Page 41 of Benga's Rise
Tweedle-dumb nods. “I’ll keep my Brothers here until they are trained right and I’ll talk to Major.” He was pulling them out?
Jordan’s eyes go intense fast. “Do that, Needle. We can meet when you get in.”
“You’re going up?”
Jordan smiles. “No, we can meet securely at any of our connected Clubs in the meeting or Ops rooms. Web even got us so we can meet on the laptops. If you had a geek with you, I’d tell him to meet Web.” No fucking way is Web meeting this dick or his Brothers. I barely move my head, but he catches it. “If he was in. Ask Major to show you the apps.”
Cort has had enough with Colorado. I know he was listening to everything Jordan said. “Major’s clear, Jordan,” he says, stepping over.
He smiles. “Thanks, Cort. Hade jumped in for me. I thought it was just a quick pick up for them. I wouldn’t have offered if I knew who it was.”
“It wasn’t a problem. We don’t need a schedule to lend a hand, Brother.”
Jordan throws him chin. “I’ve got a construction guy waiting. I'll talk at the meet. I’m out.” He leans over and switches us off. He’s still on the board in the room, but not engaged. Tweedle-dumb watches him walk out.
“You control feeds in their Clubs?”
Cort hands Akai his headset. “Thanks, Akai. Yeah, but they consent. They see our room too. We’re connected. We control in between all the Clubs.”
Tweedle-dee is back to smiling. “Fucking impressive.”
Cort walks toward the door. “It is.” Our Enforcers are standing at attention as we walk out. Theirs are lounging on the steps. They aren’t moving.
Cort slows down and the Enforcer closest points his gun. “Move!”
I laugh when they move. “You missed the lesson. A President walks into a room, you stand and acknowledge. If you were in training, you’d be bouncing on the floor for four minutes.”
Cort takes a deep breath. He’s trying to control his rage. “If it happens again, they’ll get to feel that. Did my Enforcers hear that?”
“Roger, Pres,” they say together.
Two Enforcers walk in front of us and two behind, edging past Tweedle-dee and Dumb. We walk through the third floor where trainee rooms are. Cort isn’t talking so I do. In a trainee room, Tweedle-dee is impressed and tells me. The common room gets more comments and we follow a silent Cort to Security.
The Prospect stands. “Pres, VP, Presidents. I have temp cards for the visitors, Pres.”
“Thanks, Prospect.” He walks by and swipes his card after the Enforcer does.
I tell Tweedle-dee, “Everyone swipes in or faces a gun on the other side.”
“We got into Ops, but not here?” Tweedle-dumb is going to push Cort’s buttons the whole way.
“You did. Only two went into Ops, you’re both Presidents and Cort let IT know you were in with us. A thumb lets you into Ops, but he punched you in on the keypad so an alert didn’t have Enforcers surrounding the building. Your crew is walking into a restricted area, you need card access.”
He nods and looks at his card. The Prospect looks the other way but holds cards out to the Brothers.
I explain what they’re seeing as we walk through Security’s Ops room. “Jordan was right, this is a big company. Is training how you find your Security personnel?” Tweedle-dee asks.
I look around and see Cort is gone. The bastard. “No, but we do train our own Security right here. Training is one area we’re good at. Cort’s dad started the Security Company in the city. He left it to Cort. It’s always been a Club business and just keeps getting bigger. Jordan didn’t bother with Security there since we’re already established, but he has a lot of members that work for us.”
“Do you have workers in all the Clubs, is that how you know what’s going on and have the feeds?” I swear he’s itching for someone to shoot him, the dumbass. I’m glad I named him Tweedle-dumb.
“We are originally the Club that was in the city. Cort took over when Crow passed. Moving here, Cort opened a new Club, the Training Center and connected the Clubs to keep each other’s backs through the Council. We have the ability to Enforce, Jordan has IT, Major has members and a large Badass backing.”
He nods, but I’m not done. “Before you open your mouth again and have Cort shooting you, understand that Badass is a way of life for Cort and our Club. We grew up in the Club and all learned from Crow. If what you’ve seen hasn’t proven our commitment to Badass and keeping our Brothers fromanyClub safe, I don’t know what will. Jordan was right, we are not the Brothers to keep poking. At a guess, this is why you’re named Needle.”
Tweedle-dee laughs. “Jordan said they were smart. This is the Club that all went to school or military. Major told us about them. We need to move on. We’re due in Colorado tomorrow.”
The Enforcers wait for me to move. Tweedle-dumb nods, then I do. The Enforcers stay right behind me. I walk to the office corridor and swipe my card after the Enforcer. Cort is in the meeting room talking to Hade on the screen.Two Enforcers wait outside of it.
