Daughter of Zeus ✔

3.6

Ada parked near Dorrie's house, across the street, but well within view. Mentally, she connected to the car's interface. Using invisible fingers, she reached in and grabbed until she found what she was looking for. Dorrie's personal connection flashed on her interface screen in seconds.

"Call Dorrie," she said to the interface.

"Dialing Dorrie."

A few intermittent sounds, and the call connected.

"Hello?" Dorrie sounded unsure.

"Hi there, Dore. Can I call ya Dore?"

An intake of breath. Rustling. "Uh, who is this?" He peeked out the front window of his house.

"Hey, it's me!" Ada waved wildly, smiling just as wildly even if he was too far off to see it. "We're old hospital pals."

Dorrie jumped back from the window. "What do you want now? Thanks to you, I'll be paying outta my ass for a long time."

Her sweet tone picked up a hard edge. "Thanks to me, your fat ass is alive. I can change that at any time." He whimpered in her ear, and she grinned. "Remember when I said I wanted you to tell me everything?"

"Yeah?"

"Tell me everything, right now, and I won't get out of this car. When we're done talking, I'll drive away. Simple."

His back was to her. She pictured him sweating, farting from stress, considering her offer. "I told you..."

"You told me nothing. Now I want specifics, and you're going to give them to me, or I'll join you in your living room."

Dorrie vanished from view, probably searching for an escape route. "What else do you wanna know?"

"What does the bastard do for a living?"

"Not sure." He sounded far-away.

As they spoke, Ada connected with Dorrie's interface, tapping into the GPS feature. On her screen, she saw a map of the surrounding area, and a green dot in the middle. The dot bounced around erratically, darting from the back of the house to an alley.

"Dore, our deal hinges on you staying put. Get out of the alley, go back home, and tell me what I need to know. You want me to stay in this car, right?"

Silence. Labored breathing. Then, "He's a politician."

The context of the comment took time to sink in. When Ada recovered, she asked, "What kind of politician?"

"Damnit, I don't know. A Senator, a Congressman. One of those. It's been years since we spoke, I told ya that last time," Dorrie said.

"So, he has money?"

Dorrie scoffed. "He's a Prominent. Of course he has money."

Now the silence was on Ada's end. The green dot went back and forth on the screen. Dorrie paced in his home, waiting on her answer.

The interface reminded her that it was 1:00pm. An hour before her shift.

"Dore, look out your window."

Slowly, he drew his curtain back to look at her car again. "Yes?"

Ada waved again. "You did good. I won't bother you again."

She drove off.

~ * ~

A thorough search of the Georgian database of politicians found nothing. Her father's name wasn't among the hundreds of Prominent servants. Either Dorrie had lied, or Corentin's name had changed. Local databases would provide her with more information, such as pictures, interface connections. She needed to be in Atlanta, and soon.