Jennifer Government: A Novel (39 page)

“Hey, he’s right, man,” the other kid said. “He ain’t wearing logos.” They looked at Hack nervously.

“Out!” Hack yelled, and they ran. One grabbed a pair of sneakers on his way out. Hack felt disgusted before remembering he was planning to do that himself.

“Let me help you with those tins,” Claire said. “Let’s get this done and get out.”

“Okay,” he said. Their hands touched as they reached for the same can of blood. They smiled at each other.

“Hey,” someone said. “What’s going on?”

“Jesus,” Hack breathed. Some people were really slow learners. He turned. But it wasn’t one of the kids.
“Violet?”

“Hack! What are you doing here?”

“I’m—” She was leading a kid by the arm, a girl of about eight or nine. “What are
you
doing?”

“Are you doing the swap?”

“Swap? Violet, if you’re following me around—”

“Hold it,” she said. “Are you John Nike’s contact or not?”

Hack opened his mouth to reply. A man entered the store behind Violet. His face was distorted, like a melted wax sculpture. A line of thick black stitches marched from one ear to the middle of his forehead. His hair was gone. But Hack recognized him anyway.

“No,” the John said. “I am.”

“Gark,” John Nike said, or something similar.

“Hey, now,” Jennifer said. “You don’t seem pleased to see me at all.”

He turned and fled. She took off after him. Max Synergy and the US Alliance suits just stood there. This, she discovered, was a common thread to the next four and a half minutes: office
workers standing around gaping while she and John zipped past them. John was screaming for the NRA or security or anyone with a gun,
please, but
there was not a lot of action from the suits and skirts at US Alliance. Companies claimed to be highly responsive, Jennifer thought, but you only had to chase a screaming man through their offices to realize it wasn’t true.

John tried to catch an elevator, but she was closing on him so he ran up the stairs instead. He gained a little ground by pushing a woman with a stack of files into her path, but only a little, and the more floors they climbed, the more her regular gym workouts and John’s regular big lunches became evident. He was gasping and wheezing at the twenty-ninth and her fingers closed on his jacket. He wriggled free and burst out of the stairwell. She followed and found herself in an enormous board room. Two walls were glass. The view over L.A. was incredible. John was flat against a pane as if he were trying to squeeze through it. It was, she realized, a lot like the room in which she’d told John about her pregnancy, eight years ago, when they’d both worked for Maher. She hoped he noticed the symmetry.

“Get away from me! You stay back!”

“Sorry, chum,” she said. “Can’t do that.”

“Where’s the fucking NRA?”
he screamed, and that she couldn’t answer. “Wait. Wait a second!”

“Uh-uh.”

“Stop! Or Kate will regret it!”

Jennifer stopped. “What?”

“Talked to your daughter recently?”

“John,” she said. “You don’t want to give me any extra reasons to be pissed at you. You really don’t.”

“You’d better call home. Your daughter’s been missing since this morning.”

“You lying piece of shit.” Her voice trembled. “How dare you say something like that.”

“You think I’m kidding?” He sprayed spittle. “You think I’d
wait for you to come for me without taking steps to protect myself? You think I’d believe you’d
give up?
You think I’d be
unprepared?”

She hesitated.

He saw, and his eyes brightened. “You know me, Jen. Am I the sort of guy to take half-measures?” There was a phone on the counter. “Go on, call home. Find out for yourself.”

She took a deep, steadying breath. “If you’re lying, I’m going to beat the shit out of you.”

“Do I look worried?”

She walked over to the phone and dialed Buy’s cellphone. “And if you’re not lying, I’m going to kill you.”

His smile flickered.

It only rang once. She heard Buy’s voice. It was anxious and strained. “H—hello?”

“It’s me.”

“Oh Jen. Jen. I’m so sorry.”

She put down the handset.

“So,” John said. “Now we understand each other.”

She started walking toward him.

“Ah-ah! Not a good idea, Jen. Not smart. You want to hold it right there.”

Jennifer stopped. Her hands were shaking. “She is your
daughter.”

“Oh, please,” John said. “I made this very goddamn clear eight years ago. I never wanted a kid.
You
wanted it, and I couldn’t stop you. I couldn’t do a goddamn thing to stop you. So, fine, you had a kid. But don’t think you can turn me into a
father.”

The elevator dinged behind her.

“At last!” John said. “What took you assholes so long?”

She felt rough hands seize her arms. “Sorry, sir! There’s a disturbance out front. We responded as soon as—”

“Not good enough. I’ll be speaking to Li.”

“Sir, what would you like us to do with…?”

“Take her somewhere,” John said, “and shoot her in the head.”

The soldier said nothing.

“You have a problem with that?”

“Sir, I’m not sure you can authorize me to do that.”

“I fucking can!” John shouted. “Don’t make me take this to Li!”

“Yes, sir,” the soldier said. Jennifer could barely see him. She was starting to cry. She let herself be dragged.

T
he two NRA soldiers took her down the stairwell. She felt as if she were shaking apart. She wanted to catch the first flight back to Melbourne, and hunt down John and kill him, both at once. But she couldn’t do both. She couldn’t do either.

Halfway down, one of the soldier’s radios said something, and he spoke into it. Then he looked at his companion. “They want us out front. It’s getting worse.”

“What about her?”

“I dunno.”

