Deus ex Machina Publicum
Page 5
Chapter 5
After arriving home from her date with Julia, Charlie peeled off her jacket, jeans and shirt, and padded into the bedroom nursing a scotch on the rocks.
She sipped the drink, then deposited it on the bedside table and went back to the jeans she had flung over the back of a lounge chair, to retrieve her phone from the back pocket. She took it back to the bedroom, set up an early alarm on the phone, then placed it into the speaker and charger cradle provided on the bedside table.
Charlie had settled into slumber when she was startled awake by a bell-tone from her phone. The clanging screen showed she had a message from an unknown number. That’s not my usual message tone, Charlie thought as she flicked on the bedside light and fumbled the phone from its socket. She pressed the message icon and read the message.
‘I did the wrong thing. Julia isn’t what she pretends to be.’
“What?” Charlie said aloud. On her phone she replied: ‘who is this?’
‘A friend.’
‘I don’t think so,’ Charlie countered.
‘Friend. Julia is a UK global taskforce agent called Haynes Ward-Pratt. I set u up with her. I didn’t know.’
‘If you’re a friend, why isn’t your number in my phone?’
‘Phantom number. I hijacked a carrier wave to tell u. Look at the back of ur pendant.’
‘Why? Who are you?’
‘Truth.’
‘What do you mean? Is truth your intention or your name?’
‘Both. Check the records. Haynes Ward-Pratt.’
‘Tell me your real name? Why are you doing this?’ Charlie typed and sent.
There was no reply.
Charlie sent another prompt. ‘What do you mean you set me up with her?’
Charlie waited, but after 10 minutes of anxiety, there was still nothing. She rang the number, but all she got was a recorded message saying the number she had dialled was not connected.
Finally, in trepidation, Charlie unclipped her necklace clasp, and dangled the object in front of her so the back caught the light. She could see nothing. She moved herself and the pendant closer to the bedside light and looked again, running a finger across the back.
There was something there.
Charlie couldn’t see it, but she could feel the tiny line of an edge that shouldn’t be there. She felt the chill of fear start to overtake her, and had to fight her own imaginings. Think, she told herself. Think!
Eventually Charlie went out to the kitchen and retrieved a flint lighter that was used to light the gas jets on the stove. Holding the necklace by its chain, she clicked the lighter and held the flame to the back of the metal disc. It only took a moment before a bubble of warped plastic appeared on the surface. Charlie stared in disbelief. She sat down on a nearby stool and thought about what she should do next. She wanted to call Julia, but what good would that do? If she really was a representative from another global agency, she would have her backstory well and truly sorted. Julia, or Haynes, was obviously very good at what she did.
Charlie pulled her laptop towards her and logged on to her Taskforce’s secure intranet. She accessed the list of global agency personnel, and slumped down in despair when she found the name she hoped would not be there.
She wanted to rationalise what had just happened, to convince herself that her unknown messenger could have planted false information in a secure database if they were capable of hacking into phone carrier records and remotely using a signal to send her a message. But that explanation rang hollow, and didn’t fit the facts nearly as well as the messenger’s story did. And there was the film on the pendant as evidence.
But why? Charlie asked. Why would the UK taskforce target me clandestinely? Do they want to hire me? Turn me? Investigate me?
And who was the mystery ‘friend’ who seemed so reluctant to reveal themselves?
Charlie went back to her phone and called her boss. On her advice, but none the wiser after the conversation, Charlie went to bed and tried to sleep.
The memory of Julia’s kiss burned on her lips and her soul, like a searing kitchen gas-lighter.
XXXX
“Steelo, I think I’m in a bit of trouble,” Charlie told Steele as they drove to the terrace house in Newtown, which was the target of their next raid.
“You’re not the trouble type, Cha Cha. What’s up?”
Charlie told him about what had occurred the previous evening, after her date.
“Jeez, Charlie. I’ve just issued you with a gun. Do you think I’d do that if I knew you were under suspicion? Is that why you were late?”
“I’m always late, but yes, I couldn’t sleep. I’m exhausted.”
“Well, just stay calm, and do the task at hand. That’s my advice, for what it’s worth.”
“Good advice, thanks,” Charlie acknowledged. “I know I’ve done nothing wrong, so I shouldn’t worry. It’s just the underhandedness of it all. I liked her, Steele. I really liked her.”
Steele didn’t get a chance to answer. The lead cop car had pulled over, and the operation was about to kick off.
XXXX
Two hours later, Charlie and Steele were back in the car, after a very successful morning’s work.
“You okay?” Steele asked
Charlie let out a strained breath. “Fuck, I didn’t expect to actually find kids in there. I just don’t get how people can do this shit, and how other people don’t notice. What the hell did the neighbours think was happening in there? In Sydney, Steele. This is Sydney, not some back-alley shanty in Bangkok. Those poor kids.” Charlie wiped a tear from her cheek and rummaged around in the glove-box to retrieve her phone so she didn’t have to show her feelings to Steele.
There was a message on it, sent at 10:13 am. It was from Julia.
Charlie huffed.
“What?” Steele enquired.
“Message from agent Ward-Pratt. She wants lunch.”
“You’re not going to go?”
“Of course not.”
“Good. Too much work to do, in any case.”
“If she is an investigator, she won’t be put off for long,” Charlie surmised.
“No, well, maybe not, but rejection might bring her out into the open.”
“Hmm, maybe.”
XXXX
By 2:30 that afternoon, Steele and another officer were interviewing a suspect, and Charlie was observing while hacking a confiscated laptop. Unobserved by these players, Agent Haynes Ward-Pratt and a colleague from the UK embassy strode into the NSW Police office of Chief Super-Intendant Peter McInnes with all the authority she needed to demand the suspension of agent Charlie Parish.
McInnes was understandably surprised, and made the usual noises about correct channels and speaking utter nonsense, but eventually he ran out of steam. After all, Charlie wasn’t his officer to protect, and although he knew Steele had a soft spot for her, McInnes didn’t think that fondness would last once he saw the same warrants that had just been presented to him.
After calling a staff member to go and ask Charlie to come to his office, McInnes picked up the phone handset to call Charlie’s manager, to brief her on what was going on. Before the call was answered, Haynes launched herself at the desk and pulled the phone from McInnes’ hand.
“No calls, please Chief Super-Intendant. As I said before, this is a top secret operation. If one word of this gets out to the people we are fighting, will you take responsibility for the consequences on women and children all over the world?”
Peter McInnes blanched, but said nothing. He watched as Agent Ward-Pratt placed the handset back into its cradle.