Nathaniel's Chorus. Gary Lightfoot

to work says, “I know! That’s what I asked. They said that the emergency in Washington was causing the system to act up.”

      Nathan bends down to look at the computer,

      “Do you mind if I take a look at your computer?”

      “Sure, help yourself. It was working fine this morning, then went weird and now I can’t get it to do a thing.”

      Nathan slides into the chair and begins typing on the computer. As he does he notices a glitch then the screen wobbles then the mouse moves on its own. He slides the chair,

      “They’ve pinged Chris’ computer.”

      Neil reaches under the computer desk and pulls the cables out of the back of the computer. Nathan looks over at Chris and asks,

      “Do you have wireless on this computer?”

      “Sure Junior, everybody does, don’t they?”

      Nathan doesn’t respond, but lifts the computer up off the desk and smashes it to the floor. Asela slugs Neil in the shoulder and says,

      “You told me Junior was some sort of expert, looks to me like he has a strange way of fixing computers.”

      Neil stops Asela from hitting him again and says, “Don’t hit me, Junior’s the one who just fixed your computer.”

      Nathan doesn’t apologizes for the computer, but lays out a few orders,

      “Asela, grab what you can, you guys aren’t safe here.”

      “Chris, are there any other computers in the house, laptops, or anything that might be linked to this computer? If so, bring them here.”

      Asela and Chris stand motionless for a second then head off in separate directions in the house. Neil begins to pick the phone up, but stops and looks over at Nathan,

      “Junior, you really think that whoever is after Nathaniel would also be after Chris?”

      “I don’t know Neil, I saw this same type of thing a little while ago, someone’s looking through Chris’ files.”

      Neil whispers to Nathan, “Junior, is there something you’re not telling me?”

      Nathan grins at his brother, “Just like you’re supposed to be making money painting sceneries in Mexico?”

      Chris comes walking into the room carrying his laptop from his flight bag and his iPod,

      “Junior the only thing that I can find would be my laptop that I carry with me on my trips and my iPod I run with.”

      “When’s the last time you turned them on?”

      Chris thinks, and then says, “I ran this morning, so the iPod this morning, and I was on the computer last night surfing the net to see if I could find any info on Nathaniel.”

      Nathan begins to think out loud,

      “I didn’t start the program until this morning so, if it’s what I think it is, they wouldn’t have had your info until then. I think your laptop will be okay for now, just don’t turn it on. Tell you what Chris; pull the battery out of it now.”

      Chris turns the laptop over and begins to remove the battery. As he does, Asela comes into the room carrying her bag and dragging Chris’s military bag. It looks freshly packed and locked with a new military padlock. Neil looks at the bag and then motions to Nathan to look at it also. The brothers smirk at each other as Neil says,

      “Chris, is there something you’re not telling us?”

      Nathan breaks in and says,

      “Guys, we’ll have time to share later, we need to get going now. We don’t know what we’re up against yet, but I bet they know all about us.”

      With that, they load up into The Burb and head out of Chris’ neighborhood. The low rumble of The Burb’s 454 cubic inch Chevy big block is the only sound they hear. They merge onto the freeway and head back toward Footboards. As they’re driving Nathan asks Neil,

      “Hey bro, what other info was on that thumb drive you gave me?”

      “Well Junior, let’s see, the only thing on there was the contact info of old buds from the service.”

      Nathan looks off into the distance as he thinks back on opening the thumb drive before initiating the program to run through the lists.

      “Neil, I think I remember some other folder on there.”

      Neil asks for a piece of paper and begins to sketch out the image that would be displayed on screen when the disk was opened.

      “Did it look like this?” Neil holds the sketch up in front of Nathan.

      Nathan glances over to the sketch and points at a folder in the bottom right corner,

      “What’s this?”

      “Oh crap, I forgot about that.”

      Asela asks Chris, “What’s going on?”

      Chris explains to Asela that Neil has photographic memory and can sketch or paint anything he’s seen but can’t always remember what the elements in the image were. Nathan on the other hand can remember names, numbers, basically anything he reads or hears. Together the two are like having a video camera recording everything seen or heard.

      Asela looks to the front seat and watches as Nathan and Neil together work through what was on the thumb drive. She whispers to Chris, “Remind me never to play Pictionary with those two.”

      Nathan and Neil figure out that the other file on the thumb drive was an old file that Neil had been working on with Nathaniel before he went to Washington. Nathaniel had been researching people who might be interested in supporting him during his campaign for the Senate. Within the file was a list of the original members of the group the brothers started, the Phi Pi Psi. Nathan starts asking questions of Neil.

      “Hey Neil, did you make a backup to the thumb drive?”

      “Sure Junior, I always make a backup.”

      “Did you bring it back from Mexico?”

      “Nope, I never took it down there, thought it would be safer here.”

      Nathan looks over at Neil, “Where did you put it?”

      “Safest place we know. I went by there last month on my way out of town.”

      “Well nuts,” Nathan quickly makes a U-turn.

      Chris grabs the seat and holds onto Asela, “Where we going now?”

      Neil holds on and then tells Chris their new destination, “Signal Hill.”

      “What’s in Signal Hill?”

      Nathan checks the mirrors and then makes another hard right turn, “Our old school, or what’s left of our old school, SCMA.”

      Neil leans into the backseat and tells Chris, “Southern California Military Academy. The school isn’t there any more, someone bought the school and turned it into a series of rentals; artist shops and apartments.”

      The Burb pulls up to a series of studios and apartments. Nathan and Neil get out of The Burb and ask Chris and Asela to drive The Burb around the block a few times. The two brothers head out of sight while Chris drives away.

      “Man Neil, I haven’t been back here in years.”

      “Yeah, brings back memories doesn’t it?”

      They walk past several new buildings then enter one of the art studios, which used to be the barracks that the brothers lived in. As they walk past the storefront a clerk comes up to them,

      “Can I help you gentlemen?”

      “No thanks we’re just here visiting.”

      They head to the back wall and start counting