by Estes, Danny
“Then I’ve no choice,” she said. “You know, the high school I attended had a very nice coffee shop across the street. I’ll see you there.”
She turned a corner so fast Randolph had no time to prepare. Once the car straightened out, Jill stomped down on the brakes and surprised Randolph with a right cross, hard enough to cause stars to dance about his eyes. While his world remained in a daze, Jill disengaged his buckle and opened the passenger door without completely stopping. Shoved out, Randolph hit the pavement with enough sense to roll and heard Jill call out as she drove away, “I love you!”
Shaken after his tumble, Randolph gained his feet and stepped off the street moments before two squad cars, sirens blaring, sped by. To clear his mind, Randolph leaned on the building towering over him and shook out the remaining stars. Once able to think, he cussed under his breath at Jill’s idiocy, adjusted his clothes, and set off at a causal walk in the opposite direction.
The fact he never saw that coming had him mumbling; the fact she did it so deftly made him truly consider their differences. Jill was trained for uncontrolled action in combat situations of life and death where he was but a liability. By tossing him out on his ear, she knew she’d lead the chase after her so he could escape in his own way while she could do the same in hers. Even so, her last words didn’t make his knowledge any easier, nor did it help to know she was sacrificing herself for him.
Randolph took a deep breath and sighed with guilt, knowing how he’d been trying to handle their relationship when Jill had been straight up with him all along. And of course this doubled his regret as he stuffed his hands into pockets and joined the street crowd, heading for the nearest monorail station, trying to hold back his deteriorating emotions.
A day after Jill left him on the street, Randolph located The School House Coffee Cup, across the street from her old high school, with but a simple search program any six-year-old could use. For the first few weeks after traveling to Fresno, located in what was the middle of old California before it had been gutted by large corporations, Randolph had shown up in the teenager-riddled coffee shop, dressed in a low-level business suit for the area, and quietly sat in a street-side table reading a hard copy of the local news while he sipped on a medium-sized decaf cappuccino.
Thus far the local paper, which Randolph deftly used as a shield against video cameras and direct eye contact with the high-spirited kids, had revealed no outcome to Jill’s mad dash down a one-way street in Harcuss. And although the news videos were of the same useless information regarding her flight, Randolph wondered how much longer he could give Jill before moving on. Although no videos of her capture had appeared as yet, lack of news in no way proved she’d escaped. It was quite possible the FBFC was withholding such information in the hopes she could be broken and learn of his whereabouts. Though Randolph hated such thoughts, he had to face the hard truth; given time, drugs will break the hardest of men, which meant he’d been coming to the coffee shop for far too long. With a heavy heart, Randolph finished off his cooling drink and set the cup down with a sigh. It’s best I moved on, he firmly told himself. For Jill’s sake, I’ll forget about Mr. Hilden for the time being and contact the senator for a target he’d like information on so he’ll proceed on Jill’s military case.
Randolph folded the paper as he stood, kept his face turned down and away from the video cameras as he paid for lunch in hard credits and strolled out of the quaint little place for the last time. Breathing in the cold air, Randolph shrugged his jacket tighter about his shoulders to ward off the chill and hopefully stave off his emotions, which were threatening to override his good judgment. Unable to stop himself, Randolph paused at the entrance of the shop, whispered a gentle, “Farewell Jill,” then stepped out into the moving crowd and headed for his apartment.
With a feeling of remorse, as if he left apart of himself in the coffee shop, Randolph walked the block and a half battling an inner argument when he was startled by an arm sliding around his own and Jill’s lovely voice playing patty cake with his heart.
“Hello, sweetie, I nearly missed you with that beard and shades.”
Randolph seized his startled emotions, and settled instead for an un-noteworthy turn of his head to plant a kiss to her forehead, before he whispered, with a tremor in his voice, “And I’ve really missed you too.”
“Is that for a fact?” Jill smiled up at him as her eye shifted.
