Her arm buzzed again. Dan reporting that the cops were moving in.

They were serious about this place. These guys that stole the Space Waste ship must be into something deep. She started double-timing, breaking into a jog. If they killed anyone before she got there, she was going to be pissed.

A minute later, she saw Bashful Dan crouching in the bushes across the street from their target house. She could see through the front doorway of the house. They’d probably blown the door off its hinges.

“How many?” she asked Dan.

He jumped, not hearing her approach. “Shit, Dava,” he panted. “The green man and the white skinny guy went up and knocked. A green-sleeved lady answered the door and they went in. Then—”

“Dan, I swear to fucking god, if you say ‘green-sleeve’ one more time I’m going to cut a hole in your gut and make a noose out of your intestines.”

“Oh, shit,” Dan whispered. “I’m sorry, Dava. It just slipped out.” He held his breath as she glared at him. She nodded for him to continue. “And then four cops showed up. They popped the door and walked in.”

“How long ago was that?”

“Right when I messaged you,” he said. “Like maybe five minutes ago.”

“You got confirmation on these guys?” She looked around for a moment. “Hey, where’s 2-Bit and Johnny?”

“Well, to answer the first question, yes,” Dan said. “After we saw that B-fourean guy in the bar,” he started, then paused. “You know, Johnny, he was trashed in the bar. But he remembered that guy, just the same. From the prisoner barge. He was Johnny’s fuckin’ cell-mate! I mean, the guy tried to tell Johnny that they were cell-mates back on B-4. So Johnny just plays along. He sits there and has a conversation with the guy!”

“Damn, I love Eyeball,” Dava said. “You never know when that guy is too smashed to remember his own name or when he’s on the clock.”

“Yeah, right,” Dan said. “One of the best. Anyway, we drag Johnny out of there to get him sobered up; but I leave the captain to babysit Eyeball so I can get to work. I stake out the bar, and sure enough, along comes the green guy. He goes in, and a few minutes later they come out together. I trailed them to a hotel. An hour or so later, the green guy comes back out, goes for a little walk.” Dan laughed softly. “The guy went all over town. I think he’s paranoid, because he snaked all over the place just trying to get to the park.”

“Ain’t paranoia if people are really after ya.”

Dan thought about that for a moment. “Yeah, shit. Well, he’s still pretty green. I mean, I know he’s green colored, but I mean he didn’t shake me. And he never saw me. Anyway, I call up Johnny and Captain 2-Bit and have them meet me outside the park. Only one entrance, so we knew he’d be coming back out of it.”

“So Johnny got a look at him?”

“Sure did. Said that was one of the ModPol officers he saw on the barge, a prisoner escort. We said, you sure Johnny? Moses wants us to be sure. He says, yep. Get this, Dava. He says he had a goddamn conversation with the guy. Because he came to their cell to talk to that B-fourean.”

“You guys get names yet?” she asked, mostly out of curiosity, but partly because she was getting sick of the labels.

“Well, not the green dude,” Dan said. “But Johnny calls the other guy Psycho Jack. Says he was in for mass homicide.”

“No shit. Does he believe that?”

“Not really sure. Eyeball is hard to read, you know? Sometimes he’s winking at you like a normal person, to mean he’s just kidding or something. Other times,” Dan paused. “Well, you know.”

“Yeah,” she said. “He’s just trying to blink.” She was quiet for a few seconds. “What the hell is the deal with these guys? A cop running around with a guy who should be on trial for mass homicide?”

Dan shook his head. “Yeah, don’t make sense. But seeing how that same cop had come to this Psycho Jack’s cell while Johnny was there, must be something going on.”

“Yeah, I guess. So where are they?” she asked. “2-Bit and Johnny, I mean.”

“Well, to be honest,” he said. “I had to trail these two guys all day, waiting for a good time to call you. They went out to some industrial sub-dome, then back to Grovenham, and finally out here to the ’burbs. Johnny got sick of waiting around and started drinking again, so I asked the captain to keep an eye on him. I figured you and I could handle one cop and a skinny, random B-4 dude.” He paused, looking at the house. “Maybe I should call them. I mean, those other cops showed up. I don’t know if,” he started, then stopped himself.

She just looked at him. “We’re not waiting for them to get all the way out here. I have a feeling some bad shit is going down in that house right now.” She started checking her weapons. “We’re going in before something happens to our target. Nobody is killing the assholes who stole a Space Waste boat before we get a chance to torture them.” She grinned widely and she could see goosebumps form on Bashful Dan’s skin.

“Okay,” he said quietly. He looked at the house again.

“Get a smoker and wait here. I’m going to go get in position near a window. When I buzz you the signal, throw the smoker right through that open doorway.”

Dan had a small satchel on his waist. He opened it up and pulled out a flat, gray canister. He checked it over and then fished out a small mask, handing it to Dava. She took the mask, gave him a silent nod, and was off.

CHAPTER 21

“Jack J. Jackson. You are under arrest for resisting arrest, class five murder, property damage in the first degree, and impersonating a law enforcement officer of Modern Policing and Peacekeeping. Jenna Zarconi, you are under arrest for conspiracy to commit murder and aiding and abetting a known fugitive.”

Four ModPol officers came through the empty doorway, following the announcement on the bullhorn. Three of them had guns drawn, but held them rather haphazardly at their sides.

The fourth man turned to one of the others. “Thanks, Jerry. Let the record show that we entered the domicile of one Jenna Zarconi and encountered one Jack J. Jackson and one Jenna Zarconi. There was no one else on the premises.” He cast a sidelong glance at Runstom, who was picking himself back up off the floor. He mentally scanned his body, but felt nothing more than the shock from the fall.

The fully-armored ModPol cop took off his helmet, revealing bright-red skin and a bald head. “Now that that’s out of the way,” he said, setting his helmet down on a small table near the front door, “we can go off the record.”

“Mark,” Jenna said, breathlessness making her speech airy and faint. “What … what are you doing here?”

“I want the three of you on your knees with your hands behind your heads,” the cop said, ignoring her question. “Now!” he shouted.

The other officers came around the big chairs swiftly and aimed their guns at the occupants. Jax and Jenna quickly knelt down and put their hands up.

Runstom glared at the un-helmeted cop as another tapped his temple with the tip of his firearm. “Get down on the ground, now!”

He knelt down and let the cop cuff his hands as he held them behind his head, not taking his eyes off the red face of the other cop. “You’re X, I presume?” he said after the cuffs clicked on.

“That’s right,” the man said with a snarl. “I’m X. And you’re a ghost. The late Officer Stanford Runstom. An unfortunate event on a prison barge, where Mr. Jackson managed to steal your credentials before he escaped.”

“ModPol credentials are genetically verified. He wouldn’t be able to use them.”

X laughed. “Yeah, keep putting all your faith in technology. No one ever exploits technology.” He pointedly looked at Jenna and Jax. “Isn’t that right, you two?” He laughed again and looked at Runstom again, pulling a small, empty vial from inside his flak jacket. “Anyway, we don’t know exactly how he did it. But we did manage to find a sample of your DNA on him.” He put the vial back inside his jacket. “But we’ll get to that in a minute. After we deal with these two.”