CHAPTER 33
Locke woke up to a jolt. At first, he feared he was about to be part of the next SST accident. But, it was just the pilot landing the SST.
Raising the window shade, he saw the reason for the shake. The wind blew trees to and fro outside the airport’s perimeter. Rain splashed against the window as if the jet was getting a shower. The SST slowed on the runway, but the droplets continued to flow sideways.
Hiss was already out of his seat, even though OWG mandates stated everyone should stay seated until the SST came to a complete stop. But there he stood, checking his luggage, making sure nothing broke during the flight.
From their seats, the flight attendants watched Hiss, but they knew better than to say anything. Govicide Agents did what they wanted. Even in the air, flight attendants had no power over them. The attendants were there to serve, even if the Agents acted against flying mandates.
Locke thought it would be funny if the SST came to a sudden stop. Hiss would go flying. He grinned at the thought.
But as bad as pilot’s landing had been, he was pretty smooth getting around the tarmac. The SST stopped at the gate and Hiss exited first. Locke, though twenty-five years younger, had a hard time catching up to him in the airport. They weren’t beside each other until they sat in the limousine.
“What’s your hurry?” Locke asked, nonchalant on the surface, but interested underneath.
“I was going to wait until after we saw this last place, but you might as well know now. The Director wants a meeting with us when we get back.”
Locke’s insides imploded.
He grabbed the edge of the seat with both hands to keep from pitching forward. A meeting? With the Director?
Locke remembered the Director’s tirade during the Hamilton investigation. The investigation had been at a standstill. Kind of like the same place this one was now. But, there were fifteen Agents with Locke on the case. So, the criticism could be divided into sixteenths. With just two of them, the blame would be divided in halves.
A meeting was bound to happen sooner or later. But so soon?
How would the Director feel about his risky decision to appoint a Homicide Detective to Govicide? Probably not too good. He hadn’t been much help to Hiss.
But that wasn’t entirely correct.
In actuality, Locke knew more than Hiss. But, he knew more because of an un-mandated meeting with Hamilton. He knew more because of all the envelopes and the research behind Hiss’ back.
All of this information would please the Director. He’d realize they were getting somewhere. But, it would also be the end of Locke, unless he disguised how he knew what he did.
Plus, Hiss would have to understand what Locke knew. That would be the tough part. Locke would have to lie to him, too. He couldn’t come right out and tell the truth about everything.
The two choices were these. Go to the Director with nothing and get criticized and disciplined. Or, go to the Director with ill-gotten information, lie to him, and get praise.
“The Director, huh?” Locke asked, the tapping of his hand on the armrest giving his feelings away.
“Yes.”
The limousine pulled out from the curb.
“What are you planning to tell him?” The question didn’t come out right, a mental slip.
“What . . . I . . . am planning to tell him? You mean . . . we, right?” Hiss smirked.
“Yes, of course. I mean,” Locke’s face distorted, “you’re the senior Agent so I thought you’d do the talking.” A bad lie.
“Well, you are correct. I will tell him the truth. Why would I tell the Director anything else?”
“Of course, you’ll tell him the truth. But, we don’t have much, do we?” Locke knew a lot of truth. Unspeakable truth. If he could just find a way to . . .
“I think we have quite a bit.” Hiss faced Locke straight on. “We have the cash. The labs will determine how it was made. We have those parts that will be processed to see which OWG Plant made them. Our torturers are arriving at the plant in Punjabburg as we speak to extract more information from those workers. I think we have quite a bit of truth. And a lot more on the way. Am I missing something here, Govicide Agent Locke?”
“You think that’s enough to please the Director?” They could have so much more truth if Locke found a way to let Hiss in on his secrets.
“The Director will decide. We are always at his mercy. But what I tell him will be the truth. Unless you have more to add?”
Locke opened his mouth then chomped down hard to stop his words. If he continued, there was no going back. Once he told Hiss about the envelopes, the Symbol, the un-mandated talk with Hamilton, et cetera, there could be no “half way.” It was the whole way or nothing.
Continuing his last-second analysis, Locke’s attention drifted from Hiss. Could he tell Hiss everything?
Impossible.
He didn’t trust Hiss. Locke knew his partner would undermine him at a moment’s notice, if needed. Moreover, Locke believed Hiss would rather fail in stopping Hamilton and his comrades by following OWG mandates than by not following them.
Instead, he replied, “No. Nothing to add. Just seems to me if this was a Homicide investigation, I’d think we have a lot of information, but not many leads.”
Hiss laughed, bending over his seat. “Please, please, Govicide Agent Locke, never compare anything you did in Homicide to what we do here. Oh, but that is a good laugh, though.” A cough interrupted his guffaws. “Thank you for that one.”
The conversation might have continued, with Locke taking the brunt of Hiss’ jokes and criticisms, but they were already at the site, an abandoned power plant.
A main building, the size of Locke’s entire living quarters complex, at one time contained the office and control facilities. To the south, about one hundred yards away, stood two cement funnels, each about two hundred feet tall and thirty yards across. Surrounding the area was a chain link fence with barbed wire at the top.
