Ch. 47 – Can’t Stop the Horny

“Now!” Maxine called out through the receiver. “Charlene’s approaching the building. I’m ninety-nine percent sure it’s her, anyways. Those fake tits stick out like torpedos.”

Derrick’s muscles tensed, as Maxine tracked Charlene’s progress throughout the building. Charlene was apparently making a beeline for her room. Was she worried that someone was going to find the tablet that she was using to control Xavier’s penis mod? Or did she have something else hidden away there?

Maxine gasped and continued the play-by-play narration. “Alright, she’s at her door now and she’s looking around. Probably expecting a security guard or someone to be there. Let’s see if she goes inside . . . yes! She’s putting her passcode in.”

“Can we see the passcode from the hidden camera, or is she blocking it?” Derrick asked.

“Let me check the live feed . . . We’re good. The camera’s got a nice and clear view. Alright, she’s unlocked the door and is walking her silicon-filled ass inside,” Maxine said. “Stand by.”

The voice comms were once again filled with minutes of Maxine’s gentle breathing, punctuated by bursts of giggling. “Sorry, I can’t help it; this situation is just exciting in a silly way. I mean, we’re going through all this trouble so a guy can get over his ED,” Maxine said. “Never thought I’d be using my skills for this—oh wait.”

“What happened?” Derrick asked. Was it security guards? Dixies?”

“It’s time! She’s heading away from her apartment room towards the elevator, probably going downstairs to talk to management. Loop around counter clockwise. The pass code to her digital lock is 782981. You’re up, D.”

The wind whipped through his hair as Derrick peaked in through the window to the building. The hall was still clear. The metal gratings rattled as he hefted the window open and crawled through, not bothering to shut it behind him. The open window would act as a distraction for anyone passing by, and not needing to open it would save him valuable time if he needed to use it as an emergency escape route.

The smell of cleaning chemicals was still in the air, but the men who had been pushing the cart around were no longer there. Thankfully, neither was anyone else at the moment. It would be a few left turns before he got to Charlene’s apartment if he looped around counterclockwise, so it was best to move fast. His footsteps thudded softly on the carpet.

“Wait.”

Derrick paused at the sound of Maxine’s voice through the earpiece. Shit, act natural. He pulled his phone out and tapped at the screen, leaning against the wall and hunching over so it was hard to see his face.

“Sit tight for a moment, let me redo the video feed loop on this camera before you turn left . . . Okay. Go.”

Sticking the phone back in his pocket, Derrick turned the corner, and then walked even faster as a door opened and closed behind him, and someone stuck a key in their doorknob. The apartment seemed to have a variety of different front door locks depending on the unit. Shit, don’t follow me. Pleeeease.

The hallway behind him was reflected in a powered off television screen, mounted in the corner of the hall. In the faint and glossy reflection, a large, bearded man wearing camouflage pants pulled his keys out of the doorknob, and started walking the same way Derrick was, his heavy boots shaking the ground with each step. Oh, fuck.

“Hey M,” Derrick whispered out of the corner of his mouth. “There’s someone behind me. Can you get info on him?”

“Just keep going! It’ll take some time. How far behind you is he—there he is. I see him on the apartment’s hallway camera. Don’t act suspicious, and I’ll try to find out if he’s a Dixie or not.”

Derrick turned the corner and doubled his pace, sweat building on his brow. Shit, the sweat’s going to ruin the makeup. His disguise was critical if wanted to make a clean exit and ensure that the events in Dixieland didn’t follow him home to Chinatown.

Charlene’s apartment room was right ahead, and the potted plant seemed undisturbed as well. Hopefully no one had noticed the hidden camera yet, and Derrick would be able to retrieve it. But first, he needed to get out of sight of the big guy tailing him.

If he could just punch in the code in time, and enter the room . . .

“Repeat the code again?”

“Seven, eight, two, nine, eight, one.”

Seven eight two nine eight one, Derrick mouthed, as he punched the numbers in with his gloved hands, and then jammed the submit key.

Beep beep. White light. The numbers cleared from the entry line, and the letters “OPEN” appeared in their place, as the door clicked open, revealing a flash of pink upholstery in the darkness, and the vague outline of what seemed to be a large, black dildo.

Derrick dove in through the door, hitting his ribs on the doorjamb’s strike plate. He was bruised, but he was in. He shut the door and eased the deadbolt closed, which was harder than normal, given the extra machinery that was hooked into the locking mechanism to support the pass code entry.

The thuds of the man’s footsteps came closer, and stopped a bit away from the door, before pacing back and forth.

Derrick took a step away from the door, and then another, until . . .

“So, it looks like this guy is a Dixie,” Maxine blurted out. “Better yet, one of his Dixie friends is heading this way.”

“Do they know I’m here?” Derrick asked.

“How the hell would I know? I’m not a mind-reader. They don’t look like they care too much about this unit though, so you should be fine.”

There was one window in the unit, all the way in the back. It was likely connected to a fire escape as well, so that was an emergency exit if the Dixies tried to force their way into the room.

A second set of footsteps approached from the other side of the hall, and stopped near the door. “There you are, Travis.” His voice, muffled only by the front door, penetrated into Charlene’s room. It was low and raspy, like a body being dragged over asphalt. Undoubtedly a smoker’s voice.

“Huh? Carter, what’s wrong?” the first Dixie on the left said, speaking with a faint inflection under his southern accent. “I thought you were supposed to be looking after the room?” His voice was clear and high-pitched: very different than what the beard and camouflage pants implied.

“There’s a problem with the room. That’s why I called you, but you didn’t pick up the fucking phone.”

