revenue. The club seemed to handle most of the actual bad guys.
I didn’t see any cops, but did catch a glimpse of a man wearing a slick gray suit and fedora behind me. He wore sunglasses and the distance between us wasn’t conducive to getting a good look at his face, but I’d also noticed him standing a few feet away from the front door of the bar when I walked out. He’d had his back turned then, but it was the expensive duds that initially caught my attention.
The hair on the back of my neck stood up.
Instantly alert and in defense mode, I upped my pace and kept an eye on my immediate surroundings through reflections in store windows. Another quick look over my shoulder revealed he’d crossed the road as well and was closing in. He kept enough of a distance to elude recognition, but it was obvious I was being followed.
With plenty of people out and about, there were two options: I could get away from him and keep wondering why the fuck somebody was on my tail in the first place, possibly until he found me again for some nefarious reason; or I could lure him away from onlookers and simply ask for an explanation.
Not one to enjoy wondering, I decided to go with the latter and made a left turn at the next intersection. I took another left into an alley and jogged along, pausing at every back door to look for one that was unlocked. Four businesses ahead, next to a sign on the wall indicating I was behind an antique store, I lucked out.
I stepped inside, leaving the door cracked open just enough for the man to notice and for a sliver of light to filter inside the darkened interior. From my ankle holster, I pulled out my handy .380 and positioned my shoulder against the door, the gun pointed at the ground in front of me.
I soon heard faint footsteps approaching and held my breath. They stopped directly on the other side, the light between the door and frame dimmed from being blocked. I mustered all the upper body strength I had and slammed my shoulder against the metal, making immediate contact with whoever was out there.
I sprang out and pointed my gun at the man as he stumbled backwards. It was only after he regained his balance and held up his hands that I finally got a good look at his face.
“Goddamn it, Silas!” I barked. “Why the hell are you following me around like a creep?”
He pulled off his sunglasses and gave me that sly smile of his. “Well hello, Styx, I’m delighted to see you as well. Or are you strictly going by Mrs. Larter now?”
Fucking Silas. I figured he’d make an out-of-the-blue appearance again, over the years I’d become his first stop for any hacking needs. And not that I could complain because there was usually a ridiculous sum of money on the table, but would it have killed the guy to make a more traditional entrance once in a while?
Silas played by his own rules—you didn’t go to him, he came to you—but he should have known better than to try sneaking up on me given his first-hand knowledge of my penchant for aggression. After all, he was the one who’d arranged for private training way back when one of my early black hat jobs required physically breaking into a guarded server room.
To this day, I didn’t have the slightest idea who or what he really was. He had a hint of an accent, but it was so faint I couldn’t really pinpoint whether it was British, Australian, or South African. And much like his nationality, his occupation was also mystery. The most I could ever discern was that he was some sort of fixer or criminal concierge, regularly arranging transactions and dealings for people who wanted to distance themselves from any shady business. Silas seemed to know everybody and everything that happened in the streets. And underground. And along international smuggling routes. He was the very definition of an enigma.
He was also extremely generous. I was still driving the overpriced Infinity he’d given me a couple years earlier as a “bonus”.
I tucked my gun back in its holster and crossed my arms. “You still haven’t gotten the hang of minding your own business I see. I haven’t been active in over a year, how did you find me?”
“Knowing everyone’s business is my business, you know that.