Oh momma I'm in fear for my life from the long arm of the law.
Alec checked the room out carefully before he entered it. He felt silly doing it, but he would feel much worse if someone caught him in there. When he was satisfied that no one was around, he entered. The hum of many pieces of machinery covered the sound of his footsteps as he crossed the room. He had had to look on a floor layout plan to find this room, as he'd never had occasion to come here before. He was deep within the computer department in the room where they locked their vital equipment. All of the company's servers were there, as well as the telephone access panels.
Just getting into the building was difficult due to the heightened security since the bombing. He wouldn't have been able to gain access if he were anyone else. but along with the responsibility his position carried, also came certain freedoms. The guards did not raise an eyebrow when he came through the door at one in the morning. He supposed they expected everything to be upside down for a few days until the building was back up and running. Power was out to a number of floors, pipes had burst and water had destroyed valuable equipment and files, and yellow police barrier tape still decorated the affected sections of the building. Luckily this room was well away from the blast site, so the main equipment received no damage. Wiring all over the building, however, was affected - which was why Alec was down here at all. He couldn't access the network from his office, and unless he wanted to wait for the repairs to be done, he needed to come down here to continue his search.
Sitting alone amongst the larger machinery was a monitor and keyboard that he assumed the system administrator used to affect changes to the network software. How different could it be, he thought as he sat down to work. He pushed the button to power up the monitor and waited.
Anne walked the silent hallways, lost in thought. The late night stillness had no affect on her, in fact in a way it was soothing, familiar from her years of working the night shift, as hated as it was. She had worked many long hours since the blast occurred trying to repair the damage done, and although her work was done for now, she had a few personal things she wanted to take care of before she went home for a few hours sleep. The damage done was appalling, not only in the loss of life but the destruction it wrought. In fact, there was only one good thing she could think of that had resulted from that horrible bombing of a few days ago. With so much repair being done to the network, there were a few favors she could do for Vinny while she was poking around the systems that wouldn't really be noticed. At least some good would come of all this, she reflected.
Rounding the corner, she froze when she saw someone sitting at the terminal she was heading for. Who else could be here at this hour? Whoever it was didn't turn around, so he must not have heard her enter the room. She was just about to turn around and leave when she decided against that. After all, she had every right to be here. Her curiosity awakened, she approached the stranger.
"Hello," she started, expecting the slight jump of surprise the man made at the sound of her voice. When he turned around however, it was her turn to be surprised. She was faced with Lt. Vanish, Righteous' second in command. What was HE doing here, and at this hour? Whatever it was, it couldn't be good news for her. Visions of her arrest flashed through her mind but she strove to keep her tone casual. "Lt. Vanish. sir. I didn't expect to see you here."
On his part, Alec was racing to come up with a plausible reason for such late night doings. It had to look very suspicious, and the last thing he wanted was someone asking questions he had no good answers to. He knew his reputation was that of a man who was strict, and sometimes cruel. It seemed no one in the MMM wanted to have much to do with him - a call from him was always seen as a sign of trouble. He banked on this notoriety and decided to take a hard stand with this woman, whoever she was. Someone afraid of him was unlikely to ask too many questions. He put an annoyed look on his face.
"Do you work in this department?" he asked brusquely.
"Yes sir, I'm the director." Director of Special Projects, not of IT, but it was close enough for the likes of him. She had every right to be there, she thought again, and wondered why she kept reassuring herself with that.
He asked her a question he already knew the answer for, in order to put her on the spot. "Well then, maybe you can tell me why I can't access any of my files from my office computer."
"Sir, the blast destroyed entire chunks of the network. It's going to take sometime to rewire the building."
He answered her with irritation. "Time is the one thing I don't have, young lady. I need access to information now."
"Perhaps I can help you out then," Anne offered. Anything to get this man out of here. The sooner he left the better she'd feel, and if helping him got him out of here faster she'd be happy to do it. "I can retrieve your files and put them on floppy for you. That way you can take them back to your office and work on them at your leisure." Alec stared at her, not believing what he just heard. Someone who knew what they were doing with computers was offering to help him? He had come up against a brick wall in his search, and here was someone who could most likely help him retrieve the data he needed. She had no need to know what those files contained. Lady luck was finally with him, it seemed.
"I suppose that will have to do," he said, continuing his charade of annoyance at the inconvenience. He got up from his seat before the terminal and motioned for her to take his place. Leaning over her shoulder to see the screen better, he indicated the server he was attempting to access and added that he would not be sure of the files he needed until he saw the listing. In his excitement, he did not see the fleeting look of surprise that covered Anne's face. She swallowed back the numerous questions filling her and did as he asked.
For maintenance reasons, she had access to every file server in the entire organization. It took only a few keystrokes and she was in. This was the server he could not access; here was all the information he so desperately wanted to see. Scanning the list of file names quickly, so as to seem to be recalling something already known instead of discovering it for the first time, he pointed to a number of files he wanted copied. He asked for dozens, unsure of what exactly was in each, with the knowledge he might never get another chance like this again. Filling up a number of floppy disks in silence, Anne let her imagination try and fill in the blanks as to what he needed all this information for. She knew better than to ask, for not only would he refuse to answer her but he would be suspicious of her curiosity. Eventually they were all done. She handed the last diskette to him wordlessly, and he muttered some sort of thanks and practically ran out of the room. Waiting to hear the door close behind him, she moved to perform her own tasks for the evening, putting aside the strange encounter to ponder at a later time.
***********
"Hope, I have a favor to ask," Vinny said as nonchalantly as possible, as if he'd just remembered a small insignificant task that was left undone now at the end of the day. His heart was beating fast in his chest, and he forced himself to calm down. He hated this even as he understood the need for it. He told himself again she had no idea what they were really planning, and he needed to keep it that way. He reminded himself that Jon's freedom, and possibly his life, depended on him right now. So when she looked up in curiosity at his comment, his face was bland and normal.
"Sure Vinny. What is it?"
"I need you to buy some bus tickets for me. Actually, it's a combination of bus and train tickets." He handed her a piece of paper with a number of dates, cities and times on it. "I need you to get only what is on this list. If something is sold out or if you find out they've changed the schedule, I need you to tell me. Don't just get the next closest thing, check back with me first."
She looked at the paper and suppressed the urge to smile. It was obvious to her that she was being handed a travel itinerary for someone who wanted desperately to discourage someone from following them. Finally, pay dirt. She decided to play it as always, concerned and nosy. "What is all this Vinny? Is there something wrong I should know about?"
His discomfort quickly mutated into anger at her obvious attempt to obscure her real feelings. She knew that he was asking her to purchase tickets for two people to escape from the city undetected, and he knew that she knew that. She still did not realize that he knew that Hope was a spy, and he was trying to keep it that way. Two could play at that game, he decided, and responded with kindness, as if he were trying to soothe her fears for his safety.
