The Trade (9 page)

He thought about her lips on his dick and
worked his fingers inside her. She grabbed his hand and pulled it
out of her and guided his middle finger onto her most tender spot.
Jay wasn't certain exactly what to do.

She started working his finger in little
circles. First around one way, then around the other, with just the
slightest pressure. After a minute she left him to his own
patterns, flopping her head back against him in pleasure. He
flicked and prodded and gently pushed and rocked his finger back
and forth. The water and soap made her so slippery to his touch.
Jay moved his hand faster and faster, now back and forth, now in
circles. Maria was raising onto her toes, being racked with
convulsions. Jay had never seen a woman this way, he didn't even
know they could feel this way. Her excitement was infectious. He
hardened again, firm against her ass.

He wanted to throw her down on the bed and
pump and rock until he blew again and then sleep until noon. But
she forced his hand back against her mound. He kept working it. She
kept shaking and shivering and rising up on her toes and wiggling
her ass against him until she wailed out loud in shrieking animal
pleasure as the last of several ever larger orgasms washed over her
in an exquisite climax. Her body slumped back against him, her hand
finally releasing his.

"Now you can have me,” she whispered. The
words came out heavy and sensual and tired. Jay didn't need to be
told twice. He helped the weakened Maria into the bed where she lay
on her wet back, half unconscious from the shower. She spread her
legs and guided him deep inside her. He started slow but quickly
abandoned the easy rhythm. The urgency was on him.

They worked together, picking up the rhythm
until the bed shook and the lamp on the bedside table rocked and
fell to the floor. At last Jay could feel the incredible welling
pressure again. At that very instant it seemed that Maria's insides
ran liquid on him. It was running out of her, dripping off his
dick, soaking the sheets between her legs.

He came in a massive convulsive fit. His
entire body tensed in giant spasms, throwing him back and forth
across the bed. He hadn’t even known a man could come twice in one
night.

They lay there, exhausted, sated, soaking
wet. Neither one could move. A riotous thunderstorm later deluged
the city with three inches of rain and hundreds of lightning
strikes. Neither of them heard it. Sometime during the night one of
them pulled up a blanket to cover them.

In the room next door, not three feet from
where Jay and Maria lay comatose from their sexual escapades, two
men looked up from the electronic equipment they had been
monitoring.

"Holy shit,” the one said.

"Holy shit indeed!" the other said.

"And what a babe,” the first said. They each
thought dirty thoughts for a minute.

“
That was not in his
profile,” the one said.

“
Guess it answers the ‘is
he hetero’ question,” the other said.

“
Definitely not in the
profile,” the one said.

“
Definitely not,” the other
aped.

"The boss ain't gonna like this,” the one
said.

"Might have to get the blonde back on him
sooner than they wanted,” said the other.

"Think she'll do that?" he asked, pointing to
the wall.

"She better. The kid'll be mooning all over
Manhattan for this piece of ass if she don't.”

"Yeah. We better call the boss on this
one."

Jay awoke to an empty bed. His mouth tasted
of beer. His back was sore, his dick felt raw. A large smile slowly
spread across his face as he heard water running in the shower and
his mind drifted back to the incredible night he'd spent with
Maria.

He pulled his naked body out of bed and
shuffled into the bathroom. He could see her small tight body
limned through the steamy shower door.

"I have to go the bathroom. Don't look okay?"
he called over the shower door.

"Okay stud,” she answered. "But be quick
about it and get your ass in here.”

The morning began the way the night had
ended. They screwed long and hard in the shower, in the bed, on the
couch in the living room, on the floor. By noon they were
exhausted, chaffed and so hungry that for the first time they
thought about something other than sex. Nothing in Jay’s few
hurried experiences in college had prepared him for this.

"What do you want to do for breakfast?" he
asked.

"Order Chinese. Lots of it. I don’t care
what. A big variety. And wake me up when it gets here," she
answered. Jay watched Maria's naked butt disappear into the
bedroom. By Sunday night Jay had known Maria in every way there was
to know a woman, more than one of which ways he’d not even imagined
just the day before.

