WHOOOOOOOSH

Space churned…

Zaire flashed into existence, bending his knees on instinct even though he was fairly confident he had accounted for the terrain beforehand.

The terrain was rocky, deserted, and extremely hot.

He scooped up a handful of the golden, fine sand… it burned through his fingers as it returned to the desert, but it was a sign of life.

Nodding his head, Zaire disappeared in another churn of space and a couple of seconds later, he reappeared in the comfort of a Jeep Wrangler.

The engine of the vehicle roared, the air conditioning came alive, and The Jumper drove to his next destination.

‘I never get a day of rest…’ He internally complained.

……

Zaire parked his Jeep a couple of miles away from the meeting location… he ensured he parked just outside the sensors that would perceive him as a possible threat.

He knew Bugg had already seen him coming so Zaire didn’t dare to Jump the rest of the way.

Bugg could be considered an ally but beneath all the brilliance was a Computer Scientist, and Zaire knew for a fact that all scientists would be eager to know how a Jumper worked.

‘Still the best partner…’ The Jumper reasoned.

The warehouse was surrounded by sparse bushes, thick tires, drums filled with leftover oils, and carcasses of rodents Coyotes had dragged from near the dirt roads.

‘Hopefully, the coyotes will not return anytime soon.’ He pondered.

Zaire took a deep breath of air, almost choking on the decay and lifelessness native to areas bordered by wide deserts… still, the breath reminded him of tougher times – times he would not soon forget.

After all, before Reston, his life had been remarkably different and deserts were often where he found the greatest comforts… the government didn’t usually send their drones out this far.

He entered the warehouse, making his way up the creaking stair frame – the actual stairs had long rotted or fallen off the frame so Zaire had to choose his steps carefully.

A couple of knobs were hidden in the less conspicuous areas of the warehouse, no doubt data destruction mechanisms of some kind.

Zaire was comforted…

If there was someone able to rival him in paranoia, it would be Bugg… then again, the long-faced, mad-hatter-looking man was constantly being monitored by The NSA and CIA.

‘He has reason to worry…’ Zaire chuckled, noting that The NSA and CIA were not performing their jobs adequately if Bugg still had the time to meet with him.

‘My targets wouldn’t have been able to pull this shit!’ The Former Intelligence Analyst tooted with pride.

“You’re here…” Bugg announced, widening his arms for the hug he knew would not come.

Zaire simply stared at the man… he made sure the distance between himself and Bugg was considerable.

While Bugg didn’t strike him as bi-sexual, the man was much too affectionate for Zaire’s comfort… he was the type you kept at a distance because he was likely to die very quickly.

“Did you bring my stuff?”

“Yeah, everything is here,” Bugg slipped into the back of the RV he took everywhere. Then came the sound of ruffling, groaning, and clattering metals. “—here we go,” He voiced, tossing a duffle bag through the door. “Everything is right there.”

Zaire snatched the duffle bag off the ground, perusing the contents for the next five minutes as Bugg struggled to extricate himself from the chaos that was his RV.

Three guns – a Glock 17, a P226, and an FN Scar Battle Rifle… each gun came with a FOID card and a concealed carry permit.

There was an array of passports ranging from African to Canadian to American, and though all of the names on the passport were left blank, Zaire noted that he could switch the smart chip from one passport to the next to acquire a new nationality and identity.

At the bottom of the duffle bag was a smart watch similar to the one Zaire currently wore on his wrist… with quick movements, The Jumper smashed his current watch beneath his feet and slipped on the new smartwatch around his wrist.

The Smart Watch may have looked ordinary but nothing Bugg sold could be considered standard.

“Poison detection, Heart rate monitor, quantum dot display, a comprehensive live map using the NSA network, and a quick burn link sequence,” Bugg bragged, raising a phone in his hand and taping the side of Zaire’s watch.

The phone’s screen shifted blue for a second before it stabilized and reflected what was on the watch’s screen.

“This baby can take over anything with an outgoing connection,” Bugg explained. “Has to be within three meters of you and the program only works through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth but essentially, you’ll never lose the information on your watch.”

“I don’t like my information on the cloud, even temporarily,” Zaire frowned, already imagining what a headache that could be.

“That’s the beauty about it,” Bugg quickly intervened. “That Watch doesn’t upload to the cloud or any network. It simply Jumps from one electronic medium to another one.”

Zaire examined the watch for a couple of seconds, probing its features to see if he could find anything amiss – there was none and he knew it.

