Faithless in Death

by Robb, J. D.

  “Right back at you.”

  “When this is wrapped—on your end, Dallas—it’s going to be wild on mine. Can’t wait! Oh, I’m going to tag Mavis tomorrow—too busy today—and get over to see this house. Yay, Peabody, another big congratulations.”

  “Thanks. I haven’t even had time to look at the tile samples Mavis texted me. She wants me and McNab to pick them out, and the paint colors, and just all of it. It’s going to be so much fun! When,” she added because she caught Eve’s stare, “this is all wrapped.”

  “I want to see everything. I’ll be in touch,” Reo repeated, and left.

  Nadine lingered over the last of her Pepsi. “So, I’m betting there’s no possible way I can get a ride-along on this.”

  “You win the bet. But the NYPSD joins the PA’s office in extending their gratitude.”

  “That and your AC will get me a really delicious burger.”

  “It’s also going to get you a tag when we have the Wilkeys, the Huffmans, Piper, and others in custody. And I can’t legally stop you from being in the vicinity of Natural Order’s HQ—a solid two miles away, Nadine.”

  Nadine smiled into Eve’s eyes. “Got it.”

  “When I do tag you, you break the story, Nadine. Break it hard, break it wide.”

  “What was it you said to Reo about the warrants? Oh yeah. Fucking A. Then a follow-up one-on-one with you for broadcast, followed up by a full segment with you, possibly Reo, possibly the special agent in charge from the FBI on Now.”

  “Agreed.”

  Nadine set her glass down, rose. “It’s a little disappointing when it’s so easy.”

  “I know, right? People don’t get that.” Eve smiled. “At this time, in this place, Nadine, Reo said it. You fucking rock.”

  “Well, well, I’ll take my kudos and let you get to it. One thing—and it’s in this room, so off the record. Are you actually hitting them tonight?”

  “I’m looking at it. A lot of coordination goes into it, so I’m hoping for maybe somewhere around zero one hundred.”

  “Okay then, I’m taking my kudos and going home to catch a nap. You look like you could use one yourself.”

  “I’ll sleep after I fill some cages.”

  “Later, Peabody, who looks mag and is going to have mag new digs. I’ll wait for the tag.”

  “They noticed I lost weight.”

  “Jesus, Peabody, of course they noticed. They have eyes.”

  “You noticed?”

  “I also have eyes.”

  “You never said.” Peabody threw her arms in the air. “I mean, a whole size!”

  “If I commented on it, you’d want to talk about it. Like you are now.”

  “That’s true. I can’t deny it. I’m putting new pants and new digs aside. You didn’t ask me to brief them on the data you asked me to dig.”

  “Reo has enough. Copy me. You’ve got members’ names from this data who paid for human beings. Dig on them, copy me. And I want names and data from every resident on the Tribeca block.”

  “We’re hitting that, too?”

  Eve looked at Gina’s and Zoe’s photos on the board. How many more, she wondered, like them? “We’re hitting that, too.”

  “We’re going to need more warrants.”

  “Once again? Fucking A.” She signaled to get moving. “Feed it to me, and I’ll whittle it down for Reo and those warrants,” she continued as they walked back. “If you need help with it, get a uniform. Pick two now to relieve Carmichael and Shelby. I’m pulling them back in.”

  She went straight to her office and hit the coffee before sitting down to access Peabody’s data.

  Rather than loading it all on Reo, she broke it down into bites that justified warrants—searches, arrests, both.

  She contacted Officer Carmichael—now his usual spit and polish.

  “The subject is in her office, now, sir. She’s been to the halfway house, spent about an hour inside, made two stops on the way back we assume were home checks. She got some Thai takeout and walked back to her office.”

  “Stick with it. I’m sending relief to your location. I need you and Shelby back here once they arrive. Grab food if you need it. It’s going to be a long day.”

  “Copy that, sir.”

