Hide and Seek by Tricia Owens

Author:Tricia Owens [Owens, Tricia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tricia Owens
Published: 2020-02-23T16:00:00+00:00

9

As Black started the engine on his craft, the passenger door opened and Sergeant Eckersley jumped in. Black didn't give him a second glance as the man buckled in. He tore down the road, heading back to the lights of the city.

“Lieutenant Sundhill won't be happy,” Black said, his eyes on the road.

“I'm sure it's pretty obvious to you that there's no love lost between us, sir.”

“Drop the 'sir' while it's just us.” Black checked his PRU again, made another call that went nowhere. “Tell me what's between you two.”

“It's a long story.”

“We've got time.”

Eckersley adjusted a buckle on his gear, looked out the side window. Uselessly, Black wished he could read the other man's mind.

“This appointment to CAT is recent,” Eckersley said eventually.

“CAT?”

“Cyber Attack-Tactical. It's an experimental team. We're Mayor Harcourt's guinea pigs,” Eckersley explained. “For me, it's my last chance to avoid a desk job.”

“A desk would be a waste of your training,” Black said. “Did you make the wrong enemies somewhere along the line?” In the department, most promotions were political, motivated by who you knew or who you had helped. It was why Sundhill with his charismatic personality had risen so quickly in the ranks and why so many people questioned what Black, a young, antisocial loner, had done to get his job. Rarely was anyone promoted based purely on performance. That only mattered when you were punished with a demotion.

“Technology wasn't my initial specialty,” Eckersley acknowledged. “I've always been a grunt, a soldier. I was in SWAT for six years. I was on track to make lieutenant.” His tone hardened. “Then I ran into Andrew Sundhill of the JCPD.”

Black had never heard anyone who wasn't a criminal speak Sundhill's name with such animosity. Even officers who were jealous of the Golden Wonder didn't hate him, grudgingly acknowledging that he was talented and had worked the system hard enough to deserve his position.

“He was a lot younger then. Just appeared on the scene from another city—I can't remember which one. I heard he'd been making waves, but not because of his numbers: he was hanging out socially with his COs and stopping in to visit your captain on his off days, working it as hard as he could. I'd begun hearing rumors that he was being considered for some ultra-secret project that was in the works when I ran into him during a departmental swap between our cities.”

“Swap?”

“The swaps are a joke. We spend a week working with a counterpart in the other city, learning and comparing methods and techniques that are supposed to make us all better. The reality is that no one wants to reveal their secrets and weaknesses to another department so there's no 'sharing' happening at all. The whole thing is a waste of time. That swap was no different...but with one exception.”

Black glanced at him with interest. They were still several miles out from JC2 but he could tell Eckersley's story would be important.

“I was doing the swap with Sundhill. Like I said, he was new at the time, but I didn't discover how new until the swap.

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