“Spur of the moment,” I said. “He called me that morning.”
She looked to her partner, who nodded. I got the impression that he’d checked the phone record or something similar. “What did he say he wanted to meet about?”
“He didn’t.” I felt like short, direct answers served me best. Something was off. “Again: what’s this about?”
She paused for several seconds, as if deciding whether to tell me or not. “We found Mr. Gylika’s body last evening. He’s dead.”
I couldn’t form words for a moment. “He’s . . . what happened?”
“We’re hoping you can tell us,” said Mallory.
I stared at her. “Wait, you think I know something?”
She gave me a flat smile that didn’t touch her eyes, but she didn’t respond. My brain finally dialed in. She kept her silence in order to get me to fill the void. Classic interrogation.
“Do you think I had something to do with his death?” I asked. Classic reverse interrogation. Ask a question instead of answering one.
“It wouldn’t be like it’s your first time,” said Burke.
I didn’t react for several seconds. He was trying to bait me. I dropped my voice and spoke calmly. “That’s out of line. Tell you what, I’d like you to leave. You’re welcome to contact my attorney.” I made a show out of fumbling with my device, pulling up information to send them. I didn’t have a lawyer. I didn’t think they’d call my bluff.
“We apologize, Colonel Butler,” said Mallory. “You’re right. That was out of line. Sergeant Burke didn’t mean anything by it. Tell him you’re sorry, Burke.”
“I’m sorry,” said Burke. He wasn’t sorry.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. I didn’t forgive him.
“Are you sure you don’t have anything you can tell us that might help?” asked Mallory.
“I’m taking it that it wasn’t a natural death?” I asked.
Mallory thought about it, again deciding what to share. “No. It wasn’t natural.”
“He was supposed to meet me at three yesterday afternoon. Like I said, at Gerard’s. It’s off of Vine Street and Latten.”
Burke cut in. “I think I know the place. A lot of fake wood?” He acted casual, but he’d probably been there already. They knew we met for lunch two days prior, so they’d almost certainly checked it out.
“Yeah, that’s it,” I said. “We had lunch there the day before yesterday, too.”
“What was your meeting about then?” asked Mallory.
“A mutual friend put us in touch. Another soldier. She knows I don’t have a lot of friends in town, so she thought it might be good for me.” I didn’t feel the need to share the whole truth, especially when I didn’t know if they considered me a witness or a suspect.
She tapped something into her device. “And you hit it off so well that you decided to get back together yesterday at three?”
I gave her a fake smile. “I told you already, I have no idea what that was about. He called me a little after two and asked me to come. I wasn’t doing anything, so I said, ‘Why not?’ I figured they’d have his phone records and see the call, so it made sense to give that info to them. Working for Omicron, he’d probably have had high-end encryption stuff like I did, but for a murder—assuming that’s what it was—the police might be able to trace it. “When he didn’t show up, I called his office a couple times, but it went straight to message.”
“Did you report it?” she asked.
“Report what? A guy missing a meeting?”
Burke looked like he wanted to ask me something, but Mallory gave the slightest shake of her head to wave him off. She turned to me and smiled. “Colonel Butler, I’m sorry to have brought you this kind of news so early in the day. If you think of anything that might help us, give me a call. My number’s in your security system from where I scanned my credentials.”
“Sure.” I followed them toward the door, Burke still looking around the apartment like he might spot a bloody knife.
Mallory turned after she passed through the door, talking almost over her shoulder. “Oh, and Colonel Butler? Please don’t leave the planet.”
“Tell me you have something good for me,” I said, when Plazz answered my call. I waited maybe half an hour after the police left, hoping I’d be in a better frame of mind. It didn’t work.
“Nice to hear from you, Carl. I’m doing great, how are you?”
“Well I was questioned by the police for what I assume is the murder of a mid-level executive at Omicron, so—”
“Holy shit.”
“Yeah. So my side of things is pretty much at a standstill, and I don’t know where to go next. So I hope you’ve got something.”
“Who’s dead?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I said. “What did you learn about the breach?”
“No way. You don’t get to drop a there’s a dead guy and then say you don’t want to talk about it,” she said.
“Yeah, that’s fair.” I filled her in on Gylika and the police visit.
“Thanks, Carl.”
“For what?”
“For actually sharing your information with me.”
I shook my head and grinned in spite of myself. “You’re an ass.”
“Assholes get things done.”
“Truth,” I said. “So tell me about the breach.”
“Their official response to my inquiry is ignorance.”
I grunted. “Great.”
“It’s not that surprising. It’s not public news, and they don’t want it to be. Think of how their shareholders would react if they found out they had a hole in their security that might have been exploited.”
I sighed. “I guess. But that doesn’t really help us.”
“There are other ways to get information beyond official channels. You know that.”
“So you got something.” I could hear it in her voice.
“I might have something. I can say with pretty strong conviction that there was a breach, and that a few people at Omicron are pretty excited about it. Not in a good way.”
“That’s something,” I said.
