Second Chances (15 page)

"Lady, what the hell? Is that your car blocking me? What are you doing?"

The driver looked at the woman who was ignoring his questions. Her eyes were wild, the right one was twitching like crazy. His left hand began to reach toward the baseball bat he kept on the side of his seat. The world was going more and more nuts everyday.

Linda scanned the faces for a third time. They were definitely not here and there was nowhere for them to hide on the bus. She glanced to her right and noticed the driver was reaching for something.
 

Oh crap!

"My...my..."

The driver stopped reaching. "What?"

Think damn it!

"My daughter! She is fifteen. Blue dress. Ponytail. Did she get on? We were at lunch and had a fight. I went to the bathroom and when I came back she was gone. I couldn't find her in the restaurant and someone there said they thought she got on this bus. It was two stops back, did you see her?"

Lost daughter. Sure, now he understood why she was acting so stressed.
 

"Nah. Sorry lady, no one got on back there."

"Are you sure? No one got on?"

"Nope, just drop offs. Last guy I picked up was four stops ago, that dude." The driver indicated a man wearing a black T-shirt in the middle of the bus.

"Oh, okay. Well, thanks," she said as she reached up and touched her twitching eyelid.

"Good luck, lady," the driver said sincerely as she exited the bus.
 

Linda got back into her car and pulled back into traffic.

"Now I am really screwed," she muttered to herself.
 

She decided the best thing she could do would be to report in as soon as possible, so she quickly returned to her apartment. She snapped up the phone as soon as she entered, tossing her purse on the couch. She flipped on the computer as she waited for him to pick up.

"Kassar."

"We have a problem," she blurted.

Silence.

"I lost her."

Continued silence.

"When I came back from phoning you they were gone."

Her eye began to twitch again and her bladder suddenly felt very full.

"Kassar are you there? Are you hearing this?"

Oh say something before I wet myself!

"I hear you and I see you,"
 

She looked over at the computer and saw Kassar's face in a small box on the screen. She hated that damn remote access.

"What happened," his voice coming now from the computer's speakers.

Linda sighed, dropped the phone onto the desk and sat down in front of the computer.

"I don't know. Like I said before, that guy seemed to be pushing really hard."

"Yes, hold on a moment. Jimmy has sent me the photo. Jimmy are you there?"

A second small box popped up on the computer screen and Jimmy Hanson, computer geek extraordinaire, appeared.
 

"Here boss. You get the picture?"

She could see Kassar was looking at a sheet of paper.

"Yeah, just printed it. I don't know. He looks kind of familiar to me. What do we know about him?"

"Nothing yet," Jimmy replied. "Since we don't have
 
a last name or a set of prints to work with, this could take a while. I'm trying to run facial recognition, but for some reason I am getting denied access to our main systems. Must be some kind of glitch or something. However, until access is restored, I'm having to piggyback on outside systems which means this could take forever, unless we get a lucky hit."

"And we've been so lucky so far," Kassar sneered. "So what happened?"

"Like I said, I came back and they were gone."

"What about before you left them?"

"I already told you."

"Tell me again."

Jimmy remained quiet, he could hear the irritation in Kassar's voice and knew better than to get in the line of fire.

"I met them. The guy was a jerk, kept questioning me about Paige, about school. He didn't shut up until I showed him that picture I..."

"The picture. Do you have it?"

"No, they took it."

"Do you have a copy?"

"Sure, on the computer."

"Send it to Jimmy."

"Jimmy ran a bunch of us over the photo program a while back. I am telling you it was good."

"Send it to him."

Linda nervously tapped away at the keyboard.

"I did everything he taught us. I applied the correct filters to make it appear older, even used old picture stock to print it out on, then roughed it up physically to give it a worn look."

Kassar waved a dismissive hand.

"Jimmy do you have it?"

"Opening it now boss."

Linda wanted to say more, but the truth was she was afraid to. She was near babbling as it was and she really needed to go to the bathroom.
 

She could see that Jimmy's eyes were looking at something and assumed it was the image she had just sent him. He was nodding. She started to feel a little relieved. His nodding stopped and he looked at her through the computer. "It's a decent start, but this wasn't your final draft was it? Tell me this isn't what you printed out."

Linda felt the warm wetness spreading in her lap even as a chill ran down her spine and her eye resumed twitching.

"Her shadow?"

Paige stared down at the picture. At first her eyes refused to see what he was saying. She looked at her and Linda standing in front of the library. She was wearing a long dark blue skirt with an off white blouse. A smile spread over her face. She could almost feel the gentle cool breeze. It had been late September, the leaves were changing. Days were still warm, but when the sun went down the temperatures tended to drop quickly. She had forgotten her sweater, but knew Daniel would lend her his jacket. They had been going to the library to study, just Daniel and her. Just Daniel and her?

"Daniel took this photo," she whispered.

"Paige?" Nathan looked at her. Even though she was looking at the picture, he could tell that she was actually staring off into the past. He reached out and touched her shoulder.

She blinked and looked questioningly at him.

"What? Oh sorry. What...what was I saying?"

"Nothing, look at the photo. Look at the shadows."

She returned her attention to the picture and saw it immediately. It had been late in the day and her shadow stretched off to her left, as did the shadow of the tree in the background. No shadow was being cast by Linda.

"How the heck?"

"It's fake," Nathan said quickly.
 

"Fake?"

"Yes, she wasn't there."

"I went to school with her, Nathan. I know Linda."

"Maybe, maybe not. But that photo never happened."

"Why would she fake a photo? We went to school together for three and a half years. Why would she need to fake a picture?"

"Good question, but only one of many we need to find answers for."

