Shadow Prey (35 page)

"I'd say they've got a deep organization, going all the way back to the sixties, and maybe back to the forties," Lily said, looking at the file over Lucas' shoulder. A lock of her hair touched his ear, and tickled. He moved closer and let her scent settle over him. He had not yet told her about Jennifer. The thought of it made him uncomfortable.

"The StarTribune this morning called them our first experience with dedicated domestic terrorists," Lucas said.

"They picked that up from the Times," Lily said. "The Times had an editorial Friday, said the same thing."

Daniel nodded gloomily. "It'll get worse when they do whatever it is they're planning to do. Something big."

"You don't think... like the airport?" Anderson asked.

"What?" asked Sloan.

"You know, like the Palestinians? I mean, if you were going to do something big, shooting up the airport or blowing up a plane would do it...."

"Oh, Christ," Daniel said. He gnawed on his lower lip, then got up and took a turn around his desk. "If we go out there and suggest tighter controls and the word gets out, the airlines'll take it right in the ass. And I'll be right there with them, gettin' it in the same place."

"If we don't tell them, and something happens..."

"How about just a light touch... just talk to the security, a hint to the FBI, maybe put some people out there undercover?" suggested Sloan.

"Maybe," said Daniel, sitting down again. He looked at Anderson. "Do you really think... ?"

"Not really," Anderson said.

"I don't think so either. All the people they've hit so far have been symbols of something. Shooting up an airport full of innocent people wouldn't prove anything."

"How about the Bureau of Indian Affairs?" Lucas asked. "A lot of old-line Indians hate the BIA."

"Now that's something," Daniel said, his eyes narrowing. "An institution instead of an individual... It'd be a logical step, to go after the people they see as their oppressors. I better talk to the feebs. Maybe they could put a couple of people in the BIA office."

"Wait a minute," Lucas said. He stood up and walked around his chair, thinking. Then he looked at Daniel and said, "Jesus-it could be Clay."

They all thought about it for a moment, and Daniel shook his head. "Everything they've done has been pretty well planned. Nobody knew that Clay was coming in until the last couple of days."

"No, no, think about it," said Lucas, jabbing a finger at Daniel. "If you look at this whole... progression... in the right way, you could see it as a lure to pull Clay in. The terrorist angle, the publicity.... That's exactly the kind of thing Clay'd bite on."

"That's an awful big jump," Daniel argued. "They couldn't be sure he'd come. You could wind up killing a half-dozen people and getting all of your own people killed, and Clay might sit on his ass in Washington."

"And why Clay?" Sloan asked.

"Because he's a big target and he's got a bad rep among Indians," Lily said. "You remember that hassle out in Arizona with the two factions on that reservation? I can't remember what the deal was...."

"Yeah, he sent in all those agents to kick ass..." Anderson said.

"If I remember right, there was an article in Time that said Clay has had a bunch of run-ins with Indians over the years. Doesn't like them..." Lucas said.

"The Crows can't get at him," said Sloan. "He's got an unbelievable screen of bodyguards-you should have seen them this morning. If the Crows tried to shoot their way through them... I mean, these guys got Uzis in their armpits."

"All it takes is a guy on a rooftop with a deer rifle," said Lucas.

"Ah, shit," said Daniel. He whacked the desktop with an open palm. "We can't take a chance. We'll talk to Clay's security people. And let's put some people around his hotel. Up on the rooftops, in the parking garage. Just put some uniforms in street clothes.... Christ, the guy is a pain in the ass."

"We oughta take a look at the hotel too," Lucas said. He was still moving around the office, thinking about it. The idea fit: but how could the Crows get at Clay? "Look for a hole in the security...."

"I still don't think it's Clay. It's gotta be something they could plan for," Daniel said. "Keep thinking about it. Let's get some more ideas going."

The meeting broke up, but ten minutes before the press conference, Daniel called them back together.

"I'm going to tell you this quick and I don't want any argument. I've been talking to Clay and his people, and the mayor. Clay will come here and will make the announcement about the identification of the Crows. He'll pass out the photos."

"God damn it," said Anderson, white-faced. "That's our work...."

"Take it easy, Harmon. There's a lot going on here...."

"They bought the information from us, is that right?" Anderson demanded. "What'd we get?"

"You won't believe it." Daniel smiled a self-satisfied smile, spread his arms and peered at the ceiling, as though receiving manna from heaven. "You're looking at the new Midwest on-line information-processing center...."

"Holy shit," Anderson whispered. "I thought Kansas City had that wrapped."

"They just came unwrapped. We're doing the deal right now."

"Our own Cray II," Anderson said. "The fastest fucking machine ever built..."

"What a crock of shit," said Lily.

"Let's try to keep that opinion to ourselves," Daniel sad. "After the press conference, Clay wants to talk to the team. I think he wants to give us a pep talk."

"What a crock of shit," Lily repeated.

"Did you suggest that he might be the target?" asked Lucas.

"Yeah," Daniel nodded. "He agreed with me that it was unlikely, but he also went along with the idea of a screen of cops on the buildings around the hotel. And his guys are looking for holes in the security."

Four advance men arrived ahead of Clay. One waited outside City Hall, where Clay's car would unload. The other three, guided by a cop, walked the hallway to the room where the press conference would be held. Lucas and Lily, lounging outside the door of the conference room, watched them coming. Two of the men stopped, a pace away.

"Police officers?" he asked.

"Yeah," said Lucas.

"Got an ID?"

Lucas shrugged. "Sure."

"I'd like to see it," the advance man said. His tone was courteous, but his eyes were not.

