The Bad Beat

2

When attempting to infiltrate a secure government facility, you have to assume that smart people have created the devices meant to keep you out. These smart people are usually a lot like you. They’ve been trained by the best minds the government has access to. They’ve been given state-of-the-art machinery to play with. If given the choice between spending one dollar and one billion dollars, the smart people will spend the one billion dollars. They will overprepare. They will train for the one day they get to fight you.

If these people are exceptionally smart, they will arm the most vital entry point with the world’s best tactical weapon: a person with a clipboard. If you have a clipboard, you don’t need a gun. You don’t need to know five different martial arts. All you need is the ability to look down at your clipboard, examine the names on it, and say a single word: no. “No” is a difficult word to get beyond, even for a spy, since it is both an answer and a threat. No, it says, you are not allowed in. But it also says, No, you are not allowed in and if you attempt to get in, proper authorities will be called, since this clipboard tells me that’s the next step. When you don’t have a gun, the authority you possess is the conviction of your beliefs.

So when I saw two twentysomething University of Miami students-a young woman and a young man, each with a clipboard, and each with so many Greek letters on their clothing you’d think they were guarding the Parthenon-sitting behind a small desk in front of the doors to one of the two Hecht Residential College towers, a Soviet-looking dorm complex consisting of two 12-story towers (except that the Soviets were never big on adorning their buildings’ green space with lush palm trees, deer grass and well-maintained topiary), I knew I had my work cut out for me if I wanted to go up to see Sugar’s friend Brent Grayson.

They were the first line of defense, but the building also looked to have a key-card system in place and it was surrounded by security cameras. This was good. If anyone came here with the intent to hurt Brent, it would be easy to identify them and it would also be at least somewhat difficult for them to get inside to do the hurting.

“Try calling your friend again,” I said to Sugar. We were only twenty yards or so from the tower and I could see that the sentries were doing their job fairly well, steadily turning away visitors at a nice clip. They both looked awfully perky. It’s hard to deal with perky people. They don’t take offense as easily as muscle-bound bouncer types do, which means there’s less opportunity to punch them in the mouth or break their wrists.

Sugar pulled out his phone and dialed, but after about a minute he clicked it off. “Still nothing, bro,” he said. “What if he’s on a dirt nap?”

“It’s unlikely,” I said. “He’s not worth anything dead to the bookies. And I can’t imagine the Russian Mob would need to kill him for any reason, can you?”

“Man, people kill one another every day for no reason, you know?”

I guess I did. “Okay,” I said. “Just follow my moves here and don’t say a word, all right?”

“Cool,” Sugar said.

“I mean it. Don’t speak.”

“I get it. Silent and deadly.”

“No,” I said, “just silent.”

We walked up to the desk and waited patiently behind a kid named Zach while he tried to convince both the young man and the young woman that he needed to get up to the computer lab, even though he didn’t live in the building. He had a skateboard under one arm and with his other free hand he kept nervously pulling at his long goatee.

“Zach,” the woman said, “if I let you in, I could lose my job. So it’s not about doing you a favor. I need the priority registration if I’m going to graduate on time.”

“I totally appreciate that,” Zach said, “but I’d just run up and run right back down. If she’s up there, cool. If she’s not, I know she’s lying to me. And that’s not cool. I should know that, don’t you think? Ben?”

The young man, apparently named Ben, shook his head. “I feel you, dog. But Tiff is on point here. You’ve got to respect our position on this. You call and get someone to sign you in, bingo, you’re in. Otherwise, dog, it’s just not going to happen. No disrespect.”

Zach took this news poorly. He pounded his fist on the desk, hard enough to make both Ben’s and Tiff’s clipboards jump up. “Hey, hey,” Ben said. He stood up and I saw that though he was festooned in Greek letters, he was also covered in muscle. He reached out and grabbed Zach by the shoulder, but not in an aggressive way. He conveyed strength without conveying asshole. If I were still actively employed, I’d give the kid a card, see if he might want to consider a life in the spy arts after college. “Dude, that’s not cool. You have to get ahold of yourself. You can’t just be hitting our desk, okay? The desk didn’t do anything to you, okay? Just be cool.”

