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The men are on the phone to someone – his company, maybe, or his parents. He’s already been asked to give the requisite proof-of-life response to his name on the line. One of them says, “All right, put Zuckerberg on the phone.”
Eduardo laughs. “Look, I don’t know where you’re getting your information from but Mark and I aren’t- so there’s no way he’s-.”
A sharp crack of pain across his cheek.
And then Mark is on speaker. “Touch him again and the deal is off.”
“Mark?”
Mark keeps talking over him. “Now. What do you want?”
“This isn’t a negotiation.” There are two kidnappers in the room. Tall-guy does most of the talking.
Mark sighs. “I am aware of that. If this were a negotiation, I would be telling you how much I’m willing to pay. As it is, I’ll ask again, what do you want?”
There are muffled noises on Mark’s end of the phone. Eduardo guesses that the kidnap negotiators or whoever they are don’t like Mark’s approach. Eduardo thinks they’re missing the vital point that trying to deal with Mark can be enough to confuse anyone.
Tall-guy takes the phone. “Ten million dollars.”
“Fine,” Mark says. “Here’s the government people, sort out the exchange. Oh.”
“What?” Bald-guy asks.
“Please bear in mind that I own a multi-national company with almost infinite reach and resources and if Eduardo isn’t returned safely I will devote all of my not inconsiderable assets and intellect to tracking you down and-.”
Someone snatches the phone from Mark. It’s taken off speaker and they start working out the details with the agents. Of course, then they’ll have to negotiate with the Brazilian authorities and it’s not like the Americans are going to be happy with them paying off the ransom. So Eduardo has a little time to think.
*
Mark meets him off the plane; his expression is blank. He steps forward and then looks to think better of it, folding his hands across his chest.
There’s a flurry of people: his parents, and federal agents, and various members of both country’s security services. His father is still asking him why the hell he was back in Brazil, and Eduardo knows what the man is trying to say but his head hurts. He wants to go home.
Mark’s voice cuts through the fog. “You can stay with me, if you want. Until you fly back to New York.”
Eduardo surprises himself. “Yes. Please.”
*
Mark nods towards the spare bedroom in a vague kind of way. “I should get back to work. It’s been… Okay?”
“Okay.” It’s surreal. Mark disappears into his bedroom with his laptop and Eduardo takes a long shower. When he gets out, Mark has laid out some clothes but is still nowhere to be found. Eduardo goes for a walk through the house.
It’s probably a bad idea. In the living room, Mark has (probably illegal) copies of the photograph they sent back of Eduardo. Plus a bunch of financial documents and a CD somewhat ominously marked ‘call one.’
Mark appears beside him. “I should move this stuff. I was ready to- there are people you can hire. But I should move this.”
“Yeah… yeah.”
He hadn’t been so scared at the time. The kidnappers wore masks, they were professional, and they were in it for the money. The company would have paid up eventually, though maybe not so quickly as Mark. They probably wouldn’t have paid that sum without blinking, either.
Mark is the one who’s surprising him in all this. Mark seems startlingly unaffected. Except for the whole threatening a cartel of kidnappers with global surveillance and possible assassination. Eduardo doesn’t know how he even ended up on that phone call. It had been so long since they had spoken, let alone been friends, and then he was hearing Mark’s voice down the line in that place.
Eduardo goes to lie down. He wakes up because Mark is sitting on the end of the bed and staring at him. It’s dark outside and he had been dreaming of bugs - literal bugs - inside the telephone lines. “Mark?”
“Yes?”
“You’re kind of freaking me out.”
“This is freaking you out? You were abducted less than forty-eight hours ago but this is what is freaking you out?”
“Yes.” Eduardo imagines that he will have a bigger, more dramatic freak-out about that part later. For now, it’s gone midnight and Mark is watching him sleep. He’s choosing the battles he might be able to win.
“Oh,” Mark says.
“You want to talk about something?”
“No.”
“Okay.”
“Don’t disappear in the middle of the night again.” Mark doesn’t blink. “It’s unsettling.”
Eduardo laughs. “If it hadn’t been for… I don’t even know what, you wouldn’t have known what had happened. They’ll try and keep the details out of the news and we haven’t seen each other in-.”
“Eighteen months,” Mark says. “But your assistant said you would be at the board meeting on Friday.”
“Yeah, I don’t know if that’s going to happen now.”
Mark continues to look at him. “Try not to disappear again.”
“I promise. And look, I’ll get the money back to you - we have insurance for this kind of thing. Though you’re really not supposed to just go around giving these guys exactly what they want.”
Mark shrugs. “I’m sure the governments will keep investigating, and I’ll have some lawyers look into it. It’s just money.”
“Mark.”
“It’s just money,” Mark repeats. “They had you, I heard them- the bruise is going down, by the way. On your cheek.”
“Mark. You really didn’t need to-.”
“If it had been me?”
“Facebook would have paid before I even-.”
Mark interrupts. “Wardo.”
“Of course, okay? I would have been on the first plane. I’d have liquidated stock, I’d have sold fucking Sean my stake in Facebook, of course I would. It’s you, of course I would.”
Mark nods. “Exactly.”
Eduardo’s not sure what he just agreed to, but Mark seems to think it was significant. Eduardo is exhausted and Mark is still staring at him. “Can you lie down?” Eduardo asks.
Mark leans his head back, to one side. It’s an old gesture; Eduardo ignores it.
“Mark,” he says. “I’m tired and you’re apparently not going anywhere. Can you at least lie down? It’s hurting my neck to look at you.”
Mark kicks off his shoes and lies down on the bed beside Eduardo, on top of the covers. “I was scared,” he says, quietly. Wonderingly.
“Yeah,” Eduardo says. “I got that.”
Mark pats Eduardo’s arm, settling first on his elbow and then his wrist. His fingers flutter, like he’s shaking, or his pulse is pounding under the skin. “Stay there,” he says. “Don’t go anywhere.”
“Mark.”
“I have state-of-the-art-security and CCTV, plus tracking devices in all the portable electronic equipment.”
What Mark means, of course, is ‘you’re safe. I’ve got you.’ And somewhere under that what he means is ‘don’t scare me. stay here.’ Eduardo closes his eyes and knows that Mark is still watching him. He settles his free hand over Mark’s. He says, “Okay. I’m here.”