Dodge stepped forward first and extended a hand to greet her. Black-ink tattoos in geometric patterns stood out against his brown skin, running from his wrist, up his arm, and then disappearing beneath his sleeve. “Nice to meet you,” he said as she shook his hand.
Josefina and Salim followed suit, then moved on to shake hands with Jared and Tripp. Zira watched their interactions with Jared closely and was pleased when no one gave any indication of hostility or resentment towards him. Still, considering who Jared was and what he might represent to some of these people, she’d have to watch for signs of trouble. Animosity between team members could create an unwillingness to trust or cooperate with each other in the field, and that wasn’t something they could afford if—or rather, when—things got dicey.
Alma turned to Zira. “If you come with me, I can get you up to speed on your team’s assignment. Cedric, get Tripp and Jared access to the network and then take them downstairs to setup payroll.”
Payroll. Before she followed Alma to her office, Zira exchanged a quick grin with Tripp. Having a steady income meant they wouldn’t have to eat cold food out of a can with scavenged utensils anymore. It also meant she’d no longer be indebted to Jared for anything that required money.
Alma shut her office door behind them and invited Zira to take a seat at her desk. “Well, what do you think?” she asked as she settled into her own chair. “I know it’s probably a lot to take in.”
“No, this is great,” Zira replied. “It’s definitely a step up from the last time I worked with you people.”
“It is. I hand-picked your team myself. I know I gave them a hard time out there, but they really are some of the best we have.”
Zira wasn’t sure she entirely believed that statement. They’d passed several individuals who likely had more experience than the younger members of her team, which included everyone except Josefina and maybe Salim. Not that there was anything wrong with being young, but most people her age hadn’t spent the better part of their childhoods learning the skills that made her suitable for this line of work. No, Zira suspected there were other, more significant factors that had played a role in Alma’s decision.
She raised an eyebrow. “More importantly, they don’t have any issues working with me or Jared.”
“That, too.”
“And why is that, exactly?”
“Different reasons.”
“I’d appreciate some specifics. I know you said you didn’t want anyone giving us any trouble, but I’d like to know how far I can count on that. From my team, at least.”
Alma sighed. “Okay, I guess that’s reasonable. Like I said last night, I’ve known Cedric for years. He’s more enthusiastic about the Republic than just about anyone else I’ve met. When I told everyone I was bringing you in, he practically begged me to assign him to your team, said he wanted to work with the best of the best. And once I assigned him, I had to assign Nova, too. Those two are practically inseparable.”
Zira filed the information away in the back of her mind for future reference. “And the others?”
“Josefina’s a former cop. She has some personal resentments towards the Project, but she knows how to put those biases aside and focus on her work. She also asked to be assigned to your team. Salim’s a bit of an outlier around here. He has no connections to the rebellion and no history with the Project. Out of everyone in this office, he seemed least likely to have any reservations about working with two former Project assassins.”
“What about Dodge?”
“Dodge’s situation is a little more complicated. His parents joined the rebellion after unit C took custody of their infant daughter, a third child. He grew up a rebel. His little sister grew up in the Project as a member of unit A. Her name is Celeste. She’s a little younger than you.”
Zira shook her head and shrugged. She didn’t recognize the name.
“Anyway, they reconnected through that PEACE Reunification program several months ago. Dodge was already working here. I think meeting Celeste and hearing her story really changed his perspective on the Project and the people in it. He actually helped her get a job here not too long ago. She’s a technical support specialist for one of the other teams.”
And having a sister who was a former Project member made Dodge more sympathetic to others with that background, like Zira and Jared. In theory, anyway. But he’d seemed welcoming enough. They all had. The only thing Zira could do now was trust Alma’s judgment and hope everything worked out for the best.
“So, what do you want us to start working on?” she asked.
“We need to figure out who’s leading the PRM,” Alma replied. “There are pockets of PRM activity all over the country, but we don’t know much about their organizational structure or if they’re even connected on a larger scale. I have some of the other teams working on that as well, but I specifically want you guys to figure out how Ryku is involved.”
“Do you want us to focus on the True PRM, then?”
“Yes. If he is involved, that seems most likely.” Her eyes narrowed as they darted to the glass behind Zira.
Zira turned to see what she was looking at. Outside the office, all activity had stopped. Wherever they were standing or sitting, everyone remained transfixed, their eyes glued to whatever screen or projection they were closest to.
The wheels of Alma’s chair rumbled as she slid it back and stood up from her desk. She walked to the door, grumbling to herself. “I swear, if I have to go out there and crack the whip this early in the morning already…” She stuck her head outside. “Hey! We’ve got work to do. Why are you all standing around?”
A man sitting nearby turned away from the projection over his desk to look at her. His face was pale and grim. “You should see this.”
Zira followed Alma out of the office as she went to stand behind the man. When she saw the news report playing on his display, her stomach dropped. Beside her, Alma hissed something under her breath in Spanish. Zira had no idea what she’d said, but she agreed with the sentiment nonetheless.
