Contractor Tool Fucking-brunch
“My crew is pretty settled on the benefits of capitalism.” Red Fidelity 3
Tremain didn’t need the menu. He told the waiter, “Grapefruit juice, egg white frittata, the berries, the seven-grain toast. Decaf.” He smiled at the man sitting opposite. “And for my guest?”
The guest—Black, cleanshaven with wide cheekbones, compact hair, late thirties, suit creaseless but off the rack, Macy’s striped tie—was doing a good job of pretending to not be shocked by the prices. He handed the menu to the waiter. “I’ll have the Caesar and a Perrier.”
Tremain said, “You still dress like a fed.”
The guest, who called himself Braun, smiled. “That obvious?”
“You’re a contractor now. If you deliver what you say, you can wear a T-shirt and flipflops.”
“I think I prefer your style.”
Tremain adjusted his silk tie, revealing his sapphire cufflinks. “I’m not a contractor.”
“No. And me and my team, we appreciate that. We appreciate what you’ve put into building your network, Mister Tremain.”
Tremain withdrew a Montblanc pen from his jacket pocket. “And your team. I’ve heard some things about you.”
“I would expect you to have made a few calls.”
“More than a few.” Tremain twirled the pen. “I still have friends at various agencies. They said interesting things.”
“I think I should be glad to hear that.”
“Six months in Riyadh. Listening to whom?”
Braun made a helpless gesture.
“Client confidentiality,” Tremain said. “I get it. But here’s the thing, Braun. If I make an introduction, I need specifics.”
Braun looked around.
“Yes, I know, it’s public here. But you and I know, my friend, that if someone wants to hack our phone or our watch or the hotel’s security cameras, they can listen to anything you’ve got to tell me.” Tremain reached into his other pocket and pulled out a small notepad. He pushed it and the Montblanc across the table. “Be as specific as possible.”
Tremain observed Braun pause. He had heard a similar story from two people he had queried, about Braun working in a tightknit team hustling a zero-exploit to the ruler of Saudi Arabia. The State Department had known about it but looked the other way. The team was led by a man who was ex-NSA, just like Tremain. Tremain had never heard of this man, Verdi, but that was not unusual for an organization so compartmentalized. What mattered was correlation. Besides, “Braun” and “Verdi” weren’t anybody’s real names.
The guest named Braun wrote with his hand guarding the pad. He closed the notepad’s cover and handed it over the table with the pen.
The waiter returned with their food on a silver platter. The two diners waited for him to pour Tremain’s coffee and Braun’s Perrier. Below the fizz of sparkling water, the hotel lobby murmured with investment bankers and real-estate moguls cutting deals; Manhattan soared behind the floor-to-ceiling windows, towers blocking the midday sun, cutting the view into grids of chiaroscuro.
Tremain opened the notebook.
Emerald Trust to MBS. (Initials Tremain assumed were those of the client.)
Iranians.
Journalists.
Client’s family.
POTUS visit.
Tremain flipped the page over and tapped ‘Emerald Trust’. “That’s the name of the tool?”
Braun nodded. “And those are the people we used it against.”
“You thought you were still on government service?”
Braun nodded. “We were. But the client took things too far. We weren’t allowed to leave the hotel. I’m talking gunpoint here.”
Tremain grunted.
“And then we were ordered to expand our net.”
POTUS visit. ‘MBS’ had taken liberties with his surveillance. Tsk-tsk.
“Which you managed to do,” Tremain said.
“And then we got fired. First by the client and then by our own government.”
“And went freelance, to address your financial straits.” At which point they went from being called a team to being called a crew. “I understand.”
“You? What’s your story, Mister Tremain?”
Tremain cut his frittata. “My departure from public service was more deliberately motivated by financial incentives.” His cutlery froze. “Do you think that makes you better than me?”
“No, no it does not.”
“Because I think it just makes me smarter. Look at these people.” He gestured to the fancy restaurant, the five-star view. “You think these are the Boy Scouts? Sure, they all recited the Pledge of Allegiance in school, said their prayers every night, and now they tweet about climate change. But how do you think they got to a point in life where they can drop a hundred and seventy bucks—without blinking—on fucking brunch?”
“I think my crew is pretty settled on the benefits of capitalism.”
“Damn straight.” Tremain resumed eating. “And you need my help getting you into the game.”
Braun tried to appear relaxed. He spooned his yogurt. “It would speed things up for us.”
“You don’t have access to product anymore.”
“But we have access to buyers. And we can handle operations. We know our business. That’s why we came to you.”
“That’s why you came to me,” Tremain said. “But for what I’ve got, special distribution is required.”
“Okay.”
“For this exploit to work, it has to run via very specific cloud networks.”
Braun thought it over. “We can get that.”
“We’ll see. Anyway, your story is a match.”
Braun took that as permission to swallow a bite. “I’m glad you’re satisfied.”
“Satisfied is not in my vocab. But if it’s my representation you want at the auction, then it’s yours for a ten-thousand-dollar fee and fifteen percent of any deal value.”
Braun set down his spoon. “We agreed on the performance fee. Not money up front.”
Tremain said, “Consider it my version of due diligence.”
“The auction’s tonight.”
Tremain flipped the notepad open and wrote a long hash on the page. “As my guest, you’re welcome to enjoy brunch. Eat at your leisure. If you feel pressed for time and need to leave now, I won’t be offended.” He tore the page free and handed it to the man called Braun. “I accept Monero, Dash and Zcash. No Bitcoin, too easy to trace. Be sure the transfer is made before six p.m., and I’ll message you where to pick me up. If there’s no transfer, we will never see each other again.”
Braun folded the paper. “Oh, we’ll see each other.”
RED FIDELITY IS AVAILABLE FOR SALE!
Amazon - Apple - Barnes & Noble – Kobo - Smashwords – Everand – A&R – Vivlio – Fable
Print: Amazon - coming soon