told Tazz to keep them on a leash.”
“And that’s how he knew about what you can do,” said Samantha, realizing.
“Yes,” said Hayes. “I’d expect Brightly or someone told him themselves.”
“How long have you had this hunch?”
“Since we met him. The way he talked about being made, and owned. It seemed too familiar, for me.”
“All right. But then why are we investigating them? Why did they tell us to start tearing down the unions wherever we can? That doesn’t make sense at all.”
Hayes paused at that, thinking. “No, it doesn’t,” he said. He sighed. “God, I wish I could have caught him while he was here! I’d have put the screws to him and not stopped.”
“He’s not here?” asked Samantha. “He’s gone?”
Hayes filled her in on what he had seen the night before last. “Just jumped ship and shipped off,” he said when he was done. “Up and gone, like no tomorrow.”
“Why would he do that, I wonder?”
“I don’t know. He didn’t seem too pleased when we saw him. What he said about McNaughton, how they make people and use them… I think he was starting to crack after the murders. That he was starting to give up, or give in. It’s not easy, living deep cover. They start to believe it. You sink them in with people fighting for a cause, and your man starts to turn over time, if you’re not careful with him. I think Mr. Crimley may have actually started to believe the words he was preaching, maybe.”
“Maybe that’s why he started looking for the machines, down in the tunnels,” said Samantha. “He wanted to give them control. To give the union men something of McNaughton’s. Or to sabotage McNaughton entirely.”
“Yes. But you can see he gave up on it recently, when he told his company contacts to start sending money through Colomb. That way he can get his hands on fast cash and then get out. When I spooked him he must’ve figured enough was enough, and scarpered.”
“But do you think this Tazz business might actually be connected to the trolley?”
Hayes bit his lip. “Maybe. But Tazz seemed frightened, just as much as Brightly. It may not be connected at all.” He thought for a moment, then said, “Here, let’s keep looking through the file. If this Craftsman nonsense is the term for planting Crimley at the top of the unions, then surely we can find out more just by following it.”
Hayes was right. There was more. As Craftsman rolled along it began to accumulate payments to dock personnel, boat owners, and finally a new character, one referred to as Colonel. Samantha discovered that Colonel had been found through the ever-present Easterner, apparently an old friend of his who had brought him to the city for reasons and through methods unknown. It seemed, Samantha said, that Tazz’s last instructions for the unions had involved bringing something in to Evesden, shipped in by this Colonel from a McNaughton facility west on the Strait. The location of this facility was given more security than anything Samantha had ever seen previously: the word had not just been blacked out, but cut out of the report with a razor blade, and a blank tab of paper had been pasted in. There was a note inked in red in the margins of the paper, saying that all inquiries should be directed to L. Brightly, head of Security.
“There are no McNaughton facilities west down the Strait,” said Samantha. “None that I know of, at least.”
“What was Tazz shipping in? Or being told to ship in?”
“I’ve no idea. It just says ‘shipment’ over and over again and then gives the names for the people attending to it. Buying the boat and whatever.”
The heaviness returned to Hayes’s eyes again. “Hm,” he said.
“What?”
“I’m just wondering if it ever mentions who exactly was supposed to aid in this smuggling.”
She looked one document over again. “No, I don’t think it ever mentions that. Just who they bought the boat from and who they paid off. Why?”
“Because they would probably need a team of men. Men that had worked on docks before. Or who were used to manual labor, and were willing to get their hands dirty.”
Samantha cocked an eyebrow at him, then took a sharp breath. “The Bridgedale trolley?”
“Yes. I think it’s possible that all those dead men may have been tapped to bring in the shipment for Tazz. Probably did it for free, thinking it was for the union. Them, and maybe Skiller. That’s why there’s no payment record.”
“And then they were murdered to keep it quiet?”
“Maybe. This is all just guesswork, Sam. But I think that feels right. It hangs together. I would want to look. What else is there?”
“Well, there’s this Colonel character who’s all over it. Apparently Tazz-or Crimley, or whatever-he contacted him to run this operation on the recommendation of whoever was running things at McNaughton. But I don’t know who this Colonel is besides that he was brought in by some Easterner figure, who seems to be everywhere throughout the files.”
“What do we have on Easterner?”
“Oh, he gets paid pretty frequently,” said Samantha. “And he gets paid well. It says in certain places that the amount routes through a Dutch merchant bank, then a Rabb Real Estate company in Chicago, then through a shipping company in California, and then finally an industrial canning complex here. It’s ludicrously complicated and I…” She trailed off. Hayes had gone very still, his face slack.
“Oh, God,” he said softly. He blinked once, confounded.
“What? What is it?”
“That’s me,” he said. “That’s how my money gets to me. I’m… I’m Easterner.”
“ You are?”
He nodded. “Yes, I check… I check every couple of months.”
“Oh!” she said. She thought about it and gave a brief whoop of laughter. “Well, that would make sense. But who’s Colonel, then? It says you brought him here and they made the contact through you, so…”
A queer look came into Hayes’s face. He bowed his head and one hand sought the wall for support. “No,” he murmured. “No, they couldn’t have found him.”
“Found who? You know who it is?”
“Yes,” said Hayes faintly. “Yes, I know who it is. An old friend. One I got out of a spot of trouble, and one I hoped I’d never see again.”
“Who is he?”
Hayes just shook his head. He seemed so shocked by the revelation that he was beyond answering.
“But can you find him?” said Samantha. “Can you find him and see what Tazz was bringing in?”
“Maybe.” He shook his head again and sat down on the bed. “God. If I had known what that file would give me I’d have never gone through the trouble to get it.”
“What did you go through, out of curiosity?” Samantha asked idly, picking up the files.
“What? Oh. I just dug up an old contact. Or a target, really.”
“Yes, but who?”
“Mmm,” said Hayes, still lost in thought. “You remember the man I told you about a while back? The man Brightly had me follow, even though there wasn’t anything on him?”
Samantha slowed to a stop among the files. Her back was turned to him. “The man who… The one who was going to that place with the children?”
“Yes. Montrose. Teddy Montrose. Turns out he was still around. I put the burn on him and he hopped to it. Rather convenient, really.”
“You used him?”
“Yes. It was all short and sweet. Thankfully.”
Samantha turned around to look at him, mouth half-open in outrage and horror. Hayes was calmly picking at something in his teeth. It took him a moment to notice her.
“What?” he said.
“And what did you do?” she whispered.
“What? What do you mean?”
“What did you do once you got the files? Once you got what you wanted?”
“Do? To him?”
