Falling Deep Chapter 11: Spain

Jay sat on the couch watching the ceiling, wondering if there was anything more pointless. He usually passed the time counting the stars outside the porch when it wasn’t too cold or rainy. He wished that he could just go back to L.A. without any hassle there bound to be waiting for him. He needed help. He wondered if the Brit had sent another e.mail. He walked downstairs to the study of the large, opulent villa. The French-style doors remained closed as the rain kept pouring down them. Jay felt his footsteps echo more loudly than usual. It felt empty. Jay’s senses seemed to be more receptive because of the lack of sleep he had been getting.1

He hadn’t slept well since he left Adi’s sisters. He thought about her every day, and every night for that matter. Not a second seemed to go by when he had her on his mind. Wondering if she’d still be there when he returned, wondering whether she slept as well. He sat on the sofa, smoothing his face through his hands. He then thought of something....what if he took the computer to the MI5 agent? Nah. He had gotten a large selection of files already with Anton’s help, he can help him with the last one. 2

Anton and him had ventured over the previous weeks to find various files, Jay’s very intention of leaving was to cover more ground, and it sure as hell paid off, despite the agony it continued to cause him, being alone from the only girl he ever truly loved. He pushed Adi to the back of his mind for what felt like the thousandth time that day, and probably was. He began the database search, trying to focus on being able to get the hell out of there and back to Adi and Kat. 3

Jay hoped the search didn’t take long. He searched the files. “Wahid,” it read. He needed to database this.
Surely MI5 must had something on him. Perhaps he could e.mail the MI5 agent and ask him to double check the records to see if any intelligence they’ve collected gives any indication of their whereabouts. Suddenly a new mail pop-up appeared. Jay, due to unadulterated curiosity, clicked on it and the e.mail read as such: 4

Anton
We would sincerely like to thank you for tipping us off about Jay Tanner’s involvement with Sam Dewson.
We’ll ‘sort him out’ all right, just leave him to us, make sure he doesn’t go AWOL, get suspicious or slips. Keep him near. We’ll be waiting at ----Costa Del Sol Address----
Maxis
PS: We think he and your daughter look like a happy couple, shame she doesn’t know what she’s involved with.5

The e.mail was accompanied with pictures of Jay and Adi happily frolicking around Malaga in September, Adi’s twenty-second birthday to be exact. Jay was enraged. He remembered a time he smashed a laptop computer at an airport in Tunisia. He was flying from Tunisia to Spain during a European vacation in the summer of 1994. He saw a timer on that bomb, urging him to act. The e.mail was like the timer, pressuring him to take action. Do what was necessary. Jay was the sort of person that knew always what should be done and he did it, no ifs, no buts, nor doubts. Well not many anyway. 6

He decided checked the British Registry Office of Births and Deaths, seeing as Adi had told him previously she was born in London. This wasn’t hard to do. Jay had successfully hacked into MI5 before, with Kat’s help of course. She knew all the techniques and he revised them quickly. He searched and found a database. He searched for 1983 records. Adelina Stanford appeared. It was Adi’s. Her father, little to Jay’s surprise, was listed as Anton Vivaldez. 7

Adi’s father was the man he’d been living with for two months, getting help from. Jay didn’t know how to process this information. He felt deceived. He knew Anton was going to get him. He heard a door open towards the back of the house. It was Anton returning. 8

Jay clicked out of the e.mail hurriedly. “Oh good, you’re still here,” Anton greeted him as he walked into the foyer, as if he expected him not to be. “So, tell me. How were you going to lure me into one of your little traps you’ve been scheming for me all along so your friends can have a pop at me, finish me off even? I mean I’m interested so don’t spare me the details.” Anton grinned. “Well I wondered how you figured that one out.” Jay, unable to control his anger felt his fist ram into Anton’s face, knocking him off his feet. 9

“About ten seconds ago, along with the fact you’re my girlfriend’s father.” Jay replied. He took the laptop and headed off. Jay immediately stashed the laptop in the back of the car in the garage and then shoved every item he owned into his carry bag. He then stashed both carry-bags into the back of the car and drove off. Jay had to figure out where to go.10

He drove along the strip, unable to see much it was raining so much. He stopped in a commercial beachside resort in abundance with tacky hotels and apartments. He found a payphone near a cafe which had an undercover outside area. He dialled the club Adi was working at first, seeing as she usually worked during the day on Fridays. He wanted to know he still knew her inside out and memorising this confirmed to him that he had not forgotten her at all, something he was mildly afraid of. His fingers trembled as he dialled.
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Adi was feeling tired, irritable and lethargic and everyone picked up on her moods, careful not to say anything. Kat, who was working her shift with her, also found this and began to express her concern. “Adi, come on, he’ll be back,” she perked in an attempt to cheer her friend up. He said he would, won’t he?” 11

