The Nexus (24 page)

“Maybe this will trigger your memory.”  Holiday reached behind a caddy of cleaning supplies on another shelf, and pulled out an old audiocassette recorder.

“Hey, that belongs in my lab,” said Dino.

“We needed it,” said Holiday with a shrug.  “How else were we going to eavesdrop on your phone conversations without Sherlock knowing about it?”

Dino swallowed.

“Desiree was kind enough to rig this for me yesterday,” Holiday went on.  “It can be remotely switched on and off.  Of course, a lot of what we’ve recorded over the last twenty-four hours is useless.  Apparently sometimes when you went to the men’s room, you were just...going to the men’s room.”

THE third floor hallway above the arcade was lined with office suites.  The only light was from the exit signs at either end of the hall.

The boss heard the cops coming up the stairs behind him.

He ran for the other end of the hall.  Maybe he could double back down the other stairwell, and—

He didn’t see the kick until he was feeling it.  He rebounded from the blow, lifted his gun.

Another kick sent his weapon flying out of his hand.

He was unarmed and staring into a mask enameled with a flaming red emblem.

He took two more blows in two more seconds before he decided to retreat.  The other two cops, or whoever they were, had now appeared in the hall.  The boss started trying the doors to the office suites.  All were locked—of course.

...Except one.

The boss dashed into the reception area for First Anterran Family Insurance, Korean Town branch, and locked the door behind him.  Then he lunged into the largest office beyond the reception area.

They were pounding on the door to the suite.

The boss looked at the large window behind the insurance rep’s desk.  Down below was a grassy courtyard complete with trees and a pond.  Beyond that were the Korean neighborhoods he’d disappear into as soon as he got through the window—assuming the three-story fall didn’t kill or cripple him.  But he had no other choice.

Then a light flooded over him from outside the window.

The light got closer.

Closer.

Gunshots sounded from outside the window.  The glass pane was suddenly webbed with cracks.

The light got even closer.

The boss dove for cover as a skybike soared into the office via the cracked window.  He was bathed in the headlight, showered with shards of what had been the window a second ago.

DINO looked at the floor of the closet.  “So, you know...everything,” he muttered.  It wasn’t a question.

“Everything,” said Holiday.

The funny little man heaved a funny little sigh.  “How?”

“Jillian Branch.”  The director handed Dino an envelope—the envelope Jill had first stealthily handed him in his office the day before.

THE boss scooted back into the corner, looking in vain for something to grab and use as a weapon.

Someone slid off the bike that had just creatively arrived in the office.  Now that the headlight wasn’t in his eyes the boss saw the vivid blue butterfly insignia on the person’s visor.

“Should I tell you the charges, Sketch?” a mechanically distorted voice asked the boss.  “Or can we just assume you already know what they are?”

DINO started reading the letter:

Dear Director,

I’m writing to you on very illegal, very non-digital paper.  I received this paper from a client before I joined the department.  The fact is, I can’t tell you what I’m about to tell you in any way that Sherlock might overhear.  I’m afraid Sherlock has been compromised...

He stopped reading.  “Just give me the Reader’s Digest version, will you?”

“Jill already knew there was a traitor in our department.  She’d known that since the day she got here; Sketch’s stooge had told her they already had an inside source.  It didn’t take her long to figure out it was you.  Who else would have the resources and know-how to share department secrets in ways that couldn’t be traced by Sherlock?”

Dino half-smiled.  “And to think I was about to get out of that gig.  I suppose they suspected, and that’s why they needed another insider.  I wasn’t willing to help them quite as much as they wanted.  They were planning to take down the whole department, you know.”

“Do you think they would have let you live if you’d jumped ship?”

“They would have had to.  I’m safe down here.”

“Maybe,” Holiday said inconclusively.

Dino frowned.  “Believe me, Mr. H, I’d help you catch the guy myself at this point.  But he’s cut off communication with me.”

“It makes little difference.  Any moment now he will be arriving here in the hands of our agents.”

Dino raised his eyebrows.

“Jill had more to say in this letter than the fact that you were a traitor,” said Holiday.  “She had a plan to prove it—and catch the one you’d been working for while we were at it.”  Holiday pressed play on the audiocassette player.

Dino heard his voice on the tape:  “...Sure, I can set up a closed-circuit camera...Yes, just name the place...Ace of Hearts Pawn Shop, 11 p.m. tonight.  You got it.  It’ll be set by ten at the latest.”

Dino reached over and stopped the cassette player himself.  “How does that help you?  Sherlock can’t pick up a closed-circuit camera signal.”

“Unless someone knows the camera is going to be used for such a purpose,” said Holiday, “and rigs the camera to send a feed to Sherlock.”

“Not to mention trace the original feed to see who’s receiving it,” Dino guessed.

Holiday smiled.  “Desiree’s help again.  When you’re going to use your lab equipment for treachery, you really shouldn’t leave it lying around for us to tamper with first.”

“Dizzie’s good at this stuff, huh?  Maybe she should take my place.”

“Someone’s going to have to, being as you’ll be in jail.”  Holiday picked up the old phone’s receiver and touched a mechanism attached to the mouthpiece.  “Don’t tell me you made yourself sound like a woman?”

Dino looked more sheepish than he had at any point yet in this conversation.  “Hey, so long as it wasn’t my voice being heard on the other end of the line, who cares?”

“I’d ask why you did it, Dino, but I already know it was money.”

“Lots of it.”

“And you’ll be doing lots of time for it.  Of course, a little cooperation might go a long way in that regard.”

“It sounds like you already know everything.  What more do you want from me?”

Holiday pointed to the phone.  “Tell me more about this.”

