Maggie squeezed out more tears and used the napkin by her plate to wipe at her face. She had a rapt, attentive audience. She decided to quit while she felt like she was ahead. Then she decided to throw one last tidbit into the ring. “I even picked out my wedding dress. A Vera Wang.” She boo-hooed again and sat back in her chair, as though she were exhausted. She risked a glance at her watch, wishing there was a way to alert Jack and the others about what was going on.
She sniffled a few more times for effect and said, “I feel like this is my lucky day, meeting all of you, and you wanting to help me. I . . . I was never . . . you know . . . kicked to the curb before, so to speak. Why couldn't he just be man enough and say he wanted out? Why?” she cried in a tormented voice. She should have been an actress.
“Because he's a first-class louse,” one of the women said.
“Wouldn't it be nice if we could turn the tables on guys like him so he could see how it felt?” suggested one of the women at the far end of the table.
Maggie swallowed hard at the words. She knew where this was going. “I sure would like to do that. I haven't been able to eat or sleep for weeks.” Her words were so bitter-sounding, she realized she was a better actress than she had even thought.
“Well, we can talk about that tonight out at the ranch, when we get all comfortable and cozy,” Kitty said. “I'm sure between all of us, we can come up with a plan so you get your wish. That's if you're really serious.”
Maggie looked around the table at all the expectant faces waiting for her response. “I am very serious, but I want you all to know it's going to kill me to do it. I don't know how to turn off my feelings.”
“See! See! That's the thing. The men who did us dirty don't stop to think about
our
feelings, so why should we worry about
theirs
? You need to get hopping mad and go for the jugular. Teach that skunk a lesson he'll never forget,” Hana said. A rousing cheer went up around the table.
Maggie sniffed again and wiped at her eyes. “You're right! Okay, I'm in for whatever you all come up with. I want to look into his eyes and tell him what a low-life, bottom-feeding, lying, cheating scumbag he is. That's what I want!” Maggie cried dramatically.
“And that's exactly what you are going to get, my dear,” Kitty said. Then she grinned and said, “
Meow
.”
The women all laughed, even Maggie. Man, she was so in like Flynn, it was scary.
The women decided to forgo the Jell-O dessert and asked for the bill. Everyone but Maggie scurried to come up with her share, and then they were outside. One of the women hailed a cab for Maggie. Kitty handed over a slip of paper with directions to her ranch.
“Your best bet is a cab,” she told Maggie. “Bring enough stuff to spend the night. We'll give you a ride back to town in the morning.”
The good-byes were long and loud. And then the cab was pulling away from the curb just as Avery Snowden hopped into the cab behind hers.
Maggie thought she was going to explode as she pulled out her phone and sent one text after another. Lordy, Lordy, she'd hit the mother lode.
Chapter 12
E
veryone was sprawled on the furniture and the floor as they watched Abner and Mary Alice tapping away at their computers in the little room off the main suite. They all looked worried, especially Charles and Fergus. This was taking too long. The hackers had been at it for hours, with nothing to show for their efforts. Sparrow just kept shaking his head and chewing on his bottom lip.
The door to the suite opened to admit Jack and Harry. They quickly related in hushed voices, so as not to disturb Abner and PIP, what had gone down at the Cat & Cradle. The others digested the information.
Sparrow spoke first. “Why are we spending so much time on Kelly's love life? So he's a Romeo, a Casanova. Who the hell cares? I really don't see how that is of interest in terms of what we're here for. Will someone please enlighten me?”
“It's a thread. It might or might not tie into why we're here. While it may not seem important, we can't just ignore it, either. If it's nothing, then no problem. We put it behind us. If it turns into something, we play it out to the end,” Charles said. He turned to Jack and demanded, “What's your gut feeling? Do you think one has anything to do with the other?”
“I don't know. Part of me says yes, and part of me says no. It's a crapshoot, Charles. Maybe when Maggie gets here and tells us whatever she's found out, if anything, we'll know more.”
The room went quiet again so that they could hear Abner and PIP's disgruntled commentary. They heard mutterings about how the guy had to have software on his computers that erased the hard drive if someone hacked or tried to copy it or used the wrong password, in which case it would wipe the computer clean.
“Hey, maybe since we don't have access to the classified feeds, we could port in through a private virtual network,” Abner said. “Wanna give it a shot, PIP?”
“I already tried that. You watched me. You're burned out, and so am I. I give up. We're never going to catch this guy. He's way too smart for us.”
“That's it! I'm done!” The group looked up to see Abner getting up off his chair and throwing his hands in the air. “This is impossible! We can't do it! That guy has got to be an absolute genius.
“Listen to me and pay attention. This guy has malware that is so sophisticated, he could use it to dispense cash from ATMs without any physical contact with the machines themselves. Then he could have what the money guys call mules walk by, scoop it up, and that's the end of it. It's a new era in cyber crime. It's here whether you like it or not. I read about it, and so did PIP. It's called an APT attack, which stands for âadvanced persistent threat' attack. This is just like those Russians who hacked the one billion dollars from the banks. Hell, RC probably set up the malware for that caper. Wouldn't put it past him, either, and PIP agrees.
