THE DOLL: Part 9

I arranged a meeting at six P.M. at a café two blocks away from the Crawford corporate buildings. Moore looked nervous, more than usual, when he came in. He held his briefcase close against his side and slid into the bench across from me at our booth. I’d come ten minutes earlier and was already working on my second cup of coffee. I’d also ordered a scone but hadn’t started on it yet.

“Is he safe?”

“Of course he is,” I said. “What did Crawford install in him?”

He looked around nervously and caught the eye of the waitress, who came to him. He asked for a cup of tea and she left to fetch it for him.

“If Kai leaves the facility for more than ten days, his system will shut down and he will be irrecoverable.”

“I thought Crawford couldn’t stand losing him.”

“He couldn’t. Kai’s data is very valuable. However, if he’s in the wrong hands, he’d lose him anyway. He figured he might fall into the hands of the government, if he was taken for so long. Lose one precious Doll or the entire company and the Doll.”

The waitress returned with the tea and left to greet three men with long dark coats who had taken an empty booth near the doorway.

“Is there a way to reverse this?”

“He has to return to the facility to reset.”

“By reset you mean the ten day window re-starts if he should leave again.”

He nodded.

“His shelf life is only ten days out of the box?”

“I’m afraid so.”

His hands were shaking as he picked up the tea cup and drank it. The ceramic cup clanked noisily when he set it back on the saucer.

“Are you suggesting I return him?”

For a moment, Moore said nothing. He stared down at the cup and his frown deepened. “I don’t want him to die,” he said. “He’s like my child.”

“Would you want your child to live that kind of existence?”

He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “I don’t want him to die,” he said again. He kept his head low. I didn’t realize he was crying until his shoulders shook.

“You’re selfish,” I said. “Just as selfish as Crawford is.”

“I am nothing like him!” he said, a little too loudly. His eyes were brimming with tears. “I want to protect him!”

“Protect him from what?” I took the pen from my pocket and wrote on the napkin.

You wired?

And shoved the napkin toward Moore. He froze when he read it and nodded.

“Death.”

“And I ask you again, what kind of life are you giving him in exchange?”

I wrote another sentence below the first.

The three men by the doors are from the company.

He nodded again, after reading it. He wiped at his eyes with his shirt sleeve.

“If he’s alive, there’s a chance for change. There’s no chance at all if he dies.”

“Will you trust me?”

He looked conflicted, as he searched for an answer. Then he gave the slightest nod.

“Excuse me for a couple of minutes.  Coffee just goes right through me,” I said and got up.

I went toward the sign that said ‘Restroom’, passed it and went into the kitchen. Employees in aprons with pans full of fresh baked goods looked at me. I pressed an index finger to my mouth and walked toward the exit that was half open.

I had left my car in the parking garage a block away but I had to take a longer route to it so the three men by the door would not see me. However, by the time I’d neared the garage, I’d concluded that there probably was someone ready to tail me. They knew the make and plate of my car. I ditched my ride and flagged down a cab.

I asked to be let off a block away from my place. There were three Mercedes parked out front bearing Crawford corporate symbol on the plate frames. They might have arrived shortly before I did and perhaps found the place through my tax records. It was to be expected that Crawford would have connections to find every single scrap of known information about me within hours.

I lit up a cigarette and waited. I was on my third when four men in similar long coats came out. One of them was on a cell phone. After the call finished, the four men descended the stairs and left in two cars. I dropped the cigarette and rubbed it out with the toe of my shoe. I drew my gun from its shoulder holster and went to my apartment.

The door was unlocked. I took out my cell, dialed my home phone and heard it ring. A moment later, footsteps hurried toward it. As soon as the phone was answered, I slammed the door open and pointed the gun toward where I knew the intruder would be.

“You assholes get the same coats issued to you as required items or what?” I asked and shut the door behind me.

“What?” he answered, one hand up and the other still holding the phone.

“Anyone else here?”

He shook his head.

“Where’s your piece?”

“On my hip, to the left,” he said. He had a heavy New England accent.

“Drop the phone and with just your fingers and your left hand, get it and put it on the table.”

He did so, slowly and with his hand shaking. The silver snub-nose revolver probably gouged my table when he dropped it.

“You got cuffs?” I asked him.

“Y...yeah?”

“Let’s see them,” I said.

He took them out of the cuff pouch he had at the small of his back. I asked him to cuff one end to his wrist and the other to the refrigerator door. I pocketed his gun and did a walk-through of the apartment, then came back to him.

“Where did your buddies go?”

“Dunno,” he said. “Was just gonna drive around and look.”

“And you’re here, waiting for me to come back.”

“Yeah.”

“With your corporate cars parked out front where I would see them.”

He shrugged. “There ain’t no good parking around here.”

“I hope the rest of your lot are as bright as you are,” I said.

Then I heard the heavy sounds of footsteps stumping up the stairs. His colleagues had returned.

“Car key,” I said.

He reached into his pocket and fished it out, then tossed it over to me. I left the apartment through the fire escape outside the master bedroom. I was downstairs when the front door of my apartment was flung open and all of them came out. I ducked into the Mercedes and put a couple of bullets into the tires of the two cars parked behind me before I floored the gas and left. I watched the men in the rearview mirror wave their guns at me but no one fired. My gunshots might possibly have sent someone to call 911 already.

“Mr. Lynch!” Tom exclaimed when I came in. Both of his hired helpers were assisting customers fitting the Armanis.

“I can’t stay. Can you get him?”

“Of course!”

He disappeared through the door that was marked “Staff Only” and emerged a moment later with Kai.

“Come,” I said and Kai did. He held onto my arm as he said good-bye to Tom and the two clerks. We were on the road and on the expressway within minutes.

“Where are we going?”

“Somewhere else,” I said.

He took my right hand and held it on his lap. For a long time, neither of us spoke. Then Moore rang my cell phone.

“Are you both safe?” he asked.

“As safe as we can get for now.”

“They realized you were gone ten minutes after you took off.”

“About what you told me, was it true?”

“I really don’t know. That was what he told me.”

“How did Crawford know that I might have made contact with you?”

“While I was away with you, Oshihara called my house. My wife said I left with someone she didn’t know...,” he paused. “Perhaps that was enough for him to report it to Mr. Crawford. And Mr. Crawford questioned me at length the next morning and told me about the hidden fail-safe.”

“It might have been a lie to get you to reveal what you know.”

“Maybe.”

“And it worked.”

“When Mr. Crawford mentioned the welfare of my family, it worked.”

“I see.”

“What will you do?”

“He won’t be returned to the facilities.”

There was a stretch of silence on the other end. I pictured him crying again, the way he’d hunched over and sobbed quietly in the café. I said nothing, allowing the long pause. When he spoke again, his voice was softer.

“Please take care of him,” he said. Then he hung up. I pocketed the phone and pressed my hand over Kai’s.

“That was Dr. Moore,” I said.

His eyes lit up.

“He sends his love to you,” I said.

He smiled. I squeezed his hand.

“There are many people who love you,” I said.

He held my hand up to his cheek.

“I love only you." 

“I know you do.”

CHAPTER 10

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