The Price We've Paid

Part of the Team

When you and Andy returned downstairs, your fellow immortals and Tyler were huddled together in the lab. He must've been showing them all your research, because they were each taking turns looking into a microscope.

"That's incredible," Joe said, as he backed away from the lens. He turned, catching your gaze as you two entered the lab. "This is all so amazing!"

"Glad you think so." You said with a smirk.

The sound of your voice caught everyone else's attention, causing them all to turn to look at you and your wife.

"You two okay now?" Nile asked, as Nicky and Tyler tried to hide their smirks.

Andy chuckled. "Yeah, we're okay."

You turned to gaze at your wife. "Never better."

"Great," she replied. "Tyler's been showing us your research."

"And they were getting me up to speed about Copley. I asked Ember to set up a search for him," Tyler added, as he moved forward toward your array of computers.

You stepped away from your wife to join him, sitting down at your desk chair once the computers came online.

"Ember, what've you got?" You asked her as you logged in.

The rest of your team watched as your fingers furiously typed away on the keyboard, a variety of windows popping up on the several different monitors.

"It seems as though Mr. Copley was meeting with someone who was posing as a potential client," Ember said, as she pulled up pictures of James leaving his house the day of the meeting. You flipped through them, following his course of events throughout the day. You had images from his entire trip into town and the eventual meeting with the "potential client."

Your brow furrowed.

"That's odd," you said as you pulled a few images away from the rest.

"What's odd," Andy asked, as she leaned down to look at the pictures, her hand resting on the shoulder of your chair.

"Copley," you said. "He switched seats about halfway through the meeting." You pointed to the position change. "It looks like he got up to get a refill of his latte; and while he did, the man he was meeting with walked away to make a phone call. When the guy came back, Copley was sitting in his seat."

"Why would he do that?" Joe asked.

You began flipping through the various security cameras and photos. Eventually, you got the feed from a camera across the street. It showed the minute that James switched seats.

"Oh, you beautiful genius," you cooed, as you pulled the video feed into your facial recognition software.

"What?" Nile asked curiously. "What's going on?"

As your facial software ran, you pointed to the screen. "Watch what he does with his hands as he sits down."

You replayed the video. As Copley sat down in the man's seat, he carefully, but quickly, put his phone behind his back, the screen facing the camera you were watching from, before dropping it to make it look like it fell out of his back pocket when the guy returned to the table.

"What are we looking at?" Nicky asked, curiously.

Andy leaned in close "Was that-"

"I believe so," you said as you selected the pieces of the frame that captured his phone screen. You pulled them into your editing software, blowing up the image and enhancing the pixel quality as much as you could, to try and figure out what was on the screen.