On the Money

by Kerry J Donovan

  “Okay, who are you, and what do you want?”

  “Don’t ever lose focus, do you?”

  “Helps keep me alive. Come on, I don’t have all night. Out with it.”

  “Straight to the point, okay. Like you, I use a few names these days, depending on the situations I find myself in, but you can call me Sean … Sean Freeman.”

  At the use of his full name, his intonation rose as though he expected Kaine to recognised it.

  Sean Freeman?

  Kaine repeated the name in his head a couple of times. Something about it tweaked a memory, but hell if he could pull it from the darkness.

  “Rings a bell, but … sorry. Are you famous? If you were on a celeb TV show, forget it. I rarely make time to watch the idiot box.”

  “No, Captain. Like you, the last thing I’d ever want to do is appear on telly. Let’s just say my name appeared in the media a couple of years back. Libellous claptrap, of course. Or is it slanderous?” He frowned and shook his head in apparent confusion. “Never can remember.”

  “Libel if it’s written, slander if spoken,” Kaine explained, although he suspected Freeman knew the precise meaning of each word.

  “Well, considering my name appeared in the papers and on the TV news, I’m covered both ways. By the way, a mutual friend of ours sends his regards.”

  “Corky?”

  “No, no. Not our esteemed hacker.” He wrung his black-gloved hands together and shivered dramatically. “Forgot how cold it could be in the UK this time of year. Still, that’s another story. No, our mutual friend is a grizzled senior policeman by the name of David.”

  “DCI Jones?”

  Once again, the easy grin transformed into a full-blown smile.

  “Yep, that’s the one. As it happens, he speaks very highly of you. I chatted with him only yesterday evening. He wishes your veterinary friend good health, by the way.”

  “Does he?”

  “Indeed, he does. He also told me to say, ‘archaeopteryx’. That mean anything to you?”

  Kaine relaxed at Freeman’s use of his and David Jones’ password of the week, which even Corky didn’t know, at least as far as Kaine could tell.

  “It does but, at the risk of repeating myself, what are you doing here?”

  “When Corky mentioned your situation, I wanted to offer my assistance. It appears you want to scope out that there building”—he pointed in the general direction of the school—“and I have, shall we say, certain skills in that arena.”

  Although they continued their discussion in a more-or-less conversational tone, Freeman never took his eyes from the school. He seemed to be studying the building’s every detail in much the same way Kaine had been doing off and on for the previous day or so.

  The man was a professional. That much was self-evident.

  “By the way, I’ve heard a great deal about you,” Freeman said, thrusting out his hand again. “Nice to meet you at last.”

  This time, Kaine gave the offered paw a firm shake.

  “So,” Freeman added, “what’s the plan?”

  “Don’t have one yet. Corky gave you a full briefing?”

  “Yep. We’re looking to identify someone called TM and beat a confession out of him. That about right?”

  “Possibly. I don’t usually operate that way, unless I have to, of course. However, in this particular instance, I’m not averse to using a modicum of physical persuasion. TM is lowlife scum, leading other lowlife scum. One or more of said pondlife might be responsible for the death of someone under my protection.”

  “Glenmore Davits?”

  “You and Corky have been talking.”

  “Yes, and I’m more than happy to assist any way I can.”

  “Thanks, I appreciate your offer, but I’m not sure what you can do to help.”

  “Fancy popping inside the school and taking a quick look around?” He grinned and nodded towards the crumbling four-storey building again.

  “Are you kidding?”

  “Nope. Remember that business at the Stafford Museum a couple of years back?”

  A memory tickled the back of Kaine’s mind. A museum in Birmingham, a bungled heist … A light in his head switched on.

  “The Rajmahl Collection?”

  “Aha, you do remember!”

  “Hang on, you’re that Sean Freeman? The one responsible for setting up the Parrish Gang?”

  “Yep, that’s me.”

  “You’re one of the UK’s most successful jewel thieves, according to the media. Dangerous, too.”

