by Kevin Bragg
I spoke in a low tone. The mic in the earpiece could pick up anything above the faintest of whispers. ‘Pam, can you tap into the street cameras at my position? I think the guy who tailed me in the Electroglide yesterday is about a block east of where I’m standing.’
‘Accessing them now. Are you eating something?’
I grabbed another slice and continued on my way at a slow, casual pace. ‘Yeah, it’s the pizza I bought as a cover.’
As soon as I started to move, the man in the flat cap turned and dashed around the corner. ‘He’s on the run. Do you have anything?’
‘No, sir. His hat and sunglasses obscure too many of his features from the cameras. However, it appears he’s walking towards the nearest subway station. Shall I continue to follow him?’
‘Yes. But I’m already at 314 Berkshire and may also need your help getting in.’
‘Will you require me to bypass the security measures on the main door?’
‘Probably, but let me try to sneak in first.’
The building looked exactly like every other apartment building in the area – average, roughly cubic in shape and obvious signs of neglect. I scrolled through the directory until I found apartment D.
The ‘genius’ of my plan relied on someone coming out of the building right as I reached the entrance and I could just slip right in. But after a few minutes of waiting, I went to my second option.
‘Okay, do your thing, Pam.’
‘I assume you mean unlock the door?’
‘Of course I do.’ I sighed. Androids can be so literal sometimes – or all of the time.
The door clicked open and I slipped inside.
The interior of 314 Berkshire didn’t look like the post-apocalyptic nightmare I envisioned. Some of the hovels in Residential 3 can be downright scary. However, this one had swept floors, walls devoid of graffiti or stains of any kind, and smelled of disinfectant. With pizza in hand, I rode the elevator to the fourth floor.
7
I stepped into a small communal area with four faded doors – all in need of a fresh coat of paint. Two faced the elevator. The other two flanked my left and right. The numbering scheme for this building made absolutely no sense. Before me were Cooper and Dwerry’s apartment. Apartment Q, H and J completed the suite. The locations of apartments E, F or G – or even C for that matter – were anyone’s guess.
‘Okay, Pam. Showtime.’
‘I do not fully understand the reference but I am ready nevertheless.’
‘Good girl.’
I went up to the door labelled ‘D’ and knocked.
‘Who’s there?’ came a muted reply as the volume cut on a video game or a movie; I couldn’t really tell.
I stared at the digital peephole on the door so they could get a good look at me. ‘I got a pizza here for Dwerry.’
‘Pizza? I didn’t order no pizza!’ I heard from a different voice.
‘Well, I have a pie with your name and address on it. Luther Dwerry, 314D Berkshire.’ I held the box up to the small camera so they could see the name of the pizzeria: Buddy’s.
‘Why didn’t you buzz us at the front door? How did you get in?’
‘The intercom’s busted and another tenant let me in.’
‘Who?’
‘I need a name,’ I mumbled under my breath to Pam.
‘Alfonso Dietrich. Aged sixty-eight. Lives in Apartment K on the second floor.’
‘An old guy. Dietrich, I think he said his name was,’ I said aloud. ‘Look do you want the pizza or not? It’s getting cold and my boss’ll have my ass if I stroll back into work still carryin’ the box.’
I heard the lock click and I reached under my jacket for the NEEDLE’s grip. As soon as the door opened wide enough for me to make out an entire torso, I brought the pistol out and fired all in one fluid motion. The shot hit a skinny, pale, blond guy with a puzzle beard square in the chest.
This was no sci-fi programme where I could set my phaser to stun and fire away like mad. I only had one shot, and I made it count. My target, Cooper it turned out to be, immediately started to go slack as the neurological inhibitor released into his body. I tossed the pizza box aside and bum-rushed my way into a jumbled mess of clothes, computer gear, monitors, video game systems and miscellaneous other crap. The place definitely lacked a woman’s touch.
