The Remote Seduction (4 page)

*****

That morning in the FSSU command center
the techs, Richard and Walter are buzzing about Katrina's success with the
Hacker Heaven program.

An agent enters, approaches Richard and
hands him a box.
 
“This just came
for you, sir.”

Richard opens the box.
 
He removes a remote. It looks very
similar to the remote Felix stole.

“That's not the original is it?” Walter
asks.

“Of course not,” Richard snips.
 
Richard reads aloud the post-it note
stuck to the remote. “Richard, congratulations on finding your Holy Grail
hacker. I will be in touch with further instructions as to how to locate and retrieve
the remote.
 
The Hacker Heaven
program will play a vital role to that end. Felix”

Richard glares at Walter and the
techs.
 
“We must secure Katrina
Brice at any cost, financial or otherwise.

At the same time, in the Chick Lit
Bookstore…

Katrina, looking both tired and
triumphant, stacks books on a shelf in the back corner of the store.
 
She hears the bell on the door
indicating someone has entered the store.

She puts the books down and then turns
the corner.

She bumps smack into Felix.
 
The collision causes Katrina to lose
her balance so Felix protectively grabs her in his embrace holding her
close.
 
Their eyes lock; the moment
they do, everything around them, everything in the world seizes to exist.
 
Both of their hearts quicken, pounding
in unison.
 
Their very depths are
being pulled together through their eyes.
 
The energy their joined bodies and souls is creating is combustible, the
sparks lighting up the heavens.

Felix pulls her closer, the urge to kiss
her overwhelming him.
 
She doesn’t
resist; she’s transfixed by his dark eyes and the intense emotionally and
erotically charged connection.

The bell rings again, someone else has
entered the store, shattering Felix and Katrina’s unforgettable moment.
 
“Hello, Miss Brice.”
 
Sully calls for Katrina.

Katrina, her cheeks flaming and her
breathing shallow, pulls away from Felix.

“Excuse me,” she barely whispers as she
hurries to the front of the store.

Katrina joins Sully.
 
“Good morning, Mr. Reeves.”
 

“Wow, are your cheeks red.
 
Did you have wine for breakfast?” Sully
quips.

In Felix’s location, out of sight from
the front of the store and from Sully and Katrina, he looks around.
 
He turns a corner around a case of
books and that’s when he sees it - the Paolo Francesca replica painting hanging
on the wall.
 
He gasps. He has to
grab onto the edge of a shelf, seeing the painting has actually made him go
weak in the knees.
 
That in itself
in an incredible feat as Felix is one who prides himself on being assured and
self-controlled.

A flood of thoughts race through Felix’s
mind causing his heart to pound faster.
  
Who is this Katrina Brice?
 
She’s mastered his program, he just had an intense, haunting
encounter with her and a painting that has deep significance to him hangs in
her store…could it be????
 
It would
make perfect sense.
 
His eyes
soften as he whispers, “Francesca.”

Felix is snapped from his thoughts by the
sound of Katrina and Sully conversing.
 
He regains his focus and discreetly peeks around a row of bookshelves to
spy on Katrina and Sully.
 
He takes
his handheld super smart tailor-made computer phone and points it at Sully. The
device indicates that Sully is wearing surveillance equipment - with the
surveillance being fed to the FSSU.
 
As he figured.

Felix purposely knocks down a stack of
books causing a clamor.
 
Katrina
turns towards the noise in the back of the store.

“Are you not alone?” Sully asks.

“No.
 
There's a customer in back,” Katrina heads for Felix's
location.
 
Sully follows.

Felix ducks down a different aisle and
strategically makes it out of the store before Katrina - or Sully - sees him.

“I wonder where he went?” Katrina sighs,
disappointed that the man has left.

“I'm wondering if I owe you a hotdog?”
Sully feigns curiosity.

“You do, but it's a bit early for one.”

“I have a proposition for you,” Sully
says. Katrina shoots him a look, after that mind-blowing encounter the last
thing she wants is to flirt with this guy.
 
It would take Paolo himself to sway her from thinking about
the mysterious man who just captured her mind, her heart, her soul, her body in
mere seconds.

Sully, noting Katrina’s expression,
realizes his charm isn’t working at the moment.
 
“A business proposition,” he amends.

A handful of people enter the store,
they’re in the midst of animated conversation about a book. “I have a book club
meeting to convene.
 
You can
propose your business at lunch.
 
In
the park.
 
At the same bench,”
Katrina offers.

“You have a date,” Sully smiles, trying
to make it flirtatious.

Katrina grabs a book off of a display and
hands it to Sully.
 
“For you.”

Sully takes the book and looks at the
title - The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women. “Is Lillian Hellman in
here?”

“Read it and find out,” Katrina suggests.

*****

Mid-morning in the city park…

Sully sits on the park bench reading the
anthology.
 
He's actually engrossed
by the material.

At the same time in the FSSU command
center…

The tech seated at the computer is also
reading the anthology since he has a good view of the book via Sully's American
flag pin surveillance camera.

Richard joins the tech; he shakes his
head at the two readers. He shouts into the microphone connected to Sully’s
earplug.
 
“Sully!!”
 
Richard watches on the monitor as his
holler shakes Sully to attention, he nearly drops the book.
 
