On the walk out of the station I asked Malcolm how exactly Salem found him. I was clumsy and didn’t check for any tracers when I got into his email. I nodded and pretended I had a clue what a tracer was. Malcolm explained anyway; a tracer is a little bug that if you don’t destroy on the first step of the hack then it follows your tracks and traces your signal.
“Oh” I said.
“So” Malcolm concluded “when I didn’t get rid of the tracers Salem found me and followed my signal.” I nodded.
“How did you control the helicopter though” I asked. “Oh that was a portable EMP It shuts down all nearby electrical things while it’s on. I hid it in your cloak.”I was not ready for that one.
“So that’s what was bouncing around.” I said. We found a holiday inn to stay at and then I went to a jewelry shop. Why a jewelry shop? Because I’m selling one of my diamond bullets. The woman behind the desk gave me a generous amount of cash for the stone. Then I promptly went to a weapon store. It was actually an illegal one but it had a better range of choices. I walked out of there with a sixteen millimeter Smith & Wesson semi auto hand gun and Commando double sided knife both weapons were very high class. Next I headed to an Apple store and got Malcolm a new high tech lap top. I have to admit I had a pretty enjoyable time. When I got back to the motel Malcolm was waiting in the room.
“I got your new laptop Malcolm.” I said.
“Thanks Ace” Malcolm replied.
Malcolm was setting up his computer I was napping life seemed almost normal. I dreamt of some of the good and bad times I’d had with the diamond ring. We never really worked as a team especially Salem, oh I despise that dude. I also dreamt of the times back at the Alley Cat, our hang out where we celebrated after a successful theft. We shot pool there, one time Gunter put a hole right through the cue ball! No one could ever beat Malcolm in chess (not that anyone but him would ever want to play.) or I in Call of Duty. Daniel was the best at assassins’ creed. Salem was the champ in Hold em’. And Naomi always got bull’s-eyes in darts. I had the time of my life with that group until Salem ruined it. He got really selfish.
Everything in our elaborate robbery plans relied on timing. On the occasion Naomi was supposed to actually retrieve the diamond. Malcolm was in the get-away van (he was the best driver).Gunter and Daniel were taking out the external night guards, and Salem and I were eliminating the internal guards. Salem and I were kicking absolute butt as well as making no sound. We’d done our job well. Naomi though had taken a knife to the calf and was a bit slower. Salem got inpatient and tried to do it himself. Malcolm not knowing this because he thought he had time had not yet started the loop. So the little nerds at the controls saw Salem and triggered the silent alarm. Salem got the diamond before Naomi did but Naomi didn’t know that so she continued her mission and was unpleasantly surprised to find the jewel missing. That’s when the first cops came in and Naomi came limping into the blazing fire fight that Gunter, Salem and I were engaged in. Between the three of us we managed to fend off the barrage of police. We evaded any other authorities. Gunter had been shot in the foot. Daniel and I helped him into the back of the van and it was then when Salem blamed it all on Malcolm. The gang fell apart, two weeks later we disbanded.
The next few days were uneventful except for Wednesday. Malcolm and I were walking around town when this guy smoking asked us if we wanted some grass. We kept walking and I felt a hand on my shoulder. The drug addict was back and he had friends.
“Hey Punk!” he said. “I asked you a question.”
“No, I don’t want any of your stupid Marijuana; go throw your own lives in a dumpster.” Bad move. Three switch blades flicked open. I slid out my knife prepared to fight. I glanced at Malcolm who apparently was trying to be Captain America with a trashcan lid poised and ready. It was Captain America against Grass Guy and Ace against cronies one and two. Grass Guy slashed at Malcolm but Malcolm hid behind his shield. Malcolm threw a cautious punch but the guy was really high so he did not react quite as quickly. The “blow” smacked him in the face. Grass Guy charged and Malcolm smacked him with the lid. To my pleasant surprise he crumpled.
Cronies one and two crept toward me. Then it dawned on me; I had a gun and they didn’t. Duh. I pulled it out and the two henchmen wisely decided to slink back into the alley. I turned to Malcolm.
“Nice punch.” I said. What I really wanted to say was what possessed you to pick up the trash can lid.
“Do you punch people a lot?” Malcolm asked.
“Yeah” I answered “why do you ask?” Malcolm held out his knuckles; they were bruised. I chuckled. “This is why I stick to computer hacking.” Malcolm exclaimed. We walked back to the hotel and checked into our room. I assigned Malcolm to look at all of the planes, boats and trains coming into Maine and the surrounding states, even in a little bit of Canada.
Finally Malcolm called “Ace I found something!” I sprinted over
“Who?” I said. I was so excited I couldn’t speak in complete sentences.
“It’s Naomi” Malcolm explained. “She’s taking a train into Connecticut tonight.”
“We’ll be there.” I promised myself. “Malcolm are your driving skills still as sharp as your hacking skills?” I asked.
“Sharp as your new commando knife.” “Good ‘cause were going on a road trip.” We took a bus to the south end of town and Malcolm picked the outside lock of a car and I hotwired the inside. We were on our way. Malcolm felt kind of bad about stealing a guy’s car, and we didn’t even know the dude. I told him to stop being a sissy and that he was about as tough as a bag of marsh mellows.
Apparently he took that personally and he put something in my coke that made me fall asleep. After this he spray painted my brand new knife pink with bunnies on it and my gun with kitty cats. He’s not done yet, he laid me down in the forest (after he did this I woke up) put a note on my forehead. It said in all caps “LOOK WHOOSE A SISSY NOW!” It was pouring and it had been 45 minutes since Malcolm dropped me off. Finally I saw our red Volvo coming toward me at about 2 miles per hour. Malcolm reached me and rolled down the window.
He said with humorous grin, “Not that you’d care about a sissy like me but if you were wondering I was enjoying an expensive steak paid out of your wallet and watching the Giants game.” I opened the door and jumped in without a word. I sat back and heard something crinkle. I pulled a piece of paper off of my back and read it. It said “I’m a little girl who likes to play ponies and watch Dora.” Malcolm was laughing so hard I thought he might choke. After he’d caught his breath he was still giggling. He sounded like a slap-happy pig. Once again Malcolm had really out done himself.
