up here so you have to block it somehow.”

  “I’ve got this, boss. We’re running on my own proprietary security layer.” Derrick plugs the drive in. As soon as the computer recognizes it Derrick points to the third screen on the second row, there’s a world map on it with lines zooming around the continents. “You’re right, it’s trying to find us, but I’m using my custom TLS protocol to bounce a fake location all over the globe. It’ll look like we’re in a new point of origin twice every second.”

  “Damn,” Charlotte says.

  “Okay, sounds fancy enough, whatever that means…now what’s on the drive?” I say.

  He starts tapping away at the keys again.

  “Huh.”

  “What?”

  “Good news and bad news,” he says.

  “Good news first,” Deanna says.

  “Well, there’s definitely something on here.”

  “Bad news?” Charlotte says.

  “Whatever it is has AES 256-bit encryption.”

  “What the hell does that mean?” I ask.

  “That’s military grade, Advanced Encryption Standard.”

  “Can you hack it?” Deanna says.

  Derrick smiles, “Sweetheart, official record is that AES 128-bit has never been cracked, and this is AES 256-bit, the big brother. Theoretically it would take a billion years to do a brute force attack and find the key.”

  “So, is that a no?” Charlotte says. “You’re supposed to be such hot shit and you can’t even open a USB drive?”

  “Oh, I didn’t say that,” Derrick smiles, “what I was going to say is that you happen to be sitting next to the one person in the world who has actually done it—well, the only one that I know of—and I did it in less than twenty-four hours.”

  “It took you that long?” I say.

  “Jack, remember…a billion years versus twenty-four hours? Yeah, I think that’s quite impressive,” he says. “But it’s not going to be a cakewalk. I’m going to need to borrow juice from all the supercomputers I can sneak into, more than twenty of them, and while that’s happening and we’re trying to brute force the key…that,” he points to the map, “is still going to be happening. I can’t turn off the tracer till I break the encryption.”

  “What are the chances they’ll find us?” Deanna asks.

  “Slim to none,” Derrick says, “look, obviously the longer the tracer is active the greater the chance of them breaking my randomizer…because…nothing in computer logic is truly random. There are ways to see beyond the veil. If the people who are looking are good enough, they’ll get there.”

  “But?” Charlotte says.

  “It’s me, baby,” he grins, “it’d take one hell of a smart motherfucker to chase me down and it’ll probably take him days. Time is on our side. So, you guys might as well settle in and let me do my thing. Make yourselves at home and I’ll keep you posted.”

  “Okay, great, thanks Derrick,” I pat him on the shoulder and stand.

  When Charlotte stands, Derrick grabs her hand and says, “Oh, hey, I recently put in a pizza oven downstairs. Go nuts. And make one for me too.”

  “Sure,” she smiles and flicks his earlobe.

  We file out of the room and go downstairs. Derrick has quite a setup here, the private sector pays well, not to mention all those government contracts—they just throw money at you if you’re good at what you do, and Derrick is obviously the best.

  I didn’t stay long the last time I was here so I didn’t see that the kitchen had been upgraded since my visit years ago. It looks like he’s gotten over the whole eating out of cans phase.

  “Wow,” Charlotte says, “our boy has finally grown up. This looks like a kitchen you’d find in a restaurant.”

  “Yeah,” Deanna says with a big smile, “you and I could do some damage in here. Let’s get busy!” They high-five each other.

  He’s got a big fridge, a six-plate gas stove, granite tops and all the other high-end kitchen stuff that foodies like. They’re about to start rummaging for ingredients but I decide that we need to clear the air first.

  “Deanna, can I talk to you outside for a minute?” I say.

  She turns around and looks at me nervously, then looks back at Charlotte who shoots her brow at her. “Uh, sure,” she says. I walk to the door and put my thumb to the biometric scanner, the locks disengage and I pull it open—Derrick puts our prints on the system if we’re visiting. He’s got them on file.

  Outside there’s a stone bench under a tree. I go to it and sit down. Deanna sits next to me, not close though, she leaves a space between us.

  “What’s up?” she asks.

  I don’t really know how to broach the subject, so I just say, “What’s going on, Deanna?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean you’ve hardly spoken to me all day and you’ve been acting weird.”

  She doesn’t look at me, “I hadn’t realized. W
eird how?”

  “Well, last night in bed for one thing.”

  She doesn’t say anything.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Are you and I okay?”

  She shrugs, “I don’t know, Jack.”

