"At Felix’s request, I convinced Jett and Monika to come with me back to New York. Felix set us up in a front business as private investigators. To maintain our cover we actually did some surveillance jobs. Some insurance jobs, a few skip traces. Nothing major, but it paid. Besides, the real money was in doing those little jobs for Uncle Felix."
"Whose uncle is he?"
"What?"
"Uncle Felix. Whose uncle is he?"
"Nobodies, that’s just what he said to call him."
"Okay," Wanda said and rolled her eyes. "Where did you run into him?"
"When they processed us out Felix walked up on us at a bar. He said that General Peterson recommended that he talk to us. Felix told us just what we wanted to hear."
"What was that?" Wanda asked.
"He was talkin’ real money for doing the same things we’d been doing. Hack into computer systems, some light demolition and the occasional termination. We would do the jobs that couldn’t be done though normal channels."
"What was the job this time?"
"Just acquire the target, a guy named Norman Vogel and deliver. A walk in the park. And it was. A simple surveillance to get his pattern down and decide when to snatch him. Jett installed a remote video system in his house. Once it was installed, the system used standard phone lines that provides transmission and monitoring in real time at 28.8 kbps."
"In English, Nick."
"Sorry, Wanda. It operates at high speed, so the transmission provides clear color images at up to fifteen frames per second over a single phone line."
"Thank you, Nick," Wanda said.
"I’ll try to keep it simple." Wanda let out a little laugh. "What’s so funny?"
"Nothing," She laughed. "I just remember when you could hardly read."
"Yeah, well, things change."
"Go on, Nick."
"It went off just the way it was planned. We picked him up at his house, and then Monika blew it up so there wouldn’t be any trace. She made it look like there was a gas leak that caused the explosion. We made sure that the house burned to the ground so there wouldn’t be too much looking for a body. Then we left him alone, as instructed, in a car on pier 17 off of Fulton Street."
"Did he explain why he wanted the his guy brought there?"
"Nope. And we didn’t ask. It was a mission like any other."
"No questions asked."
"Right. We were soldiers, Wanda, trained to follow orders."
"So the three of you kidnap this man and deliver him to who ever. What happened after that?"
"The next afternoon I went by the office to type up my report for Felix and get out of there. But I was tired, so I sat back in the chair and before I knew it, I was asleep. I had been asleep for at least an hour before I opened my eyes and there she was, standing in the doorway."
Thursday, July 9: 3:47 PM
"I’d like to hire a private investigator." Her voice was deep.
"That would be me. Come in. Please, have a seat."
In my dimly lit office, it took my eyes a minute to focus while I shook off my nod. She walked toward me. From my vantage point, I could make out only that she was very well dressed, tall and slender, but not skinny by any definition I’d ever heard. She had the type of legs that I’d probably enjoy watching when she walked out, but I couldn’t tell much more about her. "Tell me what I can do for you, Miss?"
"Mrs.," she said with attitude. "Mrs. Gabrielle Childers. And I’d like to hire a you to find my brother."