Up Against It - M. J. Locke [152]
What a piece of work you are, Grease, Jane thought. She sat back, twiddling a lock of hair. The date of the videos was the eighteenth of March—one month and ten days ago—only a few days before his family left him. Did this recording show a falling-out among conspirators? Or did it show a man confronted with a past he thought he had escaped?
Either way, it provided conclusive proof of a link between Kovak and the mob. Either the Ogilvies had paid for someone to hack Upside-Down’s servers, Down on Earth, and/or someone within Upside-Down was dirty. Because only the bootlegs made within fourteen hours and ten minutes of the time and date stamped on the video showed the meeting. All recordings made after that showed only Kovak and his daughter leaving the kiosk—just as the official, laundered versions had.
She called Aaron on a line secured with her newfound privacy technology. He responded instantly. “What do you have?”
“I’m transmitting two sets of files,” she said, typing inwave as she spoke. “The first are the official ‘Stroiders’ copies, requested through our local library, of the tampered videos. The second set are several bootlegged videos made by ‘Stroiders’ viewers back on Earth.” She clicked Send. “I’ve flagged the important ones to watch. The bootlegs made within two hours and ten minutes of release back on Earth show Ivan Kovak meeting with Nathan Glease and his muscle, Mills. The rest do not. This gives you everything you need to connect Ogilvie & Sons to the destruction of the ice, and to Marty’s murder.”
Aaron’s eyes widened as she spoke. “God is merciful! I’ll call Jerry Fitzpatrick. We’ll have those two behind bars in no time.” He lifted a hand to disconnect, but paused. “Thank you for this.”
She started to say “I’m doing it for Marty,” but realized that that was not the whole story. I don’t know if I can ever completely forgive you, Aaron, she thought. But I’m going to try. “You’re welcome.”
26
Xuan directed two of the hired hands to break down and load the equipment, while Jesse radioed Mills in the cockpit. “Sir, I’m going to call in to request a spot in the landing queue for when we arrive.”
“Fine—go ahead,” Mills said, in a bored tone. Xuan heard the staticky clicks that meant Jesse had switched over to a different channel. A moment later he came back on the comm. “Professor, Stores Chief Moriarty is on frequency one oh six point oh for you,” he said. Xuan switched over.
“Ngo Minh Xuan here.”
“Xuan, this is Sean. I just got off the phone with Commissioner Navio. Lisa and I would like to offer you two a place to stay.”
Xuan winced at the mention of Jane’s name. “That would be lovely. Thank you for the invitation. We’ll be headed back shortly.”
“Good. Just come straight to our place. I’m beaming you the address.”
They made their good-byes, and Xuan signed off, heart pounding hard.
He might still be able to bluff his way out of this. He started up the ramp, acting as if nothing was wrong, though the open cargo door loomed like the barrel of a weapon. By the time he reached the top, Mills stood there, holding a large pipe wrench in both hands.
“Gentlemen, I believe we have been hosed. No, no—leave those there,” he said. The hired hands were carrying Xuan’s bags and cartons up into the ship. “I think the good professor and I need to have a little talk.”
Mills put an arm across Xuan’s shoulders, gripped him by the air intake lines at his helmet. “Professor No, the Stores chief just referred to Commissioner Jane. Am I to understand that Jane Navio is your wife?”
It’s bad enough you are a thug, Xuan thought, the least you could do is get my name right. “That is correct. Why do you ask?”
“Well, I’ll just tell you why. I have a sensitive bullshit detector, and I’ve been smelling something off about you. I’m willing to bet that your wife sent you here to fuck with us.” He jerked Xuan by the air lines. Xuan’s feet flew