Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 71616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 358(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 358(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
“She’s trouble. I’m telling you—”
“You think I don’t know that?”
“Do you know that?” he asks, eyebrows so high they disappear into his hairline.
“Boys, boys, sit down. Look at this.” Robbie turns the laptop around and Jericho and I both glance at it. “This is Wyatt Hoxton.”
Jericho resumes his seat and I walk around behind the sofa to look at the laptop on Robbie’s lap.
“Who the fuck is Wyatt Hoxton?” Jericho asks.
“Mugshot. I remembered seeing that tattoo more recently and I’m thinking this might be the man Blue saw.”
He zooms in on the photo and behind Wyatt’s long hair I can just make out part of a tattoo that looks like the coda.
“Who the hell is he?” I ask.
“Wyatt Hoxton is a part of the special guard for the Councilors of the Tribunal. That is what your illustrious court system is called, is it not?”
The Tribunal is IVI’s legal arm. Operating outside and independent of the legal systems set in place in various countries where we are present, IVI has a government in and of itself. Society members, most of whom are born into the world and a few, like us, have bought into it, are subject to the laws created by and for Society members. We are protected but also held accountable, in a different way than your average run-of-the-mill citizen.
“You’re saying he was the man who came for the laptop? And nearly raped Blue?” I ask, my brain adding on the fact that she was sixteen at the time. “And what about the one-handed mystery man?”
“That I don’t know. The few files I found buried deep within the laptop might suggest whoever our friend Lucky was working for was either a Society member or someone who was collecting information on members. This one here, De La Rosa, one of the founding families, isn’t that right?”
I nod. “Santiago is head of his family. His father and brother were killed a few years ago. He has a sister, Mercedes. She’s married to Judge Montgomery.”
“Mercedes has been a bad girl.”
“What do you mean?” Jericho asks.
Robbie sets the computer on the coffee table and gets up to pour himself a whiskey. I take the seat he vacated, and Jericho and I read.
“What the hell?” Jericho says.
“She killed a courtesan?” I scroll down the page and continue to read. There is a photo of the murdered woman and some backstory on her. The woman was not Society but worked at The Cat House as a courtesan. Mercedes’s family is powerful, even within The Society, and when she was brought to face The Tribunal, it was all hush-hush, apparently.
“It’s written like a fucking journal entry.”
Jericho nods and we continue to read. “Judge Montgomery initiated the Vicarius clause. What the fuck is that?” he asks.
“He took responsibility for her actions. He’d have taken whatever punishment was decreed,” I say.
“Fuck.” Jericho sits back, rubs his eyes. “Twenty-four lashes. Remind me what fucking year this is?”
I look up at Robbie who is standing watching us. “Is this some sort of blackmail file?”
“Looks like it.”
“Are there more on the laptop?”
“I’m guessing one of the Councilors recorded these. I put a folder on the desktop. It states not only the outcomes of several trials at The Society but also suggests there are visual recordings of the sentences being carried out. Medieval punishments from the sound of things.”
“These aren’t official court papers.” They’re not written that way. These are kept with emotion. Relish, even.
“I believe these would be the unofficial versions. I wonder if Lucky hacked into one of the Councilors computers and got his hands on these.”
“How would he even know about IVI’s existence?”
“That’s the tricky part. The gun is registered to IVI. Someone from inside hired him to get this information. Wyatt works for the Councilors. I wonder if they found out and sent Wyatt to retrieve the laptop once Lucky was arrested. All I know for sure is it all points back to The Society. If you find that external drive, I can try to get into the files. See if we can pinpoint where they came from,” Robbie says.
“Blue mentioned the mystery man looking for the laptop. And she mentioned her father was afraid of whoever he was working for,” Jericho says.
“You think he was keeping his end of the bargain and delivering? Saving his ass?”
Jericho shrugs a shoulder.
“Can we get into his bank records, see if he was paid?” I ask.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Robbie says.
“Could also be someone else hired Lucky and the Councilors found out. Sent Wyatt to retrieve the laptop,” I say, trying to think it through. “Either way, Lucky was working for someone. He wouldn’t know about the existence of IVI or The Councilors to even know to look for this otherwise. And then the Councilor or Councilors found out. So there are potentially two sets of players within IVI.”