Chapter 9

“Zoe, we need to talk.”

They had been standing outside in the parking area for a few minutes without anyone saying a word. Becca was trying to think of something in her life that had not changed in the few hours. The answer was Bobby and Zoe were in her life and were still the same people.

“Zoe, we need to talk.” Becca repeated. Zoe looked back a Becca, nodded her head, then headed back into the house.

Becca looked at Bobby, “You too, inside. Everyone needs to talk.”

They sat around the breakfast table and began the conversation with the news of the fire.

Becca and Zoe cried.

Bobby was just mad.

“Who are these pricks?” Bobby asked to the greater universe. Clearly the answer to that question would not come from anyone in the room.

Becca reached across the table and took Zoe’s hand, “I need to know how you’re feeling, if all of this OK with you?”

The redhead looked confused, “What are you talking about?”

“How do you feel about Bobby and I living in your house? No one asked you or considered how you felt.”

“That’s not quite true. I asked my mom, you know, before she died if I could live here with the two of you. She smiled and nodded when I mentioned it. I think she was sad that the house had been empty for a while, well ... except for the occasional rental.”

Bobby was someone that needed a plan, “So, what does this mean? What do we need to do next?”

The conversation evolved from there into a planning session.

They needed to cancel power, cable, internet and water service to the house in San Francisco.

They needed to break contact with their bank and credit card accounts.

They needed to create a mail drop/official address somewhere.

They needed clothes. Shoes, socks, underwear, dresses, pants, everything was needed.

Zoe had brought her computer with her, but Bobby’s was locked away in Mr. Black’s safe, and Becca’s had burned.

So, two computers were needed.

Bobby said he wanted to figure out why they were after him, and the only person that he knew that could help him was Mr. Black. He would have to call for an appointment.

Becca still had vacation time so she did not need to resign her job yet. Bobby’s job was well aware of the danger and would give him time before he needed to quit. Zoe was between commissions. Everything work-wise was fine.

“What else?” Bobby asked.

Becca raised a finger, “We need to explore the house.”

“And the grounds” Becca added.

There was a lull in the conversation as the three tried to think of anything else.

The mood was broken by a soft but emphatic “Shit!”

The other two looked at Becca. She had a strange look on her face. “Guys, I just realized something. We were thinking before that we would be leaving here today. But now, we aren’t leaving ... at all!” Becca and Bobby were not following Zoe’s train of thought. “Guys, think of what has just been made possible? With more room and resources than we could have imagined before, WE CAN PLAY!”

It was a case of divide and conquer.

Bobby gave full authority to the girls to replace his clothes. His only request was related to his workout clothes and shoes. Becca was familiar with just what he had in mind, so that was no problem. Everything else he bowed to their superior sense of style and taste and told them to do their best.

One of the challenges to this mission was how to get everything home, but Becca had a plan. The security team at the gate was informed of the problem. Within an hour, they had a large SUV and two additional team members, both female, to drive them and stay with them, as well as haul the packages home. There would be a charge for this day of security service, but that was a small expense in comparison to the damage they intended to inflict on the debt cards.

Mr. Black had sent them the employment contracts and Bobby had forwarded them to an employment lawyer he had used before. That attorney said he would look at them that day and made a time in the late afternoon for Bobby to call and discuss what the attorney thought. In the meantime, Bobby had a couple of other stops to make.

His first task was to see the remains of their old residence. Bobby just rolled slowly down the street to confirm there was nothing left. The only part that was really recognizable was the non-rolling roll up door. He was in a somber mood as he drove past the BART station leaving the neighborhood behind.

He had called ahead to Mr. Black’s office to arrange to look at his laptop. When he arrived, he found that he was not meeting alone with Mr. Black. Two other men were sitting in the conference room, one of them being the mystery “Agent Man” as Bobby had begun calling him in his own mind.

“Bobby, we have a problem. The government wants your laptop.” Mr. Black raised his eyebrows.

Bobby looked at the men seated at the conference table, “Ah, who are you guys?”

“That is not important right now...”

“Stop. You want me to cooperate with you but you’re not willing to even tell me who you’re? No.”

Mr. Black spoke up, “Bobby, I have been told who these men are, but have been instructed that I cannot reveal their identities to you. They consider you unreliable.”

Agent Man slammed his hand down on the table top, “No, that is not what I said! I said he was in a position that might cause him to be compromised.”

Bobby crossed his arms, “What does that mean?”

