The Spy That Never Lies Page 7

  “But it’s become a problem?” Frank asked.

  “Well, one of Professor Firestein’s recent assignments gave me the same kind of programming problem I’ve had to figure out at work. The only way to solve it is the same way I solved it for Securitech. So, to complete the assignment, I had to duplicate the code I’d used at work. But I think that may have violated my agreement with Securitech.”

  “And now you’re afraid they’ll fire you if they find out?” Joe asked.

  “Yeah. I didn’t have any choice, though,” Jake said. “It was either that or flunk Firestein’s class.”

  “Why didn’t you talk to either your professor or your boss?” Frank asked.

  Jake sighed again. “I remembered a couple of months ago when Vanessa tried to talk to them. Her workload had gotten too heavy for her to handle. She talked to both Firestein and Kubrick, but neither one had been sympathetic. Kubrick told her she’d have to make a choice between work and school; Firestein said the same thing. Vanessa chose to keep her job and dump the class.

  “I didn’t want to make that choice. The job gives me both money and good experience. And, as I said, the course is required to get into other classes that I need to be able to graduate on time.

  “So I used some of the same code I’d used at Securitech. But it’s been bugging me. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep since I got the assignment.”

  “Is that the paper you turned into Firestein yesterday?” Frank asked.

  “That’s the one,” Jake said. “I don’t even know why Firestein assigned that kind of program to the class. It wasn’t on the syllabus we got at the beginning of the semester.”

  “What kind of program was it?” Joe asked.

  “It involved security and control for remote sensing devices.”

  “Like the cameras at Securitech,” Frank said.

  “Yes, like the Securitech system. I wish I’d never gotten that stupid assignment. What else could I do, though? I didn’t want to flunk the class. But if Kubrick finds out . . .” Jake didn’t finish the thought.

  Frank and Joe nodded, indicating they understood.

  “You guys aren’t involved in this,” Jake said. “Do you have any ideas about what I should do?”

  “Short of turning yourself in to Kubrick?” Joe said. “I understand that you don’t want to lose your job, but—”

  “I could be sued for violating that agreement,” Jake said, almost frantic.

  “That makes it trickier,” Frank said.

  Jake put his head in his hands and ran his fingers through his hair. He looked as though he was about to say something, but a knock on the door stopped him.

  Frank got up and opened it. Vanessa stood on the other side. “Frank,” she said, sounding surprised. “What are you doing here?” She looked past him and saw Jake sitting on the couch. Frank stepped back and Vanessa rushed into the room.

  “Jake!” she said, obviously relieved. “There you are. I’ve been looking for you. Where have you been?”

  “Um . . . sleeping mostly,” Jake said.

  “This place is a mess,” she observed. “When was the last time you checked your e-mail or your phone messages?” Spotting the answering machine, she went over to it. The light on the machine was flashing. “Do you want me to play this message back?”

  “You might as well,” Jake said.

  Vanessa pressed the playback button and made sure the volume was turned up. The machine beeped while the tape rewound. Then the clear, deep voice of Clark Kubrick, head of Securitech, came out of the speaker.

  “Jake,” the voice said, “this is Clark Kubrick. I’ve been trying to reach you for two days. Today is Saturday. I need to see you in my office at work today, or Monday you may not have a job.”

  11 Vanessa’s Secret

  “Oh, man!” Jake said. “I need to get in to work.”

  “I could drive you,” Vanessa said. “I have to pick up something at the office. But we’d need to stop by my dorm first. I walked over here to check on you.”

  “We could drive both of you,” Joe said.

  “I hate to impose . . .” Jake began.

  “No trouble,” Frank said. “There’s plenty of room in the van.”

  “Well, I’ll take you up on the offer, too,” Vanessa said, smiling.

  “Okay,” Jake said. “Just let me get a couple of things.” He went into the bathroom, changed clothes, and cleaned up a bit. When he came out, he still looked haggard, but at least he was presentable.

