by RJ Scott
"Oh my God," he breathed. What he wouldn't give for just ten minutes with this equipment. Hell, he could probably track down who shot Kennedy using this kind of kit. Manny sat in the middle of it like some kind of conductor for an orchestra. Moving to touch screens and peer at lines of code he was muttering under his breath.
"What kind of contact?" he finally asked when Manny didn't say anything.
"Friend of an acquaintance of a friend says someone he knows is arming the Bullens with enough firepower to reassert authority. Don't know which Bullen. Could be Alastair looking to get support in before he goes through his trial. Could be the senator as he's the only one left."
Manny summarized this without taking his eyes off of the screens. Familiar words slid over Josh and he leaned in closer to the nearest screen. The picture was sketchy but he recalled the dialogue. Hell, he could recite most of it by rote.
"Do you have Star Trek on this?" He asked the question cautiously. Not everyone liked Star Trek, or even any one of the other hundreds of sci-fi programs he had watched over the years.
"Helps me think. Why? You have a problem with that? Everyone comes in and comments on my stuff,"
Manny muttered under his breath.
"But it's original Star Trek?" Josh asked.
Manny finally looked up at him with a suspicious expression on his face. "And?" he asked.
Josh shrugged. "Nothing. Was always my favorite as well."
Manny didn't change his expression but he did sit a little taller in the chair. "What are your opinions on the reboot with Pine and Quinto?" Manny said.
Josh wondered if this was a trick question. Manny's expression said that the answer to this question was absolutely vital. In amongst the Bullens, and his dad, and the case, and guns, a simple question about Star Trek evidently held a lot of weight.
"Loved it," he said. Manny nodded. He was waiting for more. "Seen it about six times now." Manny nodded again. Jeez. The guy wanted more? "Who wouldn't like Star Trek with a Pine/Quinto combination. Or even," Josh grabbed a chair from the side and turned it around to straddle it with his hands on the back, "Karl Urban.
Urban/Pine was kind of hot. Still, that doesn't mean that I will ever put it above the original. Storylines, the idea of a whole new timeline, the entire original series was awesome. I wish I'd been born long enough ago to have seen it when it first came out instead of as reruns." He snapped his mouth shut. Passing on fantasies from a recent film was one thing, but he wondered if he had answered correctly for whatever Manny was asking.
Seeming mollified, Manny leaned forward in his chair towards Josh. Josh leaned in as well.
"Have you ever considered Pine, Quinto, and Urban?" Manny suggested. Then he smirked and sat back in his chair.
Josh wasn't sure what to say so he concentrated on
what Manny was doing. Fiddling with the main keyboard, the crackling of words they could hear was soon accompanied by a picture—an old colored episode formed on the screen.
"So," Manny said firmly. This was clearly his way of pulling them both away from sci-fi and back to the job in hand. "There's enough out there about me, forgotten son of an old West Coast family with fingers in pies looking to spread his wings into Albany, maybe reaching out to NYC
itself. I'm giving it another twenty-four and then I'm gauging whether I should be placing a call to the senator or through Alastair. We need to see how it all pans out and I need to do some work on that."
"What can I do?" Josh wanted to do something.
Anything.
"You up for learning a few systems?"
Josh nodded.
"I'm going to need a handler when I'm in the field and also someone pulling information together. I would normally do that, but I won't be here all the time."
"Yes. But." Josh sat upright in the chair.
"But?"
"Why me? Surely you have handlers and information guys at Sanctuary?"
"I want you." Manny's tone was implacable. There was no room for argument.
"Why?" Josh was confused. Why did Manny want him when he had fucked up so badly last night?
Manny just turned back to the monitors and shrugged. "So anyway. You'll need clearance and we need to go over my backstory. You already know my real name, ten minutes with Google and you'll know my uncle was Luis Altosinno. I may as well summarize for you but I do expect you to learn as much as you can about how the Altosinnos worked their area." He looked expectantly at Josh.
Josh nodded. Finding out more information about Manny—tick.
