Once Is Never Enough

by Haris Orkin

  Then one evening, after The Voice, Goolardo saw news coverage of the conflagration at Belenki’s estate in Saratoga and was shocked to see that Flynn was there to help with security. The general ineptitude of most billionaires no longer surprised him. But for Belenki to hire Flynn after what happened on Angel Island was beyond stupid. It was insanity.

  Most billionaires thought they were brilliant simply because they were billionaires. They had opinions on everything and thought they could do anything, and that was their Achilles Heel. Even those who suffered many setbacks before their eventual success were stricken with that fatal arrogance. Goolardo knew he wasn’t immune to it. His ego initially didn’t allow him to see Flynn for who he really was, and he paid dearly for that. But he learned from that mistake and knew he could never let that happen again. He had to be clear-eyed and see himself and the world for what it was. Belenki obviously didn’t do that and suffered the consequences.

  Goolardo watched a pretty blonde TV reporter interview a dirty-faced, crazy-haired, and self-conscious Sancho Perez as Sergei Belenki’s estate burned in the background.

  “Can you tell us what happened here tonight?”

  “I’m not really sure,” Sancho said. He looked dazed and confused, his eyes watery from all the dust and smoke.

  “Is it true the party was attacked?”

  Sancho shrugged and coughed. “I gotta go.”

  “Where are you visiting from?”

  He didn’t answer. He just walked away.

  The reporter shouted after him. “Where are you going, sir?”

  “Home.”

  The camera panned back to the reporter as the blaze burned behind her. “This is Tory Richards reporting from Saratoga, California, just outside the estate of Electro Go CEO Sergei Belenki.”

  Mendoza surveilled the City of Roses Psychiatric Institute on Goolardo’s orders. He borrowed Mrs. Megel’s 1998 Buick Le Sabre and parked across the street from the front entrance. The vehicle was large and bulky and brown and belonged to her late husband. Being so old, it stood out on the street and wasn’t ideal for surveillance work. But it was available, and it ran, even though it did smell like mildew and old cigars.

  Mendoza listened to AM radio, drank Big Gulps and ate microwave burritos from a nearby 7-11. Two full days passed before Dr. Nickelson and Sancho returned. That pendejo Flynn wasn’t with them. The first time he laid eyes on him, Mendoza knew that Flynn was a liar and a fake. But Goolardo wouldn’t listen. Goolardo was charmed. Entranced. Convinced that Flynn was who he pretended to be. He only listened to reason after Mendoza brought him incontrovertible evidence.

  Goolardo was humiliated to be taken in by someone so crazy, and Mendoza, as usual, took the brunt of his boss’s anger. He was tired of taking Goolardo’s shit, but what was he going to do? He wanted Goolardo’s approval and was determined to get it no matter how long it took. Right now, Goolardo saw Mendoza as nothing more than unthinking muscle, but one day he hoped his boss would see he had more to offer than simply brute force.

  Goolardo told him to follow Sancho wherever he went as he was sure Flynn would eventually return to him. Sancho was Flynn’s right-hand man and at some point they would need to connect. At least that was Goolardo’s thinking. So, Mendoza shadowed the orderly.

  Sancho lived a dull existence, so following him was just as tedious. Every day it was the same. He’d leave his shitty little apartment in Eagle Rock and drive to City of Roses. Occasionally he’d shop at Ralph’s or pick up some fast food, but other than that, he did nothing at all interesting for that first week. Mendoza seriously considered shooting himself. It would be less painful than having to follow this tarado.

  Then one night, Sancho left his shitty little apartment wearing chinos and a black button-down shirt. He drove to North Hollywood where he picked up a surprisingly attractive and tiny young woman. Mendoza followed them to Toluca Lake, where they dined at a sushi place on Riverside Drive. He parked on the opposite side of the street and watched and waited and cursed this tedious job. He wanted to be at Mrs. Megel’s with Goolardo, eating brisket and potato kugel and watching The Voice.

