Chapter Twelve
Rahul re-entered Operations, bearing two coffees. He set one down in front of a tech that was monitoring the museum situation, the other in front of Director Wu.
”Where”s yours?” she asked. ”Or do I have to hear the spiel again about how we should replace the coffee pots with those complicated, expensive monsters?”
”Economical, not expensive, I think you mean,” Rahul said with an eager grin, while Wu scoffed. ”Do you know how many pots get dumped down the drain, wasted? Newer machines are single-serve and offer a variety of flavors, adaptable to everyone”s taste. You”re wasting money by not switching!”
The director took a sip of her coffee, looking around the room before leaning in closer. ”Basu, do you remember what happened to our eight-thousand-dollar printer?”
Rahul paused, glancing over at where Jamie was pecking at a keyboard. ”I see what you mean.The poor machine didn”t even last a full day, did it. At least with a coffee pot, some misplaced percussive maintenance only costs the department about ten dollars.”
”Like I said, an expensive change.”
Rahul nodded. ”I concede the point. Anyways, none for me. I”ve been cutting back on coffee lately, down to one cup a day, sometimes two if I”m feeling work pressure.”
”Oh, good on you, then.”
Clairmont hung up a work phone and approached them both. He licked the tip of a finger, then touched it to his own ear and made a sizzling sound. ”Major Anderson isn”t pleased that we didn”t involve the police in our operation. He says he”ll be in contact with us again once he finishes reporting our uncooperative behavior to his pet state representative. In the meantime, the FBI is sending some personnel to take charge of Mx. Robin Sinclair so they can interrogate them.”
”From your tone, director, it doesn”t sound like you approve.”
”No, Basu. No I do not. But DOMA can only do so much.” Clairmont sighed, then unbuttoned the top couple of buttons of his shirt, stretching his neck. ”Agent Winters and Detective Johnson will be here in five minutes with our guest. When they get here, Director Wu, I”d like you to escort them over to Conference Room Two. Make sure it”s just the four of you, and no-one else.”
”Of course, director,” she said after a moment, probably wondering like Rahul was why they weren”t using their rarely-used interrogation room, or even their reinforced blast chamber for recalcitrant artifacts and spirits.
”Mr. Basu, if you”ll come with me? I”d like for you to be there, too.”
”I”m not going to say no to that! It”ll be interesting to see the kind of person that will work with Germaine and fall in lust or love.”
The executive director led the way out of Operations and headed to his office, stopping just long enough to grab an armful of plastic water bottles from a minifridge.
”A great number of people, I would imagine. Everything I”ve seen and heard about him says that he”s charismatic and driven, and of course he has his good looks.”
Rahul had to admit that it was true. ”If only he weren”t a violent terrorist.”
Clairmont fell silent as they finished their walk to the conference room, and Rahul took over carrying the water while the director unlocked the door and began turning on the fluorescent lights. Clairmont shut the door behind them while Rahul set the half-dozen bottles on the table, then indicated a chair, sitting down next to him.
”Do you believe that?” he asked.
Rahul kept his expression neutral as he regarded the man opposite him. Leaning back in the padded roller chair, he took one of the bottles of water, twisting off the cap and then taking a drink.
Jack Clairmont looked a little wearier than he had back when Rahul had served under him. Still the same fit body, relaxed posture, and don”t-take-the-world-too-seriously demeanor, but there was a lot more gray in his hair, and the lines around his eyes were deeper.
But what did he owe this sonofabitch who”d concocted a witch hunt against his partner and boyfriend?
Rahul tapped the table. ”The evidence seems to speak for itself. Or do you have Angie and Maxim stashed away somewhere, and I just imagined their injuries? Hello, Max? Are you under the table? Nope, not there.”
”We lost five good operatives that day, in a sense,” Clairmont said by way of answer. ”Deimos came back after extended medical leave, yes, and Johnson seems to have bounced back better than ever thanks to you—”
”And Leif,” Rahul said. ”And himself.”
Clairmont nodded. ”I”m not undermining his own efforts, believe me. Wu didn”t say it in so many words in his performance evaluations, but ”depressed” was clear enough that I should absolutely have insisted that he attend some therapy.”
”You”re making it hard not to get angry,” Rahul said wryly. ”Yes, Jack, if you”d cared about him at all, you would have, but that falls more on Fang as his immediate supervisor, rather than you. Water under the bridge by this point, though. Tucker”s doing fantastic.”
Clairmont checked his phone. ”Almost time. But back to the question. You were lead agent during Germaine”s initial thefts, and I know you”ve read through all the current information. With all that you knew, how did your mental profile of him equate with the explosions?”
”It didn”t,” Rahul said. ”But people can do surprising things when pushed to the edge.”
”And tonight”s encounter? He bound Johnson, but didn”t injure him.”
”I don”t know. Maybe he”s trying to fix his image. Why do you ask?”