"I've gotta go to work tomorrow,” Jay
Calloway said. Maria looked up him from the bed.

"So what are you saying?" she asked, suddenly
suspicious and defensive.

"I'm saying that I've gotta get up at seven
and go to work.”

"So you want me to go home?" Maria asked too
quickly.

"No no no. That's not what I'm saying. I've
gotta get to bed and get my clothes ready and everything. You're
welcome to stay. Don't you have to work tomorrow too?"

"Yeah. But I thought I might call in sick if
you did.”

"I can't.”

"Why not?" she teased hopefully.

"I can't,” he managed to blurt out. "It's my
first day at this new job. I can't call in sick.”

"Okay, okay,” she pouted. "One more time,
then give me a ride home and then you can meet me for dinner and
dessert after your first day.” Jay knew what she meant by
dessert.

Later, after they'd finished, and he'd driven
her to where she'd parked her car on Friday night, Jay got ready
for his first day on the job. He had no idea that he'd never see
Maria alive again.

"You sure about the address?" the serious
looking woman asked.

"Yes.”

"Alright then, you know what to do. Make it
look like a robbery.”

"Yes ma'am.”

“
And maybe leave a shirt or
something of his over there. Something with some DNA on it. Just in
case we ever need to help NYPD out with a cold case…”

“
Yes ma’am.”

Chapter

The newest employee of MacKenzie Lazarus
walked into the twelfth floor reception area.

"Good morning,” Bill Beck beamed at Jay
Calloway. "Ready to get to work?" Bill asked.

"You know it,” Jay answered. The two men
shook hands and then Bill walked Jay to his office.

"I'm sure people will be dropping by to say
hello and all that but I'd really like you to get focused right
away on a big problem we've got,” Bill said.

"Point me towards danger,” Jay said. The
'problem' was already on Jay's desk.

Bill explained, "this system doesn't work as
well as it should. We've got 40,000 person hours on this project
and 10 million invested in hardware. This system should work like a
champ, but it doesn't. We want the system to be faster than our
competitors’. Much faster if possible, but even just a little
faster is a big win. We want it to reach its decisions a full
second before other currency trading programs. This is also a
political hot potato. People are pointing fingers at each other all
over the place on this one.”

"Great. So what's my goal and timeline?" Jay
asked. He'd been listening intently.

"Simple. We need you to figure out what's
wrong with it and if possible, how to fix it.” Jay sat down at his
desk and surveyed the equipment arranged around him and the stacks
of design documents, source code listings, system diagrams, and
user manuals. "I think you've got everything you need,” Bill
said.

"I'm on it boss,” Jay said. He took off his
jacket, pulled a pencil from his shirt pocket protector and started
to work. Bill left him bent over the documents. It was 8:05 am. At
12 noon, Bill came back. Jay was still bent over the documents but
now there were several piles and three or four empty diet coke cans
and two of the computer monitors had screens from the system up and
running. Bill was impressed.

"Lunch time,” Bill announced. Jay literally
jumped out of his chair. He'd not heard Bill approach and had been
scared nearly half to death. Bill jumped back. The two men looked
at each other, shock and confusion in Jay's eyes, surprise and the
hint of a growing grin on Bill's face. He'd heard Jay could get
absorbed in his work. It was nice to see, if somewhat amusing and
disturbing at the same time.

"Holy shit you scared me,” Jay panted.

"Sorry,” Bill laughed. The fright was gone as
quickly as it had come. "Thought you might want to get some lunch?"
Bill asked.

"No thanks Bill. I'm going to go up to the
fitness center and stretch and jog and then catch a sandwich at my
desk a little later. What's the deal on lunch hours anyway? Half
hour? Hour?"

