Jackpot

6

While Stone Barrington went with Dino, Peter, and Ben to have a final round of drinks with the film festival executives, he let Teddy use his suite at the Golden Desert. Teddy removed his watch and popped off a small magnetic disc that he attached to the back of the hotel phone. With the signal now scrambled, he called the basement of a home in Washington, D.C.

“It’s me,” Teddy said when Kevin Cushman, aka Warplord924, answered.

“Last time you said, ‘Do you know who this is?’” Kevin said.

“Last time I wasn’t in a hurry.”

“I like being in a hurry. It usually means fun trouble.”

Kevin Cushman lived with his mother and appeared on the surface to embody all of the characteristics of a lazy video-game-addicted man-baby. But underneath the layers of vintage T-shirts and nacho cheese dust was a man who made six figures as a computer security analyst and had done some covert and tricky work for Teddy in the past.

“I’m sending you a video. I need to know everything about it.”

“Video is new for you,” Kevin said.

“Nothing is new for me, but this is the first time I’ve had one I thought you could help with.”

“You don’t think I’m good enough to help you with other videos?”

“Believe it or not, people used to pride themselves in doing things for themselves.”

Kevin snorted.

“So you can help with video?”

“I mean, unless you’re about to put an old VCR tape in an envelope and mail it to me, I can help.”

“Why would I send you a VCR tape?” Teddy asked.

“Analog is all the rage now. Videotapes, vinyl records, paper books. All that stuff is making a comeback.”

Teddy ignored Kevin and opened a laptop Stone had left behind for him that had an encryption program on it that Teddy had designed himself, with some help from Kevin. He plugged in the thumb drive Ben had given him, ran the video through the encryption program, and then sent it to Kevin.

“Sent,” Teddy said. “You know how to get ahold of me.”