“Remember we don't want her to know
about the FSSU so continue to use your prior cover,” Richard instructs.

“I got it,” Sully answers.

“Good.
 
You do not want to screw this up. Understand me?” Richard
threatens.

On the park bench…

From the look on Sully’s face he more
than understands and the weight of that threat rests heavy in his
expression.
 
He returns his
attention to the book.

Later in the morning, close to lunchtime…

Katrina approaches Sully. She smiles when
she notices that he's not only reading the anthology, he's quite engrossed by
it.
 
“Hello, Mr. Reeves.”

Sully looks up from the book.
 
His eyes are blood-shot as if something
in the book made him sad.

“What's wrong?” She asks, concerned.

He tries to discreetly wipe is eyes.
“Allergies,” he lies.

Katrina takes a seat on the bench and
looks at the page Sully is reading.
 
She now gets it. “Ah, Margaret Fuller.”

“She goes to Italy to write, falls in
love with an Italian and then they die in a shipwreck on the way back to
America. It's so tragic,” Sully elaborates.

“She found her great love and they died
together,” Katrina says with a sigh.

“You are a romantic,” Sully affirms with
a twinkle.

“The only thing I am is hungry,” she
replies politely and professionally.

“Aren't you curious about my
proposition?” Sully asks.

“I will be, after we get our hotdogs.”

Moments later Sully and Katrina sit on
the bench eating hot dogs and sharing an order of French fries.

“I am, as you know, involved with
Hamilton Dynamics,” Sully begins.

“One of the primary stock holders,”
Katrina remembers.

“We would like to secure your services to
help us steal a top secret remote control that was ours to begin with. The
remote is located in an ultra secure location that is still to be determined,”
Sully shares.
 

“I'm a white hat hacker, not a black hat
hacker.
 
That sounds suspiciously
like a black hat project and way out of my comfort zone,” Katrina replies.

“It was stolen from us by the person who
masterminded the Hacker Heaven program,” Sully informs Katrina.

“Sorry, not interested,” Katrina asserts.

“Your skill in mastering all ten levels
of Hacker Heaven makes you the only one capable of helping us,” Sully pleads.

“I swim in the hacker circle.
 
I could give you some names of people
who are just as skilled as I am,” Katrina offers.

“We will make it worth your while,” Sully
states, almost like a threat.

“I usually find that the more money
offered and the more desperation that is detected in one's voice usually means
that the risk is not worth it,” Katrina hands the Hacker Heaven disc to Sully
and then stands up.
 
“Thank you for
the hot dog.”

Katrina walks away from Sully.

Sully speaks quietly into his
surveillance pin.
 
“What do we do
now?”

In the FSSU command center…

Richard and Walter watch the monitor,
having witnessed the entire exchange between Sully and Katrina.

Richard answers Sully.
 
“We do what we did in Copenhagen.”

“No way. I am not seducing her into
helping us,” Sully objects.

“You seem to enjoy charming her what's
the difference?” Richard asks.

“What's the difference?
 
There's a big difference!” Sully
defends.

“I'd bang her. She's certainly lovely
enough,” Walter interjects.
 

“That's not the issue,” Sully sighs, not
happy with the direction of the conversation.

“You didn't seem to have any ethical
issues in Copenhagen,” Richard points out.

“That woman wanted to be seduced and
didn't give a rat's ass what the motivation was. Katrina's different. Besides,
she's too bright to fall for it,” Sully counters.

“Not if you lead her to believe that you
are Paolo.
 
He's her Achilles
heel,” Richard explains.

“That's not fair,” Sully is pissed.

“We either pull a Copenhagen or go the
other route,” Richard threatens.

“This isn't right.”

“You don't protect freedom and democracy
by doing what is right, Sully,” Walter interjects again.

Richard intensifies his threatening tone.
“You were dishonorably discharged and should be rotting in a military jail
cell. We expunged your record.
 
You
do not want to be booted from this unit. You have twenty four hours.”

Sully doesn’t answer.

“Understood?!” Richard hollers, his veins
nearly bursting from his temples.

“Yes, understood,” Sully responds,
although he’s completely pissed about it.

Sully removes his American flag pin and
earplug, having had enough of Richard.

Inside the FSSU command center…

Richard turns his attention to the
tech.
 
“Can we intercept the emails
and texts that Paolo sends to Katrina?”

“Yes,” the tech answers.

“Can we send her an email from Paolo?”
Richard asks.

“Yes. What would you like it to say?”

Richard thinks for a moment.
 
“Something about how he can't cyber
chat this evening because he hopes to have a date. Make it romantic. And
encouraging. We want Katrina to be inspired, to plant the seed that Sully is
Paolo.”

*****

In the Chick Lit Bookstore…

Katrina works at her computer.
 
She gets an email from Paolo, which
seems strange to her, he usually texts/instant messages her.

Paolo’s email:
 
I will not be able to chat this evening, I'm hoping to have
a rendezvous. My heartfelt hope is that if the opportunity arises, you may have
one as well. It is time for the flower to blossom, Francesca. Perhaps it will
blossom this evening.

Katrina studies the email, a bit
perplexed by it.
 
Dorothy enters
the store and joins Katrina.
 
“What's with the furrow?” She asks, concerned by Katrina’s expression.