"Hope, please. I can't tell you anything other than this is vitally important. I'm counting on you to follow these instructions exactly. Ok?" She nodded solemnly, and he found a reassuring smile for her somewhere. As he walked away, he thought of how little she realized that they truly were counting on her to follow these instructions if everything was to work smoothly. He went home, suddenly feeling very dirty and in need of a shower.
***********
Kilroy and he stood on the podium next to Congressman Wylie, looking out over the crowd. He was nervous but he held his ground, trusting Wylie to speak on their behalf as he had agreed to.
"Dr. Righteous. I have apprehended the two criminals you have been seeking!" In shock and horror, he saw Wylie and Righteous shaking hands while MMM guards grabbed him roughly and handcuffed him. Hyde and Righteous were beaming and
proud, and Wylie was chatting to the gathered reporters about his re- election plans. As they were marched out of the room, the guards had to keep the angry crowd from tearing them apart. Taunts of "murderer!" trailed him out of the room and into the street.
He could see that they had erected two large beams, thick as telephone poles, embedded in the concrete of the plaza. There was a huge crowd of people waiting outside for them, encircling the poles. As he was pushed through the crowds by the guards, he heard snatches of conversation.
". deserves whatever he gets.." ".should let the families of the victims take a crack at them first." ".suffer like they did."
He twisted in the guard's grasp, trying to seek an avenue of escape but the crowd was thick around them. It seemed as if the entire city of Chicago had turned out for this. Abruptly they reached the edge of the crowd, and he was ushered past the police barricades that kept them at bay.
A split second of relief engulfed him, for the barriers separated him from the anger and hate directed at him. The relief fled from him as he saw Righteous there waiting for them, motioning to the guards to bring them forward. He was pushed back against the pole and bound securely to it. He yanked as hard as he could, practically dislocating his own shoulder in the process, but they had tied him down well. He looked up from his struggling to see Righteous lift one hand, and his attention shifted to the row of guards that had escorted them outside. They raised their guns as one and aimed. The screaming of the crowd reached a frenzied level, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Righteous' arm come down. The guns fired.
. And Jon bolted upright in bed. Drenched in sweat despite the cool weather, he propped himself up and sat there catching his breath. Leaning back on his elbows in exhaustion, Jonathan thought back on the nightmare he'd just had. At least this time we made it up there, he thought with irony. Last night they had been apprehended before they even entered the building. Each night his dream was slightly different yet they all somehow had the same ending, the public execution. No matter how ridiculous he knew the idea to be, his dreams were so realistic and vivid that he awoke in a cold sweat.
He swung his legs over the side of the bed, pulled on the pair of jeans and the denim shirt he had worn that day, and wandered downstairs. Over the last few days, he had striven to hide his fears and be as confident and optimistic as possible for everyone else, even as he watched the organization he worked so hard to build fold like a house of cards. He couldn't tell which felt worse, the depression or the disgust he felt about how quickly things fell into ruin. The newer volunteers were quitting in droves and even those who had been working with him for a long time were making excuses and putting distance between themselves and the group. He had noticed how Eddie and Harry had been unavailable to help him lately, and it didn't take a brain surgeon to see they were afraid of being there when the MMM finally caught up to him. Jonathan didn't really blame them, however disappointed he might be; they both had families to think of. In any case, it was like watching rats deserting a sinking ship. Righteous didn't need to arrest anyone to get his way; he could simply sit there watching the organization bleed slowly to death. Something needed to be done, and done quickly, which was why he agreed with Kilroy's plan.
It was announced that Righteous was planning to hold a memorial service for the victims of the MMM building bombing the very next week. It was going to be televised live, and when he heard about it Robert had come up with an idea. Robert had approached him days ago with the idea of attending the memorial service
themselves and confronting Righteous. In public, in front of hundreds of people and being broadcast to millions more via live nationwide television, there was no way that he could refuse to hear them out. Robert had seemed surprised that Jonathan had agreed with him so quickly. It seemed he had no idea how desperate Jonathan really felt. He was ready to take any action that appeared to have even the remotest possibility of working. Since then, their days had been spent planning this
unannounced visit and Alec was given a deadline by which he had to be able to find some sort of proof they could present in their own defense. Between this and trying to hold his organization together, Jonathan's days were full and he kept himself as busy as he could to keep his mind off of things. It was only now, in the lonely quiet hours of early morning, that he allowed himself to relax and his demons came out to haunt him.
Jonathan pulled a chair up to the window and sat down in it backward, straddling it. He crossed his arms on the backrest of the chair and leaned forward, staring out at the sliver of sky that was visible to him between the buildings. He surprised himself by still feeling a bit shaken from the nightmare that awoke him. He had to face it, these dreams were getting worse. Jon shook his head at himself - no wonder, he was getting more and more nervous about their plan to attend the memorial service. For about one tenth of a second he entertained the idea of making a run for it, then quickly discarded it. However tempting that might sound, he knew it would never work. If he couldn't run he had to stay where he was, and he and Robert couldn't stay in hiding forever. The mere thought of doing that, even if it were feasible, made him somehow feel more caged than he imagined he would in jail ... it was simply not an option for him. The thought of living his whole life in hiding, or forever on the run and looking over his shoulder, made him desperate for some sort of resolution to this entire thing. He wanted to put an end to it once and for all.
This, therefore, was really their best chance for a favorable outcome. If they were going to help themselves, they had to do whatever they could as quickly as possible because the longer they waited the more impossible it would be to clear themselves of the alleged crimes. So he agreed to attempt this one last act, as desperate and hopeless as it seemed and as much as he hated the idea of confronting Righteous in person. It was just that, after all the times he believed that things would work out and they didn't, he had very little hope left. Deep down Jon wasn't really confident that this plan would work either.
Jonathan didn't really expect Alec would be able to find anything to help prove his innocence. He'd been having such a hard time with finding the proof to clear Robert that Jon didn't expect that Alec would just happen to stumble upon something that could help his situation. He still agreed with Robert, this was something they had to do, but that didn't make it any easier for him to accept. His dreams manifested his deep seated terror about what might happen at that memorial service.
He was worried that Righteous would be able to put a negative spin on their evidence like he did the bootleg video. If he did, Jon realized they were finished before they even got started, and so they hoped to be able to get a few words in before Righteous could interrupt. At this point, Jonathan was just hoping that Wylie's support would be enough to give them those few moments to speak their piece, so that the guards would not shoot first and ask questions later. The best Jonathan could realistically hope for was that if they could prove Robert was framed, then perhaps the police might believe that he might have been framed as well and give him a fair investigation before deciding he was guilty. No matter how optimistic he was attempting to be, he knew even this was a long shot. The closer it got to the deadline without Alec coming up with anything, the firmer his belief got that the minute he showed his face in public he would be a dead man. And if they couldn't come up with the proof to clear Robert, he and Jonathan would have adjoining cells on Death Row. Jon lowered his head, burying his forehead against his folded arms. These bizarre dreams had to stop. If he didn't get some decent sleep soon he was going to start losing his mind. He finally pushed himself up and climbed the stairs, ready to attempt a dreamless slumber once again.