“Yes, Jill, I’m afraid you have me hooked,” he assured her with moisture blurring his eyes.
Jill hugged his arm even tighter as they walked like any other couple in love and confessed after they stepped into an elevator, “I’ve waited a very long time to hear someone say that to me. Even so, can you truly say the words instead of hinting around them?”
“As I’ve never said the L-word to anyone other than my mother, it might take me some time.” Randolph smiled, leading her off the elevator and down the hall in his apartment building. Jill lowered her face and became quiet as he opened the door. With a motion for her to precede him, Randolph made sure the door was closed and locked before he spun her around and pulled her into his arms, allowing her to see the passion blazing within his eyes before he confessed to her and to himself, “I love you, Jill, both of you!” Then took her lips hungrily.
Chapter Twenty
What they did to each other for the next two hours would never make any record books, but Randolph did believe their love making was somehow that much more enriching, now that he’d admitted openly how he felt about her. The both of them, he amended.
Reluctantly Randolph surfaced for air and caught his breath when he heard her stomach complain of emptiness. With a smile at Jill’s girlish giggle, Randolph ordered a simple pizza for delivery and entangled himself in her arms a few more minutes before he pulled out to install himself in a cumbersome robe in forced readiness for the door bell to ring.
Once settled at the kitchen table in separate chairs, enjoying the cheese pizza while they sipped elegant wine meant for special occasions, Jill’s harder self filled Randolph in on her adventures between bites and sips, finishing with, “And as far as I know, I was able to clear the city without killing anybody.”
“I’m very proud of you, Jill.” Randolph smiled happily.
“Please, Randolph, could you use the word love in place of my name now and again? It means so much to hear someone finally say it and mean it. That is, if you’re feelings apply to me as well.”
Randolph gave her a light smile. “I’ll do my best, and yes, love, I’ve fallen for you both.”
Randolph motioned Jill to follow him to the couch with glass in hand and settled her on his lap. Without the need of any prodding, Jill did as motioned but once settled on his lap, she asked, “I’m far to keyed up in emotions to settle down as yet, so why don’t you clue me in on what I did wrong?”
Embracing Jill, knowing she was wondering in how she gave the two of them away, Randolph shifted her weight a bit more comfortably on his lap and explained. “You did nothing wrong at all—that trap was set for me, but not me personally.” When Jill looked in his eyes with puzzlement, Randolph continued, “What they were doing is probably a prelude to a new system designed to catch system hackers. I imagine they were testing it at the school, using the kids in the computer course to ferret out bugs in the programming. You see, there really wasn’t anything wrong with the drives, the worm I ran across only showed up because I was hacking, and as all hackers do when confronted with a worm, I tried to work around it, and in doing so, I found the built-in signature leading me to believe someone at the college designed it. Thus when your other self showed up asking about it, they couldn’t believe they caught someone.”
“You mean someone like her,” she said with a snort.
“Well, yeah, but regardless, they fed you the pre-discussed story, I’m assuming, and followed you back to the apartment, whereby they called the police.”
“Okay, I’ll buy that, but how did you know it was a tra
p?”
“I didn’t. I was just being paranoid,” Randolph confessed.
Jill leaned away from Randolph and looked him in the eyes for a moment before taking a sip of wine and nuzzling his neck and whispering softly, “My lover, the paranoid thief.” Jill remained close for a few seconds before she pulled away and told him in a demanding voice, “You are going to shave that thing off before coming to bed tonight.”
Randolph rubbed the weeks’ worth of growth and wondered how long it took to get used to the itching before he reasonably agreed he would follow her request.
The next morning while enjoying a spicy omelet with onions, bell peppers, tomatoes and bits of sausage, Jill smacked her lips in delight and asked, “So what’s our next move on this Hilden character?”
With a motion of his hand to ask Jill if she wished any more grapefruit juice in her glass, Randolph admitted, “None. We scrub the task and check in on the senator’s list of targets.”
