Batteries Not Included

by Tony McFadden

  Nick struggled to a seated position. “Kirra, stop at my place. I’ve got a job for Davie that has to be done right now.”

  Davie smiled. “How about you give me your keys and tell me what you want, I take the nice car, and you and Kirra go straight to the hospital?”

  * * *

  ‘Snap’ pulled to the side of the road. His two friends stopped behind them. He pulled off his helmet and made a phone call.

  “I’m at work, Walter. Why are you calling me?”

  “The place has been compromised. I’ll arrange to have the inventory shifted, but that space is burned. You should cover all traces.”

  “Shit. The leases expire in two weeks. Would have been clear.”

  “I’m moving everything to the first location. It’s been months since we used it. It should be clear.”

  “We wait until dark to move the inventory. We’re going to need to put in long hours to complete this.”

  Walter nodded. “Last one. No point getting sloppy now. Stop by the place tonight and help. You’re not going to be getting much sleep for the next couple of days.”

  “What happened?”

  “Your friend and his chubby buddy showed up. I don’t know how they found out about the place. It wasn’t coincidence.”

  “You hurt them, I hope.”

  Walter rubbed his bruised ribs where Kirra’s SUV hit him. “Yeah. They’re out of the picture for now.” He cleared his throat. “But not forever. Is there anything you can do?”

  “Jesus, mate. Why am I always having to go around and clean up after you?”

  Walter looked at his phone, the call now disconnected. “What a fucking bitch. Let’s go, lads.”

  24

  Davie lifted the backpack off his shoulder and placed it on the window sill. He was balanced precariously on a stack of plastic 200 litre drums, stabilising himself with one hand against the wall. “Nick owes me, that prick.” He dug in the backpack and removed a wireless camera. Slid the small switch on the bottom to the ‘On’ position. Leaned against the wall for balance and placed it in the corner of the window frame, pointed at the centre of the warehouse. He’d placed six in windows at the first of the two remaining warehouses, and this was the last one in a window frame for this place.

  He made sure it was stable, then opened his phone and checked the monitoring app. All six cameras in this array were lit green. He tapped the icon for the one he’d just installed and the picture was displayed on his phone.

  “Good. Now how in the hell do I get down from here?”

  Back on the ground he stood in the middle of the warehouse and looked for his installations. Some were visible if he knew where to look, but that was common for most installations. Most people didn’t know where to look.

  Fortunately.

  He slipped his now mostly empty backpack over one shoulder and jogged to the jimmied window he’d crawled through. Exited the way he came in. Closed the window and scattered some dirt on the exterior sill. He stood back and admired his handiwork. Couldn’t tell he’d been there.

  He turned and looked at his ride. Smiled and brushed dust off his trousers, then slid into the Dvorak convertible and headed back to Kirra’s house.

  * * *

  Nick exited the treatment room with his left arm in a cast. It was held snug to his body in a sling. He spotted Kirra, reading a magazine in the waiting room, surrounded by the very best of downtown society, and angled toward her. “Thanks for waiting. You didn’t have to. I could Uber back.”

  She stood and dropped the magazine on her seat. The old woman sitting beside her grabbed it almost before it landed. “What’s the verdict?” asked Kirra.

  “Bruised ribs, nothing cracked, thank goodness. Non-compound fracture of both bones in my forearm. Set and cast. And I’m on some pretty terrific opiates right now.” He took off the sling and dropped it on the chair. Held out his broken arm. “Want to sign it?”

  “You’re a bit loopy. Let’s get out of here.”

  “Won’t argue with that.” He blinked and licked his lips. “Dry, too. Do you have any water?”

  “I’ve got a bottle in the car. Look, I didn’t ask much about this on the way here because you were, to put it mildly, in a fair bit of pain.” She held open the passenger door of her truck for him. “What exactly happened there?”

  “How did you find us? We’d be dead if you hadn’t shown up when you did.”

