Clandestine Meetings in Public Squares

“Come to finish me off, have you?” I ask, my eyes frantically saccading as I try to find a weapon, a way out, something to turn the odds in my favour.

But I don’t know who around me could be an enemy. I try to break Ricardo’s grip on my shoulder, twisting to the side, but his fingers grasp me tight, preventing me from wrenching myself away.

“Listen, I’m on your side, Claude,” Ricardo says, sounding frustrated.

“Why should I believe you?” I mutter, wildly swinging my arm upwards, breaking Ricardo’s grip.

I duck to the side, but he shoves a crumpled piece of paper in my face before I can take a step away.

“Because of this,” he says.

I stare at the man with doubtful eyes. He is attractive in an unconventional way, with soft curves to his face and large glasses that give him a nerdy look, but I also spy the cords of bulging muscle lining his arms. The simple grey t-shirt that he wears could fit in just about anywhere.

“Erin said you’d understand it,” he says, as I take the piece of paper out of his hands. “I don’t really get it, though.”

I slowly unfold the piece of paper, revealing the thing in all of its glorious blankness, wrinkles and folds and all. I pretend to study the paper for a few long seconds, when in reality, I’m trying to figure out what in the world is going on.

“I didn’t know Erin knew this code,” I say, passing the piece of paper back to him, tentatively deciding to trust him.

“She said Mr. Samuel taught it to her.”

“You decided not to accept the deal that Salome gave you,” I say. “And then you decided to find me because, what? You felt guilty about trying to sell me out?”

Ricardo takes a brief look around, but no one is paying the least bit of attention to us. Everyone is busy chanting slogans or making signs or eating lunch. Nobody cares about the weirdos speaking English.

“I accepted Salome’s deal,” he says. “I’m more useful as a double agent.”

“But you and Erin and Genevieve… they said you had a falling out, that you weren’t talking to each other anymore… who are you even a double agent for?”

“For Erin and Genevieve and you,” Ricardo says, as if it is blindingly obvious. “Look, the three of us staged a bunch of fights on the lines that your Father could monitor. But it was all playacting for the cameras. There was never a falling out. As soon as Erin lost contact with you because your phone broke, we’ve been trying to figure out how to restore contact. We decided that this would be the best way.”

With that, Ricardo digs into his pocket and hands me a phone.

“Fuck me,” I say, realising that all of my panic had been for nothing. “I didn’t have to hide that message in Salome’s painting?”

“What message?” Ricardo asks.

“Never mind,” I say, shaking my head. I tap on the phone, and am met by a locked screen. “So, what’s the code for my new phone?”

“Not yours,” Ricardo laughs. “It would be mighty strange if you showed up back in the US with a different phone. No, we just link up this phone to yours, and it will sync up all the software that you need for us to get in touch again.”

“Simple as that, huh?” I say.

Ricardo nods, pulling a cable out from his pocket. He attaches the cable to his phone and then fiddles with it for a couple of seconds, typing on some kind of shell on his phone.

I stare at him while he works, silently wondering whether it was right for me to trust him. He’s made no mention of my real identity so far, and yet, this conversation would make no sense were I anyone else. If this was a trap to get me to reveal my identity, then I have already played into it, and there is nothing for me to do any longer. But if nothing else, Ricardo knew Mr. Samuel’s code, and that is something that I can trust.

“Your phone?” Ricardo asks me.

I pass it over to him without hesitation. He connects our phones together, and I see a progress bar begin to tick across both screens. It looks like it will take a couple of minutes for the transfer to complete.

“It’s a bit strange,” Ricardo says, rubbing his hand through his hair. “I’ve heard so much about you, but this is only the first time that we’re meeting.”

“I’ve heard lots of great things about you too,” I smile. “Makes the whole ‘we were just play-fighting’ thing a lot more believable.”

“You wouldn’t believe how hard it was to come up with something to fight over,” Ricardo says. “I’m half-surprised that Father and his men ended up buying into it.”

“What, you never argue with Erin or Genevieve?” I ask, finding that hard to believe.

“We disagree lots,” Ricardo says, “and we present arguments for our differing opinions, but there’s never any animosity, you know? We just talk it out.”

“That’s a foreign concept to me,” I say. “Seriously. Never a single fight?”

“Well,” Ricardo says slowly, rubbing his chin. “There was one time…”

“Oh yeah?” I ask, interested in what he has to say.

Just then, my phone emits a low chime as the data transfer wraps up.

“I would offer to buy you a beer and tell you all about it,” Ricardo says, “but I’m expected back at my hotel—” he checks his watch “—ten minutes ago now, so I should really get going…”

“Well, you’d better run then,” I say, and Ricardo nods.

“Catch you later,” he says.

“You’d better,” I call after him. “You still owe me that story!”

He melts into the crowd, leaving me with a massive sense of relief: I have a way to talk to Erin again!