Carefully, he rose from the bed, found his smartphone, pulled on his jeans and made his way quietly to the sitting area. An ornate screen partially separated it from the rest of the room. He sat in the love seat that stood before the screen, turned on his phone and punched in a number. It rang once. Twice. Four times, and just when Chay figured that he was going to end up talking to voice mail, a male voice barked out a harsh “Yeah?”
Chay gave a soft laugh. “Hello to you, too, Sunshine.”
“Listen, whoever this is, I’m not in the mood for… Olivieri?”
“Good morning, Sanchez.”
“Man, you have any idea what time it is?”
“One in the a.m. your time. Don’t tell me you’ve turned into a believer in that early-to-bed-early-to-rise thing. No way that will make you wise.”
“Very funny. Anyway, I was up. I’m just, you know, kind of…busy.”
“Declan?” a soft voice said in the background.
Chay bit back a groan. “Dude. My apologies.”
“No. It’s okay. Just let me…” Sanchez’s voice grew muffled. “Okay,” he said a few seconds later. “What’s doing? Hey, man. Aren’t you in New York?”
“Yeah. That’s where I am. And I need a couple of favors.”
Declan Sanchez laughed. “I didn’t figure you were callin’ to say hello. What can I do for you?”
Chay took a long breath. “I need some computer magic.”
“For instance?”
“Would you be able to see if somebody’s put a GPS app into a smartphone?”
“You mean, find out if the phone contains tracing software? So whoever loaded it in could follow the movements of the phone’s owner? Sure. No big deal.”
“And if I gave you a list of names and told you I needed deep background checks on all of them—”
“No problem.”
“Or maybe you’d have to tap into a laptop, get the names that way.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Really deep checks. Medical records. Criminal records. Whatever.”
“Chay. My man. We’re talking child’s play here.”
“Great.”
“Am I gonna do this long distance? Or are you bringing me the hardware?”
“I’m bringing it, and that takes me to favor number two. Is your brother still flying for the opposition?”
“Is he still a Marine pilot, you mean?” Sanchez chuckled. “Trust me, bro. Liam’s in for life.”
“Any chance he can pull some strings and get me a ride back home?”
“What, you run out of frequent-flier miles?”
Chay laughed. “Yeah, right.” He hesitated. “I’d like to avoid leaving names in some commercial airline’s database.”
“Dude?” Sanchez’s tone turned crisp. “You okay? I mean, you want to tell me what’s goin’ down?”