Code of Vengeance: The Complete Collection, page 46
Bryce cracked his knuckles and groaned as he leaned back in his supposedly ergonomic office chair, feeling every muscle in his back complain against the sudden movement. It got said all the time, but he really did feel like he was getting too old for this. He stared at his uncaring computer monitor, sitting there calmly, mocking his need for movement and action. There was little that he wanted to do less than sit around on a computer all day, but that seemed to be the way of his career lately.
It was a good thing, he reflected, that he was bored. A bored homicide detective in a city the size of Minneapolis meant that just maybe the world was starting to figure itself out. Maybe humans were starting to get it right.
There were still homicides, of course. He suspected there always would be. He wasn’t a pessimist, though. Bryce liked to believe in humanity. He liked to think they would always improve and move forward. But he had been working as a detective too long to convince himself that violence would ever completely end.
Couples still got angry enough to be driven to murder. Accidents with firearms and kitchen utensils still happened. Fights that never should have ended in death sometimes did. Violence would never disappear, and in his younger, more cynical days, Bryce often bragged that he had excellent job security. Nowadays, he cringed at the ass he’d been as a younger man.
But with advances in criminal technology, his very secure job wasn’t very interesting. Crimes of passion were easy to solve. The suspect pool was limited, and with everyone’s DNA recorded, evidence was easy to process. Cameras were everywhere, and forensics had reached the point where it was almost impossible to commit an impulsive crime without being caught.
That left premeditated murders. There were still those few people who planned out their actions and tried to evade detection. Occasionally they presented a challenge, but not often. The same forensics were still in play, and it was almost impossible to move around the city without being identified by biometrics. Even if the crime itself hadn’t been covered by video, it was almost guaranteed that the space surrounding it was.
There were a few exceptions, though, like Nat and her robot friend. That had been an interesting case, but it was closed now. Nothing had been heard from either of them for months, and while his thoughts occasionally wandered in that direction, they were becoming part of his past, no longer haunting his present. The last time Bryce had seen either of them was the night he was abducted from his apartment last winter. He had seen the robot briefly, but that was all.
For a while, Bryce had thought about them daily, wondering what had become of them. He didn’t bother searching, though. They had found the cracks in the system, small as they were, and slipped through them. Beyond that, some part of him wanted to give them their space. He was the one who helped hide them, after all. Better he forgot them.
There were rumors, of course. The few beat cops left on the street talked about a robot that went around harassing members of Sapiens. There were stories of an assault on Bryan Adair’s office, but those had been hushed up so quiet that there wasn’t any telling what was true and what wasn’t. The mysterious partners had dropped off police radar, and subsequently Bryce’s.
So, Bryce focused on the work he did have to do. There weren’t many murders, and the ones that did occur could usually be solved by a few hours at a computer. For a detective who lived for the thrill of a challenging case, that meant that even the few homicides he did catch barely inspired him to get out of bed in the morning.
He felt guilty for even thinking such thoughts. Every homicide was a tragedy to those involved, but after so many decades on the job, it was hard not to feel a little jaded, especially since detectives didn’t rely on personal interviews anymore. Everything they needed was a few keystrokes and a voice command away. While cases got solved faster, it meant there was little connection to any case. Bryce was still more moved by simple cases he had solved twenty years ago than ones as fresh as last week.
There wasn’t enough to keep Bryce occupied at his chosen profession, and it wasn’t long before his supervisors started dumping extra work on him. In this modern age, inefficiency couldn’t be tolerated.
Bryce sighed as he glanced through his to-do list. Wasn’t AI supposed to eliminate the drudgery that came with so many jobs? He was pretty sure his parents had been promised a utopian society where the only work humans had to do was creative, exciting work. Reviewing decades of old reports didn’t seem to fall into that category.
There was still a lot of police work to be done, but the need for detectives was decreasing daily. Like many positions, AI had taken control of a lot of the process. It was an AI that sent forensic bots to the scene to pick up evidence. An AI examined the evidence, provided suggestions, and compiled video, prior locations, and relationship matrices for the police involved in the case. At times, if the evidence was conclusive enough, the AI was even permitted to make the arrest by dispatching bots to the accused’s domicile. The process was still filtered through humans, but wouldn’t be for much longer, Bryce suspected.
Occasionally, some cases still needed a human touch, but they were far fewer than one would expect.
Not for the first time, Bryce considered retiring. He was in his upper fifties, and since his wife passed away, his bills had been virtually nonexistent. His rent was about his only expense. Retirement wouldn’t be much different than what he was stuck doing most days in the office. At least if he retired, he could stare at computer monitors and read all day because he chose to, not because he was being ordered to.
He couldn’t quite take the leap, though. Bryce had been a detective for over twenty-five years, and his job was about the only thing he really had left. Even though it amounted to a hill of beans, it was still his hill, and it gave him a reason to wake up in the morning. Maybe he didn’t jump out of bed with the vigor he once had, but he still got out. What would he do if that last trace of motivation disappeared?