  Fifteen minutes later they pulled up in front of Securitech’s downtown office. It was in one of the modern buildings on Bayport’s waterfront. Jake hopped out of the van.

  “We’ll wait for you,” Frank said.

  “Aren’t you going in, Vanessa?” Joe asked.

  She shook her head. “I figure I’ll stay out of shrapnel range. After Jake’s through, I’ll go in and pick up what I need.”

  “We’ll park, then,” Frank said. He chose a spot with a view of the Securitech door.

  “I notice they’ve got good coverage of their office,” Joe said, pointing at several cameras perched atop nearby light poles.

  Vanessa smiled. “It wouldn’t do to have foxes raid the henhouse,” she said. “Bad for business.”

  “How do you like your job at Securitech, Vanessa?” Frank asked.

  “It’s great,” she said. “The money is good, and the experience is very valuable.”

  “Worth quitting Firestein’s class over?” Joe asked.

  “Definitely worth it,” she said.

  “You said before that it was the class workload that made you quit,” Frank said.

  “Well . . .” she said, “I’m sorry if that’s the impression I gave you. I just didn’t feel like dragging the whole thing out right then.”

  “What whole thing?” Joe asked.

  “The whole thing that I was caught in between Securitech and Firestein,” she said.

  “Oh?” Frank said. “What happened?”

  “Well, when you work with a company like Securitech, you sign a nondisclosure agreement. That means you can’t tell anyone about some aspects of your work—usually the programming,” Vanessa said.

  “Jake mentioned that,” Joe replied.

  “Right. He had to sign one, too. Everybody does. Anyway, earlier in the year, Professor Firestein gave us an assignment that came pretty close, I thought, to the part of the Securitech code I was working on.

  “Like most things in Firestein’s class, it was a do-it-or-hit-the-road assignment. I didn’t want to get in trouble at either work or school, so I tried to talk it out.”

  “So, you talked to Firestein and Kubrick?” Frank asked.

  “Right,” Vanessa said. “And they were both pretty bull-headed about it. In one sense, I understand that Kubrick has a business to run and Firestein has a class to teach. Neither one was willing to help me out much, Firestein less, even, than Kubrick.”

  “So you quit the class,” Joe said.

  Vanessa shrugged. “As I said before, I needed the money more than I needed the class. And Kubrick’s a nicer guy to be around than Firestein.”

  “Yeah,” Joe said, “we got a taste of Firestein ourselves. Ran into him last night after dropping Jake off at the hospital. He didn’t even seem to care that Jake was sick.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me,” Vanessa said. “He doesn’t care much about anything but his computers and his programs and his research. I’d guess that Firestein’s class is part of what’s making Jake sick.”

  “I think you could safely say that,” Frank said. He and Joe exchanged a meaningful glance. Vanessa didn’t notice. Instead she leaned back in her seat behind the brothers.

  “You know,” she said, closing her eyes. “I’m really glad I got out of that class.”

  At that moment Jake came back out of the Securitech building. He looked even more pale than when he’d gone in. He climbed into the van and put his head in his hands.

  “How�
�d it go, Jake?” Joe asked.

  “Not so good,” Jake said.

  “Tell you what,” Frank said. “It’s about lunchtime. We’ll treat you at Java John’s, and you can tell us what happened. You’re invited, too, Vanessa.”

  “Thanks, guys, but I still have a couple of things to check on here,” she said. “You three go ahead. I’ll catch a cab or something later.” She got out of the van and closed the door behind her. “Good luck!” she called back as she walked up to the front door of Securitech. She inserted her passcard and went inside.

  Frank drove to the coffee shop, a couple of blocks away. Since it was Saturday, they had trouble finding parking and had to walk a ways.

  “We could almost have left the van at Securitech and walked from there,” Joe said.

  “Trouble with parking is it’s hard to tell when you’ll have trouble finding any,” Frank said. “Right, Jake?”

  Jake muttered a reply and the three of them went into Java John’s. After they’d settled in and ordered, Joe said, “So what happened, Jake?”