Adi sighed. “It’s been nearly two months Kat, how much longer should I have to wait?” Adi was jerked a little by the ringing of the phone. She begrudgingly went to answer it in the back office. “Hello, Zuma’s, Adi speaking,” she greeted as her normal answer to the company phone. “Hey baby, how’s it going?” Jay greeted in his usually cocky, self assuring, sultry and uplifting way. “Jay? Is that really you?” 12

“It’s me alright, last time I checked. Unless someone’s been posing for me by imitating my voice, but that doesn’t seem that likely though, does it?” Adi was thrilled to hear from him but at the same time she wanted to kill him. “Where the hell have you been, Jay? Jesus Christ I’ve been worried sick! Lara, well she’s moving out of the villa and she’s moving to Lorna’s in France.
She’s going in two weeks and well after that I got a very nice phone call from Damien telling me if I don’t get my back-side back to London I’ll be spending a few hours down at the police station having to explain to the authorities why I can’t sign off on my lease. 13

I’ll probably be cautioned by the courts anyway for letting Rite use my flat but that’s not the point Jay, the point is when-will-you-come-back? Please give me an answer of some from!” Adi held her head in distress, relief and jubilation. She knew she’d blabbed on and gave Jay an earful but he had to hear it, she was sick to death of waiting.
“Soon, real, real soon I promise.” Jay said truthfully. There’s just one more thing I have to do first, and trust me it won’t take long. Hey baby I’ve got to go so just text if you want and I’ll be back, I swear.” 14

“Jay wait,” Adi continued, not sure why she did. “Tell me about your thoughts, of me, I mean. What do you feel when you’re thinking of me?” She heard herself ask. She didn’t know what exactly warranted the question but she felt she had to ask. She wanted to know Jay missed her as much as she missed him.
“I’ll leave that one for when I return, I’ve got to go now Adi. I’ll see you later. I love you.” 15

He hung up, it being one of the hardest things he ever had to do. He wanted to give Adi and answer, he knew that’s the least he could give her, but he just couldn’t. He decided he’d call the agent. He knew he’d be of at least some assistance. “Hey listen, man, do you have any information on Vivaldez and his contacts. Preferably bounty hunters.” The agent was surprised to hear from Jay for a start, having not heard from him in a while. “Um yes, well do you have any e.mails from them or such.”
“Not as such, well not to me.”16

“OK, what about a Wahid? An Arif Wahid?” Jay asked, sitting back in the front car seat, the rain dripping off the window.
“I’d have to see, I’m not entirely sure,” the agent replied after noting it on his palm pilot. “But more to the point Jayden, what is it about Vivaldez you’re so interested about?”
“Nothing, I just know he’s been with these group of Bounty Hunters wanting them to kill me, he’s been at it for months, like I’m surprised.” Jay rubbed his forehead. He had to admit the stress got to him as much as the loneliness did. Jay opened the computer. “Hey look man, I’m gonna get this over and done with,” he said, forwarding the e.mail to the agent. “Well be careful. I’d suggest....”
Jay didn’t want any suggestions from anybody. Quite frankly he’d began to tire of them. “Hey look I’ve got an address, it’s not too far, I’ll be fine. I know it. I’ve gotta go man.” Jay hung up on the agent and drove off. He was near the address, it was near where Adi worked except she and Kat would be finishing their shifts in a couple of hours. He thought then about Kat.
What if he talked to her aswell? He then decided it was probably for the best he do this on his own, pay his dues. He felt a surge of adrenaline as he hopped out of the car at a large, opulent corner of Malaga.
He liked this place yet somehow the bar he walked into, much in contrast to Adi’s, was somewhat rundown. It wasn’t exactly heaving. The darkness continued down an alleyway where Jay reached a locked door. He kicked it down. The room was smallish, quite plush in comparison to the rest of the club. It had a rich reddish theme which Jay attributed to prostitution. He walked in and looked around. Convinced there was a set up he turned back out of the room into the bar when behind him a thug with a bar of metal knocked him out cold.
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Jay opened his eyes, seeing strange men in a dark, dingy office, hearing strange gruff voices passing suggestions as to how they can brutally kill him. Jay found a sharp piece of metal towards the back of the chair. He managed to rip the tape half way through. 17

They began looking his way. He immediately took his unconscious position. The head honcho checked his pulse on his hand which was behind his back. “He’s still alive,” he confirmed. Jay realised from the heaving sound the man made that he was going to be hit over the head with a large crow bar. Jay’s eyes flicked open immediately. “Hey, what are you doing?” Jay yelled. This didn’t stop the group of Bounty Hunters coming forward with crow-bars. “I haven’t done anything, I can prove it,” he stressed. The bounty hunters stopped in their tracks. “Listen if its details you want, information, I can give it to you, let’s talk. Money, let’s talk that...I have money.”