  Sancho brought Alyssa to Sushi Yuzu because she loved the food and he knew he needed to make amends. They cruised there in the Aston Martin DB7 Flynn had given him after their last adventure. She didn’t say a word the whole way. He suspected she was angry, but he found it so hard to read her. He hadn’t seen her for three weeks and he felt bad about that. She was so beautiful. A heart-shaped face with huge brown eyes and long, dark hair that fell to her shoulders. He loved her smile, but he hadn’t seen it in a while.

  “Are you pissed at me?” he asked.

  She shrugged.

  “Did I do something to make you mad?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “You’re really quiet.”

  She finally met Sancho’s gaze and he could see the fire in her eyes. “Why didn’t you call me when you got back?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “I was really worried.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “I know I’ve been busy with school and we haven’t spent as much time together lately, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about you.”

  “I care about you too,” Sancho said.

  “Then you should have called me.”

  “I know.”

  “Once the semester’s over, I’ll have more time.”

  “About that. I was thinking…maybe…since it’s so hard to find time to get together like we used to…maybe we should…you know…change things up.”

  “Are you breaking up with me?”

  Sancho looked stricken. “What? No! God no. I was thinking…we should move in together.”

  “What?”

  “That’s what I was thinking.”

  “Live together?”

  “Yeah. With the money I made from Belenki…I could buy a condo. A place big enough for both of us.”

  “I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”

  “Buying a condo?”

  “Living together.”

  “Why?”

  “Because my mamá would kill me. And my papá would kill you.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yeah. We are seriously Catholic.”

  “So, they’re not cool with the whole moving in thing?”

  “I’m not sure I am either. We’re still working shit out. We have issues, amorcito.”

  “I know we do.”

  She ate a piece of sushi and washed it down with some sake. “How’s Mr. Flynn doing?”

  “Don’t know,” Sancho said.

  “What do you mean you don’t know?”

  “He didn’t come back with us.”

  “He stayed in Saratoga?”

  “I think he went to San Francisco.”

  “On his own?”

  “He wanted me to go, but I’m done with that. James is determined to get himself killed and I don’t want to be there to see it.”

  “So, you just left him there?” Alyssa looked stunned.

  “We asked him to come back with us, but he was already on some crazy-ass mission to save the world.”

  “Aren’t you worried about him?”

  “Of course, I am, but what am I supposed to do? Nickelson filed a 5150 on him. Sent the cops after him. Says he’s a danger to himself and others.”

  “Is that what you think?”

  “Look, I love him like a brother. You know I do. But I can’t save him.”

  Tears filled Alyssa’s eyes. “I can’t believe you’re just giving up on him.”

  “To help him is to enable him and that’s not healthy for him or for me.” Sancho drained the last of the sake and looked around for the waitress. He caught her eye, raised the bottle and shook it to show her it was empty.

  She nodded and hurried off. That’s when Sancho saw Bettina O’Toole-Applebaum staring at him. She sat at the sushi bar and when she realized Sancho had seen her, she immediately went back to eating her eda
mame.

  Sancho continued to eyeball her. “What the hell?”

  Alyssa turned around to see what Sancho was staring at. “You know that girl?”

  “I think I do.”

  He scraped back his chair and crossed the busy restaurant. He tried to get a look at her profile, but she kept turning her head away. “Bettina?”

  She turned and smiled at Sancho as if she was shocked to see him there. “Sancho? Wow, what a surprise.”

  “What are you doing here?”

  “What’s it look like I’m doing?

  “Are you following me?”

  “What?”

  “You heard me.”

  “Why would I be following you?”

  “Because you work for Rolling Stone. Are you doing a story on Flynn?”

  “I’m eating dinner.”

  Sancho felt a tug on his sleeve and turned to see Alyssa now standing right next to him; glaring at him. “Aren’t you going to introduce me?”

  “To who? Her?”

  “She’s pretty.”

  “I don’t even know her.”

  “So, you never met her before?”

  “No, I mean, I met her, but I don’t really, you know, know her.”