No, not retirement. Not yet. He still had some good years left in him, and when the tough cases came into the precinct, he was always the one who got them. They were his specialty.
He was still taking a break when the bulletins started flashing across his screen. All available units were being called downtown. Someone had tried to assassinate Diamond Carter.
Bryce pulled up footage of the incident as he got ready to go assist with crowd control. He frowned as the camera zoomed in on Ms. Carter just a few seconds before the shot.
The girl in front of the candidate looked familiar.
Bryce watched as the girl disarmed the assassin and sent him to the ground with a single blow. It had been done really well. When they last met, he didn’t think she was physically capable of anything like that. She must have been training as of late.
He laughed softly to himself, thinking it was strange how lives sometimes crashed together again.
Perhaps it was time to arrange a meeting with Nat.
Bryce sat in one of his favorite coffee shops, a small independent place just a few blocks away from his apartment. The little shop was on the ground level of a small apartment complex. He enjoyed how quiet it was most afternoons, with the real afternoon rush coming after the high school down the street released for the day. He figured it was as good a place as any to meet Nat. They also served top-notch coffee, in his opinion. After guzzling swill at the station for the better part of three decades, good coffee was an indulgence.
Convincing Nat to meet had been a chore. She’d given him a number to reach her in case of emergency, and she didn’t believe that “catching up,” as he foolishly called their meeting, qualified. Then he had to allay her suspicions that it wasn’t a trap. Repeated assurances had barely been enough.
In a way, he was hurt. He’d risked his career to help the hacker and the robot, and this lack of trust was how he was repaid? A lifetime on the force had taught him not to take such reactions personally, but the sting of distrust was still there. If he put himself in her shoes, he could understand. She had plenty of reasons to distrust him. The lack of police action after her brother’s death, after all, was what had initiated her insane quest to prove that robots could kill on their own.
As was his custom, he arrived at the shop about fifteen minutes before their scheduled time. He ordered his coffee, dark roasted, and scanned the area to see if anything triggered a warning. No one seemed out of the ordinary, and no one looked to be paying him much attention. The whole check only took a few seconds, a habit he’d developed every time he stepped into a room. Cynthia had made fun of him for it, back in the day. She used to tease him that he was always looking for threats.
When Nat walked through the door, he almost didn’t recognize her. She still had short, dark hair with one side of her head shaved, as was the fashion these days, he supposed. He didn’t know. He was more than thirty years her senior, no problem, but he acknowledged that she looked better than she ever had.
Before, she had been a pale stick of a girl. She was strong, but no one would have guessed it from looking at her then.
It was obvious she had put on muscle, and she moved with an element of grace he hadn’t seen from her before. She’d been training in something. From the video he had watched a hundred times, and from the way she walked, he was guessing some form of grappling.
He was proud of her. After everything, she seemed to be making something of her life. Perhaps his decision to let her run free had been the correct one.
He wasn’t terribly surprised by his emotion. In his line of work, connections rarely lasted long, but people rarely met Bryce unless through tragedy, which formed bonds quicker than most people realized. In one sense, the two of them barely knew each other. But he still wanted nothing but the best for her.
Bryce noted how she also scanned the room before stepping in. She had changed, in more than just her poise. He’d seen that look before, practiced by military all around the world. She really had received more training, by someone who taught well. Had the robot been teaching her?
He stood up and greeted her. They shook hands and he could feel the strength in her grip. She set her backpack down at the table as she went to the counter. Nat ordered a plain coffee and sat down next to Bryce. She studied him silently for a moment before giving him the barest hint of a smile. From her, that was the equivalent of a warm greeting.
“It’s good to see you again,” she said, her voice barely audible over the sudden whine of a blender behind the counter.
“You, too.”
They both sipped their drinks, and Bryce realized he hadn’t really thought about what he wanted to say to her now that she was here. She looked at him as though she expected he had something important for her. She still thought his invitation was a ruse to bring her out into the open.
“I—” He hesitated, then started again. “I saw the footage of the assassination attempt yesterday. Are you okay?”
She nodded. “Yeah.” Her eyes became unfocused, and Bryce knew she was reliving the memory. But she snapped back to the present quickly, glaring at him as though he had caused her flashback on purpose. “It was surprising, and I was in shock for a while after, but it doesn’t seem to have fazed me as much as I expected it to.”
“You’ve been through a lot these past few years.”
She gave a short laugh at that and met his gaze. “Yeah, I suppose so.”
A short, companionable silence stretched between them.
“How are you?” she asked.
Bryce leaned back, relaxing into his chair. “Okay. Life as a homicide detective these days is pretty routine. I suppose I shouldn’t complain, but I get bored. A lot of desk work, and not very much investigation anymore. I’ve been thinking about retiring.” He realized with a start that although he had been considering the move for months, she was the first person he’d told.
The announcement earned him a raised eyebrow. “Is that why you called me? To let me know that you’re thinking of throwing in the towel?”
