Read Online Contact Us by Al Macy - Free Book Online Page A

replied.
    * * *
    June 5, 2018
    “Senor Corby, there is a call for you on line two, a Ms. Charlena Keller.”
    It took Jake a second to place the name. Keller? Keller? Oh, right. Shoot! Hallstrom found me. “Charlotta Keller?”
    “Si, Senor. Charlotta.”
    Jake, in the offices of Corby Solutions, sighed and picked up the phone. He looked out the picture window at Mexico City and the mountains beyond it. “Well, you found me, didn’t you?”
    “Mr. Corby, I’m sorry for your …”
    “Don’t say ‘loss.’”
    “No, I wasn’t going to. I’m sorry for what’s happened. Do you remember me?”
    “I do. ‘Charli,’ right?”
    “Mr. Corby—”
    “Jake.”
    “Jake, I’m sure you’ve figured out we want your help, but we understand that your situation …”
    “You know that it’s my goddaughter who’s been kidnapped?” Jake stood up and paced.
    “Yes, we do. Jake we’d like to—”
    “No.”
    “Jake, you don’t even know—”
    “You were going to offer to help.” Jake looked up at the ceiling. “You want to free me up and figure that by offering to help, you can get me back to DC faster.”
    “You are misreading our motives. We—”
    “No, Charli. I know the kidnapping business, and I know that the last thing we need is to have some huge government bureau involved. That would also involve the Mexican government, possible corruption, and would be a surefire way to get Sophia killed.” He whispered the last word and closed the door to his office.
    “Okay. Jake, we will stay out of it. Can you agree to help us when you’re done?”
    “Do you hear yourself?” Jake gritted his teeth. “You’re saying ‘We’ll promise to not do anything that might kill your friend’s daughter if you will come to work for us.”
    “No, Jake, that’s not it at all. I understand the pressure you feel, but please stop twisting—”
    “Okay, maybe I’m being a little unfair. Just back off. You have no idea what could happen.”
    “Right. You’re right, Jake. I’m sorry. When this is over—”
    “When this is done, you and I can talk.”
    “Please don’t disappear again.”
    “Just stay away. No wiretaps, nothing. Sophia’s life depends on it.” Jake hung up but then picked the phone up again. “Charli, are you still there?”
    “Yes.”
    “About those device plans that Cronkite said he’d upload …”
    “Yes?”
    “Have you heard of the Carter twins?”
    “Ah, no.” Charli said.
    “These twins are teenagers but are super-geniuses when it comes to devices and language. You’ll want them on the team. Google ‘Carter twins.’ I think one is named ‘Alexander.’’
    “Thank you, Jake.”
    “But remember, interfere down here, and you’ll never see me again.”
    “Got it.”
    Jake hung up.
    * * *
    June 8, 2018
    In Ruby Mountain’s high-tech videoconference center, Charli rolled her chair closer to the conference table and looked once more at her watch. This should be an interesting meeting if we ever get started. She checked her notes while she put a hair-tie around her wrist and arranged her hair into a ponytail. Hallstrom sat to her right.
    Once the technicians finished setting up the video links, Charli replayed the video of Cronkite’s monologue. “The question we’re asking today is this. Is he crazy?” Two psychologists, seated in the White House’s media room, appeared on separate video screens.
    Dr. David Avraham could have been cast in the title role of a movie about Sigmund Freud, except that he was black. He sat without moving and spoke with a refined accent.
    Dr. Julie Zaluski, in contrast, looked like a female truck driver and rarely stopped fidgeting. “Not crazy,” she said. “For a person, that is. If whatever that creature is, if he, well, or she, were a human, I wouldn’t conclude based on that, that he was psychotic. Not much to go on, of course. Do you agree, David?”
    Avraham answered slowly, or perhaps it just seemed that way compared with Zaluski’s