by Dave Renol
“Shit,” he swore. “Is there anything else I need to do?”
“I told you everything I did, and it wasn’t anything special. Move over and let me show you.”
Linda had no better luck than Carl, and neither did I when I finally got my turn. We were obviously missing something, but none of us had a clue what it could be.
“Maybe there’s a clue in the regular text of the codex,” Carl said.
“Nope, nothing there even vaguely references the hidden portion.”
“Maybe you just haven’t gotten to it yet.”
“Nope, before we all got distracted by moving the node, I stuck my head out of the window to tell you boys that I was finished translating it. That’s the big news I was saving until the perfect time… surprise.”
“That’s great news,” I said, giving her a big hug and kiss. “To be perfectly honest, I’m amazed you could hold on to the news after how long and hard you’ve worked on it.”
“It wasn’t easy, but I took pride in being the only person in the world to know what it said.”
“So are you going to share it with us some day?” Carl asked.
“Of course,” she said, looking eager to tell her story now that the cat was out of the bag. “Tonight seems to be a bust, so why don’t we pack the codex away and…”
A familiar whistle coming from the trees caused us all to turn and stare. Claire came striding out of the brush and straight up to the table.
“Not the most attractive coloring book in the world, but who am I to judge. If y’all are done playing with it, can we talk a bit? I need some help pretty bad and have nobody else I can ask.”
Chapter 23
Linda: A Helping Hand
“Let’s all sit down and make ourselves comfortable so we can hear the whole story. Mark, can you build a fire for us?”
“Sure, dear.”
“I’ll help,” Claire offered. “I’m good at it.”
While Mark and Claire took care of that, Carl set up some chairs, and I put together a tray of snacks and drinks. It sounded like we were about to get the full truth out of her and I wanted to show some little bit of kindness to repay her trust.
They had everything almost ready by the time I came back out, and I almost laughed out loud when Mark started the fire with pyrokinesis and Claire jumped back several feet. I stifled the impulse, set the tray down, and returned to putting away the codex.
I thought I saw a flash of red runes as I folded the last page, but a second look convinced me it was just my imagination seeing a pattern in the flickering flames of the fire. I carefully returned it to my office and then hurried back to the group, not wanting to miss any part of the story. They were waiting for me, so I needn’t have worried.
“While I appreciate the trust you’re showing us by coming here tonight, I have to step back a bit and ask ‘why us’?” Carl began. “Don’t you have any family that would help you out in a pinch?”
“My ma died when I was just a little kid, my brother joined the army and got killed somewhere a million miles away from here, and my pop died when his still blew up one day.”
“You told us you’re eighteen, but you can’t be much older than that. Didn’t social services get you to someone else in your family after that?”
“They couldn’t find anyone so they stuck me in a foster home. I got out of there as fast as I could and headed for the hills. They made me do things I didn’t want to do.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said. “Abuse like that isn’t unheard of, but it’s not very common. You should have reported them to the police and gotten a new, better home.”
“Naw, I just meant they made me go to a public school full of clueless wimps. I’m better off on my own.”
“I could probably argue that point, but let’s let it go for now. Tell us about your current problems.”
“Well, it’s like this…”
She told us about how she had a plan to try saving the homeless shelter and soup kitchen, and how it backfired. I was furious when I heard how badly her friend got hurt and began to understand a little bit of why Carl pulled his hair-brained move of giving her ideas for dirty tricks.
I couldn’t believe it when she told us why she was now forced to work for Murphy… it was sickening. This whole thing had spiraled way out of control and I would still be inclined to help her, even if part of it wasn’t our fault.
I looked at the faces around me and found a look of grim determination on everyone. “I think I speak for all of us when I say we’re in. What do you need us to do?”
“I need a way to make Murphy keep his word about getting Sue back. Right now, there’s not much I can do to stop him from keeping me working for him forever, and the longer it takes, the worse things will be for her.”
“Did you have anything specific in mind?”
“I dunno what to do, that’s why I came to see if you guys had any ideas. Carl was pretty good at coming up with stuff the other day so I hoped he might be able do it again.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Carl said. “But let me think on it for a while before we start making concrete plans.”
“I’ll start out with the obvious question so we can get it out in the air,” Mark said. “I’m guessing you don’t want to involve the police, right?”
“That’s for sure. We can’t prove nothing, so they can’t do nothing. All they’ll wind up doing is stirring up a hornet’s nest of trouble for me and Sue.”
“I figured as much, but I had to ask.”
“What other ideas have you come up with and discarded?” I asked.
“Well, I figured I could simply kill the bastard, but then Sue would still be stuck wherever she is, so that won’t work. We could maybe torture it out of him, but I don’t feel comfortable with that.”
I found it interesting she could calmly talk about killing him, but turned squeamish when it came to inflicting pain. I nodded and waved for her to continue.
