Most of the time the tight security at Dynamix, Inc., the wholly owned Family subsidiary, made Vicky feel more safe than annoyed at the inconvenience. At three o’clock at night, though, annoyance beat out safety hands down. The guard, the son of a Made Man Vicky knew, scanned her stealth RFID tag outside the meeting room. He waved her in.
The conference room looked rather plain but it had some top notch security. Astral ward, sound proof blast doors, top of the line white noise generator, and a faraday cage to kill any wireless traffic, in or out. It was only used for the most sensitive meetings, and this was one of them. She saw her three fellow capos and her boss the sotto capo when she walked in. Damn it all to hell, she was late.
Heartless Harte, sotto capo and Vicky’s boss, waved a hand at an empty chair. “Sit down Vicky,” he grumbled. “Let’s get this fucking show on the road.” Vicky sat.
There was not much formality to a meeting in the Finnigan Family, so Harte jumped right in. “Got bad news for all of us. Barry Coins got picked up by the feds about two hours ago.” Vicky felt like she had been slapped in the face. Barry “Coins” Ozark was an uomine d’honore, a Man of Honor, as far as the family was concerned. He had been laundering Harte and his capos money for fifteen years and had enough dirt to send a dozen Made Men to jail… if not one or two of the capos sitting in the room.
Christina “Lollipop” Reynolds, who ran the crew that Barry Coins was part of, said, “You can’t be serious? Barry COINS? If he flipped we’re all completely fucked!” She stared at Harte like she just found out he molested a five year old. “How did I not know about this? I mean, really, what the fuck?” Lollipop was a pretty woman , with almost no biosculpting , but had a demeanor as sweet as acid. Sometimes the Family loved ironic nicknames.
Heartless Harte made some soothing gestures trying to calm Lollipop down. “Easy Chris. I got some contingency plans for Barry Coins so trust me. He ain’t flipping.”
The old timer of the group, Firehawk Boyle, chimed in. “Hate to bring this up then Skip but if Roweena's not worried about Barry Coins then why are we here?”
Hearte scowled. “Barry didn’t flip but someone flipped on him. Roweena’s got a lead on who it is, which is why she got me to arrange this thing.” Harte paused as he looked at the four capos. “We’re pretty sure it was Nicky Caps.”
If Barry Coins picked up by the feds was a slap, Nicky Caps being a rat was a punch to the gut. Caps was the programmer of secure complex nexi that the Family used for its operations. He also, as far as anyone could tell, lived entirely in the Matrix. If he was turning on the Family…
Hearte continued. “Current theory is that Nicky is leaking out just enough information to keep the feds happy, but we need to plug this leak before it starts flooding the basement. I want you to go out and hit the streets and find out what you can.” He stopped his speech long enough to turn to Vicky and just begin to stare at her.
Vicky felt every head follow Harte’s as they looked at her. Nobody said anything but if you lived in the Family long enough, you knew what was on everyone’s mind well enough. Vicky looked after Matrix operations of the Family. Nicky Caps lived in the Matrix. The other capos would do their parts but it would be Vicky’s job to track the bastard and show him how the Family protects its own.
Vicky casually tapped the conference table and smiled. “I’ll find him. I know just the guy.”
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