“Vira, answer. Good evening, Srinu, how can I help you at the end of the workday for a change?”
Srinivas said, “You can start by asking permission to steal one of my employees for a pet project before you do so.”
“You mean Wendy?”
“Yes. She is supposed to be working on cataloguing kidnapped cyborgs. Why isn’t she?”
“We needed her special talents to track down the culprit. She was the best person for the job, and time is probably of the essence. I couldn’t wait until tomorrow to make it official.”
“Tomorrow, you will make it official. In the meantime, I’ll be expressing my displeasure with the situation to Chief Bennett. Good day, Inspector.”
Before Alana could say, “Chief Ins—” Srinivas disconnected.
Alana delayed putting her chassis into hibernation, and about five minutes later, the inevitable call came in from her boss, “Graves! Explain why Srinu’s panties are in a Gordian knot!”
It took Alana almost ten more minutes to describe why she had pulled Wen Jing away from her regular job and placed her in an online game as a means of catching Louis Chu. She was expecting to receive a reprimand, but Bennett’s early rancor leveled off to an understanding annoyance, “I see. That sounds like a good idea to me, actually. Unorthodox and expedient, but if you think Chu’s a flight risk, then it’s a good shortcut. Just take care of our baby computer whiz, okay? And don’t use her for anything else without my approval. She’s a lab technician, not a spy. Anything else while I’m interrupting my dinner?”
“Not unless Superintendent Ruiz has made any decisions about your replacement.”
“No word yet. Has it even been a day? You must want the promotion worse than I thought you did.”
“My cost-of-living went up this week. I have to consider my finances. See you at the morning briefing?”
Bennett grunted something that sounded vaguely like a, “yes,” before hanging up.
Alana finally dozed off, in a genuine sleep, wherein she dreamed that she and Rhys were at a baseball game. Precinct Three Chief Tabitha Rhoem was called in to pitch, and she was struck dead by a line drive to the head. Alana could hear what she first thought was an ambulance, but then she snapped awake, realizing that it was her Vira alarm signaling an incoming call. Her heavy fatigue was still squatting upon her consciousness when she said, “Vira, answer.”
“Hey, this is Brett. You still here and awake?”
“Yes, and almost.”
Brett’s words seemed insincere, “Oops. Oh, well, you said to call you if anything happened. Can you come see us?”
Alana said, “I’ll be there presently.” Awaking was easier as a cyborg in that there was never any yawning, stretching, blearing, or other artifact of physical fatigue, but there was always a momentary disorientation as her train of thought made the commute from dreamland to waking reality. She stood and set one foot in front of the other, the first step on a journey of two-hundred and twelve steps to the conference room where Brett and Wen Jing had been working. When she reached the room, she found Wen Jing sitting upright on the small sofa, her virtual reality helmet resting on the seat beside her. Brett was sitting in his chair, and both of the officers were looking at the whiteboard. A still image of a young Asian man, sitting in a bleacher seat with his eyes closed, wearing a Boston baseball cap, and with a computer strapped onto his arm, dominated the far side of the room. It was the same man Brett had singled out at the stadium turnstiles.
Wen Jing said, effusively, “Welcome back!”
Alana said, “That’s our man?”
Brett nodded, “Computer says it’s a ninety-nine percent match, and it does look like his dossier photo, as well as those he’s posted to his social media. I didn’t compare it to other photos yet, but I don’t think I need to. We have him on camera at the game, on the first base side at field level. He first appears an hour before the game started. It looks like he’s taking a nap, but I think he’s in VR immersion. The headset must be stitched into his hat. Note the cable running from his computer, along his arm and under his sleeve.”
Alana nodded her approval, “So, Brett, you have motive and opportunity. All you need now is to prove he did it, which Srinu still says is impossible. What do you think, Wendy? Is there any way he could hack a cyborg?”
Wen Jing frowned for a mere fraction of a second before saying, “One cyborg? Who knows? Three-thousand cyborgs? No way.”
“You never found any malware hidden within that Texas Leaguer batting program?”
