Call Me Mr Smith, page 18
part #6 of The Fallen World Series
I raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised he asked. “The mayor wants it done with no casualties if at all possible.”
Colonel Hawley shook his head. “That’s a tall order. Forty-seven floors, plus the chamber. There are going to be folks who don’t want to be displaced.”
Mayor Evans and Cindy walked through the open door to the boardroom. Evans was walking gingerly but doing well, considering.
“They don’t have to be displaced,” Evans said. “You must be the man in charge of the military. I’m Hayden Evans.” He extended his hand.
Colonel Hawley stood and shook his hand. “Good to meet you, sir. Begging your pardon, but how am I supposed to clear a building without displacing people?”
Cindy helped Mayor Evans sit, then sat beside him as Colonel Hawley resumed his seat.
“I don’t intend to kick everyone out. I’m one person, and hopefully there will be more to help, but we shouldn’t need more than a floor and the chamber.”
“Sir, you can’t expect to be secure if we leave people with weapons in the building. We either need to secure the entire building, or there’s really no point. There’s also ongoing security to consider. We can’t have everyone walking in and out as they please.”
“That’s exactly what I want, Colonel!” Evans said. “I don’t want to be the man behind the curtain. I want to be open and available, just as I was when I was in office.”
“Sir, times have changed. Now, it’s rare to run into someone who isn’t carrying a weapon of some type,” the colonel said.
“He’s right,” I said. “That’s a big building to keep secure for one person. It’ll mean guards at every door and in the steam tunnels under the building. Entry and exit will have to be closely monitored, and you’ll want to know every person in the building.”
Evans frowned as all of the information hit him. “I guess I hadn’t thought of all that.”
“That’s what we’re here for, sir,” Colonel Hawley said.
“Well, before Obsidian changed things around, the office of the mayor was actually in the council chambers building.” Evans glanced at Jonathan.
Jonathan nodded. “I remember that. We actually modified the building quite a bit. There’s a residence there where one of the committee rooms was. I’d forgotten about it.”
“And the old mayor’s office?” I asked.
“Still there.” Jonathan shrugged. “All the glass was replaced with ballistic glass, so it’s probably still there, too.”
Hawley rubbed his chin and looked out the window. I could almost hear the gears turning.
“Sure,” Hawley said, “we can clear that, no problem. I’d recommend completely emptying that out though.”
Evans nodded. “Yes. I’d want to use that building completely. Something else I was thinking…it would be good to know everyone in the city—who is living where, that kind of thing.”
I grinned and stood up.
Mayor Evans furrowed his brows and looked up at me. “What? Can we not do that?”
I shook my head. “You can do whatever you’d like Mister Mayor. I think that’s a great idea, but you don’t need me for things like that. Part of the reason I wanted you here was so that I could stop concerning myself with things that don’t fall into my realm of expertise. Now I can focus on the anarchists and eliminating them.”
I smiled and left the boardroom and walked to the elevator. Before I reached it, I heard someone running behind me.
“Wait!” Cindy called.
I turned to face her after pressing the button to call the elevator. “Yes, Miss Todd?”
“I’m coming with you.”
I pursed my lips. “Are you certain?”
She nodded. “Okay, so…what you do may not be my thing, but I don’t want to sit behind a desk all day.”
I nodded. “Very well, Miss Todd.” The elevator doors opened, and I motioned her in. “Let’s go plan the demise of the Anarchists Legion. First, we’re going to go to Rogers Centre. I need a vehicle. It’s getting too cold for you to keep walking back and forth.”
The doors closed, and the elevator started down. “I can handle the cold,” she said defensively.
“I’m not saying you can’t. Obviously, you’ve made it this long, but there are plenty of vehicles and plenty of fuel, for a while anyway. There’s no reason not to make things easier.”
She shrugged. “Okay.”
* * *
We left Scotia Plaza and walked down to Rogers Centre. She hunched over against the cold wind coming in off Lake Ontario. I hoped finding warmer clothing for everyone was near the top of the mayor’s list of things to do. If she was going to work with me, she’d be spending a lot of time outdoors.
The soldier at the door was one I recognized, and he let us in without question. He gave Cindy an extra glance since he hadn’t seen her before but said nothing.
I furrowed my brows when I saw that virtually every vehicle had its hood or engine compartment open. We walked up to a woman who was leaning over the engine compartment of one of the SUVs. Cindy looked around wide eyed, like a kid in a candy store.
“Problem?” I asked the woman.
She stood up. “Who are…Oh, Mr. Smith, right. Yes, sir. None of the vehicles will start. We start them up every few days just to warm them up, but today, nothing would start.”
I frowned. “Any ideas?”
She nodded and picked up a glass jar containing a cloudy yellow liquid. “The fuel.”
“Fuel doesn’t just go bad,” I said.
“No, sir. It’s been tainted with something, but we’re not sure what.”
“Shit…the main tanks?” I asked.
She nodded. “Those too. I was just putting this one back together. There’s nothing we can do. Everything in here is now useless.”
“Funny. Colonel Hawley didn’t mention this.”