Bryce chuckled as he shook his head. “No. Believe it or not, I’ve often thought about you and our mutual friend. I wasn’t lying on the phone. When I saw the video, I recognized you and wanted to see how you were. I’m also curious how you came from our last meeting to being in the same car as Diamond Carter.”
“I’m her chief of security.”
Bryce almost spilled his coffee on his lap. He regained control with as much grace as possible, but a little of his beverage spilled onto the table. As he wiped it up, he let his mind attempt to catch up. “Including her physical security?”
Nat caught the doubt in his voice. “Wasn’t my choice either, but yes.”
“How is she now?”
“Angry. But not deterred. Not her.”
“She seems the type. And you’re still going to be head of security, even after the attempt?”
Nat broke her gaze and looked out the window. She was clearly worried but trying to maintain her composure. “It turns out I’m a victim of my own success. Because I stopped the assassin, now they all think I’m some sort of hero that should be her personal bodyguard twenty-four seven.”
Bryce looked Nat over. She was stronger, and clearly had more physical skills than the last time they had met, but she didn’t strike him as bodyguard material. But he tried to be supportive, as though she was a daughter who hadn’t quite gotten the job she wanted. “That’s kind of them.”
She shot him an angry glare. “Fucking stupid, you mean.”
“Perhaps more accurate, yes.”
They had been dancing around the topic for long enough. Bryce decided to get to it. “How is he?”
She glanced at him, an unreadable expression passing over her face, falling into confusion. “You don’t know?”
He shook his head, but her answer could only mean one thing.
His suspicion was confirmed moments later. “He’s dead. Sapiens First worked together with Radius to retrieve him.”
As briefly as she could, she told Bryce everything that had happened since they last met. Bryce was astounded that the authorities had managed to keep everything secret. There was no doubt powerful people were pulling strings behind the curtains.
Bryce wondered what it meant for the state. He had never approved of Br00-S and his actions. As much as he agreed with the robot’s purpose, he couldn’t stomach resorting to vigilantism instead of pursuing justice. Perhaps beating up thugs was satisfying in the short term, but it didn’t lead to a more just and safe society.
As Natalie spoke, Bryce got the feeling that she wasn’t telling him everything. He’d interviewed hundreds of witnesses in his time, and although he could never say for certain exactly how he knew, he always got a sense of when someone wasn’t telling him the complete truth. Nat was a friend, though, and he didn’t push. If there were parts of the story she didn’t want to tell, that was her decision.
When she finished, Bryce leaned back in his chair. He didn’t realize he had shifted so far forward while she spoke. “I’m glad that you’re okay, Nat.”
“Thanks. I miss him, though, some days.”
“You miss your underground life of crime?”
She flashed him a hint of a smile. “At times, yes. But that’s not what I mean. Br00-S felt like he was something special, like he had the opportunity to change the course of this place. But now he’s gone, and we only have ourselves to rely on.”
“Don’t you think that’s better, though? Shouldn’t it be up to us?”
Nat considered for a moment. “Probably, but it just felt good to know he was out there, protecting people, you know?”
Bryce didn’t know, but he nodded anyway. There was no doubt Nat believed every word.
Something in her posture had changed. She was sitting up straighter, and her gaze was a little higher. If they were in an interview, Bryce would know he wasn’t going to get anything else out of her. She had found her spine. Here, Bryce wasn’t sure exactly what it meant. She had made a decision about something, but whatever it was, he didn’t think she would tell him.
An alert pushed past Bryce’s “Do Not Disturb” settings on his phone. He swore softly. Only a few people could do that, and he couldn’t imagine a situation in which it was good. He glanced at the screen.
“Shit.”
Bryce didn’t swear often, so when he did, Nat raised her eyebrow. To think he would get this message, when he was sitting right here in front of her. It was one hell of a coincidence. He debated mentioning anything, but felt like she deserved to know.
“Felix Benham was just found dead in his prison cell.”
Chapter Three
He crept quietly, his feet silent in the snow, each step deliberate and planned. Gingerly, he tested each step before putting his weight on the foot, ensuring there weren’t dead branches or dried leaves under the snow that would crack and give his position away.
Moving like this, especially in the steep and treacherous mountains of Wyoming, wasn’t easy. Even though he was in near-perfect physical condition, the process was exhausting.
The wind blew softly in his face, ensuring that he was downwind of his prey. Five more minutes and then he would be close enough. Maybe a little longer. Time had ceased to have much meaning for him months ago. Tasks took as long as they took, and that was all there was to it.
Eventually he came to the edge of the opening in the tall pines. Before, he’d moved slowly. Now his pace was glacial. Any quick motion on his part would alert his prey.
He already had his bow in hand, an arrow nocked. He raised it as though the single action should take an entire day. When he had the bow in place, he pulled the string back.
In front of him, about thirty feet away, were two deer, a mother and her fawn. Drake focused on the mother, making sure that his aim was true.
The two of them had found a patch of grass fighting its way to sunlight from a hole in the snow, and were munching happily away. They had no idea he was so close. Even to their evolved senses, he was invisible.
