Chapter 7

I'm finally off work. Let me tell you this whole day has been crazy. It felt like somebody was following me but every time I looked no one was there. I mean there were people everywhere but not one that jumped at me being suspicious. I said my goodbyes to Sal since he was closing up when I was leaving. I got on my bike that I was able to get this morning before work and made sure to check around to see if anyone was watching me.

Today was the big day or at least that's the impression that I got when Cleo was telling me to come over so I guess I will find out when I get there. Hopefully it will be an easy job, I believe she was telling me I need to deliver pizza to their place sometime next week. I'll get more details when I arrive I hope

I arrived with no problems. I parked by bike by the gate again and made my way up to the catwalk. I reached the end and I knocked on Cleo's door and just a second later an unfamiliar person had just opened the door.

"Umm… I think this is the right place. Cleo's apartment?" I nervously asked the very large man in front of me. In terms of size, he was like a bodybuilder and looks like he can probably just barely throw a punch to my face and I would be face down dead.

"You the kid?" He asked me in a very hoarse voice

"I'm Simon. If that helps." I replied back still nervous

"You're the kid. Let's go" he held the door open and motioned me to come in.

I entered the apartment and there were a couple chairs sitting around near Cleo's desk and two other people sitting in them. One of them I recognized as FireFlower just sitting there, a small guy with orange hair. His hair is really orange. The other person sitting close to FireFlower is a girl whom I have never seen before. She's just sitting down but I think she might be slightly taller than Cleo and has short black hair.

"Hello…." I said nervously to everyone in the room.

"Took you a long time." that was Cleo's voice but I couldn't see her. I turned around and she was right behind me. Where was she? Did she come out of her bedroom?

"You know I had to work."

"Yeah yeah always making some excuses. Anyways sit down. I'll introduce you to my team."

I sat down next to FireFlower and the larger man sat across from me and Cleo was still standing with a smile on her face.

She pointed at the larger build man. He's pretty scary looking I wouldn't get on his bad size.

"This is Jazz. The one over there with the orange hair is FireFlower and the person across from you is S. We're not on a first name last name basis and these are our handles we use on the Net. They work for me as part of my network and we get the jobs done."

"And what kind of jobs is that?" I had to ask.

"We do a little bit of everything. From sleuthing to hacking. You have a problem we probably can fix. The government has always come to me for help and in turn I recruit them to help me in some cases. We help captured the bank robbers who robbed the bank not to long ago"

I remember reading about that last week.

"Let me tell you our roles." She continued. "Jazz is the muscle, he will accompany one of us to make sure we get the information or to scare off some people. You can call him some sort of enforcer, he's also got clean programming skills. I have never seen anyone code so elegant like the way he does. Next up is S, she's sneaky. I like to nickname her The Snake but she doesn't like that at all. She's really good at finding back doors in almost anything and when she does we infiltrate. Lastly, FireFlower is a weird case, for having such bright hair that makes him stand out like a sore thumb, he's pretty fast. His scooter is modded and he does really awesome footwork when we need information. All in all we all have our own set of skills and we utilize them to the fullest."

"You have an interesting team." That's all I had to say.

"And sometimes I'm lazy and I would use these guys to help me work stuff out." she finally finished.

"So what's the next step? I know you just didn't call me here for this little party."

I heard S snickered a little bit.

"Don't worry about that kid, I have S trying to find a backdoor to one of those guy's cell phones. These Mafia type guys don't like to get their information out there but we're hoping we can find someone that's close to them who owns a cell phone and we can make a faux delivery with that. FireFlower will scope the place they tend to hang out and will draw out a layout and make notes of anything worth mentioning. You'll be okay."

"Are you sure?"

"Kid, you do this and you're going to be rich and famous"

Yeah right. At least not at this rate. I kept my composure while I listened to her talk

"The plan is that we're going to hack into their phone to call you guys to make a pizza delivery. They wouldn't even know. We're going to mask our phones with their numbers once FireFlower is close enough to clone some data from one of those goons. One of them is bound to have a phone on them."

"Do you even know where they are?" I asked

"Sure I do. I was able to track one of them down with the help of the FBI and they're not very far actually. They like to hang around some butcher shop on 5th and Main so it's not totally far. But if they change places we will know. We're actually doing better surveillance than the bloody FBI."

"Really?"

"Yup. And that is why we are good at what we do."

