Maybe he should turn around, go back to the coffee shop, and tell this guy that he knows it’s performance art. Or that it’s a perverse hobby. Hey, to each his own. Here you go. Here’s your phone back, you weirdo. There’s a lot of weird hobbies and perversions out there. I’m not judging. And I’m not saying anything to anyone. See you later. Have a good day. Let’s forget this little phone exchange ever took place. Would the businessman buy that? Would he risk that?

Zack can tell that he’s looking for any excuse, any story, to make this not what it is. To turn it into anything else.

Maybe he should delete all the photos. Delete them all and then call his own phone, let the guy know he’s deleted all the photos. But he has no idea if that would make the situation better or worse. And his instincts tell him worse.

Zack can tell already, with those same instincts, that if this is a professional killer, these photos might exist only on this phone. They’re probably not backed up to the Cloud or anywhere else. Because the killer can’t risk them somehow ending up elsewhere. It’s this phone, and this phone only.

The problem for the “businessman,” Zack realizes, isn’t really the existence of the photos. It’s the fact that Zack has seen the photos.

The guy’s problem isn’t the existence of the phone.

The guy’s problem is the existence of Zack.

Zack’s instincts told him what he was seeing. And his instincts got confirmed in the brief conversation with the guy—he had a toughness, a lack of education, at odds with his business clothing. Something immediately wasn’t right. Zack had noticed the tattoo on the back of the guy’s hand when he reached for his coffee. A youthful exuberance before joining the workforce, Zack figured. No, stay there, I’ll come to you. My name? Oh, let’s not worry about that. The guy wanting to control the situation. Needing to control the situation.

The formula forms in Zack’s mind in a dark math, a bleak, deadly calculation: the longer he keeps the phone, the longer he stays alive, because the guy needs to get it back from him. But the longer Zack keeps the phone, the angrier the guy is going to be.

The phone in Zack’s pocket.

It’s his bargaining chip.

It’s his death warrant.