"My uncle was the oldest of three brothers, my dad was the youngest. My uncle was holding tight to a family, dealing with guns and weapons trafficking, prostitution, protection. One of the old guys who was handed this thriving concern in the late seventies and was there just as it all went horribly wrong. You know the story, gangs moved in, Families moved on. The Feds on their asses, new regulations. My uncle was shot, my dad wasn't even out of college, and it was over before I was even born. Dad, Vincenzio, hence my real name, took us away from what was happening. Moved us from San Diego up to Seattle and everything was kind of normal for a while." He paused for a moment and his eyes flicked briefly to the screen showing the Star Trek rerun.
"So you're saying that your dad was never part of any of what his brother was into?"
"No. Born into it though, knew enough to know how to avoid the main shitfest. 'Course it all caught up with them in the end. Didn't matter that my parents had nothing to do with the bad side of the Altosinnos, the surname was evidently enough. He couldn't avoid it. Dad was run off the road after some kind of grudge price was placed on his head. From whom we never knew but the cops saw the surname, connected the dots even way up in Seattle, and dropped the case."
"You never pushed?"
Manny did that shrug thing again. Josh imagined Manny hadn't left a stone unturned and wondered if he had found the person who killed his dad.
"Mom and my sister were in the car with him, I was in my first year at MIT and my family was gone. No one was going to help me." Manny sounded so matter-of-fact.
The statement was spoken so cleanly.
"Shit, Manny."
Manny waved the story away like it didn't matter, but Josh hadn't imagined the flicker of sadness in the other man's eyes. "I'm not telling you for sympathy. Jake came to MIT looking for a guy good with systems, someone in their last year. He said this Sanctuary foundation needed a guy who was an expert with computers. I wasn't happy at MIT, so I left. Sanctuary got me—reinvented Manny Sullivan.
Also, I'm good with guns. Jake liked that."
Josh wasn't even going to ask why Manny was good with guns. It was the second time he had mentioned it but that was a question for another time.
"With enough manipulation I can create a whole new persona and backstory based around the name.
Approach the Bullens. That's the plan anyway."
"That's dangerous and there's one thing that worries me. No disrespect, but you don't exactly look the part."
"The part of what? You want me to be six-two with muscles on muscles, like a thug? Or you want me to slick my hair back and wear a suit?" Manny smiled but it was an icy smile. "Hell, the name will get me in the door. Then we have this." He pressed another button and the main screen scrolled through photos of a burnt-out car, newspaper cuttings, and finally stopped on a grainy image of some guy receiving a blow job from a woman on her knees.
Josh leaned in to look closer. The guy standing up was clear in the photo and looked like a very young version of the senator. The face of the girl on her knees was less clear.
"The senator?" Josh said carefully.
"Turned up in a pile of photos on his brother's computer. Looks like the whiter-than-white married senator riding on the platform of family got his rocks off outside of the marital bed."
"So if this happened while he was married then publish the photo and knock him off his pedestal." Surely that was brother three dealt with then.
&n
bsp; "We don't have enough information; if we knew who the girl was, and if we could prove it was during the marriage, and if we could definitively prove it was him in the photo, then yeah, we can maybe get him to resign. Or, and this is a more likely scenario, given he talks a lot about the past and how he has learned from it, all he needs to say is that this was a long time ago blah blah blah and he sails the publicity."
"You want me to see if I can find out who this is?"
"And date the photo. That's your main role here.
There's a guy coming over, Morgan, he's worked long and hard on pulling together all the strands of this family. He's bringing it here so we can see where this photo fits."
"Okay. I can do that."
"Of course at any time in-between if you want to use the information we have to work on your dad and his connection—"
"No. I'm not interested in what my dad was involved in, not unless it impacts what we are doing here today. I think it was a long-ago case they held over him, he's a murderer now, that is the end of it." He didn't say anything else. For a second Josh imagined explaining why the man who had been his hero was someone he wanted to cut out of his life. There wasn't going to be a tearful reunion with a murderer. "I do want to check in on Mom though."
