"Not much time, no," Dan said, his smile softer, tinged with sadness. That life seemed almost like a mirage now. "Here, sit," Dan said, grabbing up some papers off the couch. I took the place he offered and Blue laid down on the floor next to me. "So," Dan said, "where should we start?"
"At the beginning," I said. "Explain how we find out about bad guys and how we decide what to do about them."
Dan nodded. "We use the Joyful Justice website as a beginning to everything."
I nodded, anxiety curling up my throat. While I knew about the website, and had even met Dan through it, the idea of the site still made me uncomfortable.
Dan sat down in one of the chairs across from me. "As you know the site was started by Jacquelyn Saperstein." Jacquelyn’s husband, Joseph Saperstein, was killed by Mayor Kurt Jessup, the same monster who shot my brother, James, in front of me. I flashed back to the blood on James's cheeks, the color draining from his skin, his gray eyes, so like my own, like my mother's, staring up at me, his lips saying goodbye.
I swallowed, pushing the memories away, bringing my mind back to Jacquelyn Saperstein. She was arrested for her husband's murder. When I exposed Kurt Jessup as the killer, her freedom was secured. In her gratitude she turned me into a folk hero. Not the gift I would have asked for, but in life we so rarely get to choose. "Jackie wanted a place for people to come together and defend you as well as share their own stories of injustice," Dan continued.
"Does she know what we've become?"
"No, she is not as involved in the site. Got remarried, has a kid."
I raised my eyebrows remembering the thin, devastated widow. I was glad to hear she'd found happiness in the four years since I’d seen her.
"Okay, so, it started as a gathering place, but people were sharing their stories and others were trying to help. The whole vigilante thing was starting before we even got involved."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you know I was a member," he smiled and raised his eyebrows, "that's how we met after all."
When I'd gotten myself into a situation where I needed help I'd turned to Joyful Justice members. Dan was one of the people I recruited. But my motives were almost entirely selfish. I had not been looking to start a movement, just get myself out of danger.
"Yes, I know," I said.
There was a knock at the door. A young man, wearing shorts and a worn T-shirt, held a bowl of water. Dan motioned for him to enter.
The man was a little shorter than Dan at about six feet. His hair was dark brown with highlights from the sun and his eyes a sparkling blue. He smiled as he greeted Blue, putting down the bowl of water. "Beautiful dog," he said, looking up at me with those shiny eyes. The skin around them was unlined, no shadows underneath. I wondered if he could even distinguish his role here from playing an exciting computer game. With eyes like that he couldn't possibly understand the dangers and moral dilemmas that members of Joyful Justice were facing every day.
"Thanks," I said, extending my hand. "I'm Sydney."
"Mitchel," he said, shaking my hand. His was calloused across the palm. Obviously he didn't spend all his time in front of the computer. "Can I get you anything?"
"I'm good, thanks," I said, holding up my water bottle. He turned to Dan.
"Anything for you?"
"No, thanks Mitchel. I'm glad you two got a chance to meet," Dan said, looking at me. "Mitchel is a brilliant hacker, he's doing a lot of great work here."
Mitchel blushed and I smiled at him. "Thanks," I said.
He nodded. "Happy to be here." He looked at me for a moment and his eyes narrowed slightly. "You have the most incredible eyes," he said. "I've never seen that color gray before."
I flicked my gaze away from him, embarrassed. "Thanks," I said, looking over at Dan who smiled at me, a glint of something in his grape-green eyes.
"You want to go out later?" Mitchel asked Dan.
"Don't think I'll have time today. Tomorrow morning?" Dan answered.
"Sounds good."
Mitchel turned and left. As the door closed I asked Dan what "going out" was.
"Stand-up paddle boarding. We do it most days."
"You and Mitchel."
"Most everyone here. I insist on some kind of above-ground activity. As computer nerds we’re susceptible to all kinds of illness: carpal tunnel, back problems, eye fatigue, turning into total dorks," he said with a smile. "So, I make everyone go outside. Also helps them socialize." He smiled. "Supposed to keep them from random compliments that make girls blush."
I raised my eyebrows. "I'm not blushing," I said.
Dan shrugged. "Maybe just a little." I laughed. "There is a great jogging route, too. I can show you later if you want."
I nodded. "Yeah, I'll probably want a run before bed. But let's get back to Joyful Justice."
"Right, so as I was saying, as more members of the forum posted requests for help and more people responded we created deeper sub-areas of the forum where only invited members could go." Dan leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees. "We vetted people before inviting them to be a part of the conversation about starting Joyful Justice as we know it today."
"How did you vet them?"
Dan smiled. "Well, tracking their IP addresses. Making sure they were who they said they were. Pretty basic stuff back then. Now we are a lot more careful. I'm not interested in ending up in a black ops prison, are you?"
I shook my head thinking about how close I'd come back in Costa Rica. If it weren't for Bobby Maxim I'd probably be in one right now. "No," I said, taking a deep breath.
"You got pretty close, huh?" Dan asked.
"Yeah, Mulberry told you?"
"Not all the details but yeah, some guy named Declan Doyle has a real hard on for catching you."