“I’m sorry,” Zach said. From behind, I could see that the kid’s shoulders were shaking. The poor guy was crying. “I’m just so, well, you know.”

Ben gave Zach’s shoulder a squeeze. “You need to get ahold of yourself,” he repeated. Zach nodded once and sulked away. It was impressive work on Ben’s part.

All four of us-even Sugar-watched Zach for a few moments as he attempted to ride his skateboard and cry simultaneously. It was more difficult than one might expect.

“Poor guy,” I said.

“He’s sweet,” Tiff said, “but he’s a little on the stalker side.”

“He’s gotta nut up,” Sugar said.

I glared at Sugar. A wonderful development: Five seconds in and he was already speaking. I wondered if maybe he had a touch of ADD. Or maybe he just didn’t know how to follow directions. Tiff and Ben didn’t seem to notice or care that Sugar was speaking, but both were looking at him with something near recognition. Another not great development.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “My cousin sometimes says things when he shouldn’t.”

“It’s true, though,” Sugar said. He smiled at Tiff. “No means no, right, baby doll?”

“Right,” she said. She stared at Sugar and then smiled. “How do I know you?”

“I don’t think you do,” Sugar said. “Yet.”

“How do I know you?” Ben said. There was just a hint of menace in his voice. I liked Ben already.

“I don’t think you do, either,” Sugar said. He shifted his weight a little bit and then stared at his feet, which was good because I was drilling holes in the side of his head with my eyes.

“What year are you?” Ben asked.

“I don’t go here,” Sugar mumbled.

“You play ball? High school maybe?”

“No, no,” Sugar said. “I pretty much just stay home and keep to myself. Like to read and shit. You know.”

Sugar’s answer was met with silence. Of all the people who looked like they stayed home and kept to themselves, much less read… and shit… Sugar was among the least likely.

“He sells drugs,” I said. I let that sink in for a second or two and then laughed and clapped Sugar on the back as hard as I possibly could without actually putting him on the ground. He might have been hard to kill, but he wasn’t hard to beat up and at that moment I regretted not leaving him in the car or, better yet, the notary office. “Oh, my, my,” I said. “I can’t take him anywhere without people thinking they know him. Usually they think he’s Eminem. I personally don’t see it, do you?”

“Little bit,” Ben said.

“Totally,” Tiff said.

“I usually think he should just button up his shirt and stop dyeing his hair,” I said, “but then I’m old-fashioned.”

“OG,” Sugar said, which earned him another glare from me.

“Anyway,” I said, “we’re here to check up on my nephew. Brent Grayson.”

“That’s mine,” Ben said. “I’m A through L.” He flipped through his clipboard and then ran his finger down a page until he landed on Brent’s name. I could see that he had no names listed and also that he was in room 804. “Brent doesn’t have any approved guests listed, so unless he called a pass down for you, I can’t let you in.”

“I understand that, of course, of course,” I said. “It’s Ben, right?”

“Yes,” he said.

“And you’re Tiffany?” I said.

“Tiff,” she said. “ ‘Tiffany’ makes me sound like I’m a thousand years old.”

“Well, Ben and Tiff,” I said, “here’s the problem. Can I expect a level of confidentiality here?”

“Of course,” Ben said. Tiff didn’t look so sure, but she nodded in agreement.

“My nephew, he lives on the eighth floor, correct?”

“That’s correct, sir,” Ben said.

Sir. That was nice. I looked up the side of the building. “That’s a pretty long fall, isn’t it?”

“Remember there was a girl on the sixth floor who jumped last fall?” Tiff said to Ben. “It was the saddest thing. She got her first B and that was it. Splat.”

“So you understand the situation here,” I said.

“Oh,” Ben said. “Gosh. Brent, really?”

“He’s had a rough go of it lately,” I said. “And now we haven’t been able to get him on the phone for the last two days, so, as you can imagine, there’s some concern.”

“I could go up and knock on his door,” Ben said.

