Emergence (Fox Meridian Book 5) (21 page)

‘Fox, welcome back. Good trip?’

‘Very interesting, but if I told you about it, I’d have to kill you. Now, why are you down here? I’m sure Belle wouldn’t have complained about you going upstairs.’

Jason frowned. ‘They found another body in Central Park today.’

Fox’s jaw clenched. ‘I don’t suppose they’re letting
you
in on the details?’

‘Local problem, no international angle, they’re keeping the UNTPP out of it. But I
was
told about a side issue which has international repercussions.’

Closing her eyes, Fox sagged back, letting her back rest against the door. ‘They’re blocking Grant’s transfer to Cold Harbour.’

‘Worse, they’ve scheduled a hearing to discuss his defence’s assertion that these crimes indicate that Grant is innocent.’

‘Grant never killed so quickly. He took time to find his next target, learn their patterns, infiltrate, and capture. I’m betting there are details in the MOs that are different. There’s no way this isn’t a copycat. Why aren’t NAPA simply stalling until they can catch this new guy? Hell, I
caught
Grant kidnapping Dandridge. That alone is a life sentence.’

Jason shrugged. ‘It is the politics, as usual. Grant is a high-profile prisoner. His lawyers are expensive and good at their jobs.’

‘Yeah, well, if that’s true, they’d know they’re wasting their time. There’s something about this that smells like month-old fish. Come on, I need a drink. There’s nothing we can do about this now so I’m going to catch up on gossip.’

‘I could use a break with some friends.’

‘Then let’s go see if we can catch Sam and Marie in a compromising position.’ Fox started for the stairs.

‘Should I cancel my trip to Jenner?’ Kit asked. ‘You may need–’

‘No,’ Fox replied silently. ‘I’ll still have two of you here and what you’re doing with Fei is important. No pressure, Kit, but a successful outcome with Fei could be one of the most important things you’ll
ever
do.’

‘Oh… When you put it like that… No pressure my virtual butt.’

1
^st
February.

Fox usually found it an annoyance to have to check her weapon in before any visit to the Rikers Island facility, but this time it felt worse for some reason. If she had decided that she really needed to use it, someone would probably have shot her, but not having the familiar weight on her body was, for whatever reason, bothering her more than usual.

It might have been something to do with Jason. He was accompanying her. He met her on the way to catch their flight into the prison, but it was almost like he was somewhere else the whole time.

‘You seem preoccupied,’ Fox noted as they travelled down from the heliport deck to the court rooms.

‘Pardon?’ Jason looked at her, realised what she had said, and gave her a half-hearted grin. ‘It is nothing. Some… internal politics.’

‘Huh. One thing about the UNTPP I
don’t
miss.’

‘No… No, I’m sure you don’t.’

Fox kept the frown off her face. Jason was hiding something, or at least unwilling to talk about it. But what? Something to do with Grant?

‘Jason seems to be worried about something,’ Kit said.

‘Yes, he does,’ Fox replied silently. And then she changed the subject. ‘Heard anything from Jenner?’

‘I received a synchronisation package this morning. Things are proceeding well. Fei’s linguistic skills are improving and she is making progress with the remote control protocols.’

‘You have any feelings on her… less technical development?’

‘I find her quite pleasing to talk to, but I also think it is too early to tell.’

‘Reasonable.’ They had reached the court room where the hearing was to take place, and Fox used that as an excuse to stop talking and largely ignore Jason’s behaviour. It was not like the man was being nasty, but he did seem… conflicted, distracted. The paranoid idea of another woman being involved had surfaced briefly and been rejected: considering Jason’s family’s assertions regarding his limited love life, finding two women at once seemed unlikely.

The court was one of the secondary ones used exclusively for procedural hearings. It was set out for a panel of three judges with AI support and no jury. The defence and prosecution teams had their own, computer-equipped, desks facing the judges, and there was a public-seating area behind them. There was also a box for any defendant making an appearance at the hearing. That was floor-to-ceiling armoured glass with an isolated air system: safety for the occupant and the rest of the room. Aside from all the equipment and a few changes in procedure, the scene was little different from court rooms down through the ages. Fox took a seat near the back beside Jason, and they settled down to wait.