  She closed the door for him and got in the divers’ side. “You first.”

  He cleared his throat. “Those three small warehouses had to be for something. Smaller than typical, single year leases, something was wrong.” He adjusted in his seat, wincing when he absent-mindedly used his broken arm. “Shit. So, the first two we checked were open and empty.” He waggled his good hand. “Open in that the windows weren’t locked. The doors were, but I don’t think it would be that hard to breach them. Definitely not secure. The third one, where you found us, was a different story.”

  “No kidding.”

  “We pulled up and saw the three motorcycles owned by the guys who cracked my skull in the alley. That forced a modification to our approach. We — I — picked the lock and found crates of battery cells destined for you guys.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Nick nodded. “Absolutely. They’re stealing them.”

  “And doing what with them?”

  Nick shrugged. “Selling them to another manufacturer?”

  “There are no other EV manufacturers in Australia. And we order parts to match production, plus a small percentage for spares inventory.” She shook her head. “We’d notice if we were missing the volumes. It’s more than just theft.”

  “Then what?”

  “I’m not sure. Won’t matter much. I’ll contact the police when we get home. They can finish this.”

  “No, no, no. Think about it. You’re right. Stealing them when there’s no way to on-sell them in Australia doesn’t make sense. They’re heavy. Shipping them out of the country would be very expensive. And if doesn’t justify killing your husband. Sorry. Leave them alone for a couple of days. Davie and I are working on something. Might be able to figure out what the hell they were doing.”

  Kirra nodded. They reached the gate. Before she had a chance to enter the code the gate started rolling open. Mike stood in the middle of the drive, his arms crossed.

  “He looks pissed,” said Nick.

  “He always looks like that.” She leaned her head out of the window. “Outta the way, Murphy, or I’ll run you over.”

  He gave her a half grin and slowly backed out of the way, to the passenger side of the truck. “Nickie, lad. Any closer to getting me out of this bloody ankle bracelet?”

  Nick looked down at Mike’s leg. The bracelet was covered by his trousers. “Uh, yeah. Closing in on it. A couple more days, max.”

  “Sure hope so, kiddo.” He stepped back. “Your tubby buddy is back. Who said he could drive that car?”

  Nick nodded toward Kirra. Mike rolled his eyes and waved them on.

  “You better have a way to get him out of that cute piece of jewellery,” said Kirra, “or he’s going to be really pissed.” She smiled. “You’ll want to avoid that.”

  She parked. “What’s next?”

  “You didn’t tell me how you found us.”

  “I was checking out those three addresses. That was the second one I got to.”

  “Thank god you were driving the truck. That big guy would bend one of the electric cars.”

  She put the truck in Park and turned off the ignition. “So, what’s next?”

  “I need to talk to Davie about that. I’ve got some ideas, but I need to flesh them out first.” He reached across his body to open the car door with his right hand. “This is going to be a pain in the arse.”

  * * *

  Davie was at the pool-side table. He looked up when Nick entered. “Sweet, sweet ride, man. I need to win the lottery.” He spotted the cast. “Hey, let me sign that thin
g. Does it hurt?”

  “First, no, you’ll just draw a dick on it and second, not yet, but the good drugs are wearing off. It will soon.” He sat across from his friend. “How’d it go?”

  “As expected. Everything is installed. Four nets. The batteries should last a week. We’ll see something soon.”

  “Yeah, I’ve got some ideas about that. I think I can get closer than just video.”

  Davie raised his eyebrows and laughed in disbelief. “They tried to kill you this afternoon. How much closer do you want to get?”

  Nick took a deep breath. Winced at the pain from his bruised ribs. “Those three apes are just that, apes. They aren’t the brains.”

  Davie leaned forward. “Who?”

  Nick hesitated. “Who, what?”

  “Who’s pulling the strings?”

  “You focus on helping Mike with whatever digital sleuthing you need to do. Stay away from these guys.”

