Boosted (In The Fast Lane) (6 page)

If things didn’t change soon he’d be forced to abandon the
pursuit. All the effort wasted. It was the way these things sometimes went but
today it was especially frustrating. In fact, it was almost embarrassing.
Hannah would be a witness to his failure. True, she didn’t know exactly what
that failure was. Still, Brody was sure that she would be able to read his body
language if he were to turn the car around now.

“Where are we?”

“Pretty far out,” he said. The truth was that he only had a
vague idea where they were. He’d been in too much of a daze to read the road
signs up to that point. What little concentration he could muster had been
focused exclusively on the BMW in the distance. Of course he knew the general
direction that they had been travelling. But he had little clue how far into
the outskirts of the city that they had penetrated.

The car ahead of him was now leaving the town proper and
heading out into a truly barren area. Brody was left with no choice. He had to
give up. But just as he was getting ready to turn around, he had an idea.

“I just have to do one more thing,” Brody said. “Then I’ll
take you home.”

He pulled off the main drag and headed down a side street.
He looked around for a building that would suit his purposes. About halfway
down the block he found a two story house that looked to be abandoned. He
stopped the car in front of it, turned it off, and took the keys out of the
ignition.

“What are we doing here? What is this place?”

“Just stay here a minute, okay? I’ll be right back.”

“Wait!”

But Brody was already out of the car and jogging to the
house. On the side of the porch was a badly damaged wooden lattice. Brody
tested it and found that it would hold his weight, if just barely. He climbed
up the lattice until he was on the roof of the porch. From there he was able to
grasp the roof of the house and pull himself up. He further ascended to the
peak of the roof. From here he could get a good view of the whole town. More
importantly, he had a good view of the area beyond the town. He could see the
BMW winding off into the desert.

“Where the hell are you going, my man?” Brody murmured out loud
to himself.

Something was wrong here. Very wrong. He needed to touch
base with Sergei and fast. Probably best not to do it over the phone either. He
decided to track him down tonight. He feared that he was quickly getting in
over his head.

EIGHT

Pieces of the Puzzle

By the time Hannah was dropped off at her apartment that
night she barely recognized the life she had left behind that morning. Her
afternoon with Brody had shaken her deeply. She had been scared by his actions
and disturbed by his secrecy. But something about it had also excited her. And
this excitement, in turn, caused her even more trouble. This was not who she
was. She was not the girl who wound up in fast cars driving to God knows where
in pursuit of God know what.

They barely talked on the way back from the edge of the
city. He seemed even more shaken up than she was. She had witnessed a new side
of him. Something told her that this was in fact his true side. Hannah wasn’t
sure what they had been doing in the car. She didn’t even have any particular
guess.

However, she was sure that whatever it was she didn’t want
any part of it, and yet she still wanted Brody. She felt more attracted to him
than ever. The way he had taken control in the car, the way he had shrugged off
the prospect of getting into a devastating car wreck, the way he had taken hold
of her hand and told her that everything was going to be fine. Even his
vulnerability on the way home had been strangely magnetic. She wanted to be the
one who would now tell him that everything was going to be okay.

She had done no such thing though. It was only in retrospect
that she had thought to do it. She hadn't been there for him when he needed it.
And now she felt nothing but guilt. When he dropped her off she could have
rectified the situation and invited him in to do what she could to calm him
down. But she had missed that opportunity as well. So now she sat at home
alone, shell shocked by that afternoon, while Brody drove off into the unknown.

Hannah hadn't checked her phone once during her adventure in
Brody’s car and now found that she had a ton of messages to sift through. Most
of them were from her adviser. The messages had at first shown concern and
eventually devolved into telling her how unprofessional and embarrassing her
conduct had been at lunch today.

Hannah didn’t feel any real regret. She was fully willing to
submarine her own future at this point, and not just because of Brody. Although,
she did genuinely like her adviser and she didn't mean to make her look bad. It
was yet another personal relationship that she had undermined today.

She decided to lay down on her hardwood floor for awhile. It
was an activity that had helped her relieve stress in the past. She'd usually
put on music but was not in the mood this evening. She lay in silence for a
long while. Of course it wasn’t complete silence. She gradually became aware of
the sounds around her. The traffic flowing through the street below, the tread
of footsteps from the apartment above, the gentle hum of her electronic
equipment.

