Geek Mafia: Mile Zero (26 page)

"Beans give me gas," Cassie pointed out as if this were one of the more profound observations she could make.

"Um... ok."

"And boats need gas," Cassie pointed out.

"True," Chloe agreed. "Listen, hon. This is important, ok? So if you could..."

"That's why I don't like bean enchiladas," Cassie pronounced with authority. "I'll find Mr. Man here. And I'll call you."

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"Thanks, sweetie," Chloe said, giving Cassie a hug despite the smell.

"And then we'll spend gas money," Cassie assured her.

"If you say so."

CHLOE left the killer's picture with everyone she knew in town, including most of the bartenders, cabbies and pedi-cab drivers. If the fucker popped his head up in public, she'd hear about it. That was the plan anyway.

With his pic all over town, it was possible that he would notice it before someone noticed him. Then, if he had any brains, he'd go into hiding and they might never find him. But Chloe and Paul had decided that their biggest advantage was their network of contacts on the island, and if they wanted to catch him soon, they needed to come out with all their guns blazing.

Back at the house, Chloe found Bee up in her room. Bee was almost always in her room these days unless she had to venture outside to install a new camera or do some maintenance work on one of the existing setups.

Chloe and Paul tried to get her to come to the party once in a while, but she preferred to watch from afar. It worried her that Bee was withdrawing into herself so much, but Chloe wasn't her mother and couldn't make the woman get out in the sunlight.

The door to Bee's suite was locked, and Chloe had to knock and wait five minutes while she unsealed the wire mesh tape around the door and undo the locks. When she finally let Chloe in, Chloe said, "I thought you swept the place for bugs?"

"I did," said Bee, shuffling back to her seat in front of the monitor wall. "But with Raff in town I decided that, you know, you can't be too careful and stuff."

"Makes sense," said Chloe, although she wasn't sure that it did. She looked at the map display and saw Eddie's name still next to the Hyatt complex. "What have you got here?"

"Well, I watched Raff 's movements after Sandee beat him up. He pretty much followed Eddie's course and actually went back into the Hyatt. I haven't seen any sign of any of them since, but that doesn't mean much.

They could've gone out the side or taken a cab or even a boat and I wouldn't know."

"But Eddie's still there?" asked Chloe, pointing to the dot with his name.

"Well, maybe," said Bee. "I got a reading off the RFID there near the entrance, but that was a while ago. He could've left by another way where I don't have any receivers, or he could've taken the card out of his pocket and then I wouldn't know. But he hasn't shown up on any of the cameras, either."

"So, let's assume he's still in there," said Chloe. "And we can assume Raff 's there with him."

"Why would Raff go in there if he just met Eddie out on the street a few hours ago?" asked Bee.

"Because he knows we were following him, but he doesn't know how many of us there are. More to the point, he doesn't know how fucking few of us there are. He saw me and Paul and Sandee and he heard us mention you..."

"He did?" asked Bee, a note of alarm in her voice.

"Yeah, when we were snatching that little black box thingy."

"Oh yeah..." Bee pointed over her shoulder at the table behind her where Chloe saw that the box had been Chapter 21

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pried open and its electronic guts carefully laid out on top of a piece of newspaper. It was normally the kind of thing Bee would do in her workshop, but Chloe guessed she didn't want to be away from her cameras. "That's actually pretty cool. I got it opened up..."

"Great," interrupted Chloe, not wanting to be distracted from her train of thought. "We'll get to that in a sec..."

"Sorry..." said Bee.

"No worries. Anyway, Raff knows we're on to him, but he doesn't know how small our Crew is. Or at least I don't think he does. So he's got to assume that we have other people out there and that they're watching him (which would be nice). So he's not going to go back to wherever he's staying because he doesn't want to lead us to his other Crewmembers..."

"Do you think these are the same people he was working with in secret when we were all in San Jose? That the... detective guy was with?" asked Bee.

"Maybe," said Chloe. "No way of telling really. But the point is, we've got to assume that he's with people.

Eddie as much as said that he was making a deal with another group."