I coughed a laugh. "Something like that. He knew me in New York. Actually, he was the one who introduced me to Robert Maxim."
"He was a cop then, right? He's with Homeland Security now."
"Yeah, he was a mounted police officer. When I found Joseph Saperstein's body..." Dan nodded, he knew the story of how on my first day as a dog walker I'd lost control of a Golden Retriever who'd run down an alley where Saperstein’s corpse had been waiting to be discovered. "Declan was the first officer on site. He interviewed me and after I figured out it was Kurt Jessup, he was the first person I told."
"You two were close then?"
I shrugged. "We were something. But he told me to keep my mouth shut, that there was nothing I could do. That I'd get myself killed."
"Wow," Dan said. "I guess you proved him wrong."
I shrugged. "After Kurt was killed Declan was assigned to the case, a big promotion, I always assumed Maxim had something to do with it. He thought Doyle was under his control."
"I guess Declan proved Maxim wrong."
"Lots of wrong in that story," I said, trying to keep the bitterness out of my voice. "I guess he never stopped looking for me, even after Robert helped me fake Joy Humbolt's death.”
"So, he didn't fall in line with Maxim?"
"No, I guess not. When Robert and I were in the jungle," I looked at Dan, searching his face, there was nothing there but interest, attention; he was listening. "We were at an abandoned hotel Robert owned," I thought I saw something flicker in Dan's eyes but couldn't be sure. "Declan ambushed us with a platoon. It was totally illegal, violating Costa Rica’s sovereignty. He must be desperate to catch me."
My hand wandered to a wound on my leg, tightly stitched and bandaged it would heal with no problem, but Declan had cut me before I knocked him out. My gun was on him, I could have killed him, and he cut me anyway, he knew I wouldn't pull the trigger. The same way I'd known he wouldn't pull the trigger on me. There was still something between us. Something that stopped us from murdering each other. How romantic.
"But, to answer your question, no Dan, I do not want to end up in a black ops prison. I don't want to end up in any kind of prison. But I guess that's just one of the many risks I'm w
illing to take. Please go on about deeper sub-forums."
Dan nodded and sat back in his chair. "Right, so we follow discussions of people looking for help. Vet that it's a real issue, something we might be able to help with, invite the person to a deeper level, continue the discussion. Once I've established it's someone we can trust and an issue we can do something about, I present the case to the council. Lenox does further research, gathering more intelligence. If it all checks out we come up with a plan of attack. As you know, the first step is the demand for change."
We offered each offender a way out. A document explaining what they were doing wrong and how to change in order to avoid our wrath.
"Sounds so simple."
"In a way it is."
I looked out at the screen beyond the glass wall of his office. "So what's all that?"
Dan turned in the direction of the screens. "Some are live missions we are providing backup for. We use drones, satellite feeds, internet activity, cell phone interceptions, all sorts of tools to help ongoing investigations and missions. Then others are just background." He pointed at the aerial footage of the village in the wooded area. "That's Norway," he said. "We're watching this town, actually, this one guy, who might be at the center of a trafficking scheme moving women into Norway. Which is really unusual and something we could easily wipe out, working with local law enforcement."
"How’s that?"
"We have a lot of members who are with the police. We also can just feed information to trustworthy police departments who aren’t connected to us. It's easier to let countries and communities that have the infrastructure to keep their citizens safe do it themselves rather than us doing it for them. Whereas that," he pointed to the desert footage. "That's a village in Nigeria. We're looking for those girls. You know the ones that went missing?"
"Of course," I said. It was a huge international story. One hundred school girls taken from their classrooms by armed warriors of Boko Haram. They'd been missing for months. "We're working on that?"
"Of course," Dan said, turning back to me. "Why wouldn't we?"
"I guess I didn't realize we could."
"Well, we're doing what we can. If we find them we don't have the manpower to get them out but we don't need to do that part. Here," Dan said, standing up. "You brought your computer, right?"
"Sure," I said. "It's in my bag, Bella had it taken up to my room."
Dan smiled. "You are not normal, Sydney Rye."
"What do you mean?"
"Most people keep their computers with them." I shrugged. "You're practically computer illiterate," he said, grabbing a laptop off his desk. "I was thinking you'd want to go over all our current missions, our upcoming missions, and our demands that are out."
"A lot of that is on hold," I said.
"I know," Dan said, sitting back down across from me. "Until Fortress Global goes public." His voice quieted. "So you decided to let Robert Maxim join Joyful Justice."
"In exchange for not destroying his clients until after the IPO, a shit ton of money, and all the inside information we could ever dream of."
"And you think he'll stick to his side of the bargain?"
"Don't you?"
"I don't know him as well as you," Dan said, opening up the laptop.
"Don't you?" I asked.
Dan went still, his eyes slowly rising to mine. "What do you mean?"
"Are you trying to play with me?"
Dan sat back in his chair, his eyes glued to mine. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Dan," I leaned forward and touched his knee. He looked down at the connection. "I know," I said. "I know you were feeding him information."
Dan just stared at my hand for a long moment. "That's not true," he finally said, his voice quiet and hurt. "I'd never do that."
"Then what was it, Dan? What did he have over you?"
