The Conflict Algorithm, Chapter 7
Chapter 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7
Young Leo looked at the house from the woods. Lights were on on the lower and upper floor. He hoped to see her pass by one of the windows.
He wasn’t sure what he was doing there. He wasn’t sure what to do. Just when he was about to give up and head back, he saw a shadow pass the upper window. This felt like a movie. He wanted to throw a rock. He had to make sure it was her, though.
He waited. He didn’t see anything move again. He began a much slower slog through the darkening woods back to the commune.
There was a cry of alarm when one of the kids saw him. A group of adults with flashlights stood and uncircled from their huddle. Leo’s heart sank and he got the urge to run back into the woods and never come back. He knew he was in serious trouble.
His mom came running toward him, “Oh, thank Jehovah, you’re all right!” Her tears smeared across his face as she kissed him, gripping the sides of his head in her hands. “Oh, my baby.”
She held his hand and they walked toward their trailer. Brother Michael met them half way.
“Let me talk to the boy,” he said.
“Michael, he just got back. We don’t even know what happened, how he got lost…”
“Spare the rod…”
Leo felt himself go numb. Like a light switch turning off. He knew he could take whatever Brother Michael did to him. They would never stop him. He would win.
He wasn’t exactly sure, but it felt like it had taken more than a half an hour to reach the dojo. He had no idea what the goons plan was, whether they’d stake out his apartment or circle the streets looking for him. That forced him to take paranoiac bursts, first, off the highway, then downhill and through the streets. He alternated between walking like a normal person and like a frightened schizophrenic.
He realized he didn’t have enough information. Were the goons from Advantech? Was it because he hadn’t jumped on the contract? What would’ve happened if he said yes? How could he win now? Sell the software to the highest bidder? Who was the highest bidder? What would they do if they found him? In the short term he realized he needed a place to stay.
The closer he got to Chickie’s dojo, the less he felt like disturbing them. Who even knew what was going to happen? He felt like he should tell Sara about his situation, though.
When he rounded the corner to the dojo, he passed a man talking in snipped, angry tones on his cell phone. The man had a sleazy air about him that revealed a strange mix of cockinesss, fear, and pettiness. He was wearing a conspicuously urban sport suit and was rocking an immaculate haircut. Leo felt wary of this guy’s whole energy.
Leo kept going, mostly because he couldn’t think of anything else but to see Sara. He pushed open the dojo door. Sara was screaming in Spanish at Chickie. Little Edwin was sitting on the floor with his back to the wall, arms wrapped around his knees. Leo struggled to figure out what was going on.
As soon as they noticed him, Chickie first, then Sara, they both shut up. For a moment, everyone in the room was quiet. A man Leo recognized walked out the bathroom and past Chickie and Sara. He was smoothing his tie with one hand and gripping his shoulder-strapped briefcase with the other. It was the same man from the coffee shop who’d argued with Sara about the receipt. Now Leo was really confused.
“Have a good night,” the man said with cheer as he passed Leo.
Chickie’s face turned into a portrait of restrained violence.
“Leo, I don’t have time for this…whatever this is.” Sara said to Leo, eyes closed, shaken head and deep sigh included.
Leo sighed too. He suddenly felt like crying. He suddenly felt angry.
“Okay,” he said, and turned around. He leaned on the door with his forearm high and shoulder doing the work to keep his blood dotted palms off the glass.
To Sara, Chickie said, “I’m going to lock up. You good?”
“Yeah, but that fucker’s not getting him.”
Leo didn’t want to hear any more of their private conversation so he let himself out. He took a deep breath and glanced left and right down the street. Still on the corner was the cell phone talker, and now he was talking with the briefcase suit guy. Realization dawned on Leo. That was probably Edwin Sr, and his lawyer.
Sara came out right behind Leo with Edwin Jr. in hand. She let out another sigh, this one revealing more irritation. She followed Leo’s gaze down the block and muttered, “Puta.”
The man in the sport suit turned his attention to them. “Wow, look, she’s got a boyfriend! Bring him over here so I can meet him!”
Something in Leo forced him to take a step toward the man. Sara stopped him with a hand on his arm. Leo wasn’t sure if he had just been posturing or serious about engaging with Sara’s ex. Leo shot death eye-rays down the block, mean-mugging the shit out of Edwin Sr.
“Can we go?” Sara led him to the right, away from her ex, instead of left, in the direction of her apartment.
“I guess we’re going around the block,” Leo muttered.
“You’ll get what’s coming to you!” Edwin Sr. screamed.
Sara picked up her pace, and Edwin Jr almost tripped as he tried to walk forward while looking back toward his dad at the same time.
Leo felt stupid walking alongside Sara, like some kind of fake knight-in-shining-armor. He felt himself broadening his shoulders. The panic he felt at running into the goons sat somewhere below his ribs. He wondered briefly if this is what being a tough guy was.
“I guess we’re going to your house?” Leo said.
It was several blocks before Leo said anything to Sara. His body felt worse than it ever had. Adrenaline had run him ragged and his thigh muscles were sacs of pain. His palms burned and felt hot and heavy. Walking with Edwin Jr. between him and Sara, he mumbled, “this has been a crazy couple days.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m sorry for whatever’s going on.” He looked over at her. She looked tightly wound, shoulders held high and neck rigid.
“Yeah, me too.” Sara fixed her hair, and loosened a little, like the words were a drawstring. “He’s such a damn asshole.”
Leo hoped she would keep talking. He hoped he wouldn’t collapse. He was aware that his silence was an obvious ploy.
She glanced down at her son then returned to her rigid forward gaze, “he wants to take Edwin. He had a lawyer, with papers…”
“What are you going to do?”
“Pfft. I don’t know. I can’t afford no lawyer and Chickie’s behind on his rent and I’m basically screwed.”
Leo blurted out, “I got a check from the people I saw today.” He fished in his pocket to make sure it was still there. He wondered still if the goons were hovering in the neighborhood. “Two grand,” he said as an offer.
“Oooh, big baller,” she said with a smile, also taking in the filth on his clothes, his haggard look. “What happened to you today?”
“I really don’t know. It’s crazy.” He glanced at his hands. “This company offers me money to help them steal the stuff I made for the people that fired me.”
“How much?”
“A lot.”
“You going to do it?”
He chuckled. “I was thinking about it, but then I got home and I was like, let me make sure it’s secure and I barely got out the house with it cause two guys started chasing me.”
“What!?”
“Yeah, they had on suits and drove a black SUV like some bad spy movie.”
“Oh my God, that’s crazy!”
Leo laughed again, “I know. Honestly, I don’t even know how I got away from them. I was standing down on the grand central roadway when I called you.”
Sara sighed, “I was busy dealing with Edwin. He showed up with his lawyer…”
“The asshole in the suit?”
“Yeah, and he was like, ‘sign this.’”
“I’m sorry to just show up. I had no place to go. I still don’t know what to do.”
“You need to find out who they are.”
“I have no idea how to do that.”
“Aren’t you some kind of computer guy?”
Leo felt a little hurt by her playful question. “I haven’t really had a chance to think.”
She sensed him getting defensive, and slowed her pace. “Listen, I’m not going to lie, that two grand would help me get a lawyer and would probably keep Chickie from doing something stupid, but you probably need it more than me.”
“Actually, I think I might be all right. I was thinking of heading out of town, mixing it up a bit.”
“Do you have a place to stay tonight?”
“No.”
They’d arrived at her apartment. She said, “come on.”