"Okaaay," Manny drawled. He wasn't going to push the matter of Josh's murdering father and for that Josh was grateful. "That's simple to do. All we need to do is connect to the safe house. I'll show you how. Let's start with a walk through the systems we have access to."
CHAPTER 6
"Morgan Drake." Morgan extended a hand and Josh shook it. A solid-looking black Labrador stood close to Morgan and unconsciously Josh's hand dropped to ruffle thick fur. "That's Puck," Morgan added.
"Nik Valentinov," Morgan's companion finally introduced himself. His grip was tighter and he held on a little longer, his piercing stare looking deep into Josh. It was unnerving.
Josh pulled his hand free and shook it gently as he placed it back in his pocket. He wasn't really up for male posturing and it seemed as if Nik was making some kind of silent point. Josh had met Nik before, briefly, the night that he had nearly fucked everything up. That was probably what the extra-strength handshake was for. Some kind of silent telling off. Suddenly Josh wasn't able to meet Nik's gaze for fear of seeing censure in his eyes. Jeez, he felt like a little kid.
"It's nice to meet you," Morgan said gently.
Josh frowned. There was a strange buzz between him and Morgan, and damn him, Morgan had that whole pity thing going on. Fuck. Typical. Someone else who knew he had a freaking murderer for a father. Stiffening his spine he waited for more but Morgan said nothing. Instead he took a box from his friend with the grip and Nik moved directly to the kitchen pulling coffee and mugs from the cupboard. Manny shut the door behind them all and drew Morgan into a hug awkwardly around the size of the box.
Morgan Drake wasn't a big guy. He wasn't what Josh called small, not like Manny, but he wasn't tall like Josh or big like Nik Valentinov who towered over everyone.
They ended up sitting on the sofas in an uneasy silence.
"So," Morgan started. "Before we speak about anything there is something I need to get out here. I asked Manny not to explain—I wanted to do this myself. I was the witness to the murder in the alley. The murder of Elisabeth Costain."
Josh blinked and waited for more. This was the witness? The man who caused his dad to be arrested in the first place? He considered briefly what he was feeling.
Nothing. Not anger or distrust or disbelief or anything that a normal son may feel about their father. In its place there was an empty space that he couldn't label as anything other than apathy.
"I'm sorry you had to see that," he instead apologized politely. He sipped his hot coffee but refused to look up at anyone.
"If ever you want to talk—"
"No." Ouch. He didn't mean to sound quite so final or rude. "Thank you."
Morgan continued. "You know where I am—"
"Thank you," he repeated. Now please shut up and leave it. He moved in his seat. His shoulders ached and he put it down to the bed he'd slept in. Twisted in sheets and waking with a headache was not conducive to relaxation.
He looked up just as Manny's lips twisted in a parody of pity and Josh immediately concentrated on sitting upright and wiping every conceivable emotion off of his face that wasn't just concentration.
"How did Adam get on?" Manny asked.
Josh was never happier to have the conversation move on and the focus away from him. He remembered Adam well. Nice guy, actually. He was one of the men who had persuaded Josh and his mom that they could offer enough of a safe place that the Bullen family couldn't touch them. Big, built, and gruff, he played bad cop to his friend Lee's good cop but he was nice enough. Friendly after the fact.
"Fucking FBI liaison isn't offering up much," Nik said on a sigh. "There's no trail that leads anywhere away from Sean to the Bullens. No one can understand why it appears he has nothing to give up."
"Who's Sean?" Josh finally asked. If he was going to be part of this team then he needed all the information he could get.
Manny explained. "Sorry. He was this Federal liaison guy who was auditing Sanctuary procedures and reporting back to the Feds. After you and your mom were delivered to Jennifer at the safe house, Adam and Lee baited a trap to track down the FBI mole. The original person who led a hit man to try and kill Morgan. Turns out it was this Fed named Sean Hanson."
"Fuck," Josh said.
