Thrill Switch, page 30
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Even now, Rommel was lying through her teeth. Her comment about not listing herself in the file hit home though. After poring through the information dozens of times, I’d asked myself the same question. Why would you create something so incriminating? The scope of the conspiracy would have been hard to keep track of otherwise, so there was that. And the file was heavily encrypted. Still, it was a huge risk, unless you were the mastermind and didn’t leave your name on it. That made sense. It also meant it could be anyone. Mendez even. But she didn’t have the motive. Switch perhaps. But how, when she was in digital confinement? She was still at large but had been totally silent. I’d expected people to turn up dead but none had. We needed answers before some kind of bloodbath began on that front.’
I turned to the glass divider in the room.
‘Is that true, Stephenson?’ I asked, looking at him through his window. ‘Did the mastermind contact you and bring you in under Rommel’s command? Do you know who the mastermind is?’
He paused, looking darkly at Rommel.
‘It was all her,’ he said. ‘Let her fry!’
He kicked the window again.
‘It wasn’t me!’ Rommel said frantically to us. ‘It wasn’t. Ask Fukami. He’ll tell you.’
I had nothing but contempt for this woman now. This liar. This manipulator. She’d told me to make everyone else think they’re smarter than you so they’d do what you want. Well, I’d played into her game too neatly. The thought infuriated me. She’d treated me as a pawn as well. But I’d made it to the end of the chessboard and was now stronger. She was done manipulating me. I knew Fukami wouldn’t help Rommel. He was too selfish for that. That second senator was next on our interrogation list. This was going to be an interesting discussion.
65
FUKAMI LOOKED OLDER in real life. Greyer. Less muscle tone. Still, he held a presidential bearing. His confidence under interrogation was surprising. I’d expected him to buckle, but he knew what we had on him. Not much. His lawyers knew it too. Six defense attorneys stood behind Fukami like a bunch of well-dressed sharks. Fukami did all the talking in that small, bare room that may as well have been his own office. Joon and I sat across from him like we had in the Holos, expecting information that might help us.
‘There is zero proof that I was involved in the murders,’ he said.
He was right of course. The master file showed clearly that he wasn’t involved in that part. But conspiracy to manipulate money markets was a serious offence.
‘Further,’ Fukami interrupted my thoughts. ‘I helped you when I thought your troll, Bleesh, was Stephenson. I gave you the means to catch him. I helped the police every step of the way.’
‘And yet it wasn’t Stephenson,’ Joon said. ‘It was just a kid.’
‘A kid you’re having indicted as an adult for inciting riots,’ Fukami reminded us. ‘A kid who I’m told gave evidence that led to you catching Stephenson.’
I must have looked shocked that he knew this—he gave an incredibly self-satisfied smirk.
‘Switch told us you knew exactly who Entown Stephenson was,’ Joon pressed on. ‘She said that you’d actually befriended him and wanted him to join the Guardians of the Web.’
‘Are you going to believe a convicted psychopath or me?’ Fukami said. ‘I hated Entown as much as Switch and Corpus. Sure I knew who he was, but I didn’t want to incriminate myself anymore than I needed to. As soon as I realized he was involved and that these murders might be part of the conspiracy, I contacted Rommel to call it off. I really did think he might be Bleesh.’
‘Bullshit,’ I said.
‘I can prove it,’ Fukami insisted.
He clicked his fingers and a lawyer flicked on a screen. It was the recording of a video call. Fukami’s face was largest, then Rommel’s came online. Before Rommel could even say hello, Fukami launched into a tirade.
‘You,’ he said. ‘If you’re behind these Specter murders I’m out. This wasn’t part of the deal.’
Rommel’s reaction was calm.
‘Relax,’ she said. ‘Everything’s going to plan. The policy odds are bigger on the market now. I suggest you take advantage of that and invest further. They’ll be narrower soon enough.’
‘You don’t understand,’ Fukami said. ‘I had the police come by my rally today. They had footage of a soldier called Entown Stephenson. You don’t realize how dangerous he is.’
