Alien Vacation Ch. 05

Yep. Listen, Kyle: I know I laid down a pretty firm line about running around playing hero with my powers, and I meant it. But, um... you're not gonna take it the wrong way if I immediately make a big exception, will you?

Another man joined their table, also dressed for something like business casual. This guy was about the same age, with his blond hair almost down to a buzz cut. Xin suddenly filled in their names for him: Angela, Jake, and now Adam.

Xin filled Kyle in, mixing spoken words with surface thoughts in her eavesdropping. "Hey, Adam, this is my girlfriend, Angela," said Jake as they shook hands. He wanted to impress Adam with his clothes and the setting. Wanted Adam to see him as successful and powerful. Angela was part of that. He needed Adam to see him as a baller with all the signs of success like a hot girlfriend. A lot rode on this deal.

"Hi, nice to meet you," said Adam. He got the message. The impact wasn't huge. He knew it could all be for show, but at least Jake could make the show.

Angela forced a smile and shook hands. This was an unpleasant surprise. She didn't want to take that out on Adam, since he probably knew nothing about it, so she swallowed her irritation at Jake... although she knew she was being treated as an accessory to show off. "Hi," she said.

"Hey, Angela, we gotta talk a little business," said Jake. "How about you grab a mimosa at the bar? It won't be long." She'd done her bit. Now he wanted to get rid of her before she found out what he was up to. He didn't know how he'd recover if she found out.

Found out what? Kyle asked Xin.

Hold on.

Angela hesitated. She wanted to object. She didn't want to be treated like this. She also wanted to lay into Jake, and to get away from him, both at the same time... and she didn't want to make a scene. She shrugged and stepped away without objection, but said nothing comforting or agreeable to it.

She glanced to Kyle as she got up and turned away, wanting to savor the sight. Just some random guy, but damn what a hottie. If she wasn't stuck with Jake and this mess she might try to say hi. He was alone, after all. But even if she split with Jake right this moment and it didn't cause a scene, approaching him now would be sketchy to say the least. Not exactly the way to meet someone. And she wasn't in the headspace for it, much as she wished otherwise. All of it flitted through her mind in the blink of an eye, the same as anyone might come up with a bad idea and discard it instantly. She headed for the bar, only freshly opened, thinking she kind of wanted a drink just for the sake of dealing with this shit.

Kyle watched her go, his eyes going straight for those hips and that ass encased in a flattering white skirt, but Xin kept him tied in to the conversation at the table. "I like your girl," said Adam. "She's a looker. And she's cool, too." While he didn't specifically think "cool" meant "obedient," the sentiment was there in his mind.

Xin, what is going on? Kyle tried again.

I'm gonna help you process this fast. So, Jake is a gangster type. He and a bunch of friends in college started doing some shady black market stuff and a little strong-arming and one day they got together and said, "Why don't we do our own thing?" and it grew from there. They have a whole "we're not like other gangs" thing. He thinks they're the organized crime version of some tech industry disruptor.

Angela doesn't know. He's been hiding it from her. They've only been seeing each other a few months. She's starting to suspect something is up and she's on the edge of dumping him anyway, but so far he hasn't dropped any real proof of anything shady. Also, he's very manipulative.

Wait. What crime? Kyle asked. What are they into?

A few beatings-for-hire, burglary, fencing, lots of drugs. A couple months ago Jake and his buddies even kidnapped a man and held him for a couple weeks until they got a lot of ransom from his family. He and his crew do stuff mostly in LA but sometimes going all the way down to San Diego. Basically whatever they could find and get away with. Jake uses his "event promotion" business to launder the money.

You see the guy over at the corner table past there? That's one of Jake's buddies. His name is Tucker. He's the back-up for this meeting because he and Angela have never met. This guy Adam on the other hand is with a bunch of, um...

What?

...you're gonna want to go over there and punch him, but I guess you know better than to do it.

Xin.

He's a Neo-Nazi from a big group in Orange County. A couple of his guys are waiting for him in the garage. Adam can cover up all his tattoos with a nice shirt so he does the meetings.

Kyle scowled. Great. What's this shit about, then?

Guns. Adam has a whole bunch of guns and ammunition to sell. Jake and his crew are buying some of the guns for themselves, but most of it is them playing middlemen for a bigger outfit in LA. He feels like it's a good way to make connections and be taken seriously. Also it's icky inside his brain. Adam's is even worse. Nazis are just gross.