The rain fell harder as the limousine slowed.
Weeds sprouted through the pavement. Bushes and trees on the premises looked like foliage in a jungle, growing out of control in every direction. Most of the windows were broken or cracked.
Someone found the cash on the street beside the abandoned buildings, as if the cash dropped right out of somebody’s pocket. Like the Cornville site, the cash resembled garbage from a distance.
OWG Local Authorities had cordoned off the area with economic crime tape, although it wasn’t needed. The street running by the facility was in the same condition as the pavement inside. Nobody had used it in a long time.
The Agents got out, the driver providing them with umbrellas. Hiss collected the cash and stuffed it in a plastic bag. Locke watched him from across the street. Locke would’ve helped but the cash came second now. Finding the Symbol was first.
Strolling the street, Locke checked for what now was an obsession for him: the Symbol. It still frustrated him that he didn’t see any outside of Pak City. His eyes and head swept back and forth scoping every sign, wall, and sidewalk.
At the end of the street, he bore left toward a dead end. Standing under his umbrella, he agonized about the meeting with the Director, less than five hours away. His self-control would be tested, sitting there while the Director and Hiss talked about a fraction of what Locke knew.
The rain slowed to a sprinkle. The sky lightened with the sun trying to poke through. In response, Locke folded the umbrella.
And there it was.
Because of the umbrella over his head, he hadn’t been able to see into the sky further than a few feet. On the side of the first silo, Hamilton’s comrades had painted the Symbol.
But there were two silos. Was there a Symbol on the other?
Without hesitation, Locke tramped into the weeds at the end of the fence line. Since the second silo sat one hundred yards inside the fence, he couldn’t get very close. All he needed to do was get a better angle.
He hung onto the fence as he went. A couple of times he slipped on the slick brush, but holding the fence steadied him. All the while, he kept his eyes up.
It took two minutes to get to a point where he could view the back of the silo. And twenty more cautious steps secured his answer.
There was a Symbol on the second one too. Both were black, about fifty feet high and twenty feet wide.
Locke shook the fence and laughed. The chain links rippled one way, then the other.
Seeing these Symbols gave him an idea. Locke wanted to see Hiss’ reaction. Hiss wouldn’t be able to deny these Symbols existed. Or say they were an optical illusion. Or just a crack in the tundra, like he claimed outside Snow City.
Locke got out his phone and dialed.
“Where are you?” Hiss sounded like he’d been looking for Locke.
“I walked the fence line over here. I want you to see something.”
“What did you find?”
“You’ll know when I show it to you.”
“Okay.”
Finally, finally, finally. Here was his chance. His chance to show Hiss that there were even more clues if Hiss would open his eyes.
Hiss stomped through the weeds like Locke, but he wasn’t smart enough to use the fence as a crutch. He fell at least twice. Locke stifled a laugh.
“What is it? What do I need to see?” Hiss asked, sweating, his combover in tatters, suit drenched.
Locke pointed to the silo. “See that?”
“What? What am I looking for?” Hiss’ eyes followed Locke’s fingertips.
“The upside down U on the silo.”
“I see it. What about it?”
“There’s one on the other silo too. They mean something.”
“Did you not try to point out something like this when we were in Red Star City?”
Locke nodded as if his head was out of control. “Yeah, I did. I spotted one on the bow of the ship.”
Hiss stared at the second silo for a few seconds longer. “And this is what you made me mess up my suit over?”
“Well, yeah.”
“You are telling me you brought all the way over here to point out some graffiti?” Hiss’ hands went to his hips.
“Graffiti? That’s not graffiti.” What was wrong with Hiss?
“You better calm down, Govicide Agent Locke. I do not like your tone.”
Locke almost jumped out of his wet shoes. “My tone? What does my tone have to do with this? I’ve seen these Symbols everywhere. Gambling City. Dale City. Cornville. Snow City. And you think it’s graffiti?”
Hiss grabbed Locke by the jacket. “Those things may have been up there for twenty years. Just because the cash is here does not mean they have anything to do with it. I am sure whoever put those there have been caught a long time ago.”
“You’re wrong, Govicide Agent Hiss. Those Symbols connect to the cash. I’m convinced.” No explosions went off inside Locke. No worry. No anxiety. This is how it felt to speak the truth with no mandates in the way.
“You are thinking about telling this to the Director? Is that what this is? Are you going to tell him about a bunch of graffiti? Do you know how stupid we will look?”
Locke tried to get out of Hiss’ grasp. “These Symbols mean something. Don’t you see what’s going on? Free Enterprisers. This is their Symbol. All the cash. All these places all over the world! The way they seem to be everywhere. Can’t you put it together?”
Although Hiss was shorter and older than Locke, he was heavier. He slammed Locke into the chain link fence. Locke felt x-marks forming on his back. He tried to push away but Hiss had him by seventy pounds.
Hiss lowered his voice. “Go ahead. Tell me what these Symbols mean. Go ahead, tell me.” The air seeped out of Locke from Hiss’ weight. “You have no answer for that, do you? Just as I thought. You have nothing. Paintings on a silo? Something you saw on that ship?”