Before Clairmont could respond, there was a quick rap at the door. He stood up to open it, letting in Director Wu, Julia, and Tucker, with the detainee hanging limply over the shifter”s shoulders.
”Are they…”
”Passive resistance,” Tucker said as he carefully set them down in a chair. Their hands were shackled with a warded cuff, the white runes signifying the secure binding.
”Good for them,” Clairmont said. ”Agent Winters, do you think we can do without the cuffs for a few minutes?”
”I”ll need to stay in the room to counter any magic they might perform, but yes.”
”Then please do so. There”s bottled water for each of you, our guest included.”
Robin sat up straight in their chair, giving a solid sneer to Clairmont. ”Is this the famous Good Cop, Bad Cop routine? Wait, never mind. Ahem. I am invoking my right to counsel, and will not talk without a lawyer present.”
”Perfectly said!” Clairmont said, breaking into a broad smile. ”When the police or FBI arrive to extract you for questioning, that”s exactly what you should say, but it doesn”t do anything here.”
There were several confused faces at that remark, Rahul included. Julia maintained a professional look, but Rahul noticed her double-checking the tie around her afro, which he knew she did to keep her fingers from twitching—a bad habit she”d had to break, since gestures were part of how she directed her magic.
Clairmont first went to the door, peeking out of it before shutting it and locking it firmly. He then went around to the side of the table, hoisting his bulk up on its oaken surface rather than use a chair. He continued in a bright tone.
”Hello! My name is Executive Director Jack Clairmont, head of this region”s Department of Mythic Affairs. With me is Director Wu, my second, Agent Winters and Detective Johnson, both of whom you”ve met, and a guest, Private Investigator Basu. I trust all four explicitly. I understand that your name is Robin, and that you use gender neutral pronouns. If you have another preferred name, feel free to correct me at any time.”
Robin pressed their lips together. They looked at the water bottle sitting in front of them with more than a little interest, but didn”t make any move, just crossed their arms across their chest.
”If you don”t want to talk, that”s fine, I only really need you to listen,” Clairmont continued. ”Officially, this isn”t an interrogation, or an arrest. Before turning magical or magic-using persons over to other agencies, DOMA is authorized to ensure that the individual won”t pose a magical threat, and I”m taking full advantage of the law. It”s functionally similar to medically screening injured criminals.”
”Isn”t that what those fancy cuffs were for?” Robin said, apparently forgetting themself.
”Possibly, possibly,” Clairmont said with a smile. ”But to be safe, I need Agent Winters to do a thorough scan in a well-lit room, to make sure you don”t have any other hidden talents that the cuffs wouldn”t block. I suspect it will take as long as twenty minutes, which is about as long as I can hope to stall the FBI for.”
”Forty minutes, sir,” Julia said. ”After all, I just came back from an exhausting field mission, so it would be understandable if I were a little slow.”
Clairmont shot her a grateful smile. ”Forty minutes, then. That”s how long the six of us have available to negotiate.”
Rahul frowned, then looked over at Tucker, whose head was tilted as he looked between Julia and Clairmont, apparently sensing something unusual. What kind of move was Clairmont making?
”Forty minutes, huh? Let me guess, torture? No, you don”t seem like you have the backbone for it. Probably just a series of invasive questions, or other violations of my rights, then. What”s your game, Director Fuckface?”
”No game,” Clairmont said, losing his smile. ”I want to make a deal with you, in order to help Germaine.”
Robin laughed, tugging at the ends of their sweater. ”And why would I want to help the assholes that forced a good man into hiding?”
”Because I know that Germaine was set up,” Clairmont said, using words that were giving Rahul a sense of déjà vu. ”I know that it was the local police force that contrived to plant the bombs at the construction site, and it was them, not Germaine, that set them off and injured my operatives. I want you to ask Germaine to come in to testify as much.”
”Excuse me?” Rahul asked. Beside him, Tucker had ducked his head, his brow furrowed as he talked to himself silently. Even Director Wu seemed taken aback, though Julia maintained a cool expression. She gave him a look with mingled pity and encouragement, then signed a gesture. It took him a moment to remember their old hand signs, and hers meant truth or trust, depending.
”Oh. Ohoho! They don”t know! They believe the lying media, do they?”
Clairmont shook his head. ”They believe the official reports given to them from the other agencies. Winters, I”m going to need a few minutes to explain to the others, so why don”t you take our guest to the facilities, and get them whatever they want from the vending machine? Fontaine or Cohen can help escort, if you need backup. Mx. Sinclair, please do not attempt to escape. We only have about thirty-five minutes before I”m forced to hand you over, and I”d hate to waste time. Winters, be back in about ten?”
”Will do, sir.”
”Holy shit,” Rahul said once the door closed behind the pair, leaning back in his chair and pressing his hands into his eyes. ”Explain yourself, Jack.”