***********
Anne sat quietly, sipping her hot chocolate and observing the goings on in Grant Park. She watched people traveling up and down the path along the lake, on wheels or on foot.
"Hey there," Vinny said lightly, startling Anne out of her thoughts. She looked up as he sat down next to her on the park bench, sighing deeply as he did so. She frowned with worry at how tired he looked. "You look exhausted."
"I am," he said with a sigh, not meeting her gaze. Instead he examined the few ships brave enough to sail on Lake Michigan in the quickly changeable weather of autumn.
"Too much to do and not enough time to do it in, you know?"
"I'm sorry I had to drag you out here."
He shook his head with a tired grin. "Please, don't be. I don't get here often, it's a treat. And I always have time for you," he added, his smile turning charming.
"I wouldn't have asked you to meet me unless I thought it was important," she countered, for as much as he flattered her with compliments she knew he had no time for games these days. "Something disturbing happened last night I think you should know about."
The smile dropped immediately from his face. She could see the flash of concern in his dark eyes, the tightening of his jaw as he braced himself for whatever she was about to reveal. She didn't know how to make this any better, so she plowed ahead.
"Last night at about one in the morning I came across Lieutenant Vanish sitting at my desk, trying to access some files off the network. He was trying to get into the server that houses all of Righteous' personal files. You'd think he would have the server login password but he seemed to be having trouble with it. Once we got in he had me copy a bunch of files onto floppy for him; files with names like Kilroy and Chance. Fat load of good they're going to do him without the file passwords though." She stopped and took a deep breath. "Vinny, I think Vanish is onto something, maybe onto you guys. I'm not sure how he might have found you out, but he has me worried."
In astonishment, Anne saw the tension drain from Vinny's expression, to be replaced by eagerness. "Do you know what was in those files you copied for him?"
"No." Here she paused and considered her companion closely. "Vinny, what's going on?"
His thoughts racing with all the possibilities, he barely heard her question. He chewed his lower lip thoughtfully, debating with himself. He finally found something, he thought. About bloody time. Vinny only hoped it would be enough to drive home the killing blow they so desperately needed.
But she said he was would most probably have trouble with the files, he thought. Righteous must have put some mighty strong encryption on them; I sure would if I were in his place. Vinny looked again at the woman seated next to him. Another question came to him, the question of whether he should tell her that Vanish was working with them, attempting to find proof of Robert's innocence. After a moment's debate Vinny realized there was really nothing to think about. Anne was not stupid, nor was she blind. She knew something was going on and without the full story she might jump to incorrect conclusions. Anyway, maybe she could get open those files where Alec couldn't.
By the time all of these thoughts had passed through his mind Anne was staring at him expectantly. She sat there patiently, watching a dozen different emotions roll across his face. She was positive that when he finally chose to speak it would be worth waiting for.
"Anne, I'm going to tell you something. Please don't ask me how or why, just accept it as fact. Vanish is on our side. He was looking for some files he believes contain information that would clear Robert. I think he's going to have trouble breaking the passwords on the files, and I'd like you to help him."
She sat in silence for a moment, her expression unreadable. Vinny watched her expectantly, hoping he hadn't made a deadly mistake. Suddenly she exhaled a held breath, a look of amazement on her face. "Boy oh boy, you sure never disappoint me, Vin. I was betting there was a good story behind this one. So, you got Vanish to help you. no," she said at the look on his face, "I'm not going to ask how. Someday you'll buy me a beer and tell me the whole sordid story, but for now I'll take it at face value. He's having trouble cracking open the files, huh?"
"I haven't heard for sure, but I'll bet good money he is. Do you think you can do anything with them?"
She cocked her head thoughtfully, staring sightlessly out over the lake. Her mind was on other things than the colorful sailboats passing by. After a moment she answered, "Can't say for sure until I see what I'm dealing with, but I can certainly try."
Vinny nodded. There was no need to recite the list of dangers she knew she was putting herself in the path of by digging deeper into the illegal organization. No words of thanks could describe the gratitude Vinny felt for all that she had done for them. When he spoke, his voice was gruff.
"Well. I'll have to set up a meeting between you two. It's not as if I can just leave him a message on his answering machine about you." Anne nodded. Vinny got up to leave and walked a few steps away when he suddenly stopped. He turned back toward her and regarded her with a smile that was both sad and hopeful.
"Anne?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm planning on buying you a big thick steak to go along with that beer."
She smiled. By now she knew Vinny's idiosyncrasies, and this was his way of
telling her to be careful. "Save your pennies, Vinny. We're going to the best steakhouse in town if you're paying."
And Vinny understood that was her way of saying thanks, and don't worry I'll watch my back. She was planning on being around to enjoy that dinner. He smiled again, this time with humor. "Not a very cheap date, are you?"
"No I'm not. But I'm worth it, Vin."
He nodded fondly. "I know you are."
***********
Vinny was surprised to see a dim light coming from inside the bar when he looked through the front window. Who could be up at this hour? He let himself in and called out softly.
"Hello? Anybody home?" He saw Jonathan balanced precariously on a barstool,
attempting to pry open a stuck window. It wouldn't budge, and he started to bang on the wooden frame with his fist to loosen it. As Vinny crossed the room, he noticed Jonathan's pounding was not some light tapping to jiggle it open but a hearty pounding that was threatening to shatter the old window entirely.
"Open, dammit, open!" Jonathan muttered to himself, increasingly frustrated. Once again he couldn't sleep and all he wanted out of life was a little fresh air, and he was even having trouble with that. The window refused to comply, however, and it was the last straw. He had the insane urge to just put his fist through the glass and have done with it, and he quite possibly would have done so if Vinny had not interrupted him.
"Need some help?" Jonathan stopped his work to look down at his friend. Vinny was standing there, a cautious look on his face. Jon wondered what he could be apprehensive about. and then he realized it was him. He must look like a lunatic, perched on a rickety old barstool destroying a window at two in the morning. Jon carefully got down, a sheepish look on his face.
"No thanks, I was just trying to open the window. It's stuck."
Vinny raised one eyebrow and eyed him carefully. "Obviously."
Jon frowned in irritation at Vinny's tone of voice. He didn't know what Vinny's problem was but he was not in the mood to deal with it. He had been woken by another one of his nightmares and was all out of patience. He picked up the barstool and walked away from the window to return it to where he had gotten it from. "The last thing I need right now is your sarcasm, Vinny. What are you doing here anyway?"
Vinny shook his head. "I don't know... I can't seem to sleep in my own bed anymore. I started out taking a walk and found myself on my way here. Every time I close my eyes I can see Hope there." he trailed off in embarrassment. "Pretty stupid, huh?"
When he heard the pain evident in Vinny's voice, Jon felt his annoyance drain away. He looked at his friend standing there, hands in his pockets, looking very lost. "No, you don't sound stupid." He crossed back to where Vinny still stood and pulled up a chair to sit in. "You sound like a man who's had his heart broken."
Vinny shrugged off his coat and joined him, sighing deeply as he sat. After a moment of silence he continued. "She took the bait, you know. She's expecting you and Robert to try and escape during the memorial service. You should have a pretty clear path to the building."