“He wouldn’t know, sir. He’s been gone all day. We just figured it out about fifteen minutes ago.”
I sighed and shook my head. “When was the last start up?”
“This one was just used yesterday. So, it happened sometime between sunset yesterday and sometime this morning.”
“Can it be filtered somehow?”
She shrugged. “That’s out of my wheelhouse.” She pointed at one of the Quonset huts. “Sergeant Nayar is working on it now. She’s our resident chemist.”
“Thank you, Private….”
“Gallant, sir.”
“Thank you, Private Gallant.” I nodded, and Cindy and I walked over to the hut.
I walked in without knocking, and the response was immediate.
“Who the hell are you? Ever heard of knocking?” A woman was standing in front of a lab table with an array of beakers and other implements, facing away from us.
“My name is Mr. Smith, and yes, I have; I just don’t bother.”
“Oh. Sorry, Mr. Smith. I’ve heard of you.”
“That seems to be going around. You must be Sergeant Nayar?”
“Yes, sir. One moment please.” She let a few drops from a lab dropper fall into a test tube full of what looked like the contaminated fuel and placed it on a rack before she turned around.
“And you are?” She looked at Cindy.
“Cindy Todd. I’m working with Mr. Smith,” she said.
“Well, if you came for a vehicle, I’m afraid you’re out of luck. I’ve got no idea what the hell was used yet, but whatever it was neutralized the combustible nature of the fuel completely. Even the main tanks are useless.”
“Do you think it’s recoverable?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Honestly, no. It’s not something we can just filter out to restore the fuel to its former state. I’m supposed to try, but…” She shrugged again.
I nodded. “I understand. Thank you, Sergeant. Who would have had access to do this?”
“Anyone down here, really.”
I sighed. “Thanks.”
Cindy and I walked out, and I closed the door behind us.
“So, what now?” Cindy asked.
“Well, our options just shrunk considerably. I’m going to find out who’s responsible, eventually, but I’m guessing it was an anarchist sympathizer or a straight up member of the Legion. With Bethany in charge of things, it would have been easy for her to insert people anywhere she wanted over the past 20 years. Everyone here is a suspect.”
I looked around the underground base as I considered my options.
“I want you to head back to the school. I’m going back to the plaza. I need to speak to the colonel and Jonathan.”
“Anything I can do?” she asked.
I shook my head. “Not for now. I plan to go across the river soon though, so if you want to come along, you need to gather whatever supplies you and your dad stored. I assume you have a cache of equipment stashed somewhere?”
She nodded. “Yep.”
“Good. Time to break into it. Get your things together, expect to be gone for a while, and be ready.”
“You got it.”
We walked out together, and she stayed with me as far as the plaza, then broke off to head back to the school or to where her supplies were stored. I headed back upstairs where I assumed the mayor would still be meeting with Jonathan and the colonel.
* * *
I walked in and everyone stood up. “Colonel, Jonathan, we need to talk. We have a problem.”
“Anything I should be aware of?” Mayor Evans asked.
“Might as well,” I said. Everyone sat back down, and I took a seat.
“I just got back from the base under Rogers Centre. All the fuel has been contaminated. None of the vehicles are of use anymore, and I seriously doubt there’s a way to reverse the process and make the fuel viable again.”
“What the hell?!” Colonel Hawley exclaimed.
“That was pretty much my reaction,” I said as I watched Jonathan’s reaction closely. “Any thoughts on how this could have happened, Jonathan?”
He shrugged and threw his hands up in the air. “How the hell should I know? My immediate instinct is someone Bethany had planted.”
I nodded. “I thought the same. But why now?”
Now, everyone was looking at Jonathan for answers.
He looked at each of us in turn and shook his head. “I had nothing to do with this. Hell, I was in favor of the mayor coming in! I’m ready to get back to intelligence!”
“You were in favor of it, because you knew Jeremy would block it,” I said.
Jonathan frowned and stared at me. “Look, I can see why you would think that. It even makes a certain amount of sense. I’m telling you though, I had nothing to do with it.”
The colonel and the mayor turned their eyes to me.
“I’m not saying I believe you, but there’s really no way to know for sure. Obviously, I’ll be keeping a close eye on you from now on,” I said.
Jonathan nodded. “I can see that.”
“So, now what?” Mayor Evans asked.
“Now, we go on without the vehicles, though I would definitely like to know who is responsible,” I said.
“Leave that to me,” Colonel Hawley said. “Someone has to have seen something.”
I nodded. “Let me know when you find out; I would certainly like to have a little chat with whoever did this. In the meantime, Jonathan, I’d like to go through Bethany’s and Jeremy’s apartments. Perhaps I can find something to tie someone to it, or at least provide a lead on who’s in charge now.”
He nodded and stood up. “We can do that.”
“Oh, no, I don’t want you anywhere near it,” I said as I stood up.
He opened his mouth to argue, then slumped in his chair. “Fine,” he said and pulled a keycard from his pocket and tossed it on the table. “That will open any door in the building. Keep it. Go ahead and go through my apartment if you want. I assure you, I have nothing to hide.”