Rommel crossed her arms.
Fukami’s jaw slackened. Realization hit him hard.
‘You do understand! Are you crazy? This needs to stop. I’ve given them a way to catch him.’
‘Good,’ Rommel said. ‘I’ll be happy if he gets caught. They’ll have their scapegoat then. I’ll have my laws. You’ll have your money. It all helps us. It’s all part of the plan. Thank you for being a part of it.’
She cut off the call. The recording went dark. Fukami looked back to us, smug in his righteousness. I shared a look with Joon. His FBI informant had told us that Rommel and Fukami had had multiple conversations on his watch, but that he didn’t have direct specifics of the calls since they were held behind closed doors and firewalls. We’d assumed it was just them negotiating the bill’s provisions. If we’d known what they’d really been talking about, we might have been able to stop this sooner.
‘Once I knew the scope of this, I sold all my Mercury currency,’ Fukami continued. ‘Dirty money I was glad to be rid of. You can check that too.’
‘And made a handsome profit, I’m sure,’ I said. ‘The value of that crypto has crashed now that the conspiracy has hit the media. Rommel’s policy is dead in the water too. No one’s backing that turd now.’
‘I donated the entire profits to charity,’ Fukami said. ‘Check that as well.’
‘Sounds like an admission of guilt,’ I countered. ‘Why would you give it to charity if you didn’t know you’d done the wrong thing?’
‘Insider trading is illegal, but it’s not murder,’ Fukami said. ‘I never wanted to be a part of that. I wanted to create reasonable laws that would stop things like that. Avatar kidnapping. Pain. This isn’t what I wanted and a court will see that. I welcome standing trial if I need to, but am willing to help you prosecute Rommel and everyone else involved so I don’t have to go to court.’
There it was.
‘In exchange for what?’ I said.
Fukami didn’t dirty his hands with this negotiation. It was one of the six lawyers that stepped forward. A statuesque man in his fifties.
‘Full immunity,’ he said.
I almost laughed.
‘But,’ the man said. ‘He will step down as a senator, immediately, without contest.’
‘He’ll be kicked out when found guilty for insider trading,’ I said.
Of course, Fukami knew that. He was just protecting his ego or his reputation. There probably wasn’t much difference between the two for someone like him.
‘He’ll have no charges laid against him,’ the lawyer said. ‘In exchange, my client offers full cooperation. He’ll back up any information you have already with secondary testimony.’
‘Can you give us the mastermind?’ I asked right away, keeping a close eye on his reaction. ‘The one who put this all together?’
Fukami paused then. Just for a second, but he paused.
‘Rommel was the one who planned the whole thing, as far as I know,’ he said.
‘Then why would she list herself in our key file?’ I said. ‘If she was so clever, why risk incriminating herself like that? Why not just leave her own name out and track the rest?’
‘I have no idea,’ Fukami said. ‘But the fact she’s on the file at the top is the simplest solution. You’re overthinking it. You have your white whale. I suggest you harpoon her.’
This whole thing stunk. It was getting more rancid by the minute. I glanced at Joon. By the look on his face he smelt the rot too. He didn’t look at Fukami as a fanboy anymore. He looked at him with disgust.
‘There is more help you need from me as well,’ Fukami continued. ‘Now that Switch is out, I need to be able to patch any code loops in the Holos that could allow her to kill again.’
My stomach clenched. ‘She’s been inside for seven years,’ I seethed. ‘You said you’ve already patched the code.’
‘I believe I have,’ Fukami countered. ‘Which is why we haven’t heard word of any Specter deaths yet. We’ve blocked her, but she’s smart. If she’s actually still alive, she’ll find a workaround. We need to stay one step ahead of her.’
This wasn’t good. He had leverage. If this hit the media, there’d be an outcry to let him use his resources to protect lives. He might even get a chance to stand for office again, backed by the support. I wasn’t going to let things go that easily though.
‘Corpus can help us with closing the loop on Switch,’ I said. ‘He wants to stop his sister as much as anyone.’
