Jeff finds himself in Silicon Valley where he is asked to investigate claims by a gregarious Frenchman that his neural network electronic technology actually works. He meets up again with the enchanting Nancy, the FBI agent he had worked with in Atlanta where they fell in love while he was still married, and again in Washington DC Kathy puts romance back into Jeff’s life as he finds himself hounded by financially-desperate Europeans so determined to push their questionable technology―men so desperate that they will stop at nothing, even Jeff’s murder. The excitement will make the reader gasp, tragedy will make the reader cry, romance will make the reader sigh.
Chapter 12 of Silicon Gulch … Jeff will use himself as bait for the murderers!
Tuesday, 8:58 PM: A Plan
Jeff comes up with a brilliant plan to use himself as bait for the hit men!
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Thanks for taking time, and enjoy!
- Chris Lamela
Author contact: chris@chrislamela.com, 707-566-8790 PST
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Tuesday,
8:58 PM: A Plan
All faces in the room were intent on Jeff, he leaned back smiling,
slapping his hands on the table laughing out loud, "Of course! Me!"
He glanced around the room at the confused faces, eyes trying to
comprehend a man who sat before them smiling and laughing after just being told
he was about to be murdered.
"I mean," Jeff shook his head, "I
should be used to this by now, right?" looking to Arnie and Nancy.
"You know, he threatened me this morning. Said that he would stop at
nothing to get my endorsement. I joked as he was leaving that what was he going
to do, murder me? Then this Mikl guys say yes!" Shaking his head, "So
he wasn't joking." Looking to the ceiling laughing, "So yeah, bring
it on, why not!"
The room sat silent for another minute. Lin finally broke the silence
speaking to Jeff, "You said that you've worked with Arnie for a couple
years. I take it by your fearless attitude here that experiences with Arnie
have put you in similar circumstances?" her voice filled with wonder.
Nancy turned to Jeff with an admiring smile, Arnie spoke up looking back
and forth between Jeff and Lin, "Let's just say that this man is used to
having guns pointed at him."
"Is that something you get used to?" Lin mused to Arnie.
Arnie turned to Jeff.
"No, Lin," Jeff turned to Lin, "it's not something you
get used to but after a couple times―or
rather a bunch of times―I learned not to panic."
Nancy smiled, "Look I know this is off track," she grinned
turning to Jeff, "but I have seen this guy with a gun pulled on him by
Atlanta's chief of police, he―" she turned to Jeff, "what did you say
to him? Oh, yeah, I remember, he turns to the chief, says something like, 'This
is a nasty place for a murder, don't you think?' then he just walks out the
door! So cool, you should have seen that fat bastard's face!" The room's mood
was definitely lightening, nervous smiles exchanged.
"Look," Jeff turned to the faces around him, "this can't
be that hard. We are ahead of these guys. I mean we have all these skills here,
we are a bunch of smart people, plus we have gotten really lucky!"
pointing to the pictures in the middle of the table. "We have the leg-up!
They don't know that we know!"
The timbre of the room improved noticeably at this little pep talk.
"We have only three players. The Frenchman who is not that bright,
the Swiss prick whose arrogance is his Achilles heel, and two shooters. Okay,
maybe four players." He looked to Arnie and Nancy, "Hell, this is easy compared to Atlanta, it's a cake
walk compared to DC. We can do this!"
Jeff smiled to himself noticing Arnie's left hand reach under the table
toward the congresswoman's leg in assurance.
"All we need to do is find a way to draw them out. Bait!"
Arnie laughed out loud, "Oh please tell me you have some wisdom
from Sherlock Holmes for us, I miss him!" Nancy laughed along with him,
even Yvonne smiled. The rest of the room's skeptical faces wondering if these
grinning mugs may have lost it a little.
"Look," Jeff glanced around the table pointing to the
pictures, "these guys didn't have luggage,
they have little sports bags. Yeah they were checked so they could put their
guns in there, but clothing wise they have what, two pairs of underwear, maybe
one clean shirt. These are guys who came to get the job done quickly then get
the first flight back to Newark. Or wherever."
