Page 51 of The Triplets and the Blonde

“Um..um..I’m no thi..thief,” I stammered. I had to get out of here. Pat had said he was worried about the family. If they put me on trial I would be dead.

“Let’s not lie to each other. Look, I don’t care about what you are. My issue is with what you stole,” he whispered in my ear.

“I tried to get it back,” I snapped. Shit, I just admitted it.

“It’s funny. Had you known what you stole, I’m sure you wouldn’t have,” he chuckled. “Instead, you, a homeless, stole a weapon against the homeless and gave it to the one person who wants to use it against your kind.” He twirled me again. This time I kept my balance.

“Weapon?” My throat ran dry.

“It's a GPS tracking device for humans. Jason created it for the military. No more prisoners of war. The Government decided it was too inhumane. The Elites wanted to use it to keep track of the homeless. Imagine a life where you had to be permitted to go anywhere. Unless you had a work visa you couldn’t leave your street. That’s what Carlos wants.” He kept dancing like he wasn’t dropping bombs on me.

“The Government? They don’t exist anymore.” My heart slammed into my chest. I thought it would break a rib.

“Oh they exist, just not to your kind. Who do you think controls the military? The Government had decided to abandon the homeless. Too much of a waste of money.” He grinned.

“Wait, Jason said Carlos wanted it for leverage. Not to track the homeless.” The room was too heavy, the air too hot. My ears pounded.

“Jason may not know. They think the Nant-bots are useless without the codes. They don’t know Carlos had been working on a reprogramming code that would also allow it to be self destructive. That means when a homeless person is out of bounds their brains get splattered.”

“Why would Carlos care about the homeless?” I asked.

“Rumor has it he had an issue with a maid a while back. Now he is out for revenge on the homeless.” He shrugged.

“So why are you telling me all this?” I tried to keep my thoughts straight. This information was priceless. Not to mention it didn’t sound like his own grandsons knew everything, well almost everything.

“I asked about you. Kira the finder. You are the best. I wanna make a deal.” He stopped dancing and looked me in the eyes.

I nodded.

“Steal the bag from Carlos and I won’t slice you from ear to ear.” He grabbed my face.

“Why do you give a fuck if Carlos controls homeless?” I tried to steady my voice.

“I don’t. My grandsons do. It’s their weakness. Not surprised they fell in love with one. I am about to turn over everything I have built to them. I don’t need them distracted.”

“So what do I get if I do get the bag?” I stared him in the eyes.

“Aside from living?” He scratched his face. “You don’t seem to care so much about your own life. Okay, how about if you don’t, I will take everything from my grandsons and leave them homeless. Because if you don’t get that bag back they will lose everything trying to get it back. They would give up everything to protect your kind.”

“How do you know that? They could just shrug it off.” Yes, I cared deeply for The Trips but I doubted they would give up everything to stop the homeless from getting trackers in them.

“Trust me.” He pulled me into a hug. “Now go before I slice you in front of them.”

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