Page 55 of Maximus
“But you’re going to keep doing the computer shit?”
Max chuckled. “Yeah, I’m damn good at that shit.”
“Better than Con … hey, have you ever wanted to mess with someone?”
Max looked at him. “What do you mean?”
“Did you know Con put a kid’s song on Fury’s phone? Made it play louder and louder. It didn’t start their feud, but, dude, it escalated it.”
“I was not aware, no.” Max chuckled. “Sounds like something Con would do.”
“Right? I was thinking maybe payback would be sweet. Could you do something like that to Con’s phone?”
Max snorted. “In a heartbeat.”
Malice hooted with laughter. “But you got to wait until he’s on a mission with us so we can witness it.”
“Does he still go out into the field?” Max hadn’t seen Con in the field lately.
“Don’t know. I can let you know if it happens.” Malice laughed. “Oh, man, that would be something to see.”
Malice chatted about this and that. Max tuned him out and walked through the issue of supercooling that needed to be solved for his latest system. Although he answered appropriately when Malice asked him a question, he wasn’t really present. That was until they hit the hill overlooking the field where Abrasha met his justice.
Malice slowed down and shook his head. “Fuck, man.”
Max looked at the field. With a chemical spray, he’d written the Russian words “He is a warning.” Each letter was at least ten feet tall, and at the top was Abrasha, sacrificed to the Viking gods for all to see. Vultures circled above the carcass. They could have him.
Malice kept the van going up the hill and looked over at Max. “What did you do to Sokolov?”
Max shrugged. “Took him for a walk.”
“A walk?” Malice said and glanced in the rearview mirror. “Remind me never to go on a walk with you, okay?”
“Will do,” Max said and closed his eyes. They’d ditch the van, move to a sheltered spot, and then get some sleep. That night, he’d be with Elena again. That physical and emotional connection welled inside him as if it were alive and needed her to continue to exist. He would feed and care for that connection until the day he died. He had no empathy for the men he’d killed. They were unimportant. Elena, however, was a critical piece of his world. Right then, she was the only thing that mattered. Well, Elena and solving the supercooling issue that he’d started working on when he tuned out Malice.
CHAPTER 25
Elena sat outside the small farmhouse. The others had told her Max would be there at sunset. The sun had set about an hour ago, and he still hadn’t arrived. Val came out and sat down on the bench with her. “They’ll be here.”
Elena made a noncommittal noise and searched the darkness for Max and the other man.
Val leaned back. “Have you ever been to the States before?”
“No. I always hoped to move to London and take a position in a museum.” She leaned back with Val and tried to relax, but it was almost impossible.
“New York has galleries and museums. I’m not sure where Max is home-based, but that would be a great job market for you after you find the owners of the paintings.”
“He lives in New York,” Elena told her. “How do you not know that?”
“Max is a specialist. We don’t know much about him on purpose. If Guardian wanted us to know, we would. He trained with us, but he was separate. There were two in our group who were there but were held separately. It's weird but accurate.” Val chuckled. “We’re all weird in one way or another. Max justseemed to tune everything out. A couple of us thought he was on the spectrum.”
Elena shook her head. “No. He was bored.”
“Bored?” Val laughed. “Those were some of the most intense classes I’ve ever been through.”
Elena shrugged. “He works on problems in his mind when he’s bored.” Or didn’t have a connection with the people he was with, which was interesting. Max worked with those people, but he wasn’t connected to them.
“There they are,” Val said, standing up.