Still, it pays to be cautious, especially when talking to someone smarter than yourself.

“Got anything else for me?”

Bugg stepped aside, hurriedly sliding the back door of his RV open. “Tell me what you like and I will tell you what it does…” He insisted.

Zaire stared at the mess of wires, screens, and speakers and had the urge to roll his eyes and beat the shit out of Bugg, but then he noticed something. “Is that the prototype quad-chip Intel lost five weeks ago?” He was appalled.

“Yeah, got that one from Fred,” Bugg chirped. “—he thought it was damaged but Intel put the real chip in the casing of a large chip so I got a million-dollar research project for fifty dollars.”

“Fred is an idiot…” Zaire cursed, but he didn’t dare touch the chip. ‘There is definitely a Bugg on there for Bugg to deal with…’ He internally joked.

The Jumper spent some time rolling through his options, eventually stopping on a set of micro-cameras and ten small chips.

“Good choice,” Bugg commented. “A portable network, self-linking cameras, and ten trackers,” He took a deep breath and pretended to count his fingers for a couple of seconds. “—that’s about a hundred k’s, or –”

Zaire frowned. “Spit it out,” He urged. “What do you want?”

“Well…” Bugg spoke with measured words, gauging every bit of tell he had witnessed since first meeting Zaire. “—tell me something…” He shifted the topic, posting a leading question instead. “What do you think of me, Zaire?”

Zaire met Bugg’s eyes with utmost solemnity. “You are an honest man, albeit very naïve,” He commented, stating exactly what his mind demanded of him. “You blame your government for keeping secrets from the public but even a wife will not tell her husband about the child she aborted when she was sixteen years old… and they live happily regardless.”

“Then, if I ask you to help someone?”

“Depends on the type of help…” Zaire responded curtly. “And if their situation is one of their own making.”

Bugg seemingly slouched at the second part of the statement. “Never mind.”

Zaire sighed and decided to compromise if only to avoid paying Bugg a tiny fortune. “Okay, how about this? I will check on whoever you want me to, and if I find it a threat to myself, I will do something about it.”

Bugg extended a hand. “All I can ask for…” The man smiled and proceeded to tell Zaire about the teenager in question. “His name was Ian – my nephew. He got involved in this game and next thing I knew, he was digitally dead.”

“Digitally dead?” Zaire snorted. “Are you sure you weren’t the one to kill him? Unless The CIA or NSA snatched him up to threaten you? No unlike them but not for a low-level tech dealer like you.”

Bugg shook his head, trying not to take offense at being called low-level. “It wasn’t my fault. And it’s not the CIA or NSA – they disappear you thoroughly. This one only touches the digital realm…”

“Everything is digital with today’s kids,” Zaire voiced, stuffing his items into a nearby duffle bag. “I will look into it at my own time. If you want me to move faster, find me a satellite with triple-layer, 450-character encryption.”

Bugg groaned – Zaire was basically asking him to sell his body to all the tech billionaires in the world to gain such access.

Some more sentences were exchanged before Zaire grabbed his duffle bag and departed the warehouse, hopping into his Jeep a couple of miles away and…

WHOOOOOOSH

………………

Several hours later…

Zaire parked the Jeep outside what would become his new home – a small wooden house nestled amidst large trees with a small stream running through the backyard.

The Jumper proceeded to unload furniture and other necessities, situating everything in the home according to the recommendations of a very excited realtor who had emailed him.

‘Thankfully, the insurance payout is paying for everything.’

The gabled roof matched Zaire’s favorability toward traditional designs, and the chimney rising through the roof made the place seem infinitely cozy.

Zaire paused and admired all that he had accomplished.

A covered porch with sturdy wooden pillars…

Small windows with lace curtains…

Flowers beneath some of the windows, add a bit of color to the dark, wooden exterior…

The layout of the house was similar to his cottage, only slightly larger and definitely homier with all the necessities taken care of.

Compared to his current home, the cottage could be considered barebones.

Next, Zaire proceeded to drill holes in the walls and roof corners, sliding small cameras to occupy the empty spaces… there was no mud to track the footprint so video footage would have to do.

Thankfully, Bugg had given him an entire network of self-sufficient cameras… as soon as the cameras were connected to Wi-Fi, Zaire would be able to glimpse everything from his phone.

One pistol was placed inside the wall…

The other pistol went beneath the bed…

And the battle rifle went beneath the floorboards in the dining room…

Zaire wanted an option for each section of the house, and of course, he intended to get a couple more pistols for the bathroom and basement.

