Watch Dogs (20 page)

“So this Quinn’s got close connections with Verrick—and Purity? Might be they’re doing something for Purity without knowing what it’s all about...some kind of dirty work...”

“Sounds about right to me...”

“And you heard something about a guy named Starling?”

“He was there. Thinking about it, I realized I’d heard of him. Might’ve even met him—back in North Africa. He was with Air Force special technical division, a drone specialist...There was a guy notorious for verbal OCD behavior...Yeah, that’d be him. Starling.”

“Where’d you dump that Silverado?”

“I know, I should’ve kept Verrick’s truck for, maybe, planting a tracer in it or something but...it was Verrick’s. I scuttled it. Ran it down a boat ramp into Lake Michigan.”

Pearce laughed. “Don’t blame you! You search the truck before you scuttled it?”

“Yeah, he didn’t leave any laptops in it or anything. So—what about that SystemsLeak file supposed to go up?”

“They’re reshuffling their people. But let me check on that...”

And suddenly Pearce vanished from the screen.

Wolfe lifted his glass to toast the screen. “Here’s to you, Pearce.”

He sipped his whiskey, thinking,
The more I hang out around Pearce, in any sense, the better my chances are of getting killed...

Wolfe turned that thought over in his mind, and then realized he didn’t really mind, that much.

Did he, Mick Wolfe...have a deathwish?

He had a revenge wish. But under that, maybe...

He’d been Delta Force; he’d risked his life for his country many times. And when they’d kicked him out with a dishonorable discharge, he’d put on a stone face about it. He hadn’t shed one tear. But inside he’d been deeply wounded, and it was a wound that might never heal. You don’t get through training for special forces, and combat with Delta Force, without having a deep sense of commitment and belonging. And then suddenly, the belonging had been taken away from him.

They’d taken it all away from him. They’d smeared him. They’d shamed him.

And he’d been so willing to die for Delta Force, so identified with it, somehow he didn’t feel like living, now, with his identity shattered...

“Fuck ‘em,” he said, to the empty glass.

And he poured himself another.

#

GlowWorm seemed quietly scared; his gaze kept darting around the park. “I shouldn’t be here in person...”

“You told me to get rid of my phone. You didn’t seem to want to talk via Instant Message through internet cafe so...”

“I just felt like it was too insecure. This park doesn’t have any working ctOS cameras. We should be okay here....”

They were standing together on a small footbridge over a branch of a park lake on the southeast side of Chicago. It was a cold but windless midmorning, with broken clouds letting intermittent shafts of winter sunlight through.

To the north was more tree lined park, and then the great expanse of Washington Park’s many youth baseball fields. There were maples, elms and other trees Seline couldn’t identify lining the small, curved lake. “Looks peaceful here,” she said. “Not the way people think of this part of Chicago.”

“Can be,” GlowWorm said. “There are all kinds of people in the Chicago ‘hoods. There are strong families, and neighborhoods where people take care of one another; where they tell the parents if they see a child snuck out late in bad company. There are street parties with great music and food, and everyone getting along. There are a lot of good people. But there are gangs, too. And they’re some of the toughest and best-armed in the USA. This bridge looks peaceful—but I know for a fact two Black Viceroys were killed here, a couple months ago, thugs hired by The Club. Turf fight.”

“On this bridge?”

“Yeah.”

“You know how to make a girl feel safe.”

“You don’t come across like a woman that scares easily.”

“I’m not,” Seline said. “But I’m worried about being tracked by ctOS—if it’s true that the company maintaining it’s got some bad guys mixed in...”

“Blume’s a mixed bag. Most of them are okay for a corporation. But lately...” He looked her over, shook his head. “I don’t know about that disguise...”

She had on a big blowsy blond wig and enormous rhinestone sunglasses, and she’d exaggerated her makeup. She now wore a cheap, heavy bright-green overcoat with really large buttons on it.