  “You’ve got to give me something here, Deanna,” I reach over and take her hand but she pulls away.

  She stands and says, “Look, Jack, there’s a difference between doing something that you have to do, like when you’re following orders…but doing something out of malice because you want to do it is different. Is it me who’s acting different or is it you? Revenge never ends well for anybody.”

  This again.

  “Deanna, doesn’t justice mean anything to you? Don’t you have a sense of right and wrong? If you’d left Ben to have his way, who knows how many people he would have hurt? I know that you believe the same things I do. That’s why I don’t understand why you’re being like this. No one else can do anything about Brenner. He’s evil. Do you really believe that I should just let him go like nothing happened? Is that the kind of person you want to be with? Someone who’ll look the other way instead of doing what’s right?”

  “How is risking your life to kill him doing what’s right for us? Why does it have to be you? How high of a price are you willing to pay? What if it’s him or me?” She plants her feet and crosses her arms like she’s giving me an ultimatum.

  “How can you ask me that? This isn’t even about us. You know what he did. He’s my responsibility.”

  She doesn’t say anything.

  “If someone hurt your sister, if someone took her away from you the way he took my family from me…and you were the only one who could do something about it…wouldn’t you do everything in your power to make sure that they were brought to justice?”

  The words hang in the air for a while, then she says, “Jack, I don’t want to lose you. I don’t want you to get hurt. I’m afraid for you. Can’t you see that?”

  I stand up and hold her in my arms, “You’re not going to lose me, Deanna. Just trust me. We’re here, now, and we’re together. Don’t let what might happen in the future keep us apart today.”

  She looks at me for a while before she finally sighs, “You’re right.”

  “So, are we cool?”

  “I don’t know, Jack. I’m not a solider. I’m going along with this for now, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.” It feels like nothing’s been resolved.

  “I guess I’ll take it.”

  She turns to head back inside.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Deanna

  When we’re back in the kitchen, Jack asks if he can help us with anything. Charlotte tells him no and that he should go check in with Derrick on the new protocols—whatever that is.

  I’m almost glad, I feel awkward with him now, like I don’t know how to talk to him anymore. Ever since he found out about Brenner he’s been like a different person…and I suppose maybe he is…he’s got all his memories back after all. Those memories changed him.

  He grabs a couple of beers from the fridge and goes upstairs.

  Charlotte hands me some vegetables to work on, she’s already got a small fire brewing in the pizza oven.

  “Derrick is a vegetarian,” she says, “so we’ll make one of those for him. What groceries did you bring that we can use for our pizzas?”

  “Well, I kind of emptied the fridge into a cooler so I’ve got some Italian sausage, and some pepperoni, plus the rest of the anchovies, olives and capers, cheese, and some chicken too. We can make a Sicilian pizza for me and Jack, or maybe he’ll like a chicken one.”

  “Yeah, I’ll also go with a chicken one. Any bacon?”

  “Oh yeah, I’ve got bacon as well. I’ll go get it.”

  “You can’t open the door, cupcake.” she says with a wink, “I’ll go, you can start on the veggies.”

  I laugh, “Cool.”

  Why don’t people like anchovies? They’re rich in omega-3!

  I’m washing, slicing and dicing for a while before she comes back.

  “I brought the rest of the bags in too,” she says, “I’ve never made pizza before, don’t we need a recipe for the dough?”

  “Thanks, yeah, I’ve done it a couple of times but not in an oven like this, and I always used those premade bases. Do you think Derrick has a recipe? Or I could just look online? Oh wait, I can ask my sister.”

  “You have a sister?”

  “We’re twins. She owns a restaurant.”

  “Wow.”

  “You can say hi,” I tell her and pull out my phone to videocall Lilly.

  “Hey!” she answers.

  “Hey!”

  “I tried to call you earlier but it went to voicemail. I thought you were coming home yesterday?”

  “We were going to but something came up, the job’s running a little long.”

  “Good long or bad long?”

  “Uh, not sure yet. We’re in New Mexico, our friend Charlotte flew us over, here she is.”

  I bring Charlotte into the frame with me, she waves, “Hi Lilly, nice to meet you!”

  “You too, Charlotte. Oh my god, you’re so pretty,” Lilly smiles.

  Charlottes laughs, “Thank you. Wow, you guys really are identical.”

  Lilly and I chuckle.

  “Where’s the Escalade,” she asks.

  “It’s at Charlotte’s place in Arizona. We’ll probably head back tomorrow or the next day.”

  “Okay.”

