17
Dan needed to see Lenny Fava.
The idea tugging at his brain had now completely consumed it, swallowed it whole like a snake ingesting its own tail. Lenny Fava was the man for the job, Dan just had to pitch it to him. He needed to apologize too, for what he said last time they spoke.
Maybe he’d start with that.
Wind caught the canopy over the tiki bar against Building B, and Dan felt the first drops of rain since before the sun exploded splash against his face. God, they were cold, like condensation on a soda. He pulled closed his ill-fitting coat made from a duvet cover and dug his head into the wind, continuing his march toward the Main Building. It was lunchtime, and meals were being served in the ballroom since the riot destroyed Tlaloc. Maybe he could catch Lenny there.
From the corner of his eye, he caught movement in the darkness. Through the increasingly dense swirls of rain, Dan made out a figure at the base of Building C, hopping and waving and wriggling like an eel in a fish tank. As he got closer, he realized it was a woman, and she was wriggling for him, and he shouted at her, but rain snatched the words and drove them into the ground.
He groaned—What now?—and veered from his path, walked along the edge of the lazy river, past a storm grate that bellowed because, like everyone else, it didn’t want to work. He skipped over a puddle forming where one of the walkways to Building C met the courtyard.
“Lenny’s looking for you,” the woman said, standing aside as Dan entered the breezeway to shake off.
“ I’m looking for him ,” Dan said.
She glanced around—for guards, probably—and then said, “Follow me.”
There was no arguing with the woman, she was back in the rain before Dan could object. He followed her because she reminded him of a cafeteria lunch lady, the type with hollow cheeks and hard eyes who were usually very kind but who would also look at you in a way that suggested they’d feed your bones to their pit bulls if you didn’t start acting right.
She led him around Building C, to the east side, Dan was pretty sure, past some naked palm trees, and through an unlocked gate surrounding humming generators. There was a set of cement stairs leading down to a steel door marked BASEMENT, and the woman stopped before reaching them, pointed down, signaled for Dan to go on without her. Dan just stared at the woman because this is how horror movies start, but she pointed again, harder this time, a real forceful point indicating she wanted out of the rain, and Dan said, “Alright, alright, sheesh.”
“Inside and to the right,” the woman said, her voice the timbre of nicotine patches and vodka, and Dan waved over his shoulder.
The door screamed open and, yup, this was a basement, alright, a dimly lit hallway wrapped in cement and exposed wiring and adorned with Coke cans and cigarette packs and Frito bags. Dan considered turning back, considered telling the lady, No, thanks, have Lenny text me, or something, but the door slammed shut behind him. He sighed, found a drop of resolve, and inched forward, his fingers running along the wall to his right.
FUCK THE COLLINSES was spray-painted in black on the opposite side, and a little further down, another poet had written GREED KILLED THE SUN but they dotted the i with a heart, an interesting choice.
A streak of black shot over the ground and past Dan’s left foot, and he screamed, hugged the wall like it was his mother. When his vision refocused, he saw that it was just a rat, just a stinking little rat, and he was thankful he was alone.
“Yo, who is that?” Lenny’s voice. Growing louder from around the corner. “Oh! Danny boy! I thought I heard a little girl!”
Lenny barreled forward, his shoulders scraping opposite walls simultaneously. He tussled Dan’s hair. “How was your night in the slammer? Cold as shit today, huh? My balls are like ice cubes.”
“Hey, Lenny. I’ve been looking for you. First of all, about lunch yesterday—”
Lenny waved the apology away. “Forget it, forget it.”
“No. It was out of line. I shouldn’t have—”
“Ancient history, kid.” He yelled down the hallway. “Hey, guys, I got him!”
He led Dan around the corner and through an unmarked door. Oh. This is where they do laundry. Teal washing machines and dryers the size of hot tubs lined the walls, and in the center of the tiled room was a massive table for folding. Around that table stood more familiar faces: Charles and Lenny’s wife, Gloria.
“There’s our freedom fighter!” Gloria said, cigarette dancing in her mouth. “Look at him, my God. They put him in one of the tropical duvets. He looks like Freddie Mercury, ha. Hey, Dan, how’s your tummy?”
Dan lifted his shirt.
“Oh, honey,” Charles said. “You’re the color of Barney. Look what they did to you. Is Mara—”
“She’s okay. It was just—it was a long night.”
“Yeah, well, those assholes are gonna get theirs,” Lenny said, approaching a dry-erase board. It was covered in resort blueprints and Lenny’s insane scribbles.
“What are you guys doing here?” Dan asked. “How’d you break away from the guards?”
“They hardly check at lunch hour,” Gloria said. “Stuffing their faces, big pigs. But we gotta hurry this up, Len, because this room’s gonna be filled with the laundry crew again in about twenty.”
Lenny cleared his throat. “Right. Okay. Now that Dan’s here we can really dig in. Dan, man of the hour. Listen. I got a lead on some supplies for Molotov cocktails. We’re gonna burn ’em out, bro. My buddy in food service, he helped me steal—”
Dan waved his hands. “Whoa, whoa. Wait. No fires.” He took off his dripping coat. “Sorry. But—I’ve got news.”
Lenny capped his marker and folded his hands.