“Yes, you could,” I said, “and under normal circumstances, I think that would be more than enough. But in this case, I’m afraid he’d know that, well, we broke his confidence. How well do you know Brent?”

“I see him around the building,” Ben said.

“I don’t even know him,” Tiff said. “Do I, Ben?”

“He’s the-pardon the expression, sir-he’s the squirrely one.”

“Oh, no, really?” Tiff said.

“Really,” I said and then I tried to look hurt by Ben’s description. Squirrely. What was wrong with kids today? Couldn’t more of them be like young Mr. Ben?

“I’m really sorry,” Ben said to me. “We give everyone nicknames. You know, long hours out front and we get a little nutty.”

“I understand,” I said, “and I hope you understand how sensitive this is for all of us.”

Ben bit down on his bottom lip and concentrated on his clipboard for a few seconds. He ran a finger up and down his list and then stopped, looked down and said, “Did you say your name was Kurt Riebe?”

“Yes,” I said.

He ran his finger up and down again, stopped, looked and said to Sugar, “And you’re Delmert Boggs?”

“Naw, man,” Sugar said. “Something cooler than…”

I put my hand over Sugar’s mouth. “Yes, he’s Delmert Boggs.” Ben made out two guest passes for us and then handed us both lanyards to wear.

“I appreciate this,” I said. “Brent will, too, I hope.”

“He’s very sweet,” Tiff said.

“Just make sure Delmert doesn’t sell any drugs inside,” Ben said. “And it would be good if Delmert didn’t show back up at some later date to try to sell drugs. Like at any of the frat houses.”

Sugar looked over his shoulder, as if someone was calling his name, and mumbled something unintelligible.

“I’m sure that won’t be a problem,” I said.

Ben got up and opened the door into the tower with his key card and waved us in. Sugar started to talk just as soon as we were in the lobby but I hushed him until we were in the elevator.

“How’d you do that Jedi shit?” he asked.

“I don’t look like a drug dealer,” I said.

“That shit was wrong,” Sugar said. “That was some profiling shit right there.”

“Maybe don’t sell any drugs around here for a few months,” I said.

“You know what the market is out here? I could make my full nut each month just on Adderall and HGH, but I respect that this is an educational facility,” Sugar said. “Kids learning and shit. So maybe I drop a little weed in the area now and then, but it’s not like I got kids on the black tar, man.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” I said.

“You know what the kids really want, though?”

“A better life?”

“Ambien. They want that crazy Tiger Woods Ambien sex now. That’s my number one growth industry. Stupid cuz you can go to the doctor, tell them you’re not sleeping and Mom and Dad’s health insurance will pick it up for four bucks a bottle. So I get a huge markup.”

The problem with talking to Sugar about anything related to his business was that it constantly reminded me of why I didn’t like him in the first place. He’d come to me not long ago when he was in a jam and I’d gone to him not long ago when I was in a jam, but this new relationship where he was the middleman to a client just opened up my antipathy for him. The sooner I was done with him and could help his friend, the less likely it was that Sugar got bullet number seven.

When you’re a spy, you often enter into business propositions with people not good enough to spit on. Dictators. Presidents. Warlords. And the occasional peroxide blond drug dealer.

The elevator doors opened onto the eighth floor and the first thing I noticed was the smell. It wasn’t death or decay or the coppery smell of blood. Instead it was a just-as-nauseating mixture of patchouli, the oversweet-smelling body lotion favored by strippers and sorority girls alike, the indiscriminate odor of young men (usually a combination of unwashed socks and unwashed hair with a couple dashes of sadness and desperation sprinkled in for flavor) and macaroni and cheese.

Students milled about the hallway in between open apartment doors from which loud rap music and the static hum of televisions bleated out. None of the students appeared to be over twenty and none of them appeared to be in a hurry to get anywhere-they all walked with a nonchalance that bordered on liquidity; it was as if they didn’t have spines like normal humans, particularly with the way their heads lolled back and forth without any seeming purpose.

A few looked at me with passing disregard, but I thought I saw at least two or three of the kids nod at Sugar.

