A Drone over New York

Max woke up to the sound of the shower running. Rachael was going to be late going to the office today.

He lay back on the bed. The curtains swayed in the cool, light breeze that came in through the open window. He didn’t remember Rachael opening the window, but he knew she was smart enough to ensure the curtains remained closed. Still, the air felt nice over his naked body. He felt almost normal. He used to love lying here while Rachael got ready. Listening to the shower run. He used to love watching her get dressed. It was especially fun when she was in a good mood. Today she was over the moon about the footage she had seen.

Max panicked at the realization that the footage was still on the phone, and he had fallen asleep without it by his side. He scrambled around for it, finding it with his shorts, which were still in the kitchen.

He breathed a sigh of relief. This had got far more complex than he realized. He had all day to think through how he could play it, though, so he thought he should just enjoy the moment.

Max returned to the bed and resumed his relaxed state. He quietly flicked through his dark emails. This was going to be a good day.

Rachael came back in wearing nothing but a towel. It wasn’t long before she dropped the towel and started to go about her morning routine and getting dressed.

Max just sat up on the bed and watched. He had really missed this.

“So I was thinking,” Rachael said, “since we are not just business partners now, perhaps we can just skip this place. Get out of here and go and live on a beach somewhere. Together, I mean. I was thinking somewhere in the Caribbean.”

“I was thinking Thailand.” He liked where this was going.

“Thailand.” She smiled back over her shoulder while searching through her closet. “Are you still holding out on that idea of running a beach bar?”

“Sure, why not? I—sorry, we are going to have the money. We can run it the way we want. It will make enough money for us to pay the bills and look normal. In fact it almost looks better if we are running off together.”

Rachael gave it a moment’s thought, then gave him a cute little smile.

“I like it,” she said as she put on her underwear. “Kind of like we started talking again because of Jack. That made us both want to get out, so we just did it together.”

Max wanted to smile. It was a great story. The kind of story that his own company would love to have written about. Martha would probably want to do a story on them. Martha was going to run with the violence that the story had caused, making her staff look like the victims. It would be two staffers making good out of a bad situation. People loved that kind of thing. It was a great idea. But Rachael had mentioned the one thing that could wipe a smile from Max. She had brought up Jack.

“How is he?” he said solemnly.

“Who?” replied Rachael, not realizing Max’s change in tone.

“Jack.”

“Oh, he’s past the worst of it now,” she said in a casual tone. “The only thing is that it has come out that he was sleeping with one of the interns. His wife found out at the hospital. Would have loved to be a fly on the wall when that went down.”

That made Max laugh a little. Jack was still Jack.

“Nasty accident, though,” she continued. “He was lucky to be alive.”

She was right. He was lucky to be alive. Max thought it strange that he had lived. Anton and he had both assumed whoever had caused it to be a professional. Killing someone with a drone was child’s play to anyone with enough knowledge. People rarely survived twenty-five pounds of metal falling out of the sky on their head.

That made Max remember that Rachael hadn’t seen all the footage on the phone yet. She hadn’t seen the important thing that was putting them at risk.

“Rach, there is something else you need to see,” he said, pausing until she looked at him. “Something that makes the whole thing a little more complicated.”

In only her underwear and with her hair still wet, she jumped onto the bed next to him. She was still smiling. It reminded him of the way she used to do that when they were together. He wasn’t sure what they were now.

He held out the phone and let the footage play.

She registered only a bright flash the first time around. He had to slow it down and zoom in. He let it play in slow motion.

When the murder happened, Max watched her jump with the gunshot. She had been expecting it, but it was never the same as watching it for the first time.

She let it play out. Max could see the cogs moving a million miles an hour in her head. Whatever she was thinking, it would be interesting.

“That’s gold, Max,” she said eventually. “That’s two stories for the price of one! Martha is going to love this.”

Max shook his head.

“It’s more complicated than that. It was a professional hit. I’ve run facial recognition on it, and it came up empty. I’ve done some other digging and the guy is connected to one of the New York Mafia families. What happened to Jack was a warning to us. Don’t publish this.”

“You saying that Jack and this are connected?”

“I think so.”

