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Chapter 6

Myron tried to chat up the kid as they hopped on a train at Gospel Oak. For the first part of the ride, the kid jammed in earphones and turned up the volume so loudly Myron could clearly hear the misogynistic lyrics through the kid’s ear canal.

Myron wondered whether the phone’s signal could still reach Win. When they changed lines at Highbury and Islington, the kid turned off the music and said, “What’s your name?”

“Myron. What’s yours?”

“Myron what?”

“Myron Bolitar.”

“You’re pretty good with your fists. Took care of Dex like he was wet tissue.”

Myron wasn’t sure what to say to that, so he said, “Thanks.”

“Where in the States you from?”

Curious question. “New Jersey.”

“You’re a big bloke. You play rugby?”

“No. I… I played basketball in school. How about you?”

The kid made a scoffing sound. “School. Right. Where did you go to school?”

“A university called Duke,” Myron said. “What’s your name?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“How come you’re working the streets?” Myron asked.

The kid tried looking tough, but as with most kids, it came out as more sullen than threatening. “What’s it to you?”

“I don’t mean it as an insult or anything. I just hear most of the, uh, business is online nowadays. It’s on Grindr and Scruff and apps like that.”

The kid lowered his head. “It’s punishment.”

“What’s punishment?”

“The streets.”

“For what?”

The train stopped. “We get off here,” the kid said, rising. “Come on.”

The street outside the station was crowded and noisy. They headed down Brixton Road, past a Sainsbury’s store, and ducked into a shop front called AdventureLand.

The cacophony of sounds, none pleasant except perhaps in a nostalgic way, was the first thing to assault the senses. There was the crash of bowling pins, the digital ding-ding of arcade scoring, the harsh buzzing of missed shots, the mechanical whoop-whoop-whoop of made free throws. There were the artificial noises of virtual planes being struck down and monsters dying under heavily armed assault. There were neon lights and Day-Glo colors. There were Skee-Ball machines and Pac-Man and air hockey and shoot-’em-ups and race-car simulators and those claw cranes trying to snag generic stuffed animals from within a glass cage. There were bumper cars and Ping-Pong and pool tables and a karaoke bar.

There were a lot of teenage boys.

Myron’s eyes swept the room. There were two rent-a-cops by the door. They couldn’t have looked more bored without some sort of neurosurgery. He didn’t pay them much attention. What Myron did notice, almost immediately, were the several men milling about trying to fit in-no, trying to blend in.

They wore camouflage pants.

The kid with the dog collar weaved through the crowd toward an area called Laser Maze, which looked like one of those scenes in Mission: Impossible where someone tries to move without crossing one of the beams and setting off an alarm. There was a door marked EMERGENCY EXIT behind it. The kid moved over to it and looked up at a surveillance camera. Myron joined him. The kid gestured for Myron to look up into the lens. Myron did so, smiling widely and giving the camera a little wave.

“How do I look?” he asked the kid. “My hair’s a mess, right?”

The kid just turned away.

The door opened. They walked through it. The door closed. Two more camouflage-pants-clad men were there. Myron pointed at the pants.

“Was there, like, a really big sale on those?”

No one found this amusing.

“You got a weapon on you?”

“Just my winning smile.”

Myron demonstrated. Neither man appeared particularly impressed.

“Empty your pockets. Wallet, keys, phone.”

Myron did so. They even had one of those bowls where you empty your keys and change before heading through airport security. One of the men took out a metal wand and ran it over Myron. That wasn’t good enough. He started to pat down Myron with a little too much gusto.

“Oh God, that feels good,” Myron said. “A little left.”

That made the man stop.

“Okay, second door on the right.”

“Can I have my stuff back?”

“When you come out.”

Myron looked at Dog Collar. Dog Collar kept his eyes on the floor.

“Why do I have a feeling I’m not going to find what I’m looking for behind that door?”

This door too was locked. There was yet another security camera above it. The kid looked up at it. He gestured for Myron to do the same. Myron did it, but this time there was no winning smile. Show them.

