Page 13 of Scammed

“I would never do such a thing,” he said with a strange expression. “The truth is, I’m not sure if I will be forced to leave or not. I feel a pain in my chest when I’m not around her, like a gaping wound that’s bleeding. When I’m near her, my heart beats furiously, as if I’d just finished a horse race and won. When I saw her in that bateau, I knew that I had to try and save her. I have always been able to kiss the waters of our bayou with my feet, but I have never been able to touch solid human things, let alone a human. I prayed to Matthew and Irene to help me.”

“And they answered your prayers, or someone did,” said Gaspar. He shook his head, leaning on his fist against the window of the door. “I don’t know all the answers, Marcel, but I do know we are now near New Orleans, and you are still with us. So, for now, at least, it appears you can travel wherever you like, whenever you like. I’d say that’s a great start.”

It felt strange to Marcel to enter a woman’s home without her being present. Nine and Gaspar acted as though it were second nature to them. They opened the door, strode inside, and immediately began filling suitcases with her clothing.

“Are we taking it all?” asked Marcel.

“What would you prefer?” smirked Nine. “Should we leave some here, indicating that she would need to come back at some point, or should we take it all, indicating there will never be a reason for her to leave Belle Fleur.”

“I believe I prefer the second option,” he smiled.

He gathered her makeup and toiletries, having seen similar items in the bathrooms of the others. As he walked into the small living room, kitchen/office combination, he noticed her computer flashing on her desk.

“Nine, Gaspar? Is her computer device supposed to be doing this?” he asked. Nine walked over to it and shook his head.

“No. It definitely is not.”

There was a warning sign on the screen with skull and crossbones and a constant stream of warnings about not turning the computer off, the virus will infect everything, and that the owner should call the number. Gaspar stood behind him, tapping his comms.

“Code? Are you and Hiro in town yet?”

“A little busy here.”

“Fuck,” he muttered.

“Nine, I’m available,” said Tanner.

“I’m going to snap a photo of a screen. Tell me what the fuck to do,” he growled. A few seconds later, he heard Tanner’s reply.

“Unplug it all and bring it with you. It’s them. Whoever did this to Prometheus is now chasing Amy.”

“Are they here yet?” asked Code, walking into the children’s shelter.

“Not yet,” said Asia. “What do you want us to do?”

“Nothing. I want the two of you out of sight. We’ll handle this, but we don’t want them to see you or know anything about your connection to the shelter.”

“But they spoke to a woman, Code. They’ll be suspicious.”

“I’m going to bet that they never even ask. They’re just going to want access to the system.”

“Car is pulling up,” said Bull. “Whiskey and I will be in the office. Asia, you and Molly head upstairs.”

Code sat at the desk, frowning at the computer as if to indicate that he was confused by whatever was happening. When the two young men walked in, he stood from his chair.

“Can I help you?” he asked.

“We called earlier about a problem you’re experiencing with your software,” said the young man.

“Oh, yeah,” said Code. “My boss said someone was coming to fix it.” The man walked around him, staring at the screen.

“Oh, shit, yeah, this is a nasty malware virus. I’m going to need some time to get it off and clean your drives, wipe out the cache, that sort of thing.” Code stared at him, trying to look confused.

“Don’t worry about it,” said the other man. “We’ve got it taken care of.”

“Why two people?” asked Code.

“Never mind,” said the second man, “just point me to your servers.”

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