"Depends,” Bill answered. "I don't really
care how long you take or when you get here or when you go home or
whether you work at home. I profoundly do not care. My only care is
that you do insanely good work, and lots of it. I would like to be
able to get a hold of you in an emergency. But, I will give you as
much rope as you want, as long as you're getting your work done.
This place is pure performance based with dollars as the measuring
stick.”

"Cool," Jay answered. "I've been looking at
this stuff and I've got some ideas on where to look first so I'm
gonna hit the pavement and see what boils up out of the grey
matter.”

"Better keep your mind and your eyes on the
traffic,” Bill cautioned.

"No worries,” Jay answered.

"Catch you later,” Bill called after the
younger man who was now moving stiffly down the hallway away from
him.

"I'll bet he goes jogging every day at noon
like a little robot,” Dan Landford said.

"Probably will,” Bill answered. “You know
these geniuses. They are obsessive, repetitive, and
predictable.”

“
Until they do something
crazy.”

“
Exactly.”

The day stretched towards five o'clock. Six
came and went. Jay hardly noticed the others in his hallway saying
their goodnights and drifting away. He was deep inside the problems
of his assigned system. Bill approached Jay's office, careful to
jingle his keys and scrape his feet so as not to surprise and scare
Jay again. He looked in and there was Jay still bent over the
papers. All the monitors were running now. Yellow post-it notes had
appeared throughout the documents. There were a couple of diagrams
on his whiteboard. Jay looked up and saw Bill. He looked at his
watch, rubbed his eyes, leaned back in his chair and put his feet
up on top of some of the documents on his overcrowded desk.

"So?" Bill asked.

"So ask me in another couple of days,” Jay
shot back. "This is a pretty complicated little system you
know.”

Bill noted the edge in Jay's voice and
attributed it to tiredness and the effort of his intensity. He
instinctively backed off, even though he had meant nothing by his
questioning. Bill waited.

"There seem to be some minor flaws here and
there, but I haven't come across any fundamental design problems
yet. I figure it'll take me about a week to ten days to get all the
way through this stuff once,” Jay said more calmly.

"That long?" Bill said noncommittally, trying
to keep the conversation moving.

"Yep. 40,000 programmer hours in about week.
That’s about right. I can do it fast, or I can do it right. I think
this thing needs doing right,” Jay finished. Bill shook his head in
agreement. "And speaking of doing, I've got a date,” Jay leered,
happy with his pun. The two men left the office together.

Jay sat himself at a table where he could
face the door. He was mildly surprised that Maria wasn't already
there as he was five minutes late himself. Maybe she had already
come and left, he thought. No-one would leave after just five
minutes, he realized. Jay ordered a soda and some chips and settled
in to wait. His mind drifted back to the incredible weekend of sex
and he felt the recently familiar heat growing inside him. The
waitress brought his drink and snack and asked if he was ready to
order. He said he'd wait because he was meeting his date. The
waitress gave him the once over and wondered if it was a guy date
or a girl date.

While he waited, Ted Spencer appeared,
spotted him, and joined him.

“
Revisiting the scene of
the crime?” Ted leered.

“
What crime?” Jay
said.

“
Alright, revisiting the
scene of the conquest.”

“
What are you talking
about?” Jay said.

“
Don’t even pretend you
didn’t nail that chick from Friday,” Ted said. “How was
she?”

Jay tried to keep a straight face, couldn’t,
and broke out into the conquest grin known to so many lonely twenty
somethings hanging out in bars with other lonely twenty
somethings.

“
She was hot.”

“
You waiting for
her?”

“
Yep.”

“
Good luck with that. This
is New York baby. You’re never going to see her again.”

“
You think?”

“
She probably crossed this
bar off her list just so she wouldn’t run into you
again.”

“
Really?”

“
Yep. Lots of bars. Lots of
guys just like you. A little fun, no attachment, head on home to
the husband or boyfriend or whatever.”

“
That’s kinda
cold.”

“
Like I said, this is New
York. But, if by some miracle she does show you can use my ‘snake
pit’ uptown, anytime.”