Geek Mafia: Mile Zero | Page 8

it was hard to make out faces.
"What am I looking at?" asked Chloe.
"Watch this gallery here," said Bee, moving a cursor on the screen to point at the shabby front of one of the ships closest to the camera. "I think your friend's in there." They waited and watched.
"Jesus," said Chloe, "What's he doing, buying a painting or something? Are you sure he's in there?"
"I'm not sure - I've never seen anything but a sketch of him. That's why I called you over here, so you could see if it's really him."
"Why don't we just run the video back so we can see if it was him when he walked in?"
"That was going to be my next step - I was assuming he'd come back out any sec, but he's been in there a while," said Bee, mousing over the controls.
"Who would've thought he'd actually find something in one of those dumps to occupy him this long," said Chloe.
With a few quick clicks, Bee switched the adjacent monitor's display to show the same shot as the live feed. Then she ran it backward at x16 speed for a few seconds before stopping it. "There."
Chloe and Paul both leaned forward to look closer at the screen. It showed a couple walking down the alley from the direction of the marina. On the left was a broad built, attractive woman in her 30s who wore a nondescript sweatshirt and jeans with a backpack slung over one shoulder. Paul recognized her as someone who'd been introduced to him as Lily. Next to her stood an older man, long, stringy hair tied back in a ponytail, his potbelly protruding beneath a flower-print shirt. He smiled broadly and said something funny as the two walked past the Southernmost Wedding Chapel. It was, without a doubt, their old friend Winston.
"That's him!" said Chloe, excited. "Did you see how he got here? Which boat he came in on?"
"Yeah, hold on, lemme switch over to those cameras." A few clicks and keystrokes switched a third monitor away from its live feed of the marina to a moment in time twenty-seven minutes earlier. This camera, mounted in a plastic owl perched atop the Key Wharf Bar and Grille's roof not only kept the seagulls at bay, it provided video coverage of the dinghy docks. Here the many locals who lived on sailboats offshore could rent small slips for their boats, allowing them a reserved place to tie off when they came back onto the island.
They watched a small Zodiac putt-putt up next to the dock. As it got closer, they saw Winston and Lily sitting in the boat, along with another, older woman Paul didn't recognize. They clambered out of the small rubber boat and waved goodbye to the boat's pilot. He reversed his outboard engine and pulled away from the dock, turning back out into the darkness. Lily and Winston looked around and stretched their backs and necks, as if they'd been sitting for quite a while. Or they might've been contorting themselves for show, giving them an excuse to look in every direction and take in their surroundings. Finally they started walking, heading toward Artist's Alley.
"No sign of what boat they came in on?" asked Chloe.
"I can look around, but probably not," said Bee. "They're most likely anchored out there somewhere, beyond my cameras. Of course, if we installed on the channel markers like I said..."
"One thing at a time, Bee," said Chloe. "Great catch though. Did you use your facial recognition software on that?"
"No," said Bee "I've just been watching the waterside cameras while I do some other stuff. You said he was coming in by boat."
"And so he has," said Chloe. "We should go surprise him! Before he comes out of that place."
"Good plan," said Paul. "I wonder though, how would Winston like the idea that he was being watched by a network of hidden cameras, �� la Big Brother?" Paul asked. Winston wasn't his real name, of course. He'd taken the alias decades ago when he first went underground, naming himself after Winston Smith, the protagonist of George Orwell's novel 1984.
Chloe stared at Paul for a moment, thinking about what he'd said. "Good point. Nobody mention the cameras."
"Agreed," said Paul. "Now let's hurry. I know the old stoner who owns that place. If we leave those two old hippies alone, they'll talk for the rest of the night." He held out a hand and helped Chloe out of Bee's cushion pile.
"We'll be back in a while, Bee," said Chloe. "You have the con."
"Aye, aye, captain," Bee said. "I'll watch your back."
And Paul knew that she would. Sadly, that's almost the only thing that Bee did these days - watch.
Chapter 04
OLD TOWN - the heart and soul of Key West and the place most visitors