Chapter 26

Geraldo wondered how long it had been since they had brought him into the interrogation room. The room was void of any clocks. The only furniture that occupied the room was the chair he sat in, the steel table he was cuffed to and the chair his interrogator would use, if they ever decided to join him.

He couldn’t fault them for the wait. It was a tactic he had used many times before. He wondered how many people were sitting just pass the one-way mirror, waiting for him to call out to them, giving them the first sign that he was ready to crack.

Geraldo smiled to himself. His nose was bent and crooked, his mustache still caked in blood, and both his eyes were starting to bruise. He wondered if he would have to set his broken nose himself, or if they would eventually have an EMT do it for him

They had taken everything he had, including his jacket. Geraldo rubbed his arms, trying to transfer what little heat he could into them. They had turned the AC on; yet another tactic he had used before.

He’d never sat on this side of an interrogation before, and it was somewhat exhilarating. But the smile melted into a frown when he thought about the time he was wasting here. Every minute he wasted sitting in this room was a minute Gabriela had to disappear. Or worse; it was a minute Cy-Tech had to find her.

Geraldo jumped a little when the door opened suddenly. Andrews smiled at him.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” He said and closed the door behind him. “Can I get you anything?”

“You can get me the fuck out of here.” Geraldo rattled his cuffs and growled.

“I can not believe they left you cuffed here the whole damn time.” Andrews shook his head and pulled a terminal. The shackles clicked and released, falling from Geraldo’s wrist. He rubbed the sore skin and glared.

“Anything else you need?”

“I’m free to go?” Geraldo looked around inquisitively, he wasn’t quite sure what Andrews’s angle was.

“Yes, sir. I talked to your boss. She confirmed your story, and you are free to go.”

“That’s it?”

“Oh, sorry.” Andrews cleared his voice. “I am supposed to tell you sorry for roughing you up.”

They both stood there for a moment, neither one of them speaking.

“Alright then.” Geraldo mumbled as he headed toward the door.

“One more thing.” Andrews put his arm on the door frame, barring Geraldo from leaving. “My boss has asked me to share our intel with Taurus. So, if you got a minute?” Andrews motioned him back to his seat.

Geraldo reluctantly obliged.

“Where’s my stuff?” He asked after he took his seat.

“Right.” Andrews turned around and motioned at the mirror. A woman quickly hustled in and handed Geraldo his effects in a basket.

He let out a sigh of relief when he saw the receipt amongst his belongings. He put his coat on and returned his effects to their prospective pockets before he pulled out a cigarette.

“Mind if I smoke in here?” He mumbled.

“I’d rather you didn’t.” Andrew said.

Geraldo lit the cigarette and inhaled a long drag before he exhaled the smoke, blowing it towards Andrews.

“I don’t got all day, corpo boy.”

Andrews waved the smoke from his face and placed his thumb on the table. It sprang to life, filling the room with artificial light.

“Do you know who your partner murdered?”

“Allegedly.”

Andrews smiled. “Are you really going to defend her? She’s a murderer,” he reminded him.

“Yeah, about that?” Geraldo tapped his cigarette, leaving the question lingering between them.

“Owen Conner was murdered three days ago in his penthouse.” Andrews brought up the file on the table and pushed it towards Geraldo.

Geraldo put his cigarette between his lips and opened the file with a touch of his hand. The cigarette bobbed up and down as his lips moved silently as he read. Conner had been shot. The bullet matched Gabriela’s gun, her fingerprints were found at the crime scene, as well as vaginal secretion, that matched Gabriela, that was found on the victim’s body.

“You recover the murder weapon?”

“Yes, Taurus turned it over to us this morning.”

“The logs have her checking it out?”

“Yeah. And its ident chip has it in the victim’s room.”

“I see.” Geraldo mumbled. The time of death had Gabriela placed at the crime scene at the same time Taurus was hacked. She couldn’t be in two places at the same time. No, Geraldo corrected himself, three if her alibi panned out.“What’s her motive for doing this? Were they lovers?”

“I am glad you asked.” Andrews typed away on the table before a new file apeared. “Do you know who The Sons are?”

“Yeah, pro-natural birth terrorist. Religious fundamentalist wack jobs.”

“They took credit for Connor’s murder.” He pointed down at a digital message that had been sent to various news organizations.

Geraldo looked down at the file and frowned as he moved portions of the file around the table's screen. Owen Conner was the VP of Bioloxys, which would make him a prime target for The Sons, but he was also a starch advocate for deviants.

“You think Gabriela is working with the Sons?”

“That’s the going hypothesis.”

“She’s gen-perfect,” Geraldo pointed out. “Why would she help them?”

“I’ll let you ask her when I find her.” Andrews’s voice was easy and smooth, and his lips pressed together in a small smile as he leaned back in his chair.

“Were there any recordings of her?”

“Unfortunately, no.”

Geraldo raised an eyebrow. “No recordings of her, not even of her entering and leaving the building?”

“No.” Andrews admitted a second time.

“What about in the vicinity?”

Andrews shook his head.

“How’s that possible?”

“We think she is in league with a net-breaker, and a good one at that.”

“I’d say.” It’s one thing to turn off a camera or two, but to create a black out zone? That was another thing altogether.

“Did you hear what happened at the Bioloxys facility?”

“Can’t say I have.”

Andrews leaned forward and placed his elbows on the table. “We tried to apprehend Fohren there, this morning. The anti-corporate espionage system was triggered, taking out my officers, while also shutting down all communications within a few block radius.”

“CES can do that.” Geraldo flicked the smoking butt accorded the room. “Keeps corpo spies from uploading to the Ether.”

“Right, but it’s supposed to be a blackout. Somehow the hacker managed to get a rootkit into the network and took control of building functions. So, either the net-breaker is some digital god, or-”

“Or they were present in the dead zone,” Geraldo finished for him.

“Exactly. So, the Hacker is local, or at least they are in New Madrid. We find the net-breaker, we find Gabriela.”

Geraldo stood up and scooted his chair back into place.

“Have fun with that.” Geraldo smiled and turned around.

“Are you not going to share what you know?” Andrews stood up quickly, his brow knitting together.

“I know you’re an asshole.” Geraldo stated, before he closed the door behind him.