Chapter 42 — Ghosts of the Present

  Jeremy ate on the go. There was only an hour and a half from leaving the White House until he had to be back for the next session. He wolfed down a pair of sandwiches as he drove through the city—right back to DC Jail once again. Of course my life is goin' in damn circles. I'm in D.C. Nothin' ever gets done here, just like Makoto said.

  He knew that wasn't totally true, but it still made him feel better. Jeremy rolled up to DC Jail, waved his badge, and was immediately allowed through the gate. Simple and easy, checkpoint by checkpoint—until suddenly it wasn't anymore.

  "Sorry, you aren't on the authorized list for that inmate."

  Jeremy sighed. "What does it take to be on the list?"

  "Approval from her attorney or the inmate herself, or a court order."

  "And supposin' I ain't got any of those?"

  The guard shrugged. "A miracle?"

  "Special Agent Ashe?"

  Jefferson Baux appeared around the corner, hands full of folders and a pair of coffees. He hurried up to the counter, joining Jeremy in front of the bored-looking guard. "Please, Mr. Ashe is my associate. He's permitted to visit Miss Nishimura for counsel."

  "Is that true?" the guard asked Jeremy, voice a flat drone as before.

  Jeremy nodded. "We're associates."

  The guard sighed and hit a button, buzzing them through the next gate. Jefferson led the way deeper inside, straight to one of the counsel rooms where inmates could meet with their lawyers to discuss their cases. Rika wasn't there yet, but as soon as they were inside, Jefferson quickly set down his things and shut the door.

  "What can I do for you, Mr. Ashe?"

  Jeremy raised an eyebrow. "You're representin' Rika now too?"

  Jefferson nodded. "Miss Winscombe's mother referred me, after hearing about Miss Nishimura's arrest. Since I'm in town and Miss Winscombe's case has been delayed, I decided I might as well act point for both of them until my firm can allocate more resources to this area." He smiled. "I can't say any of us expected to work so many cases across the country on such short notice, but we're more than willing to put in the effort for our clients."

  Lawyers, almost as bad as politicians… Least he'll seems like one of the good ones. "I need to talk to her. In private, no offense."

  "Of course." Jefferson nodded again. "You've got an investigation, and it involves things I probably shouldn't hear yet." He glanced at the door. "If it's all right, I'll only ask her a couple questions first, so I can get to work while you conduct your interview?"

  "Fine by me."

  "Thank you."

  A sharp bang on the far door. The guard swung it open, and Rika walked in—heavily chained down, muzzled, hobbling on restrained feet, with two guards escorting her.

  Jefferson shot to his feet. "This is entirely inappropriate!" he started, and with real anger in his voice. Jeremy was surprised—most lawyers he knew never let emotion get in the way, unless it was carefully calculated for the judge or the jury.

  "Required additional security," grunted one of the guards.

  "She surrendered voluntarily, has not been convicted of any crimes yet, and has not fulfilled any of the qualifications for highly dangerous inmates." Jefferson glared at the two of them. "I insist you unchain and ungag her at once. Miss Nishimura deserves dignified treatment."

  "She set off every detector we've got," said the third guard, who Jeremy believed outranked the other two, based on her uniform. "Refused to explain why. 'Til we're sure she ain't got weapons on her, she stays chained up."

  "Of course she set them off!" said Jefferson exasperatedly. "It's a condition. She can't turn it off. Miss Nishimura is no threat to anyone in this room."

  I dunno about that… but she sure as hell doesn't deserve this shit. "I'm with him," said Jeremy, jerking a thumb at Jefferson. "And I outrank all you, I'm here on behalf of the President of the United States. Now take the damn chains off."

  "On your own heads," said the lead guard, and directed her two subordinates to release Rika. Jefferson mouthed something at her as soon as they reached for the muzzle, and to Jeremy's relief, Rika didn't say a word—until the door closed again behind them.

  After that, she released such a colorful stream of curses in three different languages, Jeremy wasn't sure he'd heard its equal during all his years in law enforcement.

  "Assholes," Rika finished, falling into the chair opposite them with an exhausted thump. "Long time, Mr. Special Agent. Where the fuck have you been?"

