Encrypted Connection

Joey: Five

"Just put the laptop on the nightstand and go get what I need", Joey told Silvo through the mic while typing some more on his keyboard.

"I could also wake him nicely and tell him you got something", Silvo hesitated.

Joey glared in the direction of the mic and scowled. "Oh come on, where would be the fun in that? Stop fearing the guy. He likes me, remember?", Joey snickered before hearing Silvo grumble.

Footsteps, a door being opened, some more noises, then one of his screens finally lit up.

The image of Blaise sleeping appeared.

"Oh look at him. Cute little princess. Alright, I got this. You go now.", he ordered Silvo before squinting at the screen for a bit.

"Geez, you look like you got a hangover. Glad I don't have the smell." he commented before whistling loudly close to the mic.

"Wake up, hi, good morning, we have work to do!"he singsang loudly, pleased to see the guy jump and look around a bit confused.

"Yeah, here. On the nightstand. What's that? Disappointed I'm not in that bed next to you? Did you dream of me?", he teased before tapping on the mic.

"No time to flirt, playboy. Baby's got some new info for you, and as you so nicely ordered, I'm running it by you first.", he explained before waving at Blaise when the man finally turned his face to the screen.

"Oh gosh, you look terrible. This is what you get for spending your nights with horny women.", he stated.

Then he rubbed his hands and smiled. "You can carry me to the kitchen if you need coffee but we're on a schedule here. Guess what? Something interesting happened last night. Our guy Serkov got a call. Didn't last long enough for me to trace it but some guy with a thick accent told him 'Matroska' was coming today and Andrei had to take care of her.", he announced.

"So at first, I thought Matroska was a nickname for Madame K. But right after he got the call, Andrei called a trim salon in the suburbs. Something rather exclusive, specialized in very ridiculously expensive dogs. I ran a quick check but it looks legit. As legit as a business that doesn't advertise anywhere and is situated in a building with no windows on the outside and underground parking to guarantee the privacy of their clients. So since I doubt our Miss K likes to have her hair done by a dog stylist, I figured Matroska had to be her dog. I did some research and you wouldn't believe the shit people do for their pets. BUT two years ago, our Andrei did pay a lot of money for an animal visa to get a pup to America all the way from Russia. Just before Christmas. Probably a gift for that crazy old bitch.", Joey snorted.

"Matroska is declared to be a pure blood Bolonka dog. It looks like a regular dog but the kind only rich crazy ladies would enjoy. Now that dog salon is probably where that ugly little thing gets its paws and whiskers done. And that's when I had an idea.".

He emailed all the research he did to Blaise, knowing the man would check himself and whine a bit about warrants and such.

He was starting to figure out how the man thought.

"I sent Silvo to get a few things. My first idea was to use the microchip all pets get, especially the ones that crossed the border, to track the dog. But as you may know, pet microchips are not tracking devices. They are radio-frequency identification devices. Also called RFID. Implants, if you prefer. I checked, and I can't pimp it out in order to use it. BUT if we can get close to that dog, we might be able to change that. So I sent Silvo to get me three things, a GPS tracker for pets and a slice of salmon being the first two. Why? Because according to the pet salon's records, our little Matroska doesn't eat dog cookies. Only raw salmon and chicken. You shove that tracker in the tender flesh of a salmon and the smell should trick that little beast into eating it just fine. Of course, fancy or not, it will shit it out in a few days, but unless they have someone to scoop her poop and search it, no one will notice. I doubt our Madame K will want to stay away from her furry baby too long, so I'll have just enough time to give you a location of where Andrei will send that dog back to.", he announced with a grin.

Then he grimaced.

"Which gets me to the last thing I sent Silvo to get, and I have a feeling you're gonna bitch about this one", he admitted.

"The only way to get into the salon is as a client. I kinda...sorta hacked their scheduling system to add an entry for the same day and same hour as Serkov's appointment. Then I got you a dog. Now before you start yelling, I had to work fast and find a purebred dog that would fit in that salon and get the attention of Serkov and with a pedigree I could adjust to what we need. It's actually a shelter dog, someone dropped him off two days ago. You can just...give him to the critters and be a hero once we're done with it.".

Once he was done, he cracked his knuckles and reviewed everything he said in his head to make sure he didn't forget anything.

"The appointment is at 11am. It's 8:17. You're going to need a shower, big guy. And to learn your script. I'm finishing the last details on your cover story and ID. I'll be on time. What is sleep right?", he cackled before reaching outside the sight of the screen to get his coffee.

"I'll stay tuned the entire time in case we need adjustments, a diversion or whatever. You have an earpiece waiting for you in the kitchen. That big guy, Steve, was kind enough to get it ready. He asks a lot of questions, that one. You're all so eager to know me. I feel like I'm being screened to be admitted into some weird cult.", he joked before making a face and looking at Blaise.

"Oh since you were sound asleep, I got to choose your name for the day. Nice to meet you, Dr Banner. You were never my favorite Avenger, but the hulking out is totally your thing.", he nodded hard before raising one finger.

"First name, Judy. Because I don't want you to feel naked without your judge reference. Hey, I checked. There are men named Judy. They probably all died single and insane but I'm not judging.".

As soon as he finished his sentence, a terrible noise came from downstairs followed by a long serie or profanities.

Silvo walked in and came to stand before the laptop screen.

"I hate you. You hear me? You told me it was a dog. That's not a dog, Joey, that's a freaking horse! And she pissed in my car!", he shouted before something big, black and obviously very excited showed up, jumped on Blaise's bed and rolled onto her back, a very large head grinning in Blaise's direction.

"Looks like she adopted you! Good. Get to know her. You two are supposed to pretend to be best friends. Blaise, meet Blue. Blue, meet Blaise. You are a match made in Heaven, obviously", Joey laughed at the sight of the Great Dane crawling toward Blaise to get some love. That thing was huge and obviously unapologetic about it.

"That should definitely get Serkov's attention.", Joey laughed some more.

"You just let her jump on him while you feed the tiny ball of fur its daily share of salmon and GPS tracker and we're done. Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy and watch out for that tail. It looks like it could hurt and make a grown man cry.", he pointed out before wiping tears from his eyes.

Laughing that much kinda hurts. But did it feel good.

"Okay, all jokes aside, we really need to get moving now. If you can. Can you still feel your legs?", Joey asked cheekily as he leaned forward to place his chin in his hands so he could enjoy the show.