Cooper went down in a heap over a table covered with dirty plates, empty energy drink cans and console controllers. The momentum nearly took me with him. I managed to maintain my balance, which was a good thing, but lost the NEEDLE in the process.
My entrance had surprised and confused his roommate, who happened to be standing near a server cabinet. However, the guy recovered quickly and came at me from my right.
Luther Dwerry checked in around 185 centimetres and perhaps a shade over 100 kilos. He wasn’t chiselled like Adonis or anything, but he didn’t appear to be a slouch either.
He led with a serious right jab. I managed to dodge, and pivoted behind him as he followed through. I countered with a palm strike to the back of his head that sent him staggering into a metal shelving unit full of electronic crap.
‘Start the transfer, Pam,’ I said aloud.
‘Who are you talking to?’ Luther asked as he spun around, his right hand tucked behind his body. At that moment, the monitors in the room lit up with a whir of flashing financial statements and bogus websites.
‘What the…? What the hell is going on here?’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, Luther.’
‘Bullshit!’ he spat at me, and lunged again.
A glint of metal reflected in the light as a wicked-looking knife in his right hand slashed forward in a wide, mostly horizontal arc. Dwerry had the muscle. He had the mass. He just didn’t have a lot of speed. I stepped diagonally into the attack, caught his wrist, and led with a right cross to his chin. The blow connected and carried through, allowing me to grab his shoulder. I forced him down as my right knee went up into his gut. The first one stunned him. The second one knocked the wind, and the fight, out of him. He dropped the knife on number three.
I twisted his arm behind his back and wrestled him to the ground in the next heartbeat. With his hand turned up at an awkward angle and me sitting on him like a school bully, Luther lay face down, groaning in pain. With my free hand, I grabbed a mass of hair and pulled it back.
‘Who the fuck are you?’ he asked through laboured breaths and blood-soaked spittle.
‘Just a guy trying to earn a living.’
At this point I noticed a tear in my jacket surrounded by a blood-red stain. Even with my level of hand-to-hand combat training, it’s difficult to engage someone with a knife and not take at least one hit. Knowing that didn’t make me less pissed. I bounced his head off the floor.
‘Ahhh! Fuck man! Listen,’ he gasped. ‘My friend and I… are… expecting a big payout—’
I leaned in. ‘What’s that?’
‘Payout,’ he said a little louder with effort. ‘We can… give… you a cut… if… you let us… go.’
‘Payout? And me a cut of the action?’
Dwerry nodded.
‘I know all about it, Luther. Why do you think I showed up at your doorstep only hours before the deadline?’
And with that, I let go of his hand to free up my right and jacked him hard once in the temple. His head snapped left. His brain rattled off the side of his skull and he went lights out. I cuffed him and rolled him over into a recovery position.
With Dwerry secured, I checked on his partner in crime: unconscious but still breathing. I slapped a pair of bracelets on Cooper as well, and propped him against the couch.
‘Situation under control, here, Pam. How are things on your end?’ I asked as I took off my jacket to inspect the damage. Since he didn’t possess a lot of skill with a blade, the cut wasn’t deep. I doubted I needed stitches but I couldn’t just leave it alone.
‘Everything has been completed according to your instructi
ons.’
‘Did you find and delete the information pertaining to the Porter case?’
‘All data was located and scrubbed from their hard drives.’
‘And you checked any cloud servers that they could have used.’
‘Naturally.’
‘Any luck with the guy on the street?’
‘No, sir. He is very skilled at shielding his features from the cameras.’
‘Damn! Well, you did all that you could.’
I slipped on a pair of gloves and went over to a few monitors. Without any prompting, a few of them swapped to video game feeds and other streaming content. Only two of them displayed incriminating financial data.
‘Are you doing this, Pam?’
‘Yes, sir. I thought it would present a much more believable scene for when the police arrive.’
‘Speaking of, I’ll phone Ashdown.’
