by Olivia Rush
“My name’s Betsy,” I said, realizing how silly my pseudonym sounded. “I had some questions about the IT department here.”
“Uh,” he said, turning around and hitting pause on his game. “Well, this is the IT department.”
I looked around, finding what he said hard to believe. “Wait a minute,” I said, shutting the door behind me and taking a seat on the small couch in the room. “You’re the IT department? For the entire firm?”
“Yep,” he said.
“I don’t get it,” I said. “How can one person manage all of the IT business for this entire place? Doesn’t that get overwhelming?”
“Not really,” he said. “Because—” He stopped talking and looked around, as if there might be someone listening in on the conversation.
“Is this conversation, um, off the record?”
“It can be,” I said.
“OK,” he said. “The truth of the matter is that I barely do anything here. We used to have an entire IT department, me and two other guys, but the bosses decided that it’d be way cheaper to just hire an outside tech company to handle security and all that.”
“So, all of the computer security is handled by people who don’t work here?” I asked. “Does that mean they’re in charge of, say, server room security and the sprinkler system?”
“Yep,” he said. “That’s all them. They come in once a week or so just to check up on everything. All the heavy lifting with the IT stuff.”
“But you’re still here,” I pointed out.
“Yep,” he said. “They feel better having at least one person here who can handle day-to-day tech stuff. But since this other company’s handling all the hard stuff, that really means that my job is to troubleshoot problems with people’s emails not opening or crap like that.”
“Interesting,” I said. “You don’t happen to have a business card or anything for this company, do you?”
“I should,” he said, looking around his desk. “Ah—here we go.”
He fished a small white card out from under an empty pizza box and handed it over.
“Praetorian Security,” I said, reading the name of the company out loud.
“That’s right,” he said. “And these guys are freaking pros. If the guys in charge knew just how good this crew was, I might not have this cushy gig anymore, you know what I mean?”
Then his face shifted into an expression of concern.
“Wait a minute,” he said, appearing to realize what he’d just said, and to whom. “You’re not gonna write any of this in the article, are you? I can’t let the bosses know that I’m barely doing anything here—they’d replace me with an intern or something. I’ve got student loans. Please!”
I held up my hand, making it clear to the poor, freaking-out geek that he had nothing to worry about.
“Not here looking to derail anyone’s gravy train,” I said. I took another look at the card, flipping the thing over with my fingertips. “And these guys probably handle the tech work for a lot of other similar firms in the area, right?” I asked.
“Oh yeah,” he said, now visibly relieved. “That’s the way all of this stuff is going these days—less in-house, more farming things out to freelance firms.”
Then a thoughtful expression crossed Clark’s face, followed by one that looked as though he’d just realized something very important.
“You know Hamford Holdings?” he asked. “Just down the block? One of Praetorian’s techs is scheduled to come here later in the day, but I know they always stop by there before coming here. If you’re that keen on talking with one of their employees, you might be able to catch him there.”
I shoved the card into my pocket—that was all I needed to hear. I started for the door, but Clark called out to me before I could reach it.
“Wait a minute,” he said. “Aren’t you here to do some kind of fashion spread about the IT department—I mean, me?”
My body already leaning toward the door, I gave Clark a quick once-over, noting in one sweep of the eyes just how hopelessly unfashionable he was.
“Um, you know what? You look great—not a thing to change.”
A pleased smile crossed Clark’s face.
“Thanks,” he said, tugging on his oversized shirt. “This came with a game I preordered—smells just like the clothes factory.”
I flashed him the “OK” sign before reaching for the door, squeaking out a “thanks!” as I did. I hurried my way back to the lobby where Stone was already waiting for me. His eyes locked onto me as soon as I stepped into the room, his eyebrows tilting downward as he noticing what had to have been a totally frantic look on my face.
“There you are,” he said. “I was starting to worry you’d fallen for someone on the IT crew’s charms.”
“Elevator, now,” I said, putting my hand on his upper back and leading him out of the lobby.
Moments later, we were inside the elevator and heading down.
“What’s up?” he asked. “You look like you’ve just found out something important.”
I took a deep breath and filled Stone in on what I’d just learned.
“Hold up, hold up,” he said, raising his hand. “You want to go into another firm and hope we can track down one of the guys from this…Praetorian IT firm?”
“Why not?” I asked. “If we can meet up with this guy, maybe we can ask him some questions and find out for sure one way or another if they’re behind the fires.”
Stone crossed his arms over his chest and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Then he glanced down at me, taking an appraising look.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing,” he said with a grin. “Just noting how revved up you are about all of this.”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” I said. “We could be on the verge of blowing this whole thing wide open!”
“I like it,” he said. “Good to see that enthusiasm back.”
Right at that moment I realized that I’d totally forgotten about what was going on between us, the baby, and everything else. I was back to my old self, that journalist who couldn’t help but become single-mindedly focused on the story in front of her. I knew that the rest of the real world would have to be confronted before too long, but right now I was ready to just ride the high of this new lead.