There was a clanging noise. The door, made of reinforced steel, swung open. The kid went inside first. Myron followed.

The first word that came to mind: “high tech.” Or was that two words? AdventureLand was kind of a dump, with arcade games that had seen better days. This room was sleek and modern. There had to be a dozen, probably more, high-end monitors and screens on the walls, on desks, everywhere. Myron counted four men. None wore camouflage pants.

Standing in the middle of the room was a heavyset Indian man with a shaved head. He wore headphones and held a game controller. They were all playing a military-style shooter video game. While everyone around him frantically attacked their controllers, the heavyset man seemed relaxed, almost casual.

“Shh, give us a second, will you? Those damn Italians think they have us beat.”

The heavyset Indian turned his back to them. All eyes were on the center screen on the far wall. It was a leaderboard in some sort of game, Myron guessed. First place listed ROMAVSLAZIO. Second place was FATGANDHI47. Third place was HUNGSTALLION12. Uh-huh, dream on, gamer boy. Other teams on the leaderboard included UNECHANCEDETROP, GIRTH-VADER (probably a friend of HUNGSTALLION12), and MOMMY’S-BASEMENT (honesty-finally, a self-aware gamer).

The heavyset Indian raised his hand slowly, like a conductor about to begin. He looked over at a thin black man by the keyboard.

“Now!” the heavyset Indian said, lowering his arm.

The thin black man clicked a key.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then the leaderboard changed so that the top name read FATGANDHI47.

The men in the room cheered and high-fived one another. That transitioned to backslaps and hugs. Myron and Dog Collar just stood there until the celebrations slowly wound down. The other three men got back behind their computer terminals. Myron could see the reflections from the screens on their glasses. The big monitor in the middle, the one that had been tracking the leaders, turned to black. As it did, the heavyset Indian turned to Myron.

“Welcome.”

Myron glanced at Dog Collar. The kid looked petrified.

Calling the Indian heavyset was being politically correct. He was rotund, with slabs and slabs of skin and a belly like he’d swallowed a bowling ball. His T-shirt couldn’t quite reach his waist and hung out almost like a skirt. His neck fat flowed directly into a smoothly shaved head, so that it looked like one trapezoidal entity. He had a small mustache, wire-rimmed glasses, and a smile that one might mistake for gentle.

“Welcome, Myron Bolitar, to our humble offices.”

“Nice to be here,” Myron said, “Fat Gandhi.”

This pleased him. “Ah yes, yes. You saw the leaderboard?”

“I did.”

He spread his arms, his triceps flapping in the no-breeze. “Does the name not fit?”

“Like a well-tailored sock,” Myron said, even though he had no idea what that meant.

Fat Gandhi turned his gaze toward Dog Collar. The kid withered to the point where Myron felt the need to step in front of him.

“Aren’t you going to ask how I know your name?” Fat Gandhi asked.

“The kid asked for it on the subway,” Myron said. “He also asked me where I was from and where I went to school. I guess you must have been listening in.”

“We were indeed.”

Fat Gandhi offered up another beatific grin, but now-and maybe this was just his imagination-Myron could see the decay behind it.

“Do you think only you can use your phone as a listening device?”

Myron said nothing.

Fat Gandhi snapped his fingers. A map appeared on the big screen. There were blinking blue dots all over it. “All of my employees carry such phones. We can use them as listening devices, as GPSs, to page. We can keep track of all our employees at all times.” He pointed at the blue dots on the screen. “When we get a match on one of our apps-let us say one of our clients has a desire for a malnourished white male with a studded dog collar…”

The kid started to shake.

“… we know where such an employee is and can arrange a meeting at any time. We can also listen in if we wish. We can discover if there is any danger. Or”-and now the smile looked positively predatory-“we can see if we are being cheated.”

The kid reached into his shoe, pulled out the five hundred pounds, and held it out toward Fat Gandhi. Fat Gandhi didn’t take it. The kid put the money on one of the desks. Then he actually slid behind Myron. Myron let him.

