AWACS - An American With A Chinese System
Copyright© 2025 by PT Brainum
Chapter 23
These guys were being very polite, but I knew they didn’t like me. I had too many skills that showed what people really thought, plus my mosquito points were up to 5000 points a minute.
I’m sure the guys at Spirit Casino didn’t like me either, they just hadn’t met me. Maybe I should go back. My room was still there, and if they hadn’t refunded me, that meant it was still mine.
I pocketed the cards, thanked everyone for their hospitality, and walked back to my room. I started packing quickly. If the FBI were still at Spirit Casino, they were only 30 minutes away. More likely they would just call the local cops to come hold me for questioning.
Wind Casino was smaller and less fancy than Spirit, but it had an amazing beach and ocean views. I was going to miss it. I kept throwing stuff into my storage chests. I wasn’t sure what to do with everything, then I realized I just needed to send them all back. Returning them would send them back to the rooftop of the Hyatt in Portland.
Then I realized, no they’d be going back to the room at Spirit instead, that’s where they had been prior to being last summoned. I did the thing that I always do when I need help, I checked Google. Google maps showed that there were 6 or more vacation rental houses within walking distance.
I found one and booked it for a week, starting immediately, using my new prepaid card to pay over 700 a night, plus a deposit. It was a short walk, and by the time I got there I had been texted the unlock code for the key-box.
I walked thru the house, it had magnificent views from almost everywhere, and four bedrooms. I went to one one of the bedrooms, and summoned my storage chests.
There, all moved. That wasn’t so hard.
I connected up to the house Wi-Fi, and got myself comfortable. I used the Spirit Card to login to the associated app, and discovered that initial deposit was only $266,000. I’d spent quite a bit more in the past couple days.
I pulled out all my cash cards, and looked them over. It was a very lightweight way to carry nearly 900k in cash. I had an idea, and summoned the small box I bought at the casino gift shop. I put the cards in it, then walked into the bedroom, and moved the chest that had a dark red wood stain.
I sent the box back, and discovered it had returned to the same spot it had been in the box, even though the box had moved. I pulled out the cards from that box, and summoned the box going to Pete. I put the cards in it, and sent it back, into the packaging it had been wrapped in at the store I bought it. That way, if something happened to me, he would at least get the cards.
I checked the time, but it was a while until I needed to call Aida. I wanted a snack, or maybe a hot chocolate, but the house was pretty bare. You were supposed to bring your own groceries when you came, there’s no hotel restaurant when you rent a vacation house. I’d either have to do some shopping, or plan to eat out. I also needed my car.
I locked up the house, and walked back to the casino parking lot to get my car. There was a Safeway practically across the street from the casino, so I drove over there and got some groceries. There was a Starbucks inside, and someone was manning the booth, so I got a peppermint almond milk hot chocolate too.
I was back, and had the car unloaded at the new house well before 11, so I sat outside on the back porch and enjoyed the waves and the beach.
At 11 I called my lawyer.
“Hi Koby, good timing.”
“Hi Aida. Thx.”
“So we are definitely going to have to do a video conference, but I’ll be using my tablet for it so they aren’t trying to track your location.”
“That’s fine, my phone can handle video no problem.”
She went on to review that I should wait a moment before answering to give her time to object to a question, keep answers short, avoid sarcasm as the FBI would take everything I said literally, and a list of other tips. She kept stressing that I shouldn’t lie to the FBI, and that they didn’t care about me, my rights, or what was best for me, they cared about whatever case they were working on and a conviction. She also let me know that the meeting was scheduled for 2 pm, and sent me a zoom link.
I found a nice seaside lunch spot with really good clam chowder and then headed back to the rented house. I had a thought, and set up an Amazon prime account. I set Peter’s place as the delivery location, and used one of my new cards as the payment source. I picked out the items I wanted, and placed the order.
I checked the time and realized I needed to get set up, and get my casts back on. That took a while cause I couldn’t remember which chest they were in, and I couldn’t summon them. Because I had to hold them to return them to their location on my arms and legs.
I set up the phone with a couple of paperbacks found at the house to hold it on the table, and got in the wheelchair. I joined zoom early, and got a message that I had to wait for the host.
When the screen came on, I saw Aida for the first time. She gave me a tight smile, and I knew there was a problem. A few moments later secondary boxes appeared, and the rest of the people in the room showed up. I recognized two of them from her descriptions, a tall norwegian, and a short italian. The younger guy was probably the new kid. My mosquito ticked up even higher, these guys didn’t like me for some reason.
“Gentlemen, this is my client, Koby Roberts. I believe you have a few questions for him?” she began.
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