The bathroom was the most likely area to encounter an ambush – people tended to feel exposed when naked… not that Zaire had similar troubles.

The Jumper performed a final check using his Smart Watch, flicking through the cameras, the pressure sensors, and the general security system of the house.

“I am still missing smoke detectors,” Zaire cursed.

But when he thought about Patty’s and Brenda’s situation, The Jumper thought that any flames would lead to an explosion anyway so smoke detectors didn’t matter.

Zaire clicked on the message function of his Smart Watch, wondering when, or if, Henry would text him… a simple message would mean that he was forgiven.

The lack of any messages meant he was not.

“Maybe that friendship is burned,” The Jumper voiced but he was unwilling to give up on Henrietta… mostly because the girl was likely to die without his intervention.

“With Nazis jumping around…” he groaned. “But, there is one more thing I can try…”

Zaire slipped into his bedroom, fluffed the pillows, and quickly tapped into the camera hidden in the wall – he waved his hands a couple of times, and the video was reflected on his smartwatch.

Everything was clean.

The Jumper exited his new home, slipping into his equally new Jeep and departing on a mission that would earn him Henry’s forgiveness.

As for the methods he would employ – that was anyone’s guess.

………………

When Zaire showed up in the hospital’s parking lot, five hours had passed and stars were twinkling in the night skies.

The Jumper slipped out of his Jeep with two bouquets of flowers, roses for Patty since she was a trendy person, and tulips for Brenda to convince the girl, however small, that they were still an item.

That way, she would think twice before snitching on him… not that anyone would believe them if they said he showed up in the explosion and somehow managed to get them outside.

‘Though if they say I showed up before the explosion, I would be fucked…’ He noted.

But the mere fact that nobody had come to check on him yet meant Brenda and Patty were not saying much of anything, or at the very least, they were too concussed for anyone to believe the nonsense they were spouting.

As Zaire made his way up the stairs and through the back door of the hospital, he chuckled at the story Sherriff Dale had invented… and the old man probably hadn’t invented the story alone.

‘I like corrupt cops in small towns…’ Zaire mused.

In truth, Sheriff Dale hadn’t bothered to investigate much of anything… as soon as he understood that Patty and Brenda had shown up at Zaire’s house with flame accelerators, he put two-and-two together.

He was more than happy to cover up the incident after that – The Sheriff’s ideal outcome was to blame everything on Zaire and claim the teenager had illegal firecrackers in his home, but Zaire had contacted a big lawyer – John – before the story could be set in stone.

That protected Zaire from any retaliation outside of the truth and Sheriff Dale knew that the truth of the matter was not something he could rely on… even if a legit investigation determined it was Zaire’s fault, Sheriff Dale was corrupt enough that any word out of his mouth would be suspect.

After all, an honest man could be an honest man, but a lying man had to lie to his last breath, even if the objective of the lie was to tell the truth.

Hence, true to his nature, Sherriff Dale went to Dr. Ming – Patty’s father – and asked for a minor bribe and the developing story shifted to its final draft.

Zaire played with the hearts of young maidens (truth) – he is a scum. Zaire left down which can be blatantly seen on the CCTV camera outside of Mel’s gas station (lie).

Patty and Brenda, distressed from a hard day at school, went to visit their friend who they believed to be sick at home (bullshit). There, they detected smoke in the air and rushed inside to check on the well-being of their friend (more bullshit).

They arrived inside the cottage, noted the flames, and quickly made to depart. Alas, a hidden cache of firecrackers – left by the previous owner of the cottage, Ned – ignited and caused minor injuries to the two young women (potent bullshit).

No party is at fault for the incident.

The elevator stopped on the fourth floor and Zaire peeked outside, trying to determine if there was any conflict waiting for him ahead.

Sheriff Dale may have bullshitted the investigation but Dr. Ming and his wife were likely to know the truth and Zaire couldn’t disregard the possibility that Patty had told them something semi-believable.

As for Brenda’s situation, he wasn’t particularly worried… her father was absent and her mother was an avid gambler and even if they were caring enough to visit, Brenda – herself – was a drug dealer for Lucas Boone…

Zaire chuckled – he had a thousand ways to make Brenda’s testimony invalid… not that he would have to because at the end of the day…

‘I am a concerned boyfriend visiting my girlfriend… no, fiancé! Go for broke! She knows too much. Killing is a last option.’

…

Zaire greeted a couple of the doctors as he made his way to Brenda’s room… he had long since figured that Patty would be where Dr. Mindy could keep an eye on her – that meant one of the VIP rooms.

