Geek Mafia: Mile Zero (19 page)

"That's funny," said Paul. "Because you know when I want to play the most? When I need to escape from you constantly giving me crap for how small this town is. How insane this island is. How fucking hot Key West is.

How frustrating it is to find good marks here. How much you wish that there was a decent Mexican restaurant..."

Something flashed on the screen in front of him, catching Paul's eye. He looked down at the game on his laptop for a second. There was a message on the screen. He assumed it was from one of his fellow guild members and was about to resume his tirade when he realized how weird the message really was. He looked closer and read it again.

"Oh that's fucking typical," said Chloe. "You can't even have a fight with me without checking on your auction for a green crystal dildo or whatever the fuck..."

"Chloe, look at this," said Paul.

"What?"

"Just look at this. Tell me this doesn't mean what I think it means."

On the screen was a small, in-game window that signified a priority message from a fellow player. Only those who you had approved as trusted in-game friends could even send you such messages, but Paul had never seen this screen name before. Nor was the name in blue, like it would have been if it was a game master. The message read:

Isaiah2342: YOU SHOULD LOWER YOUR VOICES.

Chloe came around the table and looked at the screen. "What the fuck..." she whispered.

Paul stared at the message, confused. Was this some weird coincidence? That seemed impossible. Chloe sat Chapter 15

96

down next to him and leaned forward, peering close. She typed into the game's chat window.

Who is this?

After a moment's hesitation, the mystery sender confirmed Paul's suspicion.

ISAIAH OF COURSE.

Chloe and Paul exchanged glances. Paul looked out the bank of windows that lined three walls of the room, but saw no sign of anyone out there, much less Isaiah. Not that that meant anything. Bee had cameras and microphones all over town, and no one ever noticed them either. But Paul found the idea that Isaiah had them too very, very disturbing. And the fact that he could monitor them in their home was beyond frightening.

Ok, we're being quiet, typed Chloe. Now will you stop spying on us?

I'M NOT SPYING ON YOU. BUT IF I WERE, ALL THAT SHOUTING WOULD MAKE IT VERY EASY

TO DO SO.

Fine we get it. So are we done?

ID LIKE A STATUS REPORT.

About the body?

Paul watched as the words disappeared almost as fast as Chloe finished typing them.

THIS IS NOT A SECURE MEANS OF COMMUNICATION.

Then stop using it, Chloe typed and then held down the laptop's power button until the screen went black. She turned to Paul and leaned toward him.

"How easy was it for him to do that?" she whispered into his ear.

"I don't know. Not easy. I don't even know how he figured out what my screen name is," he whispered back.

"This was the first time you've played since you met him, right?" asked Chloe, her breath hot in his ear. He nodded. "And you were on less than an hour." He nodded again.

Paul's heart thumped in his chest. He saw what she was getting at. Either Isaiah had hacked his laptop and Metropolis 2.0's chat system in under an hour, or he and his Crew had been digging into Paul and Chloe before they ever met. Neither option gave Paul any comfort at all. Nor did the fact that the two weren't mutually exclusive - he could be skilled enough to hack the game in under and hour and prepared enough to have been checking them out for days or weeks or months. No matter which scenario you chose, there was no denying that he and Chloe were way behind in the game.

Chloe stood up and took Paul's hand, pulling him to his feet. She led him quietly inside the house and shut the door behind them. They moved upstairs to Bee's room without saying a word and knocked on the door.

"Come in," they heard Bee shout.

Bee and the room hadn't changed in the last hour. She was still perched in front of her wall of monitors in the dark, looking through the camera array. Paul glanced at the monitor showing the map of Key West and saw Chapter 15

97

that Sandee's dot was still at the party, but that Eddie's dot had left a trail of time stamps as he passed within range of RFID detectors. The last one showed him entering the Hyatt resort off Mallory Square about ten minutes ago.

Chloe shut the door behind them and then plucked a roll of tape from a hook on the wall. Bee shot them a look when she heard Chloe start to peel off long strips of tape to seal the cracks around the door.