"So Raff is hiding out with Eddie, in order to protect his friends."

"Exactly," Chloe concluded. "Which I can't imagine is going over very well with Eddie. He doesn't seem like the kind of fella who likes uninvited guests. Unless they're women anyway."

"I wonder what he told him?" asked Bee.

"What do you mean?"

"Raff had to have some excuse, right? Some reason for being there. Did he tell them that it was you and Paul and Sandee that attacked him? Or did he come up with some other story?"

"Hmmmm, good question," Chloe mused, thinking things over for a minute. "It would depend on what their relationship was like. If they're close and have worked together before, then he probably told Eddie something closer to the truth. He'd want to turn Eddie against us. On the other hand, if it's a less trusting relationship, then he might make up a story of some sort, because Eddie wouldn't want to risk getting Winston and Isaiah angry at him by siding with an enemy of ours."

"This is getting complicated..."

"Yeah, it is, isn't it? But this part here is pretty straightforward. We need to find out where Raff and Eddie stand with each other."

"We could try and get a bug or camera into Eddie's rooms at the Hyatt," suggested Bee.

"Maybe. But we don't even know what room they're in, and I doubt it's under his name, so getting into the reservation system won't work. We'd have to get in with the maid service or something. That could take a while. And we need to act fast."

"We could maybe try and get them apart again," said Bee. "Try and get each of them alone or maybe try and make Raff go back to his other friends."

"That would be ideal," agreed Chloe. "But I don't see how."

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"I'd like to talk with Raff," Bee said, her voice barely a whisper.

"So the fuck would I," said Chloe. "All I need is a cattle prod, some duct tape and..."

"No, really," insisted Bee. "I want to talk with him. I think maybe... I think that I..."

"What is it?" asked Chloe.

"I want to ask him about the man I killed. His friend. The detective."

"Fake detective," Chloe pointed out.

"The man I killed."

"The man about to shoot us."

"That I killed," Bee insisted.

"What do you think he's going to tell you?" asked Chloe.

"Who he was..." Bee replied. "I don't even know his name. I don't know if he had any..."

"Honey, nothing Raff tells you is going to be the truth. He's a fucking degenerate liar. He's either going to tell you what he thinks you want to hear to try and win you over or tell you what he thinks you don't want to hear in order to fuck with your head."

"I know that," said Bee. "But there will be some truth in there."

"Or not."

"But that's not the reason why," said Bee. "I know he's going to lie, and I know he can't be trusted. But listen.

Neither can I."

"What?" asked Chloe. "I don't understand."

"He has to be as surprised as you were that I killed that guy. He has to know that it probably fucked with my head and made me crazy."

"You're not crazy, Bee."

"I think that maybe I am. A little. I know I haven't been normal."

"If you need to talk about this..." Chloe started. "If you want to, that's great. I mean, we totally can." Bee had brushed off every one of Paul and Chloe's attempts to talk with her about the shooting over the past year. She was excited that her friend was finally opening up, although the timing could have been better. "But with Raff? It's just a dangerous..."

"That's why I want to do it," said Bee. "It's going to be the last thing he expects. I can go to him. And I can say I'm on my own. That I'm going behind your back because I'm obsessed with this guy I killed. He might believe that."

"Maybe," said Chloe, although she doubted Raff would fall for something like that so soon after being beat Chapter 21

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up.

"Ok, even if he doesn't believe it, I think the curiosity alone would bring him out. Or maybe the chance that I am a weak link in the Crew that he can exploit. He'll want the chance to find out more about us."

Chloe thought about this, staring at the bank of screens. They needed to keep the initiative, keep Raff from getting back on his feet. He'd already had a few hours to recover, and according to Paul's call, Isaiah was unwilling to put any pressure on Eddie yet. At this point, until they heard something about the killer or Eddie made a move, Bee's plan seemed like the only course of action that was, well, actually an action.

"Ok, let's say I sign onto this plan of yours," said Chloe. "How do we arrange a meeting? We don't know how to get a hold of Raff."

"Well, we know how to get in touch with Eddie, don't we?"

