“Well, since you’re here, I wouldn’t say no.” She paused. “As long as you have no intention of poaching this case off me?”
Detective Antonio Rogers made a cross over his middle where his heart would have been.
“Well, good then. I was going to try and reconstruct what happened upstairs. Care to join me?”
“Lead the way!” He made a majestic gesture towards the doorway he’d been standing in, and Chaakwa mock-bowed as she carefully extracted herself from the room, watching where she was walking to avoid accidentally treading on evidence.
“What’s going on here?” Antonio asked, following her up the stairs.
“I’m not sure yet. We’re still trying to figure out exactly how many people were here. Dewitt would have had security, but they’re nowhere to be seen. From the blast pattern, it looks like military equipment was used to take the door out quickly and quietly. Military haven’t admitted to any involvement yet. So we’re working on the theory that this was a paramilitary group with instructions to silence Dewitt before we got to him.”
She mentioned the blood samples.
“The half-human one might prove useful,” he agreed. “Perhaps even traceable, if they’re in the system.” With his experience on homicide, Antonio knew that these things could take a bit of investigation to get all the elements involved tied together. Truth be told, he didn’t think he could crack this case without the insight Chaakwa had into the political scene.
He was glad just to be assisting on this case.
And there was no doubt in either of their minds that this was politically motivated, considering the story that had just broken.
“We’re canvassing the area in case anyone heard anything that might help, and one of the guys is working on getting into the security footage,” Detective Indius continued briefing him.
She led the way up the wraparound staircase Joel and Molly had bolted up less than an hour before.
“This is the room where we found the only other blood source. The half-and-half.”
She walked in and opened the closet where Paige had been kept. “We think he may have had a hostage, and that the blood is from a graze or a head wound. Not enough for a bullet injury.”
“Let’s put a rush on that blood sample. That person may be our only witness to what went down here,” Antonio suggested.
“You think they got away? Safely?” asked Chaakwa, a sense of urgency returning to her voice.
“Hard to tell with the state of the place. It does look like a professional intervention. If the second force was related to the other bad guys, it doesn’t bode well. It may be a continued hostage situation.”
Safe house, fifty kilometers west of Uptarlung
Returning from the Spaceport, Oz pulled the car up at the safe house. Garet came running out and barely let Paige get out of the car before he had his arms around her.
“I was so worried,” he told her. “Are you okay?” He fussed and helped her into the house. Paige was looking fatigued again, despite dozing in the car.
Joel noticed Molly watching them as they went into the house. The two of them remained in the car.
Joel spoke. “She’s going to crash in a few hours. She won’t be herself for a while, and we’re going to have to help her deal with that.”
“What do you mean, ‘not herself’?” Molly was genuinely curious. This Sarkian insight shit was beyond her.
“Well, she’s going to be moody. Cranky. She’ll probably say things that she doesn’t really mean, simply because she’s trying to figure out what happened to her, and why it happened to her and not someone else. Her relationship with Garet will probably shift too.”
“How?” asked Molly, her eyes on the open door. Light was spilling out of the house and onto the gravel. For a second she remembered the last time she had been here, then forced her attention back to what Joel was saying.
“Well, if their bond isn’t that strong, she’s going to eventually see that all this was because of him and that she doesn’t want to be with him anymore.”
“Ha! Well, she practically fessed up to that before we were taken. I guess the kidnapping gives her a nice out.” Molly’s voice was cynical.
If anyone else were there Joel would have found it inappropriate, but he couldn’t help smiling at her interpretation of the situation.
“Saves her doing the whole ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ thing!” he agreed.
Molly’s eyes, only half-seeing and somewhat trancelike, were still fixed on the open door. “Reckon we should get our asses inside?”
“Sure.” Joel got out and grabbed some of his gear, then went around to the other side to help Molly, who was moving a little slower. He had thought that by talking with her about Paige’s reaction, he might make her aware that she would probably go through something similar.
He was going to keep a close eye on her, too.
He grabbed her stuff from her and helped her into the house. Once they had settled back in, he found Molly in the kitchen and offered to go get some pizzas for them all. “Then we can sleep for a few hours before we move out to the ship and get going, eh?”
