Page 48 of Anarchy Missing
CHAPTER TWENTY - CASE
Thomas is standing in my office looking out the large floor-to-ceiling window, talking on his phone. Well, he’s not really talking. I’m guessing Linc is the one doing all the talking right now because Thomas just mutters, “Mm-hm,” every now and then.
“OK,” he says, done listening. “We’ll be up there tonight. And get the…” He stops, searching for words. “The… you know, that cave shit. Get that ready for Case. He’s agreed to let Sheila do whatever the fuck it was she wanted to do to him.”
He ends the call and turns.
I shoot him a dirty look. “I didn’t agree to anything.”
“But you will once I tell you what just happened.”
I point at the window. “Power’s out. I can see that.”
“Not the power, Case. The power is almost the least of our concerns right now. The water treatment plant has been… sabotaged.”
“Define that,” I say, frowning.
“The pumps that power the treatment cycles…”—he waves his hands as if conjuring up all the technical words he doesn’t have to describe the situation, and then moves on—“have been shut down, apparently.”
“Has the water been tainted?” I ask.
“Not that Lincoln can see at the moment. But even if we get the power back on so the water starts flowing again, the water won’t be flowing for long. It’s got to be treated and that’s offline.”
“What else?” I ask, looking down at the city.
“The cell phone towers east and west of Cathedral City are no longer standing.”
“Jesus Christ. So no one has cell service?”
“Only SkyEye customers.” And then Thomas screws up his face. “Which is going to make me look like a prime suspect.”
“Anything else?” My words come out as a sigh.
“We still need to carry this plan out, Case.” Thomas is serious most of the time. In fact, I can’t even remember the last time I’ve seen him smile at something that struck him as funny, and not just to be polite. But right now his expression is something more than serious. Grave and intent. Intent on his revenge, I realize.
“I’m not backing out,” I say, walking over to stand beside him. He turns to face the window with me.
“I’m not accusing you of backing out. What I am worried about is what might be going on in that head of yours.”
“Explain,” I say, looking at the chaos down below. The ToyBox offices are built into the side of the mountain on the western edge of the city, so I have a pretty good view of everything. I can’t see the street level around downtown, of course. Too many tall buildings in the way. But this side of town is where all the corporate tech offices are located and it’s busy enough to know that shit is spiraling out of control down there.
The traffic lights have stopped working. I can count seven accidents just from where I stand, so I can only imagine how bad it is closer to the city center.
“Something is happening to you.”
There’s no question mark at the end of that statement, but it is a question. He doesn’t know anything other than what I tell him and I’ve been tight-lipped lately.
It bothers him. A lot.
“I don’t know,” I say. “I feel… off.” There’s no way I’m going to admit to the cutting bullshit. That’s… crazy. Like… it will change things between us. He will lose confidence in me and want to make new arrangements. And I’m not going to let that happen. I want what he wants. Just as much as he wants it.
“Do you think it was due to the jellyfish… stuff?” I almost smile as he struggles to describe the procedure. “Or do you think it has something to do with the fact that Molly…” He lets out a long exhale of tired breath. “That Molly touched you with that lariat thing the Blue Boar had her whipping around that night?”
“Hmmm,” I say, thinking this over. “I haven’t thought about that very much. But I should. She didn’t take it with her, right?”
“No,” Thomas says. “It went down with the building.” He turns to look at me, his fingers coming up to touch my throat.
I flinch and back away. “What are you doing?”