“It is, but I can’t get close to what it might have been.”
“Shit. How about how it happened?” I asked.
“No chance. Not from the source I’ve got now, and I don’t think anybody in the know is going to talk to me. It’s a pretty tight circle, from what I gather.”
“I hear you. And I think there’s a chance that the circle got smaller by one today. We’re on a secure line, right?” I should have thought about that first. In the military I’d never had to ask.
“Absolutely. You think your guy knew?” she asked.
“Is there another way to see it? When he called me, it sounded like he had something to share. Now he’s dead.”
“Let me look into his death,” she said. “Omicron can clam up and lock me out, but the police can’t. There are too many leaks there. I’ll let you know what I find.”
“Thanks,” I said.
“You see how that works? You share information with me, and I get answers for you. It’s almost like we’re working together.”
“Yeah, yeah. Talk to you later.”
Chapter Seven
I wanted to avoid Dernier when I got to work. I’d have to tell him about Gylika, and he’d push me for information, and in my mental state I didn’t want to deal with that. He’d find out, but I wanted to wait. Despite my desire not to share, I didn’t think I could get away with shutting out Javier, so after I had my first coffee I headed up to his office.
I had a secondary agenda. I’d tell him about Gylika, but I wanted an opportunity to ask about his original military source. I didn’t have any other leads now, and that might give me a new way to look at things. His secretary offered me another coffee, which I accepted, then she ushered me into his office.
Javier spoke without looking up from his screen. “Carl. You’ve been avoiding the attorney I assig
ned you.”
“What? No. I’ve just been busy.” But it’s good to confirm you’re getting reports from him.
“You’re a poor liar, Carl.”
I am when I want to be caught. “Okay. I didn’t have anything, so I was avoiding him.”
“But you have something now.”
I breathed out audibly. “No.”
“But . . .” he shut his screen down and looked at me.
I shrugged. “I thought I had something, then a guy turned up dead.”
He hesitated for a moment. He hadn’t known. Good. “Oh, shit. What do you mean?”
I took a moment to catch him up on Gylika’s death, the events of the previous day, and everything else that had happened. I didn’t mention Plazz or Ganos. He didn’t need to know my sources, just the general information and why I was stuck.
“So . . . crap. What do we do? We need to get away from this, right?” He stood up and began to pace. “The police are involved. That could look bad for us.”
“I don’t think so,” I said. “I didn’t do it. The optic might not be great, but in the end all I did was have lunch with the guy. He didn’t tell me anything, and a mutual friend set up the meeting. Just two ex-military guys getting together.”
“But people won’t see it that way,” said Javier.
“I can drop it if you want,” I said. “But you gave me this job because you were worried about the security breach. To me, this makes it more worrisome, not less. What if the people who were responsible for the breach in Omicron’s network were also responsible for Gylika?” I surprised myself with that one. I hadn’t intended to push to continue the job, but when I said it, it instantly felt right. Gylika might have died because of something I set in motion, and I wanted answers.
“You think that’s likely?” he asked. “Never mind . . . that’s not the issue. The point is that this is a police matter now. We have no business in it.”
“But we do. VPC is potentially at risk. It’s our obligation to act to protect the company the best we can.”
He paused, considering. Then, nodding: “I guess. Okay, stay on it. But you’ve got to take a very measured approach. What’s your plan?”
“I could find another contact at Omicron, but until the police figure out what happened to Gylika, I think that would be pretty irresponsible.”
“Right,” he said. “That’s definitely not the way to go.”
“I do have another way,” I said, setting the hook.
“What’s that?”
“Who was your original source in the military? If I knew that, there’s a good chance I could get to him . . . or her . . . and get a new start there.” I tried not to hold my breath. Javier held my sole lead, and I found myself heavily invested in the outcome.
He inhaled deeply through his nose, and then walked to the far side of the room to stare out the window. I followed him but didn’t get too close.
“I’m not sure I can do that,” he said, after at least a minute of silence. He’d either legitimately been thinking about it or pretending to. I decided it was probably the former. If I had a way to push him, I think he’d have given me the information. Instead I backed off. He seemed hesitant about continuing at all, and I didn’t want him to tell me to drop it altogether.
I let the silence hang as long as I dared. “I’ll find another way.”
He thought for a few more seconds. “Yes. You’re right. We have to do something. Find another angle.” He stared at me with that alpha-male stare that some leaders get, as if daring me to contradict him.
“Can do.” I had cards left I could have played. I left unsaid the fact that somebody had died and that his holding back information put us at more risk. He already knew that, and had to have reasons for not offering up his contact. He had more to think about than I did. As the boss, anything that fell on the company would fall on him. I’d find another way. I always did.
“Sir, where are we going?”
“It’s called lunch, Ganos. People eat it.” I navigated my way through the people crowding the city sidewalk at the busiest time of day, with Ganos trailing along in my wake.
“Right. Sir, you don’t go out for lunch.”
“Sure I do.”
“Let me rephrase that. I don’t go out for lunch.”