Corpus had been an incredible help already. Had proven an amazing resource in the few days between me getting Stephenson and all of the arrests going down. He’d teased out all the relevant files, compiled them, and backed them up with other evidence he was able to find in the Holos network. Corpus’s name was already being put into play as a replacement senator now that Rommel and Fukami looked certain to be indicted. Well, Rommel at least. Fukami pursed his lips, thinking. He was obviously aware of what Corpus had done already. He didn’t seem pleased, but wasn’t displeased either.
‘That’s true,’ he said. ‘Corpus can help with Switch. But he’ll need full access to my source code and all the support I can offer too. Something I will gladly give if we make this deal.’
‘You think Corpus will work with you after you were part of a plan that included his own kidnapping and torture?’ Joon replied.
‘Like I said, I wasn’t a part of that. I was only in it for the money.’
He went silent then, folding his hands over his lap. I watched the lawyers, then looked to see if Joon had any further questions. He shook his head. Before I made any bargains, we had to speak with Stephenson again. Perhaps his spite could be used to implicate Fukami if he’d been involved further. If there was a mastermind beyond what we knew, Entown would be the one to unearth it. He’d been played the whole time. A puppet. If there was anything I’d learned during this whole shit show, it was that brilliant people hated to be manipulated even more than the rest of us.
I pushed back from the table. ‘Wait here,’ I said. ‘We’ll be back.’
Joon took my cue and followed me from the room. Guards took station at the door as we locked Fukami in with his lawyers. They were comfortable enough. They could wait.
Joon and I navigated the corridors toward Entown’s cell.
‘What do you think?’ I asked.
‘I think he’s hiding something,’ Joon said. ‘I used to think he was a visionary. Now I think he’s a greedy businessman. A hypocrite.’
I didn’t want to say that’s what I thought the whole time. I truly didn’t feel ahead of the game anymore. Even though this case was coming to a close, it still didn’t quite feel like all the strands were coming together. Yes, we’d made arrests. Significant ones. But had we made the arrest? The fact remained, Switch was still out there somewhere too. Rommel could be the mastermind, lying to avoid the worst of her punishment. Or she could be telling the truth. Entown knew the answer.
We turned into the holding cell corridor. I stopped. The passage was empty.
‘Where are the guards?’ I asked.
Joon looked, surprise spreading across his face, then alarm. We started running at the same time. I made it to the door first, my heart pounding. Stephenson can’t have escaped. He can’t have. I tried the door. It was locked. Thank god. Pressing my thumb into the keypad, my clearance ran through and the green light appeared on the handle. We went inside.
Blood.
Gouts of it spread along the floor, flowing from Entown’s face. His body was still. Cold. Dead. A syringe hung from his left eye.
He hadn’t escaped, but he had.
Set the body free and the spirit will soar, I thought.
66
I WATCHED THE footage for what must have been the hundredth time. It was the same as a month ago when it was fresh. Entown kicking the glass of his interrogation cell, telling me that Rommel should fry. As I closed the door to Rommel’s cell on the other side of the window, all went to static. There was no other footage of what happened. The guards who had been at his door couldn’t be accounted for. Footage of the inside of the station had shown they were never there to begin with. Yet I’d seen them stationed there with my own eyes. Even after asking Sabi and Corpus to see if the footage was scrubbed, we’d had no luck. Whether it was the military or this ‘mastermind’ or someone else, I might never know. The result was the same regardless; Entown Stephenson was dead. As far as I was concerned, that was justice. I just wish I knew what he knew before justice was carried out.
I thought about Rommel’s trial. With Fukami’s backing evidence it had been short. He’d gotten his deal. Rommel had held her ground that she wasn’t the master architect of the plan, positioning herself as a high-ranking soldier who’d merely carried out orders. She insisted in a rousing speech that all of it was for the good of the country. That we needed proper laws in the Holos if we didn’t want to world to succumb to evil. The judge had sat back in his chair, banged his gavel for order, and told the jury to disregard her comments and look at the evidence. The jury took fifteen minutes to deem the senator guilty on all charges. It had been quicker than even Chip Radcliffe’s trial where he was found guilty for inciting riots as both Bleesh and Chance Bradley. He was in prison. Rommel, though, was another story. When the jury pronounced her guilt, the judge had nodded grimly. Then he did something that surprised everyone.
