Page 113 of Fish in a Barrel
“So, where are we headed now?” she asked.
“Well, the ICE office in the middle of the city,” Ace told her.
“Will it still be open?” she asked, sounding surprised—and she should be. It was a good ten minutes past six now, on a Saturday.
“Well, according to your son, who got there fifteen minutes ago, he’s going to make sure it stays open until hell freezes over, so I’m going to say yes.” Ellery had texted just as her plane landed, and Ace had to give it to Jackson Rivers. The man had a bit of tornado blood in his veins, and Ace would like to see him in a souped-up muscle car someday—as long as Ace wasn’t racing against him, because Ace only did that shit for money now. Or in the middle of the desert, when he and Sonny were in a mood.
The next noise that came from the back seat was the feral, dark sort of sound that might have come from a mother wolf after she watched her pup bring down prey.
“That’s my boy.”
JACKSON GLANCEDaround the utilitarian office building and watched Ellery slice through layers of receptionists and COs to find the AIC. He was not familiar with the hierarchy of this particular organization, but he did know it always came down to the Asshole in Charge, and since Ellery was a similar fish, well, he knew where to swim.
“I said,” Ellery repeated, looking down his nose at the tall bulky man in the brown boxy suit, “that I am not leaving until I speak to my client, Amal Dara.”
“And I’m telling you—”
“You should look at your duty log,” Ellery said. “You had two agents, Cly and Tetley, who entered the hospital at eleven ten this morning and demanded to see Lara Martinez, who was being treated for a vicious sexual assault. Ms. Martinez had checked herself out AMA and had vacated her room. When the charge nurse on duty—Mr. Dara—couldn’t produce the patient on cue, your agents took him into custody and have, apparently, been holding him here.”
“We are allowed to hold immigrants—”
“Without charges for forty-eight hours, a law I’m sure will be overturned with the current administration,” Ellery said, not even giving the man a chance for his voice to find purchase and give pressure. “It’s a terrible law, but it doesn’t apply here. Mr. Dara was born in this country, as were his parents, and a rudimentary search should have revealed that. He’s a United States citizen, and the only reason he’s being held is blatant prejudice because he has brown skin and you think you can.”
Mr. AIC drew himself up to his full height—which was about two inches shorter than Ellery, a fact Jackson was sure he wished he hadn’t noticed. “I resent the implication—”
“And I resent that you haven’t called Cly and Tetley out here,” Ellery said. “Or attempted to get hold of them if they are out in the field. Or to look for Mr. Dara in your holding facilities or interview rooms. I’ve just told you that you’re breaking the law. It seems to me that you should be more interested in either proving you’re not or fixing the situation than in telling me my rights. I know my rights, sir, and I know Mr. Dara’s, and I’m telling you right now, I’m not the one who needs a refresher course.”
The AIC sputtered for a moment and turned to the female officer in reception. “Call Cly and Tetley out here,” he muttered, “so we can resolve this.”
Jackson was afraid the next five to ten minutes were going to beveryuncomfortable, but then he felt a faint whisper at his elbow and smelled the barest breath of Chanel No. 5. He hated to admit it to himself, but the scent lifted him somehow. It wasn’t that he thought everything was going to be all right, but, well, there was just something about knowing Ellery’s mother was there that made him think that even if it wasn’t all right, the fight could still go on.
The AIC—he had a name badge, Friars, but Jackson wasn’t calling him that. He would forever be the Asshole in Charge.
“How’s he doing?” Lucy Satan murmured for Jackson’s ear only.
“Really good,” Jackson said. “Maybe wait a minute before you start throwing weight.”
He glanced at her, and she gave him a complacent smile—sort of like one of those creepy animated creatures that was hiding lots and lots of shark teeth.
“Make no mistake,” she purred, “whether he succeeds or not, therewillbe weight.”
He gave her a not-quite wink and then watched in surprise as two guys—bulky, muscular men, dressed in the trademark black combat and tactical wear with ICE emblazoned on the front of their shirts—stepped off the elevator. The bigger one, older, shaved bald with a salt-and-pepper goatee, was clearly the leader, and his partner, a little shorter, a little less hulked out, with a head full of auburn hair and green eyes, appeared perpetually hurt and trying to be hard.
Jackson had to swallow… several times. He recognized that look on the younger partner’s face. A thousand years ago, he’d seen it every time he looked in the mirror.
“Officer Cly,” AIC Friars blustered, “This is Ellery Cramer. He claims to represent Amal Dara, but I’ve been telling him there’s nobody here by that name.”
Jackson was pretty sure everybody’s eyes were on Cly, the big bastard with the scar over one eyebrow and the weather-roughened skin over his leather-burnt pinkness.
Not Jackson. He was watching Tetley, who swallowed convulsively and glanced behind him in a furtive manner, as though checking to make sure Amal Dara was right where he’d left him.
“Look, ya little ACLU puke,” Cly blustered, upper lip curled into a sneer, “that illegal fucker’s got no rights when he interferes with an investigation—”
“He’s third-generation American, sir,” Ellery said coldly, “and I’m not from the ACLU, although I’ll be sure to send them your regards.”
Cly slow-blinked, and then re-upped on the sneer, but Tetley didn’t. His eyes grew much larger, and Jackson figured Cly had been trying to tell him that this Dara guy reallywasillegal and that’s why he deserved to get roughed up or detained or whatever.
“What investigation is that anyway?” Ellery asked, eyebrows raised. “Because as far as I know, your division doesn’t investigate forcible rape. Mr. Dara was the charge nurse of a patient who had been forcibly raped and who apparently heard her daughter yell ‘hielo’and ran out of the hospital. Think about that. She’d been recently stitched up in two very uncomfortable places, and sheranout of the hospital to avoid you. Why do you think that is?”