Read Online Shell Game by Jeff Buick - Free Book Online Page B

motionless, and the room was absolutely quiet. A log shifted slightly in the fireplace and a few sparks shot up the flue. “I tell you what,” Brand finally said. “I’ll make you a deal.”
    â€œWhat sort of deal?”
    â€œWe need to take care of the problem we’ve got in New York. She’s a very real threat to our safety. You take care of her, and everything’s fine.”
    â€œKill her?” Tony asked.
    â€œSeems almost barbaric when you just come right out and say it,” Brand said, finishing his beer. “Another beer?”
    Tony shook his head. “I didn’t sign on to kill people.”
    â€œI didn’t sign you on to do stupid things,” Brand shot back, his voice threatening. “My offer is non-negotiable. Take care of her, Tony, and you’re off the hook.”
    Tony Stevens leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath. The room was warm, the fireplace soothing, the mountains outside almost ethereal, shrouded in mist. A beautiful day in a beautiful city. He felt cold and sick to his stomach.
    â€œOkay,” he said, his voice just a wisp. “Okay, Edward. I’ll take care of it.”
    â€œGood choice, Tony,” Brand said, a hint of a smile on his lips. “Very good choice.”

C HAPTER T EN
    Jamie Holland was a good kid who’d made a couple of dumb choices. Since he was old enough to tap out a few strokes on a keyboard, he had been working with computers in one form or another. Unfortunately for him, he’d made the mistake of getting caught while poking into a handful of restricted corporate and government mainframes. In the last year, he had been cutting code for the San Francisco police while working off his community-service hours for hacking into the Department of Defense’s computer. In addition to writing programs, he had been Sam Morel’s best asset in pulling information off computer hard drives that had been wiped clean.
    Sam Morel had called him late Friday night and asked if he could come in over the weekend and spend a few hours working on a handful of systems that had just come on the black market. Sam suspected the computers had been used by a company called NewPro before it had abruptly disappeared, taking a lot of investors’ money. Sam had the six computers and one server set up in a small room down the hall from his office in Central District. Weekends were good for him, and Jamie had agreed to come in.
    Jamie arrived at the police precinct at just after ten Saturday morning. He found Sam in his office, drinking coffee and scouring the contents of a thick red file. Sam grinned when Jamie arrived.
    â€œYou’re up early,” he said. “Didn’t expect you until noon.”
    â€œPolice work comes before sleep,” Jamie said with a smirk. He dropped into the chair facing Sam and propped his feet on the cop’s desk. Jamie’s relationship with Sam was more like father-son than anything else, and he was probably the only person on the planet who could do that and get away with it. Jamie had bright, eager eyes and long hair that hung just past his shoulders. He was thin, skinny almost, and wore baggy clothes that made him look a bit like a walking laundry line. He hadn’t shaved for a week and a scraggly goatee was starting to show.
    â€œWhat’s with the fuzz?” Sam said, rubbing his own freshly shaven chin.
    â€œThat’s not fuzz,” Jamie said. “It’s a chick magnet. Girls love it.”
    â€œSure. You ready to have a look at these computers?”
    â€œYeah. Where are they?”
    â€œA few doors down. Close to the coffee station,” Sam said, getting up and heading for the door. Jamie was only twenty-two, but he liked his caffeine. “One of my guys on the street got these six in and shipped them over. Like I told you on the phone, he thinks they came from NewPro.”
    â€œThe company that folded and stole all that