or Debbie again. She didn’t know how she could look either one of them in the eye now. She was mortified to imagine Stuart telling Debbie everything that had happened last night.
The clock on the building behind her read four o’clock, time for her to go meet the guy who was going to sneak her in. She almost looked forward to curling up in the bottom of a food cart for the afternoon, alone in the dark with her thoughts. She needed to sort out what she wanted to do; she needed to talk herself out of the urge that was building.
Jarrod Jacob’s building was located a short walk along the waterfront. She saw Marco, the cook, waiting for her outside. He was shifting from one foot to the other and looking at his watch in an exaggerated fashion.
“Hey, what’s up?” she said as she approached him.
“Are you the girl?” he asked.
“Yeah, that’s me.” she replied.
“What’s the code phrase?” he demanded.
“The Eagle has landed, motherfucker,” she told him and knew as she said it that it wasn’t as funny as they had thought the night before. He’d been texted the phrase and they all had a good laugh about it. Not so much in the light of day.
“Ok, cool. Follow me. We’ll go in around back through the service entrance. They bring carts and shit up and down to this Jacobs dude all the time so they won’t notice a thing,” he said and looked her up and down. “It’s a good thing you’re so tiny, it’s going to be cramped. I’ll do my best to get you out here and there so you can stretch or something, but unless I tell you to, stay hidden, ok?”
“Yeah, sure,” she said. They had gone over the plan a hundred times the night before. She was to wait until Marco cleared his throat, said “What a long day that was,” and left the kitchen, locking the door as he left.
“You really sure about this?” Marco asked as they went through an industrial set of steel doors.
“I’m really sure,” she smiled. “If anything this will be a blessing to have a little nap.”
“Ok, it’s your call,” he said and stopped. “Here’s the bathroom, I suggest you go before we head up. It will be your last chance for a couple of hours and we don’t need you pissing yourself when you confront him. We need footage for the news outlets.”
“Oh shit, that’s the thing, right?” she told him. “I left my phone in Stuart’s truck, I don’t know how I’m going to record this.”
“Fuuuuuuck,” Marco said and blew a whistle through his teeth. “That kinda defeats the purpose of this. How about you go take a piss, and I’ll see what I can come up with?”
Columbia agreed and left him in the hall. By the time she got back he was holding an iPhone, similar to her own.
“I’ll give you mine on one condition,” he said.
“What’s that?”
“Don’t read any texts, emails or notes I might have in there. Better yet, just use the camera on this thing, nothing else, got it?” he instructed.
“Yeah, I got it. That’s literally the only thing I need it for.”
They continued down a hallway and went through a door at the end. He showed her the food cart and she folded herself up and got in. It was very cramped with less room than she had hoped, but she could sleep for a bit at least.
“Good luck,” Marco said as he crouched down to shut the door on the cart. “Ok, you can use the phone one more time...to text Stu when you’re done and he’s on stand by, ok? His number’s in there.”
“Will do, and thanks,” she replied as the door swung shut and she was locked in the darkness. She hated the thought of texting Stuart and would have to figure out how to avoid that. She settled into the rhythm as the cart was pushed into the elevator and she started her ride up to the penthouse.
Chapter Five - Dimitri
He woke in darkness, he wasn’t sure what time it was or what had woken him. Normally he would hit the bedside buzzer and demand the concierge walk the length of the hallway between