Chapter 31: 30

 

The streets of New York are empty at night, unlike those of Pala Alto. This is the time of year when New Yorkers are relaxing and entertaining, with nightclubs and bars and upscale restaurants lining the metropolis.

I was leaning against a lively street full of bars and clubs, playing with my phone. During the day it's quiet and deserted, but at night like this it's full of people, all dressed to the nines. Of course, maybe after midnight it's time to go back to the bars.

In the chat room on my phone, I inadvertently brought up my trip in casual conversation.

[Mr. Hat]: You were back in New York for the Survivor interview?! That reality show?!!!

[Mosquito]: Ugh... what a waste! It was such a waste! How great would it be to learn some skills with me? It's rare to find a young man as resourceful as you these days.

I couldn't help but laugh at Mosquito's tone of voice. It sounded like one of those fake Taoist priests in China town, carrying a little book and going around tugging at passing kids saying, I think you're skeletal and very suitable for martial arts training. Mr. Hat was Neil Caffrey's nickname in the chat room, which shows how obsessed he was with juggling that hat of his.

One by one, they both sighed when they heard the news that I was going to Survivor. It was just as well, after all, it seemed to them that a month of exhausting work at Survivor would only earn them a million dollars for the game. It was not a good deal at all to earn less and pay more.

For these two masters of financial fraud, this rudimentary social game does not carry the possibility of failure, and a million dollars is not even a tenth of what they could spend on a single operation.

[Carl the Apprentice]: It's all about being resourceful, that's why you don't want to be like Mr. Hat, the mouse caught by the cat! [Apprentice Carl]: (I'm a good boy who's content with life.)

[Mosquito]: (Horrified) (Horrified) You're a sociopath, a good boy who's content with life?

[Mr. Hat]: (sweating) Carl, you're being too careful too.

I go by the name Apprentice Carl in the chat room, and Carl is naturally an alias as they know it. This chat room, in fact, doesn't have access to just the three of us. I could often see people entering the chat room looking for Mosquito to do something, and if Mosquito was interested, they would switch to private chat. I usually just talk when it's just the three of us in, and peer into the screen at other times.

And it's the three of us who are most often in the chat room.

That said, there was little restriction on the two of them, Neil Caffrey and Mosquito, if they wanted to see each other, with the indulgence of a tolerant caretaker like Peter. But perhaps it was a matter of old habits, even now that Neil had been caught by the FBI, it was rare that anyone sought out both Neil and Mosquito in the chat room anymore. But they still enjoyed chatting in the chat room when they were bored.

During the day, I learnt more about the two men's sultry personalities from the chatroom banter, apart from Neil's most skillful manipulative language skills. Mosquito often complains that Neil can't walk when he sees a woman, and now he's added that he can't walk when he sees Peter Cat.

Neil, too, has often been sarcastic about Mosquito's good-for-nothing ways. Yes, Mosquito gave me the password and address for the chat room, but Neil didn't stop it either, right? Mosquito said that he saw in me what Neil had been like when he was young and wanted to teach another good rat who was smarter and wouldn't get caught by the police cat.

Looking at their exaggerated response, I was just about to say something back. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a hurried figure crash into me, not giving me the chance to react and turn around. The phone in my hand, slipped from my hand with a bump and then the screen went black.

The chat room's self-protection program automatically exits the phone screen five seconds after it loses its touch, not to mention the automatic lock screen, so I was just distressed that the phone might be broken.

"Right... sorry! I'm really sorry!"

I heard a flurry of apologies from the person who had bumped into me. I looked up after bending down to pick up my phone from the ground, then froze for a moment.

The man in front of me, dressed somewhat out of place in this place, was slim and tall. If I didn't recognise the face, I would probably have thought he would be a model.

Spencer Ryder! The talented young doctor from the BAU squad that I had met in the police station only a short while ago during the David affair!

He obviously remembered me well too, and with wide eyes he blurted out, "Bryan Moss?! What are you doing here?"

"...Instead of asking why I'm here, why don't you tell me what you're running?" My mouth twitched and I reached out to touch my phone, luckily the screen wasn't broken. "I didn't think Dr. Genius liked to relax in places like this?"

It came as a bit of a surprise to me that Spencer Ryder, who looked like a little geek, would show up at a bar and nightclub street like this.

"No, no, no!" Reed said anxiously, waving his hands, "I'm not here to hang out... Brian, did you just see a man about six foot eight, skinny and wearing a black baseball cap pass by?"

