The Amsterdam Chronicles: Def-Con City Trilogy Part 1

by Brian Christopher

  Harvey Wall awoke at ten twenty that evening. The idea was to just close his eyes to get some shut eye but he fell into a deep sleep.

  "Damn," he muttered under his breath. There was so much work to do, sleep was the last thing he needed. Quickly he put on fresh clothes and left the room. The receptionist was surprised to see him walk past.

  "Good evening Mr. Wall. Going out to have some fun?"

  "I wish. See you later."

  He got to know the different receptionists pretty well but made it a point never to talk to them about his work. All they knew was that he had something to do with the police in Amsterdam, he never went into detail. People coming and going, strangers or guests picking up loose info was always dangerous. What people did not know was his protection.

  In front of the Concertgebouw he got the number five tram to the Leidseplein, then the number ten to the station.

  The squad room was still bustling with detectives working on information and evidence they picked up that afternoon in the Roggeveenstraat.

  Dop turned to glance at Wall as he came through the door. His stare was blank, no recognition, no familiarity, then turned back to the computer. Wall knew that Dop was still angry about the incident at the airport.

  "He's down in the technical room," another detective in the corner shouted over to Wall as he noticed him staring at Bakker's empty desk.

  "Gotcha," Wall replied, then turned and headed back out to the door.

  There were three different technical rooms in the building and all down in the basement. As he made his way down the various levels, the building felt strange. The regular office staff had finished at five, leaving a sort of vacuum, he felt emptiness in the building that was unfamiliar.

  He found Bakker bent over a scanner lining up strips of shredded paper on the glass plate. It was time consuming and demanded a high degree of patience. He felt in debt to Bakker, and guilty he had fallen asleep for so long.

  "How's it going?"

  Bakker looked up, his eyes were bloodshot and tired. "Getting there," he moaned.

  There was no smile or acknowledgment for Wall. He turned back to the scanner and continued to line-up the paper strips. After trying meticulously to get them as straight as possible, Bakker lowered the top and pressed the button. The scanner whirred into action, a shaft of light moved slowly across the edge.

  "I'm sorry did not make it back earlier pal. After a shower, I lay on my bed just to rest for a few minutes and drifted off."

  "It's okay. There's not a lot for you to do here anyway."

  "Let me do the rest, you take a break."

  "No, I'm okay. There's not much left, it's nearly finished."

  Wall looked at the black bin bag on the chair. Bakker was right. It was almost empty, probably only fifty or sixty strips to go.

  "It's still going to take you a while. Why don't you let me finish this lot and you go get a pizza or something."

  "I'm not hungry."

  Bakker never lunched in the canteen, he was a hamster. He would gather his food and bring it to the place where he was working at the time. Wall could see no sign of food or empty burger or pizza boxes. He probably had nothing to eat since breakfast.

  Before Bakker could reach for new strips to lay on the glass plate, Wall took two steps towards him and grabbed him by the shoulders. He pulled him up and away from the scanner, then guided him out the door and onto the corridor.

  "You go organize some food for both of us. A pizza or something. I'm starving, and maybe a couple of Cokes to go with it." Wall pulled out his wallet and gave Bakker a fifty Euro note.

  "That should cover it."

  Bakker was about to object when Wall stepped back into the room and slammed the door shut. He picked up a handful of strips and placed them face down on the scanner, and followed every move Bakker had made earlier, then finally pressed the button.

 

  A half hour later, looking refreshed and in a better mood Bakker returned with two pizza boxes and a couple of cokes. Wall placed the last of the strips of paper on the scanner, closed the lid and pressed the button.

  "Now that's timing," Wall said, as he grabbed a pizza and Coke from Bakker, "this one mine?"

  "It doesn't matter, they're both the same."

  "Come on, let's get out of here. We'll eat upstairs in the squad room, it's too cramped in here."

  In the squad room, Bakker cleared his desk while Wall put down the pizzas and Coke, then opened the boxes. He stared down in shock at the pizza covered in broccoli, peppers, cheese, and tomatoes.

  "What the fuck is that?"

  "Pizza."

  "I can see its pizza, but it's not the pizza I usually eat. Where's the friggin pepperoni?" He shouted.

  "Meat?"

  "Pepperoni or bacon or sausage. I suppose that's meat. Where is it?"

  "But I don't eat meat."

  "What?"

  "I haven't eaten meat since I was fourteen."

  "No wonder you look like shit."

  "But that shouldn't be a problem, its food, it's healthy."

  Wall took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. "How can you have pizza without pepperoni."

  "Have you ever tried a pizza without pepperoni?"

  "Ehh, no."

  "Then sit down and shut up and eat your pizza."

  Wall looked at Bakker in surprise. It was the first time since they met he had ever spoken out to him. Bakker took a slice of his pizza out of the box and bit heartily into it. Wall was still speechless.

  "Eat," Bakker commanded, through his stuffed mouth.

  Wall realized he was being stupid - acting like a kid. He always got what he wanted in life, and if he didn't, he would let people know he was not happy about it. He bawled out many people because of that, including his mother. Bakker was an okay guy. He did his best, and had just spent hours working on those strips of paper. He did not deserve to be shouted at by anyone.

  "I'm sorry." Wall finally said, then reluctantly took a bite out of the pizza. "Mmmm, it's better than I thought," he said, with his mouth full.

  Bakker just nodded, then reached with both hands for his keyboard. With a slice of pizza hanging in his mouth, Bakker accessed the un-shredder software. He located the scanned files, loaded them into the software, pressed enter, then sat back and finally bit into the pizza, the remains landed in front of the keyboard. Wall looked on in disgust.

  "How long is it going to take?" Wall asked.

  "Depends, this software can take hours or days."

  After fifteen minutes, Bakker had finished half the pizza, then put the other half back into his drawer.

  "That is gross, you know that?"

  "If I put it in the refrigerator it won't last very long with the other guys."

  "You should put your name on the box believe me, they won't touch it."

  Chapter Thirty-Seven