I pushed my hair, which I’d let grow out, back out of my eyes, and regarded the airhead for a moment, my eyes straying down to her enormous rack.
It’d been hard to concentrate hacking into SFPD data bank with that in my face, but they don’t call me Razor for nothing. When it comes to getting the job done, I can hone my concentration with laser-like precision.
Is it even worth telling her? I wondered. She won’t understand a thing I say.
I scratched at the fresh stubble on my jaw, wondering what the hell I was doing in a hotel with her in the first place.
* * *
We’d met the previous night at a black-tie fundraiser event for a local politician, mayor Bradley James.
I was supposed to be there as an agent for Anonymous, an online hacking group that hid behind anonymity, to find out information involving a murder case.
But when present company approached me, she made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.
Bianca Vanderbilt, or as I’d liked to call her, Vanderslut, was the daughter of a wealthy tycoon. Her father, Eric Vanderbilt, an heir to old money, owned a chain of three-star hotels and had amassed a fortune in real estate on top of it.
At first I’d resisted Bianca’s advances, but when I found out that her father was close to the mayor, I figured what the hell. I could use her to find out more information on the case I was working on.
I spent the entire evening with the socialite on my arm — who proudly paraded me around, introducing me to wealthy acquaintances and associates of her father.
Getting to meet the powerful men and women who basically controlled most of the wealth in the bay area was interesting, and I learned more than a few valuable tidbits of information that would prove useful to Anonymous.
But the prize of the night came when I met Mayor Bradley. He introduced himself with the charismatic charm he was famously known for, speaking about how happy he was with the turn out for the fundraiser.
The inner city kids, as he called them, would receive so much help from the donations that came from the black-tie event.
It was hard not to roll my eyes. Everyone knew that most of the money would never make it into the hands that it was intended to help.
But I kept my misgivings to myself. I was there to confirm my suspicions, not lecture on how corrupt politicians and the top one percent were, especially when I was looking one of said corrupt politicians right in the face.
“Mayor Bradley is such a good man,” Bianca purred, squeezing my arm. “He cares about the poor and disadvantaged. I’m so glad we have him as our mayor.”
“That’s right, Bianca,” Bradley agreed, tilting his wineglass toward her in toast and cracking a boyish grin. “And that caring for the people I represent is how I got elected.”
I nearly hurled. But it only got worse from there as the two began talking about Bianca’s childhood.
Mayor Bradley, it seemed, was close to Bianca, fondly reminiscing about how he’d practically watched her grow up before his eyes, and how much of an inspiration she had been in him wanting to have a daughter.
I didn’t miss the way he looked at her, who was at least fifteen years his junior — like he wanted to take her into one of the back rooms and fuck her brains out.
Obviously Mayor Bradley, who was supposedly happily married, had a roaming eye for attractive young women — even women who should have been off limits.
My opportunity to put the Mayor on the spot came when Bianca told him that I had a master’s degree in Information Technology, and that a lot of the big players in Silicon Valley were in bidding wars for my formidable talents.
“Steven here is absolutely amazing,” Bianca boasted, flashing a pretty smile up at me. Fake names did have their uses. “There’s not a major tech company here in the valley that doesn’t want him on their roster.”
It was amazing the kind of bullshit you could get away with if you had enough confidence and someone naïve enough to listen.
“Oh really?” Bradley asked me, flashing me a grin that told me that he loved successful people, because successful meant money. “What brings such a prosperous young fellow like you to this type of event?” He was obviously referring to the age group of most of the attendees, who were mostly middle-aged with money.
Here was my chance.
“I’m here on the behalf of a friend of mine to raise awareness for his sister he lost a while back,” I replied.
Bradley’s boyish grin dimmed somewhat. “That’s awful. What happened?”
I looked the mayor straight in the eye. “She was murdered.”
His fading grin was replaced by a frown. “Oh gosh. I’m sorry to hear that.” He looked at Bianca like he was about to change the subject, but then it seemed he was overwhelmed by a sudden burning curiosity. “What was her name, perchance?” His eyes bore into me with an intense scrutiny that would’ve been unsettling had I not been prepared.