A Drone over New York
Chapter 7

Max had to think through his next steps. He needed to play with the bidders a bit. Play the game and let the price creep up. He needed time. He was going to need something portable too. The laptop was great for doing the work, but he needed a new tablet to access the drive discreetly.

He also needed to start to watch his back. There was something not right going on, and he needed to start taking precautions.

Max wondered back down to the technology shop, and the guy laughed when he asked about a tablet.

“Twice in a night? What’s happened, my friend?” the guy asked.

“Was broken into. Laptop and tablet were stolen. I just need something until my insurance can replace my stuff. Didn’t think I would need a tablet, but I do.”

The guy offered a small phablet as a replacement. It was cheap and had the right plugs for the USB drive. It was going to be perfect for what he needed.

“Tell you what,” the sales guy said as Max went to pay. “I’ve got an old T37 home security drone if you’re interested. Only $50. Just plug it in, set it to your wi-fi, and leave it on your window ledge. Anyone comes back, it will video them, but if they get too close or run a wi-fi blocker, the drone will fly away. Works brilliantly if they cut the power too. Super easy. Even my mother has one.”

Max paused for a moment. The guy was right. It might be worthwhile trying to replace out who it was coming after him. It wasn’t like he was about to be short of money. A few dollars spent wisely today was going to ensure a lot of dollars tomorrow. At fifty bucks it was cheap too.

“Why not,” Max said, confirming to himself that it was a good idea.

On the way back to his apartment, he ran into the super. They talked about the break-in and the building’s front door. Max confirmed that the super had gotten the spare set of new keys, then they went their separate ways.

As soon as he got inside his own door and locked it, Max set up the T37. It was as simple as the man said. Max even tested it, just to be sure. He set his phone as the beacon. If it fled its stand by the window, it would return to him and his phone. Security drones were such a simple idea. They had died out with the anti-drone window plating. It was a little bit of a shame. But Max’s building was old, so the plating had never been installed. He had a small chuckle to himself about that. If only Tyell had used a more modern building as well. Then she wouldn’t be in this mess.

Now that he felt a little better prepared, it was time to get down to work.

Dale’s hacked email still played on his mind, though. It might be better that Max didn’t use his own connection. But if he didn’t use his own, the question was, whose?

In his mind Max walked through the various options he had. He needed somewhere they would not get his face on a camera, just in case. It was better to be safe than sorry.

He downloaded the versions of the software he needed. Luckily they still had his invoice codes, so could download everything directly from the sites.

Before he could head out the door, though, he needed the material to send. He started work on cutting up the footage. He cloned the footage onto the computer and put the pen drive back in his coin pocket. He scrolled back and forth, looking for the perfect moment.

He found a short clip that would work. It was only half a second long, but the twelve frames were perfect. They were hard to fake, and if he zoomed in right, no other, unintentional information could get leaked.

Thirty minutes later he had the clip ready to send out to the preselected, serious bidders. Now he just had to get online and send it. Somehow during his work, his mind had settled on a good option.

Both laptop and phablet fit nicely into his small backpack. No way was he going to leave anything else at his apartment until this deal was done. He zipped up his backpack, checked his security drone, and locked the door behind him. He quickly and quietly headed downstairs and out into the warm late-summer evening. He turned left and walked the three blocks quickly. He felt a little excited to be doing this. It reminded him of when he first started out selling footage from his contacts.

Eventually he was close enough and found some steps to a midsized building to sit on. It was under a tree and faced a local little café that he knew well. From here he could access the café’s wi-fi signal and get online. He had done it before a few times. They rarely changed their password.

While a few people still sat at the café enjoying the evening, the phablet was small enough that he should be able to prevent anyone from looking over his shoulder. Before he started, he looked up into the sky. It was almost too dark for any drone to be able to see the phablet while he used his privacy screen, especially while he sat under the tree. There was also no place for any prying eyes from the windows above. It was the perfect location.

He logged onto the network and accessed his dark email. His preselected list of serious bidders was ready to go. He typed up his message:

Thank you for submitting your bid and demonstrating your commitment to this process. I wish to continue the negotiation with you, as well as a small number of other parties. I hope to reach a conclusion to this process quickly.

The final product that will be sold is the full 37-minute, 43-second drone footage that contains the two shorter clips previously mentioned. Date, time, location as well as capture details will be included. It will also come with the full name(s) of everyone featured. It will be sold on an exclusive basis, and the final buyer will have the full rights.

As a token of my commitment, attached is a short, half-second clip for your use. Please note, other parties are receiving this clip as well.

Please respond within the next 24 hours from receiving this email with your last and final offer. The winner will then be asked to place the money in an escrow account before taking delivery.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Themanwhoknewtoomuch

Max pressed the Send button and watched the status bar fill. When it hit 100 percent, the delightful sound signaled that his email was flying off simultaneously through the ether toward his intended targets. Right now someone on night shift was about to have their world turned upside down. It would probably be Sarah who handled it at his own company. She was one of the better people on the night shift. But there was still a reason she was doing graveyard duty. Kate would let the night shift handle it until the morning. Then she would bring in her big guns of Max and Missy.

It would only probably be only a minute or two before someone posted it, though. His own monitoring software would pick up who managed to be the first post, so he flicked back over and decided to watch the whole clip from start to finish.

Sitting in the evening darkness, alone on someone’s random steps, the footage was somehow better than he even remembered. There was even a full frontal nudity shot. It was a fifteen-year-old boy’s dream. It was somehow more than perfect. This should be able to give him the ammunition he needed to get that extra million.