“Nothing matched any known bad code signatures. Besides, I don’t think I talked to a single one of the victims who would have used it, let alone thousands. If that’s what he did, he’s smarter than I am.”
Alana said, “I haven’t had a chance to talk to the Zumpco engineers yet for a second opinion. I probably won’t get to teleconference with them until tomorrow at the soonest. Zumpco promised to cooperate, but that’s not backed by a subpoena yet. How did your game go?”
Wen Jing’s face grew even brighter when she became the center of attention, “It went very well! I found Vicky—that’s what she goes by—in an open zone, and I made up an excuse to get close to her. She got attacked by a wandering mob, so I jumped in and helped her fight. Then I just started talking to her. I asked her about her guild—whether they were recruiting new members. She said yes, they were, and we grouped up for a couple hours while she foraged trade skill components. She didn’t seem at all suspicious, and said that she’d tell her brother that I was looking to join their raid team. She’s supposed to get back to me as soon as she sees him. He usually plays from about midnight until about four in the morning Pacific Time. When he came up in conversation, she started gushing about him. She even dropped a hint when she noticed I was a tibby that her brother was single.”
Alana asked, “Why does he play so late?”
Wen Jing said, “Most of his guild lives on the Pacific Rim. Some are on the west coast here, some are on the east coast there, and some are on the islands in between. It’s the only time they can get everyone together to play.”
Alana checked her internal clock, which read twenty-three hundred hours, “Did Vicky tell you when she’d call?”
Wen Jing stifled a yawn before answering, “I told her to just use the game’s messaging system to reach me. If she sends me an email, it gets forwarded to my regular inbox, so I’ll know. I’m also on her friends list now, so she can call me in-game if she wants. I plan to stay late tonight, when Louis’ supposed to be online. With any luck, he’ll message me directly, maybe even meet-up and chat.”
Brett asked, “Out of curiosity, is Vicky a tibby too?”
Wen Jing shook her head, “No, she’s not. Her main character is a really hot-looking alien girl from a different planet—if you’re into furry people. I haven’t seen her picture yet. What does she look like in real life?”
Brett said, “She’s about five-foot-two and a bit dumpy, like she doesn’t get much exercise.”
Wen Jing mused, “She did come across as a bit shy. I found her playing solo, and I don’t think she would have talked with me if I hadn’t come along just in time to save her virtual life.”
Pieces were beginning to arrange themselves into a clearer picture in Brett’s mind. Vicky wasn’t working, she seemed to spend most of her time staying in her brother’s spare bedroom, and she was retreating inside a virtual environment. Her dossier said that she was currently being treated for depression. In her teenage media, she was smiling; not as much as Wen Jing, but more than she had in images that are more recent. The dots were connecting. Phil Robertson committed date rape, Victoria Chu declined to file charges, he changed schools to avoid complications, she dropped out of school altogether, and had been living in near-isolation ever since. First, her parents, then her brother, Louis, cared for her. Louis was a baseball fanatic, so he knew ahead of time that Robertson and Veedock would be going head-to-head at the All-Star Game. He found a way to puppet V
eedock’s body, and used it to exact revenge upon the man who had emotionally crippled his sister. He couldn’t confirm that without interviewing Victoria, but in his heart, he felt he was correct, and it sent a chill down the length of his spine.
Brett asked, “Do you think it’s possible that Chu might have gotten to Veedock somehow before he got on the plane to LA? Maybe stunned him and did something physical to his hardware that would allow him to create a puppet?”
Wen Jing said, “Brian—Doctor Comerford—would have spotted that in his autopsy, and if he didn’t, we would have. It was still weird though, how an administrator ID erased Veedock’s log files. I can’t explain that either. Maybe he was hacked, and then someone tried to cover the tracks.”
Alana said, “It was a transparently clumsy attempt at a cover up. There is one thing that just occurred to me, though. Wendy, could Veedock have deliberately made his suicide look like he was hacked, and he really was the culprit?”
