Kate parked the car-jacked Lexus a little ways down the street from Russek’s place, but with a good view of the house. “Not bad for a love nest,” she said, her voice betraying her years in London. It was her relaxed or swanky voice; just then she was with a comrade and felt safe.

“How you know they’re doin’ it?” Helena in the passenger seat asked.

“I wired it for sound yesterday.” With black hair and the right attitude, Kate could pass her middle-aged Middle Eastern looks off as a Latina. That is, if no one looked too hard, and at her age, no one was ever looking too hard. “Russek uses a cleaning service. That bloody kid hardly noticed me as I cleaned around the little bastard. Didn’t even look away from his laptop. The audio’s been nicely steamy so far. Have a listen?” Kate held out an iPod and earbuds.

“Nah, not unless there’s something more useful in it than smut.”
Continue reading Electricland serialization, part 7/7 →

It had taken the kid a few days to calm down and feel comfortable around Russek. On their first night together nightmares had sent Drew scrambling for his inhaler. Russek could only hold him lightly until the kid could breathe easily again. Eventually the nightmares subsided, but a new nightmare began to loom over them: Drew had been reclassified from witness to terrorist. Only Russek and a few others knew this and Russek had managed to convince everyone around him that it was absurd. For the moment they were allowing Russek to keep Drew with him under house arrest (although Drew didn’t know it), but the pressure was mounting from the Feds to move the kid into any lock-up available. Russek had been able to stall, bully and maneuver the system into putting Drew in LA Men’s Jail where he’d be close and Russek could call in a few favors to keep him safe until he could get him out. If he could get him out: there was that to worry about.
Continue reading Electricland serialization, part 6/7 →

Mass Hysteria for Fun and Profit

“At what point did you lose control of Williams, Titania?” The Department Manager looked at his notes in his own numeric code.

“I never had control of him,” she said, looking at her perfectly manicured nails. “He was the CIA’s problem, but even they couldn’t control him. He was a loose cannon all the way around.”

“How the hell did he end up in the DARPA building?” her Section Manager asked. His voice was squeaky with suppressed rage, bordering on panic; that had always annoyed her about him.

“Williams was smart, in a crude sort of way. He picked up Viola’s trail in Afghanistan and followed her to Baku, where she was making contact with that damn Ryan child.”

“What was Ryan doing in Baku?” the Department Manager asked. He had it in his notes but he wanted some elaboration. “Other than playing computer games with your team?”
Continue reading Electricland serialization, part 5/7 →

The next day, Russek didn’t have a moment’s hesitation in lending Williams his car because he had a police vehicle he could use. He’d just jokingly asked him to gas it up, which was a pretty expensive request that spring. It was only when Williams didn’t bring it back that night that he’d started to wonder what was going on. At one AM, Russek called the station to ask them to run the LoJack location. He didn’t recognize the address in the South Bay, but it was odd enough that he asked some local cops to meet him there.

It was more than odd, it was an ambush. Arriving at the deserted industrial park, Russek and the local cops were driven into the boxy glass and stucco building by gunfire. More gunfire inside; Russek dove into an office where he found a skinny young guy with long brown hair and big brown eyes working frantically on a laptop under a desk.
Continue reading Electricland serialization, part 4/7 →

“Yeah, okay.” Bishop glanced at the sheriff’s deputy standing in the doorway. “Get me a better cell and I’ll take good care of him.”

“I’ll do what I can, but take good care of him no matter what.” Russek gave him a hard cop motherfucker look.

Bishop nodded, keeping his face blank. “Hey, sure.” He stood and then turned back to Russek. “What so special about this Ryan guy? Might help me protect him to know.”

“He saved my life.” Russek walked out on those words. He stopped by jail administration to confirm Ryan would be put in with Bishop and add that he wanted them moved to their own cell right away. He was told it would happen as soon as possible; there were truckloads of terrorists coming in since the suspension of habeas corpus after the Irvine thing.
Continue reading Electricland serialization, part 3/7 →

Almost every man in the Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail downtown owed Detective Paul Russek a favor. But there were only a few in there he thought he could trust, and only one he knew he could. And only this one was a nicer guy in jail than out. The double glass between them hardly muted the sneering respect between him and Bishop.

“Fluorescent orange ain’t your color, but the shaved head kind of suits you.”
Continue reading Electricland serialization, part 2/7 →

Electricland

There is nothing more dangerous than a woman with nothing to lose.

Bureaucracy: It’s Wonderful

Disciplinary action meetings for extramural anti-terrorism units (EAT-U) were held in a secure auditorium-like basement beneath a Virginia shopping mall. It was a grim room, but the middle-aged woman in the baggy tan suit had triumphed so often in rooms even grimmer than this one that it gave her a warm feeling in her thoracic cavity. The room was stuffy, but she was unfazed by it. Her face was a calm, resigned mask, as if she were merely facing another mountain of paperwork in a windowless back office. She wore the Glock 9mm in her shoulder holster as lightly as her cheap wristwatch and pearl stud earrings. She knew she could think her way out of anything, but violence, done well, was sometimes more effective. She was seated across from her abashed Section Manager and his boss, the Department Manager, whom she’d never met before. There were no introductions; they all knew as much as they needed to know about each other and why they were there. And technically, none of them existed outside of discreet payments to secure accounts under approved aliases, so introductions were pointless.
Continue reading Electricland serialization, part 1/7 →