"What's going on?" asked Bee, a note of panic in her voice. Bee's was the only room in the house well-shielded against surveillance. When they'd moved in they'd put up aluminum sheets and/or screens of fine copper mesh over every surface before hiding them beneath a layer of plaster. The tape Chloe was using had more metallic mesh woven into it. When she was done the room would be, theoretically, sealed off from all kinds of electronic signals and eavesdropping. Even their cell phones didn't work in the room.

"It's Isaiah," Paul explained. "He's spying on us."

"How do you know?" Bee asked.

"He just hacked into Paul's game while he was playing," Chloe said as she applied the last strip of metallic tape. "And he made it very clear that he could hear what Paul and I were talking about."

"You mean yelling about," Bee said.

"Whatever. The point is, he heard us. He's watching us. And from now on we can't be too careful."

"Why did he tell us?" Paul asked, although he was talking to himself as much as to the two women.

"Because he wanted us stop yelling about dead bodies," Chloe said.

"Which is good advice," Bee chimed in.

"Yeah, ok. But still..."

"But why tell us like that?" asked Paul. "It's very flashy. He could've just called my phone. I was actually expecting him to call and get his status report. So why hack into the game and contact me there."

"He was showing off," said Chloe. "Trying to spook us."

"And it worked," Paul admitted. "But actually I think this is a good thing."

"What?" Bee and Chloe said almost at once.

"How is it a good thing?" Chloe continued.

"Well, ok, not a good thing. But not the worst thing. He's tipping his hand, right? He's letting us know not only that he's watching us, but that he's deep into our lives. But he's gotta know that we're going to be super careful from now on, right? He's made sure of that."

"So this is his way of keeping us in line," said Chloe. "Of making sure we know he's watching over us so we won't screw up."

"Exactly," said Paul. "If he wanted to just spy on us, he would never have tipped his hand. But I think he's just trying to make sure we do a good job with the Raquel situation."

Chapter 15

98

"Plus," said Chloe, "If he's as good as he seems and he really has been watching us for longer than we've known he existed, then he might well already know everything about us that he needs to know. Maybe even everything that there is to know."

"That's a comforting thought," said Bee as she stood up from her seat and headed for the closet. Paul and Chloe watched as Bee pulled out several boxes of gear from the tiny closet which was stuffed with computer gear, blown monitors, and other tech detritus. Paul recognized the boxes as the containers she kept her bug sweeping gear in. "I'm going to sweep the whole house again," Bee said. "It'll take about five hours. No one should say anything until I'm done."

Paul and Chloe looked back at each other.

"I'll bet Isaiah's calling me right now," said Paul.

"I'll bet he is," she said.

"I should probably call him."

"Yeah."

"He'll want to meet," said Paul.

"You can handle it," she replied. "I'm going to help Bee secure the house and then follow up on Eddie."

Paul started to stay something else. Some kind of apology, maybe. But he couldn't find the words. He just nodded and gave her a quick, awkward kiss.

"Ok, well, I'll go see him."

"And, Paul," Chloe said. "Tell him if he really wants to help, he can come get that fucking body from our freezer."

Chapter 16

99

Chapter 16

TWO and a half hours later, Paul met Isaiah and, as it turned out, Winston at the Blue Parrot restaurant over in Bahama Village. The restaurant was one of Paul's favorites, and also one of the most popular breakfast joints on the island. Most of the dining area consisted of picnic tables spread out beneath the trees, with chickens scrambling around the mulch-covered ground while the owner's dogs prowled about hoping for table scraps.

The ultra-casual setting belied a relatively sophisticated menu that included seafood eggs benedict that Paul craved at least once a week.

Even at this early hour the restaurant was crowded. This time of year, with so many tourists on the island, there would soon be an hour's wait. Most of the tables had happy diners chowing down at them. But Paul didn't see Isaiah anywhere among them. He was about to ask the hostess for a table when his phone started to vibrate in his pocket. It didn't even surprise him when he saw the number Isaiah had been using on the caller ID.

"I assume you're watching me from somewhere?" Paul said as he answered.

"Look up," Isaiah responded.