"What, are you psychic?" the hit-squad man spoke quizzically
bending forward to look around the people between him and Jeff. "You
totally nailed these guys' M.O., they are
from Newark!"
Jeff leaned forward to look at the man, "Look, the sports bags
speak for themselves and Newark was just a lucky guess. I mean, where else
would they be from, Disney World?"
The man stretched his arm forward, hand outstretched, the two people
between them leaning back, "Jeff, my name is Franklin Parkes, it is really
a pleasure to meet you."
Jeff reached out shaking hands, Franklin looking to Arnie, "Arnie,
where did you get this guy?"
Arnie and Nancy burst out laughing so hard the room pulled back in amazement
at this response to the question, Arnie looking to Jeff, "Franklin, I
welcome you to the long list of people that have asked me that very question." The whole room's
mood was back on track with a determination that seemed to radiate from the
center of the table containing the pictures Jeff had snapped of the faces that
were at this very moment planning to murder him.
"So Arnie," Jeff turned to him when the levity finally
subsided to the serious business at hand, "yes, Sherlock has some advice for
us."
To Jeff's surprise the entire table leaned forward.
"The first part is simple. We think these shooters want to get the
job done then get the hell back out, right?" Nods. "They don't care
if it's public or private, but we would like to keep it private, or at least
where nobody else can get hurt." More nods. "And we think that Mikl
Denot would defer a meeting to the shooters if the opportunity arose?"
Arnie nodded seeing where this was going.
"Well, this morning I had a meeting with Paula Johnson in a good
sized conference room at the Merdian, Parlor Three. It can hold maybe twenty,
thirty people comfortably." Looking to Nancy, "It's where the dinner
was." She nodded. "Anyway, it had a door on the inside connecting it
to the next room."
Franklin leaned forward, "Where's this going?"
Arnie held up a finger, "Hold on Franklin, he's on a roll here,
trust me." Turning to Jeff, "This does have some Sherlock I hope."
"Wait, hold on." Jeff sat back reflecting, looking to the
ceiling, the whole room held its breath. He leaned forward turning to Arnie,
glancing at Nancy. "So in a story, I think it was called The Adventure of the Empty House the
story has Sherlock Holmes hearing a rumor that an assassin has been hired to
kill him. So he invites the person that hired the assassin to his apartment at
a very particular time, telling that person that he will be waiting in his
parlor in his usual chair by the window, which of course is not his usual chair. There was some kind
of deadline, but I don't remember the details, so that the person would want
the killing done sooner rather than later. There was an empty house across the
street from Holme's apartment, the windows looking directly into his apartment."
A voice came from the room, "But how are we going to―"
Jeff put up his finger to silence the room again, "So he makes sure
that his silhouette is on the blinds so that the shooter gets a clear shot.
When the hour arrives, sure enough, his silhouette appears on the blind, but instead
of being there, Sherlock goes around to the empty house and captures the
shooter who managed to put a bullet square into the head of the image across
the street."
"But what was the image? How was he across the street if his image
was on the blinds?" came a curious voice.
"Oh, boy, this room needs to read a little more Sherlock Holmes,
huh? It was a dummy! Casting a silhouette on the window blinds."
"But I don't get it!" the voice complained.
"Wait! I do! Jeff, this is brilliant!" Nancy exclaimed.
"Yes, and we can get this all done tomorrow morning. Denot will
want this done so that the meeting doesn't need to happen on Friday because he
is worried that I won't show. He is so desperate and arrogant that he is
certain he can bamboozle my boss with me gone. The shooters want to get this
done to get the hell back on a plane out of here."
Arnie leaned forward looking intently at Jeff, "Okay, so finish."
"It's easy. I will call Denot right now, tell him I want a meeting
in that same conference room at, say nine tomorrow morning. I will tell him
that I will be there a few minutes early to, I don't know maybe set up something―wait,
yes, I do know! I will tell him that I want to show him some stuff about my
company or something. So the shooters see me go in alone. At nine they throw
open the door, there I am in the dark with a projector going so they can't see
me, rat-a-tat-tat they shoot me and leave."