  “No, I don’t know.”

  “We met at City of Roses. I was a patient,” Bettina said.

  “A patient?” Alyssa looked indignant. “I hope you didn’t hit on her.”

  “Hit on her?”

  “I can see that something’s going on here.”

  “She wasn’t really a patient. She’s a reporter. She was pretending.”

  “Oh, so that makes it okay to hit on her?”

  “I didn’t hit on her. She was there under false pretenses and it’s a long story and where are you going?”

  “Home.”

  “How? You don’t have a car here?

  “I called a Lyft.”

  “But we haven’t finished dinner.”

  “I have,” Alyssa said acidly.

  “Alyssa—”

  “You need to get your shit together and until you do, we are done.”

  Sancho started to follow her but Bettina grabbed his arm. “I need to find Flynn.”

  “So, you did follow me here?”

  “Why didn’t he come back with you?”

  “Let me go.”

  “First answer my question.”

  Through the front window, Sancho watched Alyssa climb into a car with a Lyft sign in the window. “Shit.”

  “I didn’t mean to mess up your date, but if you can tell me where he is—”

  “I don’t know where he is! Why the hell is everyone so worried about Flynn?”

  “Who else is worried about him?”

  Sancho pulled his arm free. “Nobody!”

  “Look, I’m really sorry I screwed up your evening. Can I make it up to you? Can I buy you a beer? I’ll even tell you why I’m here.”

  Foreman’s Whiskey Tavern sat just across Riverside Drive. A dispirited Sancho followed Bettina across the street. He ordered a sour beer to match his mood and they found a quiet booth in the back. In a different time and place he would have been intimidated by Bettina’s beauty.

  Her amber eyes were so vibrant he wondered if she wore contacts to augment them, but decided that was unlikely as it seemed she could care less about her appearance. She wore very little makeup and kept her dark hair tied back in a careless ponytail under an old Cubs baseball cap.

  Sancho took a long pull on his beer, wiped his lips, and looked at Bettina hard. “So why are you so interested in Flynn?”

  “I’m a Cubs fan,” Bettina said as she pointed to her cap.

  “I’m not sure I’m following you.”

  “My dad was a fan and so was my grandfather. A rabid fan for seventy years and he never saw them win the pennant. But his son and his granddaughter did. Do you know why?”

  “Why?”

  “Because we never lost hope. We hung in there.”

  “And it only took the Cubbies 108 years.”

  “Because they never gave up and that’s true for me too. When I’m after a story, I am relentless.”

  “So that’s why you’re here? Because you don’t give up.”

  “Because I want people to see James for who he really is.”

  “And who do you think he really is?”

  “A hero.”

  “So, you’re not pissed off that he tied you up and hung you upside down in a closet?”

  “Sure, I am, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to let that color my opinion. I want people to know the real story. Show people who he really is. But to do that, I need to talk to him.”

  “And you think I know where he is?”

  “Hasn’t he contacted you?”

  Sancho sighed and drained the rest of his beer. “Yeah.”

  “When?”

  “Yesterday. But I didn’t pick up.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because there’s nothing I can do to help him.”

  “Did he leave a message?”

  “Yeah, some insane rant about the end of the world.”

  “Did he say where he was?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Well, call him back then.”

  “I told you. There’s nothing I can do for him.”

  “That’s not true. We can convince him to turn himself in peacefully. If he doesn’t, he might get hurt. Or hurt someone else.”

  “He’s not going to listen to me. He never listens to me.”

  “Shouldn’t you at least try?”

  “I’m done trying.”

  “But what if something bad happens to him? I don’t think you’ll ever forgive yourself.”

  Twenty minutes later they sat in the front seat of Bettina’s 2012 Subaru Outback. Sancho had his Android phone on speaker as he dialed Flynn’s number. It rang twice before Flynn picked up.

  “Sancho?”

  “Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner, dude.”

  “It’s good to hear from you. I was worried.”

  “You were worried about me?”

  “You didn’t pick up. I thought something might have happened to you.”