Jonathan nodded his understanding. They both knew that the reason Vinny kept up the pretense of their relationship was a good one, and they both hated every moment of it. There seemed to be nothing Jon could say to make it any better. Vinny felt Jon's sympathetic silence surrounding him and it made him even sadder, so he abruptly changed the subject.
"So what was that about?"
"What?"
Vinny gestured toward the wall with a nod of his head. "The window. You were beating it to within an inch of its life. What did it ever do to you to deserve such abuse?"
Jonathan brushed his hair out of his eyes tiredly, frowning. His temper was short these days, no doubt due to a lack of sleep. He tried to shrug off Vinny's questions, none of which he felt like answering right now. "It was stuck. It got me a little frustrated, that's all."
"Jon, you looked like you were going to break a hole through the wall any minute."
"It was nothing," he responded shortly.
"But Jon-"
Jon pushed himself away from the table roughly and got to his feet. "Just drop it, all right?" he yelled. "Jesus, why can't you just leave me alone!"
Vinny was not put off so easily. Jon's angry outburst only served to make him irate. "I don't leave you alone because it's obvious you can't take care of yourself. You were two minutes away from either putting your fist through a glass window or falling off that stool and cracking your head open. It was just a question of which would happen first."
Jon stood there glaring at Vinny, who met his gaze steadily. He closed his eyes on the headache he was nursing and sighed, rubbing at his temples with both hands to release some of the tension there. When he spoke the stress was evident in his voice. "Vin, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell. I'm just tired, that's all."
"Then can I ask why you're not in bed?"
Vinny noticed Jonathan wouldn't meet his gaze. "I've been having a little trouble sleeping. It's no big deal."
Vinny shook his head in refusal. "Jonathan, for months I've listened to you tell me that you were fine, that I shouldn't worry and you could handle it. I'm not taking that as an answer anymore. Tell me what's going on."
Jonathan stood silent for a minute, and just as Vinny thought Jon was being stubborn and refusing to respond the words tumbled out of him in a rush. Jon walked away from the table and paced nervously, refusing to look him in the eye as he spoke. "I've been having these dreams. well, I guess you might call them nightmares, really. I know it's just my overactive imagination getting the best of me, but they feel so real, Vin. I wake up and I can't shake the creepy feeling I get from them. I can't rationalize it away by thinking its just some fantasy and what happened was impossible, because the truth is it could."
Wanting to help, Vinny asked Jon in a gentle voice, "What are your dreams about?"
Jon's voice had lost all its color and energy. He had nothing left, he was too tired to even feel scared anymore. He leaned his back against the wall and spoke flatly. "Lately they've been about the memorial service. It always starts out with Kilroy and I on our way there, then something goes wrong and we get caught. and it always ends the same, with our execution."
Vinny smiled encouragingly at his friend. "Jon, we're all worried about what might happen during that service, but I think it's a safe bet that no one's going to die."
Jon didn't seem relieved to hear this. "Well, not right then of course. but you have to think they're going to ask for the maximum sentence available to them in this case, and we all know what that is."
"We do? I'm not even sure what you're talking about," Vinny asked in confusion. Jon stopped his preoccupied rambling, realizing that his friend had no idea what he was referring to. He stepped back to the table, reaching for a fat book that was sitting there. He opened it and started thumbing through the pages.
"Vinny, they have me on tape confessing to the crime. In this state that confession would hold up, and with such a confession there is no trial, only a sentencing. Here," he said, finally finding the page he was looking for. He turned the book for Vinny to read and stood there over him, arms crossed, as Vinny scanned the section he indicated.
"Thirty nine people died in that blast. They're going for the death penalty for sure."
So that was why Jon had asked if he could find a book on the Illinois state criminal code. Vinny read the section once, and then twice to make sure he understood it correctly. Jonathan was right - it seemed that the phone call they were touting as being from Jon would legally hold up as a confession. With such a confession, he was not entitled to a trial but would go straight to sentencing. After the public outcry and media coverage they'd been viewing, making Jon out to be public enemy number one, Vinny also had no doubt what that sentence would be. It was a very real possibility that, if arrested, Jonathan would indeed be looking at receiving the death penalty. Their only chance at proving his innocence was a desperate plan filled with risks and pitfalls. He could now understand why his friend had been having nightmares. All the while these thoughts ran through Vinny's head, Jonathan stayed where he was, watching his friend, his arms wrapped tight around himself as if to provide some sort of comfort. He watched as the realization of what he was talking about manifested itself on his friend's face.
"Jon," he started, and then trailed off. What could he say to his friend that wasn't some contrite statement of comfort? He couldn't prevent any of this from happening; he couldn't even make it easier. Never before had Vinny felt so helpless. There had always been some action he could take, but now. there seemed to be nothing to do but let the chips fall where they may. All they could do was hope that they would be able to present their case and then hope that it would be enough. It was all too easy for the entire thing to backfire on them, and they knew no matter how well it went they were still going to walk out of there in handcuffs, even if only until the police sorted through the entire mess. Charges such as those they were brought up on are not so easily dismissed, and it would be a long and arduous process to clear their names. This time the stakes were much higher than he'd realized before. It wasn't until he understood how badly Jonathan was shaken over the whole situation, and understood why, that it really hit him.
And what was there to say to Jon? Vinny couldn't quite read the expression on his friend's face. He was scared all right, but also resigned. An idea came to him and he grasped onto it quickly. "Jon, you don't have to do this. If Alec and Anne can't find anything - or even if they do - there's nothing that says you have to deliver yourself up to Righteous. We'll find some other way of getting the word out."
"No, Vinny, I have to go." Jon smiled at his friend's anxious concern. He had to make him understand what he was feeling. "I'm innocent. The longer I stay in hiding the more it looks as if I have something to hide. I have to trust that I'll be given a fair investigation and trial. although after the sham of a trial they gave Kilroy I'm having trouble feeling very confident about that. But I can't run forever, Vinny. This ends at that memorial service, for good or for bad, with the proof or without it. I can't go on this way any longer. Neither can Kilroy, apparently, since going there was his idea in the first place. No, Vin," he finished, "we attend that service and do the best we can. I've accepted that. It's just that late at night all my monsters come out of the closet and sometimes it's tough trying not to feel like a lamb being led to the slaughter."
Vinny stood with Jon, as if to lend his physical as well as his emotional support. "What can I do to help?"
Jon shrugged, not knowing what if anything was even possible for him to do. "Just being here helps, Vin. Thanks."
Vinny smiled. "Hey, if me being here is what you need, I can do that no problem. I'm very good at being where I am."
Jonathan shook his head at his friend. "Are you being intentionally goofy to cheer me up or are you always like this?"
Vinny smiled wickedly. "Wouldn't you just love to know?"
Jonathan laughed as he walked upstairs. "Just for that you get to sleep on the floor," he joked back, as if there were any place else for him to sleep in the sparsely furnished hideout.
"Yeah, I figured as much," Vinny said, following him in hopes of stealing a blanket.