  “I got suspended from the company,” he said, rubbing his hands through his hair.

  “Suspended?” Joe said. “Why?”

  Jake sighed. “The company got an anonymous tip that I’d divulged secret information—broken my confidentiality agreement. Kubrick suspended me indefinitely while the company looks into the accusation.”

  “Wow. That’s tough,” Frank said.

  “I’d probably feel worse if I didn’t deserve it,” Jake said.

  “Who do you think could have told them?” Joe asked.

  “I don’t know. I didn’t really tell anyone what was going on—not until I talked to you guys earlier today. But Kubrick called my place before then.”

  “Could Vanessa have told him?” Frank wondered. “She said she was having a problem similar to yours, that’s why she dropped out of Firestein’s class. Maybe she figured out what was happening with you and turned you in.”

  “That’s why she dropped out?” Jake asked. “I thought it was because of the workload.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe she would tell Kubrick. She’s no rat.”

  Joe snapped his fingers. “Maybe it was Cindy,” he said. “Jake, did you tell Cindy anything about your problem? She’s in Professor Firestein’s class with you, and she’s been making a lot of trouble lately.”

  “We think she might even have thrown the bottles at you,” Joe added.

  Jake looked at the brothers with surprise and disbelief. “Cindy? I can’t believe that either. Sure we broke up but . . . Besides, I never told her about the nondisclosure conflict.”

  “Could she have figured it out?” Frank asked.

  “I don’t see how,” Jake said. “She’s not very good in the class. I think she started going out with me to get help with Firestein’s homework. Man, does my head hurt!” He rubbed his temples.

  Joe and Frank didn’t ask any more questions until the food came. Then the three of them sat and ate quietly. Jake seemed listless and took a long time to finish his sandwich. Even the coffee didn’t seem to perk him up.

  Finally Joe said, “Jake, we’ll stay on top of this and try to figure out what’s going on. Right now, though, I think we should take you home.”

  Frank nodded. “We should stop at the pharmacy and pick up that prescription for you on the way.”

  “No,” Jake said, standing. “I can’t impose on you guys any longer. You’ve been driving me around like a limo service. I can get home on my own.”

  “Well,” Joe said, “if you won’t let us drive you, at least take a cab. You’re in no shape to walk.”

  “Yeah, okay,” Jake said, nodding. “I’ll take a cab.”

  Frank said, “I’ll pay the bill. Joe, you get the cab company on the phone.”

  “Check,” Joe said. He and Jake headed for the phone near the door. Five minutes later the three of them stood outside the café, waiting for the cab.

  “You guys don’t have to wait with me,” Jake said. “I can do this on my own.”

  “We know that, Jake,” Frank said, “but we’ll feel better if we see you off.”

  “The cab company said they were a bit jammed up anyway,” Joe added. “You might as well have some company while you wait.”

  The three of them made small talk until the cab arrived. Frank and Joe waved goodbye to Jake and then headed for their van.

  “You know,” Joe said, “in the time we were waiting, we could have driven him to the pharmacy and then home.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Frank said, “but you can’t blame the guy for wanting to be independent.”

  The brothers rounded the corner. Their van was parked two blocks farther down the street.

  When they were a block away, they caught sight of someone squatting by the van. The person was wearing a Kings jacket and appeared to be tampering with one of the van’s tires.

  12 Wolf in Kings’ Clothing

  “Hey, you! Stop!” Joe yelled.

  The figure messing with the tire didn’t turn. He just jumped up and took off running down the block toward the waterfront.

  “Don’t let him get away!” Frank said.

  Both he and Joe took off after the vandal. Frank had done some running on the track team in school; Joe, too, was in top physical condition. Still, the person they were chasing now had almost a two-block lead on them.

  “He’s heading for the park along the waterfront,” Frank said.

  “If we lose him down there, we may never spot him among the trees,” Joe added.

  He and Frank redoubled their efforts. Slowly they closed the gap between them and their quarry. They were only a block behind when the vandal entered the park.