Arnie jumped up enthusiastically, "Yes! With the light on the
screen in the dark they can't see the details, maybe your back is to the door."
"Exactly!"
"Just like the silhouette in your Sherlock story!" Yvonne
couldn't help herself, smiling.
"Yes, I will have already gone through the side door so I'll be
safe."
Now Franklin jumped up, "And we get our shooters! God I love this!"
"Better than that, you'll get them both! I'll bet they work in
pairs, one cases the layout, the other shoots, right?"
Franklin looked to Jeff, "How did you know that?"
"Come on, give me some
credit. I watch movies, too!" the two laughed out loud.
Arnie stood up, "Okay you guys, Jeff has a phone call to make.
Yvonne, you've got to figure out who we need to get Jeff in that room watching
a slide show, arrange the room and make sure there is nobody in any rooms
anywhere close. These guys are nasty, there's going to be bullets everywhere."
Jeff realized that the pad in front of her was blank, watching her first
scribbles with the instructions Arnie had just given her.
"Okay, everyone quiet. Jeff, you have a call to make."
Jeff produced his phone from pants pocket. "I need the number."
One of Mikl Denot's business cards was laid in his palm. Jeff pressed in the
numbers, pressing the TALK button.
The room went perfectly silent.
"Mikl? Mikl Denot?"
The room could hear the tiny scratchy voice coming from the phone, Jeff
hearing the quick response. "Yes, this is Jeff. Listen, I've been thinking
a lot about that proposition you gave me this morning…no I haven't…no I haven't
changed my mind…yes…yes…well listen, there is more that I want you know about
my company. I was thinking that maybe we could meet tomorrow morning at my
hotel…yes…I was thinking nine…the same conference room I was in this morning
with Paula, parlor three…you remember?...good…I will be there a few minutes
before to set it all up…good…excellent…okay…yes if you think Gerard will be
interested but I'll leave it up to you…okay good…no, I have other breakfast
plans, we'll just meet right there in the room…alright see you in the morning…and
yes, no point in meeting tonight…yes, at nine…yes then, goodnight." He
pushed the disconnect button triumphantly.
Sitting back with a satisfied smile, he declared, "Done!"
Suddenly Nancy's cell phone rang. She reached into her purse pulling it
out, clicking a button with the same hand, "Nancy here." She stood up
signaling around the room for quiet, all ears leaning forward. "Yes…yes
that's what you said…no that's fine…really…irrelevant...okay, I guess…yes, that's
fine, call me." She clicked the phone off, standing in silence for a full
minute pondering what she had just heard.
Turning to the room she shook her head, "That was Mikl, he wants to
cancel the meeting he wanted tonight." She stood shaking her head slowly
in silence holding the phone out staring at it like something was forthcoming
from the inert object in her hand.
"Why the concerned look?" Arnie leaned forward to Nancy.
"I don't know, something he said…that this will all be irrelevant
tomorrow."
Flopping back Jeff threw up his arms looking to the ceiling, "Of
course it will be irrelevant! Tomorrow they murder me!"
"Excuse me, I can't wait to hear this!" the two eves-dropper
spy guys jumped up nearly running from the room.
"And I have some arrangements to make―a date with a dummy!" faces
turned to Yvonne who leaped up sprinting out the door on the heels of the two
men, everyone laughing that Yvonne
actually made a joke!
"Okay then," Jeff sat back with a satisfied grin, "now
that we've planned my murder, what's next?"
"How about some dinner?" Nancy looked around the room. "We
can go downstairs, right Arnie?"
"Yeah, I think that in about two minutes the coast will be clear
everywhere until nine tomorrow morning." He looked around the room. "Okay
people, it's a quarter to eight, everyone back here by eight-thirty. Get some
food in you, we have work to do."
