“Before I decide anything, tell me why you’re doing this? Why do you need me in particular?” She lowered her gaze to the suit. “Your friend, Li. She’s about my size and weight. She looks like she could handle herself in a fight. Why not her?”
Oliver smiled. “We need your help to try and create a better wor—”
“—cut the bullshit, Oliver. I’m not asking for the poster-boy routine. I’m asking Brooks a simple question.” She turned to face the Sapien-Republic leader. “All I’m asking for is some honesty. Why do you need me? I know for a fact you don’t trust me.” She pointed to the door. “The guards stationed on the other side of this door tell me as much, regardless of the fact that Oliver fixed me up with the suit and all.” She pointed a finger at Brooks, beginning to feel a little pissed off with them beating about the bush. “You of all people should be able to relate with the shit I’ve been through.”
Sadness, mixed with anger flashed across his eyes. “I’ll presume you’ve been told how I ended up down here? That I had to shoot my father-in-law to save my family only to find them dead anyway?” he growled, his hands balling into fists. His gaze flicked to Oliver. “Did he tell you?”
Oliver shook his head emphatically. “I can assure you; it wasn’t me. I’d guess it was probably Jackson. I found him with her, earlier.”
“Then you can understand the anger and the drive that keeps me going. To see this through. I don’t have time for friends, or causes… only vengeance,” she said, raising her voice.
Brooks didn’t rise to her anger, he merely took a deep breath and puffed it out, his shoulders sagging slightly. He looked at her with pity. “You’re right, I do understand. I was where you are right now. My mind was full of hate; bitter and twisted. And let me tell you, Alexandra, it’ll only lead to one place, and that’s the grave.” He walked past her and stood beside Oliver. He put a hand on the doctor’s shoulder, an expression of affection on his face. “Oliver helped me see past it, that I could still contribute to my father-in-law’s plans. To finish what he started and make my wife and daughters’ proud.”
Lex raised her head, refusing to believe there was a future beyond the pain and grief that coursed through her veins. Let them have their revolution, she thought bitterly. “I know the two of you are helping these people, and I commend you for it, I really do. They’ve got nowhere else to go and I’ve seen what this government does to citizens who don’t fit the criteria for ‘Vonn’s vision’.”
“Where are you going with this?” Brooks asked.
“She took a step towards them, her feet barely making a sound. “I want to hear it from your own lips that you’re not interested in me joining your cause. You only need a blunt instrument; someone who’s expendable; a grunt who can get the job done.
“Alexandra we—” Oliver began to say, but Brooks cut him off.
“—you’ve more or less stated to us you don’t want to be saved, to join our cause, so yes, in many ways we need a blunt instrument to get the job done. What does it matter?”
“It matters plenty. If I help you, I want to know where I stand. I don’t want to be put under any false pretences regarding my role in your plans. I want the truth at all times, no bullshit. The last thing I want is to be in a situation where I need backup and it doesn’t arrive because I’ve not been informed of all the details.”
Brooks nodded, seeming to see her point. “When we came across you at the docks – floating face-down in the water – we were in the middle of a reconnaissance mission. As much as we’d succeeded in finding a safe haven for our people, that’s as far as we got. We were trying to gain some intel on their operation; to find an opportunity for infiltration. Once we witnessed what happened to you and your son, I thought it was our way in; a gift from the heavens; finally, a key to the door.
So, we took you back here, and during your recuperation, we did some digging on your background; we found out who you were, what you could do.” He turned to Oliver. “Simon?”
The doctor began to pace in front of her. “The original plan was to give you a new identity and plant you within NewHaven. From your extensive records, we knew you’d be more than capable. What made this possible was the fact that you were officially dead as far as the Proxy was concerned. It was the best chance we’d ever had to infiltrate the Inner-Sanctum.”
“In the past,” Brooks said. “We tried to use our own operatives to carry out this mission, but soon enough, as each and every one of them turned up on our doorstep – butchered by the bleeders – we began to suspect the Proxy held records of all those missing in the city. It’s the only explanation as to why all of our operatives were blown whenever they got too close – al the Proxy had to do was run their name through his list.”
“With you being ‘dead’, the chances of discovery would be less likely,” Oliver said.
“Then you escaped,” Brooks muttered under his breath, but she heard him all the same.
“Then I escaped,” she said, coldly, her stare intense.
“Where did you go?” Oliver asked. “We know your only family is an uncle in the projects, but for weeks his apartment was kept under close surveillance. How did you evade capture?”
Lex shrugged. “I did what I had to do. For your information, you’re not the only people in this city living below the radar. Working for the SPD taught me some valuable intel; Sanctum one has a vast community of dubious individuals living in plain sight. How’d you think I got all my equipment, my fake identity.”
Brooks held out his hands. “So, what do you propose we do, given our situation?”
Lex leaned forward, a thin smile playing on her lips. “Contact.”
“I’m sorry?” Oliver said.