  While she waited for more data from Peabody, she brought up information on the Huffmans’ medical clinic and the Natural Order lab. Handily the websites listed the names and qualifications of several medicals and techs.

  She started her runs, pumped more information to Reo.

  A really big anthill, she thought, and yes, they’d lose some in the scatter. But if they played it right, they’d get the bulk, the influencers, and break the back of the order.

  Then once Nadine, and the rest of the media, got their teeth in it?

  Game over.

  She looked up when Teasdale came to the door.

  “I got your memo requesting I attend the meeting at the PA’s office.”

  “It would be very helpful.”

  “I’m on my way there now.” As always, Teasdale radiated calm and efficiency. “Agent Conroy will be sending you the intel we have on the farm system as soon as possible. I’m authorized to tell you the bureau is fully prepared to join the NYPSD and Interpol in this operation. While the bureau welcomes your input and will coordinate with you, given the multiple states and jurisdictions involved in the order’s farm system, we will take that area of this operation.”

  “Not only is that no problem for me or this department, I was counting on it. My only caveat is timing. We have to coordinate the timing.”

  “Very well understood. Question: Do you actually plan to launch this multiagency, global, many-armed operation tonight? Essentially within hours?”

  “Around ten, eleven hours for the main hits, yeah. It has to be now, Teasdale. If we delay, a lot of ants are going to have deserted the hill before we kick it. We can’t keep Mancini and Metcalf’s rescue under wraps much longer, so we have to hit the block in Tribeca today. Cops have been inside the Piper crime scene. We’ve only got time because the neighborhood women can’t communicate, but it only takes one person coming home from work or one person figuring out how to get word to HQ to blow it up before it begins.”

  “You’ve got eyes on that block.”

  “I do. Anyone coming in or going out gets picked up. But we can’t hold it indefinitely.”

  “Again, understood. Bureaus are, after all, bureaucracies, and as such and by nature, their wheels roll slowly.”

  Teasdale might look like a bureaucrat in her FBI suit—and she might actually be one, Eve thought. But Eve knew she was also solid law enforcement.

  “I appreciate you convincing those wheels to move fast.”

  “I’m glad to have a part in it. And in the interest of time and speed, I’ll let you get back to work.”

  Eve was deep into that work when Roarke came in.

  “I’ve got what you need on the HQ.”

  “All of it?”

  “Drone and satellite views of the compound, various blueprints—even such a place must follow building codes, procedures. These may, of course, have changes not reported, but you’ll have the sense. And more, I think, as I have the schematics on their security system.”

  “Yours, right?”

  “It is, yes, and they spared no expense. You’re a bit limited in here to view it as a whole, but I can set it up.”

  “Let’s take it to the conference room. Reo’s getting a mountain of warrants,” she told him as they headed out. “Teasdale’s at the meeting there, and let me know the FBI’s all in, and will handle the hits on the farm system. I’ve got cops on Po, the halfway house, and on the Tribeca block.”

  “Busy day. The electronics from Dawber and Metcalf are in house and being gone over minutely. I was on this area so I can’t tell you precisely, but there’s a lot of movement and a great deal of fizzy consumption in EDD right now.”

  “That’s a good sign.”

  “Give
me a minute or two to set this up. Did you eat?” he asked.

  “I had a burger.”

  He paused, and looked mildly annoyed. “A burger? Why didn’t I think of that before I had that very dubious sandwich from Vending?”

  “Damn good burger. You want coffee?”

  “I’ve had a tankerful, and most of it cop coffee. I’ll take water, thanks.”

  She opted for water herself.

  “Here are your drone views. Better, I think, than the satellite imagery.”

  When he put them on-screen, she slipped her hands in her pockets, studied them. “Big place.”

  “Slightly more than forty-two acres. Some of the buildings, such as the main house, were already there when purchased. As were these smaller houses you see here, here.”

  He used a laser pointer.

  “Like a small neighborhood. Staff housing—high-level staff. Those low-rise apartment-type buildings, that’s for the working stiffs. Roads all over, except that farming area. Are those cows? Why are there always cows?”

