Qubit, page 36
Katya moved next to him in the dark and patted his knee reassuringly. “She’s in good hands, Lock. Misha and Haruo will take care of everything.”
“We need to go back to the hospital,” Lock repeated.
“There’s no reason to risk her safety, any more than we already have. You weren’t supposed to go into the hospital in the first place.” When Lock didn’t respond, Katya kept going. “Lock, there’s nothing you can do for her there. Except put her in danger. You’ll see her soon.”
“I suppose,” said Lock.
They sat in silence, listening to the rain tapping on the windows. “You should get some sleep,” she said.
Lock inhaled. He looked over at Katya, her eyes shining in the darkness. “Thank you,” he managed to whisper. “Thank you for saving her life.”
Esplanade Park, Singapore
Tuesday, May 15th
5:45 a.m. SGT (Singapore Time)
“You’re too close to him,” snapped Haruo, his tan complexion taking on hints of red. He and Katya were sitting in the bleachers overlooking an empty soccer field. Behind them and across the street was Esplanade Park. After the second shootout inside of a week, Haruo had decided it was prudent to vary their meeting place. “You could have been killed yesterday!”
Katya’s eyes burned with fatigue as she surveyed a gloomy sky. “I heard shots. What was I supposed to do, Haruo? He’s our primary source.” Her voice sounded plaintive and scratchy.
“It wasn’t worth the risk!”
Katya heard a horn beep behind them and started. She turned back to Haruo and shrugged her shoulders. “It was a judgment call.”
Haruo frowned. They were agreeing to disagree, apparently. “I couldn’t help but notice I still didn’t have those emails this morning.”
From the frying pan into the fire. Katya decided to delay the inevitable. Maybe she’d be able to clear her head before they had that discussion. “It was a long night. Don’t you even want to know about the daughter?”
“I’m sure I don’t have a choice.”
Katya frowned. “We got her back. She’s in the hospital. Misha took her there last night.”
“The hospital?”
“She’s in bad shape. Misha called me this morning while Lock…” Katya caught herself. “Severe dehydration. Signs of rape.”
“While Lock what?”
Katya winced. She took a deep breath, exhaling audibly. “You don’t miss a thing, do you? I was going to say, while Lock was asleep. He slept on my couch…last night.”
Haruo rolled his eyes. “Oh, Katya.”
She braced herself, but Haruo said nothing more. Perhaps he was simply too exasperated with her to bother. Well, she could live with that. All she wanted was to get through this meeting. Live to fight another day. Besides, the worst was yet to come.
“Well, at least she’s safe,” said Haruo. “Can I get the emails now?”
And there it was. Katya grew still. A plump older man jogged past and then began a stretching routine at the opposite end of the bleachers. Katya searched for a reason that would justify further delays, even though she knew she wouldn’t find one.
“I wasn’t actually asking, Katya,” Haruo warned.
Her voice sounded small. “I know.”
“I’ll expect them in my inbox, then.”
Sensing he was preparing to leave, she made a decision. “Haruo?”
“Yes.”
“You’re right,” she admitted. She took a deep breath. “I’m too close.”
“Yes.”
“I can’t…” Katya leaned forward and put her head in her hands.
She felt Haruo’s hand on her shoulder. “Katya, you’ve done your job, collected the evidence. Admirably. Now you need to let other people do their jobs. Cairnes and Rathod need to answer for what they’ve done.”
She looked up, pleading with her eyes. “Cairnes was under duress,” she protested.
“And he can make that argument in a court of law.”
She looked away for a moment before returning her gaze to meet Haruo’s dispassionate stare. “And he was a cooperative source. Do you think…will they be lenient?”
“Like I said, you’ve done your job. Let other people do theirs.” He looked away, appearing to survey the soccer field in front of them. “I’m sure his cooperation will be considered. But we don’t even know what the charges will be yet.”
She looked down at her running shoes. “I need time to think, Haruo. I’m tired. We were up all night—”
“Katya, my advice to you is not to think about it. Just send me what you have.” She felt his hand on her shoulder again, squeezing it this time. “I’ll take it from there. I’ve been there. I’ve been where you are. It’s an occupational hazard. You send me what you have, and we’ll get you back stateside. You can take a little time off. You’ve earned it.”
Katya felt as if her chest were filling with bricks. She heard herself agreeing, her voice thin. “I’ll send them when I get home. They’re on my laptop.”
Haruo stood and began making his way awkwardly to the bottom of the bleachers. Katya followed. Their footsteps made an incongruous clattering noise. He turned and faced her as she reached the bottom. “One thing you should know. If I don’t get those emails from you—and I have no reason to think that I won’t—from the Agency’s point of view, you’ll be aiding and abetting. You understand what I’m saying.”
Katya looked up and then away. “Yes, sir.”
“Furthermore, I’ll be forced to activate the special ops we have on standby, once we get diplomatic clearance, which should be soon. So you won’t be protecting Cairnes—you’ll be endangering him. Is that perfectly clear…Agent Brittain?”
“Yes, sir.” Katya felt his eyes on her. He thinks I’m lying, she thought.
