“Lock the room, without my dogs in it,” Eden said immediately.
“If Kitty goes, the Apple stops working!” protested Loir.
“You don’t need the Map, just the data. I’m not sure I want that thing for you to play with anyway. Just be ready in case I need to Dive.”
“So mean... You bad, bad Kitties!”
She ignored him and walked out, grabbing Beer and Bullet one after the other. After glancing Loir’s way, both Dante and Rolf did the same, making sure to lock the room behind them.
Meanwhile, Loir turned back to his screens and sighed.
“Agh, they are really too mean. How can they leave poor Loir alone here? So heartless! Now I’m all alone to play here and I don’t have any toys left... Oh, well. I can always find some.”
Suddenly starting to wiggle in his chair, Loir ran his fingers on the keyboard with a wry smile. He turned on his techno music very, very loudly in the room, so loud that the floor beneath him began vibrating. Yet, Loir didn’t seem to care at all. He was dancing around in his chair, moving his arms in random directions, and making circles with the little wheels of his chair. It wasn’t long before someone showed up.
“Finally!” exclaimed Loir, raising his arms in the air and visibly overjoyed to see the mafioso that had just walked in.
“You crazy bastard!” yelled the Italian. “Cut that out right away!”
He went to the keyboard, pushing Loir out of the way and turning off the music.
“Don’t you fucking do this again, or I swear you’ll regret it!”
His ears were still ringing from the crazy loud music. Everyone had heard the techno beat several floors above and below. It was unbelievable that the hacker had been able to stay in that room for even a couple of minutes without going insane or deaf.
“Oh, you’re Margherita!” exclaimed Loir, completely ignoring the warning. “Can you believe they left me all alone? I’m so bored!”
“Don’t call me that! The boss said to leave you locked up. If you take one step outside we will shoot you down!”
“Oooooh...”
Loir tilted his head.
“You know, your games are not very fun,” he said. “If you’re going to play Shoot the Loir, you should at least give me a place to hide! Or some rollers... It’s really not fun if you’re just waiting for me to step outside!”
“Yeah, yeah, shut up, you crazy... and don’t turn the music on again.”
“Oh, no, you’re not leaving, are you?”
“What now?” said the one named Margherita, rolling his eyes.
“What about my order?” asked Loir, looking shocked.
“Your order?”
“Of course! I’m hungry, and you came without a single pizza! I want... three Margheritas with pepperoni, a mountain of pepperoni, some pickles, and some peanut butter on it! It has to be organic peanuts, though!”
The Italian sighed.
He shouldn’t have opened that door like the blonde chick had warned them...
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The car had been moving for a while. Rolf, who was their driver again, touched his neck and looked up in the rearview mirror.
“Boss, it’s Headquarters again. They’re saying the hacker is being... troublesome.”
Eden chuckled. Of course, he was. Loir’s favorite game was testing people’s patience, and from what she’d seen, Dante’s men didn’t have much. She was only surprised they hadn’t given in sooner to his whims. He could get really, really annoying when he wanted to.