“When was the last time you were up here?” I said.

“Couple days ago.”

“Just to see Brent?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Sugar said.

“Why don’t I believe you?”

“Man, I don’t know. Maybe cuz you’re all covert and shit?”

Maybe. But probably not.

On the walls, posters and flyers for various campus events were stapled haphazardly onto corkboards. Apparently Tuesday was Taco Tuesday at a local bar. Apparently Wednesday was Wicked Wednesday, also at a local bar. Thursdays, according to all of the flyers, were Thirsty Thursdays. There were also notices about opportunities to study abroad, to teach English in Korea and, oddly, to join the Marines. Looking around, I didn’t see a whole lot of candidates who’d be getting Semper Fi tattoos in the near future.

There were security cameras over the elevators, above the two vending machines and at either end of the hallway. Each moved a slow 180 degrees, essentially capturing every inch of space in the common areas. I didn’t know where this information was fed, but I suspected it went to the campus police. It wouldn’t be the sort of thing that was monitored unless a crime was committed, which meant I wanted to avoid committing any crimes… or allowing Sugar to commit any.

“Brent’s room is down that way,” Sugar said, pointing. “Third one on the right.” There were six rooms visible and five of them had wide-open doors, so it was obvious which room was Brent’s.

“The door normally closed?” I said.

“Naw, he’s a pretty open dude, usually,” Sugar said.

“How many times have you been here?”

“Half dozen? Usually real quick. Just pop in, trade product and I’m out.”

“So none of these people know you?”

“I keep to mine,” he said.

“Sugar, this is important.”

He looked both ways down the hall and then shrugged. “Not personally, you know? But a few times, I maybe hooked some people up on this floor. A head nod here or there, you know. But I’m not going to the big dance or anything. Not my scene, bro.”

“Wait here,” I said.

“You gonna go down there and kick his door in? He don’t know you.”

“Sugar,” I said, “if there’s something bad to see-like a body-you don’t want to be anywhere near it, okay? You also don’t need to be seen on camera.”

Sugar thought about this. “I’ll hang back,” he said.

I walked down the hall and peered into the other rooms as I went. In the first room, two young men sat motionless on beanbag chairs playing a video game, their jaws opened just enough to allow airflow. In the second, a young woman wearing only a bathing suit top and cut-off shorts walked in circles talking on her cell phone about someone named Lyle being an asshole, and in the final room before I got to 804, a young man and a young woman sat quietly-amid thumping rap music-reading. None of them bothered to even look my way as I walked by. No one is naturally as uninquisitive as someone who is twenty years old and likely drunk eighty-five percent of the time. All of the dorm rooms looked to have the same layout-a small living room and kitchenette with a bedroom and bathroom off to either the left or the right. It was, in fact, more Soviet on the inside than on the outside.

I got to Brent’s door and knocked loudly. There was no response. I knocked again, this time harder, and said, “Brent? Brent? It’s me. I’m here with Sugar.” Still nothing. I couldn’t hear any movement behind the door, but that was most likely due to the fact that it was a fairly high-grade fireproof door: stainless-steel hinge; frame made of zinc-coated steel sheeting; the door itself silicate aluminum, likely over a honeycomb board, which also made it nearly impossible to kick in.

He probably didn’t know it, but Brent Grayson was living in the perfect place to avoid getting murdered by gangsters and bookies.

I tried the door handle. Locked.

Normally, this would be a situation where I’d pick the lock and be in the room in just under ten seconds, but with the cameras and the sensitive nature of whatever might be behind the door, I figured acting like a normal person might serve me better.

I peered down the hall and saw that there was another open door on the other side of Brent’s room. There wasn’t any music coming from the door and I hadn’t seen anyone going in or out, so I decided to press my luck and look in. There was a young man sitting on a blue sofa tinkering around on the computer. He wore all black, including a black turtleneck, which seemed excessive in the heat of the Miami spring, but not as excessive as the white pancake makeup, black eyeliner and black nail polish he wore. Above the front door was a sign that said, WARNING: YOU ARE NOW ENTERING THE VAMPIRE LAIR, KING THOMAS PRESIDING.

