witness || h.s.|| ON HOLD

seven || following your footsteps

  "You're in a rather chipper mood, I take it that your meeting with Grayson this morning went well?" I asked, and he gave us all a smug grin.

"Saying that it went well is a massive understatement," he answered, bringing his mug to his lips, tilted it back, and draining it of its contents, before placing it on the table.

"Grayson is completely on board with everything that I proposed to him. With both of our operations combined, we already outnumber Quinton with manpower by a landslide. But now, with this new software, we picked up, we will have more intel, connections, and cashflow than Quinton Beck has ever seen in his life, and we will bury him and his whole operation in the ground." He made an explosion gesture with his hands, awaiting our response.

   Everyone began to applaud, whooping cheers and throwing out congratulations.

    "So, what is this software exactly?" Abel asked, his computer geek self physically shaking with excitement.

   "Ah my young Abel," he began, making his way over to him and placing his hands on his shoulders. "What isn't it is the real question. Think of it as a nuclear bomb for security software. This software has the ability to take down any type of firewall, which would give us access to an endless amount of financial accounts, different operations intel, security procedures, hell, we can find out their Netflix passwords if we wanted to, just for the hell of it. But that's not even the best part. The best part is that it is a completely untraceable hack. We can see every part of their lives, but they will have no idea we exist. We will be like flies on the wall. The most powerful damn flies on the planet."

    Abel's jaw couldn't be any closer to the floor as Whit finished his speech. I was beginning to grow worried that he might faint. This was any tech guy's dream come true, especially in our line of work.

Whit just laughed as he took in Abel's reaction. "Exactly, Abel. It's a pretty big deal. Grayson is going to bring in a few of his tech guys in here within the next week or two, and you all can get started on figuring the software out, and then we can start using it. Word has it, Quinton is pretty pissed that his plan to kill James didn't work out, and I'm sure the news of our alliance with Grayson will get back to him soon enough, which I'm hoping will rattle him even more. He can put up his defenses all he wants, but once we have this software up and running, he's fucked, to say the least."

Taking down Quinton's operation would be one of the biggest wins the organized crime business had seen in years, and I think we were all as excited as Whit about it. We had never gotten along with Quinton, or any of his goons, numerous times throughout the years our groups had butted heads in many different areas. Whether it be one group stealing the others intel, someone striking a deal that cost the other to lose money, you name it.

We spent the rest of the day going over different terms of the alliance, making sure everyone was clear, Whit stressing numerous times that we better not fuck it up, laying out future plans for the software once we got it up and running, and pretty soon it was dark, and we all began to head our separate ways.

I twirled my keys in my hands as I made my way toward my car, a smug grin edging its way onto my face, as I eagerly looked forward to getting my knife back tonight, and finding out the truth about the girl who took it.

********************

Tate

I called goodbye to Sarah as she exited the restaurant, Sundays were my only day off, so I wouldn't see her again until Monday.

Proceeding with my usual routine of finishing off a day of work, I double-checked that I had everything with me, and I'm glad I did because my apartment keys were down on the floor by my feet, probably knocked off by me moving around in such a frenzy tonight during the dinner rush.