In the breaking news report, gray smoke billowed from an office building not unlike the one they stood in now. The entire north side of the structure had collapsed, its wreckage piled on the ground like a child’s toppled blocks. Police were taping off the area, and an array of flashing lights in the background indicated that rescue personnel were already on the scene. A reporter’s familiar voice played over the footage. In the shock of what she was seeing, it took Zira a moment to identify the woman as Trinity Jones, the reporter she and Tripp had rescued from the Project’s retaliation just over a year ago.
“We have reports of two confirmed deaths already,” Trinity said. “The victims’ names have not been released yet, but we’re getting reports that they may have been part of the construction crew that has been renovating the building over the last several months. Unfortunately, we expect to see the number of deaths increase as the day goes on and as rescue crews are able to go in and start digging through some of that rubble.”
The footage cut to a shot from above, and Zira realized she was looking at an overhead view of the city of Liberation. She could see the gray dome of the capitol building near the site of the collapsed structure. To her relief, the scene from above was less alarming than it had appeared from the ground. The damage was contained to one side of the building, leaving the surrounding area unaffected. It could have been much worse.
Trinity continued her report as the camera slowly panned over the scene. “This explosion comes after threats made earlier this week by the PEACE Restoration Movement, in which they demanded that the upcoming vote to ratify the new constitution be cancelled. If the constitution is ratified, national elections will be scheduled in the months following, and these offices were intended to be used by the chosen representatives from each region following that election. This has led many to speculate that the PRM is behind this attack, but we don’t have confirmation of that yet. Again, we’ll be sure to keep you update
d as we get more information.”
She went on, but Alma’s voice drowned out the news report as she began barking orders. “Okay, people, that’s enough gawking. The best thing we can do now is figure out who did this and prevent them from ever pulling something like this again. Let’s get to it.”
In the span of two seconds, the entire floor went from heavy silence to a flurry of focused activity. Alma turned to Zira. “Find out if Ryku’s the one pulling the strings here.”
She nodded and headed back to the far end of the room to rejoin the rest of her team. Directions. She needed to give them directions. She only had a few seconds to formulate a plan, and she’d never been in a position to give orders before.
The others watched her as she approached, awaiting her instructions. She considered Alma’s directive and pieced together everything they needed to do to fulfill it. “Dodge and Nova, I want you to start pulling video surveillance from the area where the bomb went off. Then contact the demolitions team on site and get whatever information you can from them. Go down there and talk to them in person if you have to.”
“On it,” said Dodge. He and Nova immediately got to work.
“Tripp and Josefina,” Zira continued. “Look for any communication you can find between potential PRM members. We need to figure out what their organizational structure is, who runs things, how different cells are connected, how they communicate—anything that might be useful. Especially if there seems to be a link to Ryku.”
Tripp and Josefina gave her a nod and turned to their workstations.
“Salim, you were the one trying to track down footage from Frazier’s murder?”
“Yes. I have all that information as soon as you’re ready to review it.”
“Good. Go over it with Jared. I want the two of you to look for anything that might point to Ryku’s involvement with the PRM. Cedric, I’m going to need you to get me access to the network like you did for the others. We can worry about payroll later.”
Cedric motioned for Zira to follow him to an empty workstation positioned along the wall where she could look out and see the rest of her team. As she sat down, she caught Jared’s eye. He flashed a quick thumbs-up before returning to his own work.
It was a small, silly thing, but knowing she had his approval made her feel just a little more confident in her new role.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Jared played back the same footage he’d been staring at for the past hour, waiting for something, anything, to jump out at him. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to go on, just clips from a few traffic cameras in the surrounding streets and a single security camera in the apartment complex where Frazier had been killed.
At the workstation beside him, Salim was reviewing the same footage. “Anything?” he asked Jared.
“Nothing.” He spun around in his chair to stare out the window and rubbed his temples with his fingertips. They were stuck. He had hoped it would be one of those situations where they’d know what they were looking for when they saw it, whether it was something obviously out of place or just some minor detail that quietly drew attention to itself. Apparently, that had been the wrong approach to take. Or maybe they hadn’t found anything yet because there was nothing to find.
But of course there was nothing to find. Ryku would have made sure the job was done right, without any clear evidence that could lead the authorities back to him. If Frazier’s murder hadn’t coincided with the botched assassination attempt on President Bradshaw, it was likely no one would have even linked the death to Ryku at all.
They needed to be smarter. Working backwards from the incident had seemed like the easier route, but without a trail to follow, maybe it made more sense to start at the beginning.
