19 Nicole
Nicole
While they wait for their steaks, Ellen shows Nicole how to research criminal activity.
Not the laws but the activity itself, through NYPD accounts and crime bulletins, neighborhood watch groups, and key organized-crime reporters on social media.
Nicole takes notes. It’s exciting, this new form of research.
But most of the research, it turns out, is person-to-person.
Ellen calls people—actually calls them, not texts.
Police officers, criminal defense lawyers, even someone who talks about “the family” once, which Nicole assumes is the mob.
She puts every call on speakerphone and introduces Nicole as a colleague, which gives her a warm feeling in her stomach, better than the one from the martini. But they don’t find anything out.
Her phone chimes, but she ignores it, trying to stay professional. Ellen glances at it.
“If it’s your silly friends, they could be in trouble.”
“Uh, right,” Nicole says, picking up her phone.
IAN
I texted Victor. The phone number that made the reservation is registered to a company—KBA. That’s all he would tell me. Didn’t know what they are though.
Oh shit. She tries to keep her face calm. Texting an ex is probably the kind of silly drama Ellen would tell her to avoid. The message is from a while ago, too. Nicole feels a heavy hit of guilt for having ignored it. She keeps reading until she hits a text that makes her eyes go wide.
OLLIE
We found Jon!
She glances up again but keeps her mouth shut for the moment.
OLLIE
Oh but his real name might be Connor
NICOLE
You found him?
Are you okay?
Real name?
OLLIE
Yeah, Brandon is talking to him right now. Or kissing him.
They’re kind of cute together
NICOLE
Oh Jesus
OLLIE
And he was living in Brussels. At least according to his friend. He says London
NICOLE
So he’s lying a lot
OLLIE
Or his friend is
NICOLE
The EU is in Brussels.
EU is spy stuff, intelligence stuff, probably. Especially when coupled with a fake name. Brandon always knows how to pick them, but this is top-tier.
NICOLE
How did you meet his friend?
brANDON
It’s a long story
NICOLE
Are you being careful? Heart-eyes is dangerous.
OLLIE
We are, promise!
Oh, and I invited him to game night tonight at the Strongs’
She almost chokes on her drink, and Ellen looks over, her stare lingering for a moment, disapproving, before Nicole turns away, back to her own phone to fire off what she knows is a lecture, but come on, Ollie is being insane right now.
A party with a man with two names who maybe got someone killed?
OLLIE
And Nicole you can bring your boss
Nicole almost chokes reading that but covers it with a fake cough. Ellen glances over but doesn’t say anything.
NICOLE
Absolutely not
OLLIE
Or the coffee girl!
NICOLE
I’m putting my phone down now. Please don’t bring the man who people get murdered around over.
Nicole shakes her head, confused, and then texts with Ollie as he explains and conjures up a game night over her objections.
OLLIE
Eight tonight! Bring snacks!
She sighs, knowing she has to go.
NICOLE
I cannot believe I’m doing this.
She puts down the phone, wondering how to tell Ellen everything. Not about the party. Ellen would tell her to stay away, and Nicole knows she can’t do that. She can’t abandon her friends when they might be in danger. All she can do is try to help them now, try to figure out what’s going on.
“What’s KBA?” Nicole asks.
Ellen takes a long swig of her drink and leans back. “Private security. Private espionage. Private army, really. Why?”
“An army?”
“For hire.”
“They made the reservation for Jon—who also goes by Connor and worked in Brussels. EU, right?”
“Shit,” Ellen says, her face going a little pale. “If KBA made the reservation, then your friend’s hookup is either working for them, which means he’s dangerous, or had a deal with them, which means he’s in a dangerous situation.”
Nicole sighs. Of course.
Ellen blows her bangs off her forehead, a long exhale pointed up, her lower lip jutting out a little.
It’s weirdly hot. “The EU thing tracks, too. He could be one of theirs, coming back from a mission over there. He could be a diplomat or courier meeting with them on behalf of our or another government. Though then he’d be doing an American accent for no reason. You said he was American, right?”
Nicole nods. “Pretty sure.” Brandon would have gone on about his sexy accent otherwise.
