Dear Jason – Chapter 2

The following day, after I arrived home from a day at the corporate office, William called me as I came out of my car.

“Hey Jason!” he said as he walked toward me.

“Hi, William. What’s up?” I asked, feeling my stomach tighten as I assumed he wanted to talk to me about me perving on his son.

“Please! Call me Bill,” he smiled.

“Right. What’s up, Bill?” I replied, feeling more relaxed now.

“We’re throwing a small party this Saturday to celebrate us moving in here. We’re also inviting some neighbors, and we hope you’ll be able to join us.”

“I… uhm… sure! Of course! I don’t think I’ve got anything important that I can’t reschedule. Thanks,” I stammered, still somewhat expecting him to punch me on the nose about last night.

“Great! We start at around noon. And you can bring your trunks if you’d like. The pool is repaired, so the kids decided it should be a pool party,” he laughed.

“Will do,” I said, also laughing.

“See you Saturday!” Bill said as he turned around and walked back toward the house where his wife was looking and smiling at us.

I started walking to my front door, where I noticed the Amazon package lying on the porch. I felt excited as I picked it up and immediately went up to my new office, where I started unpacking it.

It was a small but powerful camera. It had twenty times optical zoom, could shoot pictures in forty megapixels, and record video at 4K. But the best feature of it was that it was so small. It was bigger than some fancy spycam but way smaller than your regular camera. I liked it!

I played with it a bit during my microwave dinner to learn all about its features. Then, after I was done and cleaned downstairs, I placed it in my office window, facing James’s room. Next, I put some more or less logical things around it, so the camera couldn’t be noticed. And if I could hardly see it from here, I was positive it couldn’t be seen from across the street.

I plugged in the USB cable and opened up the recording app I had downloaded earlier. It would start recording when there was motion inside the predetermined frame and take a high-def picture every second it recorded.

I was content with my current setup and opened up my text editor to continue writing on my latest story. As I was getting into it, my email beep went off. I usually turn that off because it’s too distracting, but I forgot to do it this time.

So, feeling slightly annoyed, I opened the email app. Moments ago, a new message had arrived, and it was a reply to the “Offer” email I received yesterday. I expected some YouTube link, zip files, or pictures in it, but it was just plain text.

—
Dear Jason,

Thank you for your kind and honest reply. You brought a smile to my face today, which is greatly appreciated.

Let me tell you something about my ‘token of appreciation.’ I work for a domestic government agency. I can’t tell you much about this, obviously, but in my position I’ve got access to all sorts of assets that we work on.

Given the fact that you live in Chadron, Nebraska, I have arranged for the token to be delivered to a safe at the local bank.

If you decide to go to the bank, ask for Mr. Robinson. He’ll ask you if you want to open or close an account. Your reply will be, “I’m only here for the air conditioning.” Next, he’ll ask you about the preferred temperature. You’ll reply, “Below seventy degrees is fine.”

After this, he’ll take you to the vault, where he’ll open a safety deposit box for you. In there, you’ll find a big envelope. Put it in a bag or something, take it home, and wait for further instructions.

I know this all sounds very ‘Cloak and dagger’ like, but I promise you you’ll love it!

Kind regards,

JD
—

What! The! Fuck!? Is he shitting me? That’s either a very elaborate way to distribute kiddie porn or a nut job trying to yank my chain.

But as I reread the email a few times, it hit me that he could never know where I lived. This was one of the best-kept secrets as my alter-ego. I always use a VPN when I do some work on my sites or communicate with my readers. I disable trackers, double-check files that I upload, everything! So how did this guy pick out this little city in the entire US? This couldn’t be just a gamble.

I read the email several times but couldn’t wrap my head around it. There wasn’t much writing to be done anymore, either. So I checked the recordings my new camera had made, and it was immediately apparent that James had gone to bed already. He came in, threw his shirt in a corner, gave me a quick glance at his boyish chest in the process, and closed the curtains. A few moments later, his lights went out, and that was it.

I had already planned to work from home the following day, so I might as well go and pick up the package. And as I lay in bed, contemplating all of this, I just couldn’t figure out how this guy knew where I lived. The only remotely logical explanation I could come up with was that he was indeed a very high-ranked figure at that agency. But then again, that sort of agency and mysterious figures only exist in movies and books.

Copyright 2023 – Jason Crow
All rights reserved

Ridiculum est questus, vox?

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