As for Brenda…

“Where is my money, Brenda?”

“How should I fucking know!” She yelled back. “I gave you the money. I don’t know what happened to it after that.”

“Did anyone know where we met?”

“N…” She hesitated, then quickly corrected herself. “NO! Definitely not!”

“Don’t fuck with me, Brenda!” Lucas grabbed her wrist.

“Ow! Lucas—” She panicked. “You’re hurting me.”

“Listen and listen fucking good—”

The door creaked open, revealing Zaire leaning against the frame with a thoughtful smile on his face… but nobody would be fooled by such a calm smile in such a strange situation.

“I am listening…” He voiced, causing Brenda and Lucas to freeze. “—and Brenda always tells me that I am a good listener…”

Brenda’s breathing hitched for a couple of seconds before she managed to tightly control it, but such obviousness could not escape Zaire’s trained eyes.

“You should mind your own business!” Lucas growled, releasing Brenda and marching to meet Zaire. “This is a conversation between me and her…”

“She is my business,” Zaire sighed.

Lucas and Zaire stared into each other’s eyes and just from the height difference and athleticism, it was obvious who was more likely to walk away from the encounter.

“Don’t think you’re hot shit, Zaire…”

“OH, little Lucas…” Zaire’s tone was condescending but his mind circled endlessly through solutions and consequences to those solutions. “It’s best you leave before I notify security…” He voiced.

If Lucas didn’t feel like hot shit before, he definitely did after Zaire was forced to take a step back and consider the bigger picture.

“My money, Brenda!” Lucas growled, making his way to the door… near the door, he paused for a moment, his eyes flickering between Brenda and Zaire before he departed.

Zaire waited a couple of seconds, eyeing Brenda from head to toe… she was worse for wear but completely intact otherwise.

Her breathing was a rough haze of a façade calmness… it didn’t take The Jumper long to figure out that he was the thing making her nervous, and hence, she remembered the incident at the cottage in its entirety.

“Two days…” She voiced. “It took you two days to come and see me. Honestly, I thought it’d take you two hours instead.”

“Not going to pretend?” Zaire quirked a brow.

“What need is there?” Brenda awkwardly chuckled. “A lot of things started to make sense after I looked at them from impossible lenses… for example, you took Lucas’s money, didn’t you?”

Zaire slowly nodded, gesturing to the camera in the upper left corner. “You do know that camera isn’t working, right?” He had made sure of that before entering the room.

The silence was her reply.

“Patty?”

“Remembers nothing…” Brenda hurriedly voiced. “I know that doesn’t sound true, but it is. I don’t even know what I know because it’s so…”

“Impossible?” He mentioned, crabbing the clipboard next to her bed. “Yeah, I know how that goes.”

“A left ankle sprain, contusion on both legs, minor abrasions, minor burns on your palm, a mild concussion, a dislocated shoulder, and whiplash…” He voiced, matching the injuries to Brenda’s figure in front of him. “Other than the fact your shoulder is gonna feel tender for a couple of days, you got out relatively fine.”

Left unsaid was the fact that Zaire was hoping her injuries were slightly more complicated, at least some minor internal bleeding… that way, he could make an accident happen with little suspicion.

“Thanks to you,” Brenda’s chuckle was strained and withholding insanity. “We went there to burn your clothes and we exploded your house… and somehow, I don’t think whatever was under your bed belonged to the previous owner.”

Zaire neither confirmed nor denied anything… an old habit from his time in The CIA.

“What happens now?” Brenda questioned, her tone was one of defeat. “Do I have to say goodbye to my family or?”

Zaire wore his best confused expression. “What do you mean?” He chuckled. “What happens now is… you get to forget everything you think you know.”

He had given it a deep thought before arriving at the hospital… there were several options available to The Jumper.

There was a way to discredit Brenda and Patty to the point that they would inevitably end up in the insane asylum, or at the very least, never seek to speak about the taboo of Zaire ever again.

There was the possibility of dropping their bodies off where they would never be found… sure, a bit drastic and suspicious but… innocent until proven guilty, right? And who could claim guilt with no evidence?

There was the option of bringing Patty and Brenda into the fold but they were teenage girls who had yet to develop an identity separate from all the natural gifts of their privileged upbringing.

Even Brenda, as fucked up as her home situation was, could never touch the amount of misery and heartache Zaire, and most other Jumpers had experienced in their lifetimes.

