Merry rolled her hand in the air, as if to say ‘get on with it.’ “We know, we can hear him.”
Jayne put the comm back up to her ear. “Good news first.”
"Well,” Alfonso huffed on the other end, “the good news is that I learned the information you need to know. The bad news is the information that I learned.”
Jayne frowned. “Not exactly what I had in mind, Alfonso.”
Alfonso ignored Jayne, desperate to get as much information out in as little time as possible. “They want you dead, Jayne.”
Jayne laughed. “Yeah, I had a hunch. My first clue was when Geiger put a price on my head.”
Alfonso laughed, realizing his redundancy. “Yeah, but your death has officially become part of his campaign strategy. And with the election in a month, he’s pushing hard. I don’t know how much they’re pursuing you now, but he wants to maximize efforts ‘ten-fold.'"
Fred pulled up his tablet. “If Geiger’s planning on hiring mercenaries, or hitmen, I can find out who. Easily.”
Alfonso heard Fred over the line. “That’s not a bad idea. But this is the most important part of his plan…”
It seemed as if Alfonso paused for dramatic emphasis. Jayne waited. “Yes?”
Nothing on the other line.
Jayne’s anxiety spiked. “Alfonso? Alfonso, are you there?!”
“Yeah! I’m here. Sorry, a pack of faculty walked by. I’ve never been more afraid of the staff here. Anyway, Geiger wants to give credit of your death to a random Techcropolis citizen. He wants to be the prime minister who ‘literally puts the power back into the hands of the citizens.’ His words exactly.”
Merry laughed morbidly. “Hell of a lot of power.”
Alfonso chuckled in agreement. “Is it weird that we can joke about this stuff?”
Jayne smiled. “I think it’s a sign of how much this line of work has broken our brains.”
Jayne, Merry, and Fred all high-fived.
“I think I just heard some high-fives. Wish I could be there. For now, I have to go. I’ll do my best to keep providing information, but no promises.”
“Thank you, Alfonso. You’ve done so much already.” Jayne hung up.
Jayne looked to Merry, to Fred. They didn’t have a plan. Thinking of a plan was tough under so much pressure.
Jayne hated what she was about to say, but it was the truth. “I don’t know, guys. I will know, at some point. It’ll all come back to me. But right now, I have to admit, I don’t know what to do.”
Merry shook her head. “Me neither. I’m sorry, Jayne.”
Fred stood up from his chair. “Well, I know what to do!” He started fiddling on his comm.
“You do?” Merry and Jayne seemed to ask in simultaneous shock.
Fred looked at them like the answer had been obvious all along. “Yeah. Let’s order some takeout.” He dialed into his comm and held it up to his ear. “Hello! Is this Lucky Wok Two?”
+++
In thirty minutes or less, a sweaty delivery guy showed up at the door, still in his magne-cycle helmet. Merry answered the door, grabbed the food and handed him forty credits in bills. “Keep the change!”
She slammed the door in his face.
Fred eagerly took the food from Merry. “You’re safe to come out now, Jayne!”
The cabinets beneath the dorm room’s sink swung open, and Jayne rolled out. “Holy cow, I think I just did more damage to my back than when I jumped out of that hotel window.”
Fred handed out the heat-trapping containers. “Lo mein with extra shrimp for Merry.” Merry took it and deactivated the steam-proof seal. “Vegetarian stir fry for Jayne!” Jayne popped her back, then took the food from Fred. “And eggroll casserole for me. My favorite!”
The gang sat down in a circle to enjoy their food. It wasn’t until they took their first few bites that they realized how hungry they were. They hadn’t eaten in at least twenty-four hours. For Fred, this was unheard of. But Jayne and Merry weren’t too happy about it either. The three friends didn’t speak. They only ate. Chewing and the guttural reactions of joy were the only sounds.
Like clockwork, Vlad stepped through the door and entered the dorm room. He immediately began sniffing. “Are you kidding me? I go away for two hours and everyone decides to get dinner?”
Fred held out a fork of his eggroll casserole. “Here, Vlad. You can have some of mine.”
Vlad, Merry, and Jayne dropped their jaws. They stared at Fred in disbelief.