“I considered threatening him with pain or death or even burning everything he owns down to the ground, but he seems the kind of guy who would dig in his heels at being challenged. He might lose everything, but if he doesn’t give up Sue, then we still lose worse.”
“Does he know about your abilities?”
“Naw, he just thinks I’m the youngest master thief in the world or something.”
“Did you say you finished your ‘mission’ and got the thumb drive?” Carl asked.
“Yup.”
“Can I borrow it? I want to see what he wanted so badly; it might give me an idea on how to tackle this problem.”
“Sure,” she said, pulling it out of her pocket.
“Thanks,” Carl said, taking the drive and heading inside.
“You better not plug that thing into my computer or I’ll kick your ass,” I yelled out to his retreating silhouette. “Who knows what kind of crap is on it.”
“Don’t worry… I’ll run it sandboxed on my own laptop so it can’t hurt anything.”
“He might be a while, so did you want anything more substantial to eat than these little munchies? There’s lots of leftover Chinese on the table, you can help yourself.”
“Thanks, I might grab a bite.”
She shuffled off to the table to forage and I turned to Mark. “What do you know about this Murphy character?”
“Not a lot, but I’ve seen him around. He’s the one who bought my old place.”
“So he’s into all kinds of businesses?”
“Pretty much anything that’ll make him money.”
“Then that might be his weak spot. It makes me think of an old saying: If you want to hurt a man, hit him in the nuts. If you want to hurt a rich man, hit him in the wallet.”
“Having been hit in both before, I can’t argue the point, but we should wait for Carl’s input before we go too much further.”
“Sure,” I agreed. “I’ve been calling him the Master of Disaster for years now, so let’s turn the disaster
loose on someone else for a change.”
We made small talk for a while to give Claire time to eat and Carl time to inspect the drive. She raptly listened to the tales of our troubles, but I glossed over a lot of stuff so she wouldn’t get any wrong ideas. Carl finally came back to join us, looking pleased with something.
“It looks like Murphy was fishing mainly for business info, with hopes of a little blackmail on the side. The drive contained a nasty little package of malware that copied every document, spreadsheet, picture, and all internet info. It also installed a key logger and remote access program so he can keep spying on him.”
“Sounds lovely,” I said. “We were thinking that hitting Murphy in the wallet might be the way to go. Have you come up with a plan yet?”
“I haven’t got anything solid yet, but I’m working on it. I have a few contacts down here now and I’ll be getting a detailed report on him. I’ll want to wait for that info, plus I want to meet him face to face before finalizing anything.”
“Just don’t take too long,” Claire piped in. “The longer we wait, the worse it’ll be for Sue.”
“I know. Trust me, I’ll be working as fast as I can, but rushing things never works. Things like blackmail or threats are a very dark business so we don’t want to slip up even a tiny bit. If our primary plan fails then things might get violent, and we want to avoid that at all costs.”
“Well, if you want to see him, your best chance is to catch him at his office. I don’t know what he does during the rest of the day, but he’s there every morning. I’ve got to go meet him tomorrow and give him an update.”
“Try and stall him as long as you can. Tell him the job is harder than you initially thought and you need some time.”
“I already figured that one out. Last time we met I told him I needed to recruit some of my friends to help me as lookouts and such. That got them safely back in town and got me my first delay.”
“Nice one. I’ll try to avoid involving your friends if I can help it, but it’s nice to have help waiting in the background if needed.”
“Where are your friends now?” I asked. “Are they ok, or do they need anything?”
“They should be fine. We got a dry place to stay the night and they’ve got food.”
“Hmm… that gives me an idea for tomorrow,” Carl said, smirking. “Tell him you need some cash before your friends will help. Lookouts are no good if they have to keep leaving to scrounge meals or worrying about where they’ll stay the night.”
“I like that. Make him pay the people who’re gonna screw him back.”
“Let’s call it an early night so we can be up early and make a good plan of attack.”
“Are you going to stay the night?” I asked. “The guest room you stayed in before is all ready, and you’re more than welcome to use it.”
“I should probably get back to my friends, but let me check on how they’re doing before I say no for sure.”
The conversation pretty much died out as we didn’t want to distract her from her long distance communication attempt. After fifteen minutes she slouched down in her chair briefly and then sat back up.
“Charlie says they’re fine for the night but was glad to hear from me. They were worried something had gone wrong.”
“Ok, then it’s settled,” I said. “Stay the night and we’ll give you a lift to town tomorrow morning.”
“Ok.”
Our moods were grim as we straightened things up a bit before retiring; this wasn’t going to be easy or pleasant.
***
“Stop here so I can get out, I don’t want to be seen with y’all just yet,” Claire said.
Carl snorted as he pulled over to let her out. “I had already planned on it, girl. This isn’t my first rodeo, ya know.”
“I’m heading to a bench to wait for him, but I’ll give y’all a few minutes before stepping around the corner.”