What was she going to do now? How was she going to fix this?
Was any of it even worth fixing? She did not know the nature of Brody’s work,
but she was now sure that it was borderline illegal at best. The way he had been
driving suggested that it was not the first time he had done something like
that. She had always sensed that there something dangerous about him. Now her
suspicions were confirmed.

Consultant my ass
. She thought. He had definitely
aroused her curiosity and now she wanted to know exactly what it was that he
did. She knew he would never come right out and tell her. She would have to
figure it out on her own. But how?

She immediately ruled out following him. With driving like
that she felt sure that she would never be able to keep up.
Oh shit
.
That reminded her. Her car. Her car was still at the restaurant. She hadn’t
even thought about that. It was too late to venture across town to get it now.
She’d just have to let it sit. Of course this meant she’d have to find some
other way to get to her morning class tomorrow, a class for which she’d done
none of the work that was due. Damn it. She was falling apart. The walls felt
as if they were closing in upon her. A few days ago everything had been so
simple. Now she didn’t know what to do.

Hannah closed her eyes. She had to focus. One task at a
time. Since the image of Brody refused to dissipate from her mind, that would
be the first thing. She needed to know who he was, what secrets he was hiding.
She tried to piece together the afternoon in a rational way. They had been at
the restaurant together and he had been distracted by something outside.

His eyes had kept going back to the window. He had got up
and left suddenly, leaving some lucky waiter a very healthy tip on top of the
cost of his meal. These were all things she knew. Things that she had witnessed
firsthand.

Brody had still seemed in a hurry as she got into the car
with him. From there his driving had actually been quite calm and controlled.
It wasn’t until after she had sucked his cock that he had gone into a panic
once again. It was only then that he had sped up and started to drive like a
madman. They pulled off the highway and were in some suburb she'd never been
before.

It didn’t seem like he'd ever been there either. It was
right on the edge of the desert but he hadn’t gone that far. Instead he had
climbed up the lattice of a house. That was perhaps the most confusing part to
her. Why would he have done something like that with no explanation? He hadn’t
stayed up there very long either. And upon returning to the car he took her
home as if none of it had ever happened.

How did all these pieces fit together? The sudden exit from
the restaurant, the panic on the highway, the abandonment of the drive seemingly
out of nowhere. Now that she had broken down the afternoon into its individual
parts, the cloud of uncertainty began to fade. The decisions he had been making
did not seem to be his own. That was, of course, because they were contingent
on the actions of someone else. She realized that he must have been following
someone. He had been watching whoever it was from the restaurant and then
tracked them in his car. He must have given up when it was becoming too
obvious.

This begged a further question: why was he following someone
like that? In Hannah’s mind it seemed like something that a cop would do. But
Brody didn’t seem like any cop that she had ever heard of. But who else would
be on a stakeout like that? A part of her didn’t want to know the answer. The
other part of her knew that it was becoming clear. He was undoubtedly involved
in some sort of illegal activity. It was only a matter of how illegal.

NINE

A Drink With Sergei

Brody spent most of that night camped out at the bar where
he had met Sergei a few days before. He'd tried the garage first but there was
no sign of anyone. Must not have been a work night. So instead he went to the
bar where the Russian mob types liked to spend their evenings (and late nights
and mornings, apparently). He ordered a beer, some obscure Eastern European
band with Cyrillic letters on the label. It had a bitter taste that didn’t go
down easy but it beat straight vodka for the time being.

He was careful not to get drunk despite the amount of time
he spent there. He was surprised to find that no one bothered him while he was
there. These Russians tended to be pretty territorial too. Perhaps they
recognized him from his previous visit. Maybe they could just tell that he
lived on their side of the law. As long as he didn’t make any trouble, they
seemed content not to give him any in return.

After a few hours Sergei entered the bar. He was accompanied
by some associates, none of whom Brody recognized. They had already been
drinking and were much deeper in the bag than Brody was despite his head start.
Sergei and his cohorts headed straight for the bar. He obviously hadn’t spotted
Brody yet. They ordered their vodkas, raised a toast, and gulped them down. It
was only when the bartender was pouring their second round that Sergei looked
over and noticed his presence.