“They’re all over Gambling City!” Locke fought back by pulling himself off the fence. His efforts were useless. Hiss had him.
“I have never seen any. Even so, you and I both know the story of Free Enterprisers. They are just a way to scare subjects into staying loyal to the OWG. Showing what would happen if everything returned to the old way. Before the OWG. Nobody wants that, correct?” Hiss asked.
“What if the Masses don’t want it?” The OWG never un-mandated the thought because the supposition was so outrageous. The Masses wanted everything they received because they needed it.
Hiss bounced Locke off the fence and let him go, putting his finger almost up Locke’s nose. “Nobody is that stupid. We have subjects who play games with the System. Try to get around it. But the Masses want all we provide. We give them what they need. We provide everything for everyone. Without us, they would be nothing. They would die.”
As the fat Agent rattled on, Locke fixated on his single sentence: What if the Masses don’t want it? It meant something. His subconscious added everything he’d seen and heard to this point and this was the conclusion. Not the only conclusion, but one major conclusion of many.
What if? What if there were subjects who didn’t like what the OWG provided, even if the OWG wanted to provide it?
What would it mean?
Could it be so simple? Maybe Hamilton and his comrades simply didn’t want what the OWG provided? Nothing more, nothing less.
That sounded insane. Who didn’t want everything provided to them? The Masses would have to get everything themselves. And Hiss was right: The Masses could never do it.
But how did killing a bunch of Agents further this idea?
Hiss would never join him in his search for what the Symbol meant. If Hiss couldn’t imagine anyone going to these lengths was more than a casual Offender, he was beyond persuasion.
The other Symbols could be painted, drawn, etched, et cetera in no time. These pieces of work took hours, maybe amounting to days. That was serious work, taking dedication, done by subjects who believed in their actions. These weren’t subjects who tried to get around the OWG and the System for the fun of it.
But, despite everything, it wasn’t his concern to bring Hiss to the truth. Hiss and he were supposed to find the truth together. Yet, one of them wasn’t open to it. One of them was comfortable searching for the truth, period. The other felt comfortable looking for the truth, but only if he could ignore other truths along the way.
Locke studied Hiss, still on a diatribe about the Masses. He was no longer somebody from whom Locke hid information.
Hiss was the enemy. Not an enemy of OWG, of course. Nor the System. He wasn’t even an enemy of Locke’s.
Hiss was an enemy of the truth. Something Locke could never be.
But, Locke felt like he needed to say something, anything to shut Hiss up on that street.
“You’re right, Govicide Agent Hiss. It would be insane for anyone to refuse what the OWG wants to give them.” Locke took a long pause because the next statement would be his biggest lie yet. “And you’re right about those upside down U’s. Just graffiti. And it’s not our work to catch those kinds of criminals.”
Hiss’ quick response told Locke all he needed to know. “See how easy that was, Govicide Agent Locke? But do not make me come all this way for nothing again.” He spun around, picking his way toward the street.
Trudging behind, Locke pondered the issue of the Director’s meeting.What if the Director was as defiant to the truth as Hiss?
But he was getting ahead of himself. He didn’t know what the Director knew. He wouldn’t know until the meeting. And the only way to find out was for Locke to keep his mouth shut.
Maybe the Director knew about the Symbol already. Maybe he already had information on Hamilton’s accomplices. Maybe he wasn’t as willing to ignore the truth as Hiss was. Maybe other Agents collected evidence showing Locke was right.
But, once again, the only way to find out was to keep his mouth shut, at least at the beginning of the meeting.
In another hour, they were back on the SST. Hiss took his usual spot in the front. Locke went to the rear. After the SST reached cruising altitude, Hiss moved to a seat near Locke to go over the meeting agenda.
It wasn’t so much “their” agenda, as “Hiss’” agenda. Locke listened, already having his own plan. If the Director knew anything more than Hiss, Locke planned to side with the Director. Easy. Whatever Hiss said in his fifteen-minute speech on the SST was irrelevant.
With a few nods and a few more “uh-huh’s,” and “absolutely’s,” Locke endured Hiss’ run-down. Locke gave Hiss enough attention to fool his partner, but tuned out enough to keep his disgust and boredom from showing. Hiss, seemingly satisfied, finished and returned to his seat.
As Locke thought of plans, he remembered his original one. Locke had anticipated solving the case before Jade’s pregnancy started to show.
The plan was impossible to execute now. If Hiss ignored facts right in front of him, the case might not get solved at all. Worse yet, Hamilton’s comrades could attack the OWG, if that was their plan, before they were stopped and Locke would feel responsible.
And, in the end, Jade would be the collateral casualty of not closing the case. Locke could accept his own demise. But Jade was detached from what was going on. She wasn’t responsible for protecting the Masses from Hamilton and others. She wasn’t responsible for making sure the OWG was able to provide Goods and Services for everyone.
But she’d pay the consequences anyway.
He could get through this meeting. But waiting for everyone to find out that Jade was pregnant would tear both of them apart.