by Michael Rose
“She’s in her apartment.”
“Check on her, would you?”
“Sure thing.”
“Where’s Ives?”
“He’s patrolling the perimeter of the building.”
“And the other two agents?”
“Patrolling the other floors.”
“All right, let them know that I think Sullivan may try to get to Conner. Be on your guard and call for backup. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
5
KAREN CONNER SAT staring at her computer screen. There were documents she needed to review, but she couldn’t focus. Scott Howard’s murder had rattled her. She was thankful for the Bureau’s protection, but she still felt vulnerable, exposed. She kept checking and rechecking the locks on her windows and peering through the peephole on her front door to make sure Agent Takemitsu was still standing guard. She had checked only a moment ago and was startled when she heard a knock.
She returned to the door and looked out. “Yes?”
“It’s Agent Takemitsu, Miss Conner. I’d like to make a check of the apartment.”
She opened the door and let him in. He locked it behind him then went around, checking all the windows and looking out onto the patio before returning to the living room.
“Everything’s secure,” he said. “Agent Ives or I will be right outside until three a.m. Do you want us to let you know when our replacements arrive?”
“At three? No, that’s all right. Thank you anyway.”
“Not a problem, Miss Conner. Let me know if you need anything.”
“Thank you.”
Takemitsu unlocked the door and reached for the handle. As he put his hand on it, he felt it turn in his palm. Before he could react, the door was pushed in, throwing him to the ground. He tried to look up at his assailant, but a hand caught him under the chin and pushed his head back. Another hand wrapped around his neck and began to squeeze.
Takemitsu managed to lift his knee and make contact with his assailant’s stomach, but the blow was too weak to throw him off. Black blotches appeared at the corners of his eyes, grew in size then completely obscured his vision as the lack of oxygen forced him into unconsciousness.
Conner ran for the door but was stopped by a hand on her arm. Rick Sullivan closed the door, locked it and stood in front of it, facing Conner.
She dropped to her knees. “I’m sorry… please, whatever I did, I didn’t mean to hurt you or anyone.”
“I know,” said Sullivan. “And I don’t mean to hurt you. But I can tell you already know why I’m here.”
“The Edaline resolution?”
“Yes. It cannot pass.”
“It won’t pass. With Palmer and Howard dead, everyone else is too scared to vote for it.”
“And you won’t open the resolution again?”
“No. Please, don’t hurt me.”
“I won’t.” He reached into his jacket pocket. Conner flinched as he removed his hand but relaxed upon seeing that it was a small data chip. “This has everything I’ve found out about your friend Palmer,” said Sullivan. “It also details the crimes the government of Edaline had perpetrated against its own people, going back over twenty years.”
Conner took the chip as he handed it to her. “What do you want me to do with it?”
“Give it to Agent Frank Allen. Edaline’s leaders have done a thorough job of covering up and redacting damaging information. I’ve done some terrible things to get this information, but with it, you can stop even more terrible things from happening. Promise you’ll do it.”
“I will. I promise.”
“Thank you.”
Takemitsu stirred, and Sullivan turned back to the door. He paused. “I’m not a bad man, Miss Conner. I’ve only done what is necessary.”
Conner smiled unconvincingly. “I know.”
“You’re lying. But that’s all right. I will be vindicated once you see the documents on that chip. Goodbye.”
Sullivan opened the door and looked down the hallway. Just as he poked his head out, he saw Agent Ives striding toward Conner’s apartment. Ives spotted him and broke into a run. Sullivan dashed out of the apartment, tossed a small capsule at Ives and ran in the opposite direction, toward the stairs. Behind him, he heard a hissing sound as the capsule released its concentrated dose of tear gas. He heard Ives cough and glanced backward. Ives was groping his way blindly down the hallway, his face red and streaming with tears.
Sullivan reached the door to the stairs and heard the elevator at the far end of the hallway ding. He crashed through the door, slammed it shut and paused at the window in the door just long enough to see Allen and Wagner step out, spot Ives and run toward him.
Sullivan descended the stairs, taking them two at a time. He heard the door up on Conner’s floor crash open just as he pushed open the emergency exit on the ground level, setting off the alarm. He escaped into the night and was gone before the agents arriving at the front of the building came around to investigate the noise.
CONNER WAS KNEELING on the floor next to Takemitsu when Allen and Wagner returned to her apartment. Takemitsu had woken up and was rubbing his throat where Sullivan had choked him.
Allen knelt down and put his hand on Takemitsu’s shoulder. “You all right, John? Do you need a bus?”
“I’ll be fine.” Takemitsu coughed. “He has a real tender touch, considering.”
“Looks like he took you down the same way he took down Lasky. He didn’t want to kill you. I don’t think he wants to kill anybody. He’s just doing what he thinks he has to do.” Allen turned to Karen Conner. “Did he say anything to you?”
“Yes. He gave me this. He said I should give it to you and help expose the corruption in the Assembly and the crimes of Edaline’s government.” She held out her palm and showed the data chip to Allen. He reached out to take it but Conner closed her fist. “You will investigate this, won’t you, Agent Allen?”
“Absolutely. We will investigate any crimes that the information on that chip might reveal.”