With Cooper and Dwerry dancing the cha-cha-cha with Mr Sandman, I placed a call to Metro HQ. A few seconds later, the switchboard put me through to a detective I’d worked with in another lifetime.
‘Ashdown,’ the voice announced over the phone.
‘Hi, John. It’s Daniel Helmqvist.’
‘Oh, hey Dan. Been a long time. How’s things?’
‘Not too bad, thanks. Look, I’ve got a couple of guys tied up. You might want to send a few of New London’s finest over here to check it out.’
‘What the hell does that mean? No, no, don’t answer that. I’m on my way,’ he said with a mix of curiosity and suspicion. He knew I was a PI and I can only imagine what he thought I might be mixed up in.
‘Oh, joy of joys. It’ll be good to see you again, detective.’
‘Just give me the address.’
‘314 Berkshire, Res 3. Apartment D. Names on the registry are Alvin Cooper and Luther Dwerry.’
‘Great. See you soon,’ he said, before hanging up on me.
*
Ashdown and two uniforms came through the door of Cooper and Dwerry’s place about 10 minutes after I had talked to him. He stood a bit taller than me and kept himself in decent shape for a guy pushing 60. Ashdown looked like he could hold his own in a fight. He shaved his head to hide his receding hairline. A pencil-thin beard hugged his jawline and chin like it was a fashion accessory.
The detective inspected the scene. His gaze moved from the two lowlifes I had tied up, around the room and then back to them. ‘Now, what’s this all about?’
‘A job I’m working on led me to this address.’
‘You’re gonna need to give me more than that.’
I hemmed. He glared. Normally, I wouldn’t divulge the identity of a client, but this was all going to be a police matter from here on out.
‘The CEO of HTS Intergalactic suspected one of his employees was stealing from the company. The culprit turned out to be his assistant. A Ms Lyric Voss.’
‘His assistant? Seems a bit clichéd doesn’t it?’
‘I thought the same thing. Turned out to be true and that these two upstanding gentlemen were in on the plot.’
‘How do they figure into it?’
‘The one with the peach fuzz on his cheeks is her boyfriend.’ I pointed to one of the monitors with the planted evidence. ‘Based on what I can tell, Voss created bogus invoices for an account in Singapore. HTS paid over three million credits to this account in the last year and a half. They split the money three ways into three more accounts, which made monthly deposits into the Martian bank accounts.’
‘A million plus each?’
I nodded.
He looked around. ‘They certainly aren’t living the good life.’
I shrugged. ‘A lot of gear in here and, who knows, maybe they were saving for retirement.’
Ashdown’s gaze drifted to the floor and my NEEDLE.
‘Let me get this straight. You paid those two a visit and it turned violent?’
I knew what was coming and tried to play it as cool as possible. ‘Prospect of jail time will make people do all sorts of things.’
‘Give me the details. Including why an illegal firearm is lying on the floor and one of the perps – Cooper, is it? – has a dart in his chest.’
‘Carry-over from my services days. I forgot to hand it in on discharge and no one asked for it. I’ve held on to it ever since. Figured it might come in handy.’ In truth, I had purchased it from a seedy contact. The detective didn’t need to know that. ‘Anyway, I entered their apartment to confront them about the embezzlement and things turned ugly. Cooper took a round in the chest. The other, Luther Dwerry, came at me with a combat knife. He even nicked me.’ I showed Ashdown the cut. ‘I defended myself. He got KO’d in the process. The jewellery on their wrists is mine.’
The detective processed my side of the story. ‘With you, Helm, I doubt anything is that straightforward—’
‘Why would I make this up?’ He raised his hand to stop me.
‘And I should haul your ass in on a possession of illegal firearms charge. But I’ll let it slide this time since you didn’t try to hide it. I’ll get forensics in here to bag all their hardware. And you said the third person involved was an employee of HTS?’
‘Lyric Voss.’
‘Great. I may have more questions. Stay where I can find you.’