“Good plan,” agreed Molly. She nearly offered to go with him to pick up the food, but she was exhausted and her head was spinning. Deciding to stay put, she poured herself a mocha and sat down at the kitchen table to recover.
She heard Joel leave. Though things were much better between them post-rescue (and apology), the sound of the door closing triggered the feeling and memory of when Joel had left the last time.
She laid her head on her folded arms and closed her eyes.
Neechie appeared on the table and plunked himself next to her. She’d never admit it to Joel, but the sphinx was actually quite a comfort.
Pizza Parlor, near the safe house
Joel pulled up at their local pizza take-out.
“How’s it going, Bill?” he called across to the Ogg as he closed the door behind him.
“Greetings of the wee hours to you, Joel. It’s going well. You look like shit! Everything okay?” He peered over the counter before hopping up onto his step.
“Yeah, rough day is all.”
The Ogg nodded sympathetically.
“The usual, then?” he asked.
“Yeah, but double it up. We’ve got friends over tonight.”
“Oh, those two Oggs that were here?” the Ogg was confused. He was sure they had been looking for someone else. Maybe he was just mistaken. He suddenly wished he hadn’t said anything.
“Which two Oggs?” Joel remained calm, not wanting to spook his new informant. He’d had a lot of experience in getting intel out of people in a relaxed way.
Across the board, studies and his experience had shown recall was best when people thought they were just talking casually.
“Yeah, well…I dunno. There were these two guys came in here looking for a girl, who might be with a guy. I mentioned that you had just moved to the neighborhood recently. Mind, one of them said the girl was a cousin, but given that your girl is human, I thought it probably wasn’t you.”
“Did you tell them where we live?” Joel tried to hide the rising concern in his face. Putting it together, he realized that these were the two guys they had stunned at Dewitt’s place, and that they had already taken the girls from the safe house. But this was how they had found them?
He wanted to kick himself.
“I dunno where you live. You never have delivery. But I suggested they try the old place just down the way, which might have been where you would be. So they weren’t your friends, then?”
“No. But thanks for the heads up.” Joel got his credits out, behaving as casually as he could.
After bartering with Bill to take two pizzas that were almost done so he didn’t have to wait, he emerged with food two minutes later, walking more purposefully than normal. He placed the pizzas onto the passenger seat in the car and fired up his holo to dial Molly. He couldn’t reach her.
He tri
ed Garet.
“Hey…” Garet answered. There was background noise, like a hairdryer. Then a door closed, and the noise deadened. “What’s up?” Garet asked.
“We’ve got to move. We’re not safe in the house,” he admitted.
“What do you mean?” Garet was confused.
“I mean we’ve got to move. Get everyone rounded up. We have to leave. The guys who kidnapped the girls from the house, they know where we are. They could be sending more people after us.”
Joel was adamant he wasn’t going to take any risks with these people. They had caught them off guard once. Well, twice. It wasn’t going to happen again.
“Ok, I’ll tell Molly when she gets out of the shower.”
“No time. You have to tell her now,” Joel insisted.
“She’s in the shower. She doesn’t hear anything in there,” he protested.
Joel answered curtly. “Walk the fuck in.”
Garet went quiet on the line.
“Dude, are you there?” Joel checked the connection on his holo.
“Yeah…” Garet said quietly, as if his voice had evaporated.
“It’s ok. Bang on the door now. And tell her.”
Joel could hear Garet banging on the bathroom door. “Molly. We’ve got to go. Joel says it’s not safe!”
Joel spoke loudly. “Go in! For the love of your fucking ancestors. I’ll be there in three minutes.”
Joel started the car and raced back to the safe house as fast as he could.
---
By the time he arrived back at the safe house, he’d thought through the permutations in his mind.
What this also meant was that their safe house was known to be temporary accommodation, somewhere where strangers might be staying. He would never allow them to make such a fucking ignorant mistake again.
The other thing was that if those two Oggs could find them, then anyone who wanted to tie up loose ends would be able to as well. Though Dewitt was out of play, they had no way of knowing what other forces might still be at work.
