Night and Day (Book 2): Bleeding Sky (11 page)

“Tiffany
Takeda, commander of the Security Force, will have a company of her own to
keep things under control after dark.”

“So
where do I fit in?” he asked.

“That’s
still to be decided,” I said. “Do you know Miss Takeda?”

“Only
by reputation,” he said. “She’s the woman with the samurai sword,
right?”

I
nodded. “And she’s not reluctant to use it.”

“So
I’ve heard,” he said. “Rumor has it she beheaded a city cop here last
year.”

“It’s
no rumor,” I said flatly. “I watched her do it.” Detective Sergeant Ray
Holstein. No friend of mine and as corrupt as they came. I hadn’t shed any
tears for ol’ Ray.

“That’s
pretty intense.”

“So
is she,” I said. “Anyway, no matter how fast you’re picking things up here,
you’re not ready to fly solo yet. And I can’t use you on the daylight part
of the assignment for obvious reasons.” I paused. “Miss Takeda and I briefly
discussed having you work with her on the overnight protection detail. We
didn’t come to any decision.” I paused again. “Would that be a problem for
you?”

Brenner
smiled. “It all pays the same money,” he said. “If I have to choose between
sitting in my hotel room, watching TV, or working in the field, I’ll take
the field anytime.”

“Good,”
I said. “Mr. Bain is footing the bill for your time while we’re working this
assignment so we might as well give him some value for his money.” And I
didn’t want Bain to short me on the check later.

“Right.”

“You
might as well go back to your hotel,” I said. “I’m headed home to get some
sleep and Sara has calls to make. Do you know where Jackson Square
is?”

“No,
but I’ll can find it.”

“Be
there no later than 9:45 tomorrow night,” I said. “Do you have some kind of
identification? They’ll probably have the square locked up by
then.”

“I’ve
got an Area Three Government ID card,” he said. “That good
enough?”

“It
should be,” I said. Especially if it was anything like mine. “Come into the
square on Second Street. It runs next to the east side of the building here.
Just follow it till you hit the checkpoint. I’ll make sure they know you’re
coming.”

“Got
it,” he said. “I’ll see you tomorrow night.”

He
came around the desk and as he brushed past me, I said, “Leave the credit
card, please.”

Brenner
laughed. “Sorry. Wasn’t even thinking.” He put the card on Sara’s desk,
smiled, and left the office.

As
soon as the door closed, Sara put her finger to her lips.

“What?”
I mouthed silently.

She
shook her head. Twenty seconds later, I heard the elevator ding, the doors
open, and the doors close.

“Is
he gone?” she whispered.

“I
would assume so,” I said. “Do I need to look?”

Sara
nodded. I stepped to the door and opened it. The hallway was empty. I closed
the door and turned to her. “Okay, Sara, he’s gone. What’s the
problem?”

“He
knows something about that card,” she said.

“What
do you mean?”

“When
I took it out of the folder Cynthia left and told him what we were going to
do, he picked it up and looked at it.” She was silent for a moment. “It was
only like a split-second, but his expression changed when he saw the card.
Kind of like he was surprised. Then he laughed and made a joke about
ordering some new shoes with the card.”

“Are
you sure you didn’t just imagine it?”

“You
know I’m not very imaginative, Charlie,” she said. “At least not in the
office.” She smiled.

“Point
made,” I said.

“What
does it mean?” she asked.

“It
means I’m too tired right now to worry about it,” I said. “Did you call
Lexington?”

“No,
I was working the card thing since I talked to you.”

“Okay,
get on that. Miss Takeda is meeting me here at 9:30. I’ll see you then.” I
paused. “And Sara?”

“Yeah?”

“Good
catch on Brenner. Thanks for keeping your eyes open.”

“They’re
always open for you, Charlie,” she replied with another smile.

“See
you tomorrow night,” I said.

I
left the office quickly. Before she could invite herself
along.

Chapter
Seven

There
was already a checkpoint at First Street where it entered Jackson Square
when I got there at ten the following morning. It wasn’t the full concrete
barrier and machine-gun position that I’d seen in the security plan, but
they were stopping all vehicle traffic into the square and checking
identification.

My
Area Government ID got me through easily, complete with a snappy salute by
the trooper who’d examined it. I pulled into an empty space on the east side
of First. There was a parking meter there that I ignored. Sometimes it’s the
littlest things that make us happy.

They’d
already dismantled the playground equipment and carted it off, along with
the picnic tables. The fixed black barbecue grills on pedestals were still
there. Maybe they would be next to go, or maybe the human troopers planned
to do a little grilling during the deployment.

They’d
also trucked in a mobile home and placed it on the north side of the square.
It wasn’t a deluxe job like the one the ambassador was bringing in, just a
standard single-wide house trailer. There were troopers going in and out of
the door in the middle, so I figured it was the command trailer.

 I
only saw a few civilians in the square, gathered in small groups, watching
the activity around them. From the number of men I saw, it was the forward
platoon that had moved in early, thirty-five or forty troopers. The rest
would be along later.

There
were also city cops in the square, mostly watching, occasionally talking to
the civilians as they wandered the perimeter that the Security Force was
setting up. I recognized a familiar face down the sidewalk, talking to one
of the police officers. I wouldn’t have to go to the Downtown District
police station to meet with Captain Jimmy Mutz. Jimmy had come to
me.

“How
you doing, Jimmy?” I asked as I moved next to him.

He
looked out at the square. “I used to love it when the circus came to town,”
he said. “Not so much now.”

He
looked at me. “And a flash report from Central that hit my desk this morning
says that you’re the ringmaster. Where’s your top hat and red
coat?”

“Left
it at the office,” I said. “Along with my whip.”

