The Monster In Us

7- i am invisibLe

The next day, our plan is set and ready to roll. In the morning, everything goes as normal. I work on the Berardi site, I share some small talk with Denise, and then I'm off to a late lunch just as my computer tells me that it's one o'clock. Time to move.

I have a tracker in my purse so that Sergei and the guys know exactly where I am so as I'm moving, they know where I am and I don't have to actually tell them that I'm ready to go. I have my Bluetooth in to hear Sergei but if somebody hears me talking back to him, they might get concerned.

"The hallway is clear," Sergei says into my ear from the van they have parked outside. "Dante left with his father and a few other guys a few minutes ago, they're out of the building. I'm putting on the static video footage now and you're ready to go."

I step into the hallway, looking like I have a purpose in this hallway, a reason to be out here instead of at work or at lunch so that if anybody sees me, they won't get suspicious. Once I get to Dante's office door, I pull out my lock picking kit and I hope that this doesn't take very long.

I don't hear anybody coming but I know that even if somebody was coming, Sergei would be able to warn me from the van way before I would hear his or her footsteps down the hallway. I work on the lock for a few minutes but it doesn't budge. I knew that it'd be stubborn so I just have to be even more stubborn. I poke and prod on that motherfucker for five more minutes until it starts to budge.

"I'm in," I whisper into the Bluetooth as the lock finally gives way and the door opens. I quickly slip inside and shut the door behind me so that nobody notices that the room has been broken into. His office is smaller than his father's and I feel a little triumphant realizing that his office is also smaller than the one that I work in at the Renegade.

The walls are decorated with writings. Newspapers, journal pages, book covers, stuff like that. And then a few knives displayed in clear display cases. His desk is in the middle of the room and to the side, there's a tall, thin bookshelf full of books. Human hobbies too.

At his desk, I sit down in his very comfortable chair and I pull out the little device that I brought with me that inconspicuously plugs into the back of his computer and will transmit his screen to a computer back at Renegade. I plug that in first and then I turn the computer screen on to see if I can get through his log in.

I don't keep Sergei updated by talking into the Bluetooth because I don't want people in the hallway to hear a voice in an office that is supposed to be empty at the moment. I go through all of my known hacks to get into his computer and on my third try, I get in. His computer isn't very secure, it seems, so I wonder if he has anything important on here or if they're just that arrogant.

He does seem more of the body of the operation and not the brains, so it'd make sense if he doesn't have anything important here because all he does is whatever his father tells him to do. Not unlike me, I must admit.

"Look through the desk," Sergei orders me. "Maybe he has paper files that we can use."

I doubt that but I don't argue with Sergei, I just start opening the desk drawers that are stacked on the right side of the desk. The first drawer is just pens and pads of paper, the second drawer has a gun, some bullets, and a box of cinnamon Pop-Tarts. It still amazes me that this man acts with so much humanity despite the monster he carries with him.

In the third drawer, there is an old moleskin notebook and a few magazines. A porn magazine and two about sports. I flip through the magazines just to make sure that there's nothing hiding in the pages but I only touch a corner of the porn one and shake it to see if anything falls out, not willing to actually flip through it. The magazines are empty and so I move to the notebook.