Book 2: Chapter 87: Puzzles (1/2)

”I think I can do it,” Dan said into his phone.

Anastasia's voice was flat and unamused. ”You think you can hijack another Natural's power and use that to find other instances of said power?”

That was an incredibly uncharitable reframing of what he'd just told her.

”I think that I can track this specific power, given that I have a functioning example of it right here in front of me.”

”Track how?” Anastasia asked. ”Like, point it out on a map?”

”Um,” Dan stuttered for a moment. ”No, I'd probably just appear at the location.”

”Whereupon you'd be immediately shot if the cache is in any way guarded.”

”Yeah...” Dan grimaced. ”I'm working on an alternate solution.”

”Work quickly,” Anastasia growled. ”If the People are capable of hiding in these caches, my job has just become a lot more complicated.”

”You're not going to do anything hasty, are you?” Dan asked hesitantly.

The woman snorted. ”Not quite yet, no. I'd hoped I could spring whatever trap Echo is planning, but if he can hide away a huge chunk of his People, then what's the point? Even if I get the man himself, the rest are effectively unreachable.”

”Except by me,” Dan pointed out.

”Quite,” Anastasia acknowledged. ”And I'm not thrilled to execute an operation with a single point of failure.”

”I'm exploring other options,” Dan repeated.

”Newman...” Anastasia hesitated. The pause was almost unnoticeable, but compared to her normal way of speaking it might as well have been a shout. ”You need to be careful around the MPD.”

Dan took that statement in, then glanced behind him at the officers wrapping yellow tape around the dead terrorist's house. Detective Hauss watched from the sidewalk, leaning against García's cruiser while he reported in to his superiors over the phone. Dan's veil was spread across the ground in a large spiderweb, partially out of habit and partially out of paranoia. He'd dected nothing abnormal from any officer for the duration of this entire adventure.

Dan turned back around, facing towards the street. ”They've seemed alright so far.”

”They have a mole,” Anastasia outright stated what Dan had only suspected. ”I only discovered it recently, and I am not sure if the mole is ideologically motivated, or merely economically.”

”Bribes?” Dan asked.

”Or favors. Several caches you've opened for me have proven that the People were attempting to grow their political power in secret. It's impossible to say how successful they were, but it is an avenue that you should be aware of.”

”So I'm in danger of being shanked by an ambitious grunt?” Dan muttered quietly. ”Why am I only just hearing about this?”

”You weren't a threat, before,” Anastasia explained. ”No mole would blow their cover trying to hide a botched suicide bombing, especially when the attempt was always going to fail to reach its target. Not if there's an outsider like you there supervising. There'd be no point, nobody left alive to protect. But if they know that you, and you alone, are the key to tracking down these caches— if they even suspect that, then they might act rashly. So: how much have you told the MPD?”

”Um.” Dan glanced back to Hauss, who was currently reporting the enormous amount of information that Dan had dumped into his lap. He considered the piles of evidence—fake, useless, or not—that they'd pulled from this cache. He considered how everyone present knew it was Dan who had done it.

How much had he told them?

”Quite a bit,” he decided.

Anastasia sighed. ”Well, they're not likely to just shoot you at least. I imagine it'll be something more subtle than that. But try not to find yourself alone with anyone, just in case. It'd be a shame if you got yourself killed. You're my only key to these caches, and it seems like I'll be needing you for a while yet.”

”Gee, thanks. Good to know that I'm still useful to you, ”Dan replied dryly. ”Not that it matters. I'm pretty much done here. No reason for me to stick around observing the MPD, right?”

His job was done here. The cache confirmed a connection to the People, and Anastasia's home was the obvious target. Even if all the evidence mysteriously vanished, what Dan had learned was more than enough. Dan's job was done.

”You said you were working on an alternate solution. How are you doing that without access to the cache?” Anastasia asked.

”It doesn't have to be this one,” Dan pointed out, quite pleased with himself. ”I can use any cache, anywhere. Surely you have a few banked up that you haven't had me clear out yet?”

There was a pause on the line as Anastasia considered that.

”Only suspicions,” she said, finally. ”I've only ever had suspicions. I can't see them as you do, but there were several noteable safehouses that we've hit over the years that were clearly emptied in a hurry.”

”Wait a minute,” Dan said, holding in his laughter. ”So you've had me going to these places, without ever actually knowing if I'd find something?”

”I had hunches,” Anastasia growled. ”They paid off.”

”Do you have a safe location for me to experiment with, or not?” Dan asked. He had options if the answer was no. He was fairly sure he could track down abandoned caches hidden in the Gap. The issue was bringing them out into reality. Most of these things had been abandoned decades ago. There was no guarantee that they'd pop back out somewhere even remotely accessible, and Dan wasn't certain how Vault's power would interact with an obstacle.

”I'll send you an address,” Anastasia said after a moment. ”I believe there is at least one promising site in Florida. I'll have a few of my people meet you there.”

”Understood,” Dan said. He ended the call, and flagged down a waiting Hauss.

”That's it for me, so I'll get out of your hair,” Dan said, shaking the detectives hand. He offered over a business card. ”If anything interesting comes out of that shit pile, give me a call?”

”You just dumped a week's worth of work onto me and you're asking for a favor?” Hauss asked incredulously.

Dan shrugged without shame. ”Yeah.” It couldn't hurt to ask.