“Well what’s wrong?”

Carter, the man with the low voice, didn’t reply, but there was the sound of clothes rustling, and the first Dixie came closer to the door, where the other man was standing.

“I’ll tell you what’s wrong,” Carter said, a hair louder than a whisper. “The ‘burner is missing.”

There was a pause. “What? Are you sure? Did you check in the cabinets—”

“Of course I checked in the cabinets!” Carter said. “I was looking for half an hour, and almost all of the ‘burner is missing. That was the high-grade stuff, way more expensive than the shit they’re moving in the carts.”

Shit! Did Xavier really take that much? Enough that the Dixies could tell it was missing? Goddammit, I should’ve snatched it out of his hands . . .

“Fuck, what are we going to do?” Travis asked, inhaling sharply. “Should we tell everyone else?”

“No, you idiot! If the rest of them know, we’re both going to be blamed.”

“Okay, what should we do then?”

“You’ve gotta fix this problem; it was your fucking fault Travis. I showed up on time, but you left the room early so we didn’t hand over guard duty in person. Whatever happened to the ‘burner happened in that gap between our shifts. And that’s assuming it was still there when you left.”

“It was! It was! At least the bags that I checked—I didn’t look at all of them. I swear, I didn’t take any,” Travis said.

“Then it happened when you left. And fuck you should’ve seen my face when I got there and most everything was empty,” Carter said.

“Ah shit . . . What are we going to do? What am I going to do?” Travis asked.

“We gotta split up and find whoever took it, obviously. I’ll take this floor and the fifth, and you take the second and third floors—Actually, wait,” Carter said, pausing. “Show me your room.”

“Huh?”

“I said, show me your room. I need to make sure you weren’t the one who took it.”

“I already told you, I didn’t!”

“You did, but I’d be stupid to just believe you. I know you don’t like me, since I—since I keep making fun of you. You could’ve planned this all out to get me in trouble.”

Clothes rustled again, as Travis spoke. “No! I’ve got no problem with you, I swear! Sure, you tease me, but at least you keep my secret. Now come on, just like you said, we’ve gotta look for those thieves.”

“Yeah, but . . . I need to know for sure that you didn’t steal it. I’ll check your room first, while you start checking these floors. Hm, but then you’ll have to come with me to unlock your door, so we won’t save any time—”

“Here,” Travis said. “I’ll give you the key to my room. It’s the only one I’ve got, since I lost the other one. This way we can both look for the thief right now, and you can be sure that I can’t hide anything inside my room before you search it later. I’m going to check floors two and three like you said.” There were tentative steps, as someone moved away from the door.

“Okay,” Carter said. Clothes rustled again. He whispered, and between his accent and the rasp in his voice, Derrick could barely make out his words. “Listen. After this is over, you should stop going to that faggot bar. Even if you keep sneaking out like this, someone’s going to find out eventually. You know we look down on that stuff.”

The tentative steps paused. “Thanks, but I . . . can’t help it. They didn’t have one of these back in my hometown. Maybe you can—or we could—” Travis paused. “Maybe you’d like it too . . .”

There was no response, and both sets of footsteps walked away.

“What were they talking about?” Maxine asked. “You were listening, right?”

Derrick pulled his ear off the door and scanned the room. “Yeah. Shit, this is bad news. Apparently that Afterburner that Xavier got was their best stuff. The two of them got into a fight, because neither was there when Xavier and I were in the maintenance room in between their guard shifts. They’re spreading out across the building to search for us now.”

“Ah, yup. I see them moving in different directions.”

“I’ve gotta get that tablet quick, and then find a way out of here. Are Xavier and Bettie still in the building?”

“Yeah, they might actually be on a collision course with one of those Dixies.”

“Fuck. Is there any way you can send a message to them? Tell them to avoid the guy?”

“Hmm . . . I’ll see if I can work something out. Just worry about finding that tablet.”

Derrick grit his teeth and eyed the window and fire escape again, before sweeping the room. It was no wonder Charlene and Xavier had been an item. Sex toys of every type littered the cabinets, tables and couches, and the stuffy air had the smell of week-old ejaculate. The stench was worse than Tony’s room.

“I still can’t believe that Xavier got you guys caught because he stole their top-shelf Afterburner. PERFECT.” Derrick winced as Maxine’s cackling pierced his eardrums through the ear piece.

“Keep it down, you’re going to make me deaf!”

“Alright, alright. Go to bed, grandpa. Wait wait wait, take a picture of the room for me. The hallway camera didn’t have a good angle, so I didn’t see anything. I wanna see what this crazy chick’s room is like.”

“No, are you crazy? If I took a picture and someone saw that on my phone, it’d be evidence that I had been in Charlene’s room!”

“Live a little, muchacho! You’d just be satisfying my curiosity, but still.”

“Can we focus? There aren’t any cameras in here, right?”

“Nothing on the network. But check it yourself, too.”

No camera-like structure was hanging from the ceiling, or perched on top of furniture with a vantage point. The room could have still had hidden cameras, in which case he could only rely on his makeup and disguise; there was no time to sweep for surveillance devices.

“I’m looking for the tablet, can you direct me to it?” Derrick asked.

“Come on, D. This isn’t a maze; can’t you find it yourself?”

“Easier said than done, with all this stuff lying around.”

If Derrick were a sex-crazed woman who enjoyed keeping her ex-boyfriend permanently flaccid, where would he keep the tablet . . . Probably in plain sight, but accidentally covered by some sort of sex toy. That meant starting with the couches and countertops, and her bedroom. Sifting through her extensive collection would be . . . nasty. It was a good thing he had brought gloves.