Jimmy
Mutz was one of my oldest friends in the city. When I’d joined the police
department more than fifteen years ago, he’d been my training officer at the
Tremont Avenue station. I’d had some law enforcement experience with the
military police, but it was Jimmy who taught me what it meant to be a police
officer.

He’d
been a sergeant before the war, promoted to lieutenant when the Vees put the
police department back together after we were repatriated from the
internment camps, and had quickly risen to captain and day shift watch
commander. He was a good cop. Fair to his men, fair to the citizens in the
Downtown District. And he was a good man.

“So
I understand that I’m working for you, at least when it comes to this small
part of my district.”

I
laughed. “Not even close,” I said. “You’re my backup if everything turns to
shit.”

He
nodded. “How’d you get lucky enough to get this thrown in your
lap?”

“It’s
just another job,” I said. “Phillip Bain hired Night and Day to provide
executive protection for the ambassador while he’s in town.” I paused. “I’ll
admit, the circumstances are unusual, and I have more help than I’m used to,
but in the end, it’s just a bodyguard detail.”

“Bain,”
he said. “He’s like the gift that keeps on giving, isn’t he.”

“He
is that. But the money is good and with all these troopers around, maybe
we’ll get lucky and there won’t be any incidents.”

“Incidents
like...”

“How
much of the threat assessment did they share with you?”

“Who?
The Vees? None. Central? Not much more. My job, as I understand it, is
mostly crowd control. I’ll have men at the access points to assist the
Security Force. Smooth things over with civilians who aren’t happy about
having to take a detour around the square. If something happens, we’re
supposed to help, but they weren’t real clear on what they thought might
happen.”

“You
gonna be around this afternoon? Two-thirty, three o’clock?”

“I
can be.”

“Good,”
I said. “I’ll be here with the Security Force company commander for a full
briefing and I’ll make sure you’re included.” I paused. “For now...” I
paused again. “They’re worried about problems from two directions. First is
the Resistance. The Vees are afraid they might come in, guns blazing, shoot
things up, maybe even kill the ambassador.”

“Those
assholes? They’d probably get lost trying to find the square.”

“They
aren’t all assholes, Jimmy.”

He
stared at me and nodded. He knew about Dick Nedelmann’s involvement in the
Resistance too. “So what’s the other direction?”

“Vees,”
I said. “Some of them don’t like the idea of diplomatic relations with the
rest of the world. Take out the ambassador, that ain’t gonna
happen anytime soon.”

“Well,
at least that’s not my problem. Won’t be many Vees around while my guys are
on duty. Snyder can worry about it on his watch.” Snyder was Captain Arnie
Snyder, night shift watch commander.

“Maybe
yes, maybe no. What I’ve seen says that they may use human operatives to do
the job.”

“They
use them for everything else,” he said, looking around the square. He gaze
stopped as he looked past me. “Oh, lovely,” he said.

I
looked to my left. Walking toward me and Jimmy, his gold badge and the four
gold stars on his collar gleaming in the morning sun, was Chief of Police
Operations Daryl Northport.

The
last time I’d seen Daryl, he’d been a Deputy Chief, running the Organized
Crime Task Force. He’d helped me to connect the last few pieces of the
puzzle in Joshua’s murder investigation and in the process, crushed the uptown gangs. And the police department had
rewarded him.

After
the camps, the Vees had set the rules for the Metro police department. Vees
at the top of the command structure, humans in subordinate roles. There were
human deputy district chiefs, one in each of the five police districts in
the city, and human watch commanders on the day shift in each. But the
higher you got, the fewer humans on the command ladder. And near the top,
there were none.

Daryl
had broken through that glass ceiling as the first human Deputy Chief in the
department. He commanded both humans and Vees in the task force, and did it
well. He was a good cop and a good leader. Even the Vees that worked for
Daryl in the task force respected him.

I
found out later through Jimmy Mutz that his promotion had been an experiment
of sorts, to see if Vees would work under a human chief without problem. The
experiment had been a success, and after the task force broke the back of
the uptown Vee mobs, Daryl had been in line for a promotion.

And
he’d gotten one. Three months ago, they reorganized the police department,
got rid of the Deputy Police Commissioner position, and broke his
responsibilities out to four full chiefs. Police Operations, Planning,
Logistics and Administration. Daryl had gotten the big one. Chief of Police
Operations. He now oversaw all uniformed officers and detectives in the
city, day shift and night shift, human and Vee.

“Hey,
Daryl,” I said as he got close. “Congratulations on the
promotion.”

“Hey,
CW,” he said with a crooked grin. “Thanks. It was a good day for all of
us.”

“Chief,”
Jimmy said.

“How
you doin’, Jimmy?” he asked. “Got you pretty busy down here, I
see.”

“Yes,
sir.” Jimmy was glad that Daryl had been promoted. Most human cops were. But
Jimmy had a thorn in his side named Eddie Gabriel, and Daryl wouldn’t pull
it out. As long as Eddie Gee fed the department useful information, Jimmy
couldn’t touch him. At least not directly. “You see that we took down three
of Gabriel’s dealers last week?”

Daryl
smiled. “I did see that,” he said. “That was some nice work.”

“Of
course, if we could arrest Gabriel, we’d be able to get all of them off the
street, along with the other scum he has out there.”

“I
hear ya,” Daryl said. He leaned past me, put his hand on Jimmy’s shoulder,
and gave it a squeeze. “But let’s look at it another way. We pop Gabriel,
somebody else is gonna take his place, and in six months you’re back where
you started. Like they say, better the devil you know.”

“Yes,
sir.”

Daryl
nodded and looked at me. “And how ‘bout you, Charlie? Looks like you hooked
yourself a big ol’ fish here.”