  “See what I mean about libel and slander? I only robbed places that could afford the losses and never once hurt anyone during a job. What’s more, the police recovered all the jewellery I stole when they arrested Parrish and turned his place over. It seems some helpful soul opened his personal safe, so the police didn’t have the hassle. Wonder who could have done such a thing?” He tutted and shook his head.

  “Okay, point taken. You have the relevant skills, but I imagine you used to spend time planning all your … operations. If we wanted to break into the school tonight, would it suit your MO?”

  Freeman laughed quietly. “I’ve been studying that building for a little while now.”

  “Really?”

  “Yep. When Corky first mentioned your current situation I was in … Well, let’s just say I wasn’t in the UK. Corky sent me the building’s schematics and I’ve studied them during my flight. Meanwhile, Corky hacked into a military satellite, which gave me rather decent aerial coverage of the vicinity. He’s also been reading me in on the research he’s been doing for you.”

  Bloody Corky.

  At least Freeman’s sudden appearance eased Kaine’s concern about Corky’s possible hidden agenda.

  “To be honest, Captain,” Freeman continued, “this intel includes the access and egress points. I’ve already formulated a plan of my own. Fancy a little fun?” Again, he rubbed his hands together. “It’s bloody perishing out here. I bet it’s much warmer inside that schoolhouse. Especially since they had central heating installed a few months ago.”

  Central heating? Something Damian had forgotten to tell him. Kaine wasn’t sure why the new information tweaked his interest. He needed time to think on it, but didn’t have any to spare right then.

  “Will you answer one question?” Kaine asked.

  “If I can.”

  “Why are you offering to help me?”

  Freeman put on a pained expression, and he shrugged. “It’s all down to my wife’s mother.”

  “Come again?”

  “She’s visiting. Since our daughter arrived, she’s been spending every spare hour with us. Now, don’t get me wrong, the wife’s mother is a really lovely woman, but if I have to suffer another afternoon shopping for baby clothes, I’ll bloody explode. I mean, how many threads does one tiny tot need?” He shrugged. “Don’t know about you, Captain, but I need a little more excitement to pass the time. Fair enough?”

  It wasn’t, not really, but Kaine didn’t intend to pass up any support. Especially if it came with a password-confirmed recommendation from the formidable DCI David Jones.

  “Okay, fair enough,” Kaine said. “What about breaking through the rear door? It’s likely to be less heavily fortified than the front.”

  Freeman made a face like he’d chomped into a rotten apple. “A little crude, Captain. Might work for you crash-bang-wallop military types, but I prefer something a little more subtle. Before we do anything radical, what’s our end goal here? I mean, do you actually have a plan?”

  Kaine tried not to look abashed. “To be honest, I was just thinking of breaking in to take a little look around. According to Damian—”

  “Who?”

  “Damian Baines, aka Rhino. I thought Corky read you in on this.”

  “Ah, right. Helpful chap with the unfortunate scar on his neck,” Freeman said, taking his turn to look embarrassed. “Sorry, I’m more interested in architecture than people’s names. Apolog
ies for interrupting. You were saying?”

  Kaine checked his watch and made sure Freeman saw him doing it. “According to Damian, unless they’re expecting a delivery, the building’s normally empty overnight. However, after what happened earlier …”

  “Your crossing swords with the Goons, you mean?”

  “Yes, exactly. It wouldn’t surprise me for TM to hunker down for a while. Corky’s studied the faces of everyone who left the building since the … er, ruckus, but didn’t see a standout candidate for TM. Didn’t see a fellow called Barcode, either.”

  “Ah, Barcode. Corky explained why you’re rather interested in catching up with that particular lowlife. Any idea where this Barcode thug might be?”

  Kaine shook his head. “None. But I’m renowned as a patient man. I’ll catch up to him soon enough.”

  “Don’t think he’s running scared, do you?”

  “Scared of me? Bloody well should be, but I doubt he has the brains to be scared. Fear needs the kind of emotional depth I doubt Byron Codell has. Vicious and cunning, he might be, but scared? Doubt that very much.”