His last comments oozed sarcasm but I kept my trap shut. So far, I had survived this farce of my own doing. Without waiting for a reply, Ashdown barked at the two uniformed cops on the scene to collar Dwerry and Cooper.
Immediately, the uniforms strapped levitation harnesses on the two poor saps and powered up the units with small remotes. The blackmailers would find out soon enough they were facing charges of stealing from HTS, but not for extortion. Their feet dangled about 10 centimetres off the ground. The officers piloted them out of the apartment like remote controlled ghosts.
As I grabbed the elevator before the officers could join me, I wondered if Alvin and the two other chipmunks would appreciate the irony.
*
On my way down to the ground floor, I called a taxi. It arrived at about the same time as the forensic unit. In they went and, as I watched them pass by me, I secretly hoped my set-up job would hold. Pam held up her end of the bargain beautifully and I had done mine well enough, I supposed.
During the taxi ride to HTS, I called Pam and told her to monitor Voss’s phone and, also, to scan her computer for any more damning videos or evidence related to the case. Porter probably could have done this on his end, but I wanted to control the situation as much as possible.
She went to work immediately.
For my part, I rang Porter and told him there had been a break in the case and I was on my way over to see him. He and I had some colluding to do before Ashdown paid his assistant a visit.
8
No waiting around in the lobby this time. Porter greeted me almost as soon as I stepped through the main entrance.
‘Mr Helmqvist, delighted to see you!’ he said in his best Bertie Wooster.
‘Is there some place private that we can speak? Preferably not your office?’
‘Perhaps there is a free conference room,’ he answered, taken aback by my enigmatic response. ‘Allow me to confer with the receptionist.’
We walked over to the giant desk and he conferred away.
A few seconds later, he looked up at me. ‘The second floor conference room is available. Would you like to follow me there?’
I nodded and followed.
‘What is this all about?’ he asked as soon as the elevator doors closed.
‘Not here, Porter,’ I replied without looking at him.
Behind the security of a locked conference room door, I cycled through the apps on my MAX smartwatch until I found a noise generator of my own design. Once I felt confident in our privacy, I told him everything that had happened since our last meeting.
His voice strained to contain his indignation. ‘My assistant, Lyric, was a part of this whole scheme?’
‘U
nfortunately,’ I answered, fighting back a chuckle. ‘That’s why I didn’t want to meet you in your office. The moment she saw me, she’d know something was up.’
‘Dreadful! I can scarcely believe it is true.’
‘I had to give the police her name. They should be here any minute to take her in for questioning.’
‘You are certain she will not confess to blackmail?’
I shrugged, palms upturned. ‘She might. She can say whatever she wants, but the cops tend to follow the trail of evidence, which all points rather convincingly to her embezzling from you.’
‘And all traces of the blackmail have disappeared?’
‘They have. My office assistant is very thorough, if nothing else. However, while we are on the subject of the blackmail, I may have been too clever for my own good.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘As you now know, the funds being stolen came out of your mining subsidiary. I thought it would be ironic to burn them with the same division that they were using by way of that video to extort twenty million from you. However, the coming investigation might reveal your outfit on Ithilles.’
Porter waved his hand like a bored Caesar. ‘We have been investigated several times. Without something like video evidence, the layers of subterfuge surrounding that particular mining operation are many, varied and difficult to penetrate. I doubt the police, or either legal team, will find anything untoward this time around.’
Wow! This guy was a piece of work.
‘Wonderful. I’m just saying that you, and this company, will get dragged into the inquiry and the trial – if there is one. Be prepared. When they sit you down in the sweatbox, Metro will throw all kinds of theories at you—’
‘Sweatbox?’
‘Oh sorry… interrogation room. But yeah, all kinds of theories. If they are good, and Detective Ashdown is, they’ll bring up your hidden planet and ask you if you committed genocide for economic gain.’
He shifted to the edge of his seat. Panic filled his eyes and his casual tone vanished in an instance. ‘But you said the film has been destroyed!’