“That sounds good. We can meet back here after you’re done reporting to him, and don’t forget to keep the telepathic relay going.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Good luck.”
“Thanks.”
I started to get nervous as she stepped away from the truck and was on her own. Her shoulders didn’t look anywhere near broad enough to carry a heavy load like this. Carl stepped out and with a final wave, started heading down the street so he could walk by the meeting coming from the far side.
“Can y’all hear me? He’s not here, yet.” Claire sent.
“I hear you,” I replied.
The boys both echoed the affirmation, and Claire walked off. I wasn’t expecting anything to go wrong this morning, but I still didn’t trust things to go smoothly. The old saying of ‘plan for the best and expect the worst’ was never written about situations like this. Luckily, we only had about a five minute wait before Claire said he was coming.
“Good morning, I trust you have some good news for me?” Claire sent as an echo.
“I managed to find three guys who might be willing to help me, but they want to be paid.”
“Pay them then. This job is completely up to you.”
“I have no money to pay them, and they’re homeless like me. That means that they can’t afford to spend a week helping me out. They need food and shelter or they won’t bother helping, and I can’t do this alone.”
“Why a week? I thought you said you knew how to do this?”
“I said I had some ideas, but a job like this takes time. If I try to rush things and get caught, then none of us will get what we want.”
“I suppose I could give twenty bucks per person to help them out.”
“They want five hundred each for a week’s worth of work.”
“Five hundred is outrageous!” Even through the echo link, I could hear his indignation.
“Good luck trying to find someone willing to work cheaper. This ain’t something you can place a want-ad in the paper for.”
“Alright, fine… five hundred each, but I better get what I want soon or there’s going to be hell to pay. I don’t carry that kind of cash around, but here’s one-fifty as an advance. I’ll have the rest for you tomorrow when you report in.”
She didn’t bother to reply, and I knew she was now walking back here, the meeting over. I began to finally relax a bit once she turned the corner and came in sight. She looked around nervously for a moment to see if anyone was around, but nobody was in sight. She hurried into the back seat and ducked out of sight.
“Let’s go,” she said.
“We still have to wait for Carl,” Mark said, without turning to look at her. “Give him a few minutes.”
It took more than a few minutes, but eventually he came around the corner and hopped into the truck. He didn’t say anything, but had a thoughtful look on his face as he put it in gear and drove off.
“We’ll have to sit down and fine tune a few things, but I think I have a plan that’ll work.”
That’s what I wanted to hear. It was on.
Chapter 24
Carl: Bait
This was going to be fun. It was a deadly serious job, and more than a little risky, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t enjoy myself while doing it. I kept that to myself, though, to avoid a lecture from the others.
Not all fishing trips require a rod and reel; this one just needed the proper type of bait and hook. I was currently walking back and forth in front of the demolition site, taking pictures and notes with my tablet. It didn’t take long before a furtive glance showed me my little fishy watching my antics from his office window.
I figured I had spent enough time scuffing up my shoes, so I went over to the park bench to see if he would take the bait. Sure enough, I only had to wait a minute before he came over to join me.
“Hi there,” he said, sitting down next to me. “I couldn’t help but notice you sniffing around the construction site. Are you an inspector or something?”
“No, nothing like that,” I said, extending my hand. “C
arl’s the name. I saw this place yesterday and couldn’t get it out of my head. I’m always looking for investment opportunities, and this place struck my fancy. Are you familiar with it at all?”
“You could say that,” he said, finally taking my hand and giving it a shake. “I’m Tom Murphy and I own it.”
“It’s fortuitous that we should meet like this. Would you be interested in selling the property if the price was right?”
“I’d sell my back teeth if the price is right. What do you want it for?”
“Does it matter?”
“Well, I would say so. You don’t know me, but I own a lot of businesses and property around here. If you want it for something that might hurt my interests, then the price would have to rise drastically to compensate for that.”
“I don’t think it’ll hurt you, and might even prove to be beneficial if you have other businesses in the area. I’m thinking a self-contained strip mall catering mainly to the younger crowd, but with enough to draw in all ages. My family has done very well with those in the past, and we have the proper business distribution down to a fine art.”
“That sounds like a good idea… maybe I should just build it up myself and keep all the profits.”
“You could try,” I chuckled. “But I know better than to tell all my secrets to random strangers. Without my knowledge of the perfect mix, it’ll be a crap shoot to see if you can break even.”
“I think the odds would still be in my favor, but I see your point. Without telling me your secret recipe of eleven bars and shops, what kind of setup are you planning?”
“It’s a rather eclectic mix, but some of the things needed are two different restaurants, a good nightclub, a few mom and pop type shops. Also a convenience store and a coffee shop do well if there’s none nearby.”
“I have both near here.”
“Then I can skip those and you can expect to double your profits at those places.”
“I like the sound of that. I think we need to sit down for some serious planning on this project of yours.”