  “So, let me get this right,” Freeman said, glancing again at the school building. “Your plan is to break in and rummage around in the hopes of stumbling across something of interest. Or, better still, find someone in the know and to, erm … interview them. That about right?”

  “It is now. I often find the direct approach works as well as any.”

  Freeman sighed and shook his head. “As I said, crash-bang-wallop. So damned … military.”

  “That’s me,” Kaine said, unabashed.

  After a gentle headshake, Freeman said, “The school will likely be full of cameras, motion sensors, and microphones. If so, what’s to stop you tripping every alarm in the place the moment you step inside?”

  Kaine patted the shoulder strap of his baby-Bergen. “I have a nugget of plastic explosive in here. Was planning to blow the mains power to the building before entry.”

  “You know where the junction box is?”

  Kaine pointed to an overhead power cable anchored to a metal strut sticking out of the school’s western gable wall. From there, the cable ran down the outside of the wall and entered the school through a junction box.

  “You’re simply going to stick a bomb in that box and hope it kills the power to the whole building? What makes you think they don’t have a backup generator?”

  Good question.

  It hadn’t taken Freeman long to spot a flaw in Kaine’s rudimentary plan.

  “You have a better idea, Mr Jewel Thief?”

  “One or two,” Freeman said, his smile returning. “See that skylight? The one on the left?”

  He pointed to one of three tiny openings in the roof. The one he identified was around fifteen metres from the nearest chimney stack, whose brickwork looked as though it hadn’t been repointed since Queen Victoria ceased to be amused. It also looked in imminent danger of collapse, as did the roof, many of whose tiles were cracked or missing.

  “Are you serious? The roof structure’s a real mess. And there’s no way a man of your size could make it through that skylight.”

  “Correct, Captain Kaine. I’d never squeeze though that window. You, on the other hand, are a shoo-in.”

  For the first time since they’d met, Freeman’s smile started to grate on Kaine’s nerves.

  “What’s the matter, Captain? I know all about your escapades in Scotland. No way you’re afraid of heights.”

  “I don’t mind scaling solid granite cliffs with good anchor points, but that,” he said, staring at the disintegrating roof, “is a disaster waiting to happen.”

  “Of course it is, and that’s half the fun, right?”

  “Hmm,” Kaine said, unwilling to say what he really thought.

  “Knew you’d see it my way, Captain. Want to get going? It’ll be daylight soon.”

  “While I’m scaling the north face of the Eiger without any climbing gear, what are you going to be doing?”

  “Me?” he said, exuding nonchalance, “I’ll be killing all the power in that building, including the backup generator they had installed in the cellar last autumn.”

  “Aha. I see Corky has been holding out on me.”

  “Don’t blame Corky. I asked him to hold off telling you until we had this chat. Didn’t want you screwing things up before I arrived.”

  Cheeky bugger.

  Freeman patted the straps of his backpack in much the same way Kaine had done to his earlier. “As it happens, I built a special gizmo that’s suitable for this very situation.”

  “You’re an electronics man, like Corky?”

  Freeman shrugged the backpack off one shoulder and swung it around to his front. “Sort of. I also dabble in mechanical engineering. Basically, I design and build the hardware, Corky develops the software. Together, we make a pretty good team.”

  “And this gizmo of yours is going to work?”

  “Expect so. Been dying to run a field test.”

  Kaine grimaced at the memory of what happened the last time he had anything to do with testing a piece of equipment. The equipment worked perfectly, and eighty-three innocent people died in a fireball.

  “C’mon then,” he said, “let’s get moving.”

  “Before we go, I need to explain a few things,” Freeman said, matching Kaine’s earlier grimace.

  “Do we have time?”

  “We need to make time. It’s important.”

  “Okay. Mr Freeman, you have my undivided attention.”

  “‘Mr Freeman’ makes me sound ancient. Please call me Sean,” he said, offering a smile.

  “Is that it?”