‘They’re running late,’ Fox commented after ten minutes.

‘Not an entirely uncommon circumstance in high-profile cases,’ Jason replied.

‘True, but annoying. No information on the internal net, which is also about par for the course.’ Rikers was isolated from the internet aside from at designated terminals, which were monitored. It did have its own wireless network which visitors could access to receive information on trials, hearings, wait times for the inmates they might be coming to see, and emergency information. Inmates could also access it, if they had the right privileges, though that was mostly a control measure rather than an information source. ‘They should be bringing Grant up from the secure wing by now.’

‘I should imagine he is up. If they have any plans for a timely hearing, he should be almost here. That assumes–’

And then all Hell broke loose. The first indication was the heavy sound of locks being engaged on the court room doors. Fox looked around to see red lights flashing above the entrance, but she had little time to register the fact before Kit spoke.

‘The information net dispatched a “security emergency alert” packet and has now gone offline.’

‘No details on the emergency?’

‘No. I monitored nothing prior to that indicating any–’

The building chose that moment to shudder and the sound of a distant explosion echoed through the structure.

‘The building is under attack?’ Jason said, getting to his feet.

‘I have no idea,’ Fox replied, ‘but that’s what it sounds like. Being unarmed and locked in, there’s fuck all we can do about it. Sit down before one of those paranoid-looking guards shoots you.’

Jason glanced around at the two men flanking the door. They were in NAPA armour and carrying gun-pods, and their body language, even through their uniforms, did look jumpy. Jason sat. ‘I find the timing uncomfortable.’

‘Fox, I am detecting
no
wireless networks operating,’ Kit said. ‘The public network
and
the security network are down.’

‘Kit says the security network is out,’ Fox said aloud. ‘The guards won’t have any idea what’s going on either.’ She scanned the room and her eyes alighted on the prosecution terminals, which appeared to just be showing error messages. The defence screens were the same, and the men sitting at each desk were looking as confused as everyone else. ‘Something’s taken the entire internal network down. That…’

Jason finished her sentence for her. ‘Should not be possible, non. And yet, here we are. Were you not looking into a very capable hacker?’ He was all business now, the distracted look gone from his face.

‘Minotaur? Well, yeah, but… Whether it’s him or not, total network failure and an explosion, just
one
explosion, says “prison break.”’

‘And prisoner transfers have always been the best time for such an event.’

‘Yeah, but that’s generally when someone’s being moved to a different facility. No one’s
ever
tried to break someone out of Rikers by force.’

‘Non, but then no one expects an attempt. Is that not the perfect circumstance for someone with determination to try?’

~~~

Hannah watched as two men in full combat armour strapped her master into a seat. He was still in chains, and would have to stay that way until the immediate danger was clear, but their escape was now more or less assured. The vertol they had used to make the extraction was transitioning into level flight and heading north-east, out across Locust Point toward their escape route over Long Island Sound.

Grant looked gaunter than he had before his stay in Rikers, but there was something new about him which Hannah had only ever seen when he had a new toy to play with. There was a light in his eyes, a zeal burning there. She chose to believe that this was eagerness at the thought of being free again, but there was a doubt.

The vertol began to manoeuvre rapidly and Hannah gripped her seat to avoid being thrown around. The defence systems on Rikers Island had been disabled prior to their arrival, but every NAPA precinct building had air-defence systems and the probability of at least some of them being deployed had been factored into the escape plan. The six men in armour appeared entirely unfazed by the deployment of flares and the rapid shifts in trajectory. Grant actually seemed to be enjoying it, and that gave Hannah hope: perhaps her master
was
simply enjoying his regained freedom and would, as she had planned, lie low.

In a couple of hours, they would be safe. Then she would know for sure.

~~~

Frederick Ungar did not look like a happy man. Fox was not exactly surprised about that: the first ever escape from Rikers Island since the new facility had been constructed was hardly likely to reflect favourably on the man in charge.