“We can work together to bring those bastards down, but that’s as far as it goes. If you have a piece of intel, share it with me, I’ll do the same. Once the job’s done, I’m done. You can enjoy your new world, there’ll be no place in it for the likes of me,” she said, surprised that she didn’t feel sad about it.
I’ll maybe see Julian again, once the dust has settled.
“You can’t mean that?” Oliver said.
She nodded, her lips pursing, her face marred with conviction. “I do. I’ve nothing left to live for but to eliminate the cancer which has eroded this city for far too long.”
Brooks’ face flashed with disgust and pity. “Fine with me, if that’s how you feel.” His brows crossed at the admonishing look from Oliver. “Don’t look at me like that, Simon. She asked for honesty.” He faced her. “How do we begin?”
Lex’s gaze rested on Oliver. “Well, first off. I’d like my scribe back.”
Oliver paused for a moment, his eyes flicking to Brooks, who nodded. He sighed, fishing her scribe from inside his coat pocket. She walked to the furthest corner of the room and booted it up. There was a voice mail message from her ‘source’. She listened intently at the news from her uncle, switched the scribe off, and re-joined Brooks and Oliver. “So, what’s this information I’d be interested in?”
Oliver glanced over to Brooks once more, who sighed, exasperated. “Tell her.”
“Well, there’s been a development. According to the Sanctum news broadcast, it seems you’ve had help from inside the SPD.”
“Veronica Hall.”
“How did you know that? Was she your source?” Brooks asked.
Lex shook her head. “A contact of mine left a message on my scribe. Hall’s been investigating my background, outside her remit. Doctor, do you have an image of her?”
Oliver fumbled with the pockets of his coat until he found his scribe. He swiped at the screen until he found what he was looking for. “Here she is. She looks very young,” he said, passing her the scribe.
Lex raised her eyes in surprise from the scared, confused face on the screen, staring back at her. The last time she’d seen that face was from their standoff at the Trammel building. It was the investigator who had blown her cover, inevitably leading to her eventual
plunge into the river. “I’ve met her. She was at the Trammel building… the second time. She saw through my disguise.”
Brooks drew closer to take a look. He smelled of sweat and engine oil – not all that unpleasant. Never mind what he smells like, Lex. Get your head back in the game. “So, she’s not your contact?” he asked.
Lex shook her head, taking a step back from Brooks. “No. As far as I’m aware, she works under Reid – the lead investigator; one of the Inner-Sanctum’s minions.
Oliver took the scribe back, secreting it inside his coat. “Well, Reid’s not going to be a problem.”
“How’s that?”
“He’s dead, so is his and Hall’s superior – Captain Mercer. Hall was discovered at Mercer’s residence, standing over their bodies. She’s been arrested for their murder.”
Lex was confused. As far as she knew, it was only Reid who’d been on the Inner-Sanctum’s books. She doubted Mercer was – she would have known about it. As for this Veronica Hall, the fact she’d been pestering Geno for information on her disappearance – without orders to do so – raised more questions than it answered. The investigator’s predicament was very familiar to her own origins in this sorry affair.
“Why would she murder her partner… and her boss?” Brooks said, his eyes roaming the room in search of an answer. “I mean, I’d believe it if she was working for you. No offence, Lex. But Reid was Inner-Sanctum.”
A suspicion was beginning to form in her mind, and it wasn’t a good one. “The only possible explanation is that they found out she’d been digging where she shouldn’t. This is their way of silencing her.”
“How do you know that?” Brooks asked.
She thought back to her own investigations into the mysterious disappearances in Sanctum-One. “Because the same thing happened to me.” She made for the door. She knew there was a guard standing on the other side of it, but she didn’t care. “I have to help her. It’s happening again. To someone else.”
Oliver made to block her, then thought better of it. “Alexandra, you can’t—”
“—can’t do what? I’ll do what I fucking want.” She stopped and turned to face the two of them. She unfastened her suit and pulled it down to her waist, revealing the collage of scar tissue running all over her body. The two of them turned away from her. Her breasts were exposed and she presumed they were averting their gaze out of respect. She didn’t have time. “Cut the blushing bullshit and look at my body,” she barked. “This is what those fucking bastards did to me. This is what awaits Veronica Hall if I don’t help her.”
Anger flashed in Brooks’ eyes as he took in the mess her body had been left in. She was glad his expression was devoid of pity. Instead, a dark shadow of determination crossed his features. “She’s right, Simon. We can’t let that happen. She could also provide us with valuable information. Lex, what do you need?”
Lex pulled her suit back over her shoulders and fastened it. She slipped the hood over her head and pulled the door open. “I need to get out of this compound and back on the streets. It’s time I gave this suit a test drive.”
XXX
Hall’s hands were shaking as she held them out in front of her; quivering incessantly. The chain which linked her cuffs to the large ring embedded into the table rattled – it’s what her shattered nerves would sound like if she could hear them. She had chewed her fingernails down to the quick; a symptom of her dawning realisation – which also had her stomach roiling in a state of perpetual turmoil – she was well and truly fucked.
