The Process Server
Page 34
***
The next morning, I sipped a coffee and tried to figure out our next step.
Cardale obviously wasn’t going to be any help, beyond acting as both the carrot and the stick. Vega didn’t appear to have the holo drive or know where it had gone. The ambassador may or may not have been telling us everything. And so far, every one of the Big Six was at least vaguely annoyed with us.
The Sat Com buzzed and I answered without looking at the ID, regretting it as soon as I did so.
“Yeah?”
Ah, shit. The Prognosticator.
“Process Server Smith, I was getting a little concerned that I hadn’t heard from you.”
“Ohhhh… I wouldn’t worry about that,” I lied. “We’re still hard on the case. Hot on the trail.”
“I certainly hope so. Look, I was telling my inner circle that you were pursuing a matter of gravest urgency for us, and I really do need to be able to tell them how things are going. The burden of leadership and all.”
Damn. He wanted details.
“So perhaps you can come down, say tomorrow morning, and fill me in in person, since I see you’re in New Tokyo as we speak.”
Well, it was a day, anyway. That was something.
Out the corner of my eye I could see Jayde leaning back in her captain’s chair, applying a cold compress to her forehead.
After I’d logged off, she said. “Don’t ever let me do that again, OK? Geez, I must’ve had four of those Nickel Glories.”
A Nickel Glory is so called because it features five different shots of alcohol. So four was equal to about 20 drinks.
“Are you nuts?” I said, surprising even myself with how angry that made me. “Jayde, you weigh 45 kilos soaking wet. You’re lucky you didn’t poison yourself. Geez, what jackass would serve … I’ve got a mind to go down there and…”
“PLEASE! Boss, please, for the love of mike, would you be quiet for a second?”
I shut up and she composed herself before taking a deep breath. “Really, my head fucking hurts. I have a hangover. It happens when you drink too much, but I’m not dead, and I didn’t get alcohol poisoning – well, severe, anyway – from four drinks in two hours. And, not to remind you, but..”
“I know, I know, you’re not a kid. But geez, Jayde, four Nickel Glories. You’re a madwoman.”
She liked that and laughed. “You got that right.” She nodded towards the Sat Com. “What did the Prognosticator want?”
“His money, the holo drive or a reasonable facsimile of one, the other or both.”
“We’re really racking up the friends quickly on this one.”
“Yup.”
“Glad you came back for the girl?”
I smiled sheepishly. “Yup.” Then something occurred to me, and I turned my head a little, struck by the thought and taken aback.
“Something wrong, boss? I know that look,”
“Yeah. I was just thinking about her, about our conversation last night, while you were downstairs trying to drain New Tokyo dry.”
“Yeah? About what?”
I wasn’t even sure if it was a real issue. Maybe I’d heard her wrong.
But no, that wasn’t it.
“I think I need to get back to that hotel, talk to her again. Something’s not right.”
“You want me to come?”
I looked at her sideways. “No, I think you better stay here for this one so that… what the hell are you talking about? Of course I want you to come. You think I’m like the holo idiot who leaves his backup behind just when he needs them most?”
“BACKUP?”
Whoops. “Partner. You know that wasn’t what I…”
She shook her head. “Skip it boss. Let’s go see your girlfriend.”
The cab over to a few minutes, traffic as light as ever. The hotel lobby was nearly empty so early in the morning.
“Let’s just head right up and knock,” I said.
“You don’t want to call up first?” Jayde said.
“No, let’s play this one loose.”
The elevator only took a few moments. Hanna answered in her white hotel room robe, surprised to see us.
“Please, come in,” she said. “I’m surprised you came back so soon. And you brought you pilot. Hello Jayde. I heard a lot about you last night,” she said.
“All good?” Jayde asked.
“Absolutely.”
“Then he’s a damn liar.”
She laughed at that. “You guys want a coffee?”
We both nodded yes, and she set to preparing it then sat down on the couch across from us.
“You don’t look happy,” she said.
I mentioned the Prognosticator’s call then got right to the point. “Something you said last night, it threw me for a bit of a loop when I thought about it this morning. You mentioned how upsetting things had been recently, beginning with Breck killing the archivist.”
She looked at me strangely, as if wondering what I was getting at, but didn’t saying anything.
“Well that struck me, because Breck definitely has worked for Vega in the past, and I figured he got the holo drive by killing the Archivist.”
She still looked puzzled. “So?”
“So Vega doesn’t have the holo drive. And Breck didn’t kill the Archivist. That was a different assassin, according to Evgeny’s description, someone lithe and small, probably a woman. Breck was built like a brick latrine. And we never mentioned his name to you.”
She looked even more puzzled. “Well I suppose I must have just assumed…” She fluttered her eyes and shook her head slightly, as if a little dizzy. “I’m… I’m not sure… I mean, I was unconscious when it happened, so….”
It was possible, she’d just confabulated the two assassins, but how did she know…
She shook her head again, “I don’t feel so good,” she said. “Do you smell something? Dizzy, like I’m going to …”
With that, she passed clean out, flopping sideways onto the couch. “Hanna!” I exclaimed. “Jayde, quick help me…”
I looked over, but Jayde was swooning as well. “Boss, must be gas … ” And then she was collapsing, too, and I could feel my heading slurring, vision going, mouth dry. My head was spinning, and the last thing I remembered thinking about before passing out was the foolishness of sniffing to try and figure out what kind of gas it was.