Free Vital Force by Trevor Scott Page B

said, handing her a glass of coke.
    Li and Cliff took seats across from Evans.
    â€œSo, what’s up?” Evans asked Cliff.
    â€œWouldn’t you like to know?” Cliff smiled and raised his brows.
    â€œYa dumb ass. I meant what brings you to Bend on a weekday?”
    â€œI knew that.” Cliff glanced sideways at Li. “We were sick of the city. I called in sick and said screw it. Road trip.” He yelled the last two words.
    Evans gave him a high five. “You da man.” His friend nodded his head at Li. “How long you two know each other?”
    Cliff waited for her to speak. When she didn’t, he said, “About a month. She was my Tai Chi instructor.”
    â€œNo shit? You gonna kick my ass in slow motion?”
    â€œThat’s not what it’s about,” Li said, looking somewhat disturbed. Slow motion, fast motion, it didn’t matter to her.
    â€œI’m sorry,” Evans said, “I didn’t mean to imply...”
    â€œListen,” Cliff broke in. “You should find a class here in Bend. It clears your mind and body and allows you to focus more clearly on what’s important.”
    Evans considered Li more carefully now. “Yeah, I’ll have to look into that.”
    There was dead silence for a moment that lingered longer than anyone expected.
    Cliff broke it. “Your server,” he started. “I should take a look at it. Make sure everything is working right.”
    â€œRight,” Evans said, rising to his feet. He went to the kitchen, but continued the conversation. “I’ll make another martini...and we’ll look into that.” A moment later he returned with a martini in one hand and another beer in the other. “Li, I hope you don’t mind helping yourself.”
    â€œNo problem. I was thinking of taking a walk. Plus, I have to get something from the Trooper.”
    â€œExcellent.”
    â—
    The two college friends retreated to the office on the second floor, right next to the guest bedroom.
    Cliff took a long draw on his beer, finishing about half of it, and then went to the floor and started opening the server case.
    â€œYou fuckin’ dog,” Evans said, kicking his friend in the leg. “You have a hottie like that and you don’t tell me?”
    By now Cliff had the side of the case open. He didn’t look at his friend when he said, “No big deal.”
    â€œYeah, right. The big city boy has all the arm candy he can handle. Man, you’re fulla shit.”
    Cliff started removing some screws and then stopped. He nearly finished his beer with a quick swig. He had forgotten what he needed in the other room. And, he realized, his friend might actually know more about computers than he suspected.
    â€œIt’s not what you think,” Cliff said reticently, getting up from the floor.
    â€œYou havin’ sex?”
    Cliff shrugged. “Yeah.”
    â€œThen it’s what I think.”
    â€œWho’s the dog now? Back in a sec.”
    Cliff went to the bedroom and pulled out an external DVD burner from his bag, along with two blank DVD-Rs. Then he returned to the office, where he found his friend peering inside the server case.
    â€œThat a whole lotta wires and shit,” Evans said. “Give me numbers and figures any day.”
    â€œGet the hell outta my way,” Cliff said playfully. “Man on a mission.” He finished his beer and set the bottle on the desk.
    Cliff hitched up his DVD burner, plugging it into a FireWire port. He could have accessed the server from his home in California and transferred the data back to his drive there, but he didn’t want anyone to be able to trace it back to him. He could have also burned a copy from there and handed it over to Li, but then she could have screwed him out of the money. He had to stick with his plan, even though it wasn’t the easiest way to do things.
    In a moment he found his hidden files