After Evers left with Jacobs in tow, Denny turned to Joanie, patting her shoulder. “You were right. It must be this rumor of money and reality shows. We need to talk this over with Mike and the gang. That was a serious incident.”
Joanie gripped his hand. “It’s not your fault. What the heck did you do to him?”
“Yeah, Denny, you stud,” Melissa came over to put an arm around Denny as the rest of the class laughed appreciatively.
“Thanks for the backup, Mel,” Denny said, looking around the room at his fellow students. “Really. Thanks for helping me out. Rory was going to stick with that alternate reality farce no matter what.”
“So, what was it you did, stud?”
“Don’t call me that, Mel,” Denny replied as the students within hearing began chuckling. “It was a solar plexus punch. Mike told me about an old time fighting champion named Bob Fitzsimmons. He beat Jack Dempsey at a 150 pounds, and heavyweight champion of the world, Jim Corbett, at a 167 pounds. One of his most devastating punches was one right under the heart at the edge of the ribcage. That’s what I’ve been practicing. I hit Rory with it. It’s important I kept from getting hit by him too, or I would have been in la-la land.”
“We better get reading before Evers gets back,” Joanie said, as she could tell the rest of the class had enjoyed Denny’s explanation. She noticed the faces of the guys Denny had been at odds with in class watching him with respect. “Maybe those workouts were a good idea, Den.”
“Not much question about that.” Denny took his seat, putting his book out in front of him. “Like Mike told me, it’s not likely to break bones in my hands if I go to the body hard.”
“Aren’t you going to read?” Joanie had already opened her book to chapter six as directed by Evers with Melissa doing the same thing next to them.
“I…I’ve already read the book,” Denny replied self-consciously. “We can include history in the tutorial sessions if you want.”
“I’m looking forward to our group gig on Sunday,” Mellissa whispered, while leaning over toward her two friends.
“That makes one of us,” Joanie mumbled to herself.
* * *
“Denny!”
Mike approached Denny as he exited his last class for the day. It was the Physics class with seniors and a couple of juniors. Nate Denkins, one of the seniors unhappy during the opening week with being in the same class as sophomore Denny, ‘The Curve Killer’, moved around him and avoided Mike completely. Other seniors Denny had been at odds with walked by him, either patting him on the shoulder or exchanging ‘see ya’s’. Two of the senior girls Mike knew were very popular in his class made sure they spoke to Denny on the way by.
“I heard about your history class adventure. Is everything okay?”
Denny nodded, walking away with Mike. “Joanie’s going to meet me outside Kincaid’s class. The rumors are flying about Rory, I hear.”
Mike smiled. “Yeah they are, brother. Word is Rory had done a speedball before starting the day. With his parents’ permission they made him get a blood and urine test. It didn’t go well for him. You put the ‘Fitz’ to him, huh?”
“Yeah, Mike, and it worked perfectly, as did that right hand blocking strike you showed me. Everybody’s been super nice to me since history class. I guess turning in my ‘weenie’ card might work for me after all.”
“Small doubt about that, my friend. I’ll see you and Joanie out by the car, or do you want me to go along too, and wait outside the classroom?”
“We’ll be fine, Mike. See ya’ in a few.”
Mike watched his friend stride away, thinking yep, definitely not the same old Denny.
Chapter Seven
Trap Avoidance
Joanie met Denny near Kincaid’s class, where she had been watching whether Kincaid left her classroom right away or stayed inside for a time. Luckily Kincaid was still busily marking papers at her desk. Joanie nervously pulled Denny aside.
Denny squeezed her hand reassuringly. “You’re over thinking this. I can tell. Let me do the talking unless she asks you something directly. C’mon.”
Inside Kincaid’s classroom, the English teacher looked up with a smile seeing Denny walking toward her. Denny saw her features change slightly when she noticed Joanie. “Hi, you two. I heard about the excitement in Mr. Evers’ class. What’s up?”
“Nothing about the history class thing, Ms. Kincaid. Joanie was wondering if she could get in on the college credit project with me.”
