Watch Dogs

by John Shirley

  Quinn sipped his drink, made one of those grunting ah sounds that people made over liquor sometimes, and went on, “So Tranter says he can take care of it. With your approval. You’ll pay the guy. Bing bang boom. But there’s no boom. I mean--you know--there’s a bang. But no boom. The dumb son of a bitch missed his target.”

  “Stan Grampus was the son of a bitch in question. Yes. Close but no cigar.”

  “And word is, Grampus is dead. Probable killer? Aiden Pearce! The same cocksucker Grampus was supposed to off! And who’s Aiden Pearce--he’s the guy who killed my father. I repeat--my father, Verrick!”

  “Right. Understood.”

  “Way I see it, Verrick, you either owe me some money--and some vig on top of that--or you owe me a clean-up. I want Pearce killed. Soon. Because we laundered a big fat pile of money for you--two piles, really, brought in two lots, piping hot from Somalia--and we gave you a lot of accommodation. We sent some of our Chunkies over there to help you out, on the South Side. What happened? Dead Chunkies, wasted personnel I can no longer use.”

  “Not our fault if your men were not efficient.”

  Quinn stared at him--then a red light seemed to shine in his blue eyes. He threw his glass at the wall to his left, where it shattered.

  The two Graywaters stepped up, raising their guns.

  “Hold your fire,” Verrick said.

  “So my men were inefficient? You man was inefficient. Aiden Pearce is still alive!” He pointed a finger at Verrick. “And I haven’t heard a fucking word about you making this right!”

  Verrick glanced at the brown splash on his wall. “You know, that was pretty rude.”

  “You want to see rude?”

  “One step forward, men,” Verrick said.

  His mercenaries both took a step toward Quinn.

  Quinn looked at the men, first one and then the other. “Look at that, Colin! See that military style these guys got? That’s Verrick’s military background! He was a major! And now he’s an important man at Blume! And he thinks he can threaten me!”

  Verrick shook his head. “Just keeping my guard up. But don’t worry, Quinn. Everything’s going to get turned upside down in this town--and soon. I’ll be on top. And so will you--if you work with me. And Aiden Pearce? I’m looking for him right now. I’ll shoot him myself, if necessary. He’s going down. No extra charge.”

  “What’s this turning upside down you’re talking about here?” Quinn demanded.

  Verrick shrugged. He hadn’t told Quinn about Purity’s plans. Wouldn’t be prudent, as the elder George Bush used to say. “I’m just making some moves, is all. Business stuff. But believe me--Pearce is going down. Aiden Pearce will be smoked, dusted, snuffed. And soon. And as for Grampus screwing up--and the tone of this conversation...” He made a very slight bow. “I apologize. You’re the boss in this town now, Quinn. I haven’t forgotten it...”

  Niall Quinn stared at him. “Then he sniffed and said. “I never forget it. And I don’t forget a debt. You see you take care of this--and soon.”

  He turned and walked out the door. His bodyguard followed him, but backing toward the door.

  When they were gone, Verrick fixed himself another drink, and washed down half an Oxy with it.

  He smiled to himself.

  You’re the boss in this town now, Quinn...

  For now. Just for now.

  #

  Blindfolded, Bullock was sitting on the sofa. They’d blindfolded him about a quarter-mile away, and made him lay on the floor so no one would call in a police report about it.

  Now Wolfe sat turned toward Bullock, letting him wait in uncertainty for a minute. Seline, a gun in her hand, was standing nearby.

  Finally, Wolfe removed the blindfold.

  Their captive blinked at the safehouse room. He looked at the curtained and shuttered window. Licked his lips. Glanced at the door.

  “There’s no way out of here except past me, Bullock,” Wolfe said. “And even if you could do that--then you’d have to get past her. And she’s actually scarier than I am.”

  Seline nodded gravely, playing the part. “I am, really. I have some surgical saws in those drawers over there. I think, Wolfe, we should skip the bullshit and just gag him and get the saws out. There’s some plastic tarp we can put down on the floor.”

  Bullock’s eyes widened. “Now wait a minute--”

  “Bullock--the more I look at you,” Wolfe said musingly, “the more I feel I’ve seen you before. In person. Somewhere.”