Paul looked up, first into the trees and then at the second floor of the ramshackle wooden building that housed the restaurant's kitchen and small indoor dining section. On the second floor was another dining room, one usually closed except on the most crowded mornings. He saw Isaiah standing at the top of the stairs. He'd changed into less formal attire - a pair of jeans and a simple, short-sleeve button-down red shirt. Paul nodded at him and shut off his phone as he made for the stairway.

Upstairs he found Isaiah and Winston both waiting for him at a table, along with pitchers of coffee and juice and a platter of muffins and croissants. They had the small dining room to themselves, and Paul assumed they'd paid for the privilege of not being disturbed any further.

"You found my favorite restaurant," said Paul. "You seem to know everything."

Isaiah ignored the barb. "Please, take a seat," he said, motioning to the chair across from him.

Paul nodded to Winston by way of saying hello, sat down and poured himself a cup of coffee and took a blueberry muffin from the tray. "Is there going to be a waitress coming?" he asked.

"Is there something you need?" asked Isaiah.

"Eggs. Bacon. Toast."

"If you could wait until we're finished," Isaiah said. "It shouldn't take long."

"Fine," said Paul, munching his muffin.

"So, did everything go all right at the hotel?" Winston asked. "Did you...?"

"Yeah, it went fine. We got her out of there."

"Where is she now?" Winston asked, his voice sad.

"For the moment we've got her hidden in a freezer in our backyard," said Paul. "But that's not a good long-term solution. It's not even a good short-term solution. If you could..."

Chapter 16

100

"We'll help you dispose of it," said Isaiah.

"I'll take care of it," said Winston. Isaiah looked over at the old man and the two stared at each other for half a heartbeat. "She was a friend. I owe her that much." Isaiah nodded in agreement and they both turned their gazes back on Paul.

"It's going to be tricky now that the sun is up," said Paul. "You never know who's watching. I'm told you can't be too careful."

"We can handle it discreetly I'm sure," said Winston.

"And I guess you already know where we live," said Paul. Winston nodded and smiled. Paul wondered if Isaiah had told him or if the old man had found out on his own. He was pretty sure Chloe hadn't filled her old mentor in on her supposedly hidden home base. Hidden no more it seemed. "Ok, well, the sooner the better."

"It will be my top priority when we're finished here."

"Great," Paul said, his voice dripping with sarcasm although the truth was that this was the first piece of news he'd heard that actually gave him some relief. Having Raquel's body in his backyard scared him stiff every time he thought about it. One call to the cops and he and Chloe were toast.

"What did you find in her room?" asked Isaiah, bringing the conversation back to where he apparently wanted it to be.

"Not much," said Paul. He'd gotten a full report from Bee and Chloe about their investigation. "Whoever killed her also ransacked the room. Or at least we think so. The room looked totally neat and undisturbed, but any laptops or other electronic devices Raquel might have had were gone. Also, Chloe found a hidden compartment in her luggage that was also empty. The killers covered their tracks very well."

"And how was she killed?" asked Isaiah.

"It looks like someone hit her over the head. Or it could be poison or something, but obviously we have no way of testing that. It looks like she was in a fight though. Bee took some skin samples from under her fingernails, so maybe we could do a DNA test or something. Not that we know how to do a DNA test. Do you?"

"No," admitted Isaiah.

"No," concurred Winston. "Although I might be able to use a contact of mine up in Miami. I can take the sample and send it to him if you like, but it would still take weeks to get results."

"Sure," said Paul. "Might as well."

"You said she fought back, but the room looked undisturbed," Isaiah said. "Do you think the killer cleaned up after the fight?"

"We think she was killed somewhere else," said Paul. "There was beach sand in the room and some of her clothes were damp. And there wasn't much blood. Nothing broken. Plus someone had removed the window from its frame. Our guess is, they killed her somewhere else and then moved her body back to the room."

"They?" asked Winston.

Chapter 16

101

"Well, it would've been real hard for just one person to move the body around like that and push it up through the window without being noticed. You gotta figure there was someone else, right? And we seem to come in packs."

"What do you mean, we'?" asked Isaiah.