Kincaid’s smile fled for a split second, but then returned. “I wish she could, Denny. This is a one on one project with a thesis due at the conclusion which can’t be done as a partnership project. I’m working on my own thesis using what we accomplish. Let me see if I can set up another credit opportunity for you later, Joanie.”
“Thank you, Ms. Kincaid,” Joanie answered. “That would be awesome. I’d really appreciate anything you could do.”
“Of course, Joanie, we’ll work something out for you too. You’re an exceptional student, and I’m happy to do what I can with promising students. It will have to wait in this case though. Would tomorrow night be too soon for us to start, Denny? There is a rather narrow window of opportunity to get this thesis in.”
“I’m sure I can make it, Ms. Kincaid,” Denny replied, nodding at Joanie that he already had enough time to snatch the ESN. “I’m really looking forward to working on this with you. Tomorrow is fine.”
“Great! I’ll see you then,” Ms. Kincaid said. “I’m sure we’ll be able to formulate an impressive dual paper that will further both of our careers. Nice seeing you, Joanie, as always. I’ll stir up something in your court real soon too.”
“How’d we do?” Joanie whispered outside the class.
“We got it. There’s not much doubt this whole thing is a setup just like we thought. Did you see Kincaid’s face when I suggested you join us?”
“Yeah. Mike’s going to be real thrilled with this new tweak on Demon Inc. Now we have competitors trying to create scandals in order to knock us out of a network contract, and others seeing dollar signs trying to bludgeon their way into the operation. What next?”
Denny put his arm around Joanie’s shoulders. “We all hang together tight from now on. Everything will have to be thought through. With the money involved I should have anticipated something like this.”
Joanie leaned into him. “You’re the weapons master, not the all-knowing oracle. I like your thinking. We’ll be a lot more observant about our interactions with everybody outside Demon Inc. I think you should take Demon with you tomorrow night and let D sniff out the possibilities.”
“I’m with you. Mike and D can go with me to recon tomorrow’s supposed mentoring session before it occurs. D senses this evil. He’s our best chance to get on top of this new wrinkle. Besides, I recorded our meeting with Kincaid. I’ll record tomorrow’s get together on video too.”
“Huh? What do mean you recorded this meeting?”
Denny twisted slightly while they walked down the hall, pointing at what looked like a small button on his shirt. “It’s a miniature camera. Mr. Corbett and I have been shopping for back up wireless devices for Demon Inc’s encounters. I used mine the first time on the Hornet and then again at that warehouse on Saturday. The video views we get from them will be spliced into our presentation. We’ve decided on this model. It’s HD with all the bells and whistles. Everyone will wear one. I was going to pitch this to you before but you reacted so badly about our weekend encounters I didn’t think you’d do it.”
Joanie grabbed his arm, jerking Denny to a halt. Her features betrayed complete bewilderment as to what he was trying to tell her. “Do what?”
“You’ve seen that old ‘Aliens’ movie where the idiot Lieutenant watches each member’s vital signs and predicaments as they went into the nest where they got clobbered, right?”
“You want me and Laura to run a command center. That is so cool! I promise… no more drama queen! The
idea is incredible for safety and production.”
“It will only work if the two of you in the command center can watch us in battle dispassionately. If either of you freak, we’ll all be hearing your panicked blasts in our ears while we’re trying to survive. We’ll have cameras on the back of our harnesses too, so we’ll be depending on warnings of anything sneaking up on us. It won’t be as easy to monitor the cameras as you might think at first.”
Joanie nodded. “Yeah, the images will be all over the place. It will take brilliant women to decipher the danger and threat level. It’s incredible!”
Denny took her arm. “C’mon. Mike will be waiting. We’re going to install large multiple screens too, so you and Laura won’t be watching tiny windows on the notebook computers. This will work for our more mundane operations too when we figure out what Demon wants to do on a steady basis. Laura says we’re backed up with requests of all kind. Maybe when Mike gets his MMA match over on Saturday, and we figure what the game is with Kincaid and Ansel, we’ll be able to try on one of these other cases.”