  "London," said Jeremy. "And then the White House."

  "Shit." Rika glanced between the two of them. "So is he here to take me to face the court or something?"

  "Not yet," said Jefferson. "Your trial date has not been set. Technically, you haven't even been formally charged yet."

  "So why the hell am I in jail?"

  "Proceedings." Jefferson sighed. "I'm doing my best to get a bail hearing, but you're considered a massive flight risk."

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  "That's the other chick."

  Jefferson smiled. "You know what I mean, though, yes?"

  "Yeah, yeah. I'm a foreign citizen, I'm rich, I can do magic tricks with my brain, I've got a history of changing my name and running around the country doing whatever the fuck I like." Rika sighed. "How's Alden doing?"

  "He's staying with Hailey's mom right now," said Jeremy. "Took him there this morning myself."

  "So what are you doing at the White House?"

  "Mostly sittin' next to Cinza and listenin' to her piss off half the Cabinet."

  "Sounds fun."

  "If I may," interjected Jefferson. "I understand your reluctance, Miss Nishimura, but why didn't you inform the prison of your condition? It could avoid all the extra conditions they placed on your captivity."

  "I did," said Rika, with a deadly glare over her shoulder toward the door. "Fuckers didn't listen. Just threw that shit on me anyway."

  Jefferson sighed. "I'll put in a formal complaint and do my best to stir up as much trouble as I can, but no guarantees. I'm sorry."

  "Yeah, yeah."

  "What condition?" asked Jeremy, uncomfortably out of the loop. Just like always…

  Rika held out a hand with a vague smirk. "Take my hand."

  Reluctantly, Jeremy did—and immediately felt a shock of electricity buzz through his fingertips. He snatched it back, wringing his hand in pain. "Jesus."

  She snickered. "Never gets old."

  "So what, you're settin' off metal detectors and shit with that?"

  "Yeah." Rika nodded to Jefferson. "Like he said, can't turn it off. Ritual gone bad, so now my whole body's lit up like a Christmas tree. I can force it down a bit, but I can't get rid of it."

  "Ritual gone bad… like what happened to Jessica?"

  A dark look crossed Rika's face. "...Yeah," she said quietly. "Not nearly that bad, but yeah. Same basic idea."

  No one spoke for a minute. Jeremy knew Rika had just flashed back to the exact same night he had—and as he did, Jeremy remembered how she'd acted, how she'd moved and spoken and fought. This girl ain't no damn mass-murderer. Bit of an asshole, but she doesn't deserve this.

  Jefferson finally cleared his throat, shuffling a few papers around in his hands. "Well, I'll definitely work on your bail, and with Agent Ashe's assistance and his associates, we might be able to get you more freedom in here at the very least." He glanced to Jeremy for affirmation. Jeremy nodded. "In the meantime, Miss Nishimura, I'm told that new charges are being filed against you."

  "What now?" asked Rika in a bored voice. "Did I hold all those people in Tacoma hostage too?'

  "Several thousand instances of the Computer Misuse Act of 1990," said Jefferson, paging through to his other folder.

  "...The fuck?"

  "That's not an American law," said Jeremy. "That's… London?"

  "The accusation comes from Sir Thomas Laushire, and is corroborated by multiple arrested individuals within the Culver-Malton Group, who admit using the hack you perpetuated to gain significant financial gain over their rival Laushire Industries." Jefferson pulled out another page. "They're suing you for quite a bit of money."

  "...Goddammit," said Rika, sliding down in her chair as she read the huge list of charges. "...Fuck. Fuck! I…" She choked up a bit. "I gave it to them because I was gonna die," she murmured. "I bribed them to get me out of that fucking town. We were all gonna die. What was I supposed to do?"

  "You can claim duress by agents of Malton?"

  Rika shook her head. "It was Omega. Viper didn't threaten me. I offered it, 'cause we'd just been ripped apart by fucking golems and I knew he had the only safe ride out of town."

  "Well…" Jefferson frowned. "If this Viper is willing to testify to that effect, we may be able to reduce the criminal charge. I'm not sure we can eliminate the monetary damages—and please bear with me, I'm not very familiar with British law—but as long as we can lay most of the blame on CMG for actually using the hack and show that you were under extreme pressure, you might get off lightly. Lord knows they have far more assets to seize than you do."