  “Milk, butter, cheese, I’m thinking.”

  “They’ve got the farm system for that, but yeah, easy access. And I bet for training. You’ve got to keep training in all areas. Apartments, houses here and here, too. Segregated, that’s what. You’ve got your sections. White, black, Asian, Hispanic, like that, and all well away from the grandeur of the main house. Woods to the east, shielding the main house property and gardens.”

  She moved closer. “Okay, okay, you’ve got a stream running through the woods, and that chapel-type building. Other buildings—medical, schools.”

  She held out a hand for his pointer.

  “There and there and there—schools, we saw students. Playground areas. I’m betting some sort of storage buildings—see those loading docks? You bring in supplies there, log them in, divide them up. Very self-contained, very tidy. What it is? It’s freaking Wilkeyville. His own town, and he’s mayor and sheriff and supreme ruler.”

  “The blueprints have more detail. Let’s have a look.”

  They went through them, the main house, three floors, five bedroom suites and two home offices on the second floor, what was billed as a media center on the lower level with a kitchenette, full bath, guest room. A bonus room, two bedrooms, two full baths spread out on the third. Dining room, breakfast room, kitchen, living room, study, powder room, large pantry, and laundry facilities on the main.

  “Media center, maybe—and I bet a setup to record his bullshit media. But bonus room, my ass. It’s not on here, but I’m betting that’s where he sticks in-house staff. He needs live-in staff. What if he wants a snack at midnight? Some female type has to take care of that.”

  She went over the staff housing, exits, egresses, the educational complexes, the medical facility, the warehouse with loading dock. Then held up a hand to pause on the next building.

  “No way that’s more storage. No loading dock, and the doors aren’t wide enough. It’s got a full basement—for what? I’ll tell you for what.”

  She felt the anger rise in her and had to firmly, deliberately tamp it out. Emotions had to wait.

  “That’s where they keep the people they abduct. No windows, not one window on the plans. If I were setting it up, this is how I’d do it. Windowless, limited exits and escape routes. Have your lab and shock therapy, testing in the basement. You could fit plenty of barred rooms in there, and a place for staff to meet or take a break, have some lunch before they go back and jab somebody with a shock stick.

  “That’s the prison.”

  “I’m going to agree with you on that.”

  Knowing her, he not only felt her fury, but shared it. And, knowing her, he kept his tone as cool as hers.

  “It’s tucked too far away from everything else to serve efficiently as storage,” he added. “And the schematics on the security system add weight to that prison.”

  “Bring them up. I think my eyes are about to bleed.” She closed them, but when she opened them again she still saw a lot of lines, graphics, incomprehensible terms and figures. “I’m going back to coffee.”

  “I’ll join you there, and explain this to you. I have more covering the walls, and that prison building, still more on the main house, and so on. It’s a very complex and comprehensive system. In addition to alarms throughout, there are motion sensors in some areas, alerts should anyone attempt to jam or hack the system.”

  “Okay.”

  “Oh, there’s more.” He said it cheerfully, like someone about to start an entertaining game. “Lights, sirens. The walls are outfitted with a shock system. This, and more still, would be over and above any human or droid patrols.”

  She handed him coffee. “Here’s what we’re going to do. You know the system.”

  “I do indeed. Or, more accurately, the systems, as there are three systems combined—intertwined, and in layers. It’s very well done.”

  “You’re not going to explain it all to me or we’ll be here for a month. What you’re going to do is look at this—the systems—and the main house, to start, like it has a zillion hot white diamonds inside, and you want them. You’re going to figure out how you’d get in, get to every one of these buildings, and steal the shit out of them.”

  His lips curved slowly. “Well then, wouldn’t that be fun?”

  “It’s just you and me here, ace. Find the weak spots, and be a thief.”

  He studied the schematics, and his smile only spread. “I can do that.”