We stepped off the elevator and hurried out of the building, Stone pulling up the address of this new firm as we made it out onto the city streets. Sure enough, the firm was a quick walk down the block, just like Clark had said.
Stone and I rushed into the building where the firm was located, Stone shooting out his usual story about fire-code checks to the front desk workers so fast that it all seemed to come out in one big, smooshed-together word.
We soon arrived at Hamford Holdings, and I beelined to the front desk, some excuse about checking the licenses of IT firms tumbling out of my mouth to the receptionist.
“Uh, yeah,” said the receptionist. “The tech’s still here. He’s actually down in the basement, said something about checking some of the infrastructure.”
“Thanks!” I said, already turning on my heels and hurrying back to Stone.
“Basement, now,” I said, leading him back to the elevator, my heart racing.
He pressed the button as we stepped in, and the elevator began its descent. Soon, the doors opened, revealing a large, dimly lit concrete basement. We stepped out of the elevator, our shoes echoing throughout the space with each step.
“Who’s gonna do the talking?” I whispered, not wanting my voice to carry.
“Let’s just find this guy and figure it out from there,” he said.
The open space soon narrowed into dingy hallways, electrical equipment and pipes lining the walls. Stone and I walked slowly and carefully, and it was clear that neither of us knew what to really expect.
Eventually, I heard the sound of movement from around the corner. Stone glanced at me and nodded as we approached the corner. I gave him a thumbs-up when I was re
ady, and with that, we turned the corner.
Sure enough, around the corner was as tall, lanky guy dressed in casual clothes, a large black belt around his waist loaded down with various electronic tools. In his hands was some kind of readout device attached via cable to one of the thicker cables lining the wall.
“Hey!” said Stone in a big, friendly voice, raising his hand.
The tech stopped as still as a stone before slowly turning his head to face the two of us.
“Can…can I help you?” he asked, slipping his device back into his belt.
“You sure can,” said Stone. “My name’s Stone—I’m with the FDNY. My assistant and I were just doing some check-ups on the fire safety equipment in some of these older buildings, and sure enough, it looks like nearly all of it is done electronically these days.”
The tech’s body tensed up as he turned toward us. He clearly wasn’t sure what to make of what was going on, and he was erring on the side of nervous suspicion.
“That’s right,” he said. “And…is there something I can help you with?”
“The thing is,” said Stone, “I’m a bit of an old-fashioned kind of guy. I don’t really trust computers to take care of these fires the way the older equipment could, and, sure enough, that’s exactly what’s been going on with a few other financial firms in the city.”
The tech’s expression hardened. My stomach began to form into a tight knot as Stone spoke—I wasn’t expecting him to be this direct.
“Is there a reason you’re interrupting me to tell me this?” asked the tech, his hand moving slowly to his waist as he spoke.
“Just that I have a feeling that if I looked, I’d see that your company would be the common thread between all of these firms where the fires have broken out.”
I didn’t know for sure that this was the case, but it was a bluff Stone seemed confident in making.
The tech’s body tensed up even more, and I could sense that his brain was beginning to make fight-or-flight calculations.
“Now,” said Stone. “I could just be being a little paranoid here, but that sort of thing is in my job description. So, if you wouldn’t mind, I’d love it if you showed me exactly what you are doing here, and I’d be more than happy if you could walk me through just how this fire-prevention software works. What do you say, buddy?”
The tech said nothing, instead staring at Stone with a wide-eyed expression on his face. The man looked guilty as all hell, and I instinctively stepped closer to Stone.
Then, with surprising speed, the man yanked the cable from the wall and whipped the readout device at Stone. It flew across the hall in a tight arc and connected with him right on the forehead.
“Ah, fuck!” shouted out Stone as the tool hit.
I glanced up to see that the tech had taken off in a sprint down the hallway.
“Shit!” I shouted. “He’s running!”
Stone shook his head before turning his attention to the tech’s shrinking form as he fled.
“Let’s go!” shouted Stone.
He didn’t need to tell me twice. The two of us took off running, our arms and legs pumping as we hurried to catch up with him. He disappeared around one of the narrow corners, overturning a stack of crates as he did, the stack hitting the ground with a hard clutter.
“This fucker’s fast!” shouted Stone as he pulled ahead of me.
“No kidding!” I replied, barely able to keep up.
My chest was already burning, and through my frenzied thoughts I scolded myself for skipping cardio so many times at the gym.
We turned one more corner just in time to watch the tech yank open a heavy steel door, light pouring in from the outside as he stepped through it. The tech shut the door with a hard slam.
Stone and I hurried up to the door, and I was prepared to take the chase out onto the streets.
“Whoa!” shouted Stone, raising his hand. “Hold up!”
“What is it?” I asked, coming to a halt as I took in breath after breath.