Fat Gandhi turned toward the map. He spread his hands again. The other men in the room kept their heads down and typed.

“This is our nerve center.”

Nerve center, Myron thought. This guy should be petting a hairless cat. He sounded like a Bond villain.

He looked over his shoulder at Myron. “Do you know why I don’t fear telling you all this?”

“Is it my trusting face? That’s come in handy tonight.”

“No.” He spun back toward Myron. “It’s because there is nothing you could really do. You’ve noticed the security. Sure, the authorities could eventually get in, maybe whoever is on the other end of your smartphone even. By the way, one of my men is driving around with your phone. Just to make it all the more fun, no?”

“Sounds like big laughs.”

“But here is the thing, Myron. May I call you Myron?”

“Sure. Should I call you Fat?”

“Ha-ha. I like you, Myron Bolitar.”

“Great.”

“Myron, you may have noticed that we have no hard drives in here. Everything-all of the information on our clients, our employees, our dealings-is kept in a cloud. So if someone comes in, we press a button, and voilà”-Fat Gandhi snapped his fingers-“there is nothing to be found.”

“Clever.”

“I tell you this not to boast.”

“Oh?”

“I want you to understand with whom you are dealing before we do business. Just as it is my responsibility to know who I am dealing with.”

He snapped his fingers again.

When the screen came back on, Myron almost groaned out loud.

“Once we heard your name, it didn’t take long to learn much more.” Fat Gandhi pointed to the screen. Someone had paused the video on the title:

THE COLLISION: THE MYRON BOLITAR STORY

“We’ve been watching your documentary, Myron. It’s very moving.”

If you were a sports fan of a certain age, you knew the “legend” of Myron Bolitar, former first-round draft pick of the Boston Celtics. If you were not, or if you were younger or foreign like these guys, well, thanks to a recent sports documentary on ESPN called The Collision going viral, you still knew more than you should.

Fat Gandhi snapped his fingers again, and the video started playing.

“Yeah,” Myron said, “I’ve already seen it.”

“Oh, come, come. Don’t be so modest.”

The documentary started off optimistically enough: tinkling music, bright sunshine, cheers from the crowd. Somehow they had gotten clips of Myron playing AAU ball as a sixth grader. Then it moved on. Myron Bolitar had been a high school basketball superstar from Livingston, New Jersey. During his years at Duke University, his legend grew. He was a consensus All-American, a two-time NCAA champion, and even College Player of the Year.

The tinkling music swelled.

When the Boston Celtics picked him in the first round of the NBA draft, Myron’s dreams, it seemed, had all come true.

And then, as the documentary voice-over of doom intoned, “Tragedy struck…”

Sudden stop on the tinkling music. Cue something more ominous.

“Tragedy struck” in the third quarter of Myron’s very first preseason game, the first-and last-time he would don the green Celtics uniform number 34. The Celtics were playing the Washington Bullets. Up until that point, Myron’s debut had lived up to the hype. He had eighteen points. He was fitting in, clicking on all cylinders, lost in the sweet, sweaty bliss he found only on a basketball court, and then…

The Collision filmmakers must have shown the “horrific” replay two dozen times from a variety of angles. They showed it at regular speed. They showed it in slow motion. They showed it from Myron’s vantage point, from above, from courtside. Didn’t matter. The result was always the same.

Rookie Myron Bolitar had his head turned when Big Burt Wesson, a journeyman power forward, blindsided him. Myron’s knee twisted in a way neither God nor anatomy ever intended. Even from a distance you could actually hear a nauseating sound like a wet snap.

Bye-bye, career.

“Watching this,” Fat Gandhi said with an exaggerated pout, “made us sad.” He looked around. “Didn’t it, lads?”

Everyone, even Dog Collar, quickly mimicked the pout. They all then stared at Myron.

“Yeah, I’m over it.”

“Are you?”

“Man plans and God laughs,” Myron said.

Fat Gandhi smiled. “I like that one. Is that an American expression?”