  Before he started, his ’link signaled. “Ah, that’s perfect as well. I have the security schematics and the blueprints from the island community.”

  “How’d you find time to get those already, and what we’ve got going here?”

  “Delegating. Summerset—and don’t snarl—handled this.”

  “I want to snarl, but I can’t because we need it. How’d he get it—Don’t tell me.” She quickly waved even the thought of it away. “Just send it to Whitney. He’ll get it to Abernathy, and we’ll hope they don’t ask too many questions.”

  “There’s always an answer that will suit if necessary. You’ll feel better knowing that since the block in Tribeca wasn’t actually built by Natural Order, Feeney’s team is getting those blueprints. My system again, so the security’s easy to access. You’ll have that shortly.

  “Now.” He rolled his shoulders. “Hot white diamonds, is it?”

  “Zillions.”

  “I’ve always been fond of them.” He sat down at one of the computers, rolled up his sleeves. Tied his hair back. “If I can build it, I can break it. It starts with the walls.”

  She’d spent nearly her entire career as a murder cop. She’d never chased down a master thief unless a murder was involved. And had never considered, exactly, what went into planning a theft of a highly secured building—much less multiple buildings.

  Apparently at least some of it involved math. What looked to her like really big math, like calculus or physics.

  Before it gave her a headache, she left him to it. She took the other computer and began her own calculations, her bare outline of multiple operations, and timing, and coordination.

  All assuming Roarke got them over, through, or around the wall.

  “That’s that then.”

  She looked up. “What? You’re in?”

  “That’s the wall, and all attached alerts, alarms, deterrents, and so on. You’ve the gatehouse there, and the best solution would be to just shut it down. Shut down its communications, power. If a guard or guards are inside, well, you’ll have to deal with them.”

  “We can do that.”

  “Look here now. I’m highlighting what I’d consider the best areas to breach the wall. Climbing it’s going to be the best of the options, at least until we reactivate the gate from the gatehouse. But I’d stick with a very small number going over and in. I’d want to be over and in before I start shutting down other areas. It needs to be done layer by layer, sector by sector.”

  She didn
’t need to understand his math to get the picture. “Can you show and equip other teams of two—three tops, with one an e-cop—how to take down levels? If you and I go over here.”

  “You and I?”

  “That’s right. We go here, front gate, deal with the gatehouse, move on. Other teams go over at your designated points. We start working our way in, shutting things down as we go.”

  “All right, I see it. I always kept my … team, we’ll say, on the very small side, so I’ll adjust for expanding that.”

  “I need how many we can get inside on the first stage, how long to shut those layers—all down—so that we can spread out to every area. My focus, off the bat, is the suspected prison, the main house. But we need to hit it all.”

  “Let me work out the how, then I’ll give you numbers and times.”

  She had enough to start putting some meat on the bones of her operation. Yes, she could flesh it out now, could start to see.

  Using a highlighter, she tried different routes in from the breach points he’d chosen, began assigning buildings and structures to each team—with backup coming in as the system shut down.

  She lost track of time, building layer by layer as Roarke broke layer by layer.

  He rose, put a hand on her shoulder, then kissed the top of her head. “I believe I have it. A bit more refining to do, but I can give you some times and some numbers.”

  “I’ll take them.”

  “From point of entry, each team—I’d keep that to two each with an e-man for three—must—absolutely must—go no more than fifteen feet from the wall. Go fifteen and an inch, they’ll set off the next layer with motion detectors.”

  “Got it.”

  “From that point, it will take them about four minutes, unless I can shave that down more than I have, to take down the next section. Fifteen feet at a time, Eve. No more, not a toe over.”

  “Slow and steady.”

  “Aye, slow and steady. When a team reaches these apartments, these houses, this building—do you see where it’s going?”

  A slowly shrinking circle. “Yeah, yeah, working that slow and steady in.”

  “They can adjust the jam. I can have them execute a series of codes—so you must have those e-cops—that will shut down the systems on those specific buildings.”