Alec checked the room out carefully before he entered it. He felt silly doing it, but he would feel much worse if someone caught him in there. When he was satisfied that no one was around, he entered. The hum of many pieces of machinery covered the sound of his footsteps as he crossed the room. He had had to look on a floor layout plan to find this room, as he'd never had occasion to come here before. He was deep within the computer department in the room where they locked their vital equipment. All of the company's servers were there, as well as the telephone access panels.
Just getting into the building was difficult due to the heightened security since the bombing. He wouldn't have been able to gain access if he were anyone else. but along with the responsibility his position carried, also came certain freedoms. The guards did not raise an eyebrow when he came through the door at one in the morning. He supposed they expected everything to be upside down for a few days until the building was back up and running. Power was out to a number of floors, pipes had burst and water had destroyed valuable equipment and files, and yellow police barrier tape still decorated the affected sections of the building. Luckily this room was well away from the blast site, so the main equipment received no damage. Wiring all over the building, however, was affected - which was why Alec was down here at all. He couldn't access the network from his office, and unless he wanted to wait for the repairs to be done, he needed to come down here to continue his search.
Sitting alone amongst the larger machinery was a monitor and keyboard that he assumed the system administrator used to affect changes to the network software. How different could it be, he thought as he sat down to work. He pushed the button to power up the monitor and waited.
Anne walked the silent hallways, lost in thought. The late night stillness had no affect on her, in fact in a way it was soothing, familiar from her years of working the night shift, as hated as it was. She had worked many long hours since the blast occurred trying to repair the damage done, and although her work was done for now, she had a few personal things she wanted to take care of before she went home for a few hours sleep. The damage done was appalling, not only in the loss of life but the destruction it wrought. In fact, there was only one good thing she could think of that had resulted from that horrible bombing of a few days ago. With so much repair being done to the network, there were a few favors she could do for Vinny while she was poking around the systems that wouldn't really be noticed. At least some good would come of all this, she reflected.
Rounding the corner, she froze when she saw someone sitting at the terminal she was heading for. Who else could be here at this hour? Whoever it was didn't turn around, so he must not have heard her enter the room. She was just about to turn around and leave when she decided against that. After all, she had every right to be here. Her curiosity awakened, she approached the stranger.
"Hello," she started, expecting the slight jump of surprise the man made at the sound of her voice. When he turned around however, it was her turn to be surprised. She was faced with Lt. Vanish, Righteous' second in command. What was HE doing here, and at this hour? Whatever it was, it couldn't be good news for her. Visions of her arrest flashed through her mind but she strove to keep her tone casual. "Lt. Vanish. sir. I didn't expect to see you here."
On his part, Alec was racing to come up with a plausible reason for such late night doings. It had to look very suspicious, and the last thing he wanted was someone asking questions he had no good answers to. He knew his reputation was that of a man who was strict, and sometimes cruel. It seemed no one in the MMM wanted to have much to do with him - a call from him was always seen as a sign of trouble. He banked on this notoriety and decided to take a hard stand with this woman, whoever she was. Someone afraid of him was unlikely to ask too many questions. He put an annoyed look on his face.
"Do you work in this department?" he asked brusquely.
"Yes sir, I'm the director." Director of Special Projects, not of IT, but it was close enough for the likes of him. She had every right to be there, she thought again, and wondered why she kept reassuring herself with that.
He asked her a question he already knew the answer for, in order to put her on the spot. "Well then, maybe you can tell me why I can't access any of my files from my office computer."
"Sir, the blast destroyed entire chunks of the network. It's going to take sometime to rewire the building."
He answered her with irritation. "Time is the one thing I don't have, young lady. I need access to information now."
"Perhaps I can help you out then," Anne offered. Anything to get this man out of here. The sooner he left the better she'd feel, and if helping him got him out of here faster she'd be happy to do it. "I can retrieve your files and put them on floppy for you. That way you can take them back to your office and work on them at your leisure." Alec stared at her, not believing what he just heard. Someone who knew what they were doing with computers was offering to help him? He had come up against a brick wall in his search, and here was someone who could most likely help him retrieve the data he needed. She had no need to know what those files contained. Lady luck was finally with him, it seemed.
"I suppose that will have to do," he said, continuing his charade of annoyance at the inconvenience. He got up from his seat before the terminal and motioned for her to take his place. Leaning over her shoulder to see the screen better, he indicated the server he was attempting to access and added that he would not be sure of the files he needed until he saw the listing. In his excitement, he did not see the fleeting look of surprise that covered Anne's face. She swallowed back the numerous questions filling her and did as he asked.
For maintenance reasons, she had access to every file server in the entire organization. It took only a few keystrokes and she was in. This was the server he could not access; here was all the information he so desperately wanted to see. Scanning the list of file names quickly, so as to seem to be recalling something already known instead of discovering it for the first time, he pointed to a number of files he wanted copied. He asked for dozens, unsure of what exactly was in each, with the knowledge he might never get another chance like this again. Filling up a number of floppy disks in silence, Anne let her imagination try and fill in the blanks as to what he needed all this information for. She knew better than to ask, for not only would he refuse to answer her but he would be suspicious of her curiosity. Eventually they were all done. She handed the last diskette to him wordlessly, and he muttered some sort of thanks and practically ran out of the room. Waiting to hear the door close behind him, she moved to perform her own tasks for the evening, putting aside the strange encounter to ponder at a later time.
***********
"Hope, I have a favor to ask," Vinny said as nonchalantly as possible, as if he'd just remembered a small insignificant task that was left undone now at the end of the day. His heart was beating fast in his chest, and he forced himself to calm down. He hated this even as he understood the need for it. He told himself again she had no idea what they were really planning, and he needed to keep it that way. He reminded himself that Jon's freedom, and possibly his life, depended on him right now. So when she looked up in curiosity at his comment, his face was bland and normal.
"Sure Vinny. What is it?"
"I need you to buy some bus tickets for me. Actually, it's a combination of bus and train tickets." He handed her a piece of paper with a number of dates, cities and times on it. "I need you to get only what is on this list. If something is sold out or if you find out they've changed the schedule, I need you to tell me. Don't just get the next closest thing, check back with me first."
She looked at the paper and suppressed the urge to smile. It was obvious to her that she was being handed a travel itinerary for someone who wanted desperately to discourage someone from following them. Finally, pay dirt. She decided to play it as always, concerned and nosy. "What is all this Vinny? Is there something wrong I should know about?"
His discomfort quickly mutated into anger at her obvious attempt to obscure her real feelings. She knew that he was asking her to purchase tickets for two people to escape from the city undetected, and he knew that she knew that. She still did not realize that he knew that Hope was a spy, and he was trying to keep it that way. Two could play at that game, he decided, and responded with kindness, as if he were trying to soothe her fears for his safety.
"Hope, please. I can't tell you anything other than this is vitally important. I'm counting on you to follow these instructions exactly. Ok?" She nodded solemnly, and he found a reassuring smile for her somewhere. As he walked away, he thought of how little she realized that they truly were counting on her to follow these instructions if everything was to work smoothly. He went home, suddenly feeling very dirty and in need of a shower.
