“Make sure and do that,” Marty said. “I’m definitely not going out on any repos or guard jobs any more.”
“Me, either,” Tony said, standing up. “Which reminds me, I’ve got to get cleaned up.”
Marty started to comment until a hard fist to his stomach choked it off. “Leave him be,” Alice said, watching him disappear upstairs. Her eyes softened. “Did you see the look on his face? I never seen him look like that. I think he’s been bitten with love at first sight.”
The rest of us wisely kept silent for several seconds, before Nate bounced to his feet. “Well, gotta get going. I told Jack I’d go out on his next repo with him. See you.” He trotted up the tunnel towards the garage.
I turned to Marty, who was still rubbing his gut. “Why don’t you and Alice work on a schedule for listening to the phone conversations from the two places in question. Make sure and have Wilbur provide you with a way to record everything said on the phones, too. Oh, and include Wilbur and me in your scheduling to listen in.”
Wilbur looked pleased. “Hey, thanks. I really enjoy doin’ this spy stuff. Gets my juices going.” He hurried back to his little kingdom of electronic hardware in the corner.
Marty watched him go, a bemused look on his face. “If I understood half of the gadgets he has over there - and knew how to work ‘em - I’d probably be a dangerous man.”
I snorted. “You think he isn’t? I’d hate to have him get mad at me. Don’t think my life would be worth much if he decided he wanted to do me in using his electronic toys.” I stood, heading for the stairs. “For now, though, think I’ll turn in.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“I got it—oh, wow, I gotitgotitgotit!”
Wilbur’s excited shout had me scrambling from my cubicle, eyes casting about for trouble. I drew up when I spotted him waving his arms in the air. Crap. Just Wilbur getting excited again. “What is it this time?” I strode towards him while he continued pushing fist pumps into the air, grinning like an idiot.
“The code, man. I finally cracked the code.” He stood up and waved me into his seat. “Look at that! It was there all the time. I just needed to look in a different direction.”
I sat, looking at incomprehensible symbols scrawling across the screen. “What’m I looking at?”
“Oh. Sorry.” He reached out and clicked a key. Within seconds the screen cleared.
I hurriedly stood and waved him back down. “Hey, you’d better take care of it. I’ll probably erase something accidentally if I sat there too long.”
He slid back into his chair with a chuckle. “Yeah, I believe it. The number of times I’ve had to fix your computer after you screw it up…”
“Let’s not get personal here,” I said, looking over his shoulder at the monitor. “Now what do you have?”
He flicked through several screens, settling in on a page of text. “Looks like someone hid something, and is sending someone else information about the location.” He hit a key, displaying a map. “Kind of vague information, except for the location of the money.” His eyes sharpened. “Hey, that’s right. This is where the confederate money is located.”
There were hoots of laughter from me and others in the office. “That’s counterfeit, man,” Marty said.
I walked back towards my cubicle. “Why don’t you send all of us a copy of what you came up with?”
By the time I was settled in front of my computer, an email from Wilbur was waiting with the information. I spent several minutes going through it before sitting back with a shake of my head. Time for a meeting.
Within minutes five of us were at the conference table, minus Nate who’d taken off with one of his repo men.
“I think confederate is a much better name than counterfeit for that shit,” Alice said with a smile. “So don’t you listen to these jerks. They just don’t appreciate a different viewpoint on the world, like you have.”
Tony shook his head. “Appropriate name, since the bills are hidden in Charlotte rather than somewhere in the north.”
“Why hasn’t this abandoned church it’s in been knocked down an’ rebuilt? That’s what they usually do, isn’t it?” asked Marty.
“It’s on the list of historical buildings,” Tony said. “Can’t tear it down, can’t modernize it. Has to stay the same as it was originally far as structure goes.” He shrugged. “Our decision is whether to go after the stuff or not.”
I swiped hair off my forehead. Time to get the mop cut again. “What would we do with it? Although it’d be nice to have a couple hundred million bucks, it wouldn’t do us any good since we’re not in the business of peddling that kind of crud on the streets.”
“How about turning it in?” Wilbur asked. “Could we get some kind of reward?”
Heads nodded around the table, including mine. “Good idea, Wilbur. Should’ve been our first thought. Howsabout I call our pet cop and see if he can get us a deal?”
Again everyone’s heads were nodding. “Good. That took care of that problem. Didn’t want to take an unnecessary risk anyway, since we wouldn’t have been able to keep it.”
“I’ll call him,” Alice said as she stood. “I been known to talk a man out of his money quicker than any of you.”
“Amen to that,” Marty said. “Leastways she seems to get mine.”
Tony patted his stomach. “I know it’s a little early, but I’m for picking up some lunch. Didn’t go to breakfast this morning. Anyone interested?”
By the time we trooped back from lunch, Alice had our answer. “Al says the Secret Service will spring for a hundred grand. I emailed him the information already.” She turned towards Wilbur, still busily typing away in his corner. “Wilbur, lunch is here. Take a break, will you? I’m getting tired just watching you.”
He looked up with