“But will the public get that information? He wanted the people to know.”
“I can’t answer that yet. I’m sorry.” Conner opened her hand and Allen took the chip from her palm. He stood and helped Takemitsu to his feet. “Miss Conner, will you come down to the Bureau office and give an official statement? We need to know exactly what he said to you.”
“Of course.”
“And may we have permission to search your apartment?”
“He barely left the doorway.”
“All the same, it doesn’t hurt to check things out.”
“I suppose.”
“Is that a yes, Miss Conner?”
“Yes.”
Allen turned to Takemitsu. “You all right to take her, John?”
“Sure. Where’s Ives?”
“He’s in the hallway. Sullivan hit him with tear gas, but he’ll be all right.”
Wagner smiled at Conner. “It’ll be all right now,” she said. “We think he’s made his point and won’t bother you again.”
Conner smiled back, smoothed out her clothes and followed as Takemitsu stepped to the door. Once she had gone, Allen went into Conner’s office and sat down in front of her computer.
Wagner stood behind him, watching. “You think she was in on the land scheme?”
“No. But she might unknowingly have files that will shed light on who is. Messages from Palmer, early drafts of the Edaline resolution. If we can find something to corroborate the information on that chip, it’ll help make the case. Hold on. Look at this.”
Wagner leaned forward. Allen had opened a folder of photos from what appeared to be a party at Gene Palmer’s penthouse. “There are Palmer, Howard and Conner,” said Allen. “Do you recognize the others?”
“No.” Wagner scanned each photo with her tablet. “I’ll run these through the facial recognition program.”
After a moment, she cleared her throat. “All right, most of them are Assembly membe
rs. But there are two who aren’t.”
“Who are they?”
“Hmm… members of Edaline’s parliament.”
Allen leaned over and looked at the names on Wagner’s tablet. He typed them into a search program on his own computer and scanned the information. “Pretty high up in the government, too. You know, from the date stamps on these photos, this party took place a week before Palmer officially announced his support for the Edaline resolution. I’ll bet this is where the deal was brokered. And I’ll bet that most of the other assembly members who were in on it were at this party.”
“But Howard’s there. He didn’t throw his support behind the resolution until a few days ago.”
“Right.” Allen furrowed his brow. “Holy shit, Liz. This was planned from the beginning! The people at this party have been endorsing the resolution piecemeal over the past year. They did this to avoid suspicion, to appear as though they were slowly being brought around to a pro-Edaline position. They got a few idealists like Conner on board without a quid pro quo, but I’ll bet that a lot of the people who were in on the deal were at this party. After Conner and the other honest Assembly members left, I’d wager they got down to business.”
Wagner looked back at her tablet. “There were thirty-two members at the party. Conner is clean, and Palmer and Howard are dead, so that leaves twenty-nine leads.”
“Right,” said Wagner. “If we apply the pressure, one of them is bound to crack. And this,” he said, holding up the data chip, “might give us probable cause to put them all under surveillance.”
RICK SULLIVAN PEERED into the small crawlspace behind the freighter’s control panel. He’d fit, but just barely.
“You’ll only have to be in there long enough to pass the port authority’s inspection,” said the ship’s captain, a man Sullivan knew only as Jones. For his part, Sullivan had only identified himself as Rick.
“And it has a built-in bioshroud?”
“Top of the line. They could scan for days and not know you’re in there.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” said Sullivan.
“Now as to payment,” said Jones. “What do you have to offer?”
Sullivan took the energy pistol from his pocket. “This should fetch a good price on the black market.” Sullivan reached back into his pocket. “I have an extra energy clip, too. Fully charged.”
Jones took the items and turned them around in his hands. “This’ll do. All right, take a bunk in the aft cabin. The inspection is in two hours, but I need to finish supervising the loading of the cargo. I’ll let you know when you’ll need to crawl back in there.”
“Your crew won’t expose me?”
“You’re my crew on this run. Save me some money that way.”
“I don’t know anything about piloting a ship.”
“You don’t have to. I just need you to monitor the systems while I have my down time. If any red lights flash or any alarms go off, you come and get me.”
“You’re placing an awful lot of trust in a man who needs to be smuggled off of Earth.”
“No more than you’re placing in me.”
“Thanks,” said Sullivan. He’d had to deal with a lot of horrible people over the past few years. It was nice to meet someone who didn’t seem completely despicable. But you could never know for sure; any man could turn against you at any moment.
Sullivan tried to recall how many good men he had known. Maybe it had been his unique circumstances, and maybe his experience didn’t reflect reality, but there hadn’t been very many. Agent Allen seemed like a good man. Sullivan hoped he’d given Allen and Conner enough to bring down those Assembly members who had been involved in the Edaline land deal. He wouldn’t know for months, of course. News of events on one planet had to be relayed to all the others by ship, and the shortest journey between two planets was three weeks. Most took a lot longer than that. In this particular freighter, Sullivan’s ride to Abilene would take just over four months.
He settled down onto the bunk Jones had directed him to and closed his eyes. He wouldn’t allow himself to sleep, but at least he could get some rest.
