Connected Infection

12. Upheaval - Chapter 6.2

Raven stepped back from the bars and glanced around at the cell. He didn't intend to be there long enough to have to use either the low bunk or the toilet, despite Wilkes' efforts. The man was more than just corrupt; he had been determined not to let Raven contact anyone, manipulating Baldwin and his other colleagues to make sure they wouldn't help him either. And yet there was no apparent explanation for this enmity.

Or was there?

'Raven!' hissed a voice from a cell further down the corridor.

'Jimenez?'

'How much longer do I have to be in here? What's going on?'

'Did they pick you up from the hospital?' Raven asked.

'Yeah, I was working on the tests.'

'Find anything?'

'I didn't have a chance to work on the bodies,' Jimenez said. 'Hospital security put in an appearance and ordered me to stand down 'til the cops arrived. Wouldn't take no for an answer.'

Raven nodded. He'd suspected something like that might happen. 'Did you get word to the Agency?'

'No. They won't let me have my phone call. It's fucked up. They're trying to make out I'm crazy, saying I'm lying about UNAXI, talking about you, me and Popescu being in some sort of delusional state. They said they could hold me for forty-eight hours before they had to get me my attorney.'

Raven frowned. 'You been dealing with a guy called Wilkes?'

'Yeah, that's the one. I saw him bring you in just now. He outrank them all or something? What's his problem?'

'That's what I'm wondering,' Raven said. 'Wouldn't mind getting him a CT and an MRI.'

Jimenez was silent for a moment. 'You think...?' He tailed off.

'Maybe,' Raven said.

'You should have tried grabbing a gun and aiming it at his head,' Jimenez said. 'Maybe the problem would have resolved itself.'

Raven snorted. 'Come on, you're a local, you know how this works. If Popescu nearly shot me, these guys would be spitting on my corpse before they realised something was up.'

'Hey, I'm not from round here. And what are you saying about our nation's finest?'

'Speaking of Popescu, have you seen her since we came in?'

'No. Have you?'

'No, but I'm sure she's got things under control.'

'What makes you think that? If you couldn't get things under control?'

'Yeah, but she's Popescu. I'm just me.'

'Must be quite a woman,' Jimenez said. 'So. You and Popescu. You two ever...'

'What did you say about forty-eight hours?' Raven asked him, frowning out at the desk guard, who glanced up and then away.

'Wilkes told the others they could hold us for that long without legal counsel.'

Raven looked at his watch. 'Forty-eight hours,' he muttered.

'Anyway,' Jimenez said. 'You and Popescu...'

'Quiet, I'm thinking,' Raven said. He needed a way to get the guard to pick up a phone. One call was all it would take, but after Wilkes' warning to the other officers...

'About Popescu?' Jimenez asked, breaching his thoughts again.

'No, not about Popescu, shut up,' Raven said, looking at the phone on the guard's desk. The guard caught his gaze again.