Page 14 of Under Control

“I should have insisted the container be packed in the back,” Tracht muttered. “That would have prevented her from snooping.”

“Yeah, if you wanted us to be really late for departure.” When Tracht looked up, Alex shrugged. “I mean, bad enough we had to unpack the one container. Rearranging everything so this one was in the back? Even worse. Plus, she woulda been even more suspicious.”

“That was surprisingly insightful, Alex.” Tracht patted the spot on the couch next to him, and Alex happily took a seat. “What’s done is done, in any case.”

“So, wait, what happened? ‘Cus I saw Espinosa earlier today and she said she was in a good mood. Even though you reamed her out?”

“I didn’t ream her out, Alex. That would have just encouraged her to keep digging.”

“What’s up with the container anyway? Was she right about something being wrong with it?”

“Yes, of course she was. The only saving grace right now is that she thinks I was unaware of it.”

“How come you let the container on board then? You hate breaking the law.”

“No. I dislike breaking the law when it has obvious negative consequences for myself. You’ll remember that I’ve happily done morally and legally unsound things to you,” Tracht said. He clicked the tablet screen and the camera angle changed. “You’re right that under normal circumstances, I would never have allowed this particular container on board. Unfortunately, I was not in a position to refuse.”

“How come?” Alex risked wrapping an arm around Tracht’s shoulder and was happy when Tracht didn’t chastise him for it. “Vasilis ask you to do this or something?”

“No, Vasilis would never stoop to something so unscrupulous.”

“So, who?”

Tracht stared at Alex, his expression carefully blank. “None of your business, Alex.”

Probably not. Still, Alex was kind of giddy about knowing that Tracht had done something illegal. Especially since Espinosa was being kept in the dark. Oh man, it would be so hard to keep a straight face around her.

“The real question is… what do I do about it?” Tracht closed out of the security feed and pulled up a diagram of the locks on the containers.

“About what?” Alex tried to read the text around the diagram, which highlighted the security features, but it was too small, and, in the end, he didn’t care that much.

“The customs crew, as well as our client, will be able to tell that the container lock has been tampered with. I checked it myself and asked Chief Engineer Maler a few discreet questions. Short of contacting one of the original manufacturers…”

“Just slam a container against it and break the lock that way,” Alex said.

“Sorry?”

“Like that first time, when you almost got squished. Get the forklift to fuck up again and make it look like there’s a different reason the lock is screwed up. That’s what Nick did a lot when we were breaking into things. He’d always come up with a great reason why the locks were defective or broken.” Alex scratched his chin, feeling self-conscious. “Maybe that’s dumb? But Nick wasn’t good at hacking locks, and sometimes he really needed to see what was inside.”

Tracht’s lips twisted up slightly, enough that Alex figured he’d done something right.

“No, I can’t imagine that Nick would have been a good hacker. Your plan lacks some finesse, and I’m not sure two forklift malfunctions in such a short amount of time would be plausible, but it’s not a bad idea at its core. Maybe another sort of accident…”

Alex listened while Tracht spun out some scenarios, growing excited and throwing in some of his own suggestions. Even better: Tracht didn’t shoot them all down.

Alex completely forgot his shitty mood from earlier.

Chapter 5

There was something to be said about being on Tracht’s good side. Alex was feeling pretty happy with himself, and even Espinosa’s smug attitude and the way Bauer had started avoiding him didn’t bother him anymore.

Plus, he and Tracht were plotting something. Not as great as them tag-teaming somebody during sex, but it was still him and Tracht, working together, being badass mofos. Not that Tracht would appreciate being called a badass mofo. Still, Alex figured they’d make a great action movie combo. Tracht would be the brains of the operation, Alex the brawn, and there’d be some chick fawning over Tracht but at the end of the movie she’d die in a horrible explosion and Tracht wouldn’t even shed a tear over her. The movie would end with them kissing, with more explosions in the background.

Sounded like a guaranteed blockbuster. He wished they were back in comm-space already so he could mail Nadia about his movie idea.

He whistled to himself while he did the rounds of the ship, getting curt answers from most of the crew. A few of them even “sir”ed him, which gave Alex a nice kick. They didn’t want to hang out with him? Fine, they could be scared of him.

He slowed when he got to the cargo hold. Tracht told him to go in, do his usual checks, and to absolutely not linger around the container in question. “Do not make me regret trusting you, Alex.”

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