“Exactly. We’re changing that.”
“We’re outside. I work in IT. I’m not dressed for lunch.” She wore purple yoga pants and a hooded gray sweatshirt. She had a point.
“We’ll go somewhere casual.”
“Since I’m assuming you want something from me, you’re buying. Let’s go somewhere with good fries.”
“You’ve got it.” I checked behind us to make sure nobody was following us. I’d started to believe that my paranoia might be a good thing. Of course that in itself was paranoid, but better safe than sorry.
I passed two places before finally choosing a spot a bit down a side street. I hadn’t told Ganos, but I didn’t want anyone from the company—especially Dernier—to see us eating together, which meant I needed to get away from the building.
“We could have stopped at one of the other ones that were closer,” she continued, once we sat down. “Wait . . . Oh, Mother . . . you’re ashamed to be seen with the little people of the company, aren’t you?”
“Have you been here before?”
“I have not.” She laughed. “I’m getting a milkshake, too.”
“Get whatever you want.”
“Sir . . . what’s going on? You’re acting really strange. This is about that thing I looked into, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.” Of course she’d figured it out. “It’s been a rough week. Look, I’m going to ask you to do something. You can say no.” That was bullshit, of course. I knew she wouldn’t refuse. I hated myself for being such an asshole. Okay, I didn’t, but I pretended I did so I didn’t feel as bad about it.
We paused as the waitress showed up to take our order. True to her word, Ganos ordered the least healthy things on the menu. I ordered chicken salad. I made small talk until our food arrived, watching the door to see who came in. Nobody seemed suspicious. Once I was as comfortable as I could get, I got to the point.
“I want you to hack into Javier Sanchez’s computer.”
I’d waited until Ganos had a mouth full of milkshake before I said it. Like I said, asshole. To her credit, she didn’t spit it out.
“I’m going to go out on a limb and say that’s not a great idea.”
“So you can’t do it?” I asked.
“Please,” she said. “Who are you talking to? I can do it. The question is if I should do it. Mr. Sanchez doesn’t know who I am. I prefer to keep it that way.”
I basically lived by the same principle until he put this on my desk. I could respect it.
But I pushed anyway.
“What if I said he approved it?”
“He approved hacking his own account.” She didn’t roll her eyes, but I think that was only out of respect.
“I work security,” I said. “It’s my job to look for vulnerabilities, especially after the Omicron thing I told you about. He wants solutions. He gave me the go-ahead to find unique ways of looking at the potential problem.”
She met my eyes for a few seconds. She didn’t buy it. Smart woman. And yet, there was a spark there, gears turning. I had her.
“Hypothetically—and I do mean hypothetically—if I were to do this . . . what would I be looking for?”
“Nothing sensitive. We just need something to prove we were in there. Let’s say . . . his list of contacts.”
“His list of contacts. That’s it?”
“Yes. That would give me definitive proof that he could be compromised.”
She took a moment to think while she ate some fries. “What’s the catch?”
“The catch is it would be better if he doesn’t catch us.”
She laughed. “Sir, what are you up to?”
I met her eyes. “It’s better if you don’
t know. Can you do it without getting caught?”
“If I do it, no way are they catching me.” She took a sip of her milkshake to give herself more time to think. “Okay. I’m in. Give me a day.”
“Really?”
“Sure, why not? I like to screw with the security folks anyway. It’ll be fun.”
“Thanks, Ganos.”
“I’m guessing, since we went out of our way to avoid being seen having lunch together, that I shouldn’t tell anybody in my department what I’m doing,” she said.
I almost choked on my water. I thought I’d been slick, but I hadn’t fooled her for a minute. “That would be best, yeah.”
It turned out to be a good precaution that I sent Ganos ahead of me back to work, because I ran into Dernier in the lobby. His heels clacked against the polished floor, like even they were uptight. “I heard about the new development,” he said.
“Which development?” I asked.
“Warren Gylika. The dead man.”
“Oh, that. Yeah.”
“You asked what development. Were there others?” he asked.
“No, not really.”
“Would you tell me if there were?”
I thought about how to answer. He already knew, so it seemed pointless to deny it. “Probably not.”
“I don’t know what I did to turn you against me. Why won’t you let me help?”
I didn’t have a great answer. Right after I’d told him about a lead I had, the guy ended up dead. I didn’t blame Dernier for it—at least the rational part of me didn’t—but I couldn’t dismiss it, either. I couldn’t share that, so I made up an excuse. “It’s nothing personal. I just feel like anything I tell you you’re going to tell your boss.”
“Of course I’m going to tell my boss. Why wouldn’t I? We’re the legal department. It’s our job to keep the company out of trouble.”
“I think you and I see things differently in that regard. Because I see that as my job.”
He stopped walking, which forced me to either leave him or stop as well. I considered leaving him there but thought better of it. “This is going to be a problem,” he said. “I don’t want to, but I’ll take it to Mr. Sanchez if needed. I’m not getting fired because you can’t be bothered to cooperate.”
Spaceside Page 5