Jared absentmindedly swiveled back and forth in his chair as he pieced together the most logical sequence of events in his mind. Ryku had ordered Frazier’s death, which meant he had some way of contacting people in the outside world. In order to pursue the sequence of events a step further, they needed to know who Ryku had contacted. The how was less relevant. It could have been any number of things—a CL someone had smuggled into the prison, coded letters, communication with his attorney, sympathetic guards. Anything. He wouldn’t have been the first inmate to figure out how to contact people on the outside, and Jared didn’t want to waste time looking into all those options if he didn’t have to. For now, all he really needed to know was who Ryku had asked to kill Frazier. And that was a list he could at least narrow down.
Whoever had done it possessed the skills to do so without being caught. They were also loyal enough to Ryku to carry out his request even after he’d lost all authority to give anyone orders. A former Project member, perhaps. Most E-2 operatives had been tried and convicted of some degree of murder after the rebels took over the country, but a few—Jared included—had evaded capture and gone into hiding. Maybe it was one of them.
It was a solid possibility, but members of unit E-2 weren’t the only ones in the Project who’d held a high regard for Ryku. Although most Project members had been put on trial, punishments had been much less severe for those outside of unit E-2, if there was any real punishment at all. Most former members of other units weren’t serving time in prison, and a few might have possessed the skills to kill Frazier without getting caught. Jared was just about to ask Salim where he could get a record of what had befallen every former Project member when another thought occurred to him.
Frazier’s killer might also be one of Ryku’s informants, the clandestine group of people who lived amongst the general population and reported potential threats and radical activity to the chairman.
He latched onto the thought like a dog with a bone. It made too much sense to be ignored. As far as he knew, only a few of Ryku’s informants had been identified and arrested by the Republic after the rebellion, which meant the majority of them were still free to move around the country and do as they pleased.
It would also explain why Jared hadn’t spotted any familiar faces in the video footage. He’d interacted with a handful of informants during his last several months as an operative when Ryku had shown him the ins and outs of compiling and assigning missions. But that was just a teardrop in a bucket compared to how many people had been out there feeding Ryku information. Most of them were former operatives. Not at their peak, perhaps, but that didn’t mean they no longer possessed useful skills and the distorted moral code needed to justify killing on Ryku’s behalf. More importantly, they were fiercely loyal to the Project. And to Ryku.
He spun his chair around so fast it made Salim jump, and the man shot him a sidelong glance. “Something wrong?”
“Can we see the files the rebels recovered from the compound after they took over?”
“That depends on what you’re looking for. The Project kept a lot of their records on paper, and they destroyed most of those before the rebels even got inside.”
Jared nodded as he recalled the fires he’d come across when making his way to the guardhouse that day. “I’m looking for a list of Ryku’s informants.”
“Informants?”
“Mostly former E-2 operatives. People who worked outside the compound to gather intel about potential threats.”
Salim’s lip curled, and his expression darkened. “Potential victims, you mean.”
Jared winced. Of course that was a sore subject around here, where many of his new co-workers were former rebels who had probably lost comrades on Ryku’s orders. Orders Jared himself had carried out on multiple occasions. He made a mental note to be more conscientious of the way he worded things in the future. “Right. Sorry.”
Salim opened what looked like some kind of database on his computer. “A lot of this hasn’t been sorted out yet because we haven’t had time or didn’t know what it was. It will help if you can think of something specific we can search for. Maybe a name or a date, something like that.”
“I have a couple names we can try.”
Salim scooted aside, an
d Jared entered the name of the first informant he could remember into the search field. No results. He tried another name without success. The last name took some extra time to recall, but as soon as he entered it, a file popped up on the display. He opened it. After scanning the list for a few seconds, he turned to Salim and raised an eyebrow. “I’m impressed you guys even have this. Ryku should have erased it as soon as he saw he was losing the compound.”
“He probably did. You’ve got to love automatic backup protocols. But what is it, exactly?”
Jared held back a grin. It had been a while since he’d felt this—the satisfaction of knowing he’d discovered something important, the thrill of seeing the pieces start to fall into place. Even if they were just small pieces. It felt like finding a part of himself he hadn’t even realized he’d been missing. “I’m pretty sure it’s Ryku’s private list of all his personal contacts.”
Salim gaped. “Seriously?”
“Seriously. That name I just searched—he wouldn’t have kept it anywhere else.” He moved his finger across the display as his eyes scanned the names more thoroughly. Some were familiar—Cecilia, Lucas, his own name—but many others weren’t. And there were a lot of them. Getting through all of this and cross-referencing it with people they could actually identify was going to take some time. Luckily, Jared knew someone who could speed things up.
“Tripp,” he called. “You busy?”
Tripp’s head popped over the top of his computer display. “Sure, if your idea of busy is chasing dead-end leads down one rabbit hole after another.”
“As important as that sounds—”
Tripp was out of his chair and walking towards them before Jared could even finish the sentence. “It’s not. What do you have?” He leaned over Salim’s workstation to examine the file on the display. After a few seconds, he turned to look at Jared with wide eyes. “Is this what I think it is?”
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