Chapter 41
Contacts
Reluctantly letting go of Mathew and William, Luke stepped forwards and said, “we need to find out which video Rick has seen. Use all your contacts to check with the Bosses, but don’t let anyone know who has seen it; we don’t want to start an all out war. Mathew can you speak to Boss Leoni for us, I think he is more likely to tell you the truth.”
“I’ll do what ever I can to help.” Said Mathew.
With a heavy heart Luke said, “we all need to get back to work, we can cover for William having a day, but if the top of our entire organisation goes off it looks too suspicious.”
With a derisive laugh George said, “I can see your point Luke but that ship has sailed, its already gone 5.”
The tension in the room broke into laughter, at Luke’s and William's shocked looks as they stared at their watches; they had been snuggled in bed for half a day!
“I think Luke is right,” said James shyly, “so I know it’s going to be hard but I think we should throw a party.” His cheeks went red as everyone stared at him, “it would make it seem like we closed up shop for a positive reason not because, well you know...”
There was a murmur of agreement around the room.
William said, “little Dave you’re always good at thinking up reasons to make me drink, any ideas?”
With a cheeky grin that made everyone a little nervous, Little Dave said, “I have an idea but I don’t think Luke’s going to like it.”
There was another collective relieved sigh from all those except Luke, who said, “why won’t I like it?”
“I don’t even know why I always remember this date,” Little Dave said with a shrug, “but today is the anniversary of the day you found out what sex is. We could have a loss of innocence party?”
William clearly remembered the day he had explained to Luke about the birds and the bees, the rest of the men had sat around laughing and giving unhelpful and helpful tips.
Having grown up as little more than a weapon until William had freed him, Luke had no idea’s about the sweeter parts of life, or anything to do with love. It was two years after he gotten his freedom that William found out this part of his ‘education’ was missing, Luke had been 20 at the time.
To everyone’s surprise Luke laughed bashfully and said, “a loss of innocence party would be a good idea but it doesn’t explain why we took half a day.”
“It was 10 years ago today,” said William, “that’s a big anniversary.”
“It’s a shame the ladies are away at the convention.” Lamented George.
Barry patted George on the shoulder and said mockingly, “you just miss your wife, don’t worry she will be back next weekend.”
Mathew had been wondering about the lack of ladies and asked William, “what convention?”
“Its a women in business convention,” said William with a proud smile, “we have 2 businesses run by ladies, 4 sit on our board as directors, 1 architect and 1 structural engineer. They go to the convention every year because they say it’s important to encourage other ladies.”
There was a slightly odd tone in Mathew’s voice that William didn’t understand as he said, “you seem very proud of them.”
“I am, all of them were in the gang life and have become amazing ladies, they are an inspiration to us all.”
His ears going red Mathew asked casually, “anyone in particular?”
Totally missing the connotations, William thought diligently, “nope, they are all amazing,” with a conspiratorial smile he said, “but I will warn you now, George’s wife is terrifying!”
Confusing William even more, Mathew relaxed his arms round his waist a little.
Noticing Mathew’s red ears William’s heart jumped as he asked himself, ‘what just happened?’
Drawing William's attention back, George said, “Ok so we will have the bar ready for a party at 7, everyone find out everything you can by then and do your best to cheer up. Mary said she will be free at about 5:30, so if you can, go see her. Everyone know what they are doing?”
There was a general murmur of agreement around the room and people began to get up to go, but everyone stopped as Garry said, “I think I might have found something.”
Every heart stopped for a moment and everyone dropped back to the floor where they were.
“I looked into Rick’s computer systems, his security is good, but not that good. Someone sent him a huge amount of data, but I can’t find out who. They are good, really good, hmmm I’ll keep looking.”
“OK change of plans,” Luke said quickly, “only talk to someone you are 100% sure of. Mathew you’ve already tipped Boss Leoni, please ring him for us and he might be able to give us a heads up. I think someone might be using Rick to get at either us or the Bosses.”
Everyone tensed, and Mathew asked, “What do you mean?”
“Rick is a hot headed fool, everyone knows it. If he releases the video it would destabilise every gang, if a person was ready for that they could capitalise and take the lot.”
Barry said, “why wouldn’t they release the video themselves?”
“Because who ever releases it will be taken out for sure. There is a reason it is a MAD system, only a lunatic would use it.”
