Daniel and Luis
Nava Moseyik, Ch 8 of 23
After Manni returns from plague-ridden Sri Lanka, he enlists his uncle—Geo, a retired PI—to see if his wife, Charlie, is having an affair. After reluctantly agreeing, Geo begins to uncover something more sinister at NVS, the Biotech company for which Manni works.
In this chapter, a quick read, we see Geo expand his investigation.
Nava Moseyik is a 23-chapter near-future science fiction suspense series that spans continents, decades, and styles. If you missed earlier posts, the story starts here.
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Daniel and Luis
August 2nd, 2026
“I need a favor.”
That’s all Geo needed to say.
*
Daniel and Luis were two scruffs from Staten Island whom Geo had watched grow from adorable kids on his block into perfect recruitment fodder for the Mob. Smart, edgy, ambitious, and impressionable, they were Geo’s kind of kids. And in their neighborhood, the Mob’s recruiting campaign in the early 80s was intense. Turn down the wrong alley, or frequent the wrong bar, and any impressionable kid who wanted to make money might be made an offer he couldn’t refuse.
The typical lures were exactly what any teenage boy was looking for; sex and cash. It was offered, the kids were baited, of course, and then they were on the hook, in debt to an organization that didn’t take “no more” for an answer.
Geo knew the deal, had dodged the routine himself, and was always on the lookout for good kids making bad turns. He knew he couldn’t stop organized crime, so he never went to war. He maintained a live-and-let-live relationship with the street guys he knew, and only very occasionally spoke up.
Daniel and Luis were the beneficiaries of one such intervention.
“Give the kids a break,” he had negotiated. “I’ll take them, and I’ll keep them out of your way. I know their parents, and they’d kill me. You know how Italian mothers can be.”
And so, Geo mentored them, pushed them through local college, and gave them work. They blossomed and became Geo’s tech team. They were good, so he pushed them more, and they blossomed more. They ate it up. Some of their antics crossed ethical lines, but Geo felt that, in investigative work, compromise was sometimes required, so he closed his eyes to their methods. They didn’t say how they got much of their information, and Geo didn’t ask.
As digital communication and storage became more prevalent in the 90s, the two kids became pioneers in digital hacking, surveillance, and following digital breadcrumbs. And they remained ahead of the curve, building a team of kids whose coding far surpassed their own skills and carving an elite (if somewhat covert) enterprise in the dark arts of digital intelligence… all thanks to Geo’s paternal instincts.
And they knew it. And they owed him.
So, when Geo called and asked for a favor, that’s all he needed to say.
*
Daniel, Luis, and a couple of their own protégés sat in Geo’s living room.
“What’s with all the dents in the wall?” Louie asked, examining one of the holes.
“Hickeys, Lou, what do you think?” Geo smiled. “Hands off. Anyway, listen…” and Geo went on to explain his quandary.
“It’s my nephew and his wife. They are having a tough time. Manni’s asked for help. I did a little work, and it seems like there is something boiling in the pot, and I don’t like it.
“Manni works at NVS over in Short Hills. Two of his leads got sick as dogs. One guy, one Raj Gupta, he’s bad. The other guy, Anthony Green, is looking really close to checking out. I’m no doctor but I have an instinct about these things. He’s a mess. If we want info out of them, we have to move fast. And one other person of interest, Sarah Benedict, is MIA. All this info is in your files.
“But here’s the kicker: Manni’s wife, Charlie, a doctor at St. Barnabas, has been hands-on with all three; Gupta, Green, and Benedict. Charlie is the common link. And if Green turns white on us, she’s gonna be top of my suspect list. There’s already an official medical investigation out; that looks clean. But my nose says something’s up.
“I need a few things. One; a peek at their medical records – Gupta’s and Green’s. Two; Charlie’s phone records, email comms, and hard drives. Three; Gupta’s, Green’s, and Benedict’s comms. And four; any other comms concerning NVS that point to enemies the company may have made over the years. Any questions?”
Louie was the chatty one.
“NVS is that Lab, right?” he confirmed. “That’s high-level security. Can we get access? Can Manni get us in?”
“Manni is a terrible liar,” Geo noted. “The less we involve him, the better; for now, at least. If you can get me an employee list and their preferred vendors—cleaning, maintenance, the landscape gardener for all I care—I’ll find you a mole.”
“Ooh, nice,” Danny nodded, smiling in approval of the gag. “I see what you did there.”
“Dan…” Geo shook his head in a gesture of reluctant surrender before moving on. “Ok, any other questions.”
There were many.
Geo called Manni a few hours later, after his guys had left.
“Hey, Geo,” Manni answered. “What’s up?”
“Hey, Manni.” Geo automatically went into cryptic mode – an old professional habit. “I just wanted to thank you for the tip the other day. I busted out a few old CDs I hadn’t listened to in a while.”
“CDs?” Manni wasn’t used to Geo’s abundance of caution when working.
“Yeah, CDs,” Geo repeated. “You came over the other day and asked me to look into who else Charlie Parker played with. Remember?”
“Oh, ok,” Manni finally cottoned on, not seeing the necessity for the codes but going along with it anyway. “That’s great. Have you listened to anything yet?”
“No, not yet. But I’ve got them all stacked and ready. I’ll be going through them over the next few days and weeks. I’ll let you know how that goes.”
“Sounds good,” Manni acknowledged.
“Give my love to that beautiful wife of yours,” Geo was about to sign off.
“I would if she were here,” Manni admitted. “She left and took the kids.”
“Really.” If Geo was concerned, he didn’t let on. “Ok, let me get to that stack of CDs. Have a good night, Manni… and keep your phone on.”
End of Chapter 8
In chapter 9, out later this week, an NYT Op-Ed column will detail the political resistance to Globalism and provide a better idea of why the WCC commission at NVS is so politically charged.