  Wolfe meant it. He couldn’t quite place the guy.

  Bullock cleared his throat. “I was the General’s secretary. When you came in for your hearing. I was in uniform then.”

  “Ah yes. You worked for Van Ness. And you still do. With Purity.”

  Bullock’s face went blank. It was a careful, studied blankness. “Purity?”

  “It’s okay, Bullock,” Seline said. “We know all about it.”

  “I was there,” Wolfe said. “At the lodge on 77th Street. I heard Van Ness. I didn’t see you there. Chances were you were backstage. But I got a lot of information. And we got more through hacking. Now we can either dig the rest of the information out of you now, the way Seline suggested...I think I’d have to tie you up and leave, it makes me sick to watch that stuff...or we can turn you over to the Justice Department. Now, I know--that sounds better to you. But you’d still be facing years in prison. Because I am pretty sure I can convince them to hold you until after the attack...we know the attack is coming...and no way they’re going to let you go. They learned their lesson from the Boston Bombing, Bullock. They’ll hold you and they’ll tie you in with it and then it’ll be all about them trying to keep Van Ness and Verrick from trying to kill you in prison. But there’s a third option--I can call up Verrick and sell you to him. He was just trying to kill you--remember? How long do you think you’d last, without protection? So...”

  “Wait, Wolfe!” Seline said, snapping her fingers. “We could do a combination of option one and three! We could slice him up, get the info, then sell whatever we have left of him to Verrick!”

  Bullock groaned.

  “Let’s call that option four, Seline,” Wolfe said. “There you have it, Bullock--those are the cards you’ve been dealt. How you going to play them?”

  “You were there that night...” Bullock looked at him doubtfully.

  “Yeah. I was there. Socialism pops its ugly head up any time you don’t flush its holes out with poison. Remember when Van Ness said that, Bullock?”

  Bullock swallowed, blanching.

  “And you remember there was a guy on the roof. And someone knocked him out and got in. One of the Graywaters went down...but the guy escaped.”

  Bullock stared. “That was you!”

  “Yes it was. I know about Purity. Your only hope is to tell me how the attack is going to happen. And then I won’t call up Verrick, and sell him to you. And I won’t give you to the Justice Department. Or...her.”

  “And if I tell you, you’ll let me go?”

  “I’ll get you to O’Hare. You can leave town. But if you talk to Verrick...I’ll talk to the Justice Department. If you don’t...you’ll go free. If I can confirm what you tell us.”

  “I don’t know...”

  “Would a drink help?” Seline asked.

  “A drink? You mean liquor? No. I’m diabetic.”

  “Crap. We’ll have to get insulin for him, Wolfe. I mean--if we keep him alive.”

  “No, no,” Bullock muttered. “You won’t have to get insulin. I have an implanted insulin injector. There’s enough concentrate in its storage unit to keep me going for months.”

  “Okay then,” Wolfe said. “Coffee?”

  “Yes. Yes please...”

  They reheated a cup of coffee--sick of instant, Seline had gotten a coffee maker and some good roast.

  She brought Bullock the cup, and he stared at it. “You didn’t poison it, did you? Or put some kind of drug in it?”

  “No, no
, I didn’t. Here.” She took a sip and handed it back to him.

  He sipped the coffee and then said, “Purity is...pretty big. It’s supported by a small group of billionaires--and people like Verrick. He invested most of the money he stole in Somalia in Purity, after he laundered it, he socked most of it into Iceberg.”

  “What is Iceberg, just a shell company?” Wolfe asked.

  Bullock hesitated. Then apparently decided to go whole-hog with the facts. “No. Iceberg...it’s called that because, you know, the tip of iceberg.” He put his coffee cup down on the small table in front of the sofa. “Iceberg is more than a shell company. It’s the organizing group for Purity, the financial group, the board of directors. Purity’s been around for decades, very hush-hush and all. A group of very rich families set it up. They’ve been stashing money for Purity for a long time. Billions! Some of them were invested in top oil and tech companies--and they did make a killing. That gave them funds to divert to Purity. You know--through Iceberg.”

