A Drone over New York

“Where’s Rach?”

“She’s at the office,” Max said. “Things are going a little crazy for us right now.” He was sweating and nervous. By the look Thom gave him, he must have realized something was going on.

“You okay?”

“Fine, just all hell is breaking lose, and I am stuck here trying to do things remotely.” He didn’t really know what else to say.

“I’ll be out of your hair in a minute, then. Sorry for the intrusion, but I was on my way to work and needed to swing past.”

“Forget more of your stuff?” asked Max, trying not to act too nervous as Thom casually strolled into the kitchen. He was wearing his gym gear and looked ready for work.

“Just one or two things. Don’t worry, I’ll be out of your hair soon.”

Thom walked to the fridge and removed something that Max had no idea what it was. Then he opened the top, grabbed a spoon, and started digging straight in.

“Aside from the craziness, how’s the story going?” Thom asked. Obviously Thom had not fully comprehended that Max did not want him there.

“Good. Hopefully we should be done today.” He was trying to look busy doing something on his laptop. He knew Thom would have no idea what he was working on, but couldn’t chance it.

“Shouldn’t you be at the office?” Thom asked between mouthfuls.

It was also code for “Don’t you have your own home?”

“I’ve been up all night again and still can’t go home. There’s been a security problem at my office, so I can’t work from there. And Rachael’s company doesn’t want me there either, so she offered to let me base here. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Don’t worry about it. My place is only a few blocks away anyway.” He seemed too relaxed for Max. “I just have nothing to eat at home, since I spend all my time here.”

Rachael was like that. When she and Max were dating, they stayed at one of their places every night. She was intense.

“Just need to grab some extra clothes,” Thom said as he shoveled another mouthful of the weird white substance into his mouth.

Max tried to stay calm. That meant he was going into the bedroom.

Max acted like his phone buzzed and pulled it out.

“Be right back,” he said as he rushed into the bedroom.

He looked around. The place was a mess. The open window was doing little to get rid of the stink. He quickly and quietly raced around the room, trying to hide anything that could be taken as suspicious. Max felt petrified that Thom would just wander in, still holding his food, and see Max holding something that could only mean one thing.

When the room looked as good as he was going to get it, Max grabbed a notepad off the ground and carefully and calmly walked back out into the kitchen.

“Sorry about that,” Max said.

Thom was still dead calm and making himself a protein shake. “No worries. Something important?”

“Yeah. Rachael is about to send me some more stuff. We also have a big meeting in around half an hour. She needed something in my notebook. I panicked a little because I couldn’t find it and thought I left it at the café.”

“Sounds like you have enough on your plate, so I should get out of your hair, then. Most of my stuff should be in the dryer anyway.”

Max tried not to breathe a sigh of relief. The dryer was in the bathroom. Thom didn’t need to go into the bedroom after all. Max waited in the kitchen and played with the laptop. His company website was now back up, so he started scrolling through what they were saying. They were building up the story big-time. He found a few articles about staff being attacked by fans, but nothing about the site being down, or being hacked. He flicked over to one of the mainstream news sites. Even they had articles up on what was happening at his company.

Max started to become engrossed in what was being said. He knew that Kate must be really furious with him for not being there.

Suddenly the place seemed to erupt with Thom swearing. Panic shot through Max.

“What’s wrong?” Max called out, trying to sound concerned rather than scared.

Without another word the great bulking shape of Thom marched straight past Max and into the bedroom.

Max was trying to work out if he should follow or not. When he heard Thom swear again, he thought about running for the door.

Thom emerged, red faced and furious.

“Dammit!” was all he managed as he looked at Max.

“What’s up?” Max asked, trying to play innocent. Whatever was coming, he was just going to have to take it.

“I’ve got no idea where I left it,” Thom said through clenched teeth.

“Left what?”

“Some stuff I need for this morning’s class.”

He marched back into the bedroom. This time Max followed.

Max watched as Thom searched through the room in which Max and Rachael had slept together only hours earlier.

Thom crossed over to the other side of the bed and tossed some things around, searching.

Then Max saw it. On the bedside table. The empty wrapper that was irrefutable evidence of something meant to be a secret.

“Need any help?” Max said, hoping it would give him an excuse to go and get it. With the bed between them, Max knew he was going to be able to make the front door in time if he needed to.

