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"What you got?"
"Safe."
"Where?" I asked, joining her in the bedroom.
"In the closet under this box. Guess you missed this, huh, Nick?" Monika started digging in her bag for something.
"What are you looking for?"
"What do you think I’m lookin’ for? Something to get this safe open."
"Jett, come open this safe, before she slaps some C-4 on it."
"Na, C-4 would be too messy for a small safe," Jett said, while he wrote a program to decrypt the file.
Monika gave us the customary rolling of her eyes and attached a small device to the safe. "Bet I have this safe open before you get the password."
"You’re on," Jett yelled.
"Beat ya. Ha, ha."
"That wasn’t fair."
"Fair? What you white folks know about fair?" Monika asked.
They were fun to work with. Although Jett thinks Monika is mean, overbearing at times, and has a tendency to be a pain in the ass. And she holds Jett personally responsible for the sins of the white man; they would do anything for each other. That’s why we’re alive today. On our final mission, Monika fell on approach to the objective. Her ankle was broken and she couldn’t continue. She wanted us to leave her, but Jett refused. While the three of us had a philosophical debate over the need to follow orders and proceed to the objective, the objective blew up. Jett got on the radio and tried in vain to raise any member of our unit. They were all dead. Jett’s loyalty to Monika saved our lives.
Monika handed me some papers from the safe to go through while she examined the rest of the contents. She opened a box that had a large envelope in it. It contained pictures and three videotapes. "Hey, Nick."
"Yeah."
"Who’s that in the picture?" she asked, pointing at the picture next to the bed.
"I guess that’s his girlfriend, Lisa Ellison."
"Then who is this?"
Monika handed me the pictures. "Damn. When Mrs. Childers said he was anal, I didn’t think this is what she was talkin’ about."
Monika laughed. "Looks pretty anal to me."
All of the pictures were of Jake having sex with the mystery woman. In an interesting variety of positions. "I’m willin’ to bet these tapes are more of the same."
"Got it!" Jett yelled.
I took one of the less intense pictures of Jake and the woman, and joined Jett at the computer. "What’s in those files, Jett?"
"You did say this guy was a chemist. Formulas, looks like. And each doc. file has a corresponding spreadsheet. I’ll make a copy and show it to a chemist Monika knows."
"You done, Monika?"
"Just about. I need to take pictures of some of these papers. They look like formulas too. If we can find out what he was working on, maybe we can find out what happened to him."
"Very good. Nancy fuckin’ Drew here."
"Fuck you, Jett."
"Two things prevent that," Jett said, as we left the apartment and headed for the car. "Good taste, being one of them."