The Auctioneer by D.J. Williams

Author:D.J. Williams [Williams, D.J.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Forgotten Stories, LLC
Published: 2019-02-25T05:00:00+00:00

FORTY-FOUR

The Mercedes winded through Westwood along Sunset Boulevard headed for Pacific Coast Highway. Handling the S650 Cabriolet, courtesy of Elena, was going smoother than our conversation. Not even an Obsidian knife blade could cut through the tension.

“Chase, you allowed Level 10 malware to get into the hands of God knows who without a second thought to the damage you’ll cause.”

“Dax programmed a spider web into the malware,” I replied, as if I knew what that meant. “When Azim passes it on and it’s plugged into a computer, you’ll know, and I’ll be able to leverage Azim to find out who used the electro-disruptor to kill Dad.”

“You could be charged with espionage.”

“Only if you turn me in,” I retorted. “Oh wait, you’ve done that already.”

“There is no conclusive proof the electro-disruptor was the cause. You never said anything about this when I agreed to our immunity deal.”

“You still don’t get it… the NTSB investigation was railroaded. My guess it was done by someone on your side — someone like Vaughn.”

“You can’t hinge your theory on the flight manifest or the NTSB report. Anyone could’ve manipulated either one — from the inside or outside.”

“The fact is Prince Azim knows who has the electro-disruptor, and that’s all the proof I need to know it caused the crash.”

“I want to believe you, but without a name… stronger evidence… something…”

“Anyone who’s tied to me is in danger because the Prodigal is hunting me.”

“Chase, you don’t believe what Collinsworth told me?”

“In London, someone tried to collect the bounty.” Pulling my sleeve up, I revealed the tattooed numbers on my forearm. “Fatima sent a message on a video at this IP address. He showed the final minutes of Dad’s life as a warning because he believed I’d been killed. And he promised more attacks were coming.”

Laney stared hard at my arm. “Collinsworth lied?”

I shook my head. “Uncle Randy is a straight shooter. He told you what he believes is true — which is why we need to confirm the video’s upload date.”

“Marcus Nicholson.”

“He’s a programming genius, who’ll want what I’m offering.”

“I’m trusting you, Chase. Don’t make me regret it.”

Laney pushed as hard as she could, knowing a break of silence was more powerful than further interrogation. Leaning back in my seat I punched the accelerator, satisfied that I’d finally won an argument. Maybe she was coming around to see that I was right — or maybe she was making up for her betrayal. Lover’s quarrels were always about a deeper hurt than the words which sparked a reaction. Were we lovers? Hell, anymore I wasn’t sure we were friends. But within the last hour, bombshells were dropped from both sides, leaving us standing shoulder to shoulder on a battlefield surrounded by landmines.

“Chase, did you know it was a clandestine operation?”

“When we arrived in Baghdad, we went straight to a safe house. No briefing. No contact with any of our forces. From the start we were on our own hitting the local neighborhoods to build our sources and spread our backstory of being black-market smugglers.

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