Banks had a hand in this, more than a hand, she thought bitterly. The spook had orchestrated this to cover up… what? She didn’t know. There was no other explanation for it, or at least, none so screamingly obvious. He and his department had been holding Reid at NewHaven ever since Moretti had slipped through their fingers at the Trammel building. The one thing she was having trouble piecing together, was how on earth he’d got Reid’s body into Mercer’s home unseen? It had taken her just under thirty minutes from ending the call with Mercer to arriving at his home. Mercer hadn’t given her any reason to suggest Banks was with him at the time of their last conversation.
She scrunched her face, slamming her fists down onto the table; her blood boiling with frustration. She could run through theories until she was blue in the face. It wasn’t going to help her – especially not in her current predicament as there was no way she could disprove the evidence heaped against her. Besides, no one seemed to want to find out the truth of the matter.
The disgusted looks from her colleagues said as much. Even Charlie Deacon’s. The memory of his expression as they’d sat opposite from each other in the back of the police transport hub – a mixture of shock and betrayal – made her skin crawl with shame and helplessness. But there was something else; something floating around the whirlwind of emotions she was feeling. It was a feeling that was causing her hands to ball into tight fists. The feeling was anger. Sure, she didn’t know Charlie intimately, but enough that his reaction to her charges – his apparent acceptance of her guilt – made her want to vomit with rage. Surely, he knew she wasn’t capable of this, wouldn’t he?
She pushed the fury to the back of her mind. In her current state, she needed to think, to try and figure a way out of this mess. She needed to get out of her restraints and as far away from the precinct as she could before Banks took her to NewHaven. She thought of poor Alon’s eviscerated corpse. The wounds he’d suffered weren’t fresh – the stench said as much. The thought of ending up like Reid threatened to overwhelm her; reduce her to a blubbering wreck.
She could still feel the tears she had shed after Banks had left her alone in the room to find out why it was taking so long for his cruiser to be brought around the rear of the building. Her misery had poured out of her in great torrents; running down her face in an endless cascade of torment and distress. She glanced across to the one-way mirror, her vision still blurry from her weeping. She almost didn’t recognise the bedraggled, sorry state staring back at her; eyes red-rimmed and puffy. For all she knew, Banks was standing on the other side of it, laughing at her.
Get a grip of yourself, she thought. She had to find a way out of this, a way to prove her innocence – possibly shed light on the spook’s involvement in the process – before he carted her off to NewHaven. But how? She pulled at her bonds, the metal rubbing against her skin.
She was startled as the door suddenly swung open. Banks came into the room, that same self-assured smile spread across his face that made her want to rip his lips off. He wasn’t alone. A duty officer accompanied him – she noted he refused to make eye contact with her. “Miss Hall,” Banks said, cheerily, moving to the side as the duty officer unlocked her cuffs from the table. “Our chariot has arrived.” He turned to the officer. “If you would be so kind and make sure the prisoner’s hands are restrained behind her back. I can escort her from here.”
The duty officer looked unsure. “Are you sure, sir? I think it would be best if you didn’t accompany her alone – given her charges.”
A flash of irritation flitted across his eyes for a second, only to be replaced by his aura of self-assurance. “Duly noted, Officer. Restrain her as I’ve commanded and leave us.” The officer paused for a moment, before shrugging and doing as he was ordered. Once cuffed, the duty officer left – but not before casting a scowl back in her direction. “Now,” Banks said, satisfied. “Shall we?” he asked, rhetorically, grabbing her roughly by the arm and ushering her out of the room.
They passed through several of the lockup checkpoints in silence. The officer’s manning each of the desks, treating her similarly to the duty officer who’d cuffed her in the interrogation room. It wasn’t until they were alone in the stairwell leading to the rear of the precinct, Banks decided to break his silence.
“You know, it doesn’t have to be this way,” he said, halting them at one of the half-landings, his voice echoing in the hollow, empty space. His expression was one of concern, yet ther
e was something else, something lurking beneath the surface – was it worry? Anxiousness? “I’m giving you one last chance to open up about what you and your captain were onto. You’ve seen the lengths I’ll go to. Though Reid wasn’t my own doing, he still fell victim to the same path you’re currently treading.”
She narrowed her eyes. She felt confused he felt compelled to assure her Reid’s death wasn’t by his hands. Why go to the elaborate effort of moving his body to Mercer’s home to pin his death on her. He almost certainly had a hand in the captain’s death. What was going on? She was getting sick and tired of his games. “What happened to Reid?” she asked, craning her neck around to face him. “One minute we were carrying out a routine inspection of Trammel’s apartment… the next, we’re chasing the woman and then he all but disappears.”
Banks sighed, disappointed in her answer. “You’re in way over your head, Hall. There’s a reason why our law enforcement is structured the way it is. Everyone is a cog in a machine bigger than ourselves. Reid didn’t understand that and he paid the price.” He leaned in closer, his lips almost brushing against her ear. “Give up what you know, and I’ll make sure you’re treated fairly.”
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