Dan's eyes jumped to mine. "Nothing," he said.
"Please, don't lie to me. Not anymore."
"I've never lied to you." I hiccupped a laugh that sounded almost like a sob. "I might have kept Joyful Justice from you but I never lied."
"Omitting isn't the same as lying, you're right. I've never asked you if you were betraying me to Bobby Maxim."
"I would never betray you."
"Then what was it, Dan? How could you buy property from him? How could he know where our camp was? How could he do any of that without you?"
"What did he tell you?"
"Nothing. I figured it out on my own."
"You're making it up. You're paranoid."
I moved back, breaking our connection. "I don't think so. I was prepared to trust you again if you were willing to be honest. I thought you'd come clean."
"Come clean! I didn't do anything, Sydney. All I've ever wanted was the best for you. That's all I've ever wanted."
"What you think is best for me, you mean."
"Well, what do you think is best for you?"
"I don't think you should have been talking to Bobby Maxim behind my back."
"I wasn't!" Dan stood up, his voice angry. Blue stood, watching Dan as he paced across the room and laid his hands against the glass looking down at the busy room below. "You think I would risk this? For what?"
"I don't know."
"It doesn't make any sense. Just think about it. Why would I do that?"
"Money, blackmail, misplaced good will."
Dan laughed, his shirt rising and falling as his shoulders shook. "You are almost impossible to love, Sydney Rye," he said turning back to me. "And yet, I can't stop. But you just want it to be impossible, don't you? You want us to be impossible?"
"Way to change the subject."
"Don't you see what you're doing?"
"Now who’s paranoid?"
"You're trying to put something so big between us that we'll never have a chance at happiness."
I stood up, anger suddenly bursting through my veins. "You betrayed me to Bobby Maxim. You told him where our training camp was. And you think this is about us dating?"
"Dating? That's what you're calling it?"
"Whatever we were, Dan. It's over. It's been over."
"Because you’re afraid of it."
"No, Dan, because we can't trust each other."
"Because you won't let us."
"I can't believe you are turning this into a conversation about our relationship."
"Isn't it? Even if you're not talking about something romantic. I've been your friend for years, Sydney. Years!" He stepped closer to me. "And you're accusing me of risking not just your life but Merl's," he ticked off on his fingers, "Mulberry's, every single recruit at that training camp. I would rather die than risk those lives."
"Then why did you buy the training center from Bobby Maxim? You're telling me you didn't know? You didn't do the research? That's not like you, Dan." I pointed out the window. "Look at that. You've got a drone flying over a village in Norway to check on reports of a human trafficking ring and you wouldn't do a simple search as to who you were buying land from? Bullshit!"
"Bullshit is right, Sydney!" Dan stepped closer. Blue moved between us.
"Sit," I told him. Blue did as I said, lowering his butt but keeping a steady eye on Dan.
"You're so—" Dan threw his hands up in the air. "You just can't trust anyone."
"I can't trust you."
"Because of something Robert Maxim said."
"Because he owned the abandoned hotel that you bought to turn into Joyful Justice's training camp. Because he saluted me, the way you used to."
Dan shook his head. "How do you know he owned it?"
"When we went to negotiate our deal he took me to another failed property he owned. Told me he had invested in the hotel business in Costa Rica prematurely and badly. We ended up in the security room of that hotel and it looked just like the one we had at the compound."
"That's it?"
"And the saluting."
"And you assumed that I betrayed you on that evidence
."
"It's enough."
"For you." Dan turned toward the door.
"Where are you going?"
"Away from you."
The door whished closed behind him and I was alone with Blue and the mess of computers and files. "Well that didn't go well," I said to Blue. He cocked his head. "Should have been more subtle?" Blue sighed and laid down. Maybe it was time for that jog, I thought before following Dan out the door. When I got down the steps he was leaning over a man who was pointing at something on his screen. I got back in the elevator and rode up to the lobby.
Run to Rest
Bella was still behind the desk in the lobby. She smiled as I came out of the elevator with Blue. "Can you tell me how to get to my room?" I asked.
"Of course," she said. Bella passed me a key and then pulled out a map. "We're here," she said, circling a square marked ‘Lobby.’ "Take the elevator up to the fifth floor and you're number 1007." She moved her pen and circled another square.
"Dan mentioned a running route," I said.
"Sure," she put her pen back to paper. "You can exit through the lobby here, go back the way you and Dan came in but instead of heading to the parking lot, take this exit." She circled a door. "And that will lead you outside. There is a dirt path that winds around the volcano. The full route is over thirty miles so most people run out and back.”
"Sounds good, thanks," I said, taking the map from her and folding it up before sticking it in my back pocket. "Can you send up some dog food to my room?"
"There is already some waiting for Blue."
"Great. And... where is Dan's room?"
"He's right next door to you. 1009." She smiled bright and cheery.
I returned to the elevator and went up to the tenth floor. It looked like any number of hotels in the world. Patterned carpet that would easily cover stains, cream-colored walls, numbered doors. Why would a billionaire want his house/bunker to look like a hotel? I wondered. But then again, maybe this was all our renovations.
Shadow Harvest (A Sydney Rye Mystery, #7) Page 2