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"You're here on a case?" I looked at him in surprise, with a panting look. Since when did the fbi need someone who was supposed to be working on paperwork to arrest a prisoner?

"...ahem...I'm not actually a paperworker," Reed explained with an uncomfortable blush as he coughed, "and...it was a thief, when I was ordering at the burger place and he took my wallet and phone off my person."

...... What am I supposed to say? Is it funny that an erudite little kitten was put on the spot by the big rat that hangs out in the gutter. Or is it funny that the rat robbed whoever's wallet it wasn't, but the fbi?

"New York thieves run fast," I said, giving him a look, "How much money is in your wallet? Are the papers in there too? Why don't you use my phone to call the police and then have a friend come pick you up."

So as a result, I turned around, intent on getting a good taste of New York nightlife, and took Red back to the burger joint where his phone and wallet had been stolen. I also bought him a beef burger combo.

Because I never thought for a second that Red would have no friends in his day-to-day life who could help out in a pinch, other than his colleagues in the BAU team! This was more of a loner than me.

So after calling the police, as neither of us had much hope of getting our wallets and phones back, I therefore invited Red to dinner anyway, and he looked hungry.

"So Hotchner gave you a break and you were encouraged by them to come to New York to audition for that reality show Survivor entry?" What a coincidence, I really didn't think he'd come to New York for the same reason I had.

Reed had been caught up in another serial murder case two or three days after BAU had captured David Vincent. To make matters worse, he was implicated in the case as I was, and was really saved at the last minute.

The head of the BAU department, Aaron Hozina, had to comply with a request for a psychological assessment from the FBI headquarters and gave Red a mandatory week's leave to adjust his mind. So Garcia, the department's uproarious computer tech support, gave him a great idea for a holiday. That was to join Survivor.

Garcia's theory was this. Through research on all sides of, ahem, hacking, she discovered that the theme of the new season of her all-time favourite reality show, Survivor, was beauty, strength and brains.

Brains, what a theme for Schadenfreude! Although each of the BAU team is a demon, three PhDs plus a couple of bachelor's degrees and so young under the common perception? What's it if not a genius?

And given that Ryder hadn't asked for leave since he joined the bau, like the other members. So a few years of saved up vacation time would be enough for him to join the full 39 days of Survivor filming.

If he joins the Survivor shoot, then even if he wanted to be called back by bau in an emergency while on set, it would be impossible. Because Survivor is filmed in a completely primitive and isolated environment. Unless he gets knocked out in the first round because his emotional intelligence is too low.

Jason Gideon, who should have been the last person to go along with the idea, was surprisingly extremely agreeable to it. He felt that living in that isolated environment for almost a month would help Reed to relax from the stress caused by his work and put all the things in his life behind him for a while. And that harsh existence of the survivors clearly didn't get his attention.

"Yeah," Reed said with a downcast look, "I really don't understand why even Hotchner and Gideon aren't against this idea of Garcia's if it's okay that Morgan and Al and the others are in favour of it!"

"Because survivors are really fun!" I joked and winked at him, then deliberately reached out my right hand to tug on his and shake it. "Please take care of it when you do? Warrior of the Head Tribe!"

"......" Ryder blinked before he responded, and he let out an ah-ha before saying, "Mose you're here in New York for the Survivor interview too?"

"Yeah yo." I grinned and spread my hands, "And I guess I'll be in the Beauty Tribe, right? Let's have a match in a month. If we both make it to the tribal merge stage, you and me in a secret alliance! That way we can definitely be FINALTwo!"

The survivor contestants, as a rule, don't know each other before the tournament starts. So there was no such thing as a pre-match alliance. But it would be a shame not to take advantage of such a coincidental encounter. Was it a decision of fate, or was it compensation for the FBI making me drop out of America's Next Top Model halfway through the competition?

All in all, I'm going to win this one!

"But I'm not even sure myself if I can stop being eliminated in the first round or not?" Spencer Ryder said this but it was clear that the news that someone he knew was also competing had brightened up his brow.

I knew that Reed wouldn't have been eliminated in the first round anyway, and the chances of him making it to the tribal merger stage, reached sixty percent.

Because he's an FBI psychological profiler, he's naturally wary of contestants who have a second plan in mind; because he looks like he doesn't make people wary but is easy to like, so people don't see him as their first target even when voting for elimination; and because his personality, which keeps him from turning scorching even under heavy pressure, is naturally not obnoxious.

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