[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

all gone out of focus for me. The parrot s laughter came from far away.
 I ll come as soon as I can, I said.
 Hey, he said,  how d you get down there?
 We ve got a corporate jet.
 Yeah, he said,  that s what I heard. You get your ass on it. I ll be picking
you up from Teterboro myself.
 Tonight.
Page 59
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
32
 WE RE FINE, Jessica said.
I ranted at her on the way back to our room, but it was like I wasn t talking.
She was all business, nodding her head and getting our things together,
telling me to call the pilots, check out, and get us a driver. When we pulled
up next to the hangar in Teterboro, Johnny G was standing there with his hands
jammed into the pockets of his brown leather jacket. Beside him in a
Windbreaker was a baggy-eyed man with slicked-back hair.
 That s Pete, Jessica said, peering over my shoulder and out the small
airplane window.
 Now he shows up, I said.  He didn t need a taco tonight. Look at that guy.
Jesus.
Pete fingered a bright red sore on his bottom lip. Johnny had his head tilted
back so that I could see the dark caves of his nostrils. I had no idea how
they got themselves out onto the tarmac, but when we descended the steps of
the plane, Johnny embraced me and patted my back as if we were brothers
reuniting for a family funeral. Pete stood back and played with his wound.
Neither of them even looked at Jessica.
 Look, I can handle this, I said.  It s not going to help things with you
guys around. I know him. It ll be a lot better if he doesn t see you.
 He knows us, Johnny said, shrugging.  We ll just give you a lift to the
site.
 I ve got a car.
 Just a lift, Johnny said, turning toward the terminal.  Moral support.
I told the pilots to wait and we followed Johnny. He and Pete had pulled up
their green Excursion into the covered drive just outside the terminal s
lobby. I thought about telling Jessica to stay, but kept my mouth shut. She
and I got in the back of Johnny s truck. By the time we got out to the site,
the sun was down, the sky s glow fading.
The skeleton of the mall stretched nearly a quarter mile end to end. It rose
up three stories and in the center there was a seven-story tower. Clusters of
bright lights on posts illuminated different areas where dozers and cement
mixers churned up the dust. A slew of rumbling portable generators drowned out
the crickets and poisoned the air with the stink of diesel.
 I thought it stopped, I said.
Johnny turned around in his seat and said,  For our guy it did. You see any
Con Trac steel?
By steel, he meant equipment, dozers, Caterpillars, and mixers. Pete pulled up
to the gates and a uniformed Pinkerton in a hard hat came out of a small shack
with a clipboard and a radio.
 I got Thane Coder from King Corp, Pete said, angling his head.
The guard peered past him. I moved my face into the light and waved.
 You got ID?
I handed up my license. The Pinkerton examined it, then called into his radio
before opening the gates. We pulled right up to the tower area where the work
was in full swing. Beams swung from cranes out of the dying light and into the
halogen glare. Mixers pumped concrete into the foundation. Most of the
equipment had green and white OBG emblems. My blood boiled.
I jumped out and grabbed a foreman.
 Where s Ben Evans? I asked.
The man pointed up, the top of the tower. There was a platform there among the
girders and I could make out three men poring over a makeshift table. There
was a simple cage elevator with big red and green operation buttons. I got in,
pushed the green, and lurched upward. The Excursion got smaller and smaller.
Everyone stayed inside, but I thought I could make out Johnny G s face looking
up through the windshield.
When the lift clanged to a stop, I unlatched the cage and stepped out into the
night air. From there I could see the string of lights on the George
Washington Bridge and, beyond that, the glow of New York City. Ben and two men
Page 60
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
in OBG hard hats were looking at plans, occasionally leaning over the
platform s railing to point at some detail of the work. I walked up to the
table and stood there, waiting for them to notice me.
The two OBG guys stopped first and looked back and forth between me and Ben
until he realized something had changed and he looked up from his plans.
 Thane.
 What s this?
 What?
I snatched the helmet off the head of the man closest to me and jabbed my
finger at the OBG emblem.
 This! I shouted.
He looked at the OBG guys and asked them to leave us alone for a minute. They
scrambled into the cage and hummed out of sight.
Ben took a deep breath and said,  They were stealing.
 Who? What?
 Con Trac had the union in here. There were two trucks full of fiber optic
cable and now there s just one. They cut the lock on the fence.
 It could have been anyone, I said.  You can t just throw a company like Con
Trac off a job like this. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]