Dani looked reflective. “If she doesn’t have anything to do with Reflex directly, though, wouldCyb3rmoonreally be our concern?” she asked Drew. “Indi’s priority is shutting ‘Rob Vonn’ down and recovering assets for Marion, if she can.”
“Probably not,” admitted the APS counterintelligence team lead. “I don’t in any way expect Infinity to become involved. Still, there’s something aboutCyb3rmoonthat’s raising the hair on the back of my neck. I don’t know why, but experience has taught me that’s something I don’t want to ignore.” Dani nodded noncommittally.
Abruptly, Brooke said, “After I break the news to Thom, I want to call Gene, if only to reassure him that the breakdown between Brooke Marino Designs and Reflex was no fault of his. It doesn’t sit well with me to leave him hanging the way I will if I just up and disappear. When we speak, I won’t share any details. But Iwilltell him that, although I have no idea what Reflex’s story will be when he talks to them, he needs to understand their disrespect toward me and utter disregard for our time—mine and his—was the final straw as far as I was concerned.
“Then I’ll wish him well and let him know if I can ever be of assistance to him and Sandy in any way once this project is over, all he needs to do is pick up the phone.”
Indi smiled. “You’re good people, Brooke,” she said quietly as Brooke shrugged, smiling back.
“I don’t see where that will be a problem, little sis,” Bryn told her. “As far as Langston and Kilgore go, Dara and Ari are typically down in Purgatory far more than Drew is. And let’s not forget Syd has been floating around, too, as well as Liz and Toni.Broki,” she turned to Drew, “since I know those five have already been monitoring Reflex when you’re not there, make sure they have your moonchild in their binoculars as well. When the hair on the back ofyourneck stands up on end, there’s usually a good reason for it.”
Drew was texting. “Already on it. Maybe something will come of this, maybe it won’t. Even if Reflex isn’t involved in what’s setting off my alarm bells, however, I’m positive APS needs to get to the bottom of whatever it is, no matter what thereason. My crew and I will find out why. And my moonchild better not be the one who is sending these ripples through me and Purgatory. Because I’ve already told her, she won’t like what happens if I find out she is.”
?ω?ω?ω?
“That fucking bitch has been playing us all this time, Clay! Graphic artist, my ass! Now we find out she’s sucking tit for goddamn APS?! I told you I was going to kill the little cunt!”
“Calm down, Jack. It doesn’t sound as though she and Blake Seibert have been seeing each other for very long. Looks like they didn’t get together until after this project started. Apparently, she grew up in Whimsy and has known the APS management team all her life.”
“So, that means what? All of a sudden, one of them decides that’s pussy they want to take for a test drive? Are you shitting me? More like, we hired her—for nothing more than to make the scam look legit—but somehow those assholes from APS got involved. Maybe that bitch of Wheeler’s got suspicious and went to them. Who the fuck knows?”
“Brooke never struck me as someone who was bright enough or interested enough to look beyond anything but her art. Because I was her primary contact for so long, that was always my impression of her. Don’t forget, I’m the one who’s been around her the most. Face it, she was always kind of a dingbat. If APS jumped on our tail because of someone like Sandy Wheeler and wanted information, all they had to do was have one of them cozy up to Brooke as though they were suddenly interested, then pump her for information.”
“Bet that’s not all they pumped. Although I’m not sure how that shit works between dykes.”
“Jesus, Jack. Thom has a point, though. Maybe they were using her to see what they could find out. If APS tried to extract information from Brooke, however, I don’t know there was much she could tell them, unless they had a burning desire to learn about label artwork. Forget about her for the moment. We have a much bigger problem on our hands.”
“Kilgore.”
“Kilgore. Thanks to our friend Cherry the other night, whoever she was, we now know Rob has been running his own scams with body brokering, usingourresources, but cutting us out of the payoff. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t exactly work for me. That also makes me question how many times he’s snuck around behind our backs and screwed us before.”
“He’s looking to get his goddamn head busted open, is what he’s doing. How long have we been working together? Seven years? Eight years? And he’s gonna do us like that?”
“Have you found out anything else, Clay?”
“Even though I haven’t said anything up until now, I’ve had my suspicions something wasn’t right with him for a while now. Little things that weren’t adding up. But I didn’t have anything concrete, so I decided not to open my mouth until something definite came to light. Now, however, we know he has a body brokering grift working outside of Reflex and is poaching our resources to pull it off. The hell he’s going to keep cutting us out, though.”
“Where is he?”
“Right now? Who knows? He’s been floating around more often on the dark web recently, specifically in the Purgatory forum. My alter ego is in there keeping an eye on him, but he disappears into private chat rooms, so I can’t hear what’s going on. Plus, I need to keep my eyes peeled forThe Shadow. No way I’m drawing attention to myself when that scary motherfucker decides to show up.”
“What should we do at this point?”
“Keep looking for muscle for the microbrewery product and equipment. The hell Kilgore has snapped up every available underling in the Tampa Bay area. In the meantime, we act as though we have no clue he’s doing us dirty. I say when we’re ready to pull the trigger, we actually move the product and equipment a day earlier than he thinks we are and leave him standing there empty-handed, except for the dick his fingers are wrapped around. See how the scammer likes being scammed.”
“Fucking brilliant.”
“I thought so. After that, Rob Kilgore is going to understand thatweare the ones in charge, not him. You screw over the partners who are supposed to be your friends, you get screwed in return. I’m reasonably certain he’ll come around.”
“And if he doesn’t? He’s going to learn exactly how it feels when the dildo doesn’t have lube when I’m fucking him up the ass with it. You can count on it.”
Chapter 22
“This sim is clear.”
The overhead lights in Utopia came on as the old abandoned industrial warehouse disappeared, the dim twilight filtering through grimy overhead skylights also vanishing. The Infinity team, standing next to Brooke and Blake’s Utopia crew, grabbed towels and water bottles with everyone else, draining their water while blotting the sweat from their faces.
“If you are ever of a mind to invite us back,” Shaelyn blew out a deep breath, “I willnotsay no. You have no idea how honored we feel that you shared this with us. There are no words to describe what you have created, Blake. Every time we turn around, we find just one more reason why APS has the reputation it does.”
