by Rick Dakan
Hearing Raff relate this particular bit of nastiness made Paul sit up in his chair. He'd known that they were up to something hard core, but threatening an innocent man's daughter, even if she wasn't in any real danger, made Paul realize just how nasty they could be. A part of him wanted to just sneak out the back door and never look back. But the desire to find out how the story ended and why they'd involved him made Paul stay put and listen to Raff as he continued the tale.
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The next morning the CFO woke to a message taped to his front door - instructions on where and when to drop off the flash drives and fake carbon monoxide detectors. That only left him a few hours to copy the files and go. After he made the drop off he'd receive a telephone number to call and find out where his daughter was.
"And it looks like everything worked as planned," said Chloe. "Raff, how did your meeting with the target go?
I heard he tried to pull some shit. You look ok, though. Must not have actually tried anything, otherwise I know he would've beat your skinny ass." Everyone laughed at that, including Raff. He still hadn't heard anything about why Raff had called him in. Apparently even Chloe thought Raff was supposed to make the pickup.
"Actually," said Raff, "I was afraid the guy would make me. I wanted a fresh face for the pickup. So I brought in a stringer."
"What the fuck?" said Chloe, "Why in fuck's name wasn't I told about this?"
"I'm sorry Chloe, but I didn't have time. I got a little spooked and..."
"Whatever, Raff," she interrupted, pissed off. "So who'd you get? It wasn't Leo again was it, because that fucker..."
"It was Paul."
"Paul who?"
"You know, Paul, Paul. Your Paul."
There was a long of silence, which Paul took as his cue. He wondered if Raff had planned it this way - or was it just happy circumstance that he'd waited out of sight in the kitchen for the whole debriefing? It didn't really matter now - he knew a dramatic moment to enter when he heard it. He walked into the living room and saw Chloe standing on the far side of the room, the much taller Raff right beside her. Like everyone else she was staring right at him. He enjoyed being the center of attention again. It was a nice change from the past couple weeks, when everyone had ignored him so studiously. He especially liked the fact that he was so obviously catching Chloe totally by surprise. That was a rare treat.
"I thought I heard someone call my name," said Paul. "What's going on?" Several of the Crew chuckled at that.
Chloe tore her gaze from Paul and fixed Raff in his chair where he sat a few feet to her left. "What the fuck, Raff? What. The. Fuck?"
"I don't have..." Raff started to reply.
"You know what, Raff, just forget it for now. We'll have this conversation later. You can bet for sure that you and I will have fucking words." She glared at Raff for a long moment, her whole body tense with anger, but she was trying to act normal and keep it under control. She then turned to Paul and smiled as best she could, beckoning him over to her side. "Paul, come up here. Why don't you finish the story? Let's see here, you don't look too worse for wear." He made his way through the crowd to the front of the room. She pulled up his shirt to reveal the black and blue bruise creeping up his lower back. "Shit, that old guy hit you pretty good. What happened?"
Paul told his own tale as it had happened, starting with the phone call and ending with piling into the van with CHAPTER 18
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Raff and the others. He added a few little embellishments and jokes in there to lighten the mood, which the rest of the Crew seemed to appreciate. Raff himself laughed the hardest at most of these. Chloe just stood next to him with her arm comfortably slung around his waist. Her touch fueled his storytelling and he dragged his brief tale out as long as he could.
When he'd finished, Chloe led the others in giving him a brief round of applause in appreciation for his good work. Then she spoke to Raff again.
"So, who the hell was this other clown who tackled Paul here? How come we didn't know about this guy?"
she asked, anger creeping back into her voice.
"I don't know," said Raff, still calm and genial. "He looked familiar but I couldn't place him."
"I think I know," said Bee, raising her hand like an overachiever in school. "Is this him?" She held up her laptop with the screen pointed out so Chloe, Paul, and Raff could see it. There was a pic of the man who'd tackled Paul a few hours earlier. It had been taken at night, apparently in a parking lot.
"That's him," Paul said. "Who is he?"
"He's someone the CFO had dinner with several nights ago. It's one of the few conversations he's had that we couldn't overhear. My guess is that he took the opportunity to bring him in the loop on what was going on. If I had to bet, I'd say he's some sort of Private Investigator or security consultant."
"Fuck," said Raff. "I'm sorry, Paul. If I'd known, I never would've called you in."
"Which is exactly why we don't fucking call people in for no Goddamned reason," said Chloe, almost shouting.
"It's ok, Chloe," interjected Paul. "I'm glad I helped. It was good to finally get in on what the rest of you were doing. You know, get in on the fun."
Chloe fixed Paul with an intense look and started to say something that Paul suspected would've been quite vicious. Instead, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, aware that the entire room was watching them.
"We'll talk about this shit later. Right now let's finish things up."
Paul sat down on the floor near Chloe's feet (about the only free space left in the crowded living room) while she presided over the ritual that the Crew performed every time they completed a job. Everyone handed over disks and files to Chloe and Raff and gave their word that there was no record of anything they'd done left on any computer anywhere. Bee collected any surveillance gear and other technical gewgaws that had been used during the extensive surveillance. They officially cut all ties with the CFO and everyone swore to never have any contact with him again.