“Nah, I’m good. It’ll be here somewhere.”

Eventually he got on his knees and looked under the bed.

He pulled out a white T-shirt.

“Found it!” he declared before standing up and heading back to the laundry. Once Thom was out of sight, Max hurried over the other side of the bed and disposed of the incriminating evidence.

Max’s dark email buzzed. He pulled it out quickly.

Bucky, get out now! It’s as bad as we thought. They found Bill. The company knows who you are. Meet me at the Ecuadorian consulate, 800, 2nd Ave, between 42nd and 43rd. Hurry.

Rogers

Max’s stomach dropped. This was not good.

Before he could think of what to do, his email buzzed again. Max knew he had to look at it.

Max,

We understand your intention is to sell to another party. I had hoped we could come to a mutually agreeable arrangement, but it seems you may require some additional motivation. The attached photo will hopefully change your mind.

If you do not reply to me within the next two minutes, this photo will be sent to the man standing in the apartment with you.

Dr. Ben McKenna

Max didn’t want to open it, but after the last time he failed to look at an attachment, he had to.

He watched it download and pressed the image icon.

It was not a photo he was expecting. It was of him and Rachael. The time stamp was last night. It was not the type of photo he wanted Thom to see.

The first thought that raced through Max’s head was about the window. How had he been so stupid to leave it open last night?

A loud ping echoed from the kitchen. It was Thom’s phone. It pinged loudly again.

And again.

The questions on how they found him would have to wait. There was no way Max was going to make it out the door in time. Max had to decide where he was going to bear the brunt of Thom’s anger.

“Max,” he heard a voice call from the kitchen. “Max, you got a sec?”

Max drew a deep breath and decided on a course of action.

“Two seconds,” he called out. It was best not to rush out there. He had to let Thom try and be calm.

He walked out into the kitchen and Thom was standing on the other side, looking at his phone. The look of half-confusion, half-anger was clear as day.

“What’s up?” Max said.

Thom handed Max his phone.

Sure enough there was the picture of Max and Rachael from last night. McKenna had not given him any time after all.

“Care to explain?” Thom asked.

Max knew he was treading on thin ice, so he tried to look shocked.

“Damn! Can’t believe they’d do that!” Max said. “It must be an old photo.”

“Time stamp says it was taken last night. Besides … I was with her when she bought that lamp shade last week.”

Max paused for a moment, pretending to look at the photo. Thom was now a powder keg. The wrong word would set him off. But then again the right words would calm him.

“It’s doctored!” Max said as if discovering something for the first time. “Can you see the outline of the 3?” he said as he offered him the phone. “See the blur? That is a telltale sign of it being fake. Trust me, I look at these sort of things all the time.”

Truth was, it was the complete opposite. If the blur outline was not there, then it was a fake. But Thom wouldn’t know that. At least that’s what Max hoped.

Thom gave him a hard stare, his chest rising and falling. He started standing a little taller. Max had always thought Thom was a big guy; now he found out how big he could really be. Thom was not only big enough and strong enough, but he also had the skills to kill Max where he stood.

Max did his best to look calm. How they hell had they found him?

“What do you mean, you look at this all the time?” Thom asked, sounding like he was trying to be calm.

The wrong thing would make him snap. Max knew firsthand that when that happened, there was no telling what a person could do.

“I do a lot of work with digital photos,” Max blurted. “I look at fake images all day long. I spend a lot of time at work spotting fakes. It’s what I do.”

Thom looked down his phone. His face said that he still did not trust Max.

A few taps on the phone and he lifted it to his ear.

Max heard the phone ring on the other end. It rang loudly in the silent kitchen.

On the third ring Max could hear that sweet voice pick up.

“Hey, babe,” Rachael said.

“Hey, Rach, how’s your day?” Thom’s voice sounded calm and relaxed.

“Busy. What’s up?”

“Quick question: What does Max actually do at his company.”

If Rachael didn’t answer this 100 percent right, things were about to go pear-shaped very quickly. Max worked out that he could probably make a run for the door. And if he shut the kitchen door behind him, it would give him the chance to escape. But Thom was probably quicker than him. Attempting a getaway would only make things worse. He was just going to have to take whatever Thom was going to dish out.