“Yiddish.”

“Ah. In Hindi, we say knowledge is bigger than debate. You see? So first, we learned your name. Then we watched your documentary, we broke into your email-”

“You what?”

“There was nothing very interesting, but we haven’t finished. We also checked your phone records. Your mobile phone received a call from an untraceable number whilst in New York City fewer than twenty-four hours ago. The call originated from London.” He put out his hands, palms up. “And now you are here. With us.”

“Thorough,” Myron said.

“We try to be.”

“So you know why I’m here.”

“We do.”

“And?”

“I assume you are working for the boy’s family?”

“Does it matter?”

“Not really. We do rescues, of course. It is all a matter of profit, to tell you the truth. I learned this from the great Eshan, who had a religion-you’d call it a cult-outside Varanasi in India. He was a wonderful man. He spoke of peace and harmony and charity. He was so charismatic. Teenagers flocked to him and gave his temple all their earthly possessions. They lived in tents on well-guarded barren land. Sometimes the parents wanted their child back. The great Eshan would accommodate. He wouldn’t ask too much-never be too greedy, he would say-but if he could receive from the parents more than he could make from having their child work or beg or recruit, he would take the money. I am no different. If one of my workers makes the most contribution working sex, that is what he or she does. If the worker is best suited for robbery, as our friend Garth attempted with you, that is where we place him.”

Man, this guy liked to talk.

“How much?”

“One hundred thousand pounds cash for each boy.”

Myron did not reply.

“This amount is nonnegotiable.”

“I’m not negotiating.”

“Wonderful. How long will it take you to raise this sum?”

“You can have it immediately,” Myron said. “Where are the boys?”

“Come, come. You don’t have that kind of cash on you.”

“I can get it within an hour.”

Fat Gandhi smiled. “I should have asked for more.”

“Never be too greedy. Like the great Eshan said.”

“Are you familiar with Bitcoin?”

“Not really.”

“Doesn’t matter. Our transaction will be via cybercurrency.”

“I don’t know what that is either.”

“Get the cash. You’ll be instructed what to do.”

“When?”

“Tomorrow,” Fat Gandhi said. “I will call you and set it up.”

“Sooner is better.”

“Yes, I understand. But you should also understand, Myron. If you try to circumvent our arrangement in any manner, I will kill the boys and they will never be found. I will kill them slowly and painfully and there will not be an ash left. Do I make myself clear?”

An ash? “You do,” Myron said.

“Then you can go.”

“One thing.”

Fat Gandhi waited.

“How do I know this isn’t a scam?”

“You question my word?”

Myron shrugged. “I’m just asking.”

“Perhaps it is a scam,” Fat Gandhi said. “Perhaps you shouldn’t bother coming back tomorrow.”

“I’m not trying to play chicken here. You”-Myron pointed at him-“you are smart enough to get that.”

Fat Gandhi stroked his chin and nodded.

Psychos, Myron knew, fall for flattery almost every time.

“I just think,” Myron continued, “for that kind of money, a little evidence would be nice. How do I know you have the boys?”

Fat Gandhi raised his hand again and snapped his fingers.

The documentary disappeared from the screen.

For a moment, there was only black. Myron thought that maybe they had shut off the television. But no, that wasn’t it. Fat Gandhi moved toward a keyboard and slowly started tapping the brightness button. The screen started to light up now. Myron could see a room with concrete walls.

And there, in the center of the room, was Patrick.

His eyes were black. His lip was swollen and bloody.

“He’s being held off-site,” Fat Gandhi said.

Myron tried to keep his voice steady. “What did you do to him?”

Fat Gandhi snapped his fingers again. The screen went dark.

Myron stared at the blackness. “What about the other boy?”

“I think that’s enough. It is time for you to leave.”

Myron met his eye. “We have a deal now.”

“We do.”

“So I don’t want anyone touching either one of them. I want your word.”

“And you won’t get it,” Fat Gandhi said. “I’ll contact you tomorrow. Now please get out of my office.”