Half Light

by Matt Doyle

  I shrug. “I don’t have a clue. There are a lot of things being bought and sold, but I’m not an engineer.”

  “Fair enough. You seem tense. There’s something else, isn’t there?”

  “Yeah. Are you aware of the TS Murder Files?”

  “Of course. What about them?”

  “They got too rough for the PD to handle alone. When I first came to New Hopeland, those cases were my first collaborative effort with them. Locke had a file on one of the victims I investigated. Roger Watson. He was a freelance tech guy, no immediate family, and not enough remains for a funeral by the time we got there.”

  “Okay, so why did Locke have a file on him?”

  “If what he found out is accurate, Roger Watson was an alias for a man named Leonard Tomes. He was a cop killer, tried and convicted three years prior. Thanks to a combination of his lawyer not being fond of the police and the boys in blue not exactly following protocol when they arrested him, his conviction was overturned. They gave him a new identity and sent him here. According to Locke’s files, almost all the victims have a similar story. On top of that, each of the lawyers involved in the cases is bankrolled by one the Four Kings of Utah.”

  “So Casille brought them in.”

  “If this is all true.”

  “You don’t seem certain, detective.”

  “I’m not. I don’t trust Gary Locke.”

  She nods. “Understandable. Still, I’ll review the files myself and see if anything seems out of place. It may all come down to finding out where he got his information from.”

  “I thought the same. So, why not pump the other former members of The Roots of Eden are Rotten for information first?”

  “That’s not an option, I’m afraid. Remember Frank Tyson?”

  “Sure. NHPD’s latest upstart tried to pin his death on me.”

  “Clearly you must have one of those faces,” she says and flashes me a sideways grin. “Anyway, I tried it with him before, during, and after the torture. It turns out Locke tended to keep a lot of things to himself, at the very least while he classed them as a work in progress. Everything he gathered from the escapade with Dean Hollister and Eddie Redwood was raw data to him. He wouldn’t tell anyone else involved what this whole scheme amounted to until he finished compiling it. If Frank hadn’t decided to make himself part of the evidence against Locke, I suspect he would have turned this stick over to one of the other blog contributors to continue working on.”

  “Great. So, to get to the bottom of it all, the choices are work with Locke or do the work ourselves with no idea where to gather the rest of the information?”

  “Yup. According to what he told Harold, there’s more info he can provide. Once he’s out, of course.”

  I sigh. “You’re actually going to spring him, aren’t you? Him and Harold Sanderson.”

  “No, we’re going to spring Locke. Harold is staying inside. He’s more useful there. For now.”

  “We, huh. You know I’m likely to kill him, eh?”

  “You won’t. Even without your clear curiosity about what’s going on in the city, you aren’t the type to kill without being able to justify it. And deep down, I think you know your issues with him, understandable as they are, aren’t justification enough. You would have shot him the night he tried to kill you and your girlfriend if it was.”

  “Diu lei.”

  “Temper. You know I’m right; both on your ability to kill in this instance and that we need him.”

  Calm down, Cassie. Think of it as a necessary evil. I take a deep breath, exhale, and stand up. “Fine. Call me when you have a plan.”

  I walk away and leave Angel to her plotting.

  *

  Knock-knock.

  “Caw.”

  I watch Bert climb onto my worktable and position himself facing the front door. I rub his head and say quietly, “If she tries to kill me, take her down. Otherwise, stand down for now. I need to stay close to her.”

  “Caw.”

  “I’m always careful.” Bert closes the rings around his eyes to narrow them at me, and I smile. “Yeah, I didn’t think you’d buy that.”

  I open the door and let Angel in. She’s carrying a large bag on her back. “This is the first time I’ve been here at the same time as you.”

  “I prefer it this way,” I reply. “At least I know what you’re doing if I’m here to watch.”

  She nods. “Hi, Bert.”

  Bert chatters his beak in response, making an angry clack-clack-clack-clack sound.

  “The power’s still on. The last time you met me here you switched everything off and used a hologram. Aren’t you worried the security camera is recording you?”

  Angel casually points her thumb over her shoulder at the camera and starts making herself at home. “I hacked it. It’s currently showing a couple of loops of you from different times. It’ll get picked up eventually if someone looks closely, but using a couple of compatible clips means I can have it vary enough not to be too obvious. I did the same with the hallways and the elevator. They cut to clear halls the moment I walked in.”

  “Good to know. So, I take it you have a plan to get Locke out?”

  “That’s right. We’re going to be travelling to the prison in my current car; me in the front and you in the trunk.”

  “Stop. Why the trunk?”

  “Because the security checkpoints take it all very seriously come the evening. There’s a good chance at least one of them will know you. Me? I’ve got some fake ID and an equally fake meeting set up to discuss tech maintenance. Once we get there, you’re going to retrieve Locke and bring him out front.”

  “So, you’re worried the security checkpoints will recognise me but not the staff I’ve interacted with countless times? And why do I have to be the one to do the breakout?”

  “You should trust me more, Cassie. First of all, you need to do the breakout because you are more expendable than me. If this all goes wrong, I’ll need a second shot at it. That becomes much harder if it’s me who gets caught. Second of all, they won’t recognise you unless they apprehend you, because you’ll be wearing this.”

