Dark Daylight - A Science Fiction Story

19. Time for Tea

Jack presented himself at the SSD HQ in no time in the same black car which was supposed to bring him dead. The three entered the building and came home to Kelly's office.

As they sat on the chairs, Kelly couldn't help but notice that Gwen was keeping her elbows on the table, one hand pressing against her head. Jack was just staring at the reflection of the room on the glass table's surface.

"What's happening, doctor. Is that a headache?" asked Kelly.

"No, it's just too much stress, that's all." Gwen replied.

"Would you like to have some coffee?" Kelly asked, pointing at the proud coffee machine he owned.

"No, not coffee... Is there a way I can get some Indian Chai Tea?"

"Chai tea.....Just a minute." Kelly replied. He dialed someone on the phone.

Until the Chai Tea arrived, Kelly began discussing about how the fraud of the year Beilbe could be apprehended and put to justice.

"Listen to me, Jack, we do not know exactly what Beilbe is doing. He is surely working for the mafia, but the question is, does he want to? Beilbe could be doing it for the money, but what if he's being forced, by blackmail or any kidnapping of a beloved person? We cannot apprehend Beilbe just like that. We do not have enough evidence. I believe you Jack and I don't doubt you, but we need something more. I mean, to frame a top rank official for letting a mafia person impersonate an officer and kill another needs strong evidence."

Gwen spoke in, "And I believe that Dr. Ty Eberheart needs to be interrogated too. He's with the mafia as well. He's the one who killed Dr. Robert. Yes, I recognized him from the camera footage."

Kelly asked her, "Do you have any idea where we might find him?"

"No, I don't know, officer, he was a very strange and silent man,I don't know much about him."

Kelly suggested, "So, Jack, what I'd suggest, is that you go to the CSD and get help from the tech guys you said you were working with. I'm sure they trust you and you them. Gather as much information about Beilbe as you can. I'm sure we'll be able to find a strong proof against him. In the meantime I'll do my best finding out more about this Eberheart."

He turned to Gwen, put on a comforting smile, and told her,

"Thank you very much, doctor, for being with us."

Gwen didn't reply but smiled.

At this moment, the tea arrived in a paper bag with a nice brown logo. Handing it over to Kelly, the man walked away.

Kelly looked inside the bag, put his hand in it, and took out three Styrofoam coffee-containers one by one. The three took their Chai-Tea and began drinking the hot mixture. There was silence until Kelly finished his Chai-Tea first and triumphantly threw the empty grab-and-go in the trash can. Jack and Gwen still had half to finish.

Breaking the momentary silence, Jack put his empty Styrofoam glass on the table and spoke, "Okay, I'm going to the CSD."

***

At the CSD, Jack did not look at anybody; he just walked straight into the elevator, pressed a button and appeared before the two tech guys munching some potato chips.

Camper saw Jack, and while munching some potato chips, said, "Hey, look, it's Jack! Come, have some chips."

"I'm not here for chips. I need your help."

"Of course, what can we help you with?" both Shimura and Camper replied.

Jack hesitated to speak out the matter; however he began narrating how Beilbe was the man behind everything.

After Jack's narration was over, Camper and Shimura closed their open mouths, and Shimura said, "That bastard has been doing it all under our noses. We'll put him to justice. Officer Jack," he looked at Camper who nodded in agreement, "we're with you."

"If you give us one moment, we'll try and get his office's camera feed. It's difficult to hack this building's cameras, but not for us. We know this building inside out." said Camper.

He continued, "if I run this program to try and get the camera room computers' network address, find an open port to create a remote connection using administrator's privileges, and live stream the camera feed --"

After a short while, Camper let out a triumphant call of victory.

"Aha! We've got the camera feed."

On his screen now was a view of Beilbe's office albeit from a poor angle. Just as Jack had expected, he wasn't there.

Camper understood that they would have to give it some more time, to snoop on Beilbe to get something useful, so he had a plan.

"Wait a minute, I can program this to record every frame of it. Kwan pass me the hard disk."

"Here you go" said Shimura, as he tossed the hard disk to Camper.

"Now, we're recording the camera footage."

Jack was happy that at least something was possible in such a short time. He asked for one more favor.

"Thanks guys, but I one more favor. Can you get some info on this guy, Dr. Ty Eberheart? Worked with Dr. Robert at the Research Facility."

"Yeah, sure, we'll try our best!" both Camper and Shimura exclaimed.