He flicked his eyes to the front of the cab, trying to judge how much to say. The woman did not appear to be listening to their conversation and he could hear the radio playing and her singing along, but he worried they had already said too much.

They lapsed into silence. Paige was back to staring at the photo. He couldn't tell if she was wondering about why Linda had faked it or if she had slipped into the past and was once more remembering her time at school. He decided he wouldn't press anything right now. He wanted to wait until they were alone again.

They road the rest of the way in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Nathan paid the driver and then he took Paige's hand and hurried her inside. Night was approaching and he wanted to get her stuff and get out as soon as possible. He knew he was likely being paranoid, but he had a feeling that paranoid was exactly what he needed to be right now.

"We need to move on this right away," Kassar said.

On the computer screen in his little box, Jimmy sat quietly, nodding his head and waiting to see if there were any more instructions for him. The view of Linda was quite different. He could see she was trembling with a hand pressed against the right side of her head.

"I need to get this fiasco cleaned up immediately," Kassar said with a dismissive wave at the screen. "Jimmy, continue what you are doing, I'll get back to you as soon as I have more for you to follow up on. And of course, if you happen to get a lucky hit notify me immediately."

Jimmy nodded and then a moment later his box on Kassar's computer screen disappeared and Linda's box enlarged to fill the void left behind. Kassar could now see the sweat and perhaps tears running down her face. If he wasn't so furious he'd have taken time to enjoy the sight.
 

"As for you Linda," he said slowly, watching what little color was left in her face drain away. He reached for his mouse and maneuvered the cursor arrow over the the X that would close their connection. "Aloha."

With the connection severed, he yanked on the mouse, ripping it from the computer and hurled it across the room.

He closed his eyes and counted to ten before calmly reaching for his phone. He tapped in a number and waited. The call was answered before the first ring had completed.

"Identify."

"Kassar, Cameron A."

"Authorization code?"

"Omega three three seven nine."

Kassar could hear the keys being hit over the phone.

"Confirmed. Request?"

"I need a cleaning detail, ASAP. San Diego..."

"Negative, ple.."

"What did you say?"

"Please hold."

"Now you listen to me you..."

Before Kassar could finish his threat, the line clicked off and was replaced with a ringing. He was being forwarded. His grip on the phone tightened and with each ring it tightened a little more. After the fourth ring it was answered.

"Cameron," a soft male voice on the other end of the phone purred.

 
"Dillinger, what is the meaning of this?"

"What is the meaning of this? Yes. Yes. What exactly is the meaning of this? I see you are trying to procure the services of a cleaning detail, hmmm."

"Dillinger I do not have time to..."

"No, no you never seem to have the time. That has always been your problem, hasn't it? That is, if I am not mistaken, how you came to your current assignment. I must say that when I arranged for that all those years ago I figured one of two things would happen."

Kassar almost ripped the phone from the wall. He knew it. He'd always suspected that Dillinger had had a hand in his reassignment, but had never been able to prove it. Now the man was freely admitting it. And that could not be good news.

"One. You would take time to contemplate the errors of your ways. To take the time to understand that there is value in a chain of command and that while fortune may sometimes favor the bold, patience is indeed a virtue. And for very good reason. Sadly as I expected, but did not hope for, you went with number two. You doubled down. You took this project and
 
perverted it. You bent and twisted it to your will. You re-imagined the concept behind the entire thing. I must admit to being more then a little impressed. Horrified but impressed. "

Kassar's hand was aching from the force he was exerting and he wished he had his hands on Dillinger's throat instead of around the phone.

"I've been very disappointed, for numerous reasons, on how you'd twisted this project. I can actually see the value. However, it is quite obvious things were not ready. You rushed things time and again and things went wrong. Or perhaps, knowing you, they went right."

Kassar looked around his office. He could almost feel the man's eyes on him. How did he know?

"Look, Dillinger, you don't underst..."

"Oh but I do. It is you who does not understand. I gave you a very clear warning after the last time. How you chose to take that warning, well your actions have clearly given me your answer. There shall be no further assistance coming."

"But the risk for exposure."

"Rests solely on you. I've seen to that. Your project is and always has been, as far as anyone will ever be able to tell, entirely a creation of you and your department. Exposure begins and ends with you."

"But I have a meeting with..."

"No Cameron, no you don't. Clean up your mess and perhaps that can be rectified and restructured. I might even let you continue on."

"It is my project, Dillinger," he snapped.

On the other end of the phone dry laughter echoed.

"Of course it is. And as I said, I have made sure that will be entirely clear when it blows up in your face."

Before Cameron could respond the line went dead, the tone on the other end of the line changed, lowering an octave or two and he knew what that meant. If he tried to redial the previous number he would only be greeted by an out of service message. In fact, he was quite certain that a great deal of numbers were now out of service for him. He also now understood the origin of Jimmy's computer problems.
 

He loosed a cry of pure primal rage, ripping the phone from the wall. It joined the computer mouse on the other side of the room.
 

"Cut off? Self contained? You son of a bitch."

He paced around his desk, taking slow deep breaths. He had been in tight situations before. He had been screwed over before and now he had confirmation that Dillinger had been responsible for at least one of those times.

"Probably responsible for this too," he said and then stopped dead in his tracks. His face went a deep shade of red and his hand shot out, knocking over his computer monitor.

"You son of a bitch. This was you again, wasn't it?"

His desire to punch or throw something else was almost overwhelming, but looking around his office he saw the mess he had already created. He forced himself to relax a little. He cursed himself for allowing Dillinger to push his buttons, for allowing himself to lose control. He could fix this, nothing was beyond his control. So he was limited with what he had to work with, he would deal with it.