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Old 10-16-2009, 10:08 AM   #7
Steven Lyle Jordan
Grand Sorcerer
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6: The confession

Cooley took a step back from me. "M-merc?" he said. Yeah, he actually stammered! This was going well.

"You have a problem, Cooley," I said, taking a step towards him. "Merc is your problem."

"What are..?" he looked around the room, presumably for something to hide behind or hit me with... but he wasn't finding anything, which made him even more frightened. (Of me... an IT guy. What a hoot.) "I... I don't know you—"

"Of course you don't know me!" I snapped. "I work for the other guys, don't I? And we know about Merc now. We also know about your problem."

"My... problem? What are you talking about?"

"Cooley, you stooge," I shook my head. "BM changed their plans on you—"

"We never call it 'BM'," Cooley actually interjected. "It's always B&M, or Byers & Mig—"

"Whatever! BM is planning to kick off Merc while you're out of town, and arrange things to implicate you with it."

"W-what!" Cooley's eyes popped, equal parts shock and anger. "T-they wouldn't! They couldn't!"

"They are," I said smoothly. "Fortunately, we found you first. Which means we can turn the tables on BM... you can alert the authorities and stop them, while you're out here, absolving you of guilt while they get locked up."

Cooley seemed to like that idea... for about a second. Then he started thinking... not a good sign for me, because I was close to exhausted of my con artistry skills. "But... why set me up?"

"They decided they needed a patsy, obviously."

"But we had a patsy from the last time! Some contractor's IT guy."

Yes! Confession on-air! My day was made... but I needed more. "They hoped you'd go to Club Fed while they all floated away to their little island retirement paradises." Or was it paradi?...

"No... I can't believe it," Cooley was muttering. He suddenly extracted his cellphone from a pocket. "I'm gonna call—"

I slapped the phone right out of his hand. "Are you deranged? You want to tip their hand, so they can go ahead and frame you? Listen, Cooley! We're trying to help you out, here! We don't want Merc to happen. If it just went away, that would be one solution... but if your people were exposed, BM would be wiped out... which would be that much better, to us!" I stepped forward again, and lowered my voice conspiratorially. "And if you cooperate with us, we can make sure you stay clean, while they get put away. Is that clear enough for you?"

Cooley thought about it a moment. He looked at me, while I did my best to throw him a "You are so dead if you don't cooperate" look right back. Finally, I saw his shoulders sag, and he dropped his head. "What do you want me to do?"

I had him. I wanted to exult, but I wasn't finished. There was still a teeny, tiny little matter to deal with: I still didn't know exactly what Merc was. I dug back into my rehearsed routine and started prodding him. "All right," I said, giving me a moment to frame my thoughts. "We don't know enough about Merc's details. How can they kick it off, and still frame you while you're out of town?"

"Uh." Cooley's eyes went blank. Uh-oh. That was not a good sign. Did he really know that little about this secret plan of theirs? "Um..."

"C'mon, Cooley!" I prompted. "You must have some idea!"

"Well..." Cooley thought about it, and I thought I saw a glimmer of an idea in there. "Well, they were going to send it from an isolated computer... but if they sent it from mine, that might be enough to implicate me after the fact."

"After the fact?" I repeated, thinking furiously about what he'd already said.

"Well, yes," Cooley continued. "Because it all happens too fast for anyone to react, once it starts."

"Starts?"

Cooley nodded. "Once they execute it."

That was it! Merc was a program!

"Of course Merc is a program!" Cooley replied. "What did you think we were talking about?"

"Oh," I said. "Did I say that aloud?" At least it wasn't leakage...

I watched as Cooley's face drained again. He pointed an accusing finger. "You didn't know! You didn't know what Merc was! You tricked me, you bastard!"

"Yeah, and now I do know," I said, refusing to back down. "In fact, I know enough to have you put away for a long, long time, Cooley! So: Now that the cards are all on the table, you might as well tell me what Merc actually does."

Cooley shrank back, clearly reluctant to speak. I took out my cellphone. "Or I make a few calls to a few friends in places with letters for names." I reflected a moment on how incredibly stupid that sounded. "C'mon, Cooley: States' evidence... or states' bitch?"

I didn't think his shoulders could slump anymore than they already had. He plopped down into a sofa, and stared at the floor.
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