Race

notes on a small pad.

Beadsworth said, “His name?”

“I hear them call him Kong.”

“When did they bring you the samples?”

“A little over a month ago. The second one two weeks after that and the most recent early last week.”

Last week. We were getting close.

Cal said. “I gave the samples to Max. I think you guys have them now. So what more do you want from me? You have the evidence, you go nail them.”

My eyes were half-closed. I tried to fight it. I really did. But then I fell back into darkness.

Beadsworth turned to me and said, “Officer Rupret will tell you.”

That woke me up.

Cal looked at me attentively.

I shot Beadsworth a look. “Um, yes,” I said trying to get out of my haze. “This sofa. It is real leather?”

“Yes,” replied Cal, slowly.

“Good. We would like a tour. We want to know why RACE wants to do business here.” I had no idea what I was saying.

“Who is this RACE?” said Cal turning to Beadsworth.

Before he could answer I got up and pointed to the sofa, “Whenever you decide to throw it away you give me a call.” I slid a card with my phone number on his desk.

Cal was confused but he nodded and said, “Yes, I can give you a tour.” He got up. “But you still haven’t answered my question. Why don’t you guys go and arrest these people?”

“He’ll answer that,” I pointed to Beadsworth. “I’ve talked enough.” I rubbed my eyes.

“We need to know if they have the drug,” Beadsworth replied. “The samples we have aren’t the final product. That is where you come in. We need you to get it from them. So far we have something that sounds dangerous, but is it? We need to be certain.”

“You want me to do business with them?” he said.

“Yes, we believe they are still processing the drug. Once they have it they will be eager to push it and before they do we have to stop them.” Beadsworth handed Cal his card. “If and when they contact you, you give us a call.”

“Come, I’ll show you the place,” Cal said. We were now in the narrow hall again.

“What’s in that room?” I pointed.

“If any of our special guests or performers want to chill out, we let them use it. Mostly, DJ’s use it to get a break. Max is our resident DJ, so he uses it. You want to see it?”

I shook my head. “That’s all right.”

He led us out through another door, this one heavy, and onto the mezzanine level. It was low-lit and a girl, wearing a t-shirt and jeans, was wiping the tables.

Cal said, “On the left of this floor we have the VIP lounge with ultra-comfortable couches.”

“Even better than the one in your office?” I asked.

“I suppose,” he said, not realizing my love for his sofa. “If you’re tired, you can just relax here, or if you want to get a little cozy.” He winked. “Beside it we have two pool tables. In the middle we have the soda bar. From here you can see there are two stairs going down to the dance floor.”

We moved to the railings. From this vantage point I could see the stage across.

“We’ll go to the main floor in a minute,” Cal said.

Beadsworth had his arms crossed behind his back and was strolling through the tour. His face had the expression of someone who didn’t care much for these things.

“On the right, beside the soda bar, we have the washrooms with attendants.” Cal smiled.

“Attendants?” Beadsworth said.

“Yes, so nothing illegal or improper happens.”

Something caught my eye. It looked like an arcade machine with a screen and a joystick.

Cal saw my interest and said, “That’s what we call a Find-a-Friend. You see that black semi-oval ball atop the soda bar?”

“Yes,” I said.

“That’s a camera. When turned on, using the stick you can control the camera. You can zoom in and out. We have two more downstairs. Here is where we have the private lounge. These sliding doors give you privacy. We keep this area for the celebrities or other important people.”

He slid the door and we peeked in. I saw those ultra-comfortable couches lining the wall with a coffee table in the middle. A thirty-inch television was set up facing the couches.

We went down the stairs and on to the middle of the dance floor. From here I could see how big the place actually was.

“Eight thousand square feet,” Cal beamed.

A disco ball hung from the middle. A curved stage was planted facing the mezzanine with, I guess, all the DJ equipment. There were two large video screens on both sides of the stage.

“There are cameras on either side of the mezzanine,” Cal said. “They are aimed at the stage.”

“You have a lot of cameras,” Beadsworth commented.

“It’s an attraction for the public. For us, it’s security. On the left of the stage we have the back entrance and exit for the performers. There is a decent size room for the bands to change or set up or leave their equipment. We never keep this entrance open. This also leads to an exit in the back. On the right we have another emergency exit. There are lots of building codes that need to be followed.”

“What are those?” I said looking at these small booths behind the chairs.

“Those are our main attractions. We have one on either side of the floor. They are referred to as interactive zones.” We went to the right side of the floor.

“This is called the Beam Breaker,” he said.

I saw a round elevated platform that could maybe hold four people.

“There are parallel light beams that come down above the participants’ heads. When someone breaks the beams the light sensors detect it and this triggers four to sixteen musical keynotes.” He looked at his watch and then turned to us as if to say the tour was over.

“Can you show us the other interactive zone?” I asked. Beadsworth gave me a Let’s go look. I shrugged.

We headed to the left side of the club. “This is the Infrared zone.”

The platform was elevated but square. It could also hold four people. There was a camera pointing to the platform and a large white blank screen at the back.

Cal said, “It’s a state-of-the-art infrared video camera. It registers the participant’s body heat and projects the infrared image on to the large screen. The unspoken rule is that if you’re not hot enough, you’re not dancing hard enough. Lots of fun.” He turned to us. “This is the House of Jam. The best entertainment experience in the city.”

“I would like to experience it, too,” I said.

“Doors open at eight,” he replied.

“I’ll come tonight.”

“Come to the back door and I’ll let you in,” Cal said. “Call me first, okay?”

FOURTEEN

They were all in the Lincoln-Ms. Zee, Kong, Joey and Suraj-heading to the House of Jam. Suraj was behind the wheel and he was nervous. He found the Lincoln too big to handle. He would rather be in his Sundance. But there was no way Ms. Zee would allow that. She only went anywhere in the Lincoln.

Ms. Zee was not in a good mood. It was embarrassing to have to go to your clients and retrieve the samples.