  * * *

  Walter signalled the truck backing to the loading bay to slow down as it approached. He tapped the side when it had backed far enough. “That’s good.”

  Sam stood beside him. She looked at her watch. “Get this completed before midnight.”

  “You’re crazy. 4:00 a.m. if we’re really lucky.” He pointed at the stacks of crates. “I’m not fucking Harry Potter. I don’t have a magic wand. They’re heavy and fragile. We’re not going to rush this.” He looked at her. “Why midnight? You have a date?”

  Sam sighed. “Just get it done tonight. Message me when you’re finished. I don’t care what time it is.” She looked at the time again. “Absolutely needs to be finished tonight.”

  25

  Nick tapped the patio table and nodded at Davie. “I’m going to crash.” He tentatively touched the scab forming on his scalp. “This seems quaint, now. A bit of a crack on the head. Things escalated pretty fast.”

  “Speak for yourself. I’m fine.”

  Nick snorted. “Your ribs are all bruised to shit.” He chuckled. “I didn’t think you could move that fast, mate. Can you help me tape a bag around my cast? I need a shower. It’s been a rough day.”

  * * *

  Walter loaded another two crates of battery cells on the hand cart. “My god, this is killing me.”

  One of his colleagues, recently finished with his load, leaned on his hand cart. “I’m dead.”

  “Think of the money, Alan. We’re making a killing.”

  Alan wiped sweat from his brow with his sleeve. “Killing. Yeah.” He trudged toward the diminishing pile of crates. “I’m going to be dead before we’re finished here.”

  “Suck it up. We need to unload at the destination.”

  Alan loaded more battery cells on the hand cart. “I hate you.”

  “Think of the money. Last run. Maximum effort.”

  * * *

  Nick lay on his bed, fully dressed, right hand behind his head, left arm in a cast across his stomach. He closed his eyes, running through all of the scenarios.

  He opened them and sat up. He sent a text message to Kirra’s phone. We need to talk. U up?

  He sat looking at his phone for a minute before she responded. Come to the kitchen.

  He swung his legs to the floor and wiped his hand over his face. It had been years since he was this nervous.

  He found the kitchen and grabbed a beer out of the fridge.

  “You sure you should be drinking that?”

  He twisted off the cap and sat in a stool at the kitchen island. “Stopped taking the really good pain meds. Don’t need another addiction.”

  “Another?” She held up her hands. “No, not relevant. What do you want to talk about?”

  * * *

  Sam was also wide awake in bed. She checked the time. “Dammit.” She grabbed her phone from the bedside table and called.

  “I said we’d be finished by 4:00. There’s still two hours to go.”

  “Shut up, Walter.” Sam swung her feet to the floor. “I need to know how the place was compromised.”

  “Water under the bridge, Sam. We’ve got work to do and if you’re not here to help us, get off the phone and let me get to it.”

  “Don’t pretend you’re the brains of this gig, Wally. How?” She grabbed her shorts off the floor and pulled them on, phone jammed between her shoulder and her chin.

  “How, who knows? That Nick chump and that other fat arse are better than you clearly think they are.”

  Sam sat hard on the bed. “How did Nick find out?”

  “He’s an annoying little gnat. I wouldn’t worry about it too much.”

  Sam thought for a minute.

  “You there?” asked Walter.

  “Yeah, yeah. How much have you loaded onto the truck?”

  “About two thirds. Why?”

  “I think I know the ‘how’.” She pulled her shirt off the bedpost and struggled it on. “And if he found that one, he knows about the other two. Are there *any* other warehouses we can use? Not on the books?”

  Walter snorted. “Yeah, I’ve got four in my other pants. Are you kidding?”

  “The risk has reached levels I’m not comfortable with. We should abandon.”

  “That’s nuts. Six, seven million, just thrown away? No. You don’t want to do this, you’ll owe the rest of us the cut we would normally be getting. Out of your pocket.”

