Free Pacific Station Vigilante (Book 1): The Negative Man (City of Chaos) by Jeremy Croston

must be closer than we all thought.”
    “Not really.  He came over because he doesn’t know any of the passwords to his accounts.  Don’t tell him I told you that.”
    She gave off her customary laugh which made her even cuter.  “Your secret is safe with me.  Plus, who’d want to work for a boss that apparently is a functioning moron?  Doesn’t even know his own passwords…”
    Heather kept talking, but I started to space out just a little bit.  The weight of what I set myself up to do became real.  The moment Jenkins came over was the breaking point.  Either this would work and we’d figure a way to return the city to its former glory, or else everything would go down in flames.
    Heather stopped in the middle of her story.  “You okay Jericho?”
    “Yeah, sorry about that.  What were you saying?”  I forced myself to listen to her and eat the food we had, no matter how much my brain wanted to go elsewhere.

Chapter 13 –
Monday Afternoon; Alameda Apartment Complex
     
    “No, he hasn’t gotten here yet Heather.”  I was on the phone with Heather, waiting for Jenkins to get to my house.  I didn’t live that far from Wonder-Tech and according to her, Jenkins left over an hour ago.
    She was annoyed.  “Phil is so useless.  I still don’t understand why we don’t fire his ass over the phone prank he pulled.” 
    Earlier in the day me, John, and Heather had a tele-conference about the fake phone prototype Jenkins had submitted.  Heather represented Legal and they wanted him gone.  John overruled them saying it showed initiative in trying to keep the higher up’s (mainly him) honest.  What she didn’t know was that Jenkins was our link to The Aces.
    I was about to try and calm her down when a knock came at my door.  “Hey Heather, he’s here.  Let me go and I’ll call you later.”
    “Ugh, it’s about time.  I’ll talk to you later.”
    I put my phone down on my dresser and pushed myself out of bed.  It was a small apartment so it didn’t take long to stumble over to the door and open.  “Hey Phil.”
    “Jericho…”  He looked a tad bit scared.  “How are you feeling?”
    “Like shit Phil, like shit.  But you’re not here to ask me about that are you?”
    He came inside and I closed the door.  “I told Spades you wouldn’t trust me after what happened.”
    It was all coming out in the open.  “If you’re here to kill me, just get it over with.  I don’t want to suffer again like I did Saturday night.”
    “I’m not here to kill you Jericho.”  The thought of that seemed to make him queasy.  “I’m here to recruit you.”
    “What?”  That was genuine shock.  I was expecting to have to work a lot harder to get to this point.  “After trying to kill me and accusing me of being The Dark Lion, you’re here to recruit me?”
    “Spades wants me to send his apologies about the misunderstanding in the parking lot.  It was mostly my fault due to my interpretation on the encryptions.  I really thought you were The Dark Lion.”
    “Well I’m not and I don’t know who is.  If someone is using my encryptions for their own use…”
    He stopped me.  “John Wonderton is The Dark Lion.  An inside source called us shortly after we left the parking lot Saturday evening.  Afterwards, I was able to confirm it with some hacking into his accounts.”
    I did my very best to look stunned.  “Our boss?  You’re referring to the same John Wonderton who can’t even set up his own email?”
    Jenkins took a seat.  “He’s played all of us Jericho.  He’s been using your skills to moonlight as a vigilante.  Worst part, what good is he actually doing the city?”
    “I don’t follow the news all that much.  I just know the other day he killed The Ace called Diamonds in a street fight.  It was all over the TV, including the police chief basically putting a bounty on your heads.”
    “Grimes is just as corrupt as the Deputy Mayor who got himself fried at