Chapter 4: Style
We continue with Chapter 4 this week. This post contains two sections rather than the usual one, because they’re both snappy. That also gives me a natural cut-off point for paid members; everyone can read this short Terrah section back in the room with Tuco, and paid members can get Cid showing up in a trenchcoat for some reason.
Enjoy, everyone, and as always, if you like it, please tell a friend.
TWO
Terrah: The Meeting
“So yeah. It was pretty good for a while after Eden joined up. Took me some time to trust her but she kept comin’ through.”
I ain’t talked this much in months, but Tuco’s just soaking it up. He’s been sitting in his big-ass office chair, leaned back and comfy, but attentive. Intent, is what it looks like. He’s looking off or down a lot of the time, but he is listening.
Feels good to get the story out, too. Good to talk. But I can’t say I’m looking forward to the next part. I feel myself stalling.
“That was all before we met White, though. It was White put us up to the job that started all this. Or at least, started the gettin’ us outta Dodge part.”
“White?” Tuco looks blank.
“Yeah, Mr. White?” I say it almost as a question, and I feel something in my chest sink as I realize there’s still more for me to learn about this goddamn rabbit hole I just climbed out of. I press on. “Slick dude, real slender, dark dark skin, immaculate white suits?” Still nothing. “Looks like he’s trying to be a computer construct in the matrix?”
“The what now?”
“Never mind.” Fuck. “But you ain’t serious — you didn’t know?”
“About the matrix?”
“About White.”
Tuco’s face is a blank as he stares at me. No hesitation, no looking away. “No.”
I slap the desk, spin my chair away. “For real?”
“Nah, I just picked this second to start lyin’ to you.”
“The fuck, Tuco.” He’s telling the truth. It’s easy to tell, these days. I put my head in my hand, try to rub the what-the-fuck out of my temples. “He said he knew you. He said he found me through you.”
“And you ain’t never thought to check with me about that?”
“Shit.” It’s not that big a deal, I don’t need to be getting all heated about it. It’s just…I’m real tired of surprises. Mr. White… “Man, now I think of it, I can’t remember exactly when we first started hearing from him. Shit! He was all part of it, and I never put it together. Stupid. Fuck!” I spin the chair all the way around, once, shaking my hands out, smacking my head with them a couple times. I breathe in, out. It helps. “Don’t matter now, I guess.”
“You wanna translate, Terrah?” Tuco’s gentle, in spite of the teasing words. He’s even smiling at me a little. I’m still getting used to seeing this side of him. I like it.
I breathe in, out. “Okay. White. Don’t know his first name, just used Mr. White like a reservoir dog or something. Forget it,” I say as Tuco yet again misses my reference, references I’m only making cause Cid’s media backlog’s become like a security blanket for me. “White first contacted us sometime after we started running with Eden. Maybe he just let me assume you’d set it up.”
“Don’t sound like me,” says Tuco.
“You right, it don’t, but you sometimes picked up new contacts, new streams. Guess I figured you finally sending me on the higher-tech jobs I’d been asking for. Anyway. White. Said he been “watching us” the past little while, and he was impressed. Wanted to see if we were interested in some jobs in higher-level stuff, something better than the runs we been doing. So I said sure.
“We all said sure.”
THREE
Cid
…