Part 23 (1/2)

Was.h.i.+ngton State.

Rebecca Rose again insisted on driving. William Griffin sat quietly, trying to appear relaxed with hands gripping one knee. Early morning traffic was light as they headed south.

The Federal Detention Center rose dusky gold in the early morning light, a wedge of two pale angled monoliths atop split arcs of brown concrete brick. To William the facility looked like a huge piece of chocolate cake topped by twin Lego slabs. 'Kind of pretty, don't you think?' he asked as they pa.s.sed under an ornate radius wall, into the shadow of the imposing wedge.

'I've never seen a pretty prison,' Rebecca said.

They pa.s.sed their credentials through narrow openings in thick security gla.s.s and were shown into twenty feet of curving arches mounted with sensors and interrupted by sampling stations. They were subjected to sniffers, iris-scanned, fingerprinted, gave a little blood, and then opened their mouths for a buccal cell swab. These details were tested, logged, and checked against an unspecified number of federal criminal and citizen databases.

Ten years before, most federal prisons had become supersensitive about the political, viral, and bacterial loads of their inmates. All visitors-even sworn peace officers-had to undergo biota exams along with the security checks. Some prison wardens saw their facilities as ecological preserves-pathogen restriction was as important to them as any other form of safekeeping.

'You both test negative for HIV, HCV, HPV, PhD., and DDT,' the chief of security told them. 'But you should have taken care of that parking ticket,' he said to William.

'I was sixteen,' William said.

'Hey, we're on your side,' Rebecca snapped.

'Sure. Agent Griffin, you appear to have an open case before the OPR. We have some concern that you are truly an active duty agent, as specified in your signed affidavit.'

'I'll vouch for him. And I'll take back my slate, if you'd like me to make a few calls...'

'We're just being extra careful. Our farm kids are attracting a lot of attention. You're lucky to even see them.'

'We live in an age of cooperation, right?' Rebecca asked. She took William's shoulder and pulled him through the metal swing gates and then left into the waiting room. Their visitor escort arrived ten minutes later, a beefy Latina with large somber eyes and little to say or be cheerful about. She also was not impressed that they were FBI. The Latina took them deep, through two more gla.s.s-and-steel checkpoints, and introduced them to a young guard with spiky white hair and tattoos on his hands.

'Warden Deiterly extends his greetings,' the tattooed guard said, reading from a digital slate and then cross-referencing with a clipboard. 'We can access you to only one prisoner, Jeremiah Jedediah Chambers. Your requested pregnant female, Hagar Rachel Chambers, has been transferred to a medical facility for treatment. You have until eight a.m. U.S. Marshals will pick up Chambers at nine. He will then no longer be a guest of SeaTac FDC.'

'Who's taking custody? And where are they taking him?' Rebecca asked.

'ATF, I believe,' the white-blond answered. 'Maybe BDI. We can't reveal destinations. You probably know that.'

'No claim by the FBI?'

'Not that I can see,' the white-blond said, referring to his clipboard.

'Has he asked for an attorney?'

'Not yet. He's a b.u.mpkin. But we like to extend all due civil rights to our prisoners, even the idiots, so he's been a.s.signed a VC-virtual counsel. We call our VC Max Detention. You don't have to pay him much mind.'

He opened the door to the interview room.

'We'd better give this our best shot,' Rebecca murmured as the door closed and locked behind them. 'I don't think News expected to lose them so soon.'

'Lose them?'

'If you haven't noticed,' Rebecca said, 'we're in the thick of a free-for-all turf war.' They sat at the rectangular table.

Jeremiah Chambers stood at the inmate door and was buzzed in. Two guards accompanied him. One of the guards touched a remote control and an old faded plasma display swung down from the ceiling to the right of the table. Chambers was shackled to the single chair across the table. His hair had been cut to a thin s.h.a.g and he was dressed in brilliant orange jail togs. He wore slippers but no shoes. There were cuts on his face-from their encounter, William a.s.sumed. Chambers immediately lay his head on the table and closed his eyes. One guard gripped his shoulder and squeezed, hard. Chambers flinched but did not sit straight.

The screen switched on. They saw a backdrop of a bookcase filled with law books. A dark-suited figure faded in over the bookcase.

'Is this the virtual counsel?' Rebecca asked.

'Yes, ma'am. You have two-way with the VC,' the whiteblond said. 'I'll be sitting in on this session.'

'No objection,' Rebecca said.

At his nod, the escorts departed. The guard patted the screen with mock affection. 'Max is better than some of the live ones.'

The virtual counsel appeared to be about forty-five years old and prosperous. His eyes had a discerning expression and he exuded rea.s.surance and confidence. 'My provisional client is facing charges relating to an a.s.sault on two FBI agents. He has been denied bail as a material witness before the Federal Internal Security Court.'

'I did not know that,' Rebecca said. 'Thank you.' To William, she said, 'BDI again, and probably Secret Service.'

The VA continued. 'A protest against his transfer into secret federal custody has automatically been placed before the state intermediary security court in Olympia. Other charges, open and secret, may be pending. I advise my provisional client to answer no questions relating to these matters until a human attorney is present and the pending charges to which I am not privy have been made clear to that attorney.' The VC sat back with a look of deep concern.

'He's done,' the guard explained. 'He doesn't usually say much after the first outburst.'

William was appalled by this expedient but kept his face blank.

Jeremiah let loose with a sad jailhouse laugh. 'He's a ghost. I have no rights.'

'If you don't remember us, you should,' Rebecca said. 'You and your step-mom tried to kill us. This is William Griffin. His father is the agent who shot your father.'

Rebecca now had Jeremiah's complete attention. He sat up and placed his shackled hands on the table. His eyes bore into William's.

'William's father was killed in the bomb blast,' Rebecca added, with a sidelong glance, King's X. 'So you two have a lot in common.'

Jeremiah shuffled his hands together. 'Like picking weeds and killing bugs. I make myself a big pile of bugs,' he pinched and dropped one on an imaginary pile, 'and I don't care which ear of corn they chewed on. They're all dead.'

'Well, we're not dead, Jeremiah. You may have tried to be a stone cold killer, but I think all you really wanted was to talk, not to commit murder. You wanted to tell your side of the story. That's why I'm here this morning. William is here because you screwed up and busted into the wrong room.'

Jeremiah knit his brows. 'You don't know anything about me.'

'But some of the things you said in that motel room-'

'All conversations in this room are being recorded,' the virtual counsel said. 'If we are referring to the scene of an alleged altercation, my provisional client should remain silent.'

'We're not in court, Jeremiah,' Rebecca said. 'This is off the record, for now.'

'I advise my client that nothing said in this room is off the record,' the VC commented.

'They put drugs in the food,' Jeremiah said. 'All the cells are bugged. They strung wires through the cement when they laid the walls and floors. Microphones and cameras everywhere. That's what I've been told.'

The VC flickered but added nothing.

'I was just curious-' Rebecca said.

'How does it feel?' Jeremiah interrupted. He had not taken his eyes off William. 'My daddy was my whole world. He left behind sons and daughters and grandchildren-he had four wives, you know-his flock...He was our Abraham. You can't know what our life was like, how good it was. We lived in the presence of a true man of G.o.d. Some said my father was was G.o.d.' G.o.d.'

'My father was a hardnose,' William said. 'Sometimes he made my life h.e.l.l.'