‘Given the nature of your crimes against society as a whole,’ he said, ‘I’m going to let the people decide your fate. One option is life in prison. The other is death by electrocution. I’ll draw up the bill myself and put it on the open market today. I’m betting the public won’t be merciful.’
The judge was right. The bill for execution was ratified within a day. She was dead less than a week later.
Now, I was left filing everything away for use when Switch became active again. She was still at large. Feed theories had her swanning on beaches in Australia, enjoying the freedom she had recently acquired, retired from digital life. People thought they were safe from her killing again. My gut told me different. It also told me that Fukami had somehow engineered all of this. That he was the mastermind. He’d left Las Vegas. Gone to an anonymous location because the public harassed him for being corrupt. They hadn’t forgiven him like I thought they would. All over the Holos, there were forums and meet-ups talking about his evil, saying he should pay and that if anyone saw his avatar, to mob it. Of course, who knew what avatar he was wearing now. He could pick anything he wanted. Live anywhere he wanted. There was no justice for the ultra-rich. I wasn’t so naive as to think it would play out any other way. At least he’d never be senator again. There was no way his power would reach beyond the digital world. How much he could achieve behind the scenes still bugged me like a mosquito in a dark room. I couldn’t rest easy. I still had nightmares. I told myself I wouldn’t give up until I’d somehow pinned him down and nailed Switch to a wall. This wasn’t over for me. Not by a long shot. My next case would be finding that Specter… if it was the last thing I did. I’d only ever wanted to understand her crimes and stop others like her from emerging. Now that the real thing was back, my purpose in life was clear.
A knock sounded at the door. Joon.
‘Hey,’ he said. ‘I’ve packed up my office here. Thought I’d come to say goodbye.’
I smiled. The little spankblanket had grown on me. Maybe some jack-ins weren’t all that bad, even if they were perverts. They weren’t hurting anyone. Most of them. Those that did, Joon and people like him stood up to. I saw that now. Admired him for it. He stood for justice, same as I. So what if it came from a different place or manifested in different ways, in different worlds? Both places had equal merit. Reality isn’t just the things you can touch. It’s everything you experience.
I stood up and moved to give Joon a hug. He shied back. That hadn’t changed apparently. Then he swept in and wrapped his arms around me fiercely. Just for a moment. A brief, beautiful embrace. We stood apart. I smiled again.
‘Are you going to go for the Sheriff’s position now that Mendez is going to be Senator?’ he asked.
I shook my head. ‘I don’t have the stomach for politics. ‘She’ll be great though. It’s just a shame Corpus isn’t running for the other seat.’
Joon shrugged. ‘He’d be a hypocrite like Fukami if he did. You can’t advocate freedom and anonymity and then run for government. Like Corpus said in his statement—the smaller our government is and the fewer laws we have controlling our lives, the better.’
‘But he could help find a sensible medium,’ I countered. ‘There has to be a balance. You need some laws, right?’
‘That I can agree with,’ Joon said.
‘Hey,’ I said. ‘Don’t stop arguing with me now that we’re all done.’
Joon smiled. We stood in silence for a while.
‘So are you going back to the FBI?’ I asked him eventually.
‘I am,’ he nodded. ‘I’ve been put in charge of a task force to help find ways to encourage ethical cultural change in the Holos. Instead of heavy-handed laws, we’ll work to establish new norms that promote safety, order, and freedom.’
‘Good luck with that,’ I scoffed.
He opened his mouth to start an argument, then smirked. He knew I was baiting him.
‘If I can help somehow, let me know,’ I said. I’d really grown fond of working with him. The yin to my yang.
‘Same to you,’ he said. ‘If you ever get a sniff of where Switch might really be, I’ll come running.’
