1200 Phones

Erna

"What do you mean the phone's gone?" Kal shouts at me in exasperation from the other side of the phone.

"Don't fucking shout. Okay?"

"Erna, you don't fucking understand. If that phone ends up in the hands of the police, they could arrest you for several assassinations. And God forbid, someone decides to blackmail you with it. I don't even know…"

"Stop." I cut him off. I don't have time for his overdramatic tendencies to get to work right now. And I think I have an idea about who this thief is.

The Letter has thrown me off. I should have noticed that the phone was missing but I didn't. I need to get my head back in the game or I am gonna lose my fucking head altogether.

"Kal, can you trace the phone?" I ask him, skeptical.

"You think I didn't already try. I would never risk calling your personal cell unless totally necessary."

"Yeah, sorry. I should have known." I mutter the last bit in a whisper.

"Hey." He says suddenly.

"What?"

"Why don't you try calling the phone?"

"Why would I do that?"

"Think about it. If they stole it from you, it is obvious they are targeting you. And if they haven't called you yet, it means they want you to make the first move."

"But wouldn't that be equivalent to acknowledging the theft?"

"Huh?"

"I mean what if I let them believe that whatever they took wasn't important at all. And I am pretty sure they wouldn't have been able to unlock it anyway. Then I can hack into it myself and figure out the location. What do you think?"

"I was wrong."

"Huh?"

"I thought you were losing your touch, but that's obviously not the case."

Oh boy he has no idea how much I have lost it in the past couple of days.

_________________________________________________________________________

After my call ends with Kal, I quickly grab my laptop and trace the phone's location.

As soon as the webpage finishes loading, my eyes are almost about to fall out of the sockets because the thief who I presume is the one who signed the note as Z, is a fucking genius.

I stare at my laptop as locations and more locations light up the map like a fucking christmas tree. The locations are scattered across New York State focusing mostly on Parks. From Luna Park to Four Mile Creek State Park. It has to at least be over 1200 locations. This is bad because there is no way I can figure out the real location.

Think. Think. Think.

As if on cue, my phone rings loudly in the deadly silence of my room.

"Yeah?" I answer when I see its Kal.

"Did you find it?" he asks, anxious.

"Yeah."

"OMG that is great Erna. Where is it?"

"Luna Park."

"Huh, weird location but nevermind; I will go look."

"Four Mile Creek State Park. Marine Park."

"What, what are you doing?"

I list off a dozen more names, all the while Kal shouts at me to stop. When I realize I won't be able to get away with more, I stop and laugh out loud.

"Erna, will you just tell me what's going on?"

"Yeah sure. So my phone is currently at more that 1200 locations across New York State."

"B…B-But how is that possible?"

"The thief is a genius Kal. He made copies of my phone and threw them away to send me on a bone hunt as if I am a fucking dog."

"No, not a dog. A bitch. A careless one at that."

"Look if you are gonna call me a bitch, at least have the decency to call me a bad one."

"Erna!" Kal growls in frustration. He clearly has had enough of me but the poor thing still puts up with my behavior.

"Fine, I will shut up, okay?"

"Whatever. Do you have a way to find the real phone?"

"I can make a program and run all 1200 devices through it, but it might take a few days. That's a lot of data."

"Fine, do that."

"Okay. i am putting down the phone now."

"No. wait."

"Now what?"

"The job. The one I called you for. Can you do it?"

"What the fuck do you mean by 'Can I'?"

"I did not mean anything derogatory."

"Then?"

"I just wanted to ask if you can, I mean if you still want to go and do it after all this fiasco."

"You never told me what the job is." I raised a brow, even though Kal can't see me. He is acting weird today. Shady is more like it.

"The job is simple actually. You just have to destroy a document."

"No murder?" I pouted.

"No, you fucking freak."

"Tsk tsk. Still with that name?"

"Will you do it or not?

"I will go. Text me the deets and the pay."

I hang up the call without listening to his next words.I think I have had my quota of Kal for the day.

I get off the bed and rush to my wardrobe. Grabbing a black tank top and pants, I pick a leather jacket to pair with it. Once I have donned the outfit, I put on black Doc Martens and a pair of shades that cover most of my face. I am about to pick my wrist watch from the dresser when my gaze lands on the letter from two days ago. I need to take care of it.

I fasten the watch on my left wrist before picking the letter too. I take my keys and phone and lock the door before rushing downstairs.

The eerie silence welcomes me. It's weird that Mom and Dad are both not at home at this hour of the day. But that saves me the trouble of explaining to them about why I am going out again.

They both are so sweet and trusting that I don't want to taint them with the blood on my hands. If I can keep them out of this version of my life, I would do that at any cost. They have protected me all my life, it's the least I can do.

I walk to the office door on my left and push the letter in my hands inside through the small crack at the bottom of the door. It's time they see it.