The Dispatcher: Travel by Bullet by John Scalzi

Author:John Scalzi [Scalzi, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Science Fiction, General, Crime & Mystery
ISBN: 9781645240815
Google: j16kzwEACAAJ
Amazon: B0BX73GGL4
Goodreads: 123176918
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Published: 2023-04-23T05:00:00+00:00

“Excuse me?” I said. “Mason robbed a corpse?”

Gabrielle Friedkin sighed. “Paul wasn’t just at the party to enjoy himself. He and I had business, and we had business with each other. I gave him a crypto wallet that stored confidential information. Mason took it off the body after Paul shot himself.”

“Why would he do that?”

“I haven’t the slightest idea. Maybe he thought it contained cryptocurrency. Paul ran that exchange app.”

“You don’t do cryptocurrency?” I asked.

“I have a small amount as part of my portfolio,” Friedkin said. “But I don’t trade it on an app.”

I smiled at her disgust. “If not crypto, then what?”

“That’s confidential,” Gomez said. “But I can tell you this much. Just before Paul shot himself, I saw Mason talking to Brennan Tunney at the party.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” I asked.

“Perhaps nothing,” Gomez said. “And perhaps Brennan and Ms. Friedkin are currently rivals for a significant development in DuPage County, and Mason opportunistically took the drive because he thought it might curry favor with Tunney.”

“That’s the very definition of a stretch,” I said to Gomez.

“Tony, it doesn’t matter why he took it,” Friedkin said. “It matters that he took it. He took it, it’s mine, and it has confidential information on it that I need back. Mason can’t even do anything with it. It’s encrypted and only Paul could access it. But even having it out there is a risk I don’t want to take.”

“Which brings us back to you, Mr. Valdez,” Gomez said.

“You were with Mason when he was dispatched,” Friedkin said. “The police, the FBI, and Michel all believe you’re involved. And you do know about the wallet. That’s how you tried to entrap Michel’s employee. I don’t think you have the wallet—”

“Thank you for that,” I said.

“—but I don’t think you’ve been entirely honest about what you do know. I don’t care about that. What I care about is getting it back. I suspect you’re mostly decent, Tony. But I’m not here to appeal to your decency. I’m here to make a deal with you.”

“What’s the deal?”

“Ten million dollars,” Gomez said.

“For what?”

“For letting us know the instant Mason shows up again,” Friedkin said. “Because I have a feeling he will show up again. And when he does, he’s going to come to you.”

“Because I’m his friend.”

“We already established he has no friends. He has transactional relationships. If you think he’s your friend, that’s nice, and it’s to his advantage. But he’s using you, Tony. I think if you go far enough down, you know that. And when you admit it to yourself, letting us know when he resurfaces isn’t going to be a problem.”

“So all I have to do is let you know he’s back, and you drop a bunch of money on me.”

“Well, no,” Gomez said. “We need to meet with him, and we need to secure the wallet.”

“‘Meet with him,’” I repeated. “Why do I think that’s a euphemism?”

“Mr. Valdez, we know who you are. We know you almost got a job with Chicago PD before the pandemic brought you back to the hospital.

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