Seline shrugged. “I’m just trying to confuse whoever’s using their cameras.”

“Don’t worry about the cameras in this spot. That’s why I picked it. This area, ctOS is behind on their maintenance—the cameras around here have been spray painted by kids working for the Black Viceroys. They’re all blanked out.”

“Comforting, I guess. If the gangs don’t come after us.”

“Not in broad daylight. And mostly the gangs go after one another.”

“So what’s the word on the upload of the file?”
“Positive. I’ve been pushing them to approve it and just do it because there’s word of some upload blackout coming down. Maybe because rumors of this file have gotten out. Here’s another flashdrive, with another contact, in case anything goes south between you and me. DedSec’s being even more careful than usual...”

She took the flashdrive. “They’re being pretty paranoid, aren’t they?”

“Maybe they are, maybe we’re completely safe. But there is something that I—”

Something he never got to tell her.

The top of GlowWorm’s head exploded with the impact of a sniper’s bullet. He crumpled, as if someone had cut through the tendons in the back of his knees.

Seline threw herself flat on the bridge. Another bullet slapped the air where she’d been a moment before. She found herself almost staring into GlowWorm’s dead, staring eyes.

She looked away. A bullet ricocheted from the metal rail of the footbridge.

She had no intention of being pinned down here. She pulled off the wig, tossed it in the air to distract the shooter, and jumped up, ran with her head below the railing level, to the bushes nearby. She dodged to the right, ran along the bank of the lake, putting tree trunks between her and the place she thought the shot had come from.

Her heart hammered in her chest; she could scarcely breathe as she ran, though she was in good shape.

Calm down, girl. They’re not going to chase you down. That was a sniper. They’re on their back way out of that position by now, heading out
.

Her stomach lurched when she remembered GlowWorm’s head flying apart.

She stopped behind a thick maple bole, retching, not quite throwing up.

Maybe it really is time to leave town...

No. She’d liked GlowWorm. She’d liked Ruth Medina. That was two people she’d liked, murdered—and the “tracks” all led back to Chicago.

No. She was going to find the alternate contact, on this flashdrive. And she was going to convince them to upload the file—despite what had happened to GlowWorm.

#

SNIPER IN WASHINGTON PARK?

Unidentified Man Shot Down on Park Footbridge

This morning, police said that the victim at yesterday’s shooting in one of the most serene settings of south Washington Park was killed with a 7.62 mm rifle bullet associated with sniper rifles. The man has not yet been publicly identified. Bullet casings were found on the roof of a parking garage across from the park.

A press release from the CPD indicated...

Wolfe felt a chill reading the article in the online Chicago Tribune. He had no clear reason to assume this killing was related to him, or Verrick. Or Purity. But something about the use of that particular ammo, and the military-style placement of the shooter, suggested Purity.

“Hey Wolfe...”

Wolfe almost jumped out of his chair again. “Dammit, Pearce, do you have to boom your voice like that out of the PC? That’s the second time you made me jump.”

Pearce’s face suddenly filled the PC screen. “And how come you’re so jumpy?”

“That’d make anyone jump.” After a moment he admitted, “But this sniper killing in Washington Park...”

“Yeah. I’m following that too. I suspect Purity. Police haven’t released the info but they think the guy was a hacker who went by the name GlowWorm. Might be associated with DedSec. But that’s always hard to confirm. DedSec specializes in making it hard to confirm. ”

“You made any progress on confirming Niall Quinn in sending Grampus after you?”

“Not definitely. But I’ve confirmed he’s taking over the Club. He’s not quite there yet—he’s got rivals. But he’s got control of some sex slavery ring they’ve got going.”

“Nice guy.”

“Yeah. I’m ninety per cent sure he’s the one who called for a hit on me. I’ll get closer to a hundred per cent...and I’ll take him out. In my own time, in my own way.”

“DedSec...T-Bone’s got some connection with them.”

“Some. He’s not one of them though. How’d you get to know T-Bone anyway?”