If there was one person on the floor who might have an extra key, it would be the self-proclaimed vampire. Goth kids are always more responsible than the hard-drinking frat boy types, since they’re usually content to stay home listening to sad music and reading Camus. Brent seemed like a reasonable enough person, or at least smart enough to give his extra key to a person who never left his room.

“Excuse me,” I said.

“What?” the young man said without looking up.

“King Thomas, I presume?”

“You presume correct,” he said, eyes still fixed on the computer screen.

“I’m here to see my nephew Brent,” I said. “But his door is locked. You wouldn’t happen to have an extra key, would you? I’m supposed to leave him some money.”

King Thomas’ eyes flickered in my direction and then back to the computer. “You could leave the money with me,” he said.

“I could,” I said. “But I’m not going to.”

King Thomas sighed, as if the conversation we were having was such an existential weight on him that it hurt his soul, and then stood up and disappeared into another room. He reappeared moments later with a ring holding at least twenty-five keys. “Everyone always asks me to keep their extra keys,” he said.

“You seem very responsible,” I said.

“I’m not,” he said. He fumbled through the keys silently and then landed the one he wanted. “I slept through three classes this week. That’s not very responsible, is it?”

“Were you in prison?”

“No, I just couldn’t get up. You ever have days like that?”

“Yes,” I said.

“What do you do?”

“I get up.”

“I guess there’s no lecture notes in real life,” he said.

“Not that I’ve found,” I said.

King Thomas removed the key from the key ring and then seemed to ponder what his next move was going to be. “I haven’t seen Brent leave, so he might just be asleep.”

“I tried knocking on the door.”

“He takes that Ambien stuff,” King Thomas said. “Every Saturday. And I’m the vampire?” King Thomas stepped into the hall and looked down at Sugar. “Hey, Sugar.”

“What up, T-Dawg?” Sugar said. “How you been?”

“Chilling,” King Thomas said.

“You know each other?” I said to King Thomas.

“Yeah,” King Thomas said. “Are you with him?”

“Kind of,” I said.

“So you’re not really Brent’s uncle?”

“No, not really,” I said. “But I’m not here to hurt him. I’m here to help him. And, just to be clear, I don’t work with Sugar. He happens to be someone I know.”

“Don’t worry,” King Thomas said. “No one would make you for a drug dealer.”

“What do I look like?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe a hit man?”

“Close enough,” I said.

King Thomas put his key in the lock and the door opened with a whoosh. I put a hand on King Thomas’ chest and held him back while I looked in. The living space was empty-just the same sofa, chair and nondescript coffee table as all the other rooms had-save for a few books and papers left on the floor and kitchen table. There was no blood anywhere, which is always a good thing.

I stepped into the room and listened. Nothing but the electrical undertones you’d expect. “Wait here,” I said to King Thomas.

“Whatever,” he said.

The door to the bedroom was open. On the floor were stacks of clothes and newspapers and Big Gulp cups and socks and dirty dishes and, finally, at least two dozen baseball caps. But the surprising thing was the number of computers in the room-five laptops and one desktop-all of which were on and linked together. It was enough computer power to run SETI, or maybe a portable NORAD installation, but certainly more than your average college student might need, even one who was a computer science major.

In the bed was a body.

Or, well, the body of a sleeping college student, which can (and often does) resemble the dead. It wasn’t until a stifled snore came out of the body that I realized with certainty that it was a sleeping human and not a dead one. The smell in the room didn’t help.

I stepped over the heaps of clothes, made my way around the dirty dishes and sidestepped the innumerable computer cables until I was standing above Brent Grayson’s sleeping form. I tapped him on the shoulder.

Nothing.

I tapped him on the side of the face.

Nothing.

“Brent,” I said. “Wake up.”

Nothing again.

I looked at his bedside table and saw that he had a prescription bottle for Ambien, just as King Thomas had suggested, but the label said it was for someone named Irene Rosenblatt.