”The original operation to bring in Germaine should have succeeded,” Clairmont said without hesitation, looking between him, Tucker, and Wu. ”The three of you did everything right. But Germaine”s popular underdog existance made some politicians and their benefactors upset.If they could instead turn him into a scary, agent-killing terrorist, it would rally a certain kind of myth-hating voter, so they hedged their bets and coerced the police into planting the explosives.Or maybe just to change the a few reports, and used a third-party to plant the bombs. Wu tells me that she”s already told you her part in it, yes?”
”She did, yes,” Rahul said, then reached across the table to lay a hand on her clenched fist. ”She used her ESP talent to save the lives of Deimos, Angie, and Maxim. But you… how long have you known?”
”Proof came later, but I suspected as soon as the explosions went off. Like you said, Rahul, they really didn”t fit Germaine”s profile.”
Rahul took in a deep, calming breath, but still couldn”t help the golden glow that started tracing its way down his tattoos and feeling a fiery heat course through his veins. ”So in other words, you”ve known from the start that the mission”s failure was never Tucker”s fault. You wrecked his life for your own ends.”
”Ah.” Clairmont looked over at Tucker, who was regarding him expressionlessly. ”Let me finish?”
”Hmm… what do you think, pup? Should we play along, or just go grab Leif from the break room and walk out now, let him stew in the mess he”s made?”
Tucker stood up out of his chair, and Rahul made to do the same, but then Tucker laid a hand on his shoulders, keeping him in his chair.
”You”re angry,” Tucker told him, then leaned down to kiss his cheek. ”Don”t be. I think it will be okay, he smells like Wu did. And I”m pretty sure Julia already knows, but since she didn”t tell us, his excuse should be a good one. All the same, sir, justified or not, what you did caused a lot of hurt.”
Clairmont looked eminently relieved. ”Thank you, Johnson. So. I suspected a frame-up from the time the bombs went off, but found my evidence in the bomb forensics, later redacted, which implied that the bombs were planted in the ground through conventional means, and not with Germaine”s geomancy. When I tried to pursue it, I immediately received some very threatening words from Major Anderson. He threatened to prosecute Johnson as a scapegoat, and even implicate him as the mole who was leaking information to Germaine.”
”Which he could do if he were the mole himself,” Rahul said.
”Yes,” Clairmont agreed. ”You, Basu, were about to stumble on the same information in the aftermath reports, and you only hadn”t yet because you were distracted by the injuries of your friends. I needed to show Anderson that I was playing ball, and also do something to occupy that brain of yours while I built up evidence of corruption.”
”And firing Tucker was the answer? Holy fuck, Jack, that doesn”t—”
”The firing wasn”t going to stick!” Clairmont argued, growling like Tucker did when he had too many words to say all at once. ”It was never meant to. But Johnson was facing ten-to-life from dirty politics. Instead, I was going to put forth the termination motion, it would go up the chain of command, there wouldn”t be enough evidence because Johnson was so obviously innocent with an impeccable record, and all that was supposed to happen was a temporary suspension. Things would have returned to normal afterwards.”
”But you didn”t take me going to the press into account.”
Clairmont”s shoulders dropped, and he looked more tired than Rahul had ever seen in any of their cases together, barring the Dovetail Massacre. ”I was so pissed off at you, Rahul. But my hands were tied as soon as you went public with that journalist. The only positive note was that Major Anderson was satisfied that neither of you two would be of any more trouble, so he dropped the pressure.”
”You should have told us,” Rahul said.
”If I did, you would have immediately pursued the issue. I know you, Rahul. You wouldn”t have let that kind of injustice slide, especially since it was directed at your lover.”
”Yeah, but it should have been our… should have…”
Rahul groaned, feeling as if he”d just been splashed with cold water, and his anger melted away to be replaced by shame.
Tucker laughed out loud, bright and sunny and apparently a little incongruous, going by the expressions on Clairmont and Wu. ”What”s that, babe? Are you saying Jack should have trusted us and let us make our own decision about the issue?”
”This is how you felt when I got fired on your behalf, huh, puppy? Gods and spirits.”
”It”s a lot easier to process the second time around,” Tucker agreed, patting him on the shoulder. ”Clairmont, I know you were just trying to protect us, and I”m sure you made what you thought was the right call, but you should have told us anyway. At the least, you should have told Director Wu. We can talk about you making proper amends later—”
”It had better involve a freezing swimming pool, or so help me, Johnson,” Wu muttered, just as there was a knock at the door.
”—but you”re right about us being short on time. Talk us through your ideas.”
Julia entered with Robin, who swaggered over to their seat, a cocky grin on their face.
”Your enforcer here whispered some nice things,” Robin said, jerking a thumb. ”Sweet, convincing words like immunity and or else risk prison for Germaine for life. Let”s hear what you have to say, yeah Director Fucky-Ducky?”
Clairmont nodded. ”We have a little under thirty minutes, and I have a couple of ideas.”
Putting aside his personal feelings, Rahul forced his mind to shift gears and work out the puzzle that was being presented to them.