Of Broken Things

Chapter 4 - scene 1.

Dawn saw him tired and restless, his nerves flayed raw by the sleepless night. So when Ricky's gravicar landed in his driveway fifteen minutes after the agreed meeting time, he was ready to chew his head off.

"Took you long enough!" he snapped at Ricky and ushered him in.

"Well good morning to you too..."

"Did you get the report I asked for?"

"Oh yeah, forgot what a dick you could be sometimes, thanks for reminding me." Ricky dropped the take-out bag on the table and slouched in one of the chairs. "Right now, I have four active cases. I had to pull an all-nighter just to get caught up. Not to mention that now I owe a bunch of favors to a bunch of people."

Aiden noticed that Ricky was wearing the same clothes as yesterday, only they looked a lot more crumpled. He hadn't shaved and there were dark circles under his eyes. He ran his hand over his jaw and winced as he scratched his two day old stubble.

"Sorry mate, but this case stinks worse than week-old roadkill on a hot summer day."

"Am I safe to assume that you made progress, and what you learned has put you slightly on edge?"

"Am I that easy to read?"

"Well, I can recognize a high security protocol when I see one." Ricky waved his arms around the room, encompassing the blinking lights of the motion sensors, the attentive eyes of the surveillance cameras, and the tell-tale absence of the energy field on the stairs.

"Oh, my friend, you have no idea..."

Aiden briefly debated whether to share what he had learned with Ricky or not. On one hand, the speculations he came up with were rather far-fetched. On the other hand, Ricky had brought him this case in the first place. He also was his friend and his partner. 

"Want coffee?" He said, "I just made a fresh pot."

"Oh god, yes please!"

They sat in silence for a few minutes, Aiden trying to marshal the information in his head into some semblance of order while Ricky sat warming his hands on his mug and greedily inhaling the rich coffee aroma. Aiden let him finish the much needed coffee in peace before he broke the silence.

"I have been following several leads, and I don't like the picture I'm starting to see."

"So Steven was involved in something illegal then? Pity. Marjory will be heartbroken," Ricky smiled sadly. "Well, more heartbroken than she already is."

"I believe this is bigger than Steven Fortworth's murder." Aiden looked at his friend seriously. "Computer, bring up the fire simulation."

The lab fire simulation played itself out once again in the middle of his living room. Aiden knew the sequence of events by heart after watching it so many times the previous night, so he barely glanced at the screen, concentrating on Ricky's face instead. Ricky watched the screen intensely until the sim ended, then got up to scroll through the data. Aiden saw him frown at the mention of explosives.