Wen Jing’s jaw dropped and hung suspended for a moment as she considered that possibility. It returned to its customary position when she said, “No. There’s no way he could have gotten administrator access to his subprocessor. Even if his body committed the crimes, someone else tried to cover them up for him.”
Alana said, “Brett, you should put the video evidence into your case file and append it to your report. After that, you should get some sleep. I’ll sit with Wendy while she tries to contact Louis Chu.”
Brett sighed as if he did not want to claim the baggage underneath his eyes, “Will you be okay, Wen?”
Wen Jing smiled and winked at Brett, “This is my normal shift. I’m good.” She looked at Alana, “But if I had another cup of fresh, hot Kona, I’d be even better!”
Alana nodded and headed first for the door, then for the elevator, then for the exit, then for the parking deck, and then for the corner coffee shop. Fifteen minutes later, she returned to find little different from when she had left on her errand. She placed a cup of fresh-brewed coffee on the table for Wen Jing, and set a pair of extra, instant-brewing cups down beside it. She said, “In case you get thirsty later. Just push the button on the lid—”
Wen Jing said, “I use those all the time. Fresh is still best. Thank you very much.”
Brett took his leave, waving to Wen Jing and saying to Alana, “I updated my logs. Have fun.” He closed the door behind him.
Alana said, “Srinu is mad at me for pulling you away from the rest of the case, but the Chief backed me up on it. Are you still okay doing this? It’s above and beyond.”
Wen Jing laughed, “I’ve been working ever since I graduated college, and this is the first time ever that I’ve gotten paid to play a game.”
Alana cautioned, “Remember, you’re going undercover to draw out a suspect who, if guilty, was responsible for hard-killing a man and soft-killing thousands of retirees. I want you to stay relaxed, but this is a very serious matter.”
Wen Jing stopped chuckling, but maintained her smile as she pointed to her coffee cup. Alana handed it to her. She opened the plastic lid and inhaled from the steaming liquid. Before she partook, she said, “I understand, ma’am. I laugh when I’m nervous. I probably shouldn’t be drinking this...,” and she began sipping.
Alana asked, “Is there anything else I can do for you, Wendy? Any way I can help?”
“Nah. I think I’ve got it under control. I’m going back in after I finish this—” Wen Jing’s phone rang, and Alana recognized the music instantaneously. It was the Second Movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and its signature, ‘du-dum, du-dum, du-dum.’ Wen Jing set her cup down and held up her finger. She fished her phone out of her handbag, which had been sitting on the side-table that supported her game console, “Let me get this. Hello? Hi, Randy. What’s...? Oh... He did...? No, it was nothing you or any of the guild leaders did...”
Alana quickly divined the nature of the call. To get close to Louis Chu, she had told his sister that she wanted to join his guild. Chu apparently sent a message to her current game-guild leader asking him about Wen Jing, and ‘Randy’ was concerned about losing Wen Jing from his team. Alana was amused at the irony of having poached Srinivas Darzi’s employee for this task. Wen Jing concluded her call by apologizing profusely and promising to call her friend if she changed her mind about leaving. After she hung-up, Wen Jing said, unsure of herself, “That was literally a close call, but I don’t think Louis is suspicious yet. He was just checking to see if there was anything bad about my leaving my guild for his.”
Alana said, “If you talk to him directly, expect that Chu will try to test you again. If he’s our perpetrator, he’s going to be very wary. If he gets too pushy with questions for you, you might want to call him out. I’m sorry this is affecting your relationship with your friends.”
Wen Jing said, with as serious and focused an expression as Alana had ever seen, “It’s reparable damage. Some of the retiree victims had their brains hard-killed in the battle at the warehouse, and Aaron Stone’s terror attack against the servers a while ago wiped out their save files. They’re permanently dead. If Chu found a way to hack them, he could do it again, and that’s not a game.” Wen Jing ended on that note. She hurriedly finished her coffee, swallowing instead of sipping, re-donned her helmet and lay back down. Less than a minute later, her body had returned to its false-sleep.
