between her peers at Heartfield and any sponsored labs in the area. Someone from that school had to have been working with her on this, and they might know something about who is after her. As far as the organization is concerned. I’m just going to have to go looking for them.”
“Attention,” CIBL cuts in. “Two detectives from Civil are headed up. I spotted them in the lobby. They are currently waiting for the elevator.”
It’s a bit earlier than I would have liked, but at least they let us get through everything first. And I know just who it is. No time like the present, I guess, to speak to an old friend. Especially when he’s already here.
“Release protocols,” I tell Maggie as I pass by her on my way back to my office.
+ + + + + +
“Coo place you got here.” Franko Sillas says, glancing around. I never met him when I was on the force. Now that I have, I don’t care for him. He’s a bit condescending and I can already tell that he has something against me. Not sure what it is. And I don’t really care. But he’s a real prick. Colin, however, wouldn’t have kept the guy as a partner if he didn’t have a decent enough opinion of the guy. “How can you afford a place like this? It’s got to be pretty pricey; even if you were still on the force.”
“Lots of people died here; so the rent tanked.”
“Lucky you,” Franko says, without even the hint of sarcasm. See what I mean? Prick.
“So. Is this a social call? Or do you have business.” It’s already been a few minutes and they have yet to tell me why they are here. I mean, I know, but I want them to tell me.
Colin finally chimes in. “Well, I have been meaning to stop in. Say hi and such. But, no. This is not a social call.”
Franko cuts in with, “We want to know why an ex-cop is poking around our case.”
“And why your assistant was looking in on our vic,” Colin finishes. Well, that explains why Colin has been taking glances back at Maggie since he got here.
“Gentlemen, we’re merely working on a case. I can’t just disclose to you any information on it, just because you request it.”
“Fair enough,” Colin replies. To Franko he says, “Wait for me out there. Need a moment here.”
Franko shakes his head at Colin, then turns to walk out. Raising his hands in frustration, he breathes, “Just wasting time here then.”
“I don’t know what you know that I don’t. But, how deep in it are you this time?” Colin asks of me.
“I’ll tell you what I know,” I reply pointing to him. “Your suspect is simply another victim. Just a matter of time, if she wasn’t made one already. As for how deep I’m in…” I stand up, shaking my head with a smile on my face. “I’ll just have to let you know when it’s all over,” I say laughing.
“Well. You look good. And you seem to be doing alright.”
“Yea. A lot of it is thanks to your sister.”
“Shoot,” Colin declares. “You can’t tell her that, you know.”
“She did stab me,” I say while patting my ribs. “Been sober since.”
“Whoa, so you’re Melah’s brother?!” Maggie asks, beaming with a big smile on her face. She had just walked in, carrying a hand held detector. It’s an interesting device because it can be formatted to detect whatever you need it to. In our case, it’s used to find those stay bugs left behind by would be spies. God only knows why no one ever picks up their stuff. They only ever leave more behind. I’d just chuck it all, if I didn’t suspect that I’d be billed for it. And obviously, this means she got a ping while protocols were in place. Someone put a new bug in my office. That could prove problematic, depending on when it was put in place and by whom. Oh well. I’ll just have to cross that bridge if it comes up.
“Yes, I am. But I also go by Colin,” he replies holding out his hand.
Maggie fumbles with the detector before taking his hand. “Sorry, we just got a ping for this thing and well… It’s nice to meet you, finally. Maggie. I’m Maggie.”
“I got that. My sister talks about you a lot. Good to finally put a face with the name.”
“Likewise. I heard a lot about you too. Also from your sister,” she says chuckling. “This one,” she awkwardly points at me, still clutching the detector in her arms, “likes to laugh at stuff, but it’s like pulling teeth trying to get any information out of him.”
“That ping.”
“Sure boss. Excuse me,” Maggie says as she steps back from Colin and whips up the detector. She starts to scan the ceiling around my desk. The detector is similar in design to a metal detector, aside from the glass disk within which are layers upon layers of nanites arrayed in coils. It’s odd to see someone work with it, which is the new reason why Colin keeps glancing at Maggie.
“So how is my sponsor? I haven’t seen her since that meeting last month.”