  “Not really. There’s one slight problem with the gizmo. Not a deal breaker as such, more of a side-effect.”

  Kaine allowed his shoulders to slump.

  “Which is?”

  Freeman unclipped the top latch of his backpack and loosened the drawstring. He removed a bubble-wrapped package about the size of a family bible. With the covering removed, it looked more like something a radio ham would knock together in his garage, all knobs, switches, and dials. It had a small digital display in the centre.

  “Highly impressive,” Kaine said, unable to generate a great deal of enthusiasm.

  Freeman shrugged. “Okay, maybe it won’t win many design awards, but this little baby’s taken me nearly a month to build from the motherboard up.”

  “Okay, I’ll bite. What does it do and how’s it going to help us in there?”

  “Won’t blind you with the detail, although I can if you like.”

  “Just imagine I’m your technophobic uncle and use small words.”

  “Can’t exactly see you as that, but as a military man, you’ll be familiar with electro-magnetic pulses and their effects?”

  “EMPs are the bane of the electronic age. They can knock out comms, right?”

  Freeman smiled again and nodded. “Pretty much. Trouble with EMPs is they do fatal damage to the devices they attack. Bit like taking a sledgehammer to a nut, kind of thing. Overkill. No finesse. This little baby on the other hand”—his fingers lovingly traced the outline of the dials and switches—“is much more surgical. A scalpel rather than a butcher’s cleaver. When I power this up, it will knock out all the electronics within a selected radius, but without doing permanent damage.”

  “Can it change TV channels, too?”

  “Very amusing, Captain. You should take that on tour.”

  “My apologies, Sean. Please continue,” Kaine said, again glancing at his watch.

  “For this application, however,” Freeman continued, apparently warming to his role as Kaine’s impromptu lecturer, “I’ve identified two major challenges.”

  There had to be a catch, or two.

  “Which are?”

  “When I power this thing up, we’ll lose our own state-of-the-art earwigs.”

  Kaine nodded. “I already made that assumption. Couldn’t expect anything else. And the
second flaw?”

  “That’s more technical. You see, the disruptor uses a specific form of rotating frequency modulation. As you probably know, most modern digital comms systems use microwaves with an intelligent phased encryption algor—”

  “Small words, Sean. Remember?” Kaine said, raising a hand to stop the lecture mid-flow.

  “Sorry. Get carried away sometimes. Anyhow, the upshot is, I can’t simply power up the disruptor and leave it running. I have to adjust the signal in response to the input the system receives. Otherwise, I’d be joining you on the inside.”

  “That sounds like a major flaw with the device to me.”

  Another shrug. “It’s a timing thing. Corky and I were working on a processor to automate the system, but … well, here we are. Pressing needs, you know.”

  “Sorry about that, but I didn’t exactly beg for your help. Not that I’m ungrateful, you understand, but I am trying to pull my head around the idea that in a few minutes I’ll be trying to scale a rotten roof and squeeze through a tiny little skylight while you blast a million microwaves at my backside. Now, is that all?”

  Freeman scrunched up his face and made a passable impression of someone suffering from toothache. “Pretty much, but … it’s just that … well, I wanted to make sure you know you can trust me, okay?”

  What’s this?

  “Of course. Anyone who has DCI Jones’ endorsement is oka—”

  “Whatever happens in there,” Freeman interrupted, holding Kaine’s eye and being disconcertingly resolute about it. “Just go with the flow and trust me, right?”

  “Trust you? Yes, right. Okay. Whatever you say.”

  Kaine had no idea what Freeman was implying and put it down to pre-match nerves, which affected different people in different ways. Perhaps the otherwise affable and confident jewel thief suffered from gloomy premonitions. Either way, it made Kaine antsy and he tried his best to brush the matter aside.

  “Okay, Sean. Are we good to go?”

  “Ready when you are, Captain.”

  “So, what are we waiting for?”

  Crouching low, Kaine took the lead and they headed for the rear of the school.

  Chapter 32