II:
PRISONERS
6
FRANK ALLEN WAS pleased. The Bureau had managed to round up Assemblyman Palmer’s cronies and charges had been filed against all those who had been a part of the Edaline quid pro quo. It hadn’t been too difficult. There had been a handful of Assembly members who’d cracked once they knew there was real evidence against them. The scandal involved Assembly members from nineteen different planets and had been front page news for a week solid, ever since the Bureau had made its first arrests.
Allen and Wagner had spent the past week tying up loose ends and were now both taking the paid vacation that they had originally planned for a month earlier. With the Edaline issue wrapped up and Sullivan’s trail cold, there was finally time for it.
Allen felt completely at ease. He had just opened another beer and was sipping at it when Liz Wagner, standing at the hotel room window, called him over.
“They just lit up the Eiffel Tower,” she said as he put down his tablet and went to stand behind her, his arms around her waist. “Isn’t it beautiful?”
“It is,” said Allen. “I’m glad we finally got a chance to get away together.”
“Of course, this means we’ll have to let the Bureau know about our relationship now. It’s a little too suspicious that we’re taking our vacations at the same time in Paris. Ives gave me a look just before we left.”
“I know. But who cares? We’re not doing anything wrong, it’s not against Bureau policy and after the work we did on the Edaline case, they owe us a little leeway.”
Wagner leaned back against him and closed her eyes as she felt his kisses on her neck. Allen’s earpiece chimed, and she pulled away.
“Answer it,” she said, turning away from the window and stepping to the closet. She unzipped her suitcase and began placing clothes on the hangars.
Allen took the earpiece from his pocket and placed it in his ear. “Allen,” he said after tapping the side of the device.
“Frank, how’s the vacation?” It was Leo Blanco, the director of the Bureau’s Manhattan office.
“I just got here, Leo. Tell me you’re calling to wish me a pleasant time.”
“I wish I were, Frank. But I need you back. Agent Wagner, too.”
Allen glanced at Wagner. He took out his tablet and engaged the computer’s external speakers. “What’s happened?”
“Well, we’ve finally pored through all the surveillance footage from the past few months. Your man Sullivan never showed his face to the cameras, but some sharp eyes did spot a man in what looks like his clothes at the LaGuardia Spaceport. Have a look.”
An icon flashed on Allen’s screen. He tapped it, and a video began to play. The hat, the jacket and the build were all right for Sullivan. “So what?” asked Allen. “This video is from a month ago.”
“The cameras tracked him as he talked with a freighter captain named Oscar Jones. Sullivan entered Jones’s ship and never re-emerged. A few hours later, that ship took off for Abilene.”
“Well, that’s a bit of bad luck. Abilene isn’t in the Stellar Assembly. We don’t have jurisdiction.”
“That’s why I met with Abilene’s ambassador to Earth earlier this morning and got you temporary clearance to conduct Bureau operations on Abilene, with cooperation from their local security force.”
“He’s a month gone, Leo. By the time I get there, he could be en route to any of dozens of other planets.”
“Look, Frank. In spite of the work we did exposing the Edaline scandal, Sullivan getting away was a black eye on the Bureau. We have to at least make an effort to find him. I want you and Wagner to report back tomorrow. I’ll arrange a flight for you in the morning, and by tomorrow night you’ll be on your way to Abilene.”
“Yes, sir.” Allen said curtly. He ended the call and looked helplessly at Wagner. She smiled a
t him, crossed back to the window and folded herself into his arms.
“We have tonight,” she said, “and then a four month journey to be together.”
“I just hope Blanco gets us on a passenger ship and not a freighter.”
“Either way,” said Wagner, “we’ll be together, and that’s the most important thing.” She closed her eyes as Allen leaned in for a kiss. Outside their window, the sky darkened as the sun dropped farther below the horizon, leaving the light from Eiffel Tower to bathe them in a soft, yellow glow.
THE BUREAU WAS a flurry of activity when Allen and Wagner arrived late in the morning. Blanco ushered them into his office and closed the door.
“I was able to get two cabins on a passenger ship to Calandra. You’ll check in with Calandra’s local Bureau, and they should assist you in finding passage to Abilene. I’m sending Takemitsu and Ives with the two of you, so you’ll have to share a cabin.”
Allen glanced at Wagner. “I think we’ll manage.”
Blanco smiled quickly. “Good. We’re assembling the equipment you’ll need. Here’s a paper copy of our agreement with Abilene’s ambassador, signed by him.” He handed Allen a manila folder. Allen opened it and scanned the document.
“Full cooperation?”
“That’s right. It seems Abilene has its sights set on SA membership as well.”
Allen had never been to Abilene, but he’d heard the stories. They’d have to do a lot more than play nice with the Bureau to qualify for membership, but he suspected that his report upon returning to Earth would hold some weight with the Assembly.
Blanco handed Allen a data chip. “Here’s everything we have on Oscar Jones, the freighter captain who took Sullivan off-planet.”
“Where’s he from?”
“Local boy. He’s from Earth. He’s divorced, but he has a little girl in Tacoma.”
“If no one tips him off that we’ve tracked Sullivan, we should be able to catch him when he returns home. It could be years, though.”