I walked back out into the hallway and saw that Sugar was deep in conversation with the vampire king and another boy, this one with dreadlocks that looked like they were matted with pet fur. “Sugar,” I said, “what did I tell you?”

“Sorry, boss. I know these cats,” he said.

I held up the bottle. “You know Irene Rosenblatt, too?”

“Oh, man, you know,” he said.

I just shook my head and went back inside the dorm room. I sat down on the sofa and called Sam. “We’ve got a body here,” I told him.

“Is it messy?” he asked.

“No,” I said, “it’s asleep. On Ambien.”

“You can have crazy sex on that stuff,” he said.

“So I hear,” I said. “Listen, I’m going to bring this kid home with me and I’m going to leave Sugar somewhere where he can’t hurt himself or anyone else. Like Guantanamo Bay, maybe.”

“Yeah, about that,” Sam said. “His car is gone.”

“Towed away?”

“No, I mean gone. Like blown up. Along with the entire notary office. Looks like a pro job, Mikey. These guys are legit that came out there today. This isn’t someone looking to collect on a gambling debt, just like you thought.”

“Well, this kid has about $20K worth of computer equipment in his dorm room, the kind of computers no college freshman would ever need. Something is going on here beyond Sugar’s comprehension, that’s for sure. So meet me at my place in about an hour. See if Fiona is available. I have a feeling Brent Grayson might respond to a pretty face more than to guys like us.”

“Will do,” Sam said and hung up.

I walked back out into the hall and Sugar was leaning against the wall chatting up a young woman. Great. I went back into the vampire’s lair and saw that the exalted King Thomas was back on his computer, as if nothing had gone on outside the norm whatsoever.

“King Thomas,” I said, “mind if we have a word?”

“You can just call me Tom,” he said. “That’s mostly a joke.”

“Do you know what Brent’s major is?”

“He does some stuff with video game design,” he said.

“How many computers do you need for that sort of thing?”

King Thomas shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m in graphic arts, so it’s all crayons for me.”

“Six computers seem excessive to you?”

“He downloads a lot of music, I guess,” he said.

“Listen, Tom,” I said. “I’m going to take Brent out of here now. If anyone comes looking for him, I want you to call me, do you understand?”

I wrote my number down on a piece of scrap paper and handed it to King Thomas. He eyed it suspiciously. “How do I know you’re not a bad guy?”

“You don’t,” I said.

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll call you. Should I be expecting something bad to happen?”

“Maybe,” I said. “At the very least, if Sugar should show up? Call me then, too.”

“Got it,” he said.

I left the king to his lair and went back into Brent’s room. He was still fast asleep. I shook him as hard as I could without breaking his ribs, or neck, and his eyes fluttered open.

“Who are you?” he said.

“The person who is going to save your life,” I said.

“Are you friends with Sugar?”

“No,” I said. “I’m the person who saved Sugar’s life, too.”

“Are you Sam?”

“No,” I said. “I’m Michael Westen.”

“The spy?”

Nice that Sugar had been discreet in all of his dealings. I wondered if Brent had my burned dossier, too.

“Yes,” I said, “the spy.”

“So he brought the wolf. Cool.”

“The wolf?”

“From Pulp Fiction. The fixer. Badass.” Brent sat up and rubbed his eyes. “What time is it?”

“After three.”

“Did Sugar take care of, uh…” Brent trailed off. “Is he dead?”

“No,” I said. “And no. He’s out in the hall. Now grab your stuff and however many computers you think you need and come with me.”

“Where are we going?”

“A place where if ten Russian gangsters show up, your friends and classmates won’t end up murdered. That sound like a good plan?”

“Oh,” he said, which I took to mean he understood that the playing field had changed, that dangerous things were afoot, that he needed to listen to me and, finally, that he needed to get moving. But then he threw the covers over his head and moaned.

“Brent,” I said, “you need to come out from under the covers.”

“Does this mean something bad happened today?”

“It does,” I said.

“Oh, oh,” he said and this time-well, this time he actually got up out of bed and got busy getting the hell out of his dorm.