***********
Kilroy and he stood on the podium next to Congressman Wylie, looking out over the crowd. He was nervous but he held his ground, trusting Wylie to speak on their behalf as he had agreed to.
"Dr. Righteous. I have apprehended the two criminals you have been seeking!" In shock and horror, he saw Wylie and Righteous shaking hands while MMM guards grabbed him roughly and handcuffed him. Hyde and Righteous were beaming and
proud, and Wylie was chatting to the gathered reporters about his re- election plans. As they were marched out of the room, the guards had to keep the angry crowd from tearing them apart. Taunts of "murderer!" trailed him out of the room and into the street.
He could see that they had erected two large beams, thick as telephone poles, embedded in the concrete of the plaza. There was a huge crowd of people waiting outside for them, encircling the poles. As he was pushed through the crowds by the guards, he heard snatches of conversation.
". deserves whatever he gets.." ".should let the families of the victims take a crack at them first." ".suffer like they did."
He twisted in the guard's grasp, trying to seek an avenue of escape but the crowd was thick around them. It seemed as if the entire city of Chicago had turned out for this. Abruptly they reached the edge of the crowd, and he was ushered past the police barricades that kept them at bay.
A split second of relief engulfed him, for the barriers separated him from the anger and hate directed at him. The relief fled from him as he saw Righteous there waiting for them, motioning to the guards to bring them forward. He was pushed back against the pole and bound securely to it. He yanked as hard as he could, practically dislocating his own shoulder in the process, but they had tied him down well. He looked up from his struggling to see Righteous lift one hand, and his attention shifted to the row of guards that had escorted them outside. They raised their guns as one and aimed. The screaming of the crowd reached a frenzied level, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Righteous' arm come down. The guns fired.
. And Jon bolted upright in bed. Drenched in sweat despite the cool weather, he propped himself up and sat there catching his breath. Leaning back on his elbows in exhaustion, Jonathan thought back on the nightmare he'd just had. At least this time we made it up there, he thought with irony. Last night they had been apprehended before they even entered the building. Each night his dream was slightly different yet they all somehow had the same ending, the public execution. No matter how ridiculous he knew the idea to be, his dreams were so realistic and vivid that he awoke in a cold sweat.
He swung his legs over the side of the bed, pulled on the pair of jeans and the denim shirt he had worn that day, and wandered downstairs. Over the last few days, he had striven to hide his fears and be as confident and optimistic as possible for everyone else, even as he watched the organization he worked so hard to build fold like a house of cards. He couldn't tell which felt worse, the depression or the disgust he felt about how quickly things fell into ruin. The newer volunteers were quitting in droves and even those who had been working with him for a long time were making excuses and putting distance between themselves and the group. He had noticed how Eddie and Harry had been unavailable to help him lately, and it didn't take a brain surgeon to see they were afraid of being there when the MMM finally caught up to him. Jonathan didn't really blame them, however disappointed he might be; they both had families to think of. In any case, it was like watching rats deserting a sinking ship. Righteous didn't need to arrest anyone to get his way; he could simply sit there watching the organization bleed slowly to death. Something needed to be done, and done quickly, which was why he agreed with Kilroy's plan.
It was announced that Righteous was planning to hold a memorial service for the victims of the MMM building bombing the very next week. It was going to be televised live, and when he heard about it Robert had come up with an idea. Robert had approached him days ago with the idea of attending the memorial service
themselves and confronting Righteous. In public, in front of hundreds of people and being broadcast to millions more via live nationwide television, there was no way that he could refuse to hear them out. Robert had seemed surprised that Jonathan had agreed with him so quickly. It seemed he had no idea how desperate Jonathan really felt. He was ready to take any action that appeared to have even the remotest possibility of working. Since then, their days had been spent planning this
unannounced visit and Alec was given a deadline by which he had to be able to find some sort of proof they could present in their own defense. Between this and trying to hold his organization together, Jonathan's days were full and he kept himself as busy as he could to keep his mind off of things. It was only now, in the lonely quiet hours of early morning, that he allowed himself to relax and his demons came out to haunt him.
Jonathan pulled a chair up to the window and sat down in it backward, straddling it. He crossed his arms on the backrest of the chair and leaned forward, staring out at the sliver of sky that was visible to him between the buildings. He surprised himself by still feeling a bit shaken from the nightmare that awoke him. He had to face it, these dreams were getting worse. Jon shook his head at himself - no wonder, he was getting more and more nervous about their plan to attend the memorial service. For about one tenth of a second he entertained the idea of making a run for it, then quickly discarded it. However tempting that might sound, he knew it would never work. If he couldn't run he had to stay where he was, and he and Robert couldn't stay in hiding forever. The mere thought of doing that, even if it were feasible, made him somehow feel more caged than he imagined he would in jail ... it was simply not an option for him. The thought of living his whole life in hiding, or forever on the run and looking over his shoulder, made him desperate for some sort of resolution to this entire thing. He wanted to put an end to it once and for all.
This, therefore, was really their best chance for a favorable outcome. If they were going to help themselves, they had to do whatever they could as quickly as possible because the longer they waited the more impossible it would be to clear themselves of the alleged crimes. So he agreed to attempt this one last act, as desperate and hopeless as it seemed and as much as he hated the idea of confronting Righteous in person. It was just that, after all the times he believed that things would work out and they didn't, he had very little hope left. Deep down Jon wasn't really confident that this plan would work either.
Jonathan didn't really expect Alec would be able to find anything to help prove his innocence. He'd been having such a hard time with finding the proof to clear Robert that Jon didn't expect that Alec would just happen to stumble upon something that could help his situation. He still agreed with Robert, this was something they had to do, but that didn't make it any easier for him to accept. His dreams manifested his deep seated terror about what might happen at that memorial service.
He was worried that Righteous would be able to put a negative spin on their evidence like he did the bootleg video. If he did, Jon realized they were finished before they even got started, and so they hoped to be able to get a few words in before Righteous could interrupt. At this point, Jonathan was just hoping that Wylie's support would be enough to give them those few moments to speak their piece, so that the guards would not shoot first and ask questions later. The best Jonathan could realistically hope for was that if they could prove Robert was framed, then perhaps the police might believe that he might have been framed as well and give him a fair investigation before deciding he was guilty. No matter how optimistic he was attempting to be, he knew even this was a long shot. The closer it got to the deadline without Alec coming up with anything, the firmer his belief got that the minute he showed his face in public he would be a dead man. And if they couldn't come up with the proof to clear Robert, he and Jonathan would have adjoining cells on Death Row. Jon lowered his head, burying his forehead against his folded arms. These bizarre dreams had to stop. If he didn't get some decent sleep soon he was going to start losing his mind. He finally pushed himself up and climbed the stairs, ready to attempt a dreamless slumber once again.
***********
Anne sat quietly, sipping her hot chocolate and observing the goings on in Grant Park. She watched people traveling up and down the path along the lake, on wheels or on foot.