Lucas looked at Lily, who nodded and flashed her N YPD case. Lucas handed over his ID. "Okay," said the advance man, still courteous. "Could you point out the other plain-clothes people inside... ?"

It was quick and professional. In five minutes, the room was secure. When Clay arrived, he got out of his car alone, but two more advance men blocked either end of the car. The mayor came out and met Clay at the car, and they walked, chatting as casual friends, into City Hall. If any of the newsies noticed that the two men were walking through an invisible corridor of professional security, none of them said anything.

Clay and Daniel did the press conference together, the mayor beaming from the wings. Anderson and an FBI functionary passed out photos of the Crows.

"An hour from now, the Crows won't be able to go on the streets," Lucas said as the conference ended.

"We've had Shadow Love's face out there, and that hasn't gotten anywhere..." Lily said, when he got in the car beside her.

"We're tightening down. It'll work, with a little time."

"Maybe. I just hope they don't pull some shit first. We better get down to Daniel s office for this meeting with Clay."

Sloan, Lucas, Lily, Anderson, Del and a half-dozen other cops had been waiting ten minutes when Daniel and Clay arrived, trailed by the mayor, two of Clay's bodyguards and a half-dozen FBI agents.

"Your show, Larry," Daniel said.

Clay nodded, stepped behind Daniel's desk and gazed around the crowded office. He looked like an athlete gone to fat, Lucas thought. You wouldn't call him porky, but you could get away with "heavyset."

"I always like to talk to local police officers, especially in serious situations like this where everything depends on cooperation. I spent several years on the streets as a patrolman-got to the rank of sergeant, in fact..." Clay began, and he nodded at a uniform sergeant standing in the corner of the room. He was a solid speaker, picking out each local cop in turn, fixing him with his eyes, soliciting agreement and cooperation. Lily glanced up at Lucas after Clay had given them the treatment, and cracked a smite.

"Good technique," she whispered.

Lucas shrugged.

"... wide experience with Indians, and I will tell you this. Indian rules are not our rules, are not the rules of a rational, progressive society. That statement-I'd prefer to keep it in this room-is not a matter of prejudice, although it can be twisted to sound that way. But it's a solid fact; and most SHADOW PRKY

Indians themselves recognize it. But we don't have two sets of rules in America. We have law, and it applies to everybody...."

Heil Hitler," Lucas muttered.

When they finished, Clay whipped out of the building in his cloud of bodyguards.

"Let's go look at his hotel," Lucas suggested.

"All right," Lily said. "Though I'm starting to have my doubts. His guys are pretty good."

Clay's chief of security was a nondescript, pale-eyed man who looked like a desk clerk until he moved. Then he looked like a viper.

"We've got it nailed down," he said after Lucas and Lily identified themselves. "But if you think you might see something, I'd be happy to walk you through."

"Why?" asked Lucas.

"Why what?"

"Why are you happy to walk us through, if it's all nailed down?"

"I never figured myself to be the smartest guy in the world," the security man said. "I can always learn something."

Lucas looked at him for a minute, then turned to Lily. "You're right. They're good," he said.

They took the tour anyway. Clay was on the fourteenth floor. There were higher buildings around, but none closer than a half-mile.

"Couldn't take him through a window," the security man said.

"How about something set up in advance? Clay's stayed at this hotel before, right?"

"Like what?"

Lucas shrugged. "A bomb in an elevator?"

"We sniffed the place out. Routine," the security man said.

"How about a suicide run? The Crows are crazy...."

"We've checked the staff, of course. No Indians at all, nobody with the kind of background that we'd worry about.

Most of them are career people, been here a while. A few new people on the desk and kitchen staff, but we screen them out when the boss comes and goes.... And when he does come and go, we check the lobby and the street first. He's in and out in a hurry, with no warning. So it wouldn't be anybody on the street."

"Hmmph," said Lucas.

They were headed back down in the elevator and Lucas asked, "Is there any way to get up on top of the elevator from the basement or the roof, ride up that way?"

The security man allowed himself a small grin. "I'm not going to talk about that," he said, glancing at Lucas. "But in a word, no."

"You've got the elevators wired," said Lily. kThe security man shrugged as the elevator stopped at the ird floor. An elderly woman wearing a fur wrap got on, peered nearsightedly at the lighted buttons and finally pushed the button for the second floor. A room-service waiter pushed a dinner cart past the elevators just as the doors were closing.

"How about a disguise?" Lucas asked after the old lady had gotten off. "What if somebody came in disguised as an old lady..."

"Metal detectors would pick up the gun."

"... and had a gun stashed on the third floor. Rode up to the third floor, picked it up and then went up to fourteen..."

The security man shrugged again. "That's a fantasy. And when they got up there, they'd have to shoot their way past three trained agents. And the boss is armed, and he knows how to use it."

Lucas nodded. "All right. But I got a bad feeling," he said.

He and Lily left the security man in the lobby and headed for the doors. Just as they were about to go out, Lucas said, "Wait a minute," and turned back.

"Hey," he called to the security man. "How did that room-service food get up on three?"

The security man looked at Lucas, then at Lily, then at the elevators. "Let's go ask," he said.

"In a dumbwaiter," a cook told them. He pointed to an alcove, where they could see the opening for the chain-driven lift.

The security man looked from the dumbwaiter to the cook to Lucas. "Could a man ride up in that?" he asked the cook.

"Well... I guess a couple guys have. Sometimes," the cook said, his eyes shifting nervously.

"What do you mean, 'sometimes'?"

"Well, when it's busy, you know, the boss doesn't want a lot of waiters riding up in the elevators with the customers. The waiters are supposed to take the stairs. But sometimes, I mean, if it's on the tenth floor..."