THE floor of HQ became a standing ovation as the team of four agents entered from the garage.  A handcuffed and blind-folded prisoner stood between them.

“Here you are,” Jill whispered from behind her mask, her distorted voice buzzing softly in the boss’s ear.  “You’ve wanted to know all about this place for a while.  Now you’re here in person.  Welcome.”

“A pleasure,” he muttered.  “At least take off this blindfold so I can enjoy it.

“I didn’t think you’d mind it so much,” said Corey’s mask.  “You’re always half blind-folded anyway.”

The prisoner found that humorous enough to sneer.  Just sneer.

HOLIDAY sat in his office again.  He didn’t see his field team arrive with the prisoner in custody.  He didn’t hear the applause at their arrival.

His attention was on the end of Jill’s letter.  He’d read it several times, and now he was reading it again.  He would probably read it again after that.

He gave a long sigh.

HALF an hour later they were meeting in the conference room off the garage.

“Thanks to the diligence of each one of you,” said Holiday, “we’ve apprehended a very crooked ringleader.  Capturing him was a tremendous step forward for this department.  As much as we owe Jillian a great debt of thanks for concocting the plan of Sketch’s apprehension, we owe perhaps even more gratitude to Corey, Bradley, and Amber, who were not let in on the plan until the very last moment.  In fact, Corey’s devotion to keeping our department safe nearly foiled Jill’s plan.”  He smirked and glanced at Corey.

“You’re welcome,” said Corey with a half-smile.

Amber looked puzzled.  “You said Corey, Bradley, and me...”  She shot a look toward Dizzie.

Dizzie smiled sheepishly.  “I wanted to tell you!” she burst.  “I wanted to soooo bad, you have no idea!”

“I think we have some idea,” Bradley muttered.

“Director Holiday threatened to kill me and cut up my dead body into little pieces if I told.”

That got the director a set of looks.  He just shook his head with an impatient smirk.

“Well, okay, not exactly,” admitted Dizzie.  “But, you know, something along those lines.”

Holiday cleared his throat, and continued:  “From the moment Jillian slipped me the letter written on Sketch’s notepaper, I decided as few people as possible must know about the plan.  We chose to include Desiree because, of course, she would be running com on the mission.  Also, her technical skills were invaluable in obtaining proof of Dino’s treachery.  Her ability to keep the matter to herself for nearly twenty-four hours was very admirable—perhaps nothing short of miraculous.”

Dizzie smiled widely.

“And speaking of Dino,” Holiday continued, “he has agreed to cooperate with the department by telling us everything he knows about Sketch’s ring.  The telephone Dino was using is part of a large telecommunications network created by the Anterran criminal underground to avoid Sherlock’s listening ears.  An extensive investigation of this network is in order.”

“Let me guess,” said Corey, “our team will be in charge of that investigation?”

“Perhaps,” said Holiday.  “That decision is for another time.  For now, enjoy a couple of days off to celebrate your success.”

That brought a few whoops and high fives—from everyone but Jill, that is.  When Holiday dismissed them, Jill slipped out quietly before anyone else.

...A fact that wasn’t lost on Corey.

“WELL, it looks like you were right after all,” said Home Planet Liaison Reilly.  He didn’t actually seem that unhappy.  Holiday would have thought Reilly would cut off one of his own fingers before willingly admitting he’d been wrong and Holiday had been right.

Ironically, Holiday was the unhappy one.  He hardly seemed to be listening.  “Looks like,” he said.  He wasn’t looking at Reilly.  He was looking at a letter lying on his desk.

“Something wrong?” asked Reilly.  “I thought you’d be gloating the minute I walked in.”

As if finally realizing he had a visitor in his office, Holiday folded the letter, sat back in his chair, and said:  “We don’t all gloat every time we’re right about something, Reilly.  Some of us are more used to it than others.”

Reilly ignored the jab.  “Jillian Branch just helped nab one of the biggest crime ring leaders in Anterra.  She’s proven herself.  Isn’t that what you wanted?”

Holiday smiled mirthlessly.  “I guess we both got something we wanted tonight.  I wanted Jill to prove herself.  You wanted her out of the department.”

Reilly blinked.  “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying she’s resigned,” said Holiday.  He stood as if to say goodbye.  The conversation was obviously over.

Reilly had a puzzled look on his tight facial features as he left the office.

Outside the back entrance to the office, Corey Stone finally pulled his ear away from the cracked-open door.  “No, Jill...” he whispered.

JILL took a minute to look around her room.  It had felt like home the moment she stepped into it.  It still felt like home.

Home is the hardest place to leave.

She took in a deep breath, let it go slowly, and walked out.

It was two in the morning.  The dorms were silent.  So was the lounge.  So was the hallway.

Not the elevator lobby.

Corey Stone sat in a chair next to the elevator call button.  “Where do you think you’re going?”

Jill kept her face expressionless.  “What difference does it make to you?”

Corey stood and leaned against the wall...in front of the call button.  “Don’t do it, Jill.”

She cleared her throat.  “Look, it’s not what you think.”

“You think I still think you’re a traitor?  I don’t.  Believe me, I know what you’re about to do, and I’m warning you: don’t.”

She gave him an accusing look.  “You’ve been talking to the director, haven’t you?”

Corey didn’t answer.  He just stood there with his arms crossed.

Jill sighed.  “Remember what I told you when I first came back here?” she said quietly.  “The minute I stepped out of line again...”

“...you’d be the first one to bring yourself back to jail.  Yeah, I remember.  You remember what else you told me that day?  You said that if we all went behind bars if we deserved it, I should be in the cell next to yours.”