Jason pushed back from his desk and swung his chair around to face her. Realizing that he had forgotten himself for a moment, he jumped out of his chair and offered her a similar desk chair. Ansuya accepted it graciously.
“Who is he and why are you personally involved?” Jason asked very pointedly.
Ansuya leveled her gaze at him, “He is the only link I have to Kenneth Pacifico.”
Jason whistled loudly and shook his head, “Kenneth Pacifico? You mean, THE Kenneth Pacifico?”
“I don’t know how many Kenneth Pacifico’s there are in the city, Jason,” she replied calmly.
“Of course you would be talking about him,” Jason said with a sigh. He landed heavily in his chair and scrubbed his face. “Do you know who you are talking about? What he is?”
Ansuya nodded but that didn’t seem to affect him in the slightest, “No, I don’t think you do. This guy, Kenneth, The Kenneth Pacifico is about as well connected as you can get in this city without being an A lister Hollywood star. He can go anywhere, do anything, and he has never seen the inside of a courtroom, much less even had charges leveled against him.” He shook his head again, “You want to stay as far away from him as you can.”
Ansuya looked at him with an intense expression, “I was his ‘guest’ for over a year, Jason. I know what he is and how powerful he is, but he isn’t the top is he?” she asked pointedly.
He shook his head in bewilderment, “You were his… guest? For over a year? What do you mean? What happened?”
Ansuya lowered her voice so only Jason could hear her, “The Mountain needed to know what he knew and how. I pushed for the opportunity to find out who he was. I was,” she lowered her eyes, “only partially successful.”
Jason exploded, “ARE YOU!…” realizing where he was, he immediately lowered his voice to a whisper, “are you crazy?! You could have been killed!”
Ansuya simply looked at him, “I need to know where he is?”
Jason scratched his head in consternation, “Good luck with that,” he said in a normal voice, “We know where he lives but he does find ways to slip past our surveillance, that and direct surveillance on a private citizen is illegal.”
“Has that stopped you before?” Ansuya asked.
“That isn’t even my department, I just study fires,” Jason said turning back to the computer. “This guy is close to Kenneth then?” he asked deftly changing the subject.
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Ansuya smiled at the attempt. “Jason, look at me,” she commanded. Jason reluctantly turned away from the computer and faced the Shape shifter. “This is important. I need to know where Kenneth is and what he is doing. He…let me go, and I am doing all I can from where I am, but I need help.”
The man shook his head, “I wish I could, Miss Das, I really do. I just study fires I could ask a few of my buddies and see what they have heard, if anything.” He leaned back in his chair, “If you want my advice, stay as far away from Kenneth as possible, and go home.”
Ansuya looked stunned, “You would have me retreat back to my home, with a job unfinished?”
“It’s a lot safer for you there than here,” he said jamming a finger on his desk.
“So, we stay safe under the Mountain while Kenneth and the rest of them run roughshod over humanity and the culture that these people’s ancestors built… with some help,” she said that last with a strange expression on her face.
“Look, I don’t have a clue, what you are talking about, not really. But Kenneth is out of your league! He’s too strong and too well connected,” Jason replied.
“That was a mistake,” Ansuya said, “Through our wish to remain safe; we left these things to prey on the younger, softer generation, twisting everything that their world was built on.” She placed a hand on Jason’s knee, “If we are to be teachers again, if we are to truly help humanity find its way in the world again, then we must stop hiding and confront these parasites.” She paused and looked out the window.
“He’s planning something, Jason. I don’t know what, but he has been very careful in his dealings and machinations. I found two banking books in his office; the numbers were skewed in one. He has someone over him, someone he fears. Maybe we could use that to our advantage.” Ansuya didn’t want Alessandro clouding the issue of finding Kenneth; if Jason didn’t know then she didn’t need to mention him.
Jason looked pained as he listened to her, “If there is anyone above him, I haven’t heard even a whisper. In fact, you telling me that is the only thing I have heard about Kenneth having superiors.” He paused then and looked at her, “Do you think this has anything to do with the fires that you asked me to take a closer look at?” he asked.
She shook her head, “I don’t know. I know that there have been two other fires recently that are connected to the first though.”
Jason shook his head, “I can try, if we have this guy than maybe he can lead us to Kenneth. Although, if you were a guest of his, I doubt we would be able to find out anything useful that you didn’t know already.”
Ansuya stood up, “I should be going,” she knelt down and kissed him on the cheek, “Thank you.”
“I haven’t done anything yet,” he stammered looking up at her.
“That was for everything you’ve done and everything I know you will do, good bye, Jason.” With that she strode from the cubicle toward the elevators.
Jason sat there for a long moment looking at the man on the screen and thinking about what Ansuya had said to him. He wasn’t a crusader; he wasn’t a zealot. Why had she chosen him to come to with this stuff? He couldn’t do anything with this picture by himself. He thought about trashing the sim card and never thinking about it again.
With a groan of resignation he stood, pulled the sim card from the reader, and strode towards the elevator. He couldn’t do anything with these pictures, but he had a few friends downstairs that could, and even better wanted Kenneth Pacifico pretty badly, either for promotion or because of other reasons. He rode the elevator down. One thing was for sure; if there were two other fires connected with the first one, he had a lot of work to do and playing ‘let’s find a needle in a stack of needles’ game was not his forte. It was, however, Zack’s stock and trade.