But for all these options, Zaire had failed to account for one thing… and right now, it was a sort of happy coincidence if it turned out to be factual.

Patty… Patty Yang… child of a successful medical professional and a Yoga guru mother, moderately well off, and highly likely to get accepted into a second-rate IVY League school like Duke University.

That was a girl Zaire could not control… but…

Brenda Gasser – the child of a decent, mildly alcoholic, mostly absent father, a gambling mother, and very likely an attachment disorder due to failed relationships.

‘That is a girl I can control indefinitely…’ Zaire mused.

And as if to support his decision, The Jumper thought about Kimberly, the rehab center he dropped Brian Finch into, the mines in Africa he left unattended, the investments with John he had yet to take a look at, and most of all, the Jump locations he had left unmonitored for too long.

‘Brenda could take on some of those burdens… and better yet, I would get to keep her close…’

Though he would never openly admit it, Brenda had found a special place in Zaire’s heart… she was neither too important nor completely expendable – that meant she hit a sweet spot The Jumper didn’t know he had.

“Lucas has been hounding me,” Brenda suddenly voiced, interrupting Zaire’s thought. “He threatened my family,” She was, of course, testing the waters.

“What are you willing to give?” Zaire’s eyes narrowed.

Brenda was surprising him and it made him uncomfortable since it meant she could tell from his expressions – or lack thereof – that he had decided in her favor.

Now, she was negotiating for her services.

“I love you… and you may not love me but I know you care about me,” She carefully mentioned.

‘Don’t get ahead of yourself…’ Zaire’s mind snorted, but he smiled regardless. “Yeah.”

“Then, you should take care of me… we become friends and when it’s time to leave, I want to leave with no issues.”

“Done…” Zaire shrugged.

It was a simple matter, especially since there was no leaving… at least, not without becoming so unimportant that she was no longer a threat or being buried so deep nobody would ever find the body.

“I’ll be checking on Patty…” Zaire rose from his seat, already flicking his smartwatch to hack into the cameras in Patty’s room on the floor above. “I will text you. When are you getting discharged?”

“Tomorrow…”

“Then, I’ll send you a list of some things I need to get done,” He dismissively replied, slipping out of the door. “think of it as an audition.”

…

Next, The Jumper ventured down the hall and into Patty’s room, and to his delight, the first thing the girl did upon seeing him was hop into his arms.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” She drawled.

Zaire took an instant to notice the potent mix of whiskey and pain relievers on Patty’s breath. ‘How did she get whiskey in the hospital?’ He pondered.

The Jumper examined the room, noting the half-empty water bottle on the bedside table… something told Zaire it wasn’t occupied by water.

“Okay, let’s put you down on the bed…” Zaire scooped Patty into his arms, placing her back in the bed while trying to ignore the body that was only partially covered by the hospital gown. “And please don’t tell your father I was here…”

“I burned down your house,” Patty giggled and added. “Brenda and I… we lit your shit up! I even burned that brown shirt you like.”

“Thanks, the insurance payout was satisfactory,” he joked.

“And… and,” Patty grew more and more excited as she slid her gown up to display a tattoo on her leg. “When we fucked, I was hoping you’d notice it… see, I got this tattoo to surprise you.”

The Jumper stared at the tattoo, turned back to meet Patty’s eyes, and stared at the tattoo once more.

‘I AM A FUCKING IDIOT!’

Zaire’s hand moved with the precision of a snake’s strike, knocking Patty out before she could manage to blink… he knew she would remember nothing but it still irked him to no end.

He gently laid the girl on the bed, making it look as if she had drifted into a soft sleep instead of being knocked out by someone almost twice her size.

The tattoo on her leg was his primary concern.

Zaire examined the tattoo and frowned when he confirmed it was indeed the coordinates to that place… such a place was one of The Jumper’s absolutely safe Jump locations, though whether that place could be considered safe was another topic entirely.

‘I have to get it removed…’ He decided and began to tap away at his Smart Watch until a specific contact was pulled up. Zaire started the call. “I need you to remove a tattoo from someone.”

[Bring her here… I’m closing up the place.]

“Bet…”

Zaire threw Patty over his shoulder – his demeanor was no longer that of a teenager, but a hardened CIA operative with questionable morals.

Then… The Jumper tilted his body forward as if he was about to fall over and broke into a sprint…

WHOOOOOOSH

Space churned and Zaire was instantly running down the impressive Inca Fortress known as Sacsayhuaman in Cusco, Peru… and of course, it was at that point that Patty started to stir awake.

“This is going to be a long day…”