Jayne held out her hand and sweetly touched Fred’s knee. “Are you feeling okay? You’ve never offered to share your food before.”
Fred looked at Jayne very seriously. “Desperate times call for desperate measures, Jayne.”
Vlad waved away Fred’s offer. “No, it’s fine. I grabbed a hot dog on the way back.”
Fred breathed a sigh of relief. “Whew! What a relief.” He shoveled the eggroll casserole into his mouth.
Vlad sat on Jessica’s bed to join the circle. “So, I met with Cameron. He offered as much information as he could. The police, it turns out, are providing very little of the monitoring being done on us. Most of it, the bugging, for example, is being carried out by an off-the-books organization of Dean Geiger’s creation. Called the Data Security Force. Or DSF.”
Merry nodded. “Makes sense to me.”
Vlad held up a finger. “But! Keyword here. But, Cameron says the police force does provide the DSF with every new sliver of evidence they gather on you, Jayne.” He turned to face Jayne.
Merry hunched forward, thinking. “So we feed them false evidence, and that will keep them away?”
“Bingo.” Vlad leaned back onto one of Jessica’s pink, fuzzy pillows. “Cameron seemed pretty confident it’ll work, too. At least for a short time. Hopefully enough time for us to ensnare Dean Geiger. Somehow. What did you guys learn?”
Merry opened the floor for Jayne. Jayne swallowed a bite of her stir fry. “Dean Geiger’s maximizing his efforts to make me dead. Or to ‘neutralize’ me, in his words.”
“And what’s more,” Fred added, “he plans to give credit to an average citizen. Make him look like a candidate that encourages citizens to take on absolute freedom.”
Vlad gritted his teeth. “Jayne, what the hell did you ever do to this Dean Geiger guy?”
Jayne had been asking herself that very question. She hadn’t arrived at a satisfying answer. At least not for herself. “I think I just embarrassed him. And I was in the right place at the right time. The only thing better than a pawn is a pawn you hate.”
Merry stroked her chin. “Any of us good at chess?” She turned to Fred.
Fred shifted his eyes. “Why are you looking at me?”
Merry shrugged. “Because you’re a nerd.”
Fred took offense. “No, I’m not.”
“Yes you are!”
Fred got serious. “How am I a nerd if I don’t know how to play chess, huh?”
Jayne set her stir fry down. “Shut up, guys.” She stood up and began to pace the tiny length of the dorm room. “The mistake I make when I play chess, and the reason I’m not very good at it, is that I always go after the more important pieces first.”
Vlad snuck a bite from Jayne’s stir fry. “Go on.”
“I move forward with my pawns, I try to take down the knights, and the bishops. And what happens is that I lose my foot soldiers, if you will, and I’m left to sacrifice my more powerful pieces. I blame it on my impulsive nature.”
Merry laughed. “What? You? Jayne Austin? Impulsive? Nooo.”
“Very funny, Merry, but I’m serious.” Jayne stopped pacing. “Pawns break down the offensive line, but it’s also how you lure your opponent out into the open.”
Fred painted the picture of the plan in his mind. “So you’re saying… You still play the part of the pawn, but we’re switching sides?”
Jayne smiled. “We let Geiger continue to think I’m his pawn. In reality, I’ll be a pawn for our side of the chess bo
ard.”
Merry recognized Jayne’s smile. She recognized the wicked gleam in her eye. Jayne was ready to take a huge risk. “Jayne, what are you saying?”
Jayne picked up her stir fry. “Say goodbye, guys. Because I’m about to die.”
+++
Theron Techcropolis Medical Examiner’s Office, Morgue, L49, Theron Techcropolis, Amaros
All it took was a flash of his badge and Cameron was standing in a freezing room with dozens of bodies to choose from.
For the sake of security, he went alone with only Jayne and Merry’s highly specific instructions accompanying him.
Cameron forged an order from Chief Bjornstrom to select a body to be transferred to TTPD’s forensics unit for further examination. “Newly discovered evidence has opened this case back up,” he told the night watchman.
