by Heskett, Jim
In the living room, she hunted around to the carpet to visually check for any pressure plates. Then, she listened at the air vents for ticking or humming. She checked every available space she could think of and found nothing to indicate a bomb or explosive device.
The kitchen had been undisturbed. Spare bedroom, main bedroom, bathroom. All of them were as exactly as she had left them. Still, she checked all the drawers and cabinets for foreign objects and couldn't find anything.
Back in the living room, she leaned against the wall and chewed on her lower lip. There had to be something. What had he done? Ember slid down the wall until her butt hit the carpet. The lower angle drew her eyes down, and then she saw it. She noticed four slight indentations in the carpet underneath her living room lamp. An idea occurred. She moved a chair from the kitchen into the living room and placed the legs under the lamp in the same four carpet indentations, then climbed up. Keeping quiet the whole time.
Ember removed the ceiling light’s cover and checked by the bulb. As she’d expected, she found a tiny listening device plugged into the light socket to draw power. It was no bigger than her thumbnail, a little circle with a mesh microphone cover and a couple of wires leading back to the light. No camera, only a listening device.
So, Xavier had bugged her place. Interesting. What was the point of that?
“Hmm,” she said to no one in particular.
Ember took out her phone and sent a text to her recruit Gabe.
Meet me in the parking lot outside my condo tomorrow morning. 9 am. Bring your gear. I know how to get an edge on Xavier.
Chapter Twenty-Two
EMBER
Day Four
Ember drank coffee on the walkway outside her condo as the sun rose to the east. She breathed in the morning air as traffic on nearby Highway 36 hummed. All those Denverites who commuted to Boulder every day for their lucrative software jobs then wrestled with the traffic again on their way back out to their more-affordable suburbs. Property prices in Boulder were crazy. Ember knew this. But, she liked living close to her Branch's Post Office. Besides, her life had low overhead. Bullets were cheap, and she had tons of airline miles saved.
She looked at the closed door of Layne’s apartment. She wondered if he was a software guy. He did seem to keep irregular hours.
It didn’t matter. Ember had no intention of pursuing a romantic entanglement with him. And not just because she might only have between one and about forty days left to live.
She had actually been thinking of Zach Bennett during her quiet moments. Strange, but she kept picturing his mischievous smile, his broad shoulders, his flirty eyes. About twenty years in age separated young Zach from the older and wiser Layne, with Ember somewhere in the middle. Layne was gorgeous. Zach was what she called ‘adorkable.’ Unassuming, honest, genuine. She couldn’t see herself having a romantic entanglement with him, either, but she did have a date scheduled with him for later today. Maybe she’d only agreed to it because she had said yes while a man with a baseball bat had been swinging it at her at that exact moment. But, she didn’t mind giving Zach a chance to woo her. It had been a grim week so far. An evening to relax and enjoy the company of a handsome young man would be a nice change of pace.
As she sipped her coffee and pulled her jacket closer, Gabe drove into the parking lot. He turned off his engine and met her eyes, but did not get out of the car. Phone in hand, he typed something and then looked up at her. He nodded at her, eyebrows raised.
Ember’s phone dinged, and she took it out of her jacket pocket to read a text from him.
Gabe: You sure it’s safe up there?
Ember: No, but come up anyway.
Gabe: You’re joking… right?
Ember: Yes
Gabe: Didn’t Xavier shoot at you two days ago?
Ember: He won’t try that again. He’s got a new plan this time. Come on up and I’ll show you. Srsly, don’t worry about it.
She waited as he read the last text, and she could see the hesitancy in his eyes. But, after a few seconds, he finally put his phone away and left the vehicle. He stood next to the left front tire for a moment, his feet glued in place.
She flashed urgent eyes at him, then waved him up. Finally, he closed and locked his car and then jogged up the stairs.
“What’s up?” he asked.
She held a finger to her lips and then tilted her head towards the door. He frowned but didn't say a word as she led him inside the apartment. Ember pointed at the chair, still sitting underneath the light bulb in the living room.
Hands on his hips, Gabe circled around the chair, squinting up at the light fixture. It only took him a couple seconds for his face to change, then he looked at Ember and nodded. He held his hands up in a questioning manner, and she flicked her head at the front door.
They met on the walkway and shut the door behind them.
"Okay," Gabe said, "he bugged you. I can understand that since his first attempt to go at you direct didn't work out for him."
“Xavier’s got a little tradecraft in him. It surprised me at first.”
“Maybe we don’t know him as well as we think we did.”
She bit her lip. "Yeah, maybe not. But, now we know what he’s capable of, and we can work with that. I spotted the bug before I said anything that could get us in trouble."
“Good. What do you want to do about it?”
“I want to leave everything as it is. I don’t want to give him any impression that I know.”
“That’s tricky. He’ll be listening for any sign that you’re onto him. He might even expect it.”
She nodded. “Yes, but I think we can pull it off. I had the lead in West Side Story in high school, ya know. I’ve got skills.”
“If he saw me go in there just now, that won’t matter.”
