CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“Hello, ladies,” smiled Kiel.
You could almost hear the audible sigh of appreciation for the beautiful man in front of them.He was easily thirty years their senior but it didn’t seem to matter to any of them, nor did he look that much older than any of them.
“Hi,” they giggled.
Kiel wanted to roll his eyes but held his instincts in check.Beside him, Ben cast the famous Robicheaux smile toward the women.
“Ladies, thank you for the food and drink but we already ate.It was much appreciated though.”Kiel wanted to punch him in the head with his sickly, sweet southern boy accent.He was playing his role to the hilt.
“It was our pleasure.A girl can’t sit here and see six handsome men all by themselves and not want to say hello,” grinned one of the girls.The one with the long dark hair stared at Kiel, then looked away quickly.He knew why.
“Arapaho?” he asked.She turned suddenly, staring at him and shook her head.
“N-no.Chippewa.”He smiled, nodding at her.
“So, do you ladies live in the area?Work around here?” asked Ben.
“We work down the street,” said one of the other young women.
“Really?Are you in government?” asked Kiel.
“God, no!” laughed the girl with the dark hair.“We’re web developers and designers.”
“No kidding,” smirked Ben.“It’s funny, we’re here to push our idea of selling custom motorcycles to a friend in the area.One thing he said we were weak in was web design.”
“Oh,” said one of the girls, “we don’t do that kind of web design.”The men noticed the women almost squirming in their seats looking around the room nervously.
“What other kind is there?” said Kiel innocently.
“Um, well, we work with retail and gaming sites to draw people into the site further.”
“Further?I’m sorry, I’m confused,” laughed Ben.“Can you show me?”
The other women looked at the girl with long dark hair and she nodded, pulling out her laptop.
“See, let’s say your wife is shopping at this well-known retailer.Their sales have been slow lately, especially in designer jeans.I mean, it’s summer coming up so women are buying dresses, skirts, or shorts, not jeans.”
“That makes sense,” nodded Ben.
“This is the site, I’ve blocked out their name.If I see this pair of shorts I want, I click on it, but there’s an image of jeans that comes up over the image of the shorts.”
“That seems deceptive,” he frowned.
“Nah.We’re just enticing people,” she smiled.Ben grabbed the mouse and clicked on the image.“No!”
The moment he clicked on the image, other images blurred the screen.Images that had to be closed, one at a time, painfully.
“Damn!Don’t touch my computer,” she said.Ben gripped her arm and led her to the table.“Ouch!”
“Shut the fuck up.Show them what you just did,” he said pointing to Tanner and Hiro.
“It’s not a big deal,” she said staring up at Ben.The other women were still seated with Kiel but now quiet, unsure of what just happened.
“It’s a big fucking deal.You’re tying the consumer’s hands by inundating them with misleading ads,” frowned Ben.
“We’re not tying their hands.We’re just leading them to something else,” she shrugged.
