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“Hey, Carmen,” Sheila said, somewhat startled by Carmen’s appearance in her space.
“I just want to say thank you for putting that information together for me.”
“You’re welcome.”
“And so fast.” Carmen paused and leaned forward. “But then I remembered you mentioning something about you and some friends hacking the NSA database one weekend on a dare.”
Sheila’s eyes bugged open. “I told you that?”
They had been covering a big, breaking news story, everybody went out for drinks and Sheila was talking and trying to drink with Carmen. “Yeah, I guess I did.”
“I need a favor.”
“What you need, Carmen?” said a slightly embarrassed Sheila.
“I need to know where I can find Milton Petty. I need to talk to him.” Carmen said.
“I have access to both his business and social calendars. Which one would you like to see?”
“E-mail them both to me and copy Louis, Dan and Lacara.” Carmen stood up. “And, don’t worry, Sheila, your secret is safe with me.”
When Carmen returned to her office and opened the email, she saw that Milton was scheduled to attend a party that evening.
“That’s perfect.” was Carmen’s first thought.
The relaxed atmosphere and looser security would be enough for her to walk right up to Petty she thought when she saw that the party was for a Marietta Dynamics executive.
“Not perfect.”
Carmen had recently done a story on Marietta Dynamics, which forced them to have to pay nearly six million in criminal penalties and forfeitures for illegally receiving forty million dollars in government contracts, so she was on their shit list.
“There is no way I’m getting invited. But I may know somebody who can get me in there.”
Carmen took out her phone and called Jada. Once she explained what she needed, Jada promised to call back. Carmen started to get on Jada about Kamau being her bodyguard that night, but knew it would keep until a more appropriate time.
It was an hour later when Jada called back to let Carmen know that she was on the guest list.
“Thank you, Jada. How did you manage that?”
“Simple. You’ll be my unnamed guest.”
Chapter Twenty-five
The sun was setting over the New York City skyline when Rain, along with Carter, Jackie and Baby Chris arrived at Truckload Freight Transportation. After seeing the truck driven by their attackers with the company logo on it, they had to come check it out.
Carter told Rain that he and Jackie could handle it, but Rain insisted that she was going. She had the day to rest and Rain told them that she felt a lot better. But the truth was something different. Her leg was still hurting; there were times when her arm felt like it weighed a ton when she tried to move it and her chest hurt from the cracked rib she had. But Rain felt that she had to be there.
“Somebody is fuckin’ with me. Tryin’ to kill me, kill all of us. You didn’t really think I was gonna sit up in bed and wait for you to come back, did you?” she asked Carter.
“Not really, but I was hoping,” he said, wishing that Glenda had been able to talk Rain out of this. The best Glenda could do was give Rain something for the pain and beg her please to try and take it easy.
When Baby Chris parked, Rain got out with everybody else and started toward the building slowly. Carter glanced over his shoulder and stopped.
“Why don’t you go check it out, Chris,” Carter said, and looked at Rain.
“Jackie, you go with him,” Rain said, and they started toward the gate.
When they were far enough away, Rain turned to Carter.