The Pursuit of Emma, Dave Moyer [best contemporary novels txt] 📗

any worse?

Nobody answered the door at first. Emma knocked again. Still nothing. This was not good. I didn’t have a back-up plan if this didn’t work and I was sure Emma wouldn’t either.

‘What if he’s not in?’ I asked quietly.

‘He’s in. He never goes out. You just have to knock three times,’ Emma replied, almost as if I was stupid not to know it. That must be the secret conman’s code. The second Emma’s fingers touched the wood of the door, it swung open and a greasy little goblin stood in its place. Now, I am not a jealous man, but how Emma had ever dated this man I will never know. He was three or four inches smaller than I am, and although I am not the most masculine man in the world, his chest was less broad than my bicep. His hair was shoulder length and greasy. This guy? Really?

Even Emma looked quite shocked at his appearance. She regained her composure and smiled sweetly.

‘Blaine, you are looking great,’ she lied. She was a good liar but not that good. Blaine? Really?

Blaine looked utterly bewildered to see Emma standing there but had not taken his eyes off her. I don’t think he had noticed I was even there.

‘Emma?’ he spluttered. He even had a ridiculous, high-pitched voice. OK, maybe I was a little jealous of Emma’s past.

‘I need your help Blainey,’ Emma replied and pushed her way into his flat. He turned to follow her inside and I had to jump in to avoid the door hitting me as he swung it closed. Was I invisible?

We settled in what I assumed was the living room, although you would never know from looking at it. It was as cluttered as Emma’s other friend's house (the one who gave me the police ID) but this was all technical, computer-related equipment. The living room looked like the control centre for NASA (I imagine), just more technical. There must have been twenty-five different monitors in the room and a heap of wires that coated the floor, making it impossible not to walk on them. There were swivel chairs sporadically placed around the room and we each grabbed one to perch on.

‘Emma McDonald. Never thought I would see you again. You’re a ghost. There is nothing I can’t do on a computer but I’ve never been able to find you. And believe me, I’ve tried. But I knew you’d come back. They always do.’ Emma McDonald? Poor lad, he got conned as well. Unless that was her name and I was the one being conned. No, surely not.

‘Listen Blaine, I need your help. I am sorry about Moscow,’ she breathed, regretfully. Moscow? What the hell happened in Moscow?

‘Sorry? I spent eighteen months in a Russian jail because you messed up and you say sorry? I loved you!’ he shouted at her. This was beginning to feel like a bad idea.

‘That was eight years ago and you knew the risk. I made a mistake but I was young. We were young and I didn’t know what I was doing. But I am in danger and you’re the only one who can help me.’

I was now so far out of the loop I was starting to lose focus but I forced myself to stay with it. I was glad to hear that it was a long time ago at the very least. Focus Tom.

‘Why would I help you?’ he spat in disgust. He was beginning to be a bit too aggressive for my liking. He was ‘cruising for a bruising’ as my Dad used to say.

‘Please, do it for me. I know things ended badly between us but if you ever cared about me you’ll do it. My life depends upon it.’ Emma was beginning to look desperate.

‘Emma, I am snowed under at the moment so with regrets I am going to have to say no.’ He looked pretty smug with himself. Now he had gone too far. Emma had tried being nice. My turn.

‘Listen Blaine, she has asked nicely and she has apologised. Time to grow up and help out someone who really needs your help.’

‘Who are you?’ he muttered, as if seeing me for the first time.

‘Her husband.’

‘You two are married? I don’t see it.’

‘And I don’t care but the way I see it is like this. You have two options. Trust me; you are going to want to take the first.’

‘And they are...?’

‘Number One: You help us out and in return, we give you a hundred grand and you never see us again.’

‘And the other one?’

I pulled out my gun, jumped to my feet and held it inches away from his face. His smirk had gone and pure terror was now in his eyes.

‘Number Two: I shoot you in the head, dump you in the woods and use your flat as a base for our operations. It’s up to you.’

‘I see... I'll go with the hundred grand.’

‘I thought you might,’ I smiled. Not so cocky now.

‘So what do you need me to do?’ he asked nervously.

