Love is Always Write Anthology Bonus Volume

'Hi, you don't know me, Gerald's alive, well, and not living in Paris.'"
    "Paris is nice this time of year."
    "We're getting ahead of ourselves."
    "I know. I'll make a video. Like a hostage video, but not. I'll give him a rough idea of what's going on. I'll tell him I'm willing to work with him and only him, and then we give him a couple of days to plug any leaks, call him back, and take it from there."
    "We might need more phones."
    "We might."
    Sebastian rolled the idea around. He had gotten one phone with a good video option and a good data plan. His frugal nature cringed at the idea of just dumping it, but he had no idea how good the government actually was at doing stuff like tracking cellphone calls from space. But as long as that little sliver of government organization had a leak, he wasn't going to risk it.
    "Should I grab the paper from next door? I think the neighbors are on vacation. You can hold it up and we could film against a blank wall."
    "Good idea. How about we do it after dinner, and you can make the call in the morning?"
    ****
    Sebastian held the phone as steady as he could. They'd gotten a bit silly after dinner and spent far too long debating lighting, wardrobe choice, if maybe they should try to steal a big white cat named Mr. Marshmallow from three doors down so Daren could sit in the club chair and stroke it.
    It was nearing eleven when they finally settled down, having giggled away the worst of their nerves. Daren sat in the chair, his back to a bare white wall, with nothing but him in the shot. No chance of getting a reflection from something that could be cleaned up by CSI magic. It did look painfully like a kidnapping ransom video. In a way that's what it was: Daren was just ransoming himself.
    Daren took a deep breath and nodded. Sebastian pushed the record button.
    Daren sat still for a moment and just stared back into the camera. "Hi, Agent Kim. It's me, Gerald, and today is Tuesday."
    Daren held up the newspaper.
    "As you can see I'm not in a Turkish morgue. I am alive. I am safe. I am not entirely well, thanks in part to the agents sent to protect me. You have a leak. Those agents walked away and I was nearly killed, and that's not an exaggeration. However I still want to see my family go down– kinda more than ever. I am willing to trust you again, and only  you, and only because I know you didn't personally assign those agents. I still have the information you want and I still want you to have it, but this time we're doing it my way. No one else is brought in on this. Not a soul. And I am keeping my fingers crossed that you're not the leak. Find your leak, plug it up."
    Daren leaned towards the camera.
    "And Joseph, I know what you think of me, and I know we've had our differences, but this here is your one shot. I hope you use it. We'll call you back in a couple of days. Bye."
    Sebastian hit the stop button.
    "How was that?"
    "Let me check." Sebastian loaded up the file and hit play. ' Hi Agent Kim. It's me, Gerald and today is Tuesday. ' Sebastian watched the message through. "All there, looks good."
    "How do I look?"
    "Kinda like you're being held hostage and forced to wear incredibly unfashionable clothes."
    Daren looked down at himself. "Tell me the shorts weren't in that shot."
    "No, you looked fine." Sebastian turned off the phone, saving the battery for the next day. "Is that why you trust Agent Kim, because he didn't send the agents?"
    "I didn't think anything of it until a couple of days ago. The two agents that were supposed to be watching me were assigned by Agent Kim, but two other agents offered to trade them the shift, something about basketball tickets. I was barely paying attention. I was texting Kendra to tell her that I wouldn't be at a party that night and she was texting back all pissy about it. And you know, if I thought it was just those two agents, I'd walk back into the office, but my family has so many fingers on lawyers and politicians and…"
    "I get it."
    Daren suddenly yawned and gave his head a shake. "Okay, I'll take that as a sign."
    "Time for bed?"
    "Only if you can help me into my new pajamas first."
    "I think I can manage that."
    The pajamas were of a soft cotton and had cost a little more than Sebastian really thought was reasonable, but Daren's smile as he shimmied his way into them was worth it. The color choice was perhaps not the best, as it made Daren's pallor absolutely glow, not so much in a sickly way but in a Goth-without-trying