“I’ve checked every inch of the condo. He didn’t set up any video monitoring. Audio only.”
“That makes it a little easier.”
“I only need to lead him on for a little while. Maybe I can send him on a wild goose chase or two. Expose him.”
Gabe shrugged. “If you can just keep him off your back for three more days, then he loses his chance at you.”
“Yeah, but I don’t think he’ll hang around that long. I doubt I can wait him out.”
“Then what do you want to do?”
“What I really want to know is if my tech-nerd recruit can reverse engineer one of his bugs so I can listen in on him.”
He wagged a finger. “First of all, I resent ‘tech-nerd.’ I do just fine with the ladies.”
“I’m sure that’s true. This is Boulder, after all. Software engineers in this town are not chubby guys with Cheeto-stained fingers who live in their mother’s basements. They’re all world-class rock climbers who do urban farming and drive electric sports cars. I retract my statement.”
“Apology accepted.” He squinted and looked out at the parking lot. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Why are they called Post Offices? It’s a weird term.”
“Well, I’m no Branch Historian, but my old mentor told me something about it once. He said the guy who founded our Club noted that a lot of assassins were essentially homeless. They wouldn’t put their name on a lease or buy a house, so they would stay in cash hotels and couch surf. It made it hard to communicate with everyone, you know, before cell phones and the internet. So, he had to establish a place where everyone could receive communications about stuff.”
“Like an analog version of our message board.”
“Yes, exactly. People went there to get their Club announcements and mail, so it was like a post office.”
Gabe nodded. “Makes sense.”
“If we’re done with the history lesson, can you go in there and hack the bug now or not?”
Gabe shook his head. "It's not that simple. Disassembling it and putting it back together in a way that makes it useful for us isn't the problem; doing it while it's s
till on so he won’t suspect anything is. I mean, maybe I could eventually find a way to hack into his computer’s microphone, but I assume you need something done today. I’d have to write code and test it. That would take time.”
“Bummer. Well, what can you do?”
He leaned back against the railing and bit his lower lip. "Maybe—and this is no guarantee—but I assume he's got a location tracker built-in, and that's how the bug phones home. It would have to be connected to the cellular mesh network, in that case. Or, it might just have some tech to prevent tampering, which again could be bypassed but again would take time."
“And?”
“And, if so, I could possibly use the GPS on his bug and piggyback the signal, turning it into a sort of receiving beacon.”
She turned up her palms. “And that would be useful because…”
“Because it would tell us his location, at least. The hard part is doing it without disconnecting the bug from its power supply, which would alert him that we knew about it and were trying to hack it. Some of them can be touchy. Not to mention that those things are super tiny, so it would be a bit of work.”
“But you can do it, right?”
He shrugged. “I can try.”
“I’ll take it. How long do you need?”
"A few hours, assuming you don't bother me, and you have the right tools. I'll be done by lunchtime — which you're buying."
“Fair enough.”
“If I’m done before lunch, you’re still buying lunch. Just so we’re clear. Possibly dinner, as well.”
She grinned. “I’m picking, though. No bagels. I’ve had enough cream cheese to last me for a month. Or, for a lifetime. Whichever comes first.”
When he didn’t laugh at her gallows’ humor, she slipped her hands into the pockets of her jeans. “Comedy’s not for everyone. Maybe the next joke is more on your level.”
He frowned but kept the corners of his mouth neutral as if trying to hide it. "It's weird, whenever I see you, to think it might be the last time."
"I know how that feels. But don't cry for me, Argentina. I've taken on worse guys than this before."
She socked him in the shoulder for good measure, and he forced his frown into a semi-convincing smile.
“Now,” she said, “let’s get started. Quiet as church mice, so the cat doesn’t figure out we’re onto him.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
FAGAN
Fagan sighed up at the chore chart on the chair in the Boulder Post Office conference room. When it was completed, the chart would go in the hallway, displayed proudly next to the first aid kit. But now, in rough draft, she had it resting on the arms of a conference room chair, so she could sit a few feet back to observe it.
A head popped in the door, and she flicked her eyes over to see the familiar face of Charles, one of the assassins who’d been around almost as long as her. They’d both come in with fewer wrinkles, fewer gray hairs, and fewer names on their kill lists. Most didn’t live as long as the two of them.
She smiled. “Hey, Charlie. Don’t see you around here too often these days.”
“That’s because I’m not here too often.”
“When was the last time you took a contract?”
He shrugged. “Been a while. But, with all this mess going on with Ember, I thought I could skip my nap to come in and check the pulse.”
“That’s big of you,” Fagan said, then added a wink.
“Yeah, well, I’ve never seen anything like this before. Six weeks. Six contracts out for her? It’s so extreme. I can’t imagine what I would be doing in her shoes right now.”
Fagan nodded. “Never seen it, either. I’m worried David Wellner is starting to lose his grip. It’s been like this since the unrest with Five Points earlier this summer, and maybe even before that.”
“We may be in for rough times ahead.”
“We may be. Is there something on your mind?”
He leaned against the doorframe and frowned. “Not really. I just wanted to make sure things are going well with Ember. That you’re available, you know?”