With the ritual complete, the celebration began. Raff had already been in contact with Fruch and he'd agreed to make the payment tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully they'd double or triple their profits if Fruch agreed to pay an extra finder's fee in exchange for the very high quality data they'd managed to secure. But no one seemed too worried about that right now. They were too busy digging through the coolers for beer, breaking out bongs, and popping pills.
Chloe helped Paul to his feet, saying, "Thanks, Paul. I'm really sorry Raff did that to you. It shouldn't have ever happened like that."
"Chloe, listen, it's ok..." he started to say.
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"No. No it's not. We've got rules and Raff broke them." Her eyes darted across the room to where Raff stood with Kurt and Filo, laughing. "I can't have this kind of shit going on. This is the way people end up in jail."
"I wanted to help, Chloe. Don't you get that? I wanted to..."
Again she cut him off. "Not right now, ok?" she said, her voice pleading with him to just let it be for the moment. "Could you do me a favor and get us something to drink?"
Paul looked into her eyes. She was not in the mood for him right now. Maybe a drink would do her some good. Even with three beers in him already, he knew it would help him. "Sure, absolutely." He gave her a quick kiss on the lips. "I'll be right back."
He wove through the crowd back into the kitchen to get beer. As he leaned over the cooler, someone came up behind him and gave him a bear hug from behind, "Hey there killer!" said Bee in a tone hyper even for her.
"Nice work."
"Nothing to it," said Paul, as he turned around to face her. She drew back from him and revealed a small white pill in her hand. "This is for you. Take it while Chloe has a word or four with Raff. It should kick in after about half an hour"
Paul paused for a beat before taking the pill from her and popping it his mouth. He assumed it was ecstasy, which he'd only tried a couple of other t
imes. But he trusted Bee, and if he'd found out anything, it was that Crew always had access to high quality narcotics. Bee watched him swallow the pill and then produced one for herself. She flashed him a goofy grin and downed it. Then she skipped off into the crowd, handing out pills to everyone she came in contact with.
By the time he came back into the living room, Chloe and Raff were nowhere to be seen. He talked with Popper for a while and drank both his and Chloe's beers. Then he finished Popper's as well. As the X started to kick in and euphoria washed over him, he searched the house in vain for Chloe. He heard shouting coming from inside the garage, but the door was locked. Were she and Raff having it out in there? Better let them be, he thought. No reason to get involved in some heavy shit like that.
Grabbing another beer from the cooler and another pill from Bee, Paul decided to wait for Chloe in her bedroom. As he lay down he thought he could still hear them shouting. But it might've been the music. It was hard to tell. And then he was asleep.
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CHAPTER 19
When he woke up the next morning, Paul's mouth tasted like he'd swallowed a pound of raw cotton. He was in a bed. Chloe's bed. He tried to recall how he'd gotten there and couldn't quite put all the pieces together. It took another moment to realize that he was still wearing all his clothes, sans shoes. That meant it was unlikely anything had happened between him and Chloe last night, which was probably for the best since if something had happened he would want to remember it. He heard the unmistakable sound of someone peeing from behind the bathroom door, followed by a flush and then the shower being turned on. He assumed that was Chloe.
Paul wondered once again just what the hell he was doing here. Things with Chloe weren't proceeding the way he wanted. At least not at the speed he wanted. Although, as he remembered the pills he'd taken last night, Paul realized that there was a good chance that this most recent romantic setback might have had more to do with his inability to handle his drugs rather than any lack of interest on her part. Still, he needed to take some initiative here - push things forward or get out of Dodge.
A few minutes later the shower stopped and Chloe stepped out into the bedroom. An oversized green towel was wrapped around her torso and she rubbed her short hair vigorously with a smaller white towel that had once belonged to a Holiday Inn. She noticed Paul looking at her.
"Hey there, sport. Finally awake huh?"
"Yeah," Paul croaked, his mouth still dry. "I was really out of it, huh?"
"Fucking right you were. Anyone ever tell you that you snore like a mother fucker?"
"I do have that reputation."
"Fortunately you respond well to a sharp elbow and the occasional shove, so I didn't lose too much sleep." She sat down on the bed next to her, tossing the small hotel towel to the floor.
"What'd Bee give me that knocked me out like that?" Paul asked as he levered himself up into a sitting position, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, and blinking to moisten his contacts.
"It was just some X. The same thing everyone else took. I dunno why it knocked you on your ass like that, although I'm guessing it was all the beer, not the drugs." She felt his forehead briefly. "You feeling ok?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Just thirsty." He swallowed a few times, trying to work up a coating of saliva in his dry throat.
"Lemme get you a glass of water," said Chloe. She hopped up and went back into the bathroom to fill a glass from the sink. "Listen, Paul, again, I'm sorry Raff pulled you into that job like that. I chewed him a new asshole, last night, I tell you."