“Max, there is no way it could be a professional hit on Jack. The drone was carrying a bunch of explosives. Luckily they didn’t go off. There is no way a professional would let that happen.”

That was definitely news to Max. Improvised explosive devices were very much the selected choice of fans looking for revenge.

“But it happened so quickly after the first post,” Max said.

“That’s not our problem,” Rachael said and then gave him another kiss.

She was sweet when she wanted to be, but Max couldn’t help feel the ping of guilt somewhere deep in his stomach. He didn’t know what to say in response. Rachael jumped back up and continued to get ready. She also talked him through the day’s plan she had made. It sounded good and well thought out. She had obviously spent last night thinking through the details of their partnership. She was much more practical than Max ever was about things like this. That was one of the reasons they had been teamed up in the first place.

Max thought about telling her about Anton’s corporate concerns as well, but then stopped himself. He wasn’t sure how much of it was true now that he was away from Anton. It even started to sound more and more ridiculous as time went by. But there was stuff he knew for sure.

“Rach, there is more.”

“Max, don’t keep doing this to me,” she said as she pulled on her skirt.

“This is the last thing, I swear,” Max said, half-defensively, half-jokingly.

In just her skirt and a bra, she turned to face him. She looked ready for anything. “Okay, lay it on me.”

“This is actual footage and code from Enexup. Not just compiled code, but executable, readable code.”

Rachael tilted her head slightly and narrowed her eyes. “So?”

Max had to be careful what he said next. He needed to give Rachael the ammunition she needed, but didn’t want to sound like Anton.

“I mean, this is perhaps the first time that someone has got this level of code outside of Enexup. There are going to be a lot of people interested in this.”

“Oh,” Rachael said. “I think I know what you are getting at. I don’t think Martha is going to want to get into selling company secrets. That’s a little too illegal for her. Not sure we want to go down that path anyway, Max. I mean, what we’re doing is one thing, and is only immoral, not really illegal. Selling code would get the FBI after you in a big way. I just don’t think it is a good move.”

“I know, but there are also a lot of questions about Enexup out there. Not sure if someone wants to dig into it, but just saying. They might be able to find something.”

“Something that could prove some of the rumors? Mm, I don’t know, Max. Sounds a little conspiracy theory to me.”

Max knew she didn’t fully understand where it could all lead, but he’d said enough. “Don’t worry about it, then. Just wanted to give you all the facts,” Max said. No point in pushing it anyway, as Rachael wasn’t going to try and sell that part.

She smiled at Max as she put on her blouse. It was probably just nerves going through him anyway, he figured.

“Don’t worry about it, Max. You’ve given me everything I need and more. But thanks for giving me the extra stuff. You know I’m probably not going to be able to use it, but still, it is worth having. Is there anything else you need to tell me, or is that?”

“That’s it.” He suddenly realized he was a little disappointed in her reaction.

“Max, you sure? Nothing else on the footage I need to see?”

“Nope, you know what I know.”

Ten minutes later Rachael was ready to go. Max knew it was a full hour later than she used to leave. It would be easy for her to make an excuse, though. She had seen the footage. That was worth its weight in gold.

Rachael gave Max a kiss good-bye, and as the door closed behind her, Max suddenly felt the pressure of the last few days leave his shoulders. A lot of it was out of his hands now. He just had to lay low, stay quiet, and give Rachael the time to work her magic. It would also give Anton the time he needed as well. Max could sit back and relax.

But probably more importantly, for the first time in a few days, Max could finally let himself sleep. Still naked, he climbed into Rachael’s bed and fell into what he hoped was going to be a deep sleep.

Soon Max was dreaming about the millions of dollars that awaited him. The dream world had him at the beach bar in Thailand. Rachael was with him. They liked it out there. Yes, they had drones there too, but they let him be. They went about their business, delivering goods. Max even used them to order Mexican food from a restaurant on a nearby island. He had a crazy idea of building a kitchen on a boat, then using drones to deliver the food to the houses by the beach. It was a great idea. He was going franchise it out. Make millions. He would be a millionaire legally. That was the great thing about dreams: they worked out the way you wanted them to.

It was a good dream. It was a good sleep.