Mastermind: A Theo Cray and Jessica Blackwood Thriller by Andrew Mayne

Mastermind: A Theo Cray and Jessica Blackwood Thriller by Andrew Mayne

Author:Andrew Mayne [Mayne, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Published: 2021-09-06T16:00:00+00:00


CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

PARALLEL PROCESSING

I’m a difficult guy to like. I have very few friends. If people were pets, some would have to be dogs: everyone likes them. Others, like cats, are a bit of an acquired taste and come with the understanding that it’s going to be a one-way relationship. I think I fall into tarantula territory—interesting to most people at first, but only worth the effort to a select few.

Hailey is one of my friends. She’s put up with almost as much of my insanity as Jillian.

She even tracked me down when I went into my last downward spiral. I was too far gone to explain the method to my madness. Hell, I barely understood it.

She may have forgiven me, but she hasn’t forgotten. I can tell by the way she’s watching me from the other side of the coffee table in the Marriott hotel lobby.

Hailey is in her late twenties and runs one of the most successful mobile video game companies on the planet. I met her while trying to hunt down Forrester, and she’s proved to be instrumental to my work on more than one occasion.

“So . . . I got an interesting voice message a couple of days ago,” she says after we exchange hellos. “Care to elaborate?”

Jessica’s in meetings at FBI headquarters, and I’ve been told to hang out here while I wait to be called in, arrested, or committed. I figured it would be smart to reach out to my one friend in Virginia in case I need help.

“Ah, that. I was in Thailand. We were looking for a group of missing chimpanzees. I needed to fake a phone call so I could copy a suspect’s phone directory.”

“Cool,” she says in that way people younger than me say cool without it actually being cool. “No word from you for six months. Jillian worried that you were dying in some jungle, and this is after you had your psychotic break in Portland?”

“Was it a psychotic break?” I ask. “I mean, I did catch the most prolific serial killer in America.”

“Alleged,” says Hailey. “The trial hasn’t finished yet.”

“You taking demotivational lessons from Mylo? Speaking of which, where is your sidekick?”

Mylo is Hailey’s best friend and probably the most sarcastic person I’ve ever met. Nothing I could say or do would impress her.

“We’re running an online tournament right now. She’s providing commentary.”

“Does that include reminding your fans they’re going to die virgins?” I joke.

Hailey shakes her head. “You of all people can’t be the ultimate nerd hero and then point at other nerds and yell, ‘Nerd!’ It doesn’t work that way.”

“Fair point.”

“So, the Void thing? Are you involved in that?” she asks.

“Kind of. Did it affect you?”

“Not too much. We run some servers from Manhattan, but everything was backed up. It was more of a problem for some friends there. A lot of people had their entire businesses wiped. I’m hosting a used-laptop drive to help people get back on their feet,” she explains.

“That’s good of you.”

“Good? If people don’t have computers, they can’t play my games,” she jokes.



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