The room rose. Soon Jeff was sitting at a table with Arnie, Nancy and
Lin in the Pepper Mill restaurant a few steps from the hotel. The waitress
walked up in a skimpy low-cut outfit with her very short skirt poofed out in
some kind of seductive black sado-Cinderella look. They ordered beers all
around, soon shoveling food into hungry mouths in silence.
Finally they sat back. Lin looked at Jeff in fascination, he could tell
that the images of today in Los Gatos had gotten jumbled up with what just happened,
then stirred with all sorts of stereotypes mixed a good portion of confusion. "So
Jeff," she looked back and forth between Nancy and Arnie, "tell me, I
mean if you can tell me."
"Tell you what?"
"I don't know, what is this I hear about Atlanta and DC? Why do
those keep coming up?"
Jeff turned to Arnie and Nancy, they shrugged. "Well, we're among
friends here right?" He looked around seeing that there was nobody seated
close by.
"Well for starters, do you remember telling me about the new House
ethics rules, the new rules prohibiting you from being a consultant for Neurotek?"
She nodded. "Well I'm…" he looked to Arnie and Nancy, "I mean we are responsible for those new rules."
Lin's eyes widened, she spoke slowly, "Really…" Arnie and
Nancy nodded as Lin looked to them for confirmation.
"Yes, and it was to do with my company again. That was the DC case.
The two murdered congressman, I know all about it. I was there. Well, I mean I
wasn't there when they were murdered, but I had met with them both hours before
they were murdered. There was a third," he turned to Arnie and Nancy, "but
I forgot his name."
"Roger Clement."
"Wait!" Lin gasped, "Roger? The one who resigned last
year?"
"He didn't exactly resign, Lin," Arnie consoled her.
"You mean…" her voice faded.
"Anyway, yes, Roger. Nice guy I suppose, never met him, but got in
way over his head with a really bad guy."
"What happened to the bad
guy?"
"He killed himself," Nancy spoke in a smooth determined voice.
"What about Atlanta?"
Jeff glanced at Nancy and Arnie again, "Do you remember the story a
couple years ago about the mayor of Atlanta being arrested for graft?"
"Yes, some corruption thing. Pretty big, I remember."
"It was a huge corruption
thing. Lots of players. Fortunately, they mostly murdered each other." He
couldn't believe he was saying these words so casually, Lin's face washed over
with horrified curiosity.
Arnie put up his hands handing the signed check to the skimpy-clothes
waitress, "Okay guys, Lin you can hear his little stories later, but we need
to go back up. There should be some news by now."
They stood up, Arnie and Nancy walked ahead, Lin tagging along with Jeff
as they followed with her continuing to ask all sorts of questions but Jeff
finding himself tiring of those horrible experiences he had lived. Soon she saw
that he wasn't that interested in telling any more so she let it die, the conversation
petering out just when they walked into the ops room that was now filled with
people. The room had the feeling of a beehive with papers being passed back and
forth amid low voices and bright computer screens.
Soon they were seated, one of the eves-dropping spy guys rose holding a
small stack of papers, "Well it looks like we lit a fire. This Denot guy
called the Frenchman to tell him about Jeff's meeting, then Gerard Pallot
immediately called one of the Greek brothers telling him," reading the
page in his hand, "We are paying you a million dollars, we expect this job
to be done," one of the Greek brothers replies, "'Do not worry he is as
good as dead, we will take care of it when he goes into the room' then Pallot
said something about making sure that he is dead or they won't get the other
half of their payment, then the shooter said that they earn the other
half-million the minute he pulls the trigger because they have never missed a
target." Flipping to the next page, "It says here that another man's
voice can be heard on the line, so that must be the other brother."
"Good," Arnie smiled.
The door opened, heads turning
around to Yvonne walking into the room starting talking coming around the table
to her chair, "Okay, it's all arranged. They are going to put a dummy
sitting with his back to the door, lights out, a projector showing a picture
they pulled off the Internet about Jeff's company." She looked up to Jeff,
"You guys have a website?"
