GHOST PHONE

CHAPTER FOUR: MARCUS VANE

Everyone in Neo-Nairobi knew Marcus Vane. He was a deal. You could not miss him. His face was on the holographic billboards every night. The blue light from these billboards lit up the Upper District. It was like Marcus Vane owned the night.

His name was on the buildings in the city. Vane Tower, Vane Meridian, Vane Apex. His company built the drone system. Controlled half of the data networks. They even had government contracts that were worth a lot of money.

Marcus Vane was fifty-one years old. He was never married or at not that anyone knew about. He was born in Kisumu. You would never know that now. He had changed much that it felt like Neo-Nairobi was always his city.

Dex had a file on Marcus Vane. This was not a surprise.

"I started this file two years ago " Dex said. He pulled it up on his tablet. Turned it so Zane could see. "This was right after the Westgate leak. Do you remember that?"

Zane remembered. Someone had stolen the data of three million people. It had all happened overnight. The government said it was a hack from another country. But the server that was hacked belonged to Vane Corp.

"Nobody did anything to Marcus Vane " Dex said. "The government regulators did not do anything. The courts did not do anything. The case just stopped. It was like someone had pulled the plug.. Two weeks after that Vane Corp got the biggest infrastructure contract in the citys history."

Zane thought that Marcus Vane must have paid someone to make the problem go away.

"Or maybe Marcus Vane had something on someone " Dex said. "That is a problem." Dex put the tablet down. "Marcus Vane does not make mistakes. He is too old for that. He has been building his system for years. Nobody has noticed. This means that the people who could have seen it either took money from Marcus Vane or they are not around anymore."

"Not around " Zane said.

"Not around " Dex said again.

Neither of them said anything for a moment.

Zane was thinking about Bibi Amina. She lived upstairs. She had a routine that she followed every day. She moved through her apartment like someone who had learned to take up as space as possible. Zane thought about what would happen if anyone found out that he had this phone. He was sure it would not be good.

"We should give this phone to someone " Zane said. "Maybe a journalist or..."

"Or what " Dex said. This was not a question. "The police? Half of the police department is working with Vane Corp. A journalist. What could they do with this phone? They could trace it back to you in a hours." Dex shook his head. " Soon as this gets out the first thing they will do is find out who had the phone.. That person is you. You will be in trouble."

Zane pressed his knuckles against his mouth.

"So what do we do with the phone " Zane asked.

Dex took a breath. He let it out slowly. This was what he did when he was not sure about something.

"We need to find out what Marcus Vane has done " Dex said. "We need to know everything. How big it is, where it is, who is involved. We need to have all the information so that when it gets out you are not the story. Marcus Vane is the story. He is the story."

"And what do we do in the meantime? " Zane asked.

"In the meantime you need to keep the phone safe " Dex said. "You need to put it where nobody can find it.. You should not turn it on again."

Zane nodded.

The phone was warm, against his body. It was quiet.