Fantasy So Night Follows Day by TMaskedWriter

[Ramesh_Rocky]

They returned to the patio after Helen's call. She and Troy continued talking after it ended, so she'd lit a third cigarette. Julie spoke when there was a break.

"Here's a thought, Helena: Morgan may have been leading you to him. I mean, Troy knows more about spy stuff than me, but why else would he leave his empty pill bottles in the motel room with the psycho shrine that he knew you'd inevitably track him to? With his fingerprints and information on them? Why not take them with him and toss them in any garbage can he passed between the motel and the castle? I mean, he had a brain tumor, right? Who knows what he was thinking?"

"I've gotta admit, Your Countessness," Mander chimed in. "'That's a pretty rookie mistake for an old pro to make. An' the 'advances in poisons' line? That's not somethin' ya jes' take a wanker's word on. 'E 'as to 'ave looked it up. If 'e knew 'im, maybe 'e knew jes' 'ow much of a shite Yorkshire is, figured 'e shouldn't 'ave it, at any cost."

"Possible," Helen said. "But it's too many Ifs. The only one who could have told us what was going on in Morgan's head was Morgan. He was doing it for his family. Why leave a trail straight to them? Someone double-crossing someone else? Madness brought on by the tumor? Doesn't feel right."

"I should probably get online and see what I can find." Troy said. "Anything the Generalissimo's friend can tell us would be helpful."

"He's covered his tracks well enough. Yorkshire said he had tech people. I knew he'd take some kind of measures against simply tracing the call, but we still had to try. He told me his tech people routed it through the Mars Rover, and we confirmed that."

Troy thought about that.

"Hacking NASA sounds like the kind of thing that a sufficiently determined group of skilled hackers could pull off."

"Troy," Susan interrupted. "Remember the bank robbery lesson? Something like 'Hackers Crack NASA' would've been a headline. Someone at Mission Control would see a light on his console or something and call their supervisor about a hack. They'd probably use that exact headline, too. Say it, it's got a flow. Hackers crack NASA."

"Hackers crack NASA." Everyone said at once. That got a small laugh from everyone.

"Oh!" Helen said, happily. "The bank robbery lesson! How'd you do, Susan?"

"Troy said I got the high score."

"Cool!" Helen replied. "I only got the robbery itself and the extra-credit blowjob right! Did you do it in front of the bank, like Julie, or go somewhere else?"

As Susan opened her mouth to ask someone, likely Troy, about that, the burner phone Helen had set on the patio table next to her cigarette case vibrated, then rang.

"That's him." Helen said. "Yorkshire. I have ten seconds to answer. I need to be alone for this."

"We're in this, Helen." Troy said. "All of us, in all of it." Julie and Susan nodded their agreement. "Let me talk to him."

The burner buzz-rang again.

"It has to be me, Troy. If I don't answer, or anyone but me answers..." It rang a third time as Helen chewed on the thought. "It'll never... ring again... But..."

Contessa Helena de San Finzione flipped open the phone and answered.

"Hello, Miss Pa-"

She cut him off with a shout.

"I am in the MIDDLE of something, Piss Boy! Call back in five! Wait, NO! Nononofuckyou. I am going to call YOU in THIRTY! On YOUR phone!"

She hung up and set the phone down, then put out her cigarette.

"Julie, I need to borrow that laptop. Yorkshire's fucked up a second time!"

She ran into the house and to Julie's spot on the couch, where the laptop was still set up. She cleared the frozen image of herself and Rita, smiling at the camera that Helen was holding and waiting for someone to hit play from the screen and tabbed to Chrome. Everyone else followed a few seconds behind.

"Helen!" Susan called to her. "What'd Troy just get finished saying? You're not alone in this. Your friends want to be on the same page." She thought a second. "Also, where did you blow Troy?"

"The vault. And HOW?" Helena spat out as she reactivated the mouse that had timed out. "His tech people rerouted the call to the Mars Rover. He bought that thing in a corner shop in Tralee, Ireland; but the hunk of shit can receive calls in San Finzione AND Federal Way, Washington! And he told Molly it would never ring again!"

"They recycle cell-phone numbers." Troy mused. "And you probably COULD still switch carriers with it."

"How could he be sure?" Helena asked no one, talking as she walked back outside for the phone. Mander turned to follow, saw what she was going out to do, and waited for her to come back in. "The bigger question is: How do you do all that?" She snorted. "'Exactly ten seconds and never again.' How can you know a call to this thing will go through? What if it drops? Or it doesn't ring through from wherever he was?"