*****

Thirty minutes later we had come up with a pretty decent plan. I had threatened Blaine with every sort of punishment imaginable if he tried to cross us and I was pretty confident that he wouldn’t try anything. He was terrified. We had three and a half hours left to do this job and we had a pretty definite plan. We'd set out a route and made sure Blaine knew what was going on. He may have been a pathetic little weasel but when it came to technology he knew exactly what to do. He had given us a small example and left me in no doubt that he was the man for the job. Blaine could tell this job was a big deal and I think part of him wanted the reputation for pulling it off.

Next task: head to the man with the laser pen and convince him to give it to us. Quickly.

Blaine wanted to prove his abilities and assisted us with green lights the whole way back to West London. It took us half the time and that half hour saved would end up being invaluable, I had no doubt. Two hours gone. Three hours left. Emma was keen to see her friend again (who was called David, so I was told) but reminded me to refer to her as Jessica.

‘We have less than ten minutes if we are going to make this work,’ I said to her. She understood, probably much better than I did. I had to remind myself that she was the expert and I still had loads to learn.

Emma ran to the door and knocked loudly. Did she have a specific rhythm to her knock or was I reading too much into it?

‘Password?’ came a familiar voice.

‘Pluto is a dwarf planet,’ laughed Emma.

The door was pulled open quickly and there was warm embrace between the two of them.

‘Jessica!’ he smiled, hugging her tightly.

‘How are you David?’ asked Emma.

‘All the better for seeing you,’ he replied. He spotted me out of the corner in his eye and moved warmly towards me.

‘And you... I’m guessing you did it then, if little Jessica is still alive. Thank you for saving her.’ He hugged me tightly as well.

‘Not.. .not yet. That’s why we are here Dave. We need your help.’

We discussed the bare bones of our plan, giving just enough information to make David feel included and, after a little persuasion, he allowed us to walk out of there with his laser pen.

‘Be careful. Hold the button down for no more than ten seconds or it may overheat. It hasn’t been safety tested yet!’

I smiled and put it in the trouser pocket, making sure to zip it up.

Two hours and forty-five minutes until we had to be at the warehouse. We were on schedule... just about. The plan was all set but it still seemed an impossible task. I was confident that Blaine would handle his end of the deal and David certainly believed the pen could cut through anything, but it would take a miracle to get it all together at one time.

There was something else to worry about. Something that was nagging in the back of my mind. A problem that had been there since I first found Emma but it was time to confront it. If we did pull off this job, there was no way the Kozlovs would just let us walk out of there. We knew too much and as soon as we delivered the final ewer, they would put a bullet in our heads for our efforts. This was the whole reason I had found Emma instead of fleeing to Mexico and waiting for her. Surely she must have a plan.

She didn’t. After we left David’s, we attempted to come up with one. It was difficult; Emma was completely focused on the task ahead and it was hard to get much out of her. She was worried now, more worried than I had ever seen her. I would have to come up with something. I ran my finger over my gun and considered it. No. I’m not a murderer. Not unless I absolutely had to be. I was going to beat them (once and for all) with my brain, not a gun.

We drove back to our flat to collect the last few things we would need, preparing ourselves in silence for what was coming. I changed clothes into something more appropriate. I slipped on some dark cargo trousers, a jet-black t-shirt and a light weight jacket, also in black. I wasn’t really sure why I dressed in black but people did it in movies and I look good in it. It would make me stand out less which was an obvious benefit as well. Emma reappeared looking incredibly sexy, in very tight, dark clothes. This was not the time to find her attractive, but it didn’t stop me. As Emma was much smaller than me, she was going to have to be the one to get inside the van when the time came. The tighter her clothes, the less likely anything would get caught.

As we were applying the final touches, my phone rang. I answered it and Emma used this opportunity to turn on the news and get a glimpse at what we were going after. There was no live coverage of the van but there were pre-recorded images shown on a loop on the news channels. She had a fair idea of what we were dealing with. I held the phone to my ear and spoke.

‘Hello?’

‘I’m in London,’ spoke Jack calmly.

This instantly made me feel safer. There was nothing Jack could do to protect me but it helped knowing he was here.

‘You want to fill me in with the plan?’ he asked.

‘No time but...’ Suddenly I had a new plan. Not for stealing the ewer, but for protecting us long term. It was mental (literally) but it could work!

‘I need you to listen,’ I said quickly. ‘I don’t have much time.’ Chapter Twenty-Nine

‘Change of plans. I need you... now!’

‘Blaine, we’re set! Count us in.’

I was talking to Blaine through a wireless earpiece on my phone, which picked up a remarkable signal considering I was