Project Northwest by C. B. Carter

amount
of—somewhere between not too much and not too little—butt kissing?
Did it have the ring of truth? After a full five minutes, the line
was un-muted.
    “Very well, we agree. So we’re safe in
assuming that this matter of history has now been identified as a
risk and mitigated?”
    “Yes, sir, our new marks, the ones that
performed flawlessly yesterday. One has a girlfriend of only eight
months and they are still in that deep trust stage. He’s lied to
her twice and she has not confronted him on it once. But make no
mistake, he’s in love and for all the right reasons, she is a free
spirit and quite sexual, caring and understanding, quite the envy
amongst my staff. In my professional opinion, it would take a crane
to pull these two apart and that’s the secret to our control over
him, their lack of history affords us better control. I think the
point is obvious now. We’ve had control over the other marks for
some time.”
    This time the line stayed open and the
conversation was hushed down to whispering and a number of uhmm s and ah s as they contemplated the details.
    “It seems we’re in agreement,” said the older
man The other four could not agree fast enough, and the entire
conversation shifted to a more pleasant tone.
    “Congratulations. The contract is back in
play, get me the numbers as you did yesterday and you and your team
will be drinking champagne at the Setai in Miami or some exotic
island of your choice.”
    Cricket beamed when he heard the words
‘exotic island’.
    “Yes, thank you, sir. The numbers will be
provided as promised. Would you like to discuss the plan moving
forward?”
    “We’re waiting on pins and needles, Mr.
Wright, pins and needles,” said the number cruncher.
     

Chapter Eight
    ~ SOS on a Robe ~
     
    James carried Bridget
to the bedroom sometime around four in the morning. He couldn’t
sleep and milled about the condo quietly, so as not to wake her. As
exhausted as he was when they fell asleep watching the tube, he
found himself lying awake on the couch staring at the ceiling. Soon
he crossed into the no man’s land of ‘ falling asleep now would
ruin the day.’ It was too close to his normal wake up time and
he’d be better off if he just stayed awake. He had the nagging
feeling that he’d forgotten something.
    He only had two points of control and
examined each under close scrutiny.
    He was certain his communication with and
subsequent letter to Mark had not been intercepted by Mr. Wright
and his associates. After scrutiny, he also checked Mark off as
safe in his mind. The other point of contention was the fact that
he had basically stolen Cindy’s cell phone and even when Cindy saw
the long distance call to a number she didn’t recognize, Bridget
could explain it away and the bill might be weeks or a month
away.
    Then it hit him; he had asked Bridget to tell
Cindy to not tell anyone, especially if someone came snooping
around. He ran the scenario through his mind for the possible
outcome. If one of the goons sweet-talked Cindy into a conversation
and asked if she’d noticed anything weird about Bridget, would
Cindy say something to the extent of, “Yeah, now that you mention
it, she did take my phone for a couple of hours.” If Cindy said
that, would they have any problem getting the phone, pulling the
numbers dialed and ultimately linking James to Cindy and
discovering the trail that led to Mark?
    He knew they would have no problem at all.
Even if they had to rough her up to get it, they would leave no
stone unturned.
    He needed to tell Bridget, but he was certain
they had little privacy. Mr. Wright warned him the condo was
bugged. James had found three bugs in the living room alone. Hell,
they even had the banks data room bugged. It was safe to assume, as
sick as it was, they were also being watched.
    He refused to let paranoia kick in and
stopped trying to find the little cameras he was sure were there.
Even if he had found them, he had been warned