Sixty-Five

By the time had I parked my Zipcar and hobbled home, my ankle pain had become a dull throb. There was more mail in my mailbox. I grabbed it, hobbled up the stairs, and limped through my front door. Once inside, I tossed the mail on the counter and climbed onto a kitchen stool to inspect the damage. I pulled off the sock and put the ankle on the counter in front of Click and Clack’s terrarium. It was purple.

“What do you guys think? Do I need x-rays?”

The hermit crabs clung to the sides of their log and ignored me.

“You’re right, guys. I should just put some ice on it and see how it goes.”

I was wrapping a gel pack in a towel when my Droid played the Bruins Theme song. Bobby Miller.

“What the fuck did you do?” Bobby was upset.

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t you bullshit me, you asshole!” He was really mad. “You got into GDS, broke into their computers, created a panic, attacked one of their guards, and pulled a fire alarm.”

“I did not pull a fire alarm. And besides, who says it was me?”

“The guard who remembered your name from your driver’s license, Aloysius.”

Burned by security theater.

Bobby continued, “Now you’re sitting in your house like nothing happened.”

“How do you know I’m in my house?”

“Because I’m in the fucking FBI and you have a cell phone, that’s how.”

Hmmm. Maybe it was time to part ways with the Droid.

I lay the gel pack across my ankle. Its throbbing made me testy. “So why aren’t you arresting me? You want me to drive to your office and save you the gas?”

“I’m not in my office. I’m calling from home. I want to hear what happened.”

There was no point in keeping Lucy’s kidnapping a secret if I was going to prison. “What happened? I’ll tell you what happened. That guy Talevi kidnapped Lucy and sent me her toe in an envelope. He wants to trade Lucy for the plans to the Paladin.”

“So you were going to turn over US government secrets? We got thousands of kids out there who will get killed if Talevi gets this stuff.”

“I wasn’t going to give him anything. I was going to get the Word document, randomize the numbers, and give that to Talevi. I’d get Lucy and he’d get nothing.”

“That is a fucking stupid plan.”

“You got something better?”

My ankle was starting to feel better. I put the phone on speaker and found the big bottle of Advil I kept over the sink. I ran some water and took four pills. At this rate I’d need to buy another bottle soon. Maybe I should buy stock in Advil.

Bobby said from the speakerphone, “Tucker, you still there?”

I called out, “Yeah, I’m here. I just don’t know what to do.”

“Wait a second. I got another call.” Bobby beeped off the phone.

Silence. I poked through my mail. Something caught my eye: an envelope in the pile addressed to my mother in blue cursive script. I’d seen this bill before. It was the only one with real handwriting. The person had written up another one, trying to get paid. I opened it and my heart did a little skip. It was from my mother’s storage place.

Bobby’s voice hissed through the speaker. “Tucker, are you there? Boston PD is coming to arrest you. They can’t have you; I need you. Get out of there!”