The Armor Heist
Page 5
Canbe sprinted away from the firefight. As soon as she turned the corner, she stripped off the Brinkloom uniform. She had spent two hours sewing Velcro strips into it the night before. When she pulled them the right way, the uniform fell immediately, revealing the pair of jeans and t-shirt she was wearing underneath it.
She reached Pigeon’s getaway car. Its key was hidden in the driver’s side rear wheel well. She sat down and changed her face. Maria was nowhere near the battle anymore. Canbe started the car and sent Ægis her last text message. Then, she calmly drove away.
Canbe found Maria sitting on the couch, watching a news program.
“What did you do?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Canbe explained. “When you were at work today, you were attacked by rogue elements of Parcel Service. You took a wrong turn, they must have assumed it was an encroachment.”
“I wasn’t at work. You’re crazy. You locked me up here!”
“You were very brave. You probably saved your whole crew. It’s kind of a blur, but Ted was hurt. So you dragged him out of the driver’s box.”
Maria jumped up. “You kidnapped me, and you expect me to help you?”
Canbe aimed Maria’s pistol at her. “Did you take a bullet trying to flank the postmen? Or were you mortally wounded?”
Maria did not know what kind of gunfighter the strange woman was, but an amateur could empty a pistol before Maria could cross the room.
“Take the bag off the coffee table and put it over your head,” Canbe directed her. “You’re going to be found near the battle. It’s up to you what condition you’re in.”
Thursday
A pair of Brinkloom technicians examined Ægis’s phone. They could not read the messages because he encrypted his data “at rest.” He could not encrypt the call log, though. The log was provided by his wireless carrier; technically that data was not stored on his phone. He received messages from a Brinkloom employee during the fight. He was in contact with the driver during the fight.
Maria’s phone did not receive those messages. Her cellular account did, but her device did not. The technicians concluded that someone had cloned her phone, so that they could pose as her. It was the first solid piece of information that made sense. They did not know how the impersonator mimicked Maria’s face, voice, and fingerprints, but when they found the imposter, they would find out.
There was one text message after the fight. It came from a hidden number. The number was not hidden from Ægis, though. The technicians copied Ægis’s contact list. It was encrypted, but they had time and a computer mainframe dedicated to cipher-analysis.
It took them forty-eight hours to learn the name and home address of “Laura Ryan.” Canbe’s home identity was compromised.
Wednesday Morning
Because of circumstances beyond their control, Parcel Service rescheduled the rest of their deliveries. The next morning, a postman walked up to a nondescript office. It was some computer company, which was a small state in a large nation-status entertainment corporation. He rarely delivered packages to the office; they did almost everything electronically, but he remembered the building did not have an elevator. He carried a box. It was not heavy. He didn’t mind walking up the stairs to the third floor, but he was just as happy that a pretty redhead met him at the front door to sign for it.
He apologized that the box had been delayed by a day. She might have seen something on the news about it.
It must have been so scary. She flirted with him a little. He smiled as he left the box with her and walked back to his truck and continued his route.
Canbe waited until the Parcel Service truck pulled away. Then she walked to her own car.
She did not open the box. She wrapped the whole thing in crème colored paper and shipped it “priority overnight” to Microsoft.
Saturday
Laura Ryan was picking up groceries when the Brinkloom capture team showed up at her house. At least, that was what her gardener claimed. The dark skinned woman looked nothing like the woman who had held Maria prisoner. She did not have an identification card and burst into tears when they questioned her.
Few police forces bothered with immigration law, but the people who paid migrant workers played on the fear of being returned to whatever geographic nation the immigrant fled. The Brinkloom officers could not enforce municipal laws, only corporate ones. They let the gardener go, so they could wait for Ms. Ryan.
Canbe never returned to the house. She had narrowly escaped because Brinkloom made assumptions about the sort of people who lived in high-end suburban neighborhoods. She hated to leave her home, and she hated that she could never work with Ægis again. She consoled herself with the knowledge that she had earned half a million dollars by signing for a package.
It was more than enough for her to start a new, fake life.