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“I… I’m sorry. It should work. He must’ve updated it or something.”
“Can you save the bickering for later and give me the fucking code already! I’m this close to being arrested, and I’m too pretty for prison,” I shouted, stopping their argument.
“Type in 85932,” Blackhawk said. Trusting him, I typed it in, holding my breath. I looked around for the closest exit. Thankfully, this one worked.
“See, I just had the last numbers inverted,” Mongoose argued. Obsidian and he started to go back and forth, and I couldn’t take their distraction anymore, so I muted the channel, focusing on my task.
Scanning the room, I looked for the thing I’d come for. When smoke began to fill the space, I coughed, not understanding. Turning, I was met with a purple elephant and a polka-dotted bear chasing me down the hallway as I searched for a window. Sounds of shouting followed me as I jumped.
Sitting up, I gasped for breath, the nightmare having felt too real. My skin felt clammy, and my neck was sweaty. The AC kicked on, rattling to life, and I jumped, the sound scaring me but bringing me more into the present. Goosebumps rose up on my skin, and I rubbed my arms.
“You’re here. You’re not there. It’s in the past.” I rocked back and forth as I said the statement repeatedly, trying to rebury a night from my past I’d rather forget.
Once I’d calmed down, I looked over at the nightstand, reading the clock.4:00 am.No time like the present to get started on revenge. The nightmare was a good reminder of what was at stake. Climbing out of bed, I took a quick shower to clean off the remnants of the dream. Sitting down at my computer, I got to work. I could sleep when I was back with my friends and family.
* * *
A few days later,I’d been able to trace the link that Blackhawk had sent me, but it led to a dummy IP address. I knew he was better than that to lead me straight to him, but I hoped he’d be lax enough not to go through the effort of cloaking his location.
“Guess I’ll have to trust that he’s not sending me into a trap,” I mumbled, getting dressed. Sliding on the leather pants I’d left the house in, I paired them with one of the new tops I’d gotten, my black heels, and a black jacket. I looked like a real Femme Fatale, helping me lean into the part I was playing.
Throwing some essentials into my messenger bag, I picked up the few things in the room, working harder to keep it clean. I reminded myself how much nicer it would feel to come back to a clean room afterward. Checking my watch again, I adjusted my glasses and headed out. No time like the present.
Sitting outside a dry cleaners a few hours later, I began to wonder if I’d encoded the coordinates wrong. The bus bench had grown warm throughout the day, but it was beginning to become colder with the sun setting. Sitting on metal in the cold was not really my forte, and these pants did nothing to hold in the warmth. When another ten minutes went by, and there was still no activity from the dry cleaners, I decided to move into the cozy coffee shop on the corner. I’d have a more angled view of this place, but I didn’t think it would matter all that much. I was pretty certain I’d been had. I was just too stubborn to admit it.
Slinging my bag onto my shoulder, I ducked my head from the cameras, adjusting the pink wig I was sporting today. I kept changing my looks, hoping it would buy me some time before the others found me.
Entering the coffee shop, the few guests ignored me, all too busy on their own computers, as I made my way to the counter. Quickly, I ordered a cookie and lemonade, deciding the last thing I needed right now was caffeine. I was jittery enough on my own. The tapping foot as I waited was a clear indicator.
The waitress eyed me but didn’t say anything as she handed me my order. She probably thought I was a junkie. Oh well.
Taking my goodies, I scouted out a place near the front window that was semi-private, allowing me to have my back to the wall so no one could see my screen. I needed to use the free Wi-Fi and didn’t need nosey people peeking over my shoulder trying to guess what I was doing.
As I settled, no one had even glanced over at me, so maybe I was among my people and wouldn’t need to worry. I checked on the dry cleaners but still found it dark and empty.
I was to look for a man with a cowboy hat. Once I made contact with him, then he’d give me something. Blackhawk hadn’t said what, just that I would know when I saw it.
It had taken me a few days to get to this sleepy town of South Carolina. I didn’t know if it was where Blackhawk was or just where his contact was going to be. It was strange traveling this much on my own. I was so used to always being part of a pair with Henry, or Sawyer, and then Asa. Being here as just Fin felt odd, but I didn’t hate it as much as I’d expected. I was learning new things about myself, which was the good part.
Checking one more time for the mysterious man, I signed into a secure server to see if I could do any more leg work on just who Blackhawk was. I realized that finding him physically was much harder than I’d anticipated. While I’d tracked him down online, it meant nothing if I couldn’t see him face to face to exact my revenge.
Though, I had to admit my plan on what I was going to do when that step came was just as shoddy. I really had jumped into this with both feet, not even looking to see where I was landing. Which was both good and bad.
Good, because typically, I was so anal about things it made everyone around me bonkers.
Bad, because the longer this took me, the more time I missed away from my boyfriend and friends.
It was time to let some of my “Finleyness” out to roam. I needed to be more prepared, so when I got to the end of this revenge list, I knew how it ended.
Before my big scandal, the one I tried to not think about anymore, I’d been working on a program to find Sariah. I just needed to tweak it and add the information I knew about Blackhawk, and then maybe I’d have better luck finding him.
Signing in to the program was easy, and I found my fingers typing in the familiar code as the prompts came up. Every now and then, I’d peek up to make sure the contact wasn’t there, but I still had no sign of the man. I passed the security measures with one last prompt, and I found myself in the program.
The familiar page stared at me, and emotions I hadn’t felt in years began to permeate my being. I’d been such a lost and confused teenager, and staring at the screen, I remembered how desperate I’d been to feel something, anything other than the emptiness inside me.
It had been a hopeless recklessness that led me to my choices, and I briefly wondered if I was repeating the same pattern of mistakes as I had back then.
I didn’t dwell on that for too long, shoving everything back into the depths of my mind where it belonged. I could dive into those thoughts later when I had the time, but now I needed to focus. Glancing up one more time, I almost missed the man I’d been waiting all day to see.
