Geek Mafia: Mile Zero (51 page)

"How hard can it be?"

"Pretty fucking hard, I would imagine," said Chloe.

"Well, it would give us something to do," Paul replied with a smile. "And we're pretty smart folks. I'm sure we can figure it out."

"Yeah," she said. "We are. But we'll need more people to make it work."

"I know."

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"And we're not going to find them here in Key West. It's going to involve a lot of travel. A lot of trouble. A lot of talking to some real freaky people," she said.

"Oh, I know. And a lot of testing and false starts and background checks and all kinds of other challenges."

"And you're up for that?" she asked.

"I am if you are. I'm up for doing it together."

"Together," Chloe agreed. "Absolutely."

They sat together and held hands, watching the crowd flow by, happy for the moment that they had a plan.

Even if it was a crazy plan. But they were all crazy plans. That's what made them worth doing.

Chloe's phone rang. She unclipped it from her belt and looked at the caller ID before answering it. "Hello?"

she said.

"Hi, it's Sandee," said the voice on the other end.

"Hey sweetie," said Chloe. "Everything ok? Did Winston pick up Jacob and all that?"

"Yeah, everything's fine," Sandee said. "Bee and I were just watching the two of you hold hands on the camera here and we wanted to tell you, you look awfully cute."

Chloe looked up and around and spotted one of Bee's hidden camera mounts on a telephone pole across the street. She waved at it. Paul, realizing what she was doing, did the same. "That's sweet of you to say," Chloe said to Sandee. "Was there anything else?"

"Just that that ice cream is going to go straight to your ass," said Sandee.

"Is there anything else I don't know?" Chloe asked with a laugh.

"Oh yeah, Bee wanted me to ask what we're going to do now that all the out of town guests are leaving?"

Chloe turned to Paul and said, "Bee wants to know what's next. What should I tell them?"

"Tell them we're going to get some more ice cream and then we're coming home," said Paul.

"And after that?"

"After that, we're going to get drunk as skunks."

"And after that?"

"After that, we're going to start our own little revolution," said Paul with a grin.

"Did you hear all that?" Chloe asked Sandee.

"Ice cream, fat asses, drinks, revolution. Got it," replied Sandee. "Sounds like a plan."

"Sounds crazy to me," said Chloe. "But yep, that's the plan."

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She hung up the phone and then gave Paul a great big wet, sloppy French kiss. "What kind of ice cream do revolutionaries eat?" she asked him.

"Whatever kind they want," said Paul. "What's the point of smashing the state if you can't have your favorite ice cream?"

"No point at all," said Chloe.

Hand in hand they started down the street, back toward the ice cream shop.

"So where do you want to start?" she asked him.

"Well, I thought we'd wait at least until we got back to the house, but I'm sure we could find a quiet alley..."

She laughed. "I'll give you a maybe' on the alley, but I meant where do you want to start recruiting people? I was thinking maybe Miami or Atlanta. Hell, even New York."

"I was thinking Las Vegas."

"Vegas? That's a long way to go. Why?"

"That's where DefCon is."

"DefCon? Sure, if you wanna go there, let's go. But I was talking about finding new recruits."

"So was I."

"At a hacker convention?" she asked.

"At a hacker convention," he confirmed.

"That's a fucking good idea. Although I have no idea how we'd pull it off."

"Trust me," he said, kissing her on the cheek. "I've got a plan."

THE END

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