13. The Boss #2
Astrid was waiting for him in a corner booth.
She was wearing a black blazer over a black shirt, black cropped trousers revealing foliage tattoos clinging to her legs, branches blooming into neat leaves inked in fine lines.
Her dark-brown hair was loose, the curls framing her face.
The collar of her shirt was popped up, making her look like a CEO of an opulent video-game manufacturer.
“Come, come.” Astrid stood from the booth’s leather seat, arms open, waving him closer.
Isaak approached cautiously, nodding at the muscular woman next to his boss. “Jewel. Haven’t seen you in the Tapeworld in a while.”
Jewel let out a gruff noise of acknowledgement. This was a woman in peak physical condition, building muscles everywhere he looked.
“Oh, I’m so very happy to see you, darling Ike,” Astrid said, wrapping her hands around his shoulders, squeezing them and pushing him towards his seat as she sat back in hers.
Astrid grabbed a datapad at her side and fingered it eagerly, starting a cascade of keyboard presses and brief pauses, her lips twitching in and out of different shapes, soft circles and lines, as the words crossing her mind almost made their way out.
She became oblivious to his presence, her thoughts enraptured by the datapad.
The rictus grin on her middle-aged, fading-beauty face disappeared as it transformed into someone else for a flash of a second. The guard he shot. In the same breath, Astrid’s face went back to normal. She acted like nothing had happened, still absorbed by the pocket computer.
Was it a hallucination? Something like the vision of the EuroLeague final earlier?
A microsecond-long apparition, summoned here in the Tapeworld from his subconscious, the duct tape twisting her face?
His insides went weak. His space felt invaded, by something or someone. Anxiety pulsed beneath his skin.
He placed the tape recorder on the table. “Your loot.”
Astrid nodded at Jewel, who leaned over and picked it up.
“I’ll wire you the money, you little mercenary.”
“Am I done here?” he asked her.
Astrid lifted her eyes and paused the finger dance over the glowing screen. “Always a good question, Ike. Are you? You’ve been so straight to business lately. The Tapeworld is supposed to be a place to have fun. Go on, go wild.”
He didn’t intend to lead with this, but guilt forced his hand. He had to ask. “What or who did I—”
“Shoot? Oh, you’re so worried about it.” Astrid’s voice went up an octave. “Of course it was a bot, duh.” Her tone was dismissive to the point of mocking. So easy for her to dismiss this incident that had haunted him.
He didn’t believe her. Did she even know who or what it was that he shot?
“If you’re just going to take the piss, I’m leaving.” He figured he might as well, if he wasn’t going to get a straight answer out of her.
Astrid slid the data slate towards him. Isaak grabbed it. It displayed a picture of a single-floor concrete building, a muted facade in a minimalist architectural style he recognised.
“MCM?”
She smiled. “You know your shit.”
The place looked like a Le Corbusier, or more likely someone’s attempt at recreating one.
He’d learned about mid-century modern from Astrid herself, or rather from the books she kept in her flat.
He pushed the memory of visiting her there away – it wasn’t welcome. The time he spent there was unpleasant.
“The details of what you’ll be doing there are in the slate. Best get to it.” She clapped her hands, ordering him around like a servant.
He balled his fists, hidden from view in the depths of his leather jacket’s pockets. Chill.
“Wait. The… bot.” He pretended to believe her. “Should I expect more of them, doing these gigs for you?”
The sarcasm in the smile on her face couldn’t have been more obvious.
How could he possibly have been interested in her when they first met, before she dragged him into this world?
“No, no, don’t worry. That was a one-time occurrence.
These folk you’re stealing from are very dumb.
” She pronounced every word clearly like she was talking to a child.
The heists Astrid had him do were simple but unpredictable, playing out as they did in the complexity of the Tapeworld.
As folks discovered this place, they used it to hide or exchange secrets they didn’t want leaked, plans they didn’t want ruined, transferring data in and out.
It was their mistake, trusting it, when so little was known about it.
“And the target two nights ago wasn’t dumb?”
She looked visibly annoyed. “Must you insist on bringing that up again?” Her voice strained. “I get it, Ike. You had to shoot a very human, very realistic-looking bot, and that’s messing with you. Look, I can find someone else to do this for me. I don’t want to, but if you’re going to force me to…”
His insides clenched. He needed the money. “No. I’ll do it.” He tried to sound as confident as he could, but it still sounded like a surrender.
That smile played on her face again. “Great. Now, chop-chop! See you around.” Astrid waved. “Bye-bye!”
He walked out.
No one outside paid him any attention. The majority of people striding the mainway were either doing so with a purpose, whether business or pleasure, or just gaping at the scenery with their mouths hanging open.
The latter would be on their first or second stride, the novelty of the place still fresh.
He was the least interesting thing in there to those people.
He found a suitable place, away from everyone else, and ripped the piece of tape from his head.
The data slate recommended that he carry out the heist sometime during the next day. Wiped out from playing in the sand with Dylan, summoning a cat to spy on her, and talking with, or being talked at by, Astrid, his eyes drifted shut as soon as he hit the bed.