I nodded and picked it up as I stood up. “Good. Excuse me.”
* * *
I pulled on some custom gloves that would give me a good touch, but also protect my hands from any chemical agents. In my line of work, one could never be too careful. After all, even in my apartment, I’d coated some surfaces with contact poisons that would only be touched if the room was being searched for something.
It took me several hours to go through the three large apartments. Thankfully, they were identical in layout to mine, so I knew all the possible hiding places. After all my effort, I found one piece of paper that was of interest in Jeremy’s apartment, but the writing was in Bethany’s hand. Sloppy.
It looked like a map of some type which indicated a meeting point. Using my ability to recall anything I’d examined, I finally identified it, based on some notations and the pattern, as a location in the PATH system under Toronto.
I walked back into the boardroom and found that only Jonathan remained. He looked up as I walked in. “Find anything?”
I nodded. “I did, in Jeremy’s room, in Bethany’s writing. Looks like the torch probably passed to Jeremy, and now…either you, or it’s a mystery.”
“It’s not me!” he said.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Certainly, you can understand why I don’t believe you.”
He nodded. “I probably wouldn’t believe me either.” He spread his hands out. “I can’t think of any way to prove it to you, unless we can find out who it actually is.”
“I’m going to follow up this lead I found. In the meantime, assuming it’s not you, help the colonel find out who screwed with the motor pool.”
“He’s going to check into it. We’re going to meet again in the morning to plan out the clearing of City Hall and talk about the vehicles. You’re welcome to join us, of course.”
“I may or may not. The answer really won’t change much at this point, unless we can find the person and make them talk,” I said.
“If we do find them, I’ll leave the interrogation to you. I won’t even be nearby if that’ll help clear my name.”
I pursed my lips as I considered him. I started to believe he wasn’t involved, but he was in intelligence, which meant he was well trained—and likely imprinted—for deception. “We’ll see,” I said before I walked out and went to my apartment. The sun had already begun to set. Nothing else would get done today, at least on the surface. Some things were better done in the dark in this Fallen World.
* * * * *
Chapter Twenty-One
In my apartment, I changed into something more suited to stealth in a closed environment—all black materials that were built to not make a sound. I rarely had use for such things, but stealth was within my skill set, and now I had a reason to apply it.
I made my way down to street level and carefully over to the Toronto-Dominion Centre, right above the location indicated on the PATH map. I entered one of the buildings and slowly made my way downstairs, after I slipped on a pair of multi-spectrum goggles—one of the many handy toys from Teledyne I still had around. They weren’t as bulky as typical night vision equipment, but just as good.
It was thanks to those that I stepped over an infrared tripwire that was set at the bottom of the stairway. I frowned and moved to the darkest shadow I could find before I knelt down and listened. Before I’d been fully trained, I had to close my eyes to sharpen my hearing, but that was decades ago. It was amazing the things the mind and body could be trained to do.
The location on the paper I’d found was only about 20 yards away, around two corners. I crept forward to the first corner, and again I stilled and listened for at least 10 minutes. The next corner was a four-way intersection about 20 feet south. I took my time, taking several seconds between each step to listen, again and again.
The next step was to cross the hallway and proceed east toward a dead end. I made my way across the open ground to the opposite wall, and just as I tucked in against it, a light came on and shined past me, down the east-west corridor I was about to turn into. I’d just barely heard the click of the flashlight, but no other movement.
There was no challenge, nothing said or called out, so either they hadn’t seen me, or they were expecting someone. I was left with a few choices—announce myself, wait, or turn back and forget the whole thing. Turning back wasn’t an option for me, and I didn’t feel like making myself a target, so I waited.
Five minutes turned to ten, which turned to twenty. The light didn’t move, so it was either a person with the steadiest hand I’d ever seen, it was mounted to something and had been turned on, or I’d tripped something unseen. Just as I was about to give up and turn back, the light turned off.
My goggles re-adjusted to the absence of light again. I was about to risk a peek around the corner, when I heard two sets of faint footfalls. They were good, but not good enough to elude my hearing.
I waited for the one nearest me to reach the corner, then reached around to grab him by the neck, and pulled him in front of me. The other heard the scuffle and activated a rail-mounted flashlight.
“Well, good evening,” I said.
The man I was holding struggled; he even had a few decent escape moves, but I simply tightened my arm around his neck. He was my shield.
“Who are you?” the other form asked, a female by her voice.
“You can call me Mr. Smith.”
She didn’t hesitate and pulled the trigger. I grimaced as I felt the rounds going through the man I held and impact my vest. When her magazine ran empty, I threw her dead partner at her, and charged. She sidestepped him but moved right into my path. I tackled her and spun her onto her front as I pulled her right arm up behind her back and locked her wrist. I grimaced as I realized I’d been hit. I’d taken at least two rounds to my right arm. Thankfully, it was still operational.
She screamed as her elbow threatened to dislocate, and I lessened the pressure just a bit.
“Who are you, and what are you doing down here?” I asked.
She panted as the pain eased off. “Screw you. We are Legion. We don’t surrender.”
