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1077 Words
Noah ripped the velcro strap of his tactical vest.
RIP.
The sound was too loud in the silent archives of the basement.
Above him, through the metal grating of the ventilation shaft, he heard the one voice that terrified him more than any crime lord.
"Library's closed, cop. And Noah ain't here."
Sarah.
Noah’s heart hammered against his ribs like a trapped bird. She was upstairs. Right now.
He threw the vest into the hollowed-out shell of a 1990s Xerox machine. He kicked his combat boots off, swapping them for worn-out loafers in three seconds flat.
"I didn't ask if you were open," Sarah’s voice drifted down, cold and sharp. "I asked where my husband is. And who are you?"
"I'm the IT consultant," Jinx drawled. "Fixing the... wifi. Yeah. The wifi is busted."
Noah grabbed his beige cardigan. It was inside out.
He jammed his arms through the sleeves, fighting the wool. He snagged his glasses from the workbench, shoving them onto his face. They were crooked. Perfect.
"IT consultant?" Sarah snapped. "With a cybernetic arm and a criminal record? I know a perp when I see one."
CLICK.
The sound of a safety being disengaged.
Noah’s blood ran cold. Sarah was going to arrest his tech support.
He sprinted for the stairs, grabbing a stack of books from a discard pile. He needed to be loud. He needed to be clumsy. He needed to be Noah.
Upstairs, the tension was thick enough to choke on.
Sarah stood with her hand on her holster, eyes locked on Jinx. Jinx leaned back, popping another bubble, looking bored but with her metal hand twitching toward the hidden panic button under the desk.
"I'm going to ask you one more time," Sarah said, stepping around the desk. "Where is he?"
"I'm right here!"
Noah burst through the "Employees Only" door.
He didn't just walk in. He let his toe catch on the doorframe.
He stumbled forward, flailing his arms. The stack of books—The History of Agrarian Reform, Vol 4—flew from his hands.
THUD. SLAM. CRASH.
Noah hit the floor hard, sliding into a metal book cart. The cart rattled, spinning wildly.
"Ow," Noah groaned, rolling onto his back. He adjusted his glasses, which were now hanging off one ear. "Hi, honey."
Sarah blinked. The aggression drained out of her stance instantly. She looked from the deadly-looking girl with blue hair to the heap of beige wool on the floor.
"Noah?" Sarah sighed, holstering her weapon. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Noah said, scrambling to his knees and gathering the books. "Just... slippery floors. New wax. Very dangerous."
He stood up, brushing dust off his knees. He realized his shirt was buttoned wrong. He smiled sheepishly.
Sarah pinched the bridge of her nose. "You said you were shelving books. This girl said she's IT."
"She is!" Noah pointed at Jinx. "This is... Julianna. She's upgrading the... Dewey Decimal Database. To the cloud. It's very technical."
Sarah turned her gaze to Jinx. "The cloud?"
Jinx shrugged, spinning a pen with her metal fingers. "Big data, Detective. lots of bytes. You wouldn't get it."
Sarah narrowed her eyes. She leaned in close to Jinx, sniffing the air. "You smell like ozone and burnt plastic."
"Server over-heated," Jinx said without missing a beat. "Fried a circuit. Had to vent the room. That's why the library is closed. Fumes."
It was a lie. A good one.
Sarah stared at Jinx for a long second, then looked back at Noah. She shook her head. The suspicion was gone, replaced by a familiar look of mild disappointment.
"You hired a cyberpunk to fix the library database?" Sarah asked.
"She was the lowest bidder," Noah said quickly.
Sarah walked over to him. She reached out and straightened his collar. Her fingers brushed his neck.
Noah held his breath. His pulse was still racing from the sprint.
"You're trembling," Sarah whispered.
"Low blood sugar," Noah lied. "I forgot lunch."
She looked at his eyes. For a second, he thought she saw the killer behind the lenses. He thought she saw the man who had snapped three necks an hour ago.
Then she smiled. A tired, soft smile.
"You're hopeless, Noah Vance."
She leaned in and kissed him.
It wasn't a passionate kiss. It was a check-in. A grounding wire.
As she pulled away, Noah saw it. A smudge of gray dust from the incinerator room had transferred from his cheek to the lapel of her blazer.
He reached out to brush it off, but stopped. Touching it would draw attention to it.
"I have to get back to the precinct," Sarah said, checking her watch. "Thorne is on a warpath. I just... I needed to see you. To make sure you were real."
"I'm real," Noah said softly. "I'm right here."
"Be careful with the books, okay? Don't break a toe."
Sarah turned and walked out. The heavy door clicked shut behind her.
Noah sagged against the desk. The air left his lungs in a rush.
"Jesus," Jinx said, spitting her gum into a trash can. "She's sharp. She almost made me. And I'm good at lying."
"She's the best," Noah said, fixing his glasses. "That's why we have to be better."
Jinx tapped the keyboard. The monitors behind the desk flickered to life, replacing the "Library System" screensaver with a encrypted comms channel.
"Date night is cancelled, Romeo," Jinx said.
Noah stiffened. "No. I promised her Italian. I can't cancel."
"You don't have a choice."
Jinx spun the monitor around.
A profile popped up. DARIUS KRELL.
"Krell isn't just moving drugs tonight," Jinx said, her voice losing the slang, turning cold. "We decrypted his ledger. The shipment coming in at the docks? It's not heroin."
She clicked a folder. Photos appeared.
Passports. Dozens of them. All belonging to children.
Noah felt the temperature in the room drop. The clumsiness vanished. The librarian posture straightened into something lethal.
"Human trafficking," Noah whispered.
"He's moving them tonight. 8:00 PM. Same time as your reservation at Luigi's."
Noah looked at the door where Sarah had just left. He looked at the faces of the children on the screen.
He couldn't be in two places at once.
"Keep the reservation," Noah said, his voice hard.
"Noah, you can't—"
"I said keep it. I'll do both."
He turned toward the basement.
"I'll have the appetizer with my wife. And I'll have the main course with Krell."
- Writer
