“Yeah. So now we just have to work out if Buzz Gun is also Viking Berserker, or if two of them go out afterwards. I also want to know where this room’s hubhall is situated.”
“The DNA profiles will be in within an hour. We can get a better timeline map from that.”
“Okay, then, let’s get back to the precinct.”
—
New York’s twentieth precinct house was situated on West 82nd Street, only two metrohubs from the apartment block on Central Park West. Even in the snow, it was less than three minutes to walk door to door.
Alik and Salovitz got in just before one in the morning. The precinct commander, Brandy “The Deacon” Duncan, was in her office on the second floor. She was courteous enough to Alik, but he knew he was about as welcome as a stripper in a cathedral.
Salovitz gave her a decent enough summary of the case. Seven bodies, the Lorenzo family’s whereabouts unknown and not responding to any calls, their altmes off grid.
“Why would these crews target Lorenzo? What’s he involved in?” the Deacon asked, staring at Alik. She was in her late fifties, streetwise, and with enough clout in City Hall to hang on to the twentieth for eight years now. Her face was etched with the entropy of a lifetime of prizefights on both sides of the desk—the ones that had got her where she was. Alik respected that; she was actually quite a good cop.
“I’m only here because of the jurisdiction thing,” he said.
“Bullshit,” she grunted. “Anaka, Devial, Mortalo and Lorenzo.”
“What about it?”
“They have political contacts. Kiss a lot of important asses.”
“I’m here to help. I can shortcut certain areas for you. I’m already helping with Berlin. If this is a snatch case, then time is critical here. Do you want the media to be showing the world a dead family on your watch?”
She looked at Salovitz. “Is it a kidnapping?”
“No way. Only one person got out of that goddamn abattoir: a genuine axe murderer.”
Her umpire’s gaze came back to Alik.
“Then where are they?” he asked. “We need to find out.”
“I’ll take your help,” the Deacon said grudgingly. “But this is the twentieth precinct’s case. Don’t try claiming anything else, especially not to your media buddies.”
“I have no buddies in the media, and I’m officially requesting that my name and involvement be kept off the record. If it is a kidnapping, we don’t want to alert them to any Bureau involvement at this stage.”
“Sure, I believe that. So if it’s not a kidnapping, what else could it be?”
“There was an attempted bust into Lorenzo’s secure company network,” Salovitz said.
“What were they looking for?”
“I don’t know yet; forensic has the systems in their digital lab. You know what it’s like getting any sense out of those nerds.”
“So one crew breaks in and starts a digital bust, then another crew shows up and the shit hits the fan,” the Deacon said. “Any chance crew two were a black countermeasures crew contracted by Anaka, Devial, Mortalo and Lorenzo when they realized what was happening?”
“That’s a stretch, chief,” Salovitz said.
Her gaze flicked to Alik like a first-grade teacher’s laser pointer highlighting the obvious. “But possible. Right, Agent Monday?”
“At this stage the Bureau is not ruling out anything. We want the surviving killer detained as swiftly as possible. However—”
“Here we go,” the Deacon muttered with antipathy.
“If crew one was a digital bust operation, crew two got there remarkably quickly for countermeasures. Not impossible, but unusual. They also don’t seem that professional. None of them were in the same clothes, and only two weapons were the same.”
“So how do you read it?”
“The Lorenzos are away, for whatever reason. Somebody knew that, and two high-end burglary crews targeted the portalhome. There was a lot of wealth in there. Naturally one team came armed with an i-head; data is as valuable as jewelry, and more so if you have the right files.”
“Coincidence? Seriously?”
“It doesn’t read like one crew was there to defend the Lorenzos. If the family was out for one night only, then it’s not quite coincidence that we have two teams showing up.”
Alik could see how much she wanted to argue. Instead she had to reluctantly concede. “Okay. Priority one, find and secure the Lorenzo family. Call his colleagues and her friends; somebody has to know where they were going.”
“Yes, chief,” Salovitz said.
“And let me know if anyone slows you down.” Again the laser pointer stab between Alik’s eyes.
Salovitz grinned as they trooped downstairs to the first floor. “You’re still alive. Impressive.”
“Yeah,” Alik grunted. “She’s secretly got the hots for me; you can tell.”
“You really think it’s a coincidence?”
“It’s a working theory that works. To get a handle on this, we need to know where the Lorenzos are. That’s when we start to understand what the fuck actually happened.”
“Yeah.”
The office that the Deacon had assigned the case team was at the back of the building, with frosted glass windows, ten desks, and a hemispherical virtual stage at the far end, three meters in diameter.