It had taken almost an hour before the court room doors had been unlocked, though the information network had restarted after about thirty minutes, providing the occupants with the news that a security emergency required that they all stay where they were. Nothing else was forthcoming until armed guards had arrived to secure the room, and then the announcement had changed to indicate that everyone would have to undergo an interview before they could leave.

Jason had been the first person out of the room, because he had diplomatic immunity and had to be handled with care. He had, at least, looked reluctant to leave Fox behind. Fox had settled down for a potentially long wait, and had not been disappointed. She was finally escorted to an office just after Grant’s defence team had been led out. She was the last to leave, but Ungar seemed to have decided that he should handle her interview personally. Whether that was good or bad was something she was eager to find out.

‘I’m sorry for the wait,’ Ungar said as Fox sat down. ‘I wanted to be sure we had as much information as possible before I talked to you. Let’s face it, I doubt NAPA are going to be telling you much, given the reports I got before this happened.’

That, at least, sounded good. ‘So it was Grant who got taken out?’

Ungar nodded. ‘Somehow, and they’re still working on how, our
entire
network system was taken out by a cyberattack. That took all our air-defence systems offline.’

‘Military vertol… They blew a hole in one of the bridges and took him off by air.’

‘Fast, efficient. The aircraft had high-end stealth. We never saw it coming in and it vanished over Long Island Sound heading out toward the Atlantic. He could be anywhere.’

‘A mercenary unit. South African, maybe Russian or Brazilian. Expensive. Add in the cyberattack and the setup, and you’re looking at a well-planned operation. Someone had to have been working this for months.’

‘The setup?’

‘The three new murders,’ Fox said. ‘Someone killed three men…’ She frowned. ‘They were all men this time, no women. Anyway, someone killed them to get enough leverage to get Grant out of the secure area to the courts. That would mean he had to be moved across one of the bridges, and that gave them the opportunity to mount the operation. Something this out-of-the-box… There’s no way you could predict or counter it unless they made a mistake executing the plan.’

Ungar gave a grunt of displeasure. ‘I’ll call you for my defence at the investigation hearing. I’m required to ask whether you had any foreknowledge of this escape.’

‘Me? Only reason I knew about the hearing at all is that the UNTPP was informed and
they
thought I should be told. NAPA have been keeping me entirely out of the loop on all of this. Anyway, why would
I
want him out? I don’t believe Grant’s the kind of man who takes being arrested lightly. He’s going to come after me the first chance he gets.’

‘Probably. We didn’t get much out of his analysis while he was here, but we do know he holds you responsible for his incarceration. Of course, he claims it was
wrongful
incarceration.’

Fox cracked a half-smile. ‘Is there anyone in the high-security section who thinks they
should
be there?’

‘None I can think of. Hell, half the low-security inmates who committed a crime just to get locked up and avoid the Sprawl claim they were set up.’

‘I’ll be taking appropriate precautions. I assume NAPA are going to handle Dandridge and his family?’

Ungar gave a shrug. ‘Like they’re going to tell me.’

‘Great being in the dark, isn’t it?’

~~~

‘Are you fucking serious?!’ Fox was getting to the end of her tether, which was a short journey following recent events and never a long one where Captain Canard was concerned. ‘You drag me off the transport from Rikers after I was hanging around there for four hours, and now you want–’

‘To place you under protective custody,’ Canard said. He was trying to look concerned, and only managing smug.

‘Well, you can arrest me if you want, but I won’t go voluntarily. If you do, I’ll be out in an hour and you’ll be out of a job within the week.’

‘Grant’s psychological profile indicates that he is likely to attempt revenge against you. Your current address is within precinct nineteen. For your own safety–’

‘I should avoid any NAPA facility.’

‘We have some of the most secure facilities on the planet.’

‘That’s untrue, for starters, and he just broke out of one of them. Do you know how he took out the entire defensive system at Rikers? No? Thought not. So until you have that nailed down and countered, this building is the
last
place I want to be. Consider yourself covered. I do not want or accept NAPA protection. If you want to put me under surveillance in the hopes that he’s stupid enough to try something where you can see it, I can’t stop you. I will
not
accept a protection detail when I can get one from my own company. I assume you’re handling security for Leonard and Chantal Dandridge?’