Justice by Jeffrey Salane

Author:Jeffrey Salane [Jeffrey Salane]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781848123540
Publisher: Piccadilly Press
Published: 2015-09-20T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

GLITCH

Data, data, data. Piles of data. Spreadsheets about spreadsheets of data neatly tucked into a folder marked DATA. This was apparently how Vivian Ware spent her days, in a sea of information, fishing for clues that might uncover a Lawless crime. Emails, newspaper clippings, phone call transcripts, social media sites, or photos from public cameras, the data piled higher and higher around M as she helped comb through paper after paper. For the first time she wished she were back in Keyshawn’s lab, ducking under Magblast fire or even back in the Box, jumping off a speeding locomotive. Anything beat sitting at this desk and sieving through random reports.

‘Aren’t there computers to do this stuff now?’ M asked Vivian.

‘It’s our job to double-check the computer’s findings,’ she answered civilly, but the cut above her lip reminded M of everything that had just happened between them in the Maze. ‘Computers miss things all the time. And computers can’t see the kind of crime we’re looking for.’

Leaning towers of paper from the FBI, CIA, MI6, Interpol, even old KGB files rose from M’s desk. She picked through pages on everything from missing paintings to bank robberies to jewelry heists to traffic violations and major contraband leads. ‘Lawless would have loved to have this much access to the good guys’ files. I guess it pays to be on the same team.’

‘Same team?’ laughed Vivian. ‘Freeman, Fulbrights work alone. These agencies, they only represent the law. We are the law.’

M didn’t like the sound of that one bit. ‘Wait, so you pull these reports without their permission?’

‘Ugh, we have to. They’re worse than the computers, as far as paying attention for Lawless discrepancies. We have to keep an eye on everything.’

But who keeps an eye on you? thought M. She decided to steer the conversation back toward Vivian. ‘So this is what you do all day?’

‘Don’t look so excited,’ said Vivian. ‘It’s not all as glamorous as this.’

‘Well, not that it’s any of my business,’ said M, ‘but they should send you back out in the field. It felt like you pulled the muscles from my bones in the Maze. My shoulder and ribs are still angry at me for chasing you down.’

Vivian smiled, obviously pleased at her performance and to hear M admit that she still had what it took to take down an opponent. ‘In a few more weeks, I’ll be cleared for duty.’

‘A few more weeks, eh,’ said M. ‘That’s just enough time for you to finish being my babysitter. Coincidence?’

‘That’s the deal,’ said Vivian.

She doesn’t know, thought M. According to her file, Vivian was never going back into the field.

‘And since we’re being honest,’ Vivian continued, ‘how did you all disappear at the same time in the Maze?’

‘Lucky, I guess,’ M lied.

She looked up to see Vivian giving her a determined stare. Vivian seemed to study M’s every word, searching each one for a sign of truth. ‘I don’t believe in luck.’

‘Maybe you just never had any,’ said M as she parsed through another binder of the world’s most mundane papers.

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