“Ok people, let’s wrap this up,” he called as he walked through the door. Paige emerged with her bag, half-dressed and with half-styled damp raven hair.
“You got everything?” Joel asked her.
She nodded. “Just need my jacket in the other room.”
“Grab it, then get to the car. We’re leaving in two minutes.” He had already walked past her and into Molly’s room.
Molly was putting a shirt on, and quickly turned around as he walked in.
“What the fuck, Joel?” As she scrambled to button it, Joel couldn’t be sure she was even wearing a bra.
She turned back to him, her eyes scowling. “So now both you and Garet have had an eyeful.”
“Come on, Mols, I’ve seen more than that in the co-ed bathrooms on base.” His face was serious, but he knew that he would get real shit for this later. “You ready?”
“Yeah. I need to grab some gear from the other room. You bringing your Master?”
He looked confused.
“Your sphinx?” she clarified.
His eyes widened. “Shit. Yes.” He almost ran out of her room, presumably to find the sphinx. Molly rolled her eyes as she finished dressing and packing and shoved a bra into her back pocket to make a point.
Car and personnel loaded up, Joel emerged from the not-so-safe house with a makeshift crate holding the sphinx. He secured the crate in the back seat between Paige and Garet, then hopped into the front and got the car underway before relinquishing control to Oz.
“So, it looks like we know how the Oggs found this place.” he started.
Molly looked over. “Pizza guy?”
“Pizza guy,” he confirmed.
“Damn it.” She chewed on her bottom lip, “We were deliberately so careful.”
Joel nodded. “Yeah, all this time we could have had delivery instead of me dragging my ass out in the dust and radiation to go and pick it up.”
“Ah, well, it’s saved you having to get a facial peel.” Molly smiled. There was nothing they could do about it now.
“We’ll be much safer at the hanger. No one knows about that purchase, right?” Joel looked across at Molly.
Affirmative.
“Right. Oz is confident,” confirmed Molly.
She paused for a moment, watching out of the window as they gained altitude onto the strato highway. “But in light of this I need to give Oz some more criteria on our next safe house off-world. I wonder how we find ‘not somewhere with a pizza place that gives out our location’?”
“I think it means finding sneakier ways to be extra careful. Maybe like a decoy residence,” he mused, glad that Molly wasn’t too freaked out about the revelation.
Her eyes opened, “Ooh, that might be a plan.”
I’ll factor that in and re-run the search on possible options.
Thanks, Oz.
“You guys all right back there?” Joel called to Garet and Paige.
“Yes,” they said in unison. They looked at each other and smiled. The relief of Paige’s return was palpable.
“Ok. We’ll get to the hanger and then we might be able to relax a little. I’ll be much more comfortable once we’re off-world.
“Hey,” Garet seemed to remember something. “Didn’t you get pizza?”
Joel put his hand to his head. “Shit!”
Molly’s eyes snapped across at him suddenly. “What? You forgot the pizza?” Her eyes flared as if she were ready to lay all hell at his feet.
Joel allowed his hand to drop down his face, revealing his smile.
“Back shelf,” he called back to Garet.
Molly couldn’t help but laugh. Garet scuffled around, located the still-hot pizza and started handing out slices with napkins as Oz carried them safely to the Spaceport for their final escape.
Andus’ Office, Undisclosed location
“He’ll need replacing, of course.”
“Of course,” Jessica agreed, as she lounged on what she called her couch in Andus’ office. After all, none of the other Syndicate members would visit him so often as to stake a claim on any of his furniture. Andus had agreed to her point one evening as they sat shooting the breeze and hatching diabolical plans that would make them untouchable in the courts.
Tonight, though, Andus was in one of his moods. As cold and unattached to people as he liked to come across, Jessica knew it disturbed him that one of his own people fucked him over. Andus wasn’t the kind of guy who dealt with disappointment well.
“Who is it this time?” she asked casually, sipping on her martini.
“Dewitt.”
“Still? I mean, again? I thought we were done with him yesterday?” she peered at him over the edge of her glass, enjoying the scent of the orange peel she’d had added to give it some zing.
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