Private Deceptions Read Free Page B

happened there the night before. "Any idea who hit you or what they hit you with?" Monika asked.
    "Don’t know who it was, but I’m pretty sure it was the butt of a gun. Heavy caliber, forty five maybe."
    "You know what this Chilly guy carries?" Jett asked.
    "No, but I can find out. I’ll ask Mrs. Childers."
    "You got a picture?" Monika asked.
    "No."
    "You don’t have a picture of the guy you’re looking for? How do you expect to find him?"
    "Oh, him."
    I handed Monika the picture of Jake and Chésará at the party. Both Monika and Jett looked at me like I was crazy. I thought they wanted a picture of Mrs. Childers.
    "Not bad. That the client, Nick?" Jett commented as he dissected the picture with his eyes.
    "No, that’s the client’s sister."
    "What does the client look like?"
    "An older version of her."
    "What’s her name?"
    "Chésará."
    "Wouldn’t mine tailin’ her. If you know what I mean."
    "See, that’s why I’m here," Monika said, as we arrived at Jake’s. "Nick already got his nose up ones ass. Now you dyin’ to get your head up the sister’s ass."
    "Calm down, Monika."
    "This is a serious matter. These people are drug dealers, and if they are involved, they’re not gonna think twice about killin’ you for stickin’ your nose in their business."
    "I was thinkin’ more about stickin’ other parts of my anatomy in her," Jett said, still looking at the picture of Chésará.
    Once we got to the door, I went to work on the lock. "Don’t you have a key?"
    "No, Monika. I don’t have a key." I replied, as I opened the door and went inside.
    "That is breaking and entering. Now we’re about to tamper with evidence in what may be a crime scene. How much she payin’ us?"
    "Ten thousand, to get us started. There’s more if we need it. Money is not an issue."
    "Still, I don’t like the way this is goin’ already."
    "Tell you what, Monika," Jett said, as he prepared to hack into Jake’s files. "If shit gets too thick, we’ll let you blow up the building."
    "Very funny, Jett." She looked around. "This place is cleaner than my house."
    "Yeah, Mrs. Childers said he’s kind of anal like that."
    While Jett worked on the computer, Monika and I searched the apartment again. "I’ll have it in no time, this is pretty simple stuff. Just hack into this password file and — damn! It’s encrypted."
    "Pretty simple stuff," Monika said.
    "Yeah, he’ll have it in no time."
    Monika looked in the bedroom, while I went through his file cabinets and the mail. Ten minutes or so had gone by when I heard Monika say, "Well now, what do we have here?"
    "What you got?"
    "Safe."
    "Where?" I asked, joining her in the bedroom.
    "In the closet under this box. Guess you missed this, huh, Nick?" Monika started digging in her bag for something.
    "What are you looking for?"
    "What do you think I’m lookin’ for? Something to get this safe open."
    "Jett, come open this safe, before she slaps some C-4 on it."
    "Na, C-4 would be too messy for a small safe," Jett said, while he wrote a program to decrypt the file.
    Monika gave us the customary rolling of her eyes and attached a small device to the safe. "Bet I have this safe open before you get the password."
    "You’re on," Jett yelled.
    "Beat ya. Ha, ha."
    "That wasn’t fair."
    "Fair? What you white folks know about fair?" Monika asked.
    They were fun to work with. Although Jett thinks Monika is mean, overbearing at times, and has a tendency to be a pain in the ass. And she holds Jett personally responsible for the sins of the white man; they would do anything for each other. That’s why we’re alive today. On our final mission, Monika fell on approach to the objective. Her ankle was broken and she couldn’t continue. She wanted us to leave her, but Jett refused. While the three of us had a philosophical debate over the need to follow orders and proceed to the objective, the objective blew up. Jett got on the radio and tried in vain to raise any member of our unit. They were all