Livvy nodded. “You’re probably right. Much better cover and more accessible than a roof, too. I can’t see him, though. Lovely cover.”
“On three then,” Chris said, moving from a seated to a crouched position. “One, two,…”
Louie chose that moment to poke his head out of the trunk. The ball was in his mouth and he somehow looked expectant, as though waiting for an invitation to play.
“Louie, down!” Chris yelled. “Three.”
He and Livvy leapt to their feet and raced straight for the huge oak, peppering the lower branches with darts as they ran. Chris stopped counting the shots that dug into the turf around them. They were shooting blindly into the lower branches, but if just one dart connected… Twenty meters out, and one of them got lucky. A very large vintage rifle fell out of the oak, followed a few seconds later by a limp body, which plunged to the ground and hit with a satisfying thump. It was bearded and dressed like a peasant farmer of the 16th century.
The dart gave them at least 10 minutes even with a very large opponent, and of course the fall may have added considerably to that interval.
Both Chris and Livvy flattened themselves against the broad trunk of the tree and stood there, breathing rapidly and searching the branches above their heads.
“I think he was alone,” Chris said.
“I think you’re right.”
Neither of them moved.
“Still, if there is someone else, I want to know.”
“Ready?” Livvy said. “Go!”
They stepped out the shelter of the trunk and scanned the roofs of the neighboring houses. Nothing.
Waving her arms in the air, Livvy walked out from under the tree. “Yoohoo.” There was nothing, other than a barely-glimpsed figure moving away from the window in Isabella’s house. Chris lost interest before she did and almost immediately walked over to begin examining their prisoner. After another minute of scanning the roofs and the windows, Livvy joined him. He’d already cuffed the peasant and, one on either side, they crouched over the sleeping man, whose garb seemed almost natural as long as he was lying in the grass.
“I’ll bite,” Livvy said. “Is this outfit traditional for the fringe groups around here? ”
“No, but maybe he was making a statement,” Chris replied. “He may have even expected to get caught.”
“Undoubtedly. Even in San Francisco this get-up would attract attention,” Livvy said. “So. How did he get here?”
“It had to be before we did. We can look for a car but I’m betting he was dropped off, probably in the dark,” Chris said.
“And he didn’t shoot at us on the way in because…?” Livvy asked.
“Now that I can’t figure. You’d think he’d prefer to distract us before the interview.”
“Isabella…?”
Chris looked up at her. “Not involved with this, at least not directly. We’re practically in her flowerbeds, after all. No. Someone who knows about her knew we were going to show up here, but she didn’t arrange this.”
Chris got an inquiry on his aural and started relaying information and instructions to the approaching back-up over his collar comu.
The sound of several distant sirens changed direction and steadily gained volume. In the next few minutes three cars arrived in rapid succession in an impressive display of force, and uniforms climbed out of the cars and fanned out in several directions. Chris and Livvy scanned the roofs again but neither of them detected any movement other than more vague forms in the windows of the surrounding houses.
“What’s your guess?” Livvy asked when it was apparent they weren’t going to spot anyone else and they’d gone back to examining their unconscious prisoner. “Religious zealot or Naturals Only fanatic?”
“Dressed like this? No ID, no comu, no paper. He could be either, and there’s a lot of crossover. I don’t recognize him in particular, but I wouldn’t expect to. This is a little extreme for the Naturals Only locals. It’s possible that they’re escalating, or this one splintered from the group, or he’s a fraud. Or he’s only a tool. Or any combination of the above.”
The shooter was already blinking his eyes and trying to move with that purposeless shifting that preceded coherent thought. Chris thought he detected the moment, from a change in the man’s expression, when he really awakened and realized that something had gone terribly wrong with his plans, and that he was a prisoner. Chris stood up and looked across to Livvy, who was still looking down on the prisoner from the other side.
“At least we can be pretty sure,” Livvy said wryly, “that he’s not one of those rare pro-Longevity fanatics that want to kill us because they believe we are denying humanity the gift of immortality. He’d be better dressed.
“Also,” she continued, “if he’s a tool, it’s because someone preyed on his fanaticism. No one would throw money away on this level of marksmanship.”
“True. Unless they have a lot of money to throw around,” Chris said slowly. “Lets hope he wakes up in a mood to talk.”
The medics arrived with a stretcher and they moved out of the way.
“So you think we can be pretty sure there’s a connection to Josephson’s disappearance. Because he knew where to find us and got here first. Can we absolutely eliminate the possibility that he followed us here?” Livvy said as they walked back to the car.
“With Louie silently watching him climb the tree?” Chris asked.
Livvy glanced at the back seat, where Louie was again sitting docilely with his ball in his mouth.
“No, you’re right. Of course Louie would have warned us,” Livvy said, reaching in through the open door to scratch him behind the ears. “Incidentally, you don’t suppose he knows what a ‘distraction’ is, do you?”
“It doesn’t matter. I ordered the damned dog to stay down.”
“But he absolutely loves that ball,” Livvy said without hesitation. “You know, most of the shots I could see, at least when we were charging, and perhaps before, seemed to be aimed at you more than me. When I got grazed, I was running right next to you.”
“Again, we don’t really know. I could have been the primary target. Or maybe you’re just smaller, or, most likely, he got a good look at you before he started shooting. Your native armor,” Chris said. He turned around and leaned against the car as he watched the med techs carrying the prisoner to their van.
“I don’t know about that,” Livvy said. “With the kind of fanatics LLE probably deals with, I think I just infuriate them more.”
“Well,” Chris said. “Let’s find out.”
Livvy looked at him warily. “I’m not going to like this, am I?”
“Why not?” Chris said, eyes widened with innocence. “You’re injured, aren’t you? Your arm needs attention, doesn’t it?”
Livvy sighed. “In the medivan? Seriously?” She looked at the already crowded vehicle without enthusiasm as she removed her helmet and tossed it onto the back seat next to Louie. Tucking an errant strand of fiery, sweat-dampened hair behind her ear, she shot Chris a reproachful glance before raising her hand and heading for the medivan. The medtech in the back had been closing the door, but when he saw her coming he smiled broadly and swung it wide again and even stepped out to let her climb in first. Chris could hear the first words of what sounded like a promising stream of outraged invective just before the doors closed and it drove away. Their prisoner was definitely in the mood to talk.
Chp. 6 Tactics (Wednesday)
The bomb was simple, crude really, a typical design used by the groups that felt justified in casually killing LLE personnel because of what they represented. It was the efficiency with which it had been installed that caught Chris off guard. He didn’t usually bring an LLE car home, but after coercing Livvy into the medivan with their bigoted prisoner yesterday afternoon, he’d driven out to Josephson’s house and he and Louie spent hours performing a rigorous search. It was a huge house. They’d finished very late and he’d decided to go straight home in the car.