“Good-bye, Katya,” he said finally.
“Good-bye, Haruo,” she said without looking up.
Jurong East, Singapore • Katya's Apartment
Tuesday, May 15th
9:00 a.m. SGT (Singapore Time)
It was daylight when Lock awoke. He remembered the wharf, carrying Sophie in his arms, her scarred and painted face. He sat up and remembered that he’d taken her to the hospital. Why wasn’t he there with her? A sharp pang rose in his chest. He threw aside the blanket that had covered him and stood up, turning in a complete circle.
“Katya?” he called out.
She appeared in the hallway outside her bedroom. “Oh, good. You’re up.”
Lock rubbed his eyes. “I need to see Sophie,” he croaked.
Katya had made her way into the kitchen and began pouring a cup of coffee. “Misha took her to the hospital, remember?”
“I need to go see her.”
She finished pouring. “We’ve talked about this, Lock. She’s not going to be in any shape to talk to you. She’s on sedatives, among other things. And you’re putting her at risk by trying to visit her.”
“We’ll be careful. We can make sure we’re not followed. Besides, why would they give her to me and then take her back?”
“Why take unnecessary risks? The important thing now is to just get her home safely as soon as possible.”
Lock looked away and sat back down on the couch.
She circled around in front of him and handed him the cup of coffee. “Besides, we need to talk.”
He took the cup and looked up at her. “Talk?”
Katya sat down and turned sideways, facing Lock. She looked as though she might say something, then took a deep breath and looked askance.
“What?” Lock thought about it. “Is it something about Sophie?”
Katya looked up sharply. “No, no, it’s not that.”
He settled back into the couch and took a sip of coffee. “You’re supposed to arrest me now, aren’t you?”
He could tell from the way she looked at him that he was right before she even spoke. “It doesn’t quite work like that,” she began. “But yeah, basically.”
“Ah.” Lock leaned back and took another sip of coffee, studying her. He felt oddly at ease. Sophie was safe. That was all that mattered. And he’d always be grateful to Katya for that. “I feel like you’re breaking up with me,” he joked.
Katya laughed, but her smile immediately seemed to evaporate from her face.
“So how does it work?” prompted Lock.
She raised her hands in an I don’t make the rules gesture. “The way it works is, I tell the SPF about the whole greenmailing scheme. I give them the emails you obtained to corroborate my story. That gives them just cause to arrest you and Vipul and get search warrants, which in turn allows them to seize the Wave Nine and whatever other evidence they find. You get extradited to the US and stand trial for whatever the government decides to charge you with.”
“I see.”
Katya bit her lip.
Lock smiled wanly. He felt bad—Katya clearly wasn’t relishing the idea of having to turn him in. He decided to try some gallows humor. “I guess I shouldn’t have given you those emails.”
Katya didn’t get the joke. He’d probably sounded too serious. “Well, if you hadn’t,” she argued, “it would be even worse. You’d have trained special operatives looking for you to, at best, coerce you into turning yourself in.”
“At worst?”
“They’d just kill you.”
“That’s what I figured.” He took another sip. “Why are you telling me this? So I can make a run for it? I’ve got no passport, no money…”
“Honestly?”
“Sure, why not?”
“I don’t know. I suppose I didn’t want to just have the cops show up and then tell you.”
Lock laughed. “Very considerate of you.”
“You’re not exactly a flight risk. But…just in case you were thinking about it…I should remind you about the special ops detachment.”
Lock nodded slowly, spinning the cup around in his hands. He wanted to make this easier for her. Unfortunately, he could see the chess board too clearly for that. He was going to have to walk her through the moves. “I’m probably dead either way,” he began.
Katya began nodding but then stopped abruptly. “Wait. What? What do you mean?”
“Just that Vipul is going to do whatever he can to shut me up.”
He watched as Katya visualized her own version of the chess board. “Because he’ll know you were the source of the emails?”
“Right.”
“But he’ll be in jail, too.”
“Sure, presuming he hasn’t already fled. But he’s the head of a crime family, right? And he now has access to more capital than most small countries.”
Katya pursed her lips. “Okay. But you’d be in protective custody, Lock. I mean, you’d be the—”
“I’m not really worried about me, Katya.”
“Oh.”
Lock let the implication sink in. Now he simply had to walk her through the alternatives. “Couldn’t you just leave me out of it?”
Her brow furrowed. “You mean, because you’re not mentioned in the emails?”
“Exactly.”
She looked thoughtful for a moment, then shook her head. “Unfortunately, that won’t work. First of all, you were already a suspect before you even showed up in Singapore. Second, I’ve filed reports to the effect that you were a co-conspirator. Third, Haruo figures I’ve gone native. He won’t buy any revision to the story that exonerates you.”
Lock frowned. “I see.” He took another sip of coffee, his gaze wandering to the far window. That left just one move. “I suppose…”
“What?”
“I could take Vipul up on his offer to become partners.”
“Would you really—?”
“Of course not.” He paused. “I’d be lying through my teeth.” Lock refocused on Katya. “But if there’s a way to make sure he can’t come back later—”
“Which you can’t do—”
“If I’m in jail.”