  “What’s their long-term plan?” Wolfe asked.

  “It’s in several stages but essentially it’s a ‘from the inside out’ takeover. They’ve started it by ‘astroturfing’ media. Van Ness says controlling media is controlling mind; controlling access is controlling hope. ctOS can do that, once they take control of it completely. Hell, controlling ctOS can even be controlling money flow.”

  “So they start with media--and set the stage with that?” Seline asked.

  “Sure. But they got impatient. They’re working up another plan. See, they feel that North America should be a bastion of purity related to western European culture--and American culture. And that means resisting this so-called ‘cultural diversity’ thing. They want to resist the liberal agenda, the gay agenda, the immigrant agenda, and above all the socialist agenda. You know, the whole ‘tax the rich’ paradigm, all the regulations and pollution controls...”

  “They?” Seline broke in. “Shouldn’t you say we, Bullock? I mean--as in you?”

  Bullock cleared his throat. “Ah--it was we. I’m still pretty much against a lot of that stuff but...it’s where they’re taking it. I was taking notes for Verrick at the last meeting of the Iceberg board of directors and...I guess it scared me. Could be that Verrick saw my reaction. And then when the SystemsLeak file about him and Van Ness came out he started thinking maybe I’d testify against him. Being as I knew about the...expropriation.”

  “The expropriation?” Wolfe snorted. “You mean killing those soldiers in Somalia and stealing millions and millions of dollars from the US government?”

  “Ah. Yes. That.” He nodded stiffly. “I knew about it. And I know about Project Iceberg. So I guess he figures I’m a liability to that as well as to him.”

  Wolfe and Seline stared at him, waiting.

  Bullock looked back and forth between them. “Project Iceberg...involves sending up UAVs--special drones, developed by Verrick and Starling. The drones will be transmission stations, intermediary tech that will hack into the automatic pilot systems of passenger jets. Jumbo jets preferably--the bigger the better. They’ve gotten more and more auto-pilot oriented, in the last few years. Makes them vulnerable to hacking, y’know.” He picked up his coffee cup, and put it down again. “Ultimately PURIFY plans to hack into planes coming into O’Hare airport to crash them all over the city. It will rain jet planes...including some military jets.”

  Seline’s mouth dropped open. “How will that help anyone?”

  Bullock sighed. “I had the same thought. But Verrick thinks it’ll provide cover for something he wants to do. He plans to take over Blume Corporation. There’s a special meeting of Blume Corporation’s top people...They’ll be meeting over several days. Most of them aren’t the kind who’ll sign on with Purity. They have some kind of qualms about the whole concept, I guess. Fairness, that kind of thing. So they’ll stand in the way of the Purity agenda. They’ll be roadblocks to Verrick and Van Ness. This way--they’ll die. Verrick figures when they’re killed, Blume’s stock value will plunge. Then --Roger Verrick himself--can buy up enough of it to put himself in control of the company. And then when he controls Blume, he’ll be able to get full control over ctOS. Right now he only has intermittent access to it. He’s worried the...the reds, the socialists, the unions, the liberals--that they’ll get control of ctOS themselves. He want to get there first. Chicago will be heavily damaged by the crashes all over town. That’ll weaken every part of the city. He can insert his own people, in the chaos. That’ll give him control of Chicago. Then he’ll push for ctOS to be established across the country--and he’ll have a special access to the system so he can control it. He’ll be able to take over the whole country...through ctOS.”

  “But...” Seline shook her head in amazement. “Countless people will die in Chicago!”

  “Sure. But one thing he plans to is to crash a lot of the planes into areas of Chicago heavily populated by liberals--or minorities. If they’re dead...they can’t vote. Plus--he can get rid of Pearce’s network. It’s more concentrated on the poorer sides of town. And he wants to eliminate Aiden Pearce. He’ll use the Club as his enforcers, when he’s rebuilding...”

  “Wait,” Wolfe said. “The Club. Tranter. Aiden Pearce...so Verrick is definitely the guy who sent Grampus to kill Pearce?”

  “Through Tranter. But...of course it was Niall Quinn who paid for it. And who demanded it get done. In exchange for services.”