"I keep trying to tell you, it's ok, Chloe, really it is." The cool glass of water brought instant relief and he sounded much more awake now. "I actually enjoyed it."
"You enjoyed getting beat down by an old guy? I knew you were a kinky little fuck."
"Well no, not that part. And to be honest I'm kinda weirded out by the whole kidnapping thing, even if it was fake. It seemed sort of needlessly cruel. But I liked playing a role. I..."
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"Still," said Chloe, interrupting him. "If he wanted to get you involved, that wasn't the way. He used you, Paul. I know he thinks he was doing you a favor and I know you're happy now because everything came out ok, but that's not the way I do things. That's not the way we run this crew. We don't use people without fully briefing them."
"What do you mean?" asked Paul. "You use people all the time. I heard that whole debriefing last night you know. You used and abused that CFO. I mean, he obviously..."
"Stop right there, Paul. I know where you're going with that. Yes, we 'used' him. Sure we fucking used him, he was a Goddamned mark. Screwing around with guys like him is what we do. But you're a friend Paul.
You're my friend and I care about you and we don't fuck with people we care about."
"I appreciate that. I really do. But I don't want to be coddled or protected anymore. I want in. I want to be part of the crew."
Chloe looked at Paul hard for a long moment then turned away in disgust. She dropped he towel to the floor, exposing her naked backside to Paul. He stared openly as she bent down and pulled on a pair of shorts that were on the floor and put on a t-shirt before turning around and facing him.
"Why, Paul? Why would you want to do this? You've already gotten your payday. A bigger payday than any individual one of us is likely to see anytime soon. Why the fuck would you want to risk all that?"
"Because I need to do something. And I've never imagined anything like you people. Anyone like you, Chloe.
You're like some sort of..."
"We're not Peter Pan and the fucking Lost Boys, Paul. We're just not." She was almost yelling now. "This isn't for you. You should be drawing. You should be writing. You should be working on your next great game."
"But I thought that..."
"The answer is 'No,' Paul. I love having you here. You've become a good friend and I'm happy that I could help you make your score. But this life, it's not for you. It's a huge, life changing commitment to join a Crew, Paul. And frankly, you're not ready to make that decision. And you're sure as hell not making it for the right reasons. So just fucking drop it, ok?" She slammed the door open as she finished and strode out towards the front of the house.
"Well, fuck," said Paul, to no one in particular.
Fifteen minutes later Paul stepped out of the bathroom after his own quick shower and was surprised to find Raff lying on Chloe's bed, reading one of Paul's comic books. He was too tall for the bed, and his legs hung off one end. As always, he wore khakis and a polo-shirt from a tech company he'd never worked for. In this case, it was Sun Systems.
"Hey, Paul," he said, "Wanna go to Hobee's, get some breakfast?"
"Um..."
"Chloe left about five minutes ago. She looked pretty pissed."
Paul thought for a moment before answering. What the hell? He needed a break from this place anyway.
"Sure. Lemme just get dressed."
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"Great," said Raff as he went back to reading the comic. He showed no signs of letting Paul have any privacy.
Like Chloe, Paul dropped his towel after fishing some clean clothes out of his suitcase. Casual nudity seldom seemed to matter much with this crowd.
They rode to the restaurant without talking much, listening to two local politicians on KQED discuss a new bond issue that would be appearing on the ballot that fall. Neither of them cared a whit about it, but it gave Paul an excuse to try and collect his thoughts. He hadn't spent much time with Raff and wasn't sure how to act around him. Maybe this breakfast was his way of apologizing.
As they waited for the waiter, Paul finally broke the comfortable silence. "So it sounded like Chloe really laid into you last night."
"Oh yeah," said Raff. "She tore my head off, that's for sure. And she was right. Bringing you in was against the rules, but hell, we're freaking pirates right? We're supposed to break the rules."
&nb
sp; "So what's going to happen to you?"
"Oh nothing. I agreed to give up some of my share as punishment and I have to clean the bathrooms in Chloe's house for a week."
"Is that how it works when someone breaks the rules?"
"If I'd wanted, I could've had a hearing before the whole Crew, and then they'd have decided together, but that would've been a real downer. I'd already kind of figured on facing some sort of punishment, so I suggested this one."
"And Chloe was cool with that?" asked Paul, intrigued to learn more about how the Crew worked.
"Sure, of course. I mean, she was still mad as hell at me, but she knows a fair punishment when she hears one, and she didn't want a big group hearing anymore than I did."
"Why not?"
Raff smiled and shook his head. "They're just total buzz-killers. Everyone gets all serious and depressed and then people start yelling at each other. We've only done it twice and, well, no one wants to repeat that unless we have to."
The waiter arrived and took their orders. Paul had the breakfast scramble with home fries, as always. Raff went for pancakes. It wasn't until after they'd ordered their food that Raff revealed his true purpose. "I got into this for the money." Raff said. "I'm actually kind of unique in that way. I mean, I'm here because I wanted to make money and not have to work for anyone else."