The Permutation

Apex (Part 1) Jordan

Saturday, November 5th 12:00 a.m.

Compared to Christopher and Diana, Jordan thought she was handling being held at gunpoint well.

Three of them were crammed onto Jordan's two seat couch in the living room with Uncle Tony sitting in the loveseat watching them. His goons had been searching the house for the better part of five hours, but it looked like they were slowing down. While they waited, Tony flashed them a dazzling smile and whistled tunes that Jordan didn't recognize. From the sinister look in his eyes, she didn't think she would enjoy them all that much. Tony's smooth smile had started to wear thin around ten, and now he gave up any pretense of acting calm and in control.

When they arrived at Jordan's house, he'd asked her all sorts of questions about where Delilah had kept the rest of the money. Jordan hadn't even known there was any more, but Uncle Tony didn't believe her. He seemed like he wanted to hit her, but he held himself back.

She hoped it was because he remembered all the times they used to watch cartoons together, and he would make dirty jokes about what the characters were doing. Jordan didn't understand most of them, but she loved Uncle Tony. He'd always worn an unflagging smile like the world was his playground and nothing could bring him down.

By the look on his face, the old memories were only going to get them so far. He said the cheesy movie line, "We can either do this the easy way or the hard way."

The easy way had just about run its course, and Jordan imagined the hard way involved the gun in his hand.

Jordan thought about using The Surge to get free and make a break for it, but she was responsible for Christopher and Diana too. Christopher was capable of taking care of himself with that weird purple light that could slow things down, but he didn't look like he was in any shape to pull that off at the moment. He mumbled a string of numbers to himself over and over again. Jordan recognized them as prime numbers. When asked direct questions, Christopher didn't seem to register them at all.

Diana on the other hand, had cried since they'd been shoved into the SUV. She asked the men what happened to her sister, and if her mommy and daddy were dead. They ignored her questions as if it wasn't to going matter for too much longer. One of Tony's henchmen asked if he could shoot her if she didn't shut up, and Tony nodded assent. Jordan convinced Diana to keep her mouth shut, and told her that she would get to see them soon. Jordan was thankful the girl was too zoned out to notice how bad Jordan was at lying. Diana's sobs had shifted to soundless mewls. She sniffed her nose and wiped snot and tears that flowed down her face at a steady pace, but at least she did it with minimal noise.

False hope is better than getting herself killed. 

"Aren't you curious about how I found you all the way in Butt Fuck, Idaho?" Tony asked.

Jordan felt her hackles raise. She'd hated Idaho since she got there, but the way she made fun of her new town upset her.

"Not really," Jordan replied, "But if it matters to you, you can tell me."

A red flush appeared on Tony's cheeks. A vein that kind of looked like a starfish appeared on the right side of his forehead. It pulsed angrily at Jordan, even as Tony continued to smile.

"Sheesh, you don't have to beg Squirt. Of course I'll tell you. Ya see. Your mom isn't the brightest bulb in the box. Idaho has a fancy little gizmo called the State Repository where they report even the littlest breaking of the law. That's where your mom comes in, because see, she decided to get a little speeding ticket on her way to work one morning. Not smart at all Squirt, because when you steal one million dollars from someone, you best believe they're going to be pulling out all the stops to find you. After that, it wasn't too hard to track her down, specially since a nigger in a white bread state tends to stick.