"Ya think?" Kyle breathed. He held his tongue. What kind of guns? How much does Jake even know about guns?

Well, they've talked about this before so he has a basic idea. His buddy at the other table over there was in the Army so he has some training.

"Here's the inventory," said Adam, passing over a slip of paper. "M-4s, couple SAWs, a few AKs they had for training stuff. Full-auto weapons, my friend. Box of grenades, too. Not a lick of it is street legal."

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK, Kyle shouted mentally.

I guess Adam's crew has a connection at a National Guard armory? It's an awful lot of guns and ammunition, too. Jake brought half a million dollars.

Kyle nearly choked. This is a big fucking deal, Xin!

I kinda figured you'd think so. Um. I can hear all the questions in your head, but you might want to focus on just a couple of them.

They're doing this right here? Or where? How much money are we talking, and how are they handling that?

Adam has it all loaded into a rented SUV in the parking garage with a couple of his guys watching. Jake has the money all in cash in a big duffel bag in the trunk of his car, which is how I got on this whole thing in the first place. He was preoccupied with that. Still is, really. One of Jake's buddies is supposed to take off with the SUV when the deal is done. They're gonna need a little while to hash out some details, though. This is more stock than Jake came prepared to buy.

Images became clear in Kyle's mind. He "remembered" Jake's BMW, exactly where it was parked, along with the locations, faces, and names of both his partners and Adam's. The details led to other questions, which Xin answered before Kyle could consciously ask.

Ideas quickly turned into a plan with Xin's help. Kyle stood from his seat, pulling out his last couple of twenties to leave on the table for the bill he hadn't gotten yet. He asked Xin, do you know where the nearest cop is?

Not really. I can expand my senses but that takes a lot of effort and you might need my energy for other things. Oh! There's a state investigator with police powers here.

Kyle glanced over, following Xin's mental directions. She guided his gaze to a big, heavyset man at a table with his wife and two teenage kids. The guy had a Tom Selleck mustache and a body that was probably a decade beyond his last physical fitness test of any sort.

His name is Rory. He does mostly medical fraud investigations. But he's totally carrying his badge and his gun in case anything happens while he's off-duty!

Kyle sighed as he headed for the bar. "Great. Well, you work with what you've got."

* * *

She got a Coke at the bar. Not a mimosa. Nothing alcoholic. Much as she felt like getting a drink, she wanted to be on her game for the conversation to come. Angela knew she was right about Jake being a dick here. She wasn't worried about him arguing his way out of it. She did, however, dread the moment where he'd think he had done so, and then he'd be entitled to be a jerk or be smug or... whatever.

Angela let out a sigh. She wasn't really obligated to explain herself. Not if she wanted to walk. She was already looking at traffic on her phone, thinking about telling Jake they were done and leaving him here to find his own ride home. She only hesitated for the sake of thinking it through. She'd left a couple small bags in their room. She had stuff back at his place, too, but...

She pushed her straw around her tall glass. It wouldn't be about her stuff. It would be about all the people they knew in common. He knew her agency and connections for promo jobs. That wasn't her primary income, but the promo model gigs and tradeshow stuff really helped. And it was fun. Jake was clearly the type to hold a grudge and talk shit.

And with that temper, he might do worse. She wasn't going to let herself stay trapped, but it would be smarter to at least have a plan or some back-up or... something.

"Excuse me, could I join you for a second?"

Angela turned and caught her breath. The hot guy from the restaurant gestured to the other bar stool. The bar was largely deserted at this hour. He wasn't trying to squeeze in. He wanted to talk to her. He smiled. "I'm Kyle. Hi."

"Um, sure," she said brightly. She glanced over her shoulder to make sure Jake wasn't walking into the bar right then and immediately berated herself for it. That wasn't a game she ever wanted to play in a relationship. Jake could suck it up. She offered her hand. "I'm Angela."

"Nice to meet you."

"Are you here alone?" she asked. "I saw you in the restaurant."

"Yeah, actually." He looked a little shy. "Saw you in there, too. More to the point, I saw you with your... boyfriend? Date? Guess I should be up front about that."

Her smile diminished a bit. "Do you know him?"