“This is a fire escape door,” he said, pointing to the electronic equipment attached to it. “We open this up, and it’ll bring every fire truck in the area here.”
“Shit,” I said. “Don’t want all that attention.”
“Guy must’ve had some kind of access to get through it without sounding the alarm,” said Stone.
“End of the line, I guess,” I said, shaking my head, my breath finally starting to normalize.
Between the baby and my normally poor cardio skills, I was in no shape for something like this.
“Maybe in more ways than one,” said Stone. “Because now this firm knows we’re onto them. And they’ve got faces to go with along with it.”
“And you just confronted him?” I asked. “Now they know just who’s onto them.”
“I had to know for sure,” said Stone. “And calling him out on the spot was the fastest way to do it.”
I didn’t need Stone to explain that this was some seriously bad news.
25
STONE
Callie and I made the trip through the basement and out onto the streets in silence. Once we were back outside, the sun a harsh contrast to the cave-like basement, I spoke.
“Let’s go back to my place,” I said. “We can figure out our next step there.”
Callie nodded, clearly still a little dazed from what had just happened. And, truth be told, I had no idea what our next step would be.
We soon arrived back at my apartment, the two of us plopping onto the couch as we let the events of the last couple of hours sink in.
I knew one of us had to eventually speak, to make a comment on what had just happened, along with a plan for what to do next, and Callie ended up being the one to do it.
“I have no idea what to do now,” she said. “I mean, you saw the way that tech acted—there’s no way he wasn’t up to some shady business down there in the basement.”
“No kidding,” I said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he was sabotaging the fire equipment right then and there.”
Callie nodded. “So, we’re ninety percent sure he was up to something, but we can’t prove it. And now, assuming that this guy was in the middle of pulling something, he and the rest of his crew know that people are onto them.”
I was about to add something before I realized that she’d pretty much summed it up.
Callie let out a sigh and shook her head. “Then that’s it,” she said.
I was surprised to hear this.
“That’s it?” I asked. “We just got all but confirmation that we’re on the right track and now you want to throw in the towel?”
Right then I noticed that Callie had placed her hands on her stomach in a strange way, as if she were guarding something, keeping it close.
“Listen,” she said, “I know that you and I both were eager to solve this thing, and we are a pretty good team, I have to admit, but I’m starting to think we’re both in over our heads. I mean, think about it—we got lucky that the tech was some chicken who ran at the first sign of danger. What if he was a different kind of criminal, the kind who carries a gun and doesn’t like to leave witnesses?”
I wanted to argue with her, but she was right. We’d walked into the middle of something and gotten lucky that it turned out the way it did. I considered the idea of something happening to Callie and just the thought of it was enough to set my teeth on edge.
“And that’s assuming we’re out of the woods, which we might not be considering that this guy saw our faces. What if that techie is with the rest of his crew and they’re in the middle of planning just what to do with the nosy journalist and FDNY employee who’re poking around?” Callie was getting more stressed as she went on. I didn’t say anything, instead deciding to let her speak her mind. “I don’t know what I was thinking,” she continued. “This was stupid, and now who knows what we’ve gotten ourselves into.”
It was at that moment I realized she was talking about more than our investigation. C
allie’s face was beginning to turn a dark red, and her eyes glistened with frustrated tears.
“We need to stop this, all of this, right now,” she said. “We need to…” She shook her head again, her eyes fixed on the ground in front of her.
“Listen,” I said, moving closer to her on the couch. “You want to end this investigation, sure—I get it. We’re both amateurs when it comes to stuff like this, and we’ve gotten a little in over our heads. But there’s not a doubt in my mind right now that there’s something more going on here, something about you and me, something you’re not telling me.”
Callie stayed silent, now frozen in place.
“And I’m not about to let you walk out of that door for good knowing that you have something I need to know. So, you’re gonna tell me what it is.”
Callie turned her blue eyes toward me. I could instantly sense the conflict behind them. Several long moments passed before she finally spoke. “There is something,” she said. “I’ve been trying to hide it even though I know how impossible that is. I was hoping deep down that all I’d have to do was ignore it and it’d somehow go away.”
“Tell me,” I said, my voice taking on a hard edge.
Callie began rubbing her hands together, her chest rising and falling with nervous breath after nervous breath. Then she spoke, uttering two words that just about knocked me off my feet. “I’m pregnant.”
I immediately thought that she had to be joking, that Callie was hoping to defuse the tension by admitting to something totally ridiculous, and that the next words out of her mouth would be that she’d actually met up with some ex-boyfriend and they were going to give things another shot.
But as the seconds passed and her face continued to hold that same worried expression, I knew that there was nothing false about what she’d just told me.
“You’re pregnant?” I asked. “How…? When…?”
“As far as the ‘when,’” she said, “I found out a few days ago. It’s the reason I’ve been feeling so under the weather. And as far as the ‘how,’ well, I don’t think I really need to explain that one to you.”