Page 24 of Hemmed

The restaurant where their reservation was made had a dress code of no shorts or blue jeans. Unfortunately for them, that’s all the men were wearing. Frustrated, one of the bus boys ran up to them as they started out the door, pissed that they’d have to find somewhere else for dinner at the late hour.

“Sirs? If you want good seafood, Pier Market Seafood or Fog Harbor are both good options. They don’t care what you’re wearing,” smiled the young man.

“Thanks, kid,” said Nine. He handed him a twenty, and the young man smiled, nodding at them. As night descended on them, the temperatures dropped. They made note of the fact that one of the freighters had departed, the other two ships looking ready to go the next day.

Finally seated by a window with great views of the bay, the men stared at the menu, rubbing their bellies.

When the waiter began to take their orders, he was nearly overwhelmed with the amount of food being asked for.

“Sirs, that’s enough to feed three times your table. Are you sure?”

“You just put that order in,” smirked Alec. “We may be ordering more later.”

Crab, scallops, shrimp, lobster, four different types of fish, fries, mashed potatoes, one order of spinach, and one order of asparagus. Tailor curled his nose.

“Your wife will tear my head off if I don’t order some veggies,” said Nine. “Just eat some.”

Ace was seated closest to the window, allowing him to lean away from the others if they were too close to his space. For the most part, he was better than he had been in years. But every once in a while, he had an episode of panic.

Ghost watched as he tapped away on his phone, wondering if he was speaking to Charlie. He stared out the window again, then watched his phone a few minutes longer. He finally stood, pushing his chair in.

“Ace? Brother, are you okay? Are you leaving?” asked Ian.

“I’ll be right back. If I’m not back in a few minutes, just keep checking your phones.” They all stared at him, watching as he left the table and went downstairs. Seated closest to him, Jean moved into his seat and looked out the window. Below were tourists eating in an outdoor chowder spot. Everyone seemed to be wearing something with ‘San Francisco’ on it. What a market!

“Jean?” whispered Gaspar. He held up his finger then looked down at his phone. Nothing. “Jean, what the fuck?”

“He found them,” whispered Jean. “He’s making contact with them.”

“What?” Nine stood, but Jean waved him back down.

“No. Let him be. He obviously has a plan, and we don’t want to fuck it up. He’s coming back up.”

Ace came back into the restaurant and took his seat again, biting into a piece of hot buttered sourdough bread. He took a swig of his iced tea and then looked back down at his phone while the others continued to stare at him. He felt their eyes on him, and he looked up, confused at first, then remembered he needed to talk.

“Oh. Yeah, that was them.”

“Fuck me,” growled Ghost. “Ace. Speak, son.”

“Yep, sorry. I forget sometimes. Hayes helped to create a program on the phone that scanned phones in my immediate area for certain words or phrases. You guys have no idea how many times a day someone mentions ‘internet’ or ‘site.’”

“Ace, you’re fucking killing me,” said Ian.

“I know,” he smirked. “The other thing I asked Hayes to enter is known traffickers and organized crime bosses. Those two were having a conversation about the site being down, losing money, and possibly their lives in danger if Krauss won’t give them another chance.”

“Shit. Wallen Krauss,” said Nine. Ace nodded.

“I told them that Krauss had been tracking them, and I was their point of contact. I explained how very, very upset Mr. Krauss was with them, and they assured me that they would make good on their mistakes. They even said that they would be happy to apologize in person to Mr. Krauss if he were at his home in Bangkok.”

“You’re fucking something else, Ace,” laughed Ghost.

“Thank you. I think,” frowned Ace. “Oh. We’re meeting tomorrow at Golden Gate Park. 1100.”

“There’s only one problem. How do we know where in Bangkok Krauss lives? It could be anywhere, and he may not even be there. He’s known to have residences in a dozen major cities,” said Miller.

“That’s true, but they admitted that they were willing to help Mr. Krauss get something new off the ground here in the U.S.”

“Ace, what if Krauss does contact them, and they find out you’re not legit,” said Ghost.

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