“I haven’t seen much of her lately, either, but she seems pretty happy.”
“Found it,” Maggie declares. We watch as she puts the detector on my desk by the pod containing my leftovers, gets my chair, and wheels it to where she found the bug that caused the ping. She then retrieves the detector and goes back to the chair. She takes off her shoes before standing on the chair. Turning on a magnet in the detector, Maggie sticks the detector into the ceiling panel and there’s an audible tap as the bug hits the plate of the detector. “Got it.”
“That’s new,” Colin remarks, as Maggie places the bug and the detector on my desk.
“And a pain,” Maggie offers. “You'd think one of these agencies might want to hire him rather than just spy on him.”
“Trouble in paradise?” Colin quips.
“We’ll be moving shortly,” I answer.
“Unless Civil wants to throw and old dog a bone,” Maggie interjects.
“Only a chief can grant that kind of contract,” Colin replies.
“And I’m not on any kind of terms right now with the only chief I know,” I tell Maggie. “Definitely not on good ones.”
“Yea, yea,” Maggie dismisses me, much to Colin’s enjoyment. “He can help with your case,” she tells Colin. To me she says, “There I said it.”
“You’re a little bit more open than Melah let on. But it just wouldn’t work. We’re not on the same side. Civil’s got to follow the evidence, and you’re boss is playing his hand very close to his chest. Sorry.”
“It’s fine,” Maggie replies. “I got a feeling that Civil will want his help before too long.”
“Anything’s possible,” Colin says back. “Anyway, I’ll tell Melah you said hi,” he tells me. “That is if I can get in touch with her when she comes up for air.”
“So it’s going good then?” Maggie asks. “Melah said that she just started seeing someone. But I haven’t met her yet.”
“It’s good, I guess. Melah spends all of her free time with this lawyer chick. I’ve only met her once. Takes some getting used to though.”
“Really,” Maggie says, puzzled. I listen in on this little conversation between the two of them. Personal stuff like this, I don’t really care for. People’s personal lives are their own business.
“Yes and no. Her name is Monica. She’s a lawyer, like I said. But, she’s a zennie, or whatever. You know, one of those people that wear those body suits everywhere. Well, Monica wears a black one all the time. Doesn’t bother Melah at all, but to each their own. As far as I know she even fashioned her own hair into one of the wigs she wears over the body suit, and wears a collar and few other embellishments when she goes out. The court has her wearing a skirt when she argues a case.”
“Has Melah seen her face?” Maggie asks. To her credit she’s actually interested in the dating life of my sponsor. Me, I just know that my sponsor will be in a better mood when next we meet, if she’s happy. And that, I can get behind.
“Yea. It’d be a deal breaker for Melah if she didn’t know who she was dating.”
�
��Have you,” I ask. I’m actually just a little curious myself.
“Nah, man. That wouldn’t fly with these two. My sister even threatened me. If I tried to take a peek at Monica on any of the public safety sensors she said that I’d get worse than you,” he says pointing to me before continuing, “It’s fine. I don’t get it myself, but as long as Melah’s happy… And Monica’s actually very nice. I’m having dinner with them tonight.”
“If you need dessert, the Hy-Fy Diner over on Banks street has a mean apple pie.” Sound advice, but Maggie is really just trying to set up a meet with my sponsor’s new lady love.
“We’re good there, thanks. I should probably go. Got a case to solve, and I suppose so do you,” he tells me. Offering his hand to Maggie, he says, “And it was nice to meet you, Miss Fender.”
“Same, Mr. Quinn,” Maggie replies, as they shake hands. “Tell that sister of yours to bring by her lover, next time she stops by.” That gets a chuckle out of Colin.
“I can’t guarantee that I will. And try to be a little more inconspicuous the next time you hack the Civil servers, ok.”
“Why? It’s legal,” Maggie says defensively.
“That may be. But you don’t know the headaches those tech guys give when they complain about how forward a hacker gets. They know you’re in the system, so you don’t have to go and make a big deal about being there. Trust me, your boss did whatever he wanted and never fired off any alarms when doing so.”
“Yea, but not everything Mr. Origami did was legal.
Origami St.Claire No. 2 Page 6
