by E Y Mak
As I feel his life leaving him, I look back up and notice that one man was watching me. Serge, the cook.
I put my right index finger in front of my mouth.
Shhhhhhhh.
He nods quietly and returns to looking out the window.
I loosen my grip and let go. The Warden’s body hits the floor. I look at his body, the scourge of my past decade, dead on the ground.
The agent promised that if I completed this task, he would let me escape at Debundscha. I was now just waiting for our arrival at the airport.
And then I will be free.
Chapter Eighty-One
Three days later, Phineas Tower
Russell stood at the front of the meeting room. He was dressed in a tailored navy blue suit, a crisp white dress shirt, and a slick skinny black tie. His left shoulder was fixed in a sling. Immediately standing to his left was Benita, dressed in a dark business suit. He looked to his right and saw Candice and Petri standing slightly behind him, eyes fixed forward. Everyone’s face was beaming.
Intuitively, Russell scanned the crowd, searching for threats. Instead, he spotted Lukas and Cherry Butler. He had met with them a day after his return from Cameroon. After he had told her about Mauritius, Harry Lions, and the repository, he could see the weight of her husband’s guilt lift from Cherry being. She was no longer subdued and tired. Her voice immediately strengthened, speaking with conviction as she thanked him profusely for clearing her husband’s name.
Russell looked at his Speedmaster. The press conference was about to start.
“Where’s Ricardo?” said Russell to Candice. “He should be here.”
“You know Ricardo,” said Candice. “Always shies away from the camera. He said he had some personal business to attend to.”
Russell nodded. It was probably best that Ricardo wasn’t front and center. He wouldn’t be very good at his job if he was on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. He needed to remain invisible—not be a rock star.
He refocused back on the podium. Randy Mathers, the Phineas communications director, together with Kate Watts, NYPD chief, jointly announced the renewal of Phineas’s surveillance contract for a twenty-year term. Randy then went on to masterfully field questions on the contract before moving on to discuss Phineas’s cooperation with local authorities in the ongoing manhunt for former NYPD detective, Harry Lions, who had somehow escaped from New York. There was no discussion at all about Mauritius or the repository. They had managed to run a tight ship without any leaks.
Following the press conference, Russell grabbed Benita’s hand, and together they walked out the back of the boardroom.
Thirty floors up, John Phineas and Ricardo were watching the press conference on the television in John’s massive corner office. John watched as Ricardo began playing with the scale model of the Phineas drone on the large executive desk. John slid a stack of papers across the desk. The younger man asked, “Is this what I think it is?”
“Yes, Ricardo. It’s the New York contract extension. There’s a new rider in it—Phineas has been given the authority to arm the drones and engage, if necessary.”
“What about the Guardian?”
“Obsolete but usefully symbolic. The Guardian II is going to be repurposed as a floating command center. It’ll consolidate information from all over the city. Not just from the drones. But it will integrate feeds from every single CCTV system currently operating in the five boroughs. Our surveillance capabilities will expand exponentially.”
“And this is all legit?”
John paused. What a stupid question. He nodded slowly. John thought that Ricardo didn’t really believe him, but he didn’t pay Ricardo to think. It’s true, it wasn’t that simple. It never is. But the good thing about Ricardo is that he listened to what John said. He was a good soldier with respect for the chain of command.
“So did you manage to eliminate the MSS agent?” John asked, looking straight ahead at the television display.
“No, but we know who he is now,” Ricardo said with a quick and spiteful tone. “We’ll track him down.”
“And the rest of the repository?” asked John.
“As you requested, the techs and the Mercs have retrieved the entire repository intact,” Ricardo said. “Mauritius made sure that all of the data was centralized. This is the only copy left. Most people at Phineas think that the data has been entirely destroyed.”
John looked at Ricardo and licked his lips before leaning back in his chair and looking up. He whistled and said, “A database of billions of people. All of the information he directly collected over the decades, plus all of the information he could purchase on the black market. Collected, organized, and sorted using artificial intelligence. I could pull up anything on almost anyone in the world in seconds. Think of how we could use this. It’s incredible.”
John Phineas then turned back to Ricardo and smiled. “Do you know what a depositary is?” he asked. Before Ricardo could answer, John continued, “It is someone who is entrusted with something valuable, for preservation or safekeeping. This information is valuable and can be used to do a lot of good in this world. Not just for our clients. There is a public interest in keeping this information intact and to be expanded. But it is important that this information is not misused. Clearly, someone like Mauritius could not be trusted with this information. Which is why I needed to relieve him of this duty. He was just a collector with no altruistic purpose.”
John Phineas then reached under his desk and pulled out a cigar and a box of matches. He intentionally did not offer one to Ricardo. He stared at the cigar and then continued talking.
“Think of the crimes we could solve or predict and prevent using this information. We could use the information to preemptively profile where the drones should be sent before a crime occurs,” John Phineas said. “But it doesn’t stop there. We could use this information to help nations negotiate treaties and prevent wars. We could use it to make sure aid gets to the right place at the right time. The possibilities are limitless, and we are the best organization to keep this information safe. So we will be the depositary of this information, for the betterment of the world.”
Three hours later and twenty stories below, Russell added a finger of water to the glass of scotch resting on his desk. It was a fifty-year-old Glenfiddich single malt, one of fifty worldwide. He watched the chemical reaction between the water and the liquor form a haze in the amber liquid and took a small sip, closing his eyes and savoring the orange marmalade and vanilla toffee notes.
“Knock knock,” said a feminine voice. Russell opened his eyes, looked up, and saw Candice’s smiling face. “Deputy Director Woo,” said Investigator Pirelli. “They gave you Daniel’s office?”
Russell nodded somberly and motioned for Candice to sit down in the leather studded chair. “For now,” he said, before savoring the scotch for another second then gulping it down. “Still trying to figure out this job though. Since Daniel is gone, I’m still sorting through his disorganized mess of a computer. But like I said in my email, I’ve got a couple of assignments for you.”
Russell paused just as he was about to lay out three files for her. “Sorry,” he said, reaching for the bottle of Glenfiddich. “Can I offer you a drink before we get down to business?”
Candice shook her head. “I’m good.”
Russell shrugged and said, “Good answer. But you deserve it, and I definitely owe you one. Let’s get to work.”
“Before we go over the new assignments,” Candice said slowly, “can we talk about something else first?”
Russell nodded.
“What do you think happened to Harry Lions?” Candice asked.
Russell picked up a file folder on the left side of his desk and handed it to Candice.
“I’ll be working on this first assignment with you,” he said. “The hunt for Harry Lions. You and I are going to find him. Whatever it takes.”
Afterword
I hope you enjoyed rea
ding The Depository as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you really enjoyed it, there are two things you can do.
First, leave me a review wherever you purchased the book. Not only will it motivate me to keep adding to this series, but it will also help spread the word on this adventure to others!
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Thank you for making it all the way to this page.
Kindest regards,
EY Mak