“Now, sweetie, I seem to recall you saying he was our retirement fund,” Jill reminded Randolph mildly, pointing her fork at him before dipping into the hash browns. “Besides, he owes you.”
“True, but the area is far too hot right now.”
“Now, now, a hot LZ only quickens the blood flow, making one’s eye sight sharp and the mind focused, so I’ll ask again, what’s our next move?”
Randolph looked at his lover over his own partially-eaten breakfast and shook his head before he added fresh ground pepper to his hash browns. When he didn’t agree in any physical signs, Jill added, “What’s the first rule in any undertaking?”
“Jill, the subject is closed. They have a description of you and a hot sheet for me. Mr. Hilden’s not stupid; you don’t get to where he’s at being so. He knows I risked a lot to get you out and seeing your description on the watch sheets, he’ll dig further and see my MO in the way I destroyed all the DNA with a bolt hole waiting in case of emergencies.”
“Oh come off it, Randolph, you’re not the only hacker who takes precautions.”
“Maybe not, but I’ll lay you odds I’m the only one who has a very competent and beautiful ex-military partner backing him up.”
Jill cocked her head at Randolph with a light smile touching her lips to his endearment before she told him, “I thank you for that praise, but my mind is made up. As you have done so much for me, how can I not help you take down the one man who’s screwed you royally?”
“I didn’t say I wouldn’t take him down,” Randolph backtracked in his statement after he swallowed the last of his omelet, “I just said the area’s too hot to attempt at this time.”
“And trying to live a half-normal life together will be pretty impossible with that contract out on our heads, so no, Randolph, we either go in your way, or I’ll take him out my way, because I’m not about to let him live while we worry when we’ll be assassinated.”
Randolph put his fork down and rubbed his clean shaven face in irritation while staring at her. In answer to Randolph’s look, Jill put her own fork down, leaned away from the table and folded her arms.
“I mean it, Randolph, I’ll kill him, his lawyer, his staff and begin working down the list in the city corporation till someone takes us off that hit list.”
Randolph wiped his face, having lost his appetite for the last of the meal.
Jill, on the other hand, swallowed the last of her juice before she pushed away from the table and in getting up, declared, “I’ll give you today to decide. In the meantime, I’ve someplace I wish to visit before we leave town.”
“Where are you off to?”
“At present, that’s none of your business,” Jill threw over her shoulder.
“You’ll put your family at risk if you contact them.”
Jill turned and glared at Randolph before heading for the bedroom to get dressed.
“I mean it, Jill,” he called after her, “you’ll only bring them grief.” But then Randolph got to thinking about family and realized Jill was ultimately right. Whoever picked up their contract would only look so long before targeting both their families in order to draw them out into the open. Randolph sighed with disgust and put his face in his hands and his elbow on the table, feeling trapped between two vicious killers who held no values on life as he did save for one difference—Jill’s value of right and wrong was far preferable over Mr. Hilden’s. So hearing the door close some moments later, Randolph remained at the table considering the concept of what needed to be done. Mr. Hilden now knew he’d work out of an apartment building as well as warehouses, so what other avenues did that leave him in gaining the intelligence to Hilden’s vast holdings?
For no small amount of time, Randolph drummed his fingers on the table top and stared at Jill’s vacant seat before an idea began forming. Abandoning the cold meal without cleaning up, Randolph sat on the couch, pulled out his palm computer, and began noninvasive inquiries into city maintenance, layouts and underground maps and piping. It wasn’t until the smell of chicken chow mein drew Randolph’s appetite out later that evening when he noticed Jill quietly watching him on the couch next to him. With a smile to her offer of Chinese takeout, Randolph realized Jill had started to learn his way of tuning out the world when he was deep at work in his world of electronic information. Gratefully accepting a carton, Randolph also took up the chopsticks she wasn’t using and opened a package of soy sauce.
“First off, I don’t like being pushed into anything, understand?” Randolph said plainly before taking a bite.
“Yes, love,” Jill answered over her sweet and sour pork.