  The vandal was dressed all in black, aside from the red and yellow painted Kings jacket. Clouds had moved in, darkening the sky, which made it hard to see him as he darted through the trees.

  “Looks like he knows this park,” Joe said as he and Frank ran.

  “Good thing we do, too,” Frank said. “You keep following. I’ll cut through the woods to see if I can head him off by the footbridge.”

  The brothers split up and went in opposite directions. Joe poured on more speed and was soon gaining on the runner, although the shadows made the fugitive harder to see.

  In the distance Joe could make out the footbridge leading across an inlet of Barmet Bay. He couldn’t be sure if the vandal was heading for the bridge or not, but he hoped Frank would be there. But before Joe reached the bridge, the fugitive suddenly ducked into the woods.

  Joe sprinted after him. Brush slapped against Joe’s body, and he had to duck to avoid low tree branches, but he managed to keep the guy in sight.

  Suddenly they burst out of the woods and onto a path. Joe was barely ten feet behind the vandal now. Putting all his strength into one lunge, he darted across the path and tackled the fugitive by the ankles.

  The vandal went down hard, the air rushing out of his body in a great whoosh. Joe had taken a lot harder hits in his football career. Instantly he was up. He grabbed the fugitive’s leather Kings jacket and turned him over, just as Frank dashed up behind him.

  “I got to the bridge just in time to see you two dart into the woods,” Frank said. “Good catch, Joe. Who is it?”

  Frank and Joe stared in surprise at the person wearing the Kings jacket: Cindy Hamilton. Cindy spit out some dirt from her mouth and pushed her blond hair back from her dusty face. “Get off me, you brute,” she sneered to Joe.

  Joe backed off and let her get to her feet, but when she tried to run, he grabbed her by the arm. “Not so fast,” he said. Cindy shook her arm to get free, but Joe didn’t let go.

  “You’ve got a lot to answer for, Cindy,” Frank said. “The break-in at your mother’s office, throwing bottles at Jake, trying to flatten our tire. I’m not sure why you’re mad at the world, but it doesn’t give you the right to hurt other people.”

  “A lot you know,” Cindy said angrily. “When I tell my mother what
you’ve done, the police will lock you two up forever.”

  “I think you’re forgetting something,” Frank said.

  “What?” Cindy asked, contempt staining her voice.

  “The last time you pulled one of your stunts, no one saw you but us. This time, though, you forgot something—the Securitech system. This whole area is blanketed by cameras. There’s one near where we parked our van, and we passed a number of them in the park. This time the police will believe us, rather than you.”

  Cindy didn’t say anything, she just smiled contemptuously.

  “Come on,” Joe said, pulling her by the arm. “We’ll talk this over at police headquarters.”

  He and Frank marched Cindy back to their van. They checked the tires to make sure they were safe, then Frank drove while Joe sat in the back to keep an eye on Cindy.

  “This is kidnapping, you know,” Cindy said.

  “Just think of it as a citizen’s arrest,” Joe said.

  “What made you do it, Cindy?” Frank asked as he headed for the police station. “Your mother’s a councilwoman, so your family must be doing okay.”

  “And your mother came rushing to your side after that car chase,” Joe added. “You’re even counting on her to get you out of trouble now. So how bad could your life be?”

  “I’m not saying anything,” Cindy said, folding her arms over her chest.

  “My guess is that you just don’t appreciate what you’ve got,” Frank said. “I’m also thinking that you’re probably still mad at Jake for breaking up with you.”

  “He didn’t break up with me,” Cindy said, sneering. “I broke up with him.”

  “What was it?” Joe asked, ignoring her disclaimer. “Was his work load too heavy? Did he choose school and Securitech over you?”

  “And what about this Kings jacket?” Frank said. “Trying to shove some of the blame on your pals, or are you in deep with Morelli and his bunch? My guess is the first, because I doubt you have any real friends.”

  Cindy clenched her hands and fumed. Her face reddened. Finally she said, “Talk to my lawyer about it.”