  "You said it was Laushire suing me, right?" asked Rika. She turned to Jeremy. "You in touch with her?"

  Kendra's still tied to a bed, but Lily's handlin' shit in the meantime. Jeremy nodded. "I can reach out."

  "Thanks, man." Rika smiled weakly.

  Jefferson glanced between them. "...I suppose this isn't someone I need to know about."

  "Wouldn't believe me if I told you," said Jeremy, smirking.

  "Right." Jefferson began to close up his folders again. "Well, if that's everything—"

  "Wait," said Jeremy. "You oughta know about this. I just heard a recording this morning that wasn't entered into evidence yet."

  "Is this privileged?" asked Jefferson sharply.

  Jeremy shook his head. "Public domain and obtained legally. It was on a damn public cloud recording site. Apparently all I needed to do was have all the guy's old television appearances and run them through some fancy software or shit."

  Rika nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, that'd work. As long as you had access to their API."

  "Yeah, okay, well anyway." Jeremy glanced back at her. "It's a recording about you."

  "What about me?"

  "Meetin' in Rallsburg. A town hall."

  "Fuck!"

  Rika leapt to her feet, slamming a fist onto the metal table. The guard looked in through the window, concerned, but since neither Jeremy nor Jefferson had moved, turned away again a moment later.

  "You're fucking kidding me," said Rika, staring at Jeremy ashen-faced. A tear actually rolled down her cheek, startling him.

  "Nope."

  "Every single fucking time…" Rika stared up at the ceiling, muttering something under her breath that Jeremy couldn't hear.

  "What is this recording?" asked Jefferson gently, when Rika didn't respond.

  "Gordon Merrill had a cloud recordin' of the town hall where magic first came out," said Jeremy. "Right before they actually get into that bit, they were talkin' about the deaths of Alex Nelson, Jay Miller, and Jenny Wilson. Guy who owns the town diner, Dan Rhodes, throws out Rika's name as a possible suspect."

  "Fuck me," Rika whispered to the ceiling.

  "The recording cuts off right after her name, when Rachel DuValle tells Hector Peraza to 'cut it', whatever the hell that meant. Point is, the next day, the mayor issued an arrest warrant for Rika for questioning about the murders."

  "I didn't do it," snapped Rika, her head shooting down to meet the two of them.

  "I don't think you did," said Jeremy firmly. "Just relayin' what happened this morning. In front of the President, the Attorney General, and a whole fuckload of other senior staff."

  "Well, I can definitely hit them for not informing defense of new evidence in a timely fashion," said Jefferson. "But this still hurts."

  "I got good news too," added Jeremy, though he knew it wasn't nearly as strong. "Alden's ready to testify for you. Says you've got solid alibis for both the sets of murders."

  Rika smiled. "Cool."

  "Got anyone else who could testify?" Jeremy went on, not wanting to mention how flimsy Alden's testimony likely would be in court. "Walker, maybe?"

  "He could cover the Seattle ones," said Rika with a shrug. "Doesn't help at all in Rallsburg, he ditched before I did." She frowned. "Only other people who'd know are Viper and Rook. I'm guessin' you can't get either of them to back my story?" she added with a crooked grin.

  Jeremy shook his head. "Not in a million fuckin' years for Viper. He's goin' down with the ship for Malton, apparently. Motherfucker's loyal if nothin' else. Rook, though…" He swallowed hard before continuing. "It's possible."

  "Who knows what side that bitch is on?" said Rika knowingly.

  Jeremy nodded. "Exactly."

  "Well, I can get started now, I think," said Jefferson. "Mr. Ashe wants to—"

  "Nevermind," said Jeremy, getting to his feet. "I got what I need. You two keep goin'."

  "Are you certain?" asked Jefferson, surprised.

  "Yeah." Jeremy glanced at Rika as he walked to the door. "I'll get her to testify."

  Rika smiled again, and this time there was a bit more confidence in it. "Thanks. I'm glad I met you, fucked up as it was."

  Jeremy grinned. "Best friends you ever meet are in completely fucked up situations." He opened the door. "Good luck, Rika."