  “No, I’m good. I just wanted to make sure you were safe.”

  “Of course, I’m not safe.” Flynn snorted. “I’m never safe. The world’s a dangerous place.”

  “I know it is, which is why maybe it’s time you came in and gave us a briefing.”

  “I can give you that briefing right now. I found Wendy and she confirmed that Belenki does believe Daisy is sentient and plans to destroy the world’s digital infrastructure to stop her.”

  “Where are you, ese? Did you go to San Francisco?”

  “I did, but now I’m here.”

  “Where’s here?”

  “Santa Clarita.”

  “You’re in So Cal?”

  “Picking up the evidence that proves what Belenki intends to do. Wendy sent it to her mother.”

  Bettina whispered in Sancho’s ear. “Address.”

  “What’s the address?”

  “Don’t worry about that. I’ll come to your place.”

  “You want to come to my place?”

  “Are you still at the same address in North Hills?”

  “No, I moved to Eagle Rock, remember? You’ve been there.”

  “You must be confusing me with someone else.”

  Sancho sighed. “You really don’t remember coming to my place?”

  “What’s your address?”

  “2233 Merton Avenue. Unit three.”

  “We’re about an hour away from Eagle Rock. We’ll see you soon.”

  “We?” But Flynn had already hung up. “Shit.”

  “He’s safe. That’s the important thing.” Bettina started her car. “Do you want me to follow you?”

  “Follow me? Where?”

  “To your place.”

  Sancho left the sushi restaurant with a different woman than he arrived with. Mendoza found
that puzzling. The first woman left in a Lyft and moments later, Sancho emerged with another attractive woman. They crossed Riverside Drive and passed right behind his car and entered some kind of whiskey bar. He waited and watched and after a time, they emerged. Mendoza ducked down as they passed his car.

  He watched them climb into a Subaru Outback a few cars up. He started up the Le Sabre just in case he needed to follow them. After a few minutes, Sancho exited the Outback and crossed the street and climbed into his own car. Mendoza wondered how a hospital orderly could afford an Aston Martin DB 7.

  Sancho pulled out onto Riverside Drive and headed east. The Subaru Outback pulled out after him and Mendoza hit the gas on the late Murray Megel’s Buick Le Sabre to follow them both.

  Chapter Twenty

  The first human inhabitants of the San Juan Islands arrived fourteen thousand years ago, soon after the glaciers of the Ice Age receded. They lived in large cedar plank longhouses in the winter and in spring fished and hunted and harvested huge quantities of clams, crabs, and sea urchins. Deer and other wildlife moved among the towering cedars that provided the raw material for shelter, clothing, tools, and canoes. They gathered and prepared nettle leaves and dandelion root and the onion-like bulb of the blue camas. They picked huckleberries and thimbleberries and either ate them fresh or dried them over fires of cedar bark and shaped them into cakes to be stored away.

  The Spanish arrived in the 1790s and brought smallpox, measles, and influenza which devastated the native population. Today, the San Juan Islands are filled with elderly white retirees, sportsmen and adventure tourists who like to fish, kayak, hike, mountain bike, and zip down zip lines. There are hundreds of islands in the archipelago and many are privately owned. Some by billionaires.

  Sergei Belenki manned the MG 34 machine gun atop a Panzer as his squad assaulted a British position at El Alamein. He took out infantry running for cover and watched them die with satisfaction. A field gun blasted the Panzer and Sergei ducked down, but flames were everywhere. He jumped out seconds before it exploded in a fiery blast of twisted metal and flying shrapnel.

  He hid behind a large boulder as bullets whizzed all around him. Another member of his squad cowered beside him. The soldier peeked out to see if the coast was clear and a sniper blew his head off. More bullets ricocheted off the rocks and Sergei ran, zig-zagging to avoid the sniper fire. Arriving at the British base, he came up behind an unsuspecting enemy soldier, brutally knifed him and watched him die. Then Sergei went prone and waited as the rest of his squad arrived to capture the position.