It was a shame this was all the footage he could get. Awhile ago he had asked Dale to try and get the drone to hover if he thought it was getting something interesting. Dale told him the programming prevented them from doing it.

“If you see a drone hovering, then it’s not an Enexup one,” he had told him.

It had been a disappointing conversation.

Max checked over his shoulder and down the quiet street. The summer’s heat had a few people outside playing, but none were interested in the lone guy, sitting on the steps looking at his phablet.

He decided to look back in on the facial-recognition software. It should have finished by now.

He opened it up and logged on.

The best match was 93.83 percent, which was more than he could have hoped for. There were a few other high ratings as well, as well as a 42.31 percent and an unmatched. The unmatched was a rare thing, but he could sort it out later. He sent the report to his dark email address before he forgot.

Now he could read it.

There were a total of twelve names on the list from the flight, but Max was really only interested in two. The first name was Tyell herself. It was little sigh of relief for the obvious, but he was glad the software had picked it up.

He flicked through the other names and found the face he was looking for: 86.3 percent match.

The guy’s name was Tobias Montgomery. He was twenty-three years old, from Idaho. The name didn’t ring any bells for Max. He flicked over to his work email on his phone and scanned through the list that Michael and James had put together. Tobias’s name wasn’t there.

This was going to be a problem.

No connection made it harder to believe. It would be easier to deny, and everything would start to unravel. Themanwhoknewtoomuch’s reputation would be ruined.

Max read through the list again, hoping that somehow he’d missed it, hoping that in his haste, he had skipped over that important detail. He read through the individual names and looked at the photos. Tobias just wasn’t there. Most of the names on the list were celebrities in their own right. There was only Tyell’s ex-boyfriend from her high school in Idaho, and he was a nobody. There was absolutely no resemblance between the ex and Tobias.

That started Max’s thinking. Tyell went to school in Idaho, so maybe this Tobias was an old high school friend. An old crush rekindled.

He checked over his shoulder again just in case. The coast was still clear. He loaded up her graduating class. He scanned through the names. No luck, though: no one in her year by either the name Tobias or Montgomery. He loaded the year before, and the year after. Nothing there either.

He started to go through the same year at nearby schools. No names. Max was convinced that this somehow was the connection. Then he remembered the age difference; the recognition software said Tobias was twenty-three. They would be about four years apart, then. Max scanned through the senior year when Tyell was a freshman. There was a Montgomery in the senior class, but it was a girl named Tracy. That could mean it was a relative of this Tobias. But that would make Tobias the same age as Tracy.

Max looked at the photo. He could see a family resemblance. This girl was the definitely the mutual contact. A quick search revealed what he was looking for. Tobias Montgomery had legally changed his name from Tracy Montgomery two years ago.

Pausing, Max had to read that twice before he realized what it was. He was a she! Tyell was sleeping with a guy who used to be a girl.

He couldn’t believe what he was reading. This was almost too good to be true. It would completely throw the whole media circus into chaos. With the connection it was going to be hard to deny. All the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle had fallen elegantly into place.

Max felt like another million just got added to the final price tag. If only there was a way to get the last buyer to really know. To really understand what he had, without telling them directly. Without risking the sale. If somehow they could see the footage, and truly know what they were buying, it would send the price skyrocketing.

He watched the footage again and almost couldn’t contain himself. He paused it a few times to zoom in and look at their faces. He panned the screen over their naked bodies. It was perfect.

For the briefest of moments, Max contemplated pushing for the full four million. It was achievable given the footage. By now the servers at Enexup would have deleted the last trace. He had the only copy. A fortune in a drive.

Then he started to think about the risks of keeping the drive on him. He needed to make a copy of it, to store it somewhere safe. A simple mugging could cost him a fortune.

He knew of a small safety deposit box place uptown. It was a place that his work used, so he knew they wouldn’t ask too many questions and it would seem normal for him to be there.

Max’s mind shifted back to the sale. Rachael would be working as the intermediary. He needed to make that work in his favor. There was no way she was going to deal with him, though, especially after her reaction today. Max remembered that she had even promised to Mace him if she ever saw him again. If only Jack was still in charge … He would have come up with something.

Max started to compose the message in his head as he scrolled the video back and forth. He started to picture Rachael’s face as she read the email. He would have to send her a new still to verify his claims. But that wasn’t hard to do with his new hardware.

He continuously scrolled over the minute gap between the drone flying past her window and then returning. The footage was in HD. It was perfect.

Eventually he let it run as he began to think. His mind raced through the different options he had. He knew Rachael would jump on anything he gave her. She wasn’t as seasoned as Jack was. Jack would ensure the right things were kept confidential. Jack would have made an arrangement with Max to ensure the best possible result. Max wasn’t as sure about Rachael. He might have to use another middleman. Someone he could trust. The question was: Who?

A bright flash brought his eyes back to the screen again. Max hadn’t seen that before. He had missed it. A bright flash like that could be damaging to the recording. A way of cutting something out or in. But Dale had assured him it was uncut and complete. Max began to panic as he scrolled back and watched the footage again.

His nerves suddenly went on edge as he peered at the dark screen. The flash had something to do with one of the other houses in the video.

Then he saw it again. In a window, captured by one of the other cameras. It looked natural. Max prayed he might be okay after all.

It was only a brief flash, so he had to scroll back and put everything in slow motion. He looked at the other feeds. Slowly he managed to convince himself that it was real. That there were no cuts or no breaks in the feed. Whatever it was, this was an actual event on the footage.

It was only a few frames long, so it was hard to catch. But when he slowed it down, he saw it. Sure enough, clear as Tyell, there was footage of someone being shot. Even worse, it captured the face of the guy who did it.