"Exactly, though…" Manny's voice trailed off and he was thoughtful. "I liked the guy. I mean he was a pain in Sanctuary's ass, and he fiddled in my system, and he tried to fuck us over, but he was a nice guy. I can't believe I'm saying this but I'm not sure how much I believe about why he gave himself up as the mole."
Nik leaned forward in his chair. "You don't think Sean was the bad guy? That maybe he was covering for someone else?"
Josh waited for Manny's answer. It appeared Manny's opinion mattered to the big bodyguard and when Morgan copied Nik's movement Josh realized he too wanted to hear what Manny had to say.
"All too easy," Manny started. His words seemed carefully chosen. "None of what was allegedly given up by the mole was anything that really hurt us."
"Morgan nearly died," Nik blurted out angrily.
"But there was a warning. Enough time for his handler to get Morgan out of there and to you," Manny defended with a frown.
Josh observed Morgan placing a calming hand on Nik's thigh, and Nik curling his own fingers into those of the smaller man.
"Not only that but the computer hacking that took comms down and compromised Adam and Lee was damn ingenious. I've audited it all and Sean passed on enough information to whomever, without compromising the core of Sanctuary itself." Manny leaned forward and punctuated the words with a shrug.
"You think he was playing a role?" Josh was intrigued.
"Maybe. Like I said. He seemed a nice guy."
"My dad was a nice guy and look how that turned out," Josh said blankly.
Silence. An awkward, pregnant silence.
"So what do you have for us?" Nik finally said.
"The usual," Manny continued. "There're more questions about the missing, presumed dead, girl. Also some photos of a necklace found in a box of items belonging to Gregory's dead wife. There was blood on the necklace but nothing majorly conclusive as evidence. I uploaded it to the files but there is nothing to tie this unknown woman that Beckett's mom saw murdered to Alastair and prove he murdered her."
"There won't be until they find a body," Morgan offered.
"Albany forensics are all over the property," Manny continued. "If we had a body we'd have some decent evidence to back up the dress and the murder of the woman. That isn't my priority though. At the moment my time is being spent on the senator. After what Gareth Headley gave us in the prison we know he was involved in more than we thought, if not this murder itself. He's the last piece in the puzzle. We know he is connect
ed to his brothers, we just need to prove it."
"What did he say? Him. In prison?" Josh couldn't bring himself to use his dad's name.
Manny didn't comment on the lack of actual name.
"I'll mark the file for you," he said instead. "You can read it after."
Morgan laid out papers on the small table and all four men hunched forward. Josh couldn't make much sense of what he was seeing as it was upside down for him. He thought it looked like one of those murder case boards he had seen on television, only written on paper taped together.
"You know we have software for this," Manny commented with a laugh as he picked at a piece of loose tape.
"Paper is better," Morgan countered swiftly. "I can see it all this way."
Manny laughed. "Your guy is weird, Nik."
It was Nik's turn to huff a laugh. He leaned in and pressed against Morgan. "I think my guy is kind of cool."
Josh realized he was staring. Hell, was everyone in Sanctuary gay? He hadn't been told but the sparks flying between Lee and Adam were intense. And now Morgan and Nik?
"No," Manny said with a frown.
Josh looked at him and from Manny's expression it was suddenly very evident Josh had said that out loud.
Fuck.
"Sanctuary has more operatives than you can list in all walks of life. Statistically the chances of every operative being gay is—"
"Sorry. I didn't mean anything by it," Josh interrupted and then focused intently on the upside-down information. Luckily Manny didn't push, although Josh caught Nik's low rumbling chuckle as his comment on the matter.
His dad's photo was to the left and centered. Then the three Bullen brothers in the center and other photos that made Josh feel a little sick. A woman's body lying on the ground and a graduation image next to it with a broad red line from his dad to her made his throat tighten with emotion. This must be the girl who died at the end of his dad's gun. The woman who lost her life so that Josh wouldn't. Emotions flooded him. Pain. Anguish. Fear. He curled in on himself and he didn't even realize what he was doing.