Can You Feel It?

06.

KAYA

I opened the door within seconds.

"Thank god you're finally here." I emphatically let him in, aware of the cameras watching as the gruff, beared man walked in.

Once the door closed, the man in plumber gear silently walked and opened his box of equipment on the centre table.

I simply followed, my face blank and feeling the way one might when the ocean skies are churning in preparation of heavy storms and downpour.

I couldn't name the feeling, only describe it to myself.

A burner phone was placed on the table as he finally turned to face me. The fake beard and make up did well to mask his actual features even though he wasn't some young man.

Bruno Alonzi had been Marcello's right hand man for as long as I could remember.

Before that, he'd been loyal to his father.

And yet, he was not as much a monster. He was more of a silent rock by their sides who always invoked a sensation akin to what people called mystery.

He didn't exchange pleasantries or ask me about my progress, Bruno - that mountain of a man - simply relayed what Marcello must have ordered him to.

"He's called Ace on the dark web. The best hacker America has been faced with in over a decade. His capabilities far exceed those of any hackers the Mafia has in their grasp. But he's unknown. Completely off the map, hidden. And now it's not just the Mafia after him but the Bravta, the FBI and the Irish Mob too."

Bruno looked around my space as he spoke, his face as blank as mine. I wasn't unaware that my apartment was bugged, Marcello had placed enough devices to keep track of me and my activities and they were the minute kind even I wouldn't be able to find. But that wasn't new for me, I'd been under scrutiny, denied privacy and lived like a puppet my entire life. It was times like these I was thankful I couldn't feel. Otherwise I would've probably felt like a bird trapped in a rusted cage, not even a golden one.

"We have a lead though. A man named Jones Hill, a hacker who has ties to the Bravta, has worked with him. All you need to know and do is that you're going to get this drive into his laptop," He handed me a small pen drive, "Once you seduce and drug him after a night of pleasure, of course. The drive needs 20 minutes to do all the work, you need to do nothing yourself."

I turned the drive over in my hand, nodded in acknowledgement. I've dealt with such cases before and unaware of the information as ever, been the perfect pawn.

He starts to walk out steadily, "I'll be back to get the drive on Wednesday as an electrician." He informed and I followed him till the door.

"Understood."

Bruno turned around once, his eyes scanning my face in that familiarly eerie way of his. He took something out of his pocket and placed it on the slab next to him but I didn't break eye contact with him.

"Good luck, Kaya."

And with that, he walked out of my apartment, leaving behind a pen drive and–

I finally looked towards the object on the multicolored marble slab.

–a Ferror Rocher chocolate.

He never forgets.

I felt it then, the sensation of drowning but only willingly. The kind that took me down memory lane, reminder of a mother who never failed to give me the same expensive chocolates so she could see me smile. So she felt like she wasn't an utter failure of a mother.