The standard order of operations would be followed, except the body would be immediately removed from the lab upon delivery. That would be Cameron and Vlad’s job. From there, they’d drop the body off at a location that, as of that point, hadn’t been decided yet.
Or, perhaps, Cameron wondered, Jayne and Merry were keeping that a secret for now.
Cameron had dealt with his fair share of corpses in his lifetime. More corpses than he would have cared to, but the thought of a dead body didn’t bother him. Once someone was dead, it was just an object that, hopefully, held an answer to how to make his job easier.
Nonetheless, morgues made the hairs on the back of Cameron’s neck stand at attention. The reality of being outnumbered by death was what bothered him. Staring at a sterile white wall with rows upon rows of chambers containing chilled cadavers made him uneasy. He dreaded sliding out the bodies on their metal trays, not knowing who he would encounter. Not knowing what kind of mystery he’d be exposing himself to.
He unlocked the first chamber and opened the airtight door. It was a shot in the dark. He simply had to find a young woman, athletic build, no taller than six feet, no shorter than five-foot-eight. She didn’t have to look like Jayne. If all went according to plan, that wouldn’t be an issue.
Cameron slid out the corpse. A middle-aged man. Bruising around the right eye and cranium. Slit throat. Blunt force trauma to the head, likely some sort of gang-related interrogation, followed by execution. The theatrically wide gash beneath the Adam’s apple, above the sternum, indicated it was most likely done to intimidate a fellow hostage.
It all came so easily to Cameron.
He slid the body back into the morgue and moved on to the next one. An older woman, late 70s. She still had a smile on her face. Hopefully she died peacefully in her sleep. Cameron wanted that so badly for her. That’s what she probably would have wanted. That’s what most people wanted. Cameron hated the idea of dying in his sleep. He hoped he’d at least have a moment, a split second, to register his final moments.
Only out of curiosity, some sort of restitution, a salve for his guilt, so that he would understand what every criminal he had killed had felt.
He slid the peaceful woman back into the morgue. Abandoning pattern, he walked down to the middle of the rows of chambers and opened one at random. Before he even slid the tray out fully, he knew he had found the winner.
Medium build female. Maybe a little older than Jayne, but that wouldn’t be a problem. Long hair, but they could cut it if necessary. Athletic. Healthy looking. No idea what could have killed her. Suicide, maybe, Cameron depressingly conjectured.
Damn, this work was getting to him. Working with Jayne, in the moment, he felt like he was doing something important.
Standing in the morgue, alone, he felt like a policeman. All the more reason to tag this corpse as the body he came for and get the hell out.
+++
Approaching Thrillhouse Arcade, L26, Theron Techcropolis, Amaros
Sometimes, Cameron admitted to himself, you have to trust strangers. He slipped the ambulance driver two-hundred credits to deliver the corpse to an abandoned, lower level arcade. He then slipped him another hundred credits so he wouldn’t ask any questions.
Vlad rode with Cameron in the back, and switched out the corpse’s blood with a pint of fresh blood from Jayne they had drawn that morning and stored in the plastic container their eggdrop soup came in the night before.
Cameron leaned over to make sure the blood was running down the IV into the corpse’s veins. Meanwhile, Cameron began draining the corpse’s original blood from the other arm. “I hope this works.”
Vlad flicked the side of the tube to speed up the transfer. “Well, it won’t hurt. At least some traces of her DNA will be there.”
Cameron pulled out bandage cutters from a rack of instruments clinging to the ambulance wall. He started trimming away the young woman’s hair, down to within an inch of her scalp.
Cameron started to laugh imagining what the hell the driver must think why the hell they were doing this.
That’s when the ambulance pulled to a stop. The driver hopped out and walked around to the back and opened the doors. “End of the line.”
Vlad flicked the tube, draining the last of Jayne’s blood into the corpse. “Okay, all good.” He pulled the IV out of her arm.
Cameron removed the IV on his side as well. He pocketed the scissors, knowing they were no longer sterile. He zipped up the body bag and, with Vlad’s help, carried it out of the ambulance.
The team had decided Thrillhouse Arcade was the best location to dump the body. By this point, the entire place would be covered with Jayne’s DNA, plus remnants of her makeshift living space.
