Anselm walked around the fountain, flicking out the semi-circular screen of his portable computer, and called up the image that had brought him to this place. The honeymoon shot of Inspector Somer showed off the small blond’s attributes nicely, her sheer dress clung to her frame as she posed in front of the tower, smiling playfully at her husband. The gleam in her eyes brought an emotion to the image that was either the work of a good photographer in capturing it, or a lucky one. Either way, however, it was the man in the background that he was looking at and Anselm continued to move around the fountain until he found the right angle. When he did he paused and took note of the distance, then slapped his portable closed and walked around to the place he calculated Abdallah would have been in when the picture was taken. There was nothing much near that spot, unfortunately, certainly nothing which might indicate why the terrorist had paused there. Anselm turned around slowly until he was looking right at the photographer, Somer’s husband, in his mind’s eye. Then he looked past the mental image of Mr. Somer, and right at the embarkation point for the Project Mag-Lev.
“He was waiting for someone.” Anselm whispered, running his finger along the side of his nose. “A friend Or a co-conspirator”
“I thought I’d find you here.”
Anselm snapped his head again, his hand dipping slightly toward the small of his back on reflex. He froze out the instinct, though, when he recognized the speaker and forced a smile, “Inspector, checking up on me already”
Inspector Gwendolyn Dougal smirked slightly, her short red hair sticking to light sheen of sweat on her forehead as she cocked her head at him, “Do you need checking up on, Agent Gunnar”
Anselm smiled a little more genuinely and shrugged, “What brings you out here, Inspector”
“Gwen.” She told him firmly.
“Anselm then,” He returned.
She chuckled, but nodded. “I thought you might be out here when I found you weren’t in your hotel room.”
“Any reason you’re tracking me down”
She nodded and flipped a sheaf of photographic paper from under her arm, handing it over to him. Anselm accepted it and frowned down at it. It was an image of a car driving the streets of the city outside, and he recognized the face in the passenger side.
“Where’d you get this” He asked sharply, surprised to find himself looking at Abdallah Amir.
Gwen cocked a hand on one hip and pursed her lips at his tone, “We may not have a huge department here, but we do have access to the central police network and database.”
Anselm nodded, understanding.
The Police Network was an online collection of programs that could be accessed from any police station in the world, at least in theory. Among the list of programs was, of course, the same facial topography scanner that had brought Anselm to Tower City in the first place. Obviously the Shanties, as Gwen had called the city, had traffic cameras installed. All she had to do was open up the traffic database to the Central Network, and tell the program to scan for Mr. Amir. The software would do the rest.
“Could you identify the car”
“Of course.” Gwen smiled, “If you like I can take you out to talk to the owner right now.”
Anselm glanced down at the picture again, wondering if it was a good idea. It would likely tip Abdallah to his presence if the owner of the car was in any way close with the terrorist.
“If it eases your mind, I have this car on a traffic violation.” Gwen spoke up. “She was doing a hundred and thirty kilometers over the limit.”
Anselm blinked.
A hundred and thirty over the posted limit wasn’t unheard of, but it wasn’t common anywhere else that he knew of either.
Gwen just chuckled at the look on his face, “The posted limits aren’t really in keeping with the reality of the few vehicles that are run privately around here. A lot of them are cheaper electrics, of course, but generally around here if you can afford a car, you can afford a good one.”
“You don’t enforce the speed limits strictly” Anselm asked, mostly because of the inspector’s own driving.
She shrugged, “It depends. We enforce for reckless behavior more than speed, and don’t bother at all outside of city limits of course. Even in the city limits, people generally use the public transport, so the roads are usually pretty clear.”
“Of course.” Anselm replied dryly, holding up the photo in question, “So dropping in on the young lady won’t be out of character”
She shrugged, and then shook her head. “Not really. We spot check a lot of speeders just to deliver warnings that they are, in fact, being watched. It keeps them at least slightly honest.”
Anselm chuckled, nodding. “Alright. Let’s go.”
“This way,” She gestured to the Mag-Lev embarkation point. “I’ve got the car parked about eight kilometers from here. We should be there in.Oh, a couple minutes or so.”
Kamir Sophen, a young man barely out of his teens, was pouring over one of his two great loves when the call came from Mr. Jacob.
“Y.yes Sir” Kamir swallowed, a little nervously.
“I have a job for you.” Jacob told him.
“Yes Sir.”
“Look through the registers of the Shanty hotels,” Jacob told him, “See if you can find the names of any Interpol officers.”
“Interpol” The young man asked with a curl of his lip, “Do you think they’re on to us”
“They are, but I doubt they know what they’re on to just yet. Some interest from the law enforcement community was inevitable, of course.”
Kamir snorted lightly, nodding. “Fat lot of good it will good it will do them.”
“Do not become arrogant, Kamir.” Jacob growled, “Arrogance leads to a great fall.And given your.extra-curricular activities, I do not believe that you need any added risk of falling. Do you”
Kamir shook his head quickly, “No, Jacob.”
“Good. Do this job, do it quickly.” Jacob ordered, shutting the connection without saying anything more.
Kamir shuddered slightly. There were few things that scared him in the world. He had swam the great barrier reef with the sharks, ran with the bulls in Spain, and even soared so high over the top of the very tower that ruled the sky here at the project, that he had needed a vacuum suit. Mr. Jacob, however, scared him.
Kamir flipped his computer over to another program and quickly entered into the hotel database system, gaining access was child’s play compared to some of the work he’d done for Jacob and Amir and he was happily downloading lists of names, a moment later.
Penetrating the Interpol employee database was more complicated, or would be if it hadn’t already been done some time ago. As it was he simply accessed the old file from his local drives and started a comparison running. Getting the initial hit didn’t take long at all.
“Somer.”
Kamir’s eyes narrowed, he knew a Somer. Now where did he hear that name before
Of course!
His eyes flared, the poser on the field. He’d been closer than Jacob thought if he was investigating the Thermies. Too close, in fact. If he happened to see and understand the instruments some of the `thrill seekers’ were wearing.
Well, there were ways to handle that.
Kamir smiled, the man wanted a ride after all. And they could always use another sample gathering run. If something happened in the meantime Well, things happened when you were flying ten kilometers in the sky with nothing but a para-pack between you and a long fall.
“Nice place.” Anselm said quietly as he looked up at the white home that was set into the side of the gently rolling hill.
“Not too many built like this around here.” Gwen replied, “It’s not as eco-friendly as the less fancy styles you’ll find common around here. Air conditioning is a real pain in one of those.”