“And second, don’t let this go to your head, but you’re right. Mr. Hilden has to go down and not because of your threat but rather for the welfare of our families.”
“I wondered when you’d see that,” Jill said over a sip of cold beer, tilting the bottle his way in offering.
“All right,” Randolph said, waving the offer off. Then softening his voice he asked, “So tell me, how is your family doing?”
“As far as I could see with my binoculars, they’re doing well, I just—I just wish I could have talked with them, let them know why I did what I did.”
Randolph looked on her sad face and reached out and took her hand. “They will. I’ll make certain the senator shames the military by condoning your actions for doing what should have been done.”
Jill gave Randolph a half smile before she finished off her meal and started in on cleaning up the kitchen.
A couple of weeks later, Randolph wiped sweat off his brow from the overpowering heat of the city’s tunnels, even in the dead of winter, and rubbed his hands clean on a rag before he activated his program. With luck, by noon tomorrow he’d have the blue prints of Mr. Hilden’s home and he’d be able to match them up with the videos Jill had taken for him yesterday. Today, however, as Randolph gathered intel on the electric highway, Jill was out doing the same on the people surrounding Mr. Hilden, as it would help to know who was guarding him and how efficient they were at their jobs.
Randolph shifted his weight trying to find a more comfortable position on the five gallon oil can he was using as a seat, still musing over Jill’s cavalier manner of having to live in the sewers, as they were out of credits. Completely taped city, he’d explained, hell—they couldn’t even afford a tooth brush unless he did some pick-pocking. And that bit of exposure was annexed, being Mr. Hilden had upped the ante by plastering posters of Randolph’s mug all over the city with a sizable amount to entice even the mildest of citizens to cash him in if he were spotted. When his bottom agreed to his new position, Randolph reflected over Jill’s light comment, “War is hell,” before he settled back into the piping and conduits. After lacing his fingers behind his head, he eyed the antiquated computer and monitor screen Jill had acquired out of a dumpster and waited patiently for its CPU to churn out his program. This single-tasking was irritating but necessary, as he would over-tax the memory banks with Jill’s videos that should render the normal devices installed in
walls and roofs to discourage the average everyday thief. Once Randolph identified these, he could examine the videos frame by frame for the security systems in place for the real professionals. Once he labeled these, he’d look even harder for the new ones now installed simply just for him. Paranoid, me? You betcha!
While Randolph was relaxing in the oppressing heat, Jill tromped into view and plopped down on her can, flipping a chip his way. “Sorry, boss, we hit a snag.”
“Oh?” Randolph chimed in as requested.
“I had this rather rude but well-dressed guy and his cronies come up to me on the street and tell me in no uncertain terms was I never to approach Hilden’s property’s again.” Jill looked rather put off by the incident, but was trying to hide it by calmly examining her finger nails.
“Let’s see, gray-eyed and built like a wall?”
“A bit sexy looking, but yeah, that’s him,” Jill admitted.
“That’ll be Mr. Stanton, Mr. Hilden’s right-hand muscle and dirty job enforcer.”
Jill took out a plastic nail file and retorted, “A bit of a coward isn’t he?”
“How so?”
“Needing all those guys to get up the gumption to tell little old me off,” she replied, adjusting the single light fixture in the cubby hole to better see her fingers.
“It may appear that way to you, but remember, Mr. Hilden’s no fool, he’d have given Mr. Stanton your jacket file and knowing who he’s up against, I’d imagine he’d take all precautions in addressing any woman of your build.”
Jill eyed Randolph over the working file. “If I’d wanted him dead, no amount of back up would have saved him.”
“And that flows two ways—by not killing you, he’s telling me to give it my best shot.”
“I thought you said he didn’t recognize me?”
“That wouldn’t stop him from killing a perfectly innocent stranger if it would achieve a goal. After all, he did kill an innocent woman in the park simply to get me framed for her murder while they framed me for blowing up the Henderson’s home.”