“We used a white-hat hacking consultant, to try to work up protections against drone spoofing. The guy told me about T-Bone. Said he had ‘the dirt under his fingernails’. Whatever that means. I guess it means he’s not particularly ‘White Hat’.”
“Definitely not. But he’s an idealist, in his own way.”

“When I got out of prison I thought he might be the guy to find you for me. I called my friend, he sent a text to T-Bone. Who called me. Told me about Blank...”

“Okay. You...” Pearce’s face and voice fuzzed out for a few seconds, then came back. “...and if he’s willing to talk to you....”

“Wait, I lost you there. That indicate we’re being tracked?”

“Nah, it’s my system for keeping them from tracking us. I switch from server to server, frequency to frequency. It’s set up to be smooth but sometimes there’s delays. I was saying, you should get in touch with DedSec. See if you can find out what the story is on that file. Maybe they’ll give it to us if they don’t want to leak it themselves. I’ll give you another contact. This guy’s kinda mercenary—he’s in and out of DedSec. But he’s the right contact for what you’ve gotta do. He’ll need ’’a fee though. Fancies himself a fixer. Guy’s name is Garnet. Just...
Garnet
.’ You need cash?”

“I’ll be okay. I’ve been using the PearcePhone to listen in to street dealers. Then I do the ATM thing. Most pushers have at least some money in the bank. I’ve accumulated a pretty good pile. I can pay with that.”

“Wait—the ‘PearcePhone’?”

“What I call it. The special phone you got to me.”

Pearce winced. “It’s not the
phone,
it’s the software that’s special. The custom apps. Just keep that ‘PearcePhone’ stuff to yourself. Don’t refer to it that way anyplace. In fact, don’t refer to it at all. One of these days, you’re gonna give that phone back to me.”

“And if I don’t?”

“If you don’t, I send it a signal to make it meltdown, Wolfe. If you happen to have it in your trouser pocket, you might need a testicle transplant.”

“Do they do those now? Because Verrick could use one. He hasn’t got the balls to face me.”

“Thinks like a military man. A Special Forces guy. How often did you Delta Force types take the enemy on face to face like Redcoats running toward the Minutemen so they could get mowed down?”
Wolfe smiled. “Point taken.”

“You need more supplies there?”
“’ There’s a guy with the Black Viceroys who buys stuff for me, meets me about a block away. I pay him good—but he’d probably do it anyway. Wants to keep Shuggie happy. Got to get some aspirin in but that’s about it. That Scotch of yours is a little too tempting when I’m having a rough day.”

“Keep your head clear, Wolfe. Things are about to get intense.”

“About to? What’s this been up to now?”

“Just mildly tense. Look for intense now. I’ll send you that new contact info for Garnet. Handle him carefully.”

“Wait—you say he’s on the fence...like you don’t always trust him.”

“I don’t.”
“Then why do you think I can trust him?”

“You can’t. But he’s your best shot right now to get in touch with DedSec. They’re kind of annoyed with me. Seems they think I brought too much spotlight down on them, and I refused to give them some accesses. Bunch of pussies.”

And Pearce ended the call.

G
arnet was a man with his face and head so covered with tattoos it was difficult to identify his ethnicity. He was a blue-and-red man now. He had a ring through his nose and a small shark’s tooth through each earlobe. Garnet had defiant dark brown-black eyes, a sweatshirt with an obscure cryptogram on the front, almost like a superhero’s chest symbol; there were copper clasps on his Maori tattooed forearms.

Actually, Garnet was laughing at the whole world’, because Wolfe, who was on the roof of the old tenement, was seeing Garnet on the PearcePhone’s screen...and he was seeing a frozen digital image Garnet used for trusted contacts. That is, relatively trusted contacts.

Suddenly the animated image moved. “What do you want?” came ’Garnet’s voice. The image looked at Wolfe with Max Headroom cynical inquisitiveness.