Two-Step parked the van as close as possible, forcing the crowd to part. He got out and opened the back. “I’m ready,” he said.
“Okay, on three we do a system shutdown. Then on three, we reboot,” Jacob said.
Xia nodded.
“One. Two. Three.”
The wailing stopped mid-note and the boy’s body relaxed, his fingers going limp.
“One. Two. Three.”
They waited in what was now an eerie quiet. It was as if the entire crowd gathered around was holding their breath, waiting for a signal to exhale.
Then, the boy blinked. The crowd exhaled.
“Are you okay?” Jacob asked.
He blinked again, his mouth forming words without sound.
“It’s all right, don’t try to talk yet. Just rest for a minute,” Xia said, putting her hand on the boy’s shoulder.
Jacob found the boy's friend in the crowd. “Do you have a car?”
“Yes.”
“Does he have insurance?”
“Yes, his dad’s corporate.”
“Good. We’ll help you get him in the car so you can take him to a hospital.”
“All right.”
After the teenagers drove off, Jacob and Xia sat in the front of the van, passing his nic-stem back and forth while Two-Step went off to get his fresh goat meat.
“How could a chip malfunction like that?” Xia asked. “I’ve never seen one do that before.”
“It was a bit like a data upload after a lab test. But out of control.”
“Do you think it was one of the chips from the hijack?”
“It must have been. It had the same operating system.” Jacob took a drag from the nic-stem. “If it was, then we know the SRS is pushing them. It makes sense. Steamers would be an excellent choice if you wanted someone to implant black market chips for you. That would explain why Yuri and Chen were handing off backpacks to a Steamer.”
Jacob handed Xia the nic-stem. She waved it off. “That all makes sense, but what in the hell did they do wrong that would make it go crazy like that?”
“I don’t know. And right now, we don’t have time to find out.”
“Here comes Two-Step,” Xia said. “I still can’t believe he’s going to feed someone a dead goat.”
Jacob shook his head and started the van.
Chapter 45
Jacob sat the serving dish on the table and uncovered it. Sandy looked impressed.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Sautéed chard and parmesan.” His apartment was small so he only had to turn around to get the next dish and place it on the table. “And of course, roasted pigeon with carrots and potatoes.”
“Nice. You still haven’t told me what the occasion is,” Sandy said as Jacob sat down.
“We are about to pull off the job of a lifetime, and I thought a nice meal before we do would be great.” He served her a roasted pigeon and a helping of chard, neatly placing two carrots and two potatoes on the plate. “And to be honest, I didn’t want to be outdone by Two-Step.”
“Two-Step?”
“Yes,” he said, fixing his own plate. “He made dinner for Haley, and I thought it sounded, I don’t know, romantic.”
Sandy looked around. Jacob had the lights low and had set up several small LED lights around the small apartment. “I think it’s very romantic. I’m not going to ruin the mood and mention it took Two-Step doing something to get you to be romantic,” she said with a smile.
“Thanks. Wouldn’t want to ruin the mood.”
She laughed, “I’m kidding. I don’t care why you did it. I think it's great.”
“Well, don’t say that until you try it. I’m no cook.”
Sandy took a bite of the chard, followed by a bite of the pigeon.
“Wow, this is good. Where did you get the recipes?”
“Pigeon Eater. He’s been streaming a cooking show. He said it’s part of, how did he put it, a comprehensive marketing plan to take pigeon mainstream.” He took his first bite, chewing thoughtfully. “Your right, it is good,” he said, trying to hide how surprised he was.
After they finished eating, Jacob washed Jacob with the dishes while Sandy sat at the table with a satisfied look on her face. He dried the last dish and put it away. Sandy got each of them a beer and they went out on the small patio. The apartment had once been a room in one of the hotels in The Galleria, and the patio had just enough room for two folding chairs. It was cramped, but the night air was refreshing.
Sandy leaned on the railing, looking at the city. In the distance, the brightly lit frame of the Your Better Life building twisted up into the city skyline. “Hard to think we are going to break into that place. What the hell are we thinking?”
Jacob leaned on the railing next to her. “I’ve asked myself the same thing once or twice. When I first met Johnson, he told me he thought I would take the job because I was desperate, and desperate men do desperate things. He might have been right at the time, but now I’m doing this because I know we can. And maybe a little bit of revenge. Not for losing my corporate job, but for other reasons. Gomez probably would have lived if that hospital had taken him right away. So there’s that. But there’s so much more to it. You know, I look out over the city and see two worlds, and we’re not part of one of them. We’ll never be because we don’t want to play their game. At least I don’t. I don’t want to have to live in their housing or vote for their candidates or sign their contracts. I just don’t. Not anymore. The whole time I was on probation, I felt trapped and like my life was over. But not now. In a couple of days, I’m putting my freedom and my life on the line, and I’m taking my best friends with me, but I feel like I have a future for the first time. I know, it sounds crazy.”
“No, it doesn’t. Part of me feels
