Geek Mafia: Mile Zero by Rick Dakan (best fiction novels to read .txt) 📕

WINSTON made nothing but small talk as long as they were still within line of site of the La Concha. Paul led him away from the actual house he and Chloe had set up for him. He calculated an extra half hour into their trip to lose anyone who might be following them, a delay he found very frustrating, as he was eager to get see how Chloe and Bee were getting on with the investigation.

“So what did you think of all that?” Winston asked.

“Pretty interesting,” said Paul. “Pretty ambitious.”

“That it is. Isaiah doesn’t think small.”

“What about you?” asked Paul. “You seem pretty skeptical about it.”

“As the oldest person in the room, it’s my job to play the skeptic. But I agree with you. It is interesting. And the idea of using the corporate powers I’ve been fighting for so many years as a tool against the fascists, well, that’s a kind of poetry. It’s a wonderful twist. Just wonderful.”

“Wow, I would never have guessed you felt that way.”

“No reason to let Isaiah know what I think of his idea. And I do have my reservations. Quite a few of them in fact. Security for example. And preserving the anonymity of the members. It’s one thing for Amelia to say it in a room on top of a hotel, it’s another thing to actually ensure it.”

“And then there’s Raquel,” said Paul.

“First and foremost there’s Raquel,” agreed Winston. “I didn’t know her well. We weren’t close. But her death saddens me. And her death worries me. I can’t believe that it’s a coincidence.”

“It doesn’t seem likely,” said Paul. “I don’t imagine there are many coincidences when it comes to murder. They say most victims know their killer.”

“What I can’t fathom is why someone would kill her,” said Winston. “We haven’t even formed Isaiah’s Corporation of Crews yet, and our first target doesn’t even know we exist.”

Paul had been devoting as much spare brain space as he could to this exact question, and he’d come up with a few possibilities, although no suspects. Maybe Winston could help him sort it out. “I’ve been working on that,” he said.

“Good, good,” said Winston. “What are your thoughts?”

“It seems to me it had to be something she knew. Either that or something she was going to do. She’d obviously talked with Isaiah about this project beforehand and may have even been planning it with him from the beginning.”

“It might even have been her idea,” Winston pointed out. “We have no way of knowing.”

“Good point. I hadn’t thought of that. Plus the fact that she had worked with Eddie and his Crew very recently can’t be a coincidence either. My guess is, she was checking them out for Isaiah. Seeing if they were trustworthy or competent or had the money-moving experience they claim they have. Something like that.”

“Go on,” said Winston.

“So my guess is that, in all her checking stuff out, she found something. Maybe through her law enforcement contacts. Maybe when she was working with Eddie. Maybe something that we have no hint of. But she learned something that would have impacted this plan in a big way. And someone didn’t want her to pass that info on to the rest of us.”

“That makes sense, as far as it goes,” said Winston. “But I find it hard to believe that someone would kill her over a piece of information that might scuttle a project that hadn’t even been launched yet.”

“Ahhh,” said Paul, possibilities bubbling up in his brain and coming out his mouth before he could censor them. “But what if it wasn’t something that would have stopped Isaiah from proceeding? What if the killer was someone who didn’t want us to do this corporation thingy? Maybe Raquel would’ve sealed the deal, but now that she’s dead it throws things into doubt.”

“That is a devilish possibility,” Winston said. “And on the other side of the coin, someone who has become passionately attached to the plan might no longer be thinking rationally. And once rational thought leaves the equation, senseless violence often finds its way in. Trust me, I speak from experience.”

Paul knew that Winston had started his underground life as a member of the violent, anti-war group The Weather Underground. In the ’70s they’d bombed government and corporate buildings in an effort to “bring the war home” and exact a cost for the Vietnam War. Paul suspected that Winston regretted the bombings in his past as very misguided, counterproductive acts of protest.

“So, either way, we’re talking about someone with an agenda here,” said Paul. “Someone who really wants this thing to succeed or someone who really wants it to fail.”

“That sums it up nicely.”

They fell into silence then, neither of them quite willing to say out loud what they both had to be thinking. The only person likely to be passionately interested in seeing the plan move forward was Isaiah. As for possible player haters, Paul didn’t have any suspects, but that was only because he didn’t know enough yet.

“Winston, can I ask how much of Isaiah’s plan you knew before you came out here?”

He laughed. “I admit, I knew more than you. I knew he was trying to organize the Crews in some way. I didn’t know the corporation angle. I didn’t know he had a target in mind.”

“Did you know about Raquel and Eddie?”

“I knew Raquel was somehow involved. I didn’t know anything about Eddie until I met him at the same time you did.” Winston seemed like he was about to say something more, but then he didn’t.

“So Eddie could’ve known more too,” Paul mused. “We all played dumb in there a little. Well, except me. I genuinely didn’t know what was going on. But still, Eddie could’ve already had the skinny on Isaiah’s plan.”

“And so he might’ve already formed an opinion about whether or not he wanted it to go forward,” Winston concluded.

“We just don’t know. Something else to find out.” Speaking of which, thought Paul. He needed to check in with Chloe and see what they actually had found out. “Do you mind giving me a minute to make a call?”

Winston glanced around the empty side street they’d found themselves on. There was no one in sight. “I can make my way home from here,” he said. “You go help Chloe. I’m sure the two of you have a busy night ahead.”

“Thanks,” said Paul, relieved to be freed. Like all gamers, he hated escort missions.

“And if you need any help, Lily and I are just a phone call away,” Winston said.

“You bet,” said Paul. He’d never had so many offers of help since he’d gone underground. Unfortunately he didn’t think he trusted any of them except Winston. “You’ll hear from us soon, I’m sure.”

“WE need to move the body,” said Chloe. She, Paul, and Bee were standing in the alley behind the guest house where Raquel lay dead in her bed.

“I was afraid you’d say that,” said Paul.

“You’re not surprised?” asked Bee.

“I was going to suggest it and then hope you two would talk me out of it. We can’t let the police get involved in this thing. Definitely not in a murder investigation. And the maid is going to find her tomorrow morning or she’s going to start smelling, and then they’ll find her for sure.”