The Taken

6

She’d told Wingate she’d meet him upstairs: there was no computer in the basement, but when he got to the house, she was still downstairs putting on a housecoat and getting ready to negotiate the stairs. Gly

“No, no, not at all,” he said hastily, and sat in the chair in the living room closest to the hall. It felt like he was taking Hazel out on a date.

Gly

“Uh, yeah, I like it.”

“Fresh-pressed,” she said. “No preservatives.”

He thanked her and sipped it in her presence and then nodded to show how much he liked it. He could hear Hazel coming up the stairs, and Gly

“Orpheus arrives from the underworld,” she said, and Hazel waved her off.

“What was so urgent?” she asked Wingate.

He stood and put his drink aside. “Can you take me to the computer you said was co

She took him down the hallway, ignoring both Gly

“Is your mother still living here?”

“She’s having her pre-di

Wingate waited for the computer to boot up and co

“It’s longer?”

“It shows more,” he said. “At the station house we could only see the very edge of the knee and arm. And that eye. Now there’s a bit of bicep and more pantleg.” The leg was still juddering nervously and the floating traumatized eye stared out ceaselessly. An extra second or so had been made visible at the end owing to the extension of the pan. Hazel was shaking her head slowly.

“Well, that’s creepy as all hell. Is it happening right now? Is it live?”

“I can’t tell.”

“And an hour ago, there was less?”

“Just a bit.”

She studied the sequence a couple more times. “So someone sinks a ma

“We have two numbers and one seems to be disco

“How many times have you called?”

“A few. But it’s the long weekend and until I saw this, I wasn’t sure how urgent -” “Did you run the names?”

“CPIC has nothing. I can do a reverse trace on the numbers and get some addresses.”

“Good. And in the meantime, get Howard Spere’s eggheads on this site and see if they can figure out who’s uploading it.”

“I also tried Eldwin’s number, but his wife said he was out of town for the long weekend.”

“I bet he is. Who is this guy, anyway?”

“Apparently, he’s a writer.”

“Well, either he has some strange fans, or he’s working out writer’s block in a very active fashion. Find out more about him, would you? And keep trying to reach him.”

“I will.”

She looked at the screen again. “Judging by the rate at which the camera is exposing our friend here, we might have the whole face by morning. It’d be nice to know who it is.” She touched the screen with her finger. “What do you think the shadow behind the chair is?”

“I can’t tell,” said Wingate. “It tapers a bit as it approaches the ceiling. It could be a person. But it’s pretty still for a live person.”

“It’s not hard to stay still for as long as we’re seeing this.” She turned off the browser and pushed the chair back. “So,” she said, “someone sinks a ma

“I’m leaning toward not a prank.”

“When you talk to Spere about this upload, give him those black pictures you showed me, too. I’m getting a bad feeling about all of this.”

“Me too,” he said.

“Catch me up in the morning.”

A voice was waking her up. She thought maybe she was dreaming that she was trying to wake up and she attempted to open her eyes and see the room. She heard the voice again. It was saying don’t be late, don’t be late. She forced her eyes open and saw her ex-husband sitting on the edge of the bed. “Too late for what?” she said, but he seemed not to hear her. “Andrew?”

He was holding out a glass of water. “You awake?”

“What am I too late for?”

“What are you talking about?”

She took the glass of water and drank it down. She tried to sit up, and he reached out feebly, not sure how to help her. He wasn’t the one who did the heavy lifting down here. She shook her head at him when he tried to pull her up by the wrist and she shimmed back painfully against the mattress to a half-seated position. “Who deputized you?”

“I deputized myself.”

“What time is it?”

He looked at his wrist. “Almost nine.”

“It was a rather exhausting day. Does Gly

The friendly look on his face faded a little. “You’ve been pissing and moaning that I don’t come down here enough. So here I am. I don’t need anyone’s permission.”

“You don’t?”

“I can go if you’d like.”

“I like your bedside ma

He was leaned over facing her, his chin in his hand. His fingers barred his mouth. “You remember what?”

“You sitting there.”

He lowered his hand into his lap. “Do you want anything?”

“A bath.”

“You should eat.”

She swivelled her legs out from under the sheets. “Afraid I’m going to wither away?”

“No,” he said nonchalantly. He stood and started for the stairs, his hands in his pockets, another familiar stance. This one meant irritation. “If you change your mind, you know where the food is.”

“Well, hold on.”

“What?”

“That’s it? First time in the dungeon in four days and you offer me the menu but nothing else?”

“What were you expecting?”

“How about how are you? Or something about you maybe? Are you doing well.”

“I’m doing fine, Hazel. How are you?”

She shook her head at him. “Never mind. Off you go to your throw-pillows and your tarot reading. Have fun.”