“I forgot all about Mike having a match coming up this weekend. I’m not going this time. When Mike dislocated Santana’s shoulder in the last fight, that was enough fight club for me. My Mom says she’s going no matter what. Are you going?”
“Of course. I’m filling in with your Dad to take Stan and Jerry’s places. They have a football game Saturday afternoon so they won’t be able to work Mike’s corner. I don’t think your Dad likes watching the match close up, but the guys can’t play, and still make it to the match. I need to have the equipment ready while your Dad takes care of the cuts and swelling.” Denny pointed as they cleared the building toward the student parking lot. “Yep, there’s Mike. You can bet he was wondering how we’d do. I’ll fire up my laptop when we get in the car and double check our video and the ESN numbers.”
Mike acknowledged their approach with a smile and wave. “You both are in one piece so I guess your acting stint went okay. Find out anything one way or the other on Kincaid?”
“We think she’s setting us up,” Joanie answered. “Her excuse was okay about not wanting me in on it, but her facial expression pointed toward setup.”
“Joanie suggested taking Demon over to Kincaid’s place tomorrow night. I think it’s a good idea. Do you think you could take me over there with D, Mike?”
“I’m with you. If there was any question about her honesty with the extra credit offer, I want D to sniff it out if he can. I’ll walk him up there with you, let him get a read one way or another, and then go back to the car. We’ll wait for you to finish up. How’d the camera work?”
“I’ll know shortly,” Denny replied as they reached Mike’s Chevy. “I told Joanie our plan for her and Laura working a command center type bank of screens.”
“I’ll do it, Mike. No little girl hissy fits either. We’ll have your backs. I like being part of Demon Inc. I don’t want anything to do with facing off with those things. They scare the crap out of me.” Joanie entered the passenger side front while Denny went into the back with his laptop.
“It would have been a distraction for me too, Sis.” Mike started the Chevy and drove out of the parking lot. “Having a command center with video screens really will help. Do you think those little cameras are durable enough to put on our helmets, Den?”
“I’m going with those action ones that are like miner’s lights for our helmets. I know they’ll take a beating. Plus, we can adjust a couple of them to aim above so we don’t get any more surprises with those suckers dropping on our heads. I hated that on the Hornet. I thought for sure we were going to lose someone that night. Oh yeah! This came out great, Mike. You can even see Kincaid’s expression change when we sprung our Joanie joining us surprise.”
Mike stopped on the side of the road and reached back for Denny’s laptop. “I have to see this. Ansel didn’t try and force something though, like Kincaid moving up the project to tomorrow night. I guess if they’re taking the same phone calls from the same number we’ll have our proof though. Wow, this is clear. That mini-cam is awesome. Yep, you’re right. The smile drops and the eyes narrow. Even her voice changes.” Mike handed the laptop back. “We’re on for tomorrow night with Demon. It looks like we’ll have a lot more to be watching out for in the future.”
“I already texted everyone about our suspicions,” Denny replied. “When millions are involved there will be problems. In a way this is a great wake up call. No harm done, and we’ll be watching for this kind of trap in the future.”
Joanie spun around to face Denny. “Hey! What about how Kincaid’s going to pull this off? It can’t be just her word against yours. If she uses a hidden cam, Kincaid won’t get to spend any ill gotten gains because they’d toss her into prison and throw away the key.”
“Damn… that’s right. To make a scandal out of it and not some perverted blackmail scheme she’d need to pretend shock and surprise for the camera. This still ends her teaching career no matter what. She must be making a lot of money off this gig.”
Mike’s hands tightened on the steering wheel as they turned up the street to the Rawlins’ home. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this. There is one way Kincaid could get her money and stay out of trouble by playing the victim.”
“Rape? Me?” Denny chuckled, immediately perceiving what Mike was suggesting. “Good luck to her pulling that off.”
“I can think of a way,” Mike continued while parking the Chevy in front of his house. “She attempts to seduce you. She tears her clothing and screams. A cameraman comes to her rescue through the unlocked door - supposedly just passing by, and heard the scream with her fighting you off while calling rape. She explains to the police about the extra credit project and you losing control. Done deal.”