  “Niall Quinn. Son of Lucky Quinn?”

  “Right. Niall Quinn wanted revenge on Aiden Pearce for killing his dad...”

  Wolfe grunted. “Big mistake on Verrick’s fault, to get involved with that bunch. Because going after Pearce, for Quinn--got Pearce to fight back. And Pearce’s been using me like a chess piece against Verrick...only I don’t think he knows why Verrick sent Grampus...”

  Seline glared at Bullock. “Just tell me--when was this attack...involving drones and planes...going to happen?”

  “A few days. End of that meeting the Blume outfit was here for. But--I’ve heard...that Verrick is moving it up. It’s going ahead...tomorrow!”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  “So it was Niall Quinn?” Pearce’s voice on the phone was hard, brittle. “I wondered if it might be. He pulled the trigger on Verrick, who pulled the trigger on Tranter, who pulled the trigger on Grampus--who pulled it on me.”

  “Yeah. But Pearce...” Wolfe was in the bedroom of the safehouse. She could hear the murmur of voices, Seline talking to Bullock in the next room. “...the attack. If Bullock’s right about that...”

  “It fits in with what we know. It’s the last piece of the puzzle, Wolfe. We have to assume it’s true. You’re going to have to go to a guy I know at the Justice Department. Or--I have a friend who’s a friend of his. Kiskel knows him. He’ll see you. There’s an office right here in Chicago. You warn them--Homeland Security will ground those planes and put out an alert for drones.”

  “You believe that?”

  “Sure, they go on high alert every time a Muslim baby burps. They’re almost as worried about militia nut jobs. And this is pretty much what these Purity guys are.”

  “But--Van Ness is a connected son of a bitch. And Purity has a lot of money. You know as well as I do that money talks in this country. Did the Department of Justice go after all those Wall Street lowlifes? I don’t know if they’re going to raid Verrick and Iceberg on my say-so.”

  “Look, I’m not a law and order guy. I’m a wanted man. But --we’ve got an obligation to tell people about this. I think Department of Justice is more reliable than Homeland Security. Those dopes at HS will probably arrest you before they’ll detain Van Ness...they’ll figure it’s all a veiled threat from you. But Doolin at DoJ--Kiskel says he’s all right. Go to him, Pearce. Fast. I’ll try to set it up.”

  #

  It was dusk by the time Seline drove Bullock to the train station.

  They were just approaching the curb near the station, when Bullock said, suddenly, “Young
lady--you wouldn’t really have carved me up, would you?”

  She hesitated. But she couldn’t keep up the pretense anymore. “No. And we wouldn’t have given you to Verrick. But we’d have turned you over to Pearce, probably. And who knows what he’d have done with you....”

  He looked up at the station. “I don’t know if this is safe...”

  “You want to try to drive out?”

  “No. Verrick’ll be watching my house. I don’t want to use a credit card--I’d need that for a rental.”

  “You could try O’Hare...”

  “No, couldn’t go out through O’Hare. Not with a lot of crashing planes a possibility. But...I don’t feel good about this either. They could be looking for me here. Would you at least come in with me?”

  “Okay, Bullock.” She took a left, and lucked into a parking place almost immediately. They parked, got out and walked through the cold gray evening to Union Station. She had the remote camera scrambler Wolfe had given her, in her pocket, and she pressed it several times as they approached. She didn’t know if they were looking for her but she didn’t want to take a chance.

  They went through the glass doors, down the hallway, into the big ticketing room. Seline looked around. It was mostly just a room full of busy people, or waiting people. They were bustling off to a train, waiting in lines, or waiting in wooden benches. There were a couple of cops across the room, chatting, paying them no harm. An announcer’s voice boomed out, warning that a train to Kansas City was about to depart.

  “You sure you want to go to Los Angeles, Bullock?” she asked. He was planning to pay for the ticket cash, at the ticket windows.

  “Yes. I didn’t know if you were going to really bring me here...” He looked around nervously. “I don’t see anyone watching me.”

  “There wasn’t any doubt, once Wolfe made you a promise, that he was going to let you go. He’s a pretty square guy. Tough but...honest.”

  “You like him, don’t you? I mean...in a big way.”