"Hey, the new age! We're a tech company, you've got to have a
website! Although what's the point, the only other websites are either neo-Nazi
skinhead or redneck hate sites or porn!" The room laughed.
"Anyway, here is a layout of the rooms," she laid a sheet on
the table turned toward everyone. "There is a door connecting the next
room to the right, but there is no door on the other room except for the front
door leading back out to the corridor. That means if something goes wrong and
they go into the room then Jeff will be trapped."
Franklin leaned forward, "Damn. I don't know these guys enough to
know exactly what will happen." He sat back. "They could just shoot
through the door. But no, hit-men like to see the job's done. So my guess is
they'll open the door to shoot into the room. He could just turn to leave, but
if he sees something wrong he might come into the room. If that happens then we
might have trouble."
Jeff felt a shiver run up his spine picturing himself trapped in the
adjoining room. Hide under the tables?
Arnie could read Jeff's silent squinched face, "Jeff, we'll have
the place totally staked out. As soon as the shooting starts we'll be all over
it."
Nancy turned to Jeff laying her right hand on his arm, "Don't
worry, we'll be there."
"Nancy, this is your operation, we'll leave it to you to plan the
logistics." Arnie pointed toward two men Jeff hadn't noticed before
sitting at the far end of the table, "You two work with her, let's get
this thing planned."
"What about me? I can't go back to the Merdian, right?"
"No," Arnie turned to Yvonne, "Yvonne can you make
arrangements for our boy here?"
Arnie looked at his watch, "Jeff, I'm not sure if the gift shop is
still open, but you better run down there to get a toothbrush and stuff. Go!"
Jeff stood turning to Nancy who was sitting back with her fingers to her
chin in thought, not noticing Jeff.
"Go! We'll get you checked in. And get some sleep!" Arnie
barked. "We'll give you a wake-up at seven."
A minute later Jeff was walking through elevator doors into the lobby
when saw a young woman turning keys in the door of the darkened gift shop.
Running up to her Jeff called out, "Excuse me!"
She turned to him, "I need to get something, I just found out they
lost my luggage."
"Well lost luggage," she smiled turning back to the door
opening it again, a few seconds later the lights went on in the small shop. She
stepped behind the counter. He scanned the racks pulling down a toothbrush,
toothpaste, comb, disposable razors and deodorant. He smiled at the enormous
display of condoms, turning to her laying his goods on the counter.
She looked up at him with a half-vacant expression from a face covered
in piercings―three through her eyebrows, one in her left nostril, one in her
lip, her ears draped in dangling silver and gold―all so perfectly in-tone with
her hair covered in vertical stripes an inch wide of almost every color of the
rainbow hanging just below her ears.
"Room charge?"
"They haven't checked me in yet." Just then his phone rang. He
pulled his phone out from his pants pocket, turned away pushing the TALK button
hearing Yvonne's voice telling him that he was in room twelve-ten, two doors
down from the ops suite, they booked him a suite! He said thanks turning back
to the girl, "Well what do you know, let's do room charge!"
A few minutes later he had gotten his key, a couple minutes after that
he was standing at the door with the numbers twelve-ten. Pushing through the
door he was surprised to see the room lit, the lamp by the bed glowing brightly.
He walked into the bathroom setting his gift-shop goods on the counter. He stepped
into the room pulling off his clothes laying them across the big corner chair,
sat on the bed reaching for the clicker. The TV turned on, he flipped through a
few channels putting the TV on mute, got back up going into the bathroom to get
ready for bed. He looked down at his cell phone that only had two bars left on
the charge indicator, so he turned it off.
Returning to the bedroom he stripped laying his coat carefully across
the tall back of the big corner chair, laying the rest of his clothes neatly on
the chair, climbing into bed.
A second later he was out.
A second later he was out.
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NOW READ THE NEXT EXCITING CHAPTER OF
SILICON GULCH!
http://chrislamela.blogspot.com/2012/10/silicon-gulch-chapter-13.html
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