  “So, kittycat, we need a pizza dough recipe,” I show her the oven and bring the camera back to me.”

  “Oh, that’s easy. Nice oven! Got a pen?”

  “Right here,” Charlotte grabs a pad and pen from the kitchen counter.

  “You can do this in fifteen minutes,” Lilly says, “you’ll get four bases from it. Thin and crispy.”

  “Perfect,” I say.

  She gives us the instructions, we say our goodbyes and I hang up.

  “I’ve never seen twins that looked that identical before,” Charlotte says.

  “Yeah, everyone mixes us up, the thing that gives us away is our personalities.”

  “How’s that?”

  “She’s the nice one,” I laugh.

  “Has Jack met her?” she laughs too.

  “Yeah, last Monday,” I get to work on the dough.

  I realize that Charlotte doesn’t know too much about me aside from the story I told her the other day, so we talk for a little while about me and my family in Vegas and Parkville. She tells me about the last few years of her life after leaving the army. It’s like a little bonding session.

  After the dough and the sauce are ready and we’ve prepped all the pizzas, she’s quiet for a while before she asks, “So, what did Jack want to talk about before?”

  I feel myself frown, but maybe it’ll be good to talk about it. “Apparently I’ve been a little distant. I didn’t realize, but he wanted to talk about it.”

  “Why? What was happening?”

  “I suppose it was weighing on my mind and he sensed it. I don’t want him going after Brenner,” I say, “I know I’m being selfish, but he’s having these blackouts and what if something happens? He’s been lucky so far. We’ve only been together a week, and I want us to—” I stop talking.

  “You want to what?”

  “Charlotte, I want us to be together. Jack is the one. We were meant to meet. It feels like we’ve been connected our whole lives. I’ve had him for a week and now he wants to risk his life and our life together over something that’s not going to change anything. Everything flipped when he got his memories back. Yesterday morning we were heading in one direction and now we’re heading in another. He explained why he has to do it and I know that I’m being a selfish bitch by not wanting him to, but that’s just how I feel. What’s going to come from taking Brenner off the board?”

  She looks at me like I’m crazy, “Uh, balancing the scales? Jus
tice for the families of the people we’ve lost? Righting wrongs? I honestly can’t believe what I’m hearing from you, Deanna.”

  “See? I know how it sounds, but you haven’t seen him pass out, Charlotte. What if he’s in the middle of something dangerous and he goes under and he’s vulnerable? He could die. He will die if he’s facing off with Brenner. I’m not the asshole here. Jack is walking into a battle he can’t win. What if it’s a death sentence?”

  “He said it won’t happen again,” she says adamantly.

  “You believe that?”

  “He makes the call, I back the play. Maybe you don’t know Jack as well as you think you do.” Jeez, she’s loyal. “If he said it’s over, it’s over.”

  “I do not want him to die!” I slam my knife down on the counter. My face gets hot. I am not in the Goddamn army. I don’t have to fall in line. “What is so wrong with that?”

  Charlotte comes around to me and puts her hand on my shoulder, “Jack isn’t lucky, he knows what he’s doing. Maybe when he told you what happened on the yacht it sounded like luck, but I don’t believe that. You need to believe in him…the way we do.”

  Tears fall, “Charlotte I’m sorry, but belief and blind faith are the same thing and neither of them holds up in my experience. An explosion half gutting you and being left in a coma…then surviving and having amnesia? Where in that is the skill? He was lucky.”

  “Deanna, luck is being skilled enough and being good enough so that when the right opportunity comes by, you’re prepared to take advantage of it. It’s about being good enough so when you see an opening you can take it. If you want to call Jack lucky, then do that, but know that it’s backed up by the fact that he is the best. He is single minded and pursues his objective till he gets the job done. It’s all he’s ever known. This stuff comes to him on instinct, there’s no one better. If you believe nothing else, believe that. He survived that night because his instincts guided him.”

  “Yeah.” I nod, but she knows I don’t believe her.

  “Yeah,” she insists. “He made us who we are, he is our leader…whether we’re serving or not…he’s the guy who pushes you to be more than you ever knew you could be, the guy who makes a shitty joke but doesn’t put you down when you fail, the guy who shows you how to be better. I don’t know the Jack that you know because I’d never seen that guy before you came along. He’s someone else with you. And if the guy that you’re seeing looks weak to you, then you don’t know the Jack that I know. My Jack is indestructible and does not fail. And he hasn’t. Being betrayed isn’t failing. Brenner’s going to get what’s coming to him.”