“Brody! My friend!”

Sergei parted his comrades and came over to him. Sergei took
him in a bear hug. He then kissed him on both cheeks and ended with a peck on
the lips.

“Your new favorite place, huh?” Sergei asked, with a crooked
smile.

“I came here to find you.”

Sergei didn’t seem to hear him. “Come, come. Tonight you
drink with my friends.”

Brody stood his ground at the bar. “I need to talk to you.”

“These men, they could bring you a lot of business.”

“That’s great, but first--”

Sergei was hearing none of it. He took him by the arm and
started to drag him over.

Brody took his arm away. “Who’s the target?”

Sergei balked. Brody had his attention now. “We do not need
to talk about this right now, not tonight.”

“Yes we do.”

“Come here.” Sergei led him to a more isolated part of the
bar. “This question. It’s not as important as you think.”

“I need to know,” Brody said.

Sergei shook his head. “I do not see why you need to know.”

“I’ve been tailing him.”

“You do not need to do that. This is why I gave you his
address.”

“I can’t get the car from his place. Too much security. He’s
got cameras and people all over the place, not to mention the fence. I’ve gotta
find another opening.”

“And I am confident that you will,” Sergei said, as he went
to move back to his group.

Brody stopped him with one more appeal. “Look, I need to
know what kind of stuff this guy’s into. I’ve got a bad feeling. Yesterday he
drove off into the desert. He would have made me if I’d followed him.”

“Maybe he likes the desert.”

“I’m just saying that if I’m going to do this, I need to
know what kind of consequences there are going to be on the back end.”

Sergei’s demeanor changed now. “Sit down.”

Brody followed his lead and sat on one of the bar stools.

Sergei called the bartender over and ordered two vodkas. “A
drink will help,” he explained to Brody. Once they had gulped down the vodka
Sergei went forward.

“I do not know much about this man. Only what they told me.
But you’re right to think that he’s dangerous. He is. Very much so, from what I
understand. In Iran he was a military officer. I don’t think a general. A
colonel perhaps. I’m not sure. The story, it’s a little hazy. No one wants to
talk about it.”

“Just tell me what you know.”

Sergei looked like he could use another drink but pushed on
anyway. “This man fought in the war against Iraq in the 80’s. He was young then
but very skilled. He rose through the ranks quickly. He became noted for his
cruelty in battle and the intense loyalty he fostered in his men. He accrued
tremendous personal wealth by staging unsanctioned raids on Saddam’s gold
stores, by robbing civilians, and by running the black market that grew larger
in the midst of the war.

After the war ended he and some of his men, fearing that
they would be exposed as war criminals, hopped the border. They acquired new
identities and spread through the world. The colonel, again I am only assuming
he is a colonel, came here.”

“So this is a revenge thing?”

“Of sorts, yes.”

“I don’t get it. Why don’t they just send someone to kill
the guy?”

“He is still a war hero. And he still has friends at home.
Think of it more like a game. The car was the first possession he bought when
he came here. He had the etching done to ensure that all who entered it could
read about his exploits in the war.”

“Quite the ego on this guy.”

Sergei laughed. “This is true. But I assure you that it is
quite justified.”

“So the car is his most prized possession. And the people
back home want it.”

“They want him to know that he has not truly escaped from
their influence. A simple reminder. Call it a simple act of humbling. But all
in fun.”

“So they want me to steal this car as part of some fucking
joke?”

“I will remind you that they are paying quite handsomely for
this joke. And besides, who cares about their motive? Isn’t it actually better
than some businessman who wants a fancy car just so he can show off for whores?”

“Materialism’s not going to get me killed though.”

“It’s going to be fine. I have faith that you will come through.
At the end of this you will be happy and healthy. And rich!”

Brody still wasn’t sold. “What do you think he was doing in
the desert?”

“That is none of my concern. And none of yours.”

Sergei then left him to rejoin his friends. Brody didn’t
feel any better about the situation. In fact, he felt significantly worse. He
never thought he’d have to deal with something as serious as a war criminal.
And all so a couple Persian fat cats could have a few laughs at his expense. It
was a joke, alright. A big fucking joke. And the joke wasn’t on the colonel, it
was on him.