Page 21Calling up

My position here, crawling on the ground in the corridor, wasn't an ideal one. If either of them stormed out of the room I had nowhere to go. I could move fairly fast if I needed to, but I doubted I could move fast enough. Part of me wanted to get back to the exit, as it felt important to be able to get out before they did. They looked like the kind of guys who did lock up after them. With both their attention at the screen, however, any movement by me here would be something in their background that would trigger their attention.

So just a bit more waiting.

"I'm going to call."

"Who?"

"A woman. If I can't get it in, she needs to know."

The guy reached in his pocket and retrieved a simple cheap phone. For some reason I'd expected a really expensive phone, bought with the money they get for jobs like this. But, when I thought about it for a second, this made more sense. Don't take your own phone with you, it can be tracked. Just buy a cheap pay-as-you-go phone anywhere and use that. Good idea, I had to remember that. What was I thinking about? I wasn't planning of doing burglaries like this, was I?

It was odd, but somehow I felt I wasn't being pulled into this accidentally. I followed them on purpose, stayed and watched. I knew what they were but didn't try and call the police. Perhaps because it wasn't a house they were breaking into. Briefly I wondered how exciting it would be to do this but I tried to get my attention back on the moment itself.

The guy had someone on the phone. The volume was so low that I couldn't hear the other side. But at least my memory is good enough to repeat exactly what he said.

"It's me."

"Yes, well, you can't just start talking without a greeting."

"Alright, we've got a problem. The second one has been tainted."

"No, not that bad, just another installed piece of spy-ware."

The guy got up and walked to the window, sounding agitated. The other guy had his eyes on him, I took this moment to scuttle silently to the other side of the doorway so I could reach the exit without either of them seeing me. I scolded myself for even letting them walk past me. It had been easier, but not smart. At least this was now rectified. Go me! Or rather, not go yet. I still wanted to see what was going to happen and part of me, I had to admit, was very curious how they got into things like this.

"No, of course I can't do anything about it!" He didn't really raise his voice, but it was a fierce whisper. "Sorry, I'm just not that good with computers. Yes. No, but... Okay, yes. I'll hold."

The other guy whispered softly. "What's happening."

"She said she has a solution, wants me to hold."

"You can't be serious, we can't wait here."

"Give it a..." He quickly talked back to his phone again. "Yes... What?" He looked back at the computer. "I can do that."

He sat back down behind the PC and followed instructions given to him by the phone, I didn't understand all of them perfectly but I could fathom the gist of them. They were finding out where the data was being send. Even if it wouldn't give them an street address, it would be something to start with. Then something about editing log files for a while and him turning the computer off again. There was no mention of anything in particular that I recognized as something of importance, no names, just files. Pity really, as I was very curious and all that just sounded slightly boring.

Now that I think about it though. It's interesting how I'm able to remember almost verbatim what happens and I am wondering as I'm writing now, that if I had been able to hear the other side of the conversation, I would be able to repeat it with some concentration. If I ever wanted to learn things like this, I wouldn't have to understand it initially, I could just follow instructions to the letter. Anyway, back to the moment.

"Yes, I understand. So, just go?" He listened for a while. "Yeah, you're probably right. We will get payed normally, right?" He smiled. "Good."

Finally he hung up, it was at least twenty minutes since he started the phone-call.

"Are we leaving?"

"Yeah, the other computer is likely tracked as well, but we'll still get full price for this."

"Nice to know there is some honor amongst thieves. Where did you get this anyway, the playground?"

That was a weird name. But it sounded important, so I reminded myself to look it up somewhere. I wondered if there were any Internet cafes in this city anyway. A thought for later though. I probably had to get out of here soon. I slowly inched back and stood up, still listening to them.

"Kind of. It's something she send to my previous phone by text because I did the last job properly."

"She, violet angel?"

"Who's that? No, Seriph."

The guy shrugged. "Are you all done here?"

"Yeah, let's go."

And that was my cue to leave.

I apologize for the long wait, but some other things did require my attention. Though I was secretly happy to go to bed without weary eyes from translating for a few days. I'm sure my candles would agree.