Chapter 5, section 4: Urban Zen

He picked up the plastic bag from Zahra’s and climbed the stairs. When he unlocked the front door his electric security panel beeped at him until he fingered the key code.

The apartment looked normal. At least nothing was out of place from when he was last here. It was a smallish three-room flat with kitchen in back, living room and a tiny bedroom in front. The décor was sparse; some would call it ‘Zen’. He preferred ‘Urban Monastic’. That’s what Phoebe the architect had called it. The kitchen had a small table with a couple of padded plastic metal frame chairs. He didn’t own many cooking utensils, and his pots were mostly used to boil tea water. The fridge was an antique rounded Westinghouse with a pull down handle. The living room arrangement was simple: long, low couch with matching chairs, a coffee table, early model color television with a fake oak standing frame, and various receptacles for books and magazines. On the coffee table sat a hardcover copy of Turning the Mind Into an Ally by Sakyong Mipham. The bedroom was the simplest room in the house, its occupants being a queen-sized  futon on the hardwood floor and a low hammered-metal Arab side table with a camel skin lamp on it. Phoebe had especially like that room, calling it ‘To the point’. Very few people knew about this apartment, and he liked it that way. It was his retreat where he went to get away from his hectic life running Frenzy’s empire and meditate. And so he would. Nothing pressed until tomorrow, so tonight he would retreat. Watch his watchers if they were home, and rest.

Later that evening, after a long bath and some cobweb-clearing contemplation meditations, he called in supper from La Merveille du Vietnam down on St. Denis Street. When he opened the cupboard to take out a purple glass plate, he saw an envelope had been left on top of the stack. Inside was a card-sized electronic screen that read:

Congratulations, brother.

Events of the last few days flooded through his mind: Paolo’s mysterious rendezvous, the old Encyclopaedia, Amazon roomates on one side and stakeout apartment on the other. Only thing that didn’t grok was Cerebus. Otherwise it all fit together perfectly. Damn, she wanted him to know! He might be able to outmaneuver her if he thought fast… Or he could wait and see what she was brewing.

His stomach answered with a growl.

He piled food containers on plate and bowl, grabbed some chopsticks, spoons and a beer, and flicked on the television.