"Not personally. I know about him. And his company over there. Listen, I'm nobody to you and all, but that's kinda why I wanted to try to talk to you. Angela, do you know how Jake makes his money?"

Hot or not, appealing or not, the question brought Angela's guard up. "Why do you ask?"

"Because he's a very bad dude. His company over there is bad news, too. And I had a hunch you might not know."

She didn't know this guy. She knew better than to volunteer anything, no matter how appealing he might be... and not even if he'd just opened up issues that held her suspicions for months. "Okay. You can cut to the chase. What's going on?"

"Cool. Jake's into a couple buckets of crazy illegal shit," Kyle began, speaking with a cool, calm pace. "He and his buddies have a whole crime ring going. They've been at it for years. And Adam over there with him is a straight-up Nazi. Part of a whole gang of 'em in Orange County. He's here to sell Jake a bunch of stolen guns. Jake's got a couple of his buddies here to take delivery once Jake and Adam feel each other out and settle the deal."

"Are you a cop? How do you know all this?" Angela asked. She had no trouble believing Jake was into something illegal, but the details seemed a bit much.

"No. I'm not a crook, either. Not armed. Just somebody who knows what's going on."

"We're supposed to..." Her words trailed off as her skepticism of his claims ran headlong into her own suspicions of Jake, now deepening fast. "Why would he bring me here?" she asked, but she saw the contradiction there already: he'd asked her to step out as soon as this stranger approached. What kind of "event promotion" would involve that?

"Does Jake strike you as the type to want to impress people by letting them know he has a beautiful girlfriend?" asked Kyle.

"I..." she began, then stopped. Yes, she had to admit to herself. Yes, he did, and she'd already come to that conclusion just now. That, or Jake simply hadn't wanted Angela to think his dodgy behavior about his meeting was over another woman or something like that. And this guy she'd just met conveyed more respect for her in his tone and his other non-verbal cues than Jake did at his nicest.

She thought of the secrets. The rough edges. The temper. Things he said. And his house. No way did anyone Jake's age earn enough for a house like that as a mere event promoter, and it wasn't from family money, either.

"Okay, stranger. Do you have any proof of all this?" Angela asked.

"The real proof is the guns Adam brought. That and their respective back-up guys waiting for them. Jake's got a half million in cash in a duffel bag tucked into the trunk of his car if that's proof enough, but we'd have to get into it."

Angela's eyes hardened. "It's not his car. It's mine."

* * *

I didn't realize how exciting this would be.

Yeah, well. Nazis and gangsters and guns are all a little outside my norm, thought Kyle. He walked beside Angela in the garage, with both keeping a wary eye on their surroundings. Xin assured him she, too, was on the ball, but that didn't leave Kyle feeling relaxed. Additionally, her tone made him wonder just how focused she was on the dangers at hand.

I'm on the ball. Don't worry.

Uh-huh. Are Jake and the Nazi still in the restaurant?

Yeah, they're still there. I can't tell much more than that without line of sight. Still kinda weak. Actually I'm keeping an eye on the place through Emily's eyes. I've still got a strong connection to her. Can't read their minds from here, but if they walk out she'll see them and I'll know.

You wanna know the best part about this, though? It's how little I did to influence Angela at all. Aside from the initial "Hey check out the stud" bit. And the mind scanning earlier on. That conversation in the bar was pretty much all you. I can give a couple assurances, but past that I'm hardly influencing her at all.

The walk from the hotel to the appropriate level of the garage took hardly any time at all. The garage had several floors, but at this time of the day enough natural light came through the open sides of the exterior to chase away most of the gloom. Kyle saw only the occasional car move through the level in search of an open space.

Adam's back-up is downstairs in the short-term-only parking. Angela's car is—

"Right around here," said Angela as they came around the corner to the next rows of cars on a slightly declining deck.

"Hold up," said Kyle. He put his hand on her arm, but didn't grab. The move kept them from coming around a minivan parked at the end of their row. Kyle looked past the two rows of cars, one facing the interior wall of the deck and one facing the exterior. "They might have someone watching out for the money."

They don't, Xin assured him.

Okay, he thought, but I didn't know that before you said, and Angela doesn't, either.

No worries. Also don't worry about cameras. Emily knows there aren't any in the garage building aside from the main entrance and exit.

