A weight Jeff had been carrying for years seemed to vanish from his shoulders. “Seriously?”
“Seriously,” she said. “After what he pulled, he’ll be expecting something. If we do nothing, it’s actually more suspicious. And if you’re taking action against Tim specifically, and you act satisfied with that, they won’t expect the follow-up. You’ve got some leverage at the moment, so any requests for who they do or don’t send in his place? I don’t know who you’ve worked with.”
He only needed to think about it for a second. “Dina—I think her last name is Youssef? She’s sort of Tim’s underling, but she’s good otherwise. She knows us.” And if he could force the label to promote her, so much the better.
“Got it.” In the background, her keyboard click-clacked. “I have a few details I want to finalize before I talk to the group, but just hold tight. This is going to work.”
“Thankyou,” Jeff said. He wasn’t going to put himself through another Tim. He hung up feeling lighter than he had in weeks.
Word came through Monique that Dina would meet them in Edmonton, and then Trix got a call from Max that he’d been sprung. By early afternoon they were on the highway heading north, Max dozing in his bunk, Trix deeply engrossed in Animal Crossing. Jeff played a couple hands of Speed with Joe, but about an hour into the drive his phone started buzzing constantly in his pocket, and finally it was too much of a distraction and Joe beat him.
“Best five out of seven?” Joe smirked.
Jeff pulled his phone out and checked it—four texts from Carter.
Maybe Joe saw it in his face, because when he said, “Rain check?” his voice was very dry.
Flashing a grateful smile, Jeff climbed into his own bunk—literally climbed; his was above Max’s—and drew the thick curtain. It wouldn’t give him total privacy, but it did a fair job muffling sound if he wanted to have a phone call.
The first message from Carter readSecond bear sighting. Only one cub.
Shit. That wasn’t good, but it was followed byFalse alarm, apparently that was Tutu with her cub.
Who was naming these bears? Jeff made a note to ask if Carter had named that one too.
The third message readWhy do I suddenly have 1000 new Twitter followers?
And—that, okay, that was concerning. Jeff didn’t even know CarterhadTwitter. Honestly it seemed like something he’d hate.
You don’t even follow me!was the last message.How did they find it?
Well… that was easily answered. Jeff tabbed over to Chrome, typedCarter Rhodes Twitterinto the search bar, and screencapped the result. Then he pasted it into a text message.
We released your name as part of the announcement. Remember? You were going to lock down your Facebook page?
For almost thirty seconds he got nothing more than three blinking dots. Then:Ah.Followed byWhat do I do now?
Jeff opened Twitter just for the hell of it. He winced—there was more than one tweet about last night’s performance and how bad it was, not to mention speculation on what drugs Max had taken and whether the norovirus line was a coverup.
And then there was a tweet he was tagged in that answered all his questions.
Okay, was anyone going to tell me @jeffpineHOWL’s new side of beef is an actual honest to god forest ranger, or was I supposed to find that out by myself?
The tweet quoted Carter’s personal account, which had retweeted the official park account’s picture of him in uniform handling… was that a baby opossum?
He took another screenshot and sent that too.
SIDE OF BEEF?????Carter replied.
That shirt is kinda tight, Jeff pointed out.Not a criticism btw.
I’m a naturalist!he complained. Then,Now what?
Jeff rolled his eyes.Locking your Twitter is a thing.He should probably do it soon, though, because that tweet already had over five hundred retweets and it had only been posted half an hour ago.Or you could lean into it.Carter’s Twitter handle was @crhodesbearlake. Like, if he wanted people to be able to internet stalk him—or, frankly, real-life stalk him—he couldn’t have made it easier.Change your name to @smokeybearlake and start posting educational videos.
Funny.
Jeff thought so.