"Yeah..."

"We just call him and ask him to hand the phone to Raff."

"Then we're giving away the fact that we know Raff and Eddie are together!" said Chloe, surprised. Giving away information like that went against every instinct.

"I know," said Bee sheepishly. "But it would be simple..."

"Simple isn't always good..." Chloe replied, but even as she was saying it, she started to suss out the full implications of Bee's suggestion. "Although, despite my better judgment, there is a case to be made for it..."

"There is?" asked Bee, sounding surprised.

"Remember our two scenarios. Eddie and Raff are tight and therefore Raff has already told him about us. Or, they're not so tight, and he doesn't want them to know about us. If it's option A, then we're not telling him anything he doesn't know. If it's option B, then our call will make Eddie more suspicious of Raff. He might even get pissed at Raff for not telling him about us."

"That's what I was thinking!" said Bee with a smile.

"Liar," said Chloe, giving her a playful punch in the shoulder.

"I'm just practicing for when I meet Raff," said Bee.

"Well you need to keep practicing, cuz you suck at it."

"Where should I ask to meet him?"

"Someplace public so he'll feel safe, but someplace we can control a little. And someplace that we already have cameras in. Plus, someplace that will throw him off his game. Make him uncomfortable."

"Oooh!" said Bee. "I have just the place!" She swung around in her chair and seized the mouse, clicking through her cameras. Chloe watched as scenes from a rooftop bar lit up the screens.

"You have cameras in the Garden of Eden?" asked Chloe. "When did you...?"

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"They're not mine. They're the bar's. I just figured out how to tap into the wireless signal on them. I think the owner or manager or someone must like to keep an eye on the place when they're at home or something."

Chloe looked at the screen and smiled wide. "Those pervs. Who knew?" She turned to Bee. "Ok, sounds perfect. Let's make the call."

"I'll tell Raff I got Eddie's number from Paul without him knowing about it."

"He'll like that," said Chloe as she looked back to the screen. "And make sure that you insist he obey the dress code."

"Absolutely," said Bee. "That's the point, right?"

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Chapter 22

AN hour later, Paul had heard from Chloe about Bee's plan. He wanted to be with them both right now, on guard against whatever Raff would inevitably try and pull when he met with Bee, but if it worked and they managed to separate Raff and Eddie, they needed to take advantage of the situation. If he could keep him from reuniting with Eddie after the meet with Bee, then Raff would have nowhere to go but back to wherever his own Crew was staying. To do that, they needed to force Eddie to abandon his hotel room and distrust Raff enough not to protect him anymore. That was the tricky part, of course, but together he and Sandee had a plan.

The Hyatt complex where they thought Eddie was staying sat right against the water at the end of Front Street, just a block from Mallory Square. It offered guests the whole package - pool, bar, restaurants, boat and jet ski rentals, sunset cruises and wireless access for their laptops through one of the big cell phone companies. If they had a skilled hacker, they might have been able to find Eddie and his crewmates by tracking their Internet usage or something like that. But they didn't.

Nor did they have any useful contacts who worked at the hotel. Sandee knew one girl who worked as a maid, but wasn't working again for another two days and couldn't help them out. Under other circumstances, they might try to simply bribe someone behind the front desk or show them a pic of Eddie and say they were looking for him. But if Eddie was being as security conscious as he should be, he probably already had one or more of the hotel employees on his temporary payroll. If Paul talked to one of them, he'd not only not find out Eddie's room, he'd be tipping his target off. So it was up to him and Sandee to find another way.

The first obvious step was to get a room for themselves in the hotel. Or that would have been the first step if the Hyatt hadn't been fully booked. Which it was. So they were going to be operating without a safe base of operations inside. The only advantage here was that, with the hotel full, there were plenty of people coming and going. Dressed in typical tourist garb, (Sandee still in what he called his "boy form," as if he had a super power that allowed him to change gender - which was not too far from the truth) they had no trouble slipping past the front desk with a larger group of actual guests.

Once inside, they split up. Paul went and found a public bathroom and ensconced himself in one of the stalls.