The Enigma’s Anomaly

“Gerard, I really don’t like how close we are to the city. I’d prefer we stayed out of New York if at all possible.”

“Frank, my whole life is here. I’m not asking to go in there, and send up a red flare, I just want to be around it. Near it, you know?”

I say, “I get that. I do, but I’m overly cautious. Gerard, I love you and I’m not prepared to risk losing you. I’ve had too many close calls. It’s been two weeks since Banks ran us off the road, he knows we’re not dead. He will know for sure. He’s going to be even more pissed off now. He’s got two assassins on his hands who can’t walk, and it’s likely he’s going to execute them. Men like Banks would see them as a downed horse, and what do you do to a horse that can’t stand?” I say, “And if you’re a bad man who feels obligated to kill people, you’re going to be pretty damn pissed off. He’s going to get more and more desperate though, and that’s the good thing.”

“How is that good?”

“Well he’s going to do something rash, something desperate. The odds of him slipping up are increasing more by day. He’s gonna do something stupid, and it might be dangerous but he wants us dead, and we’re not.”

“That’s not reassuring,” Gerard says.

“I just... I think this is going to end sometime soon, because if it doesn’t he’ll have lost. No one likes to lose, but how do you think a sociopath feels about losing?”

“So suppose you’re Banks, what would you do now? How would you have tried to find us?” Gerard asks.

“Well he’s not stupid. He’d have looked everywhere for that car. Literally everywhere. We both know he’s not going to find it, unless he’s looking at the bottom of the pond where we left it,” I tell him, “After I did that I’d realize that someone would have needed to buy a car. That’s when I’d do anything and everything to get all the data on who bought cars within a hundred mile radius of the incident. It’s more likely for us to have traveled south, so I’d pay extra attention to the dealerships in that direction. I’d then realize that the people I’m chasing needed to have bought necessities like clothes. I’d try to find any information I possibly could on who went on shopping sprees around the area of any car dealerships, and paid in cash. You’d think that since we paid cash, there would be no record, but there’s an imprint, it’s harder to find, but there’s definitely data there to look through.”

“Wow, you’re really good at this,” Gerard says.

“I’m not done,” I tell him, “I’d then try to find a trail of hotel visits. I’d look for any names that stand out, names that are obviously pseudonyms, or any name being used more than once that leads a trail of hotels. This would be easy to get if Banks has a hacker on his side, and I highly believe he does if he found us once. Obviously when looking through hotels I’d cancel out anyone who stayed more than one night. I would then cancel out anyone who made a reservation in advance. I would then sift through the number of rooms requested. If two people were to check in at roughly the same time, which would lead me to believe that those two people are traveling together, but separately. And single rooms purchased that were exclusive in the time span would then be eliminated. I’d also check anyone who requested two or more beds, or suites. He knows we’ve got cash, so he knows we don’t have trouble there. He’ll assume that you and I don’t need two beds which makes a total of two that we’d need, because it’s safe to assume Mikey isn’t sleeping on the floor.”

“That’s why you made us get rooms with a couch instead of two beds,” Gerard says nodding like he understands, “are you done then?”

“Not quite,” I say, “Then I’d check credit cards, but obviously we haven’t used our credit cards. He’d check our cell phones too, which we don’t have any more either. He’d check anyone who purchased a burner phone around the area where we were attacked, and that’s about all I’ve got then. There’s probably more ways of finding us, but that’s what I’d do. I’m working under the assumption that he’s got either a mole in the police or a very skilled hacker.”

“So how are we safe then? How can we possibly be safe?”

“I have an idea about that actually,” I announce.

“What? Is it dangerous?”

“It’s not particularly dangerous, but there is some amount of risk.”

Gerard groans, “What is it?”

“I was thinking that I’d really like to mess with Banks. Make him sweat. Get him to realize that I know precisely how to keep us safe.”

“So what are you talking then?”

“Credit cards, Gerard. You can trace credit card purchases pretty easily with the times, so what I want to do is drive out a fair ways. Somewhere far off, and away. Then I’ll find a really swanky hotel, something extravagant. It has to have cameras in the lobby, and outside, that’s what I want. I’ll park off down the street a ways away, maybe even the next town over. That’s where I’ll lift a car for a little while, and then pull into the hotel. I pull into the hotel, walk in, make sure to get my face caught by as many cameras as I possibly can, and get a room. I’ll even sign it out under my name, just so he knows who he’s dealing with. From there, I leave him a message in the room. Something like ‘fuck you,’ and I leave. Take the car out, make sure the cameras catch the plates, then I’m going to return the car, get back in ours, and I’ll be on my merry way.”

“What does that do then?”

“It’s going to piss him the hell off,” I say, “and it’ll distract him. It should cost him a few days or more. He’s going to think he’s got himself a lead, and it’ll turn to dust in front of him.”

“I don’t know, Frank. Something could go wrong.”

“Or we might really piss this jackass off. He might even do something rash like go that hotel himself to see if we’re there. By now he’s realizing his assassins are incompetent. If we push him, beyond his limits he’s going to snap. We need him to snap. We need to get Banks holding a smoking gun. That’s one of the only ways we’re going to be able to nail him at this point. We need hard proof, nothing that can be possibly considered circumstantial, and the only way to get that information is through illegal means. Cops can’t do anything illegal because then the evidence is thrown out immediately, especially if the case goes to court, as you’ll know if you’re familiar with the law. We need absolute proof that Banks is a murderer and the best, hardest proof is a smoking gun.”

“How do we do that without putting ourselves in danger?” Gerard asks.

“Not possible. We’re going to have to put ourselves in danger, there’s no way to avoid that, but it’ll be controlled danger. If my plan works, we need to add one weight after another. We need to pull some pranks on him, get him riled up. Get him to lose his cool composure. That’s when we’ll be able to strike. That’s when we’ll get him red-handed.”

“You’d make a really good spy or something, has anyone ever told you that?”

“Yes, once. It was a really cute redheaded guy who said that to me,” I reply.

Gerard blushes, and I see him bite his lip, “is he prettier than me?”

“Only a little bit,” I answer, and Gerard hits me in the arm. I probably deserved that.

“Who is this guy? Is he taller than me?”

“No. He’s about your height,” I deadpan.

“I bet he’s got a really good-looking boyfriend,” Gerard says, raising an eyebrow.

“He really can’t complain,” I reply, and Gerard giggles.

“I wouldn’t know what that’s like. My boyfriend looks like a toad.”

“Hey!”

“You had that one coming to ya,” Gerard answers, looking contemptuous.

“I probably did.”

“So this plan of yours, with the fucking around with Banks,” Gerard begins.

“Yes, what about it?”

“When do we start?”