BAD WINE CRAPPY CHOCOLATE

CHAPTER SEVEN-3

"My gut was right then. Why would they raid the knob now? Does Cybil have anything to do with this?"
"I don't know."
"I had Nathaniel put a tracking device on her at the knob, just in case she decided to follow you. But I broke the receiver when I fell on my ass in the bar, after the stiffs nailed me with a rod. So I guess it's useless now."
"Let me see that."
Brandon took the device apart and examined its contents.
"The frequency is written on the inside. I can pick up her signal, if I can break into a
communication center."
"I've had some experience with that sort of thing, you know," Max reminded him. "So I might be able to help you. I can also get a message to Hoochie."
Jesse walked in. She smiled at Brandon, but her facial expression suddenly changed after seeing Max Bardy.
"Well, how nice to meet you," she told him sarcastically. "I've always wanted to have a fugitive in my apartment. It will give me a good story to tell the next time I'm at a party."
"I'm always glad to help," Bardy responded pleasantly. "Just ask your better half."
Jesse took Brandon into the other room. She slammed the door behind them.
"What the hell do you think you're doing! I don't need this crap. If you want to associate with people like him, do it elsewhere."
"He's helping me. I have to find someone before the security people do. It's life or death, Jess." The urgency in his voice nullified her anger. She looked at Brandon with a concerned expression on her pretty face.
"You're not thinking clearly, my love. You've got to get someone other than Max Bardy to help you."

"You're seeing him as the boogeyman that Foster and his pals created. They're the ones who do the real damage."
"You're ignoring what Bardy is because at the moment he suits your purpose!"
"Maybe you're right. I guess I'm no better than the rest of them. But I have to keep this person safe."
"What about Chris? Can't he help you?"
"He's in Foster's pocket."
"Chris wouldn't let anything happen to Cybil, or you either. Give him a chance."
Brandon went into a closet and took out another invisibility suit. He placed it in his satchel and walked over to Jesse, who had her back to him.
"You're the best thing in my life," he said, after gently turning Jesse around and kissing her
pouting lips. "I hate to put you through this. But there's no other way to do it. You have to trust me on that."
They emerged from the room. She watched him bend down to pick up something from the chair, though there was nothing there to see. Jesse gave him an incredulous look.
"I'll explain later," Brandon said before he embraced her.
"It was great seeing you," Max told her, picking up his invisibility garment. "I hope we see each other again real soon. Of course, that won't be possible if I'm wearing this damn thing."
Jesse gave him an intense sneer as he walked out the door.
"I wanted to go back to the point where you entered the city," Brandon explained as they rode in the vertical car to the first floor. "But Cybil's friend in the Security Bureau didn't have that information. Fortunately, he did know that you were taken to station two after they arrested you."
"Your sister probably called in a favor, or promised to do one down the line. I do appreciate it."
They put on their suits before walking past the monitoring equipment in the lobby. The two men walked several blocks before coming to a plain white building. Brandon looked around carefully before speaking.

"I worked on the technology they used to build this communication center," he whispered. "I know how to get in."
"I'm with you, partner. Just lead the way."
Brandon walked around to the back. He took the long, thin metal probe from the chain around his neck and inserted it into the sensor panel on the wall next to the door. The information it gathered was relayed to the Mibil in Brandon's brain. He had the illusion of standing inside the computer that ran the station. As was his custom when performing such a task, Brandon wondered if he would be lost inside the machine, or somehow have his consciousness absorbed by this sophisticated artificial mind.
In his time computers were constructed using organic compounds. The circuits were modeled after the human mind, the connections between them evolving over time to find the best way to process the voluminous information provided by the many sensors in the building. Brandon watched in fascination as they operated, identifying the ones that prevented trespassers from entering the building. After disabling them he knew they would have to move fast, since these computer circuits, like the human brain, could create new paths to carry information around the damaged area.
They entered the communication center. There were two men inside monitoring the equipment. Max knocked on the door to the control room, and one of them answered it. The Vitala thief delivered a devastating blow that left the man prostrate on the floor. Brandon used his taser on the other one.
"You should work for me," Max suggested, as he used the officer's own electronic restraints to bind his hands.
"I just want to get back to the lab and away from all this political bullshit," Brandon responded, while doing the same to the other one.
"It's the stuff life is made of," Max told him. He watched Brandon put his taser away and asked, "Do you have an extra one of those?"
His friend hesitated. Though grateful for Bardy's assistance, he was still trying to come to terms with the man his boyhood companion had become. Brandon didn't feel comfortable about giving him something that would aid the thief in his violent endeavors.

"We could get separated," Max pointed out. "And I don't have a weapon. If they put one of those mind interrogators on my head, I might tell them about Cori."
Brandon reluctantly handed him a taser. He then walked over to the control panel and adjusted the settings. A red blip appeared on the screen. Cori's homing device indicated that she was in building 535, apartment number 45. The tenant was identified as Tiffany Toms. The password to her communications chip was also provided. Brandon tried to contact her, but there was no response.
"We have to get over there," he said.
"Just one second. Can you hook me up with password 3455?"
"Who's that?"
"No one, actually," Bardy said. "Nathaniel set up a Mibil inside an old Halloween mask at my
place. It thinks it's inside someone's head. I have to warn them about the raid." "All right, but make it fast."
Brandon re-set the control panel so Max could talk with Hoochie. A man named Reggie answered instead.
"Where the hell is Hoochie?" Max asked.
Brandon silently implored him to hurry. His mother's life would be over if Foster's people found her.
"I don't know," Reggie responded. "He's been gone for a couple of days."
"Are you alone?"
"Yeah. What's going on?"
"The stiffs are going to raid the place. Daniels and company have decided to put us out of
business."
"It's that damn lady senator, isn't it?!"
Max smiled at Brandon.
"Pack up the Vitala and get the hell out of there. Then get up the mountain and grab the gold." "What about Lupe?"