  “That’s not how this works.”

  “If we didn’t need you to do this, we’d do it on our own. We don’t have that luxury. But I’m getting my share for this load, one way or another.”

  She scrubbed her hair with her fingertips. “Okay, dammit, I’m going to regret this. You need to beef up security at the second place. And we need to pull the schedule forward. Get this done and into the system quick.”

  “What are you going to do about Nick?”

  “He’s smarter than I remember him to be.”

  “You know him?”

  “From a long while ago.” She sighed. “I’ll handle him. Keep your friends close and enemies closer, right? I’ll think of something.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Get back to it. I’ll be there in a few.”

  26

  Nick rushed Davie through his breakfast.

  “What’s this about?” Davie stuffed his laptop into its case. “Am I going to need this?”

  “I don’t know.” He showed Davie his phone. “I just got a text from Kirra that we both need to meet her at the office ASAP. Bring your laptop. Who knows?”

  “Okay. Another ride in the nice car.”

  * * *

  Kirra met them at reception. She motioned for them to follow her. “I’ve got a room on 10.”

  They tailgated her through the access doors to the internal stairwell and down three flights. As they walked past Sam’s cubicle Nick looked in. She wasn’t there. He frowned and followed Kirra and Davie into the small conference room. Kirra stood on one side of the small table, frown on her face, Davie sat on the other side. Nick slid his laptop onto the table and sat beside Davie.

  “What’s up, Kirra?” asked Nick.

  She paced. Shook her head. “I’m concerned about how this is playing out.” She looked at Nick’s cast. “Very concerned. We don’t seem to have come to any definitive conclusion and I’ve spent thousands of dollars.”

  Davie held up a finger. “Hang on. We found the theft of those battery cells. That’s something, right?”

  “It’s not evidence of underlying internal fraud. It’s theft. The police will handle it.”

  “I don’t - I don’t think that’s good idea, Kirra,” said Nick. “A really bad idea. That’s just the tip of the iceberg.”

  “Whatever it is, we – I – can stop it now. Thanks for your efforts and goodbye.”

  Nick cocked his head and looked at Kirra, trying to read her thoughts. “What else is going on?

  She gestured at Nick’s broken arm, “you’re a liability. You didn’t sue the company this time, but there’s no telling w
hat you might do if something else happens to you while you’re,” she used air quotes, “‘on the case’.”

  “Horse shit.”

  Davie opened his mouth to interrupt and Nick held up his hands. “No, Davie, this is bullshit.” He pointed accusingly at Kirra. “I think we’re getting too close to what’s really going on and she’s in the middle of it. So, clearly, she’s firing us.”

  “That’s bullshit, and you know it,” said Kirra.

  Nick shrugged. “How will I ever know if you fire me?” He pushed his chair back. Levelled his finger at Kirra. “If my day rate isn’t deposited in my account by close of business I’ll see you in court.” He grabbed his laptop case. “Let’s go, Davie.”

  “Leave the car keys on the table. And Davie, you stay for a minute.”

  Davie looked confused, alternating between Kirra and Nick. “I - I don’t know.”

  Nick nodded and dropped the Dvorak key fob on the table.. “Sure. Whatever.” He yanked the meeting room door open. Sam was sitting across the walkway at her desk.

  She glanced up at Nick. “You’re having a bad day. What happened to your arm?”

  “Slipped.” He kept walking.

  “You just got fired?”

  He stopped walking. “Mutual agreement.”

  “That’s not what it sounded like from out here.”

  Nick sighed and kept walking.

  Sam waited until Nick was at the lift lobby and made a call. “Walter, how’s the repackaging going?”

  “The truck’s unloaded. This place is covered in dust. We’re three hours into what is probably going to be a thirty hour job. The other two are resting for a couple of hours. Last night was murder.”

  “I think the pressure is off. Nick was just fired.”