“The unauthorized announcement of Captain Steadman’s findings was unfortunate and, I’m sure, distressing.” Dorpff was picking his words with the greatest care, but Matt could see the young agent’s effort wasn’t going to work.
“Yes or no?” The words were loud enough to make the people closest to the speaker wince. “Was Tori Rush’s report from the real deal, or did Steadman come up with something different?”
Dorpff was being pushed into a corner. He looked like a trapped rodent up there on the podium as he stood in silence, unwilling to answer. Then he finally responded to the shouted demand. “The news broadcast was only a summary of the report, presented in the most excessive language.” The young agent hesitated. “But, in general, yes, it did present the conclusions of the Internal Affairs investigation.”
A low, hollow moan greeted this announcement, as if every person in the room had been simultaneously stabbed. Matt recognized the feeling, even though he thought he’d been prepared to hear the bad news.
A second later, however, the room sounded as if the furies of hell had been released.
“Steadman must have a circuit cracked if he thinks he can just sell the captain down the river!” somebody yelled.
“Creep’s been so busy playing his little rat-scragging games, he can’t be straight with anyone,” another voice joined in.
“He’ll learn this time,” yet another voice threatened. “After he has a couple of thousand people red-line angry with him.”
“Yeah! Let’s flame Steadman!”
Other voices took up that cry.
Dorpff could see that the meeting was sliding out of his control. “You can’t be serious!” he cried. “That’s against the law.”
“So’s destroying an honest man. You’re getting rid of Winters. So who’s gonna stop us?” another Explorer wanted to know. “You gonna arrest us all?”
The room echoed with the shouts of angry young people.
“From the sounds of this, the guy will be lucky if he doesn’t get his house burned down.” Andy thought he was being funny, but Matt could hear the deadly promise in the kids’ threats. If some of these guys went ahead with what they were saying, Steadman would be lucky to have a computer left — and any electronic stuff near it. The situation in this room was not good, definitely not good.
Dorpff was getting angry now. “You’re talking about breaking a set of laws that Net Force takes very seriously,” he said. “Don’t think that shouting from the crowd will cover you. If anything happens, Captain Steadman will be reviewing the computer record of this meeting. His techs will track you down if it takes months!”
It was exactly the worst thing to say.
“Then they’ll be pretty busy,” one of the furious kids shot back, “because we all want to give Hangman Hank a taste of his own medicine!” Murmured agreement shot through the crowd.
Agent Dorpff stared around the room like a stag at bay…or like a man watching his career go down the toilet.
Then a truly surprising voice roared out, “Is this what Captain Winters taught you? Taught
Matt twisted his head in astonishment. That was David Gray!
David poured it on. “The two biggest things I learned from the captain were his respect for people — and his respect for the law. That’s how I know he’s innocent.”
He glared around at the crowd. “I don’t know what
His words must have been getting through, because the noise level from the mob was dying down.
David went on in a slightly milder voice. “I don’t even see how doing what you were talking about would help the captain. And even if it did, even if it proved Captain Winters innocent, how would he feel, knowing you’d broken the law to do it?”
Now the other Net Force Explorers were silent, looking downright embarrassed.
“The captain wouldn’t want us to act like this — so let’s honor him here by listening to what Agent Dorpff has to say.”
Dorpff spoke up. “I can understand that feelings run high. Certainly, I don’t want to believe—” He broke off, as if afraid to stir up those feelings again. “But the proof is hard to contest.”
“How would we know?” a bitter voice asked. “All the Net Force Explorers have to go on is a summary of what the I.A. people found — as reported by a scandal-seeking news reporter. Nobody is telling us what’s in the report.”
“I’ve seen the report—” Dorpff began, then stopped again. “I can’t ask Internal Affairs to release the report to everyone. Nor can we discuss the report in full. Neither would be fair to Captain Winters. But I think, with Winters’s permission and the cooperation of Internal Affairs, someone might explain some of the more important specifics to a representative of the Net Force Explorers.”
The young agent ran an eye over the crowd. Then he stopped, pointing…at Matt.
“I know Captain Winters put a lot of trust in Matt Hunter,” Dorpff said. “He lives in the D.C. area, which should make arranging such a meeting easier.”
Only then did he seem to realize the enormity of what he’d promised. “Provided I can get Captain Steadman to agree.”
Matt walked the corridors of the Net Force operations center, following a different route than he usually took. But then, his destination wasn’t Captain Winters’s office — or, as things seemed now, his former office.
No, this afternoon Matt was heading for the lair of Hangman Hank Steadman.
The offices of Internal Affairs weren’t all that different from the other Net Force agents’ offices that Matt had visited.
Except for the fact that it didn’t have an outside view or a virtual window, Steadman’s office could have been a twin of any of them.
Hangman Hank jerked up from his desk, his face twisted in a sneer.
“I can’t believe I agreed to this,” he growled, his voice contemptuous. “I can’t believe Dorpff even suggested it. Right out of the academy, and he can’t handle a bunch of kids — caving in to them.”
“Agent Dorpff headed off what could have been a nasty wave of virtual and public sabotage.”
“It would be different, trying that nonsense against a Net Force agent.” Steadman glanced at Matt and smiled. It wasn’t a pleasant expression. “And after you see some of what we’ve assembled, you might not be so gung-ho on Winters anymore.”
He introduced Matt to a member of his technical staff, who led them immediately to a well-equipped lab.
“Show him the spectrographic analysis of the blast debris,” Steadman ordered.
One of the technicians hustled over to a computer console.
A couple of quick commands, and a holographic display sprang into existence. It showed several bands of light. “The top image is a spectrograph of the debris from the remains of Stefano Alcista’s car. It shows the chemical composition of the explosive that gave Steve the Bull such a blast.”
Steadman pointed to a smeared set of bands. “These here represent the trace agents used to tag the particular batch of Semtec, which was manufactured shortly after James Winters’s wife was killed.”
Another order, and a similar display appeared below the first.
“This is a spectrograph of the residue we found in Winters’s workshop.”