Alana pulled the Assistant DA’s business card from her pocket and had her Vira call the number. He was predictably pissed-off at Alana for calling so early in the morning, but after explaining that they had evidence which placed Chu at the scene of the Robertson and Veedock murders, and the connection to the kidnapping cases, he issued an arrest warrant post-haste. Having secured the documentation she needed, Alana pulled her office chair closer to the conference table and allowed herself to take another nap as well. It was as if only moments had passed when she was awakened by a gentle shove to her shoulder. Her eyelids snapped open, and her clock read 03:17. Wen Jing was standing beside her, with her helmet off. She was beaming, “I met Louis Chu in-game. He said he wants to meet me in person!”
Friday, 14 July, 06:00
While he was in the video game with Wen Jing, Louis Chu had apparently set a time, four PM in the afternoon of the same day, and a location of his choosing, a Korean teahouse-bakery in Glendale. Alana sent Wen Jing straight home so she could get plenty of rest ahead of time, promising to make the remainder of the preparations while she was asleep. Alana remained awake for several more hours, marshalling resources from the graveyard shift to help her set a viable trap for her suspect. By six o’clock in the morning, she had everything she needed done set in motion. Technical specialists would be visiting the venue early in the morning, before it opened, to install surveillance equipment and a specially prepared surprise for Chu, should everything proceed as intended.
Alana was present and awake for her morning briefing, at which she explained to Chief Bennett the plan she had devised, the status of its implementation, and her desire to use Wen Jing as bait to lure Louis Chu out of hiding. Bennett was displeased, but after hearing the plan, he sanctioned it, saying, “Since it’s the only plan we have, do it,” before leaving the meeting.
With the exception of Brett and Rhys, Alana assigned all of her detectives to assist Inspector Alvarez in getting kidnap victims identified, scanned, and sent to the shopital to be either be reunited with their bodies or to have a new one ordered. She requested, and received, two patrol officers for backup, who would be stationed at a donut shop on the corner of the block, about two-hundred meters away from the tea shop.
Weary from working all night, she placed Brett in charge of monitoring the situation and retired to her office to recharge her body and rest her mind for a few short hours. Her slumber was interrupted at around two PM when Wen Jing arrived at the station. Alana convened with her, Brett, and Rhys in an empty conference room.
Alana said to Wen Jing, “I’m going to go over things one more time before we lea
ve. We’re making everything as simple as we can so you won’t have to remember anything except how to smile and be pleasant.”
Brett grinned as he double-checked the camera and microphone he had just hidden beneath Wen Jing’s collar, “That shouldn’t be a problem for you.”
Wen Jing asked, “Are you sure this thing is invisible?”
Brett said, “As long as you’re wearing your tie, it should be, so don’t take it off and try not to shift it around. We probably won’t need it, but it’s also got a tracer in it in case something goes unexpectedly wrong.” He glared at Alana, “Which is definitely not going to happen, right?”
Wen Jing fiddled with the thin, black cloth, “Can I wear it loose?”
“How loose?”
“Like this?” Wen Jing fixed her necktie so that the knot rested just above her modest bust line, settling in between the ruffles of her frilled, white blouse.
Brett looked it over and nodded, “That should be okay. Looks nice, actually.”
Alana continued, “When you arrive, look around to see if Louis is already there. He probably won’t be, but keep up appearances in case he has the cafe under surveillance. Sit down at the third booth on the left, facing the back of the building. There will be a sign on the table saying that the booth is reserved, in case someone else tries to take it before you get there. If Chu asks you about that, tell him you made the reservation. Call him over to you if he’s already there. I’ll already be sitting in the next booth right ahead of you, but I’ll be facing the other direction so I don’t accidentally give anything away. If and when Louis Chu arrives, all you need to do is greet him and wave him over to your booth. Engage him in regular conversation while we do a remote scan for weapons or other hidden devices he might have on him. When the scan is complete, the robot server will approach you and ask if you want a refill of your tea. When it gathers his attention, we will fire off a stun charge that will be hidden within his seat cushion, and then the rest of us will take him into custody. Your job at that point will be to duck and stay out of the way.”
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