The attorney raised his hand like he was in grade school, “Oh! I know the answer to that! It bothers him you’re not in custody!”

Agent Man glared at Mr. Black, “Protected! I said he should be protected!”

Bobby laughed, “Which amounts to the same thing, right?” Mr. Black nodded. “Can you tell me what is going on? Why do they want me?”

“They don’t want you. They want your laptop, but they are willing to force you, or hurt you, to get it.”

“The government?”

“No, the bad guys.”

“Why? Do they need information on dangerous black mold or toxic dust or the need to wear a hardhat? I am a workplace safety guy, not a spy!”

Agent man sat back in his chair, “You travel to different countries for work, right? Part of your job is to take pictures and videos. We have learned that you use a camera that stores those files on a high cap memory card. Where is that memory card right now?”

Bobby had to think for a moment, “I think it is in the card slot of...”

Agent man smiled, “Your laptop ... right? We are not sure exactly what is going on, but at least one of those pictures seems to be very important to some very bad people. In many countries, government official and organized crime boss mean the same thing. Some serious players think you have something on that memory card that somehow compromises them.”

“But my laptop is backed up on a cloud server. It might be there.”

“It’s not.”

It took him a minute to realize what had just been said. Agent Man had rummaged through Bobby’s cloud account! “What do you mean?”

For the first time, Geek looked up, “Your computer is set up to use the cloud to back up data from your hard drive. It was never told to back up the data from the memory card in the slot.”

“Is that why they burned my house down? Was it to destroy the evidence on the memory card?”

Agent Man shrugged, “Evidence, passwords, an overheard conversation...? We are not sure what they are afraid of, but whatever it is they want it destroyed. Bobby, we need to look at both your laptop and that memory card.”

“Who is going to tell them?”

“What are you talking about?”

“If I give you the memory card, or laptop or whatever it is, the bad guys will just keep coming for me because they will think I still have it. You would fix your problem but leave me with mine! They are trying to kill me!”

“We could clone the computer and memory car, and give them the fake.”

Geek spoke out again, “Too dangerous, they might be able to tell it is a duplicate. If we give them anything, it has to be the real one.”

“But if we duplicated it, we would have the information ourselves, right?” Agent Man asked.

“True, well ... maybe. The problem is we do not know what they are looking for so we don’t know what to look for. For all we know right now, they want what is written on a sticky note attached to the laptop case.”

“Bobby, give us the laptop!” Agent Man shouted again.

Bobby shook his head, “No, not till you figure out how to get me out of the crosshairs of these guys.”

After a few more shouts and finger points, Mr. Black escort the two agents out of his office. When he returned, he looked at Bobby but held his finger over his lips. He then pointed to his ear. “Bobby, for the moment I think you should leave the laptop right where it is. As I said before, this is a dangerous situation and the government is not motivated to protect you. Let’s see what they come back with before we consider changing the status quo.”

Bobby realized the Mr. Black was thinking they had bugged the room! “I can assure you it’s in a safe place. I just want to feel like I can go to the store and be safe.”

“Right, but that’s not what you came to talk to me about was it? What do you need?”

“Well, it’s about the car you loaned me. I think there is something wrong with it. Could you come and look?”

“Sure. I have had some issues with it in the past. Let’s go look.”

They did not talk again until they were on the street walking to the parking area. Bobby leaned close so he could speak softly, “Wow, that was scary!”

“I have to tell you ... I am scared too. Whoever these people are, they are serious players.”

“The people trying to kill me or the government creeps in your office?”

“How about all of the above?” Both men were chuckling at the very unfunny joke.

“So, what is wrong with the car?”

“It’s your car.”

“Yes, I loaned it to you.”

“Do you see the problem? If any of the players in this drama connect us, and the government clearly has, they will trace the car to where we are.”

Mr. Black nodded his head then took out his cell, “Jimmy, what are you working on? ... That can wait. I need you to take a letter to Tim Shaw in Reno. I want you to hand deliver it and then wait on a reply. This is top secret patent stuff and cannot get out to anyone. Yea, that right. Reno. Hey, I have an idea ... I want you to take my car! Yea, the black one. You need to leave in twenty minutes. Page at the front desk has what you need. Ok, go.” Martin Black held out his hands for the car keys. When Bobby handed them over, Mr. Black took his actual car key off of the ring and handed the gate and door key to the house back to Bobby. He then handed the letter and keys to the receptionist.