“We simply cannot hack in! No one except the guy that set it up can, and my money is on RC. I never thought I'd live to see this day. The guy has to have an army backing up what he's doing.”
Mary Alice, her eyes red and gritty, looked like she was ready to cry. “Abner's right. No matter what we do, we hit an invisible firewall. The guy is good. Actually, better than good. He's without equal. This is a waste of time. You need to give this up and find another way to get to him.”
“What would you suggest, Miss PIP?” Fergus said.
“Like I know! I thought you people knew what you were doing? Obviously, you don't, so how do you expect me to help you? Can I go home now?”
“Not yet,” Sparrow said.
Cyrus barked his agreement just as Maggie blew into the room, her eyes sparkling.
Knowing what was coming, Jack winked at Abner as he escorted him and PIP to the room adjacent to Charles's sitting room. “Keep an eye on her. Not that she can get out of here with Cyrus standing guard. Just be careful and don't trust her.”
“Like you know me well enough to make a statement like that,” Mary Alice snarled. “For all you know, I could have Houdini qualities.”
“I don't think I want to know you either,” Jack snarled back as he closed the door.
“Okay, okay, what'ya got, Maggie? How did it all go down?”
Maggie was in her glory. She smacked her hands together and sat down before she said, “Gather round, kiddies, and listen up. The ladies invited me out to Kitty's ranch tonight for a sleepover. A girl thing. You know, steaks on the grill, lots of wine, girl talk. Guy bashing, that kind of thing. The one named Kitty inherited this chicken ranch out in the desert. It supplies all the eggs that are consumed here in Vegas. She's rich. I think. We didn't get into that. She's a showgirl from Atlantic City. She came here when her favorite aunt passed away and left her the ranch. She said she works it. She also said she's giving up the showgirl gig because it's too hard on the body. I'm going.”
Charles's expression was one of alarm. “I don't know if that's wise, Maggie. I could see you going if you had backup, but going cold, that's another story altogether. We need to discuss this, young lady.”
“I'll be fine, Charles. I can handle myself. Besides, they bought my tale of woe, and they're ready to step up for the kill. I can feel it, sense it in every bone in my body. I also know who the ringleader is.” Maggie sat back and waited for comments, which came immediately.
“What? They announced themselves?”
“Are you guessing?”
“How do you know?”
“I know because I am a woman, and I pay attention. The ringleader is someone named Lena Adams. She's the oldest of the group. I'd put her at around thirty-five or so, way too old to be in a chorus line. She's been Botoxed into submission. The others have Botox, too, but not to the extent Lena has it. The other girls are midtwenties, with Kitty Passion being the youngest at twenty-three. She told me how old she was, so that's how I know. They asked me my age, and I said thirty-nine, and they looked at me like I had sprouted a second head. What that means to you is that Dixson Kelly only likes them young, and they couldn't figure out what he saw in
me
. And I am
not
showgirl material. No one mentioned Kelly's name except for me, and I pretended to let it slip in the restroom. When Hana went out to get the others, I'm sure she mentioned my slip of the tongue. The name never came up again, which I found very strange. I'm onto something. I feel it. I just don't know what it is.”
“Do you think you'll find out tonight?” Sparrow asked.
“Oh, yeah,” Maggie drawled. “Those women are out for blood. Look, they're all looking for love, as the song goes. Some want a sugar daddy. Others just want security. Dixson knows all that, and he played them all. But it's Lena who is leading the march here. That tells me she was hurt the most. That she truly did love him. Probably still does. But now she wants vengeance, and what better way than whatever it is they're planning? I do not have a clue what that is yet, but I know it will be the end of Kelly if they pull it off.”
“And you have no clue what that something might be?” Jack said.
“At the moment, no. When I get back here tomorrow morning, I expect I will have the answer.”
“Do you think that whatever it is, it has something to do with why we're here? Where's your gut or your reporter's instinct on that?” Sparrow asked.
“Right now, out in left field somewhere. If you absolutely need an answer right now, then I'd have to say yes and no.”
“Tell us your observations on the women,” Fergus said, pad and pen in hand so he could jot down notes.
“Like I said, Lena is Miss Botox herself. Also the oldest. Kitty, who likes to say meow a lot, is the youngest and, in my opinion, is awesomely beautiful. With the exception of Kitty, they are all surgically enhanced. Kitty is just plain perfect. A guy's wet dream, if I can be so crude.”
At the guys' puzzled looks, she said, “They all have boob jobs. Showgirls need big boobs. And long legs. These women have it going on. Oh, one other thing. None of them work here at Babylon. Lena did back in the day, but she left and didn't say why. She works at MGM now. She's their lead dancer.”