“It would keep her in the clear while burying you,” Joanie agreed.
Denny sat still, shaking his head. “I know you’re probably right. Big money changes people, but thinking of Ms. Kincaid as some money grubbing villain entrapping an underage teen hobbit is a little much.”
Both Joanie and Mike laughed at the teen hobbit pronouncement.
“Come in and get a snack before my friends arrive for the tutoring session, Frodo,” Joanie said. “Will you still be going with Mike to work out tonight?”
“Yep. I need to keep up my fighting skills so Kincaid doesn’t kick my ass too badly.”
“We’ll work on your defense tonight if you want, Frodo,” Mike said, going along with the joke as the teens exited the car. “I can tell you one thing: she’ll be on her own as far as her cohort with a camera goes. D will sniff that sucker out before you ever go inside. She’ll have to do some seducing for her plan to work, which you’ll have on video witnessed in our new command center by Laura and Joanie. I’ll film the sneaking cohort outside while you film the seductress.”
Joanie followed her two companions toward the house. “Why do we have to go so far with this, Mike? If she starts screaming, it won’t matter whether you get her partner or not. You’ll both end up on the hook because you’re all male including D. Females screaming rape get the benefit of the doubt. No amount of video witnessing will survive the first reaction from responders. I need to go with you guys.”
Denny halted so fast Joanie bumped into him. “What happened to watching our backs from the command center?”
Joanie reached up and gripped Denny’s ear, shaking it slightly. “Here’s how we do it. We go through the whole premise of this setup on camera with the three of us. Then we out it on video and in person. Having me along will cement the whole thing. We’re not facing ghosts.”
“I like your thinking, Sis. We’ll incorporate your plan, but with one minor change. You ain’t going. Mom and Dad would rip me a new one taking you into a situation like that. I’ll have to run this by Mom and Dad first even where it concerns me, because there ain’t no way in hell I’m doing this mission behind their backs.”
“Mike!” Joanie stomped her feet plaintive
ly. “You know they’ll freak a little but they’d let me go! Please… I can do this.”
Mike grabbed his sister’s shoulders tightly, hunching down to look into her eyes. “I respect your insight on this. I like your ideas, and I’ll bring along a female. It won’t be you though. I’ll ask Gail. She knows the score and her Dad will have no problem with it. C’mon Sis, don’t back off from your command center only statement. You’ll be watching and backing us up live. It doesn’t matter if ghosts are involved or not. Mom and Dad have enough to deal with. Let’s think about their feelings for a change.”
Joanie tried to hold Mike’s piercing eye lock but failed. She shrugged him off and nodded, looking away. “You’re right. That you thought of Gail immediately as a replacement will fire up my payback action with Laura sitting next to me anyway.”
“Why you little…” Mike watched Joanie twist and head for the door with a slight grin. He exchanged knowing glances with Denny. “So, Den, how are we on a manipulating women scale for today, buddy?”
“We’re oh for three, brother… so far.”
Mike walked toward his front door. “Yeah… that would be my take on it too. Could you maybe flirt your way with Joanie’s friends to the point it will make her mouth purse, and eyes narrow, in that manner where everyone in the room knows she’s pissed off but she has to do it quietly?”
Denny chuckled. “I’ll do what I can.”
“That’s all I ask.”
* * *
Mike and Denny walked into the gym where the mixed martial arts club met to train a little late due to traffic. One of the volunteer coaches, Derek Patterson, who also worked on the local MMA board, halted everyone as the two teens walked in. Carl Jenkins, his fellow coach, ran over to take the equipment bag out of Mike’s hand. The other fighters began an undercurrent of amusement as they figured what was coming.
“Let me get that for you, Mr. Rawlins. You’re famous now.” When Jenkins looked up and saw Mike’s scar, he dropped the bag. “Holy shit, Mike. That thing really tagged you. Pat, get over here and see this.”
Demon Inc (The Mike Rawlins Series Book 2) Page 9