The other crew members just quietly sit there nodding their heads while Jazz is standing behind Cleo like he's her bodyguard. He's pretty scary looking the more I think about it. I guess I can't help it. I've been dragged into this so I guess I'll make the best of it.

"Okay. Let's get started." I finally said

"Sure. You'll get the details Monday. Don't worry, you'll know when it comes. You won't have to worry about my order. This is a mission that we are going to succeed."

"Yeah yeah…" I stopped for a moment before I continued.

"Can you guys help me find out who sent me a strange email?"

"What strange email?" S finally spoke.

"Here let me show you. Can I use your computer Cleo?"

"No need. I can pull up your email right now actually." she responded

"Wait what?"

"I don't need to know your password. Since you plugged in that USB device a while back I was able to get a lot of your details as easy as pie."

"You can't be serious?"

"Don't worry. It's for your own good."

"Damn you, this isn't for my own good."

"Shut up and sit down. Let me take a look at your emails."

She went over to her computer and opened up some computer programs and started typing away. I can't believe she got into my computer like that.

"It looks like it's a hidden email." Cleo said.

"What do you mean?"

"You see the return address? It's all random letters and numbers. Whoever sent this knew what they were doing. I wonder who is emailing you. No one else should have access to your computer except me. I mean unless they know what your email is."

"Can you at least tell me who sent it?"

"I'm trying. Hold your horses. I'll have to dig deeper into this and see where it was sent from."

She kept typing on her keyboard furiously and looking really focused at her screen. She kept humming to herself but after about 5 minutes she finally turned around from her screen.

"I couldn't find anything concrete but the only signature I was able to get from this was ASE. Whatever that means. Whoever it is probably just baiting you. So it looks you have to be careful."

"You have to be kidding me? I didn't do anything."

"I don't know your lifestyle, maybe you made someone mad in traffic or something."

"Are you serious?"

"Who knows. I don't know what you do"

"After work one day some car did follow me and I had to abandon my bike at a nearby store. Maybe it was them?

"Someone was following you huh?" Jazz butted in

"I can maybe take a look for you. I'll scope around the neighborhood and see if I can find information while FireFlower finishes up our plan."

"You don't have to do that Jazz" Cleo said. "But I can't stop you from doing what you want to do but maybe we can give the kid a hand."

Thanks Cleo. I said that to myself as I can see she doesn't really care about the current situation cause according to her my probable death doesn't mean anything.

"Don't look so down. Of course we care about what is going on." S said to me.

I'm guessing she can see how down I look when the others are talking.

"Alright Jazz, use your skills and find out who is following this kid and FireFlower continue with your mission we will meet back on Sunday. Is that good?"

"Yes, Cleo" Everyone besides me said in unison

"So let's end tonight and let's go home and make ourselves comfortable cause this weekend is going to be a wild ride for everyone." Cleo said

Easier for you to say.

Everyone got up who were sitting down and made their way towards the door. I'm guessing it's time to leave. Everyone was saying their goodbyes and packing up their things while I slowly made my way out as well. I'm not sure what to take from this but I guess the plan is solid to deliver pizza to some mobsters who may or may not kill me while Jazz is finding out who is following me. The only thing that is stuck on my mind is why the signature for the email happens to be ASE. I wonder if the person who sent it to me wants to be known? Or maybe they typed it there to throw us off. I'm not sure but I guess Cleo will be on top of things.

I was the first one to the bottom of the stairs as I was able to make it out the door before anyone else. As soon I was trying to get my bike ready S was just coming down.

"Cleo must see something in you if she's invested this much time in working with you." She said to me

"What do you mean?"

"She's not much of a social person despite the display you saw earlier. But she also doesn't spend more than 5 minutes with a person if she doesn't have to. But the fact that she's been with you for awhile means you must be important."

"I mean I don't know. She just wanted me to help her with the pizza thing. So there's that."

"That is true. But to be fair, we didn't really need you. So she must see something else in you."

"Well I don't know. I'm just here. I'm going to go home. I guess I'll see you around."

"Sure."

We said our goodbyes and departed in the opposite direction. She is cute but she is just as cold as Cleo. I was extra cautious this time while I was riding home fortunately I was able to get back without any problem.

I was tired. So tired that I went straight to my room and it looks like Julie was't home again. As soon as I walked into my room my computer was on. I don't remember turning it on. So I went to the monitor and sat down to turn it off when the new email tone played.

I opened the email.

So it's a game you want to play. Then a game we shall play - Sorbus