“Mara and I are getting married.”
There was an explosion of confused congratulations. Charles hugged him, careful around the torso. Gloria said, “Mazel tov,” Lenny said, “Get a load of this guy.” Dan sat down and explained everything—what Mrs. Betty said, the agreement with Lilyanna, his tour of Building A. He explained where Mara was too, and that they could expect invitations later that night.
“I know the deal I struck was selfish,” Dan said. “I know—I just—I saw an opportunity to save Mara. I had to.”
Charles shook his head. “Stop, stop. It’s fine. No one blames you. We’d all do the same.”
“She’s your girl,” Gloria said.
“This is all great, kid,” Lenny said. “No bullshit, I’m happy for you. But it doesn’t solve our problem.”
Dan rubbed his face. He was actually going to say it. “Yesterday. At lunch. You said you needed a diversion to steal back the supplies, right?”
Lenny grunted.
“You do it during the wedding.”
Charles gasped. Lenny’s eyes widened. He instinctively uncapped his marker.
“Everyone’s invited to this wedding,” Dan said. “The whole island’s going to be there. If there was ever a time to do it, it’s then. And I convinced them to have it out on the beach, away from the building, the tunnels. It’s risky, I know.” God, it was risky. Dan’s throat was dry talking about it. “But there’s something very important—”
He’d lost the attention of the room, everyone’s eyes shifted to the door. Dan turned. It was Mara, dressed in an insulated terrycloth coverall, and she was soaked. She dropped the food she was carrying and pounced on Dan, kissing the side of his face and neck.
“Oh, I’m sorry, your ribs,” she said, pulling away. She squeezed his head, looked deep into his eyes. “You really did have a plan.”
Dan said, “Yeah, of course I did,” because that sounded way better than “I needed yet another reminder of Building A’s avarice and wanton disregard for humanity before I considered inconveniencing my personal interests.”
“I love it,” Mara emphasized, kissing him one more time. “I love you.”
“Aw, see, now that’s nice,” Gloria said, ashing her cigarette. “It’s a good idea, Dan. Hey, Len, who do they remind you of at that age? I never looked that good soaking wet, but who do you see?”
Lenny held a fist to his mouth and leaned backward, giddy. “Oh, it’s a beautiful thing.” He turned back to the board and wrote furiously. “The beach is beautiful.” He went on, mumbling to himself.
Dan could get used to not feeling like a disappointment, that part was great, but Mara and Lenny’s enthusiasm rattled him. Was it a stupid idea? It was a stupid idea. He’d just made an agreement with Lilyanna about Mara—this wasn’t exactly toeing the line. But could Lilyanna even be trusted to make good on their agreement? And, actually, if the whole plane thing fell through, stealing back food was protecting Mara. His heart raced, he wished he could turn back time two minutes, he needed a quiet room to think this all through.
“How would you do it?” Dan asked.
Lenny turned. “What’s that?”
“The food,” Dan said. “There’s got to be hundreds of pounds of it.”
“Not just food,” Charles offered. “They took all the medicine on the island too. People are getting sick. The lady working that machine”—he pointed to one in the corner—“spit up something green this morning.”
“Food, medicine, whatever,” Dan said. “How would you take it?”
Lenny sniffed. “I got a crew.”
“He’s got a crew!” Gloria said with a laugh. “Listen to him. You sound like such a badass, Len. It’s so hot. Come here.”
“Is it the Avengers?” Dan asked. “Because you’ll need the Avengers.”
Lenny’s forehead creased. He looked around the room. “Kid, this is your idea.”
“I know. I just—”
“Danny,” Mara said. “Hey. It’s a good idea. Don’t doubt yourself.”
Oh, don’t doubt yourself. Why hadn’t Dan ever thought of that? Let me just turn off the doubt switch in the ol’ noggin. Ahh, that’s better.
“Look, bro,” Lenny said. “You just focus on gettin’ hitched. Look at this girl. Tomorrow’s the happiest day of your life, man, you don’t worry about nothing else. The Building C Jersey City deli owner’s got it under control. Okay?”
No, not okay. What was Dan thinking? There were so many problems here that he didn’t know where to start, but the most pressing among them was that Lenny and his band of merry men were connected to Dan and Mara, meaning Mara would almost certainly lose her seat on that airplane. Come to think of it, a seat on the airplane wouldn’t even matter, because Rico would make sure bullets had seats in each of their heads.
“They can’t know it was us,” Dan said, leaning across the table. “Lenny, I really need you to hear me on that. They cannot connect it back. Lilyanna caught us together at the hangar. I have to hedge my bets here, I need to stay in Lilyanna’s good graces, because Mara—”
“I don’t need you to save me,” Mara reiterated.
“We all need saving, honey,” Gloria said.
Lenny shot a finger gun at Dan. “It’s good to have someone on the inside, bro. What you got goin’ with Lilyanna, see, that’s good. I ain’t gonna mess that up. Like I said, I got a crew. I get dressed up real nice, got my girl on my arm, and I go to your wedding while’s they execute the plan. Ya see? Lenny’s got it under control. No problem.”
Dan sat back. “And if Rico decides to just open fire on everybody?”
Lenny tapped the side of his head. “I got it under control, boss.”