"Hey there," Vinny said lightly, startling Anne out of her thoughts. She looked up as he sat down next to her on the park bench, sighing deeply as he did so. She frowned with worry at how tired he looked. "You look exhausted."
"I am," he said with a sigh, not meeting her gaze. Instead he examined the few ships brave enough to sail on Lake Michigan in the quickly changeable weather of autumn.
"Too much to do and not enough time to do it in, you know?"
"I'm sorry I had to drag you out here."
He shook his head with a tired grin. "Please, don't be. I don't get here often, it's a treat. And I always have time for you," he added, his smile turning charming.
"I wouldn't have asked you to meet me unless I thought it was important," she countered, for as much as he flattered her with compliments she knew he had no time for games these days. "Something disturbing happened last night I think you should know about."
The smile dropped immediately from his face. She could see the flash of concern in his dark eyes, the tightening of his jaw as he braced himself for whatever she was about to reveal. She didn't know how to make this any better, so she plowed ahead.
"Last night at about one in the morning I came across Lieutenant Vanish sitting at my desk, trying to access some files off the network. He was trying to get into the server that houses all of Righteous' personal files. You'd think he would have the server login password but he seemed to be having trouble with it. Once we got in he had me copy a bunch of files onto floppy for him; files with names like Kilroy and Chance. Fat load of good they're going to do him without the file passwords though." She stopped and took a deep breath. "Vinny, I think Vanish is onto something, maybe onto you guys. I'm not sure how he might have found you out, but he has me worried."
In astonishment, Anne saw the tension drain from Vinny's expression, to be replaced by eagerness. "Do you know what was in those files you copied for him?"
"No." Here she paused and considered her companion closely. "Vinny, what's going on?"
His thoughts racing with all the possibilities, he barely heard her question. He chewed his lower lip thoughtfully, debating with himself. He finally found something, he thought. About bloody time. Vinny only hoped it would be enough to drive home the killing blow they so desperately needed.
But she said he was would most probably have trouble with the files, he thought. Righteous must have put some mighty strong encryption on them; I sure would if I were in his place. Vinny looked again at the woman seated next to him. Another question came to him, the question of whether he should tell her that Vanish was working with them, attempting to find proof of Robert's innocence. After a moment's debate Vinny realized there was really nothing to think about. Anne was not stupid, nor was she blind. She knew something was going on and without the full story she might jump to incorrect conclusions. Anyway, maybe she could get open those files where Alec couldn't.
By the time all of these thoughts had passed through his mind Anne was staring at him expectantly. She sat there patiently, watching a dozen different emotions roll across his face. She was positive that when he finally chose to speak it would be worth waiting for.
"Anne, I'm going to tell you something. Please don't ask me how or why, just accept it as fact. Vanish is on our side. He was looking for some files he believes contain information that would clear Robert. I think he's going to have trouble breaking the passwords on the files, and I'd like you to help him."
She sat in silence for a moment, her expression unreadable. Vinny watched her expectantly, hoping he hadn't made a deadly mistake. Suddenly she exhaled a held breath, a look of amazement on her face. "Boy oh boy, you sure never disappoint me, Vin. I was betting there was a good story behind this one. So, you got Vanish to help you. no," she said at the look on his face, "I'm not going to ask how. Someday you'll buy me a beer and tell me the whole sordid story, but for now I'll take it at face value. He's having trouble cracking open the files, huh?"
"I haven't heard for sure, but I'll bet good money he is. Do you think you can do anything with them?"
She cocked her head thoughtfully, staring sightlessly out over the lake. Her mind was on other things than the colorful sailboats passing by. After a moment she answered, "Can't say for sure until I see what I'm dealing with, but I can certainly try."
Vinny nodded. There was no need to recite the list of dangers she knew she was putting herself in the path of by digging deeper into the illegal organization. No words of thanks could describe the gratitude Vinny felt for all that she had done for them. When he spoke, his voice was gruff.
"Well. I'll have to set up a meeting between you two. It's not as if I can just leave him a message on his answering machine about you." Anne nodded. Vinny got up to leave and walked a few steps away when he suddenly stopped. He turned back toward her and regarded her with a smile that was both sad and hopeful.
"Anne?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm planning on buying you a big thick steak to go along with that beer."
She smiled. By now she knew Vinny's idiosyncrasies, and this was his way of
telling her to be careful. "Save your pennies, Vinny. We're going to the best steakhouse in town if you're paying."
And Vinny understood that was her way of saying thanks, and don't worry I'll watch my back. She was planning on being around to enjoy that dinner. He smiled again, this time with humor. "Not a very cheap date, are you?"
"No I'm not. But I'm worth it, Vin."
He nodded fondly. "I know you are."
***********
Vinny was surprised to see a dim light coming from inside the bar when he looked through the front window. Who could be up at this hour? He let himself in and called out softly.
"Hello? Anybody home?" He saw Jonathan balanced precariously on a barstool,
attempting to pry open a stuck window. It wouldn't budge, and he started to bang on the wooden frame with his fist to loosen it. As Vinny crossed the room, he noticed Jonathan's pounding was not some light tapping to jiggle it open but a hearty pounding that was threatening to shatter the old window entirely.
"Open, dammit, open!" Jonathan muttered to himself, increasingly frustrated. Once again he couldn't sleep and all he wanted out of life was a little fresh air, and he was even having trouble with that. The window refused to comply, however, and it was the last straw. He had the insane urge to just put his fist through the glass and have done with it, and he quite possibly would have done so if Vinny had not interrupted him.
"Need some help?" Jonathan stopped his work to look down at his friend. Vinny was standing there, a cautious look on his face. Jon wondered what he could be apprehensive about. and then he realized it was him. He must look like a lunatic, perched on a rickety old barstool destroying a window at two in the morning. Jon carefully got down, a sheepish look on his face.
"No thanks, I was just trying to open the window. It's stuck."
Vinny raised one eyebrow and eyed him carefully. "Obviously."
Jon frowned in irritation at Vinny's tone of voice. He didn't know what Vinny's problem was but he was not in the mood to deal with it. He had been woken by another one of his nightmares and was all out of patience. He picked up the barstool and walked away from the window to return it to where he had gotten it from. "The last thing I need right now is your sarcasm, Vinny. What are you doing here anyway?"
Vinny shook his head. "I don't know... I can't seem to sleep in my own bed anymore. I started out taking a walk and found myself on my way here. Every time I close my eyes I can see Hope there." he trailed off in embarrassment. "Pretty stupid, huh?"
When he heard the pain evident in Vinny's voice, Jon felt his annoyance drain away. He looked at his friend standing there, hands in his pockets, looking very lost. "No, you don't sound stupid." He crossed back to where Vinny still stood and pulled up a chair to sit in. "You sound like a man who's had his heart broken."
Vinny shrugged off his coat and joined him, sighing deeply as he sat. After a moment of silence he continued. "She took the bait, you know. She's expecting you and Robert to try and escape during the memorial service. You should have a pretty clear path to the building."