"This floor was pretty filled up when we got here," said Angela, keeping her voice low. "And I don't see anyone standing around."

She likes having you stand so close, Xin chimed in.

Stop, Kyle thought. He shifted back to talking out loud. Hopefully he wouldn't mix the two up at some terrible moment. "Guess you're right." He stepped out a little ahead of her, his eyes still scanning warily despite Xin's support.

They came to Angela's simple, clean, ten-year-old Honda Accord. "He threw a duffel bag into the trunk this morning but he left it in the car when we checked into our room. Said this was just some gym clothes he wanted just in case we decide to go for a run or something," Angela murmured. She opened up the trunk with her key fob and found the duffel bag right in the back corner of the space with a towel thrown over it.

Kyle gave her some space and kept an eye out. He didn't want to loom. Despite Xin's influence and her assurances, he kept imagining how he might feel in Angela's shoes, coming out here with a stranger who'd accused her boyfriend of serious crimes. He watched her tug the bag out and unzip it.

"Oh my god," she gasped. "This is...oh my god."

He glanced over his shoulder. Stacks of hundred dollar bills in their mustard-colored wrapping filled the bag. Angela picked up one and flipped through it, then another. It all looked perfectly legit, aside from its placement in a gym bag.

"Guess that's what half a million dollars in cash looks like," said Kyle.

"What the fuck?" Angela scowled. She had the presence of mind to zip the bag up quickly again. She didn't pick it up, but she kept her hand on it. "Why would he do this with me? In my car? Why?"

"Maybe his car isn't as clean as yours? Legally, I mean. Plus if you get pulled over, they're likely to only run your license and not his. And maybe he thinks he can claim ignorance or play for time that way? I don't know. I'm not a mind-reader."

Ha ha funny—oh shit, interrupted Xin. Her warning came to him and processed far faster than spoken words. Kyle, someone's coming. Two guys, both Jake's. They stayed out of sight 'cause Angela has met them. They're right around the opposite corner. Jake sent them to fetch the money. One has a key to the car and they both have guns.

"Angela, someone's coming," Kyle warned his companion with his voice low. They only needed to share an alarmed glance before they were on the same wavelength with no telepathy involved at all. Angela tugged the duffel bag out of the trunk. Kyle closed the trunk, managing to do it without much noise. The pair slipped away from the car quickly, with Kyle tugging Angela back to hide between other parked cars down the lane at Xin's urging.

It's safe to watch through the car windows. They won't see you. I can't completely dominate their minds, but I can keep you concealed as long as you stay unobtrusive. The one with the backwards ballcap and stubble is Eddie. The one in the terrible shorts and open shirt is Josh.

Kyle followed her advice. Angela, in turn, followed his lead. The two watched as the guys came up to her car and opened the trunk with a remote key fob.

Both men leaned in for a double-take. Eddie stood up, looking around urgently, then went to look through the windows at the seats while Josh leaned in and patted around in the trunk as if the bag had only turned invisible. "Aw, shit," Josh murmured. He looked again, and spun around again to look at his surroundings while Eddie looked in the trunk yet again. "Aw shit!"

"There's no damage to the car," said Eddie. "You think this is some set-up?"

"Nah, man. What about Jake's bitch?"

"No way. I saw her in the bar just before I came up here. Jake didn't take his eyes off her before that. Couldn't be her."

"Man, we are fucked!"

"Just chill. We gotta figure this out. We gotta warn Jake." Eddie pulled out his phone, then closed the trunk, looked at his phone again, started walking back, and stopped. Josh followed and stopped and followed again in frustration. Eddie started texting. Then he cursed and hurried back the way he came with Josh in tow as the pair spoke in hurried words.

They want to be close by Jake when Eddie sends the warning in case Jake needs help, Xin explained. They don't know if Jake will freak out. Or worse, if Adam and his thugs will freak out.

Can you stall them? Kyle asked. Or is that a violation of your restrictions?

Oh, I can stall them. I've already decided to intervene, so it's not like stalling makes it worse. I can stall them a lot if you want.

"It's this way!" Josh snapped from down the end of the lane. He pointed to the staircase on the other side of their end of the garage.

"No, dude, we came the other way," Eddie countered, pointing in another direction. Something flew out of his pointing hand, shattering as it hit the concrete. "Aw, fuck! My burner phone!"