“Yes, I know how to be a mentor to her. I’m giving her space to work out how she wants to proceed, and I’m checking in, letting her know she can use me as a resource when she needs it. I got this, Charles.”
"Right, right, of course, I know you do." He spread out a wincing smile as if it pained his face. "I just care about the kid, that's all. I'm worried about her. This is bigger than anything she's ever faced before."
Fagan sat back and let out a long sigh as she tented her fingers. “I know. We all do. Trust me, I’m doing everything I can do to make sure she’s supported.”
Charles tapped the doorframe a couple of times with the palm of his hand.
"Excellent,” he said. Then, he added with a snicker, “Chore board is looking solid, by the way."
“You better drop that tone with me before I put you on it,” Fagan said as Charlie feigned shock and ducked back into the hall. Grinning, Fagan continued to yell after him. “Don’t think old-timers are immune from having to take out the trash!”
Chapter Twenty-Four
EMBER
Ember watched Gabe work in silence for two full hours, hacking into the listening device in her living room. She had a watch and eyeglass repair kit stashed away that was the perfect size for working with the miniature device. He sent her text message updates every few minutes so they could communicate in silence.
His workaround was to give the lamp a “hot swap” alternate power source hooked up to a battery, so he could remove the bug, work on it, and disassemble everything without Xavier knowing the power had been cut.
Ember wasn’t sedentary during these two hours, either. She went in and out of the apartment, checking the parking lot and alley behind the building. Yesterday, Xavier had sent three thugs from Five Points Branch after her. Who knew what he would try today. More of the same, or something completely different? The sniper-rifle-loving vet might have a few more surprises left in him.
Ember’s plan was a gamble. She knew that. And, she also didn’t know if she had a better one in her arsenal.
Ember checked in with Fagan in the late morning, and her mentor hadn’t made any progress locating Xavier. He had enough friends in the Club that no one had been willing to give him up. An even larger number of Club members wouldn’t intervene because they didn’t know if the black spot trial by combat rules forbade them from helping. None of them had ever seen a black spot in their lifetime. It was like the wild west out here.
Around lunchtime, Ember entered the apartment with the preordained meal to see Gabe sitting back, up against the wall, staring at a laptop. He gave her a simple thumbs up. The hacking job didn't look pretty, with a long cord hanging down from the ceiling in the middle of the room, but she supposed that it didn't matter. Xavier had no video surveillance, and as long as she kept her curtains drawn and he did not commit a second break-in, Xavier wouldn't find out.
Gabe motioned for her to join him on the front walkway, and she followed him there.
“It’s all good,” he said once the door was closed.
“You know where he is?”
“Nope. The trace hasn’t started yet. It’ll take time to work, so you’ll have to be a little patient.”
“You know patience isn’t my strong suit.”
Gabe nodded. “Yeah, I do know that.”
“How long until I know something I can use?”
He held up a laptop. "Plug the USB into this laptop. It will take it a few hours to run the trace. It’ll help if you talk a lot, giving him a reason to tune in. The more he uses it, the better the trace will run. Especially if you do things like walk around, change the volume of your voice. That'll make him adjust his equipment, which sends signals to the bug and makes it easier for us to latch onto him. That's how we can tap into the GPS."
“What do I do on the computer?”
“There’s a maps app on the desktop. You know what
an app is, right?”
She rolled her eyes. “Watch it, kid. I’m not that old.”
“Just making sure. Open the maps app, and you’ll know when it’s working because the red circle will get smaller and smaller. When it’s a dot, it’s as specific as it’s going to get. It should put you at a radius smaller than a city block.”
Gabe pulled the laptop back and hushed his conversation when a woman reached the top of the stairs and started coming down the walkway. She was older, maybe fifties. The woman gave a polite nod and then knocked on the door next to Ember’s apartment.
“I should go,” Gabe said.
“Karen?” the woman said to the closed apartment door. “Karen, are you in there? Why aren’t you answering your phone?”
Ember took the laptop and nodded to her recruit. “Thank you. I’ll be in touch.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
EMBER
Ember spent the next two hours in her apartment, walking around, having pretend phone calls for the benefit of the bugs Xavier had planted. She’d decided on an overall theme to her deception: desperation. She wanted her assassin to think she was erratic and scared, hovering on the edge of collapse.
The ultimate goal was to make him feel overconfident, hopefully leading to sloppiness. But, she avoided any specifics about future plans until she knew more regarding his location. Which, by two in the afternoon, had still not been determined. The red circle covered most of the Denver metro. It had shrunk a little in the last hour or so, but not enough to better tell her where to go. She didn’t know how much more time she could spend in here, keeping up the ruse.
She had hoped to find the location before her date with Zach later, but it might have to wait until after. Nothing could be done about making the computer work faster. On these fake phone calls, she kept implying she intended to stake out the Five Points Post Office this evening, to figure out if Xavier would send those thugs after her again. Above all, she wanted to draw Xavier away from Boulder and away from her and Zach. She could not, under any circumstances, involve Zach Bennett in this mess.