“I’ve told you this, he does what I do,” she replied, sounding a little confused.

Not the greatest start to the response Max wanted to hear.

“So the exact same thing as you?” Thom said, giving Max a stare that could kill. His tone had shifted substantially.

“Not quite,” she said. “He’s one of best image people in the business. He’s really good at spotting fakes, identifying things—look, it’s kind of complicated what he does. Why are you asking anyway?”

Thom stayed silent for a minute. The question was, did he believe her? Did he want to believe this was a fake?

Thom bit his lip.

“Thom, babe, what’s up?”

“I think someone’s worked out where he is,” he said.

Rachael swore.

“Babe, look, I’ve got to go. I’ll take care of Max. He’s explained everything to me. I’ll make sure he’s safe. You just be careful. Love you.”

Thom gave Max a smile as he hung up. The last words hung in the air.

“Sorry about that,” Thom said. “Guess I now know what it feels like to be hunted by those crazy people you were telling me about.”

Max gave a sigh of relief. “For a moment there, I didn’t think you were going to believe me.”

Thom gave a small laugh. “How did they find you?”

“Not sure. There are a thousand different ways.”

“Or it could be luck. You said it yourself. Sometimes they just target people randomly, hoping they get the right one.”

Max shook his head. “They know. I got the same email as you, with the fake photo. They know I am here. They are just waiting, though. Waiting to see what you do to me first.”

“Damn” was all that Thom could say.

Max realized Thom had probably never thought of himself that way.

“Yeah. Look, I’ve got to get out of here. They know I’m here, and hoping that you are in the middle of beating the crap out of me. We’ve got a few minutes before they realize something has gone wrong. They were probably hoping you were going to beat me up, then leave me here. They would then come in and finish the job. They would probably try and frame you for killing me.”

The last sentence visibly shocked Thom. Max gave him a moment. He looked like he was thinking. It wasn’t every day you’re told you were one step away for being framed for murdering the person standing in front of you.

“Give me your shirt,” Thom said.

“What?”

“Give me your shirt and your hat. Let’s order you a cab. We’ll put it in your name, but I’ll get in it wearing your stuff. You wear my stuff and get to the subway. We need to switch phones too, right? Since they’ll track yours.”

Max smiled. “That’s an awesome idea.”

“Just goes to show that I do listen when Rachael is talking about work,” he said, smiling.

The two swung into motion, and two minutes later they were ready to put the plan into action. The only things Max made sure he had were the two USB drives: the copy in the coin pocket of his shorts; the original down the front of his underwear.

Thom called a Johnny-Cab, and before Max knew what was happening, it was standing at the front door.

“Okay,” Thom said just before they opened the door. “We rush out together. But I want it to look like you are hitting me. Feel free to put some muscle into it if you want. You won’t hurt me. Just try and make it look convincing. Give me three or four steps for a head start, okay?”

Max nodded. It was a great plan.

Thom moved like lightning after he opened the door. Max gave him the three steps before giving chase.

Thom made it down the stairs before he let Max catch him. Max gave everything he had into three haymakers that Thom glanced away easily. There was lots of swearing being exchanged. He got to the door of the cab before Thom pushed Max away and got in. The car drove off.

Max walked back inside and grabbed Thom’s gym bag that now contained his few meager belongs and Rachael’s old laptop.

Without a moment to lose, he was back out the front door and then walked as fast as he could to the subway station.

As he descended the stairs, he heard the inbound train doors opening. He ran as fast as he could for it. He only had a few moments to get on board.

He stepped into the car just as the doors began to close. He turned to see if anyone was following him.

It didn’t look like it.

Max’s mind was now in full crisis mode. The big question: Where was he going?

His big asset was Thom’s phone. He had around fifteen minutes before they would start to track it, so he had to move quickly.

He loaded his app and accessed his dark email. There was a new email from Rachael: Change of plans. The servers have been hacked. Must make physical drop. Awaiting instructions.

Physical drop? That was a world of danger that Max did not want to think about. There were too many eyes on him. And if they knew who Rachael was, then it would be impossible to make the drop without being seen.

He figured he only had a minute or two to write the response. His thumbs hammered the virtual keyboard, and before he knew it, he was pressing Send. It was the best plan he could come up with in that short of time. He only hoped it would work.