Besides, no one was going to miss it when it went up in flames.
+++
Dean Geiger’s Office, Espionage Academy, Avalon Space Station
Noora burst into Geiger’s office. Even Noora was forbidden to enter his office without being expected or buzzing in first, but she knew Geiger would forgive her. “Ronald, turn the holo-news on!”
“It is on!” Geiger answered, ecstatic. “Damn, I wish I had some of that champagne left. It’d taste so sweet right now.”
Geiger and Noora stood next to each other and bathed in the comforting glow of the good news on the hologram before them.
Cameron took questions from the on-scene reporter as firefighters put out the remnants of a roaring fire behind him. “Yes, we received a tip this morning that Jayne Austin had been seen on Level Twenty-Six earlier this morning. When the anonymous tip mentioned the Thrillhouse Arcade, we knew we had a good chance finding her. This abandoned building was known as one of her hideouts. Considering that information had never been released publicly, it was a good sign. And it turned out to be true.”
The on-scene reporter spoke into her microphone. “Detective Stafford some are saying it was risky to engage with Jayne Austin with such excessive force. Can you defend this action?”
Cameron countered with an effortless answer. “Jayne Austin had proved that negotiating was always out of the question. Over the past several weeks, many attempts had been made to take her alive. This excessive action was really Austin’s choice. She left us with no other options. I’m just glad our brave firefighters were able to arrive and control the blaze ignited by the use of our flamethrowers.”
The serious reporter was frustrated by Cameron’s excellent answers. He almost appeared to have rehearsed. She decided to hit below the belt. “It’s well-known that you had cooperated with Jayne Austin in the past. Was it difficult to lead this pursuit and make the decision to put an end to Jayne’s reign of terror?”
Cameron remained stone faced, even though he wanted to crack a smile. He answered immediately. “No. My collaborations with Jayne in the past occurred at a time when her operations remained within the limits of the law. She assisted me with my job. Once she crossed the line, I continued to do my job. I have no regrets for doing what I had to do.”
And then, the camera spun away from Cameron as the operator hustled closer to the scene of the crime.
The holo-news camera operator zoomed in
on Jayne Austin’s charred corpse as paramedics zipped it up into a body bag.
Geiger cackled. He threw his hands around Noora and spun her with him around the room in a delirious waltz. “Give that detective… What was his name?”
“Cameron, sir.” Noora answered.
Geiger twirled Noora under his arm and out, then spun her back in and dipped her. “Give that man a medal or something. Do we have a commendation for this kind of thing in place?”
Noora looked up at Geiger. “I’ll look into it, sir.”
Geiger pulled Noora back up. “Good. And when you’re done with that, organize another press conference… No! A rally. This is big. It’s time for the final push. We’re winning this election, Noora. We’re winning it.”
Noora felt the warmth of Dean Geiger’s embrace. She grinned conspiratorially. “Yes we are, sir.”
Geiger looked deep into Noora Barcellos’ big brown eyes. “Just you and me, baby. At the center of the universe. The entire Federation in the palm of our hands.”
“KISS ME YOU BASTARD!”
Geiger pulled Noora in, locking his lips around hers. They melted together onto the floor, and right out of their clothes.
+++
The Ultra-Optic Standard Company Arena, L50, Theron Techcropolis, Amaros
The arena was as packed as it had been at the Lightball playoffs. No one was there for sport this time, but the audience was just as bloodthirsty.
A stage had been erected at one end of the arena. Behind the stage, two massive banners of the now famous Rex logo for Dean Geiger’s security branch hung down from the ceiling.
Camera drones hovered in wait to capture Geiger’s arrival on stage. His speech would be broadcast onto the massive screens positioned around the arena, and out onto every major network of The Federation and beyond.
Cameron waited in the wings of the stage, where a short, nasally stage manager continually pestered him with details. “Geiger will outline the success of Jayne’s death to the audience. He’ll explain the importance of this, then he will welcome you onto the stage. Wait five seconds, count them out, so that our camera drones have to time to hover over here and track you as you walk on stage. Is that clear?”
Exposed (Interplanetary Spy for Hire Book 2) Page 27