Maggie eyed the group and worried at their silence. “Okay, I had my say. So what did you guys learn while I was doing my gig?”
Charles grimaced. “Abner and Miss PIP have come up dry. Both of them are disgruntled, especially Miss PIP. They can't help us at the moment. Right now we are at a standstill. And mind me now, that fact alone is the only reason I am allowing you to go out to that ranch this evening. Just on the off chance that somehow, someway, you can tie the women into what Bert is worried about.”
Maggie nodded. “Any word from Ted and Dennis? How's that all going?”
Charles grinned. “Not well. Mr. Kelly is tired of being photographed and making nice to the customers. Today he was supposed to explain how they transport the casino's money to the bank. Armored cars, of course, but they have a foolproof system in play here. The nightmare of every casino owner is a robbery like in
Ocean's Eleven
. Remember that movie? Young Dennis was eagerly awaiting that particular part of the interview. Ted simply said he was goddamned tired of babysitting Dixson Kelly. End of story.”
“I know the feeling. The guy is a total bore. Or else he is one damn fine actor. Okay, people, I am off to get ready for my next adventure. You'll see me when you see me.”
“Maggie, wait. Are you presenting yourself as yourself, as Maggie Spritzer, star reporter for the
Post
? Or are you going in as someone else, you know, a fake name, a legend Charles created for you? What are you carrying with you, in case one of those women decides to go through your things?” Jack asked.
“I'm going as me. Easier that way, and I won't trip myself up. As Annie likes to say, this is not my first rodeo, guys. I'm not taking anything with me but my jammies and toothbrush. My ID, of course, but that's it. You're all suddenly looking like a bunch of mother hens. Relax. I know what I'm doing.”
“What about the special gold shield and the encrypted phone? You are leaving those behind, right?” Sparrow queried. Maggie gave him such a disgusted look, Sparrow blanched. “Just asking. You can never be too careful. Sometimes you think you did something, and that's it. You just thought you did, when, in reality, you didn't do it at all.”
Maggie showed the FBI director another disgusted look and left.
“Guess we know where that leaves you on Maggie's list,” Harry guffawed.
The room went suddenly quiet when the door opened to admit Snowden, his two operatives, and the three new people he'd requested. All three of the new operatives were women. Introductions were made; then everyone took a seat.
“I passed Maggie in the hallway. I'm sure she updated you all. I waited till all the women had left before I removed the bugs.” Snowden held out the little squares to Fergus.
Fergus then took them to the other room, where Abner and PIP were still snapping and snarling at one another. He handed them over. He wagged a finger under both their noses and said, “You two need to give this up already and work together. You're both acting like six-year-olds. Stop it right now!”
Cyrus barked his approval of the order as his ears went flat against his head, his eyes on PIP.
“He's right, Abner,” Mary Alice said wearily. “I'm too tired to keep fighting with you. I just plain old give up. I don't care what you do. I really don't. At least we now know neither one of us will ever be as smart as RC. See, that's why I don't care anymore. It was always my goal to be better than him. It ain't gonna happen. I know that now. Not now, not ever.” She swiped at her eyes with her shirtsleeve.
“That was your goal?” Abner said in stupefied amazement. “Really?”
“Really?” Mary Alice snapped. “Are you saying that wasn't
your
goal?”
“Hell no! My goal was and still is to never get caught.”
“RC always said you and I were the best. If the two of us can't crack him, then no one can. That doesn't say much for you, Tookus, or me, either. I never wanted to find that out, and you people pushed my face in it. Now I have nothing to strive for. Nothing!” she cried pitifully.
In spite of himself, Abner laughed. “Hey, PIP, you still have all those organic seeds you sell online. And you earn a living at it and file taxes like the rest of the world. That has to mean something.”
“Yeah, well, you tell me what it means, Tookus. It means squat to me now. Oh, I get it. My new goal should be trying to be better than you, right?” She laughed, an ugly sound that Cyrus did not like. He moved forward. Mary Alice leaned backward. “Listen, dog, I was just giving my opinion here. No harm, no foul. Be a good doggy and go back to sleep.”
Cyrus threw his head back and let loose with a howl that made the hair on the back of Abner's neck stand on end. Everyone knew Cyrus did not like to be referred to as
doggy
. Abner explained this in great detail to PIP out of the corner of his mouth.
“Okay, okay, I get it. Listen, Cyrus, I didn't know. It was a slip of the tongue. I apologize.”
Abner grinned as the big shepherd tilted his head to the side and stared at PIP, as though he was trying to decide if she was telling the truth. He made a snorting noise deep in his throat and went back on duty, sitting on his haunches as he eyeballed the female hacker.
“Abner, tell me the truth here. Why are we doing this? What did RC do that has the FBI onto him, as well as that martial arts expert? I mean, what the hell? We're hackers. You do it. I do it. We make money doing illegal hacking. Why aren't they after us? What makes RC so different from us? Come on. What did he do?”