Jonathan nodded his understanding. They both knew that the reason Vinny kept up the pretense of their relationship was a good one, and they both hated every moment of it. There seemed to be nothing Jon could say to make it any better. Vinny felt Jon's sympathetic silence surrounding him and it made him even sadder, so he abruptly changed the subject.
"So what was that about?"
"What?"
Vinny gestured toward the wall with a nod of his head. "The window. You were beating it to within an inch of its life. What did it ever do to you to deserve such abuse?"
Jonathan brushed his hair out of his eyes tiredly, frowning. His temper was short these days, no doubt due to a lack of sleep. He tried to shrug off Vinny's questions, none of which he felt like answering right now. "It was stuck. It got me a little frustrated, that's all."
"Jon, you looked like you were going to break a hole through the wall any minute."
"It was nothing," he responded shortly.
"But Jon-"
Jon pushed himself away from the table roughly and got to his feet. "Just drop it, all right?" he yelled. "Jesus, why can't you just leave me alone!"
Vinny was not put off so easily. Jon's angry outburst only served to make him irate. "I don't leave you alone because it's obvious you can't take care of yourself. You were two minutes away from either putting your fist through a glass window or falling off that stool and cracking your head open. It was just a question of which would happen first."
Jon stood there glaring at Vinny, who met his gaze steadily. He closed his eyes on the headache he was nursing and sighed, rubbing at his temples with both hands to release some of the tension there. When he spoke the stress was evident in his voice. "Vin, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell. I'm just tired, that's all."
"Then can I ask why you're not in bed?"
Vinny noticed Jonathan wouldn't meet his gaze. "I've been having a little trouble sleeping. It's no big deal."
Vinny shook his head in refusal. "Jonathan, for months I've listened to you tell me that you were fine, that I shouldn't worry and you could handle it. I'm not taking that as an answer anymore. Tell me what's going on."
Jonathan stood silent for a minute, and just as Vinny thought Jon was being stubborn and refusing to respond the words tumbled out of him in a rush. Jon walked away from the table and paced nervously, refusing to look him in the eye as he spoke. "I've been having these dreams. well, I guess you might call them nightmares, really. I know it's just my overactive imagination getting the best of me, but they feel so real, Vin. I wake up and I can't shake the creepy feeling I get from them. I can't rationalize it away by thinking its just some fantasy and what happened was impossible, because the truth is it could."
Wanting to help, Vinny asked Jon in a gentle voice, "What are your dreams about?"
Jon's voice had lost all its color and energy. He had nothing left, he was too tired to even feel scared anymore. He leaned his back against the wall and spoke flatly. "Lately they've been about the memorial service. It always starts out with Kilroy and I on our way there, then something goes wrong and we get caught. and it always ends the same, with our execution."
Vinny smiled encouragingly at his friend. "Jon, we're all worried about what might happen during that service, but I think it's a safe bet that no one's going to die."
Jon didn't seem relieved to hear this. "Well, not right then of course. but you have to think they're going to ask for the maximum sentence available to them in this case, and we all know what that is."
"We do? I'm not even sure what you're talking about," Vinny asked in confusion. Jon stopped his preoccupied rambling, realizing that his friend had no idea what he was referring to. He stepped back to the table, reaching for a fat book that was sitting there. He opened it and started thumbing through the pages.
"Vinny, they have me on tape confessing to the crime. In this state that confession would hold up, and with such a confession there is no trial, only a sentencing. Here," he said, finally finding the page he was looking for. He turned the book for Vinny to read and stood there over him, arms crossed, as Vinny scanned the section he indicated.
"Thirty nine people died in that blast. They're going for the death penalty for sure."
So that was why Jon had asked if he could find a book on the Illinois state criminal code. Vinny read the section once, and then twice to make sure he understood it correctly. Jonathan was right - it seemed that the phone call they were touting as being from Jon would legally hold up as a confession. With such a confession, he was not entitled to a trial but would go straight to sentencing. After the public outcry and media coverage they'd been viewing, making Jon out to be public enemy number one, Vinny also had no doubt what that sentence would be. It was a very real possibility that, if arrested, Jonathan would indeed be looking at receiving the death penalty. Their only chance at proving his innocence was a desperate plan filled with risks and pitfalls. He could now understand why his friend had been having nightmares. All the while these thoughts ran through Vinny's head, Jonathan stayed where he was, watching his friend, his arms wrapped tight around himself as if to provide some sort of comfort. He watched as the realization of what he was talking about manifested itself on his friend's face.
"Jon," he started, and then trailed off. What could he say to his friend that wasn't some contrite statement of comfort? He couldn't prevent any of this from happening; he couldn't even make it easier. Never before had Vinny felt so helpless. There had always been some action he could take, but now. there seemed to be nothing to do but let the chips fall where they may. All they could do was hope that they would be able to present their case and then hope that it would be enough. It was all too easy for the entire thing to backfire on them, and they knew no matter how well it went they were still going to walk out of there in handcuffs, even if only until the police sorted through the entire mess. Charges such as those they were brought up on are not so easily dismissed, and it would be a long and arduous process to clear their names. This time the stakes were much higher than he'd realized before. It wasn't until he understood how badly Jonathan was shaken over the whole situation, and understood why, that it really hit him.
And what was there to say to Jon? Vinny couldn't quite read the expression on his friend's face. He was scared all right, but also resigned. An idea came to him and he grasped onto it quickly. "Jon, you don't have to do this. If Alec and Anne can't find anything - or even if they do - there's nothing that says you have to deliver yourself up to Righteous. We'll find some other way of getting the word out."
"No, Vinny, I have to go." Jon smiled at his friend's anxious concern. He had to make him understand what he was feeling. "I'm innocent. The longer I stay in hiding the more it looks as if I have something to hide. I have to trust that I'll be given a fair investigation and trial. although after the sham of a trial they gave Kilroy I'm having trouble feeling very confident about that. But I can't run forever, Vinny. This ends at that memorial service, for good or for bad, with the proof or without it. I can't go on this way any longer. Neither can Kilroy, apparently, since going there was his idea in the first place. No, Vin," he finished, "we attend that service and do the best we can. I've accepted that. It's just that late at night all my monsters come out of the closet and sometimes it's tough trying not to feel like a lamb being led to the slaughter."
Vinny stood with Jon, as if to lend his physical as well as his emotional support. "What can I do to help?"
Jon shrugged, not knowing what if anything was even possible for him to do. "Just being here helps, Vin. Thanks."
Vinny smiled. "Hey, if me being here is what you need, I can do that no problem. I'm very good at being where I am."
Jonathan shook his head at his friend. "Are you being intentionally goofy to cheer me up or are you always like this?"
Vinny smiled wickedly. "Wouldn't you just love to know?"
Jonathan laughed as he walked upstairs. "Just for that you get to sleep on the floor," he joked back, as if there were any place else for him to sleep in the sparsely furnished hideout.
"Yeah, I figured as much," Vinny said, following him in hopes of stealing a blanket.