Nobody said anything for a moment. Jennifer waited for them to decide whether they were going to kill her.

“I mean, if they want us out front, that’s an NRA order. That takes precedence over what Nike wants.”

“Does it?”

“Shit, I dunno,” the soldier said. “But I’ll tell you right now, I don’t want to shoot this woman in the head. That’s just wrong.”

Suddenly, Jennifer’s cellphone rang. Her nerves were so frayed that she jumped.

“What’s that?”

“It’s my phone,” she said.

“Uh…well, you get that,” the soldier said. “We need to discuss this situation.”

She answered her phone. It was Buy. She could hear the
pain in his voice. They spoke briefly but usefully. Then Buy had to go. She closed her phone and looked at the soldiers.

“Okay,” the first one said. “We’re going to reinforce the front entrance. You’re coming with us. Then what you do is up to you.”

“Thank you,” she said. Her voice broke.

“Don’t thank us yet,” he said. “You don’t know what’s going on out there.”

Buy left Mitsui late, but the traffic was light and he arrived at Mattel Primary School on time. Normally he had to doublepark or leave his car around the block, but today the street was almost empty. That was weird: children should have been dribbling out the gates, parents jamming the street. He got out and walked down the school path.

In the administration building, six people were conferring on the other side of the counter. He saw Government IDs. “Help you?” a woman said.

“I’m here to pick up Kate,” Buy said. “What’s going on?”

The woman’s hand rose to her mouth. Suddenly everybody was looking at him.

“What?” Buy said.

“Sir,” an agent said. “Would you like to take a seat?”

“Where’s Kate?”

“Our security didn’t slip up,” the woman said. “I want you to know that. A guard did try to stop her. There’s nothing wrong with our security.”

“Stop who?” Buy said, but he already knew: the answer was thickening in the air.

“Sir, there’s been a kidnapping.”

“But…who was kidnapped?” Then a loud rushing sound
filled his head and fluorescent lights like blurry comets passed through his field of vision.

T
hey made him coffee, but his hands wouldn’t stop trembling. The agents spoke on their phones and asked him questions. With each one, Buy felt himself forced into a new reality, where Kate was missing and it was all his fault.

“You’re already under investigation,” one of the agents told him, covering his cellphone. “The Nike Town shootings? You were interviewed by Field Agents Jennifer and Calvin.”

“I… was at the mall that night,” Buy said. “That’s all. I tried to help the girl who was shot. Hayley McDonald’s.”

The agents exchanged a glance. “She was a relation of yours? A friend?”

“I just tried to help her. Why is this important?”

“Now another girl you’re associated with is missing,” an agent said.

“So…what?”

“Sir, can you tell us your movements this morning?” “I dropped Kate, I drove to work.”

“Is there anyone who can confirm you left the school grounds?”

“But why—you think
I
took her?”

“Settle down, Mr. Mitsui,” an agent said. “Is there anyone who can confirm you left the school grounds?”

“I—yes! I spoke to another parent, she would have seen me leave. Her name was…Violet. I didn’t get her surname, but she works as a veterinarian.”

“Can you describe this woman for me?”

“Young, short brown hair… she was wearing a green parka.”

The agents exchanged a glance. “Sir, that fits the description of the kidnapper.”

“What? How is that—”

“We’re going to need you to accompany us to the station.”

“No,” he said, rising. “I have to look for her!”

“Sit down. Now.” Everyone was looking at him.

“You must have been pretty angry with the Government after they let that girl die at Chadstone,” the other agent said. “Maybe you thought you’d get even by snatching a Government kid.”

“No!”

“But you admit you had prior contact with the kidnapper.”

His cellphone rang. Everyone stopped.

“Answer it,” an agent said. “Maybe it’s your little friend.”

Buy pulled it free. The display was no number he recognized. “Hello?”

“It’s me,” Jennifer said.

“Oh Jen.” He didn’t know what to say. “Jen, I’m so sorry.” He heard his voice break.

“Is that Jen Government?” the agent said. “Give me that.” He took the phone out of Buy’s hands. “Hello? Hello?” He looked at Buy accusingly. “There’s no one here.”

“She was—you must have pushed something.”

“I didn’t push anything.”

“Call that number back,” the other agent said.

“Good idea.” The agent pushed buttons. Then his expression changed. He handed the phone back to Buy.

“What?” Buy said. He put it to his ear. “Jennifer?”

The phone said: “Sir? US Alliance switchboard, can I help you?”

“But—that makes no sense.”

“Jennifer Government, my ass,” the agent said. He detached his cuffs and reached for Buy’s wrists. “Don’t make this difficult.”

Buy made no conscious decision to run: it just happened. He turned and took three steps and only then did he realize:
I am fleeing the Government
. The office door was mostly glass and
then
he
made a decision: Buy had had an accident with his younger sister when they were kids, so he knew how this worked. He flung the door closed behind him and heard an agent go through it. By the time they were clearing the school grounds, Buy was inside his Jeep.

“Stop!” they shouted. Buy saw guns. He didn’t think Government agents were allowed to shoot him just to stop him fleeing, but they looked pretty pissed off so he floored the accelerator and swung out into traffic. Then there were horns and screaming tires. A sedan passed by his door so closely he couldn’t believe they didn’t collide. Then he was roaring away from Kate’s school.