She looked at him, her eyes narrowed in concentration. “What would you do? I mean, you play along, pretend to be partners…then what?”
“I haven’t quite figured that out yet. I’m still trying to understand what happened. What’s his angle? I could see that he might have been willing to trade Sophie for me. That would have allowed him to keep operating. But this partnership thing…it doesn’t add up.”
“Oh!” exclaimed Katya, standing up and walking to the desk. “Speaking of which, I forgot to tell you—you have an email.” She retrieved her laptop and sat back down, opening up the email message. Lock leaned in, looking over her shoulder.
Mr. Cairnes,
I apologize for the rather violent postscript to our initial meeting.
I trust you’ve been reunited with your daughter?
We should talk again soon. Let’s meet this afternoon at my apartment. Obviously, I can’t really risk venturing out.
v/r
Lock scratched his head. “Jesus. He doesn’t know.”
“Doesn’t know what?”
“About Sophie. The shape she was in…” Lock’s throat caught. “He doesn’t know.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Because he really believes we can be partners. Unless this is all just a really elaborate setup.”
“Well, just like before, it’s easy to test the theory. Just agree to meet somewhere else. Someplace safe for you.”
“The last place was supposed to be safe.”
“And it should have been. It was actually. He’s still alive.”
“So…Katya?”
“Yes.”
“Are you considering this then? Letting me play this out.”
She paused. “Let’s just say we’re looking at the options.”
Lock pursed his lips and nodded. That was a start anyway.
“But I still don’t understand your angle. Suppose you propose another location. Suppose he agrees. What then?”
Lock’s gaze drifted. “At one point, he mentioned someone named Mohar.”
“Mohit?” she asked.
“Mohit,” repeated Lock. “Yes.”
“Mohit is their IT guy,” she explained, pulling up a window on her laptop. “I have him on surveillance several times over the past few months calling their Internet provider and complaining about the connection speed. He came up again after you hijacked the server.”
Lock leaned over and studied the laptop screen.
“These are transcripts from that morning. First, Anand calls Mohit’s phone and leaves a message, telling him he left his laptop out. He calls a couple more times and then calls a few other people, asking them if they’ve seen him.”
Lock stood up and stared out the window. He looked sharply down at Katya. “Wait. What time did Anand start calling his phone?”
“Nine thirty.”
Lock smiled. Checkmate.
“What?” asked Katya.
“Mohit isn’t their IT guy. He’s—he was—Vipul’s chief programmer. He must be the guy whose SSH session we hijacked. He must have been in charge of making sure the deputy server was secure. When we took control of it…he split.”
“Do you think that’s why…?”
“Vipul thinks Mohit is working for me. He relied on Mohit to run the deputy server for him, just like he relied on me to build the market-making system. Without Mohit, he can’t keep running his greenmailing operation. Which means I now have control of his broker network. That explains everything.”
“And, on top of that, he thinks you actually recruited Mohit—”
“So he thinks I’ve intentionally taken control of his network.” Lock sat down slowly, as though he were sleepwalking, and eased himself back on the couch, spreading his arms out along the back.
“Which is why he’s been so accommodating.”
He cocked his head and narrowed his eyes, looking at Katya.
“What?” she prompted. “What are you thinking?”
“Once you send the emails or whatever to the cops…how long before they show up to arrest Vipul?”
“And you, don’t forget.”
“I haven’t.”
“Not long. This is Singapore. The warrants are a formality.”
“Specifically, though.”
“I would think…this afternoon. No later than this evening.”
“Perfect.”
“I’m not following.”
“I want you to turn me in. What’s the time on that email from Vipul?”
“What? I don’t under—”
“What’s the time on the email from Vipul?”
“Seven thirty this morning. Why?”
Lock’s eyes looked up at an imaginary clock. He shrugged. “Close enough, I think. You turn me in, then send the emails. Include the one from Vipul. Tell the cops I’ve fled, and you show ’em that email. Tell ’em you think I’m with Vipul.”
Katya blanched. Lock realized he’d been moving too quickly. She still hadn’t decided whether she should help him. “Lock, the thing is, I’d be aiding and—”
“I just need a little more time, Katya. Just enough to give me a chance to make sure that Vipul can’t come after me or Sophie ever again.”
“I’m not sure I like the sound of this…”
Lock leaned forward and took Katya’s hands. “Katya. Without you I would have never gotten her back. But I need your help now to keep her safe. I just need…one day. By this time tomorrow, if you want, I’ll turn myself in. Can you do that? Can you give me this one day?”
Katya smiled with the corners of her mouth and squeezed his hands. “Yes, Lock. I can do that.” He could see a trace of something flickering behind her large, dark eyes. “What are you planning to do?” she asked.
Lock fought the impulse to lean forward and kiss her. Instead, he released her hands and leaned back on the couch again. “You ever see one of those vampire movies?”
She looked even more confused. “Yeah…”
“You know how the way to kill a vampire is you have to put a stake through its heart, then cut off the head and burn the body?”
“I guess.”
Lock grinned. “That’s the plan.”