  She throws me the bag, and I catch it. I unzip the top and look inside. “An LV suit?”

  “That’s right. Modified for this purpose. The body armour is heavier than the ones Harold and I wore because you live and learn, right? The helmet will allow you regular vision rather than the standard display with heart monitors and so on.”

  “No. I don’t like this.”

  “I also have this,” she says, pulling a small disc out of her pocket. “To shut down Bert there if I need to. You see, Cassie, I want us to be able to work together on this on as close to equal terms as I can allow. However, you know enough that if you try to back out or tell anyone what I’m doing, then I will have no choice but to kill you. That would be such a waste, especially as I’m taking a lot of steps to ensure you stay alive through tonight’s festivities.”

  “Yeah? Like what?”

  “Let’s just say I have a lot of tools at my disposal. Now, unless you really want to end things here, I suggest you go and get changed. There’s a long coat in the bag to hide the main suit, and I suggest you leave the helmet in the bag until you’re in the trunk. Oh, and when you free Locke, don’t mention Casille or his link to the Kings. We need him to keep digging, but I only want him playing in the holes he’s already started.”

  I sigh and grab the bag. “Fine.”

  *

  The hard bumping under my body lets me know Angel has taken us off road. Once we stop moving, the engine noise drops to a low murmur. She’s keeping the engine running. Which means she expects us to need to make a quick escape. Great.

  The lock on the trunk clicks and opens. It’s dark out, so I don’t have to worry about much in the way of temporary blindness. Angel offers me a hand and I take it, letting her pull me up to m
y feet. “You were right,” I say. “It takes a little while to get used to breathing in the helmet.”

  “That’s why I said to put it on while you’re in there,” she replies, her voice crystal clear in the helmet speaker. “It gives you the chance to acclimatise to it.”

  I nod. “It feels odd. Restrictive.”

  “But workable?”

  “Yeah. So how is this going to work?”

  “Simple.” She turns and I follow her gaze. We’re standing behind a rock a short way from the outside of the prison, hidden behind the solid mass and the dip below us. “It’s dark enough that your suit will provide some camouflage. So, as long as you move quietly, you’ll make it to the wall without issue. From there, I’ll be able to guide you.”

  “How?”

  “I have access to the live feed on the cameras, same as the designated guard for the evening.”

  “Eyes everywhere, eh.”

  “Exactly that.”

  “Then why not hack them like you’ve been doing with mine at home? Wouldn’t that make the break-in—and out—easier?”

  She shakes her head. “I could cut them, but that would alert him. Stock footage would be too difficult in this case too; the guards rotate who is patrolling where regularly, and the guy with the camera feed has a list of who to expect, when, and where. Without footage of the right person in the right area with the right lighting conditions, he’d know. Short bursts will work, but I can’t set up a long-term loop.”

  “That’s going to make it difficult.”

  “Yup. That’s why you’re gonna need to kill him.”

  I pale, and my muscles tense, but I know what I need to say. “No.”

  “Hmm?”

  Angel tilts her head towards me, and I shake my head to reiterate the point. “No. I’m not killing anyone. Not here.”

  “Really? You do want to get to the bottom of things, don’t you?”

  “I do, but I draw the line on killing innocents. I’m not Harold Sanderson. I won’t be your attack dog.”

  She shrugs. “You always did strike me as the sort who likes to make things difficult for themselves. Fine. I tell you what. I want us to be able to trust each other. So, I’ll trust your judgement, and make you a promise: I will not intentionally kill anyone myself tonight unless it becomes an absolute necessity.”

  “Including me?”

  “Especially you. Like I said, I’ve been taking steps to ensure you stay alive. With luck, none of my contingencies will be needed. Just be aware the longer you take, the more likely you are to get caught.”

  “I know. Okay. Let’s get this over with.”

  Angel adjusts her headset slightly and moves to the front seat of the car, where she opens a laptop. She regards the screen for a moment and then says, “You should be safe. If you don’t want to kill the watcher at the front, and then you’ll need to head to…the right-hand corner of the wall directly in front of us. Move quickly, and I’ll give you further instructions from there.”

  I do as I’m told, climbing carefully out from behind our hiding place, and jogging towards the wall, keeping my body low. Once I’m there, I straighten up and push my back to it. Angel’s voice says, “There are no cameras on that side, but there is a guard. Check, slowly.”

  Like a good little doggy, I obey the command, sliding to my left and slowly leaning my head around the corner. The guard on patrol is walking away from me. Even though the helmet is soundproof, I naturally drop into a whisper when I say, “You getting this?”

  “Yes. The camera on the helmet is pretty good, so don’t worry too much. Once he rounds the corner, he’ll be walking right towards a camera. I can track him again from there. And there he goes. Start following his path. There should be a door somewhere around there.”

  I keep walking, taking care to move as near to silently as I can, and study the wall as I go. “No doors yet, and I doubt going over the top is going to work. It’s way too high for me to climb, and I didn’t see any of the jumping booster things on the boots for this suit.”