“So state, or CIA maybe. But the worst possible thing he could be is someone who decided to go work for KBA.” She finishes the rest of her drink.
“They’re notorious for recruiting via turncoat.
Bring us these files, this code name, whatever, and you get a job with us.
We keep you safe from the people you turned on, get paid an absurd amount, life of adventure, that kind of thing.
But these are bad people. That life of adventure is usually political assassinations and warmongering. ”
Nicole stares and realizes she hasn’t moved in a while. Her body feels leaden. Even her arm is stiff as she reaches out and grabs her drink. She just means to sip it, but as it touches her tongue, she keeps pouring it down her throat, thirsty.
“Yeah, now you’re getting it,” Ellen says.
“So what do we do?” Nicole says, almost slamming the glass down. Her voice sounds breathy.
“I’m going to reach out to some contacts and see what’s going on.
You…” Ellen tilts her head. “Research. Use Incognito Mode on your phone. KBA is run by Carter Kells and Judith Battle. I want you to look into where they’ve been recently, what they’ve been talking about, put together a picture of what they’re saying their company goals and expectations are this quarter. ”
“They’re publicly traded?”
“Oh yeah,” Ellen says. “Why wouldn’t they be?”
“I don’t know,” Nicole says. “Just seems in bad taste.”
Ellen smiles at her. “You’re cute.”
Nicole looks down to hide her blushing cheeks. “So you want me to look at what their public plans are for the company?”
“And the subtext. From there we can try to figure out how this links in. Hopefully I find something out, too.”
The waitress comes back in with their meals. Nicole and Ellen are silent as the food is laid out before them. Ellen lifts her glass. “Another round for both of us, please. We’re going to be here a while.”
“We’re not going back to the office?” Nicole asks.
Ellen cuts into her steak slowly, parting the cut of meat to show the pink flesh within. Steam rises and clouds the metal of the knife. “Nope. Trust me, it’s better if nothing we do is on the company Wi-Fi now.”
Nicole swallows.
“Eat. It’s good. And I like watching a woman eat a steak. It’s hot.”
Nicole starts to blush again but shakes her head. “You’re kind of my boss.”
Ellen grins. “True. You gonna go to HR?”
“Maybe,” Nicole says, cutting into her steak. She should, she knows. But her body is tingling. She takes a bite. The steak melts in her mouth, deliciously rich and smoky. “I guess it depends how you look eating yours.”
“Well, now I just want to eat you,” Ellen says, voice low in a way that makes Nicole’s skin tingle. “But let’s have lunch and try to save your friend first.”
Nicole feels goose bumps rise on her neck.
That’s how to flirt. Although doing it with her boss was probably a bad idea.
But Ellen is sexy, and she’s at the top of the field Nicole wants to be in.
She’s smart, self-assured, glamorous: Why shouldn’t Nicole be with her?
Maybe Nicole can learn something about having a social life.
It’s not like she’s Brandon—her boss isn’t a client.
It’s way stupider.
But she hasn’t slept with her yet. Just flirting.
She eats as Ellen takes out her phone, typing frantically into it.
Research, right. She pulls her eyes away from Ellen’s hands—short red nails, soft-looking skin—and takes out her own phone and goes into Incognito Mode, looking into KBA and its bosses.
Technically Kells is the CEO, British, former diplomat, which Nicole assumes means MI5.
He’s got a knighthood and some long family history that makes him fourth in line to be a duke.
Battle is the COO, Texan, did a stint in the army, then moved over to the State Department.
There are no photos of her on the website, and the only one Nicole can find online has her blurry behind Kells, just sunglasses and a smudge of pale skin.
Aside from brief bios on the company page, it’s hard to find out much else.
They seldom do public appearances unless they’re defending themselves from accusations of being part of a variety of terrible things: violent regime changes, stolen weapons of mass destruction, genocide.
Then it’s all Kells, very smoothly explaining that KBA provided aid to key clients who may or may not have done terrible things, but doesn’t everyone deserve to feel safe?
It makes Nicole’s steak lose its flavor.