Page 32 of Twisted Empire

Elias nodded and strode over to the van to grab one of the burner phones he’d brought along with us. He’d copied his contacts directory from his real phone over to all of the burners when he got them, so Henry’s number should be in there. I just hoped it was the right one.

He drew in a deep breath, then clicked the dial button and put the call on loudspeaker. It rang for what felt like a century. I thought it would eventually go to voicemail, but a familiar voice finally answered. “Hello?” Henry’s voice was clipped, nervous.

“Hey, Hennessey! It’s Prince,” Elias said, affecting a slightly higher voice. “Long time no speak.”

There was a lengthy pause on the other end of the line. Please don’t hang up, I silently begged.

“Prince,” Henry finally said. “It has been a while, hasn’t it?”

“Sure has, buddy. Couple of years now, right?”

“Right.” Henry cleared his throat. “It’s actually a funny coincidence that you’ve called, because I’ve heard some rather interesting rumors about you recently. From my little sister.”

My heart skipped a beat. He knew.

Elias nodded over at me, obviously reaching the same conclusion. He kept his voice light as he spoke. “Oh, man, I don’t miss the old rumor mill.” He feigned a laugh. “Anyway, I heard from some of the other guys that you’re still in New Marwick. I know I’ve been away for a while, but I was thinking of coming to visit, so I was hoping you’d help me and my baby mama find somewhere to crash. We’d really appreciate your help.”

I almost snickered at Elias using the term ‘baby mama’, but I stayed silent, my heart racing. He had to sound as different to his usual self as possible, and it seemed to be working so far. Henry knew who he was talking to, but he hadn’t yet ended the call out of fear.

“You want me to find you somewhere to stay?” he said slowly.

“Yeah. I’ve been looking everywhere online but I can’t find anything decent, and I don’t have a place in the area anymore.”

“Sorry, man. My battery is almost dead. I’ll have to call you back.” Henry abruptly hung up, and my shoulders slumped.

“Damn. I thought it was working,” I muttered.

“Me too. I guess he doesn’t want to help,” Elias said, his jaw set. “Can’t really blame him.”

“Maybe he thought the society was testing him by pretending to be you asking for help. Like they were looking for an excuse to finally kill him.”

He shrugged. “Yeah. Maybe.”

I rubbed his leg again. “It’s okay. We’ll think of something else.”

We sat in a gloomy silence, finishing off the remainders of breakfast.

I almost jumped out of my skin when the burner phone began to vibrate on the log next to me several minutes later. The caller ID said ‘unknown number’. My eyes widened as I held it out to Elias, and my stomach twisted into nervous knots.

Elias answered the call with a frown, putting it on loudspeaker again. “Hello?”

“Hey. It’s me.”

“Henry?”

“Yeah. Sorry I hung up before. I couldn’t talk on my cell. Not about this. I had to run down the street from my office to find an old payphone. I’d say I’ve got about two minutes before the usual guys chase me down and demand to know what the fuck I’m doing, so shoot.”

“I left the society, and I took Tatum with me.”

Henry snorted. “I know. Heard all about it a couple of hours ago from my nasty little sister. You’ve got a real set of balls on you, you know that?”

“You’re the only person I could think of who might be able to help. We need somewhere safe to stay.”

“I figured. Obviously you can’t crash with me, but I’m sure I can think of something.” Henry muttered a curse word under his breath. “Shit. They’re already coming down the street. I can’t keep talking on here. We’ll need to talk in person.”

“Can you do that?”

“Yeah. These guys don’t give a shit what I do with my life, as long as they can monitor every fucking word I say. So I can meet up with you, but you’ll need to be disguised.”

---