  “No, they take far too long to get used to using. Edge to the corner and wait. The door is on the next wall.” She pauses and the next few seconds seem like an eternity. “Okay. The guard is out of camera shot. I’ve taken three seconds of clear footage and started it looping. With the regularity of the patrols, you should have a little over a minute to get by the camera. After that, I’ll need to switch it back to the live feed. I suggest you move, now.”

  Without pausing, I step around the corner and start jogging. I can see the camera pointing towards me and can’t help but breathe a sigh of relief once I’ve passed it. Just beyond it, I come to a door. A quick press of the handle confirms what I expected. “Locked.”

  I feel a small vibration on my left thigh and look down. One of the thick panels has slid aside, revealing a small box.

  “Put that on the lock.”

  “What is it?”

  “The thing that will get you caught if you insist on an explanation.”

  “Point taken.” I place the box on the lock, and it immediately magnetises itself. I hear a hiss, and after a few seconds, it slips off. Looking closer, I realise what happened. The box has melted part of the lock away.

  “Take the box with you,” Angel instructs as I open the door and sneak in. “You can drop it anywhere in there, there’s no camera. Pull the door shut behind you too.”

  “Won’t the next guard notice the melted lock?”

  “Not sure. The guard didn’t check it on the way back from what I could see. Whether he did on the way through, I don’t know. Best keep moving. Looking at the plans, you’re close to one of the staff fire exit corridors. It’s not on the list of places that are being watched, so I’ll put a short loop in on the cameras. There. Head through the door, follow it around to the end, and wait there.”

  The corridor is longer than I expected and clearly runs the entire length of the eastern wall of the complex. Just as I’ve been told, I reach the end and wait. “Okay, now whe—”

  The door to my left clicks, cutting me off, and a voice starts grumbling its way out. “Damn clogged toilets making me head all the way here.”

  “Diu.”

  The guard steps out from what I’m now assuming is a staff toilet and starts to turn in my direction. Before I can even think of a plan, my body reacts; I slam my right fist into the side of his head, causing him to fall unconscious to the floor. I didn’t mean to do that. I didn’t want to do that. It was as if something pulled my body into place. Or someone. “What did you do?”

  “Those suits are like flesh bags, in a way. And I can control a flesh bag from the other end of the country if I have to. I told you, Cassie. I have contingencies in place to keep you alive. This means a variable has been introduced, and the main plan has changed. I’ll keep my promise, but I’m taking over.”

  Before I can respond, my body jerks into action again and throws the door open. There’s a strange disconnect as I speed through the hallways, effortlessly tackling guards as I go. The sound of the alarm invades my head, and I start to panic. My body stops at a cell door, and something vibrates on my right thigh. I can’t even turn my head to look, but I know the feel of the item when my hand grabs it. A gun. My hand pulls the trigger, firing three shots into the lock, and I barge it open.

  Gary Locke is pushed into the back corner of the room. He looks at me as my left arm shoots up and beckons him to follow. We step out of the door and another guard charges around the corner. To my horror, my right hand—and the gun—rise into view, and two bullets are sent into her. “Shoulder and leg,” Angel says over the speakers. “She’ll live.”

  As we run by, the guard tries to raise her gun, and my foot shoots out, hitting her hand with more force than I’d like.

  “Two corridors to go. You’re about to be back in the saddle, Cassie. Don’t panic when you reach the front door.”
/>   The release of pressure on my body is instantly noticeable, but as if they’ve been conditioned, my legs keep running. Desperation to finish this job is setting in. When we hit the final corridor, my hope for a quick resolution starts to fade away. There are three more guards blocking the exit, each with guns trained on us. Locke ducks behind me, and one of the guards steps forward. “Stay where you are and slowly lower your gun to the ground. If you try to run, one of us will shoot you. If you shoot, one of us will shoot you.”

  I flip the gun so I’m holding the barrel and start to drop to one knee, but something slams against the glass door we were heading towards, drawing all three guards’ attention. One yells, “Oh, shit,” and they all dive to the side, barely avoiding the flying glass as the little metal box explodes, shattering the door inward.

  “Cover your eyes,” Angel’s voice says, and I turn around and bring one hand up. Something else explodes, showering the hallway in light. “Now, quickly.”

  I grab Gary Locke by the shoulder and, realising he was caught with the flashbang, drag him forward towards the exit. We run and don’t stop until we’re back at the car. I throw Gary into the front passenger seat, dive into the back, and try to remove my helmet while Angel speeds us away from the building.

  “See? No deaths,” Angel says.

  “What about the security checkpoints?”

  “Have a look to your right.”

  I sit up. Angel is taking us off-road. In the dark of the night, I spot the headlights of a car power on. The vehicle drives onto the road and speeds towards the security checkpoints I’d mentioned. “Who is that?”

  “A couple of associates. They’re in LV suits, their licence plates match these, and they have a passenger who’ll pass for Mister Locke here in the dark. Don’t worry, I have faith they’ll make it through, but if not, then the idea is for the fake passenger to flee. If that fails, too, we’ll be long gone by then. Of course, they’ll get the PD to keep an eye out for LVs, so I’m gonna need you to get changed.”

  “Here?”