Gone In A Flash

Chapter Eight: Saturday (3)

Chapter Eight: Saturday (3)

"There's some good news and some bad news," Blacker said when they were settled in the Redfort's empty kitchen some time later. "What do you want first?"

"The bad news, I guess," Hitch said, frowning.

"Right, that. So," he splayed out the copies he had made on the table in front of them. There were maybe ten sheets of paper – nowhere as many as Hitch was expecting. "It looks like somebody who went in there before us – maybe Ruby, maybe somebody else – didn't bother going for stealth when they found the information."

"What?"

"There's about four pages of information that this file is missing," Blacker explained. "Somebody just straight up went and took it out of there – god knows where it is now."

"I think I want the good news now," Hitch said.

"Sorry," said Blacker, "I was actually lying about that bit. There's no good news, only more bad news. Want to see it?"

"Not especially," Hitch said.

Blacker held up a part of the file that had a section highlighted bright yellow. "Well, that's just too bad – you kinda need to read this."

Hitch sighed, and reached for it. The highlighted section covered the top part of the page, and began mid-sentence.

– in addition to the true identity of Victor Von Viscount, commonly known as simply 'the Count' –

"Hold up," he said, tearing his eyes away from the page to look at Blacker. "He has a true identity? What is it?"

"No clue," Blacker admitted. He was now slouching in his chair, arms crossed on the table and head lying at an angle on top. "That page actually happens to be missing, and it's not mentioned anywhere else in the document." He made a keep going motion with his hands, and Hitch did.

– in addition to the true identity of Victor Von Viscount, commonly known as simply 'the Count', the location of the area where he has been keeping himself hidden in Twinford has been redacted from all Spectrum systems. This information, although highly classified, can be found in Sub-File C...

Hitch read on, but it was mostly administrational information in that section. He put it aside. "I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that Sub-File C is missing as well."

"Got it in one."

"But presumably LB's read this file before," Hitch said, "so she would have known about all of this... wait, LB knew that the Count's identity and location had been redacted? And she didn't do anything about it?"

"It's worse than that, actually," Blacker said, pushing the cover page of the file towards him. "LB was the one that authorized the redaction in the first place."

Hitch's first instinct was to deny this, but the signature across the front of the front of the information redaction form was indisputably LB's – even having the same weight to the penstrokes as it usually did. If it was a forgery, then it was one of the best he'd ever seen.

"Right," he said eventually, choosing not to dwell too hard on these slightly disturbing revelations. "Are there any other bombshells you want to drop on me today?"

Blacker appeared to seriously consider this question, and after a second he shook his head. "Not really, no. You can read through the file yourself, but I wouldn't really call anything else in there important."

At this point, Bug entered the room, evidently summoned by the sound of an unfamiliar voice. As Hitch began to read from the beginning, the huskie hovered around the doorway, looking wary.

"I don't think I've had the time to feed Bug today," Hitch said absently, eyes not leaving the page. "The food's in the cupboard, would you–?"

"Sure," said Blacker, and got up to do that. He ruffled Bug's fur as he passed him, and the dog's tail wagged happily. Blacker had evidently made a new friend.

"You're right," said Hitch about fifteen minutes later, stacking everything back into the folder. "It's kind of interesting, but nothing there is what you could really call 'useful'."

Blacker sighed. "Yeah, that's what I got out of it too." He scratched the back of his neck. "Back to square one, I guess." He indicated all of their findings so far. "Do you mind if I take these back home to work through them again?"

"Hey, I'm not stopping you," Hitch said.

"Great." Blacker found a scrap of paper somewhere in his pockets, and quickly scribbled down an address in Downtown Twinford. He pushed it towards Hitch. "If you need to get me. I'd stay here and do it, but – I don't know." He frowned. "It feels kinda wrong to be in this house at the moment. It's just so... empty, I guess."

"I know what you mean," Hitch replied, tucking the address away. "Do what you gotta do."

Blacker nodded, and gathered up his things. "Bye, Bug," he addressed to the huskie with a friendly scratch behind the ears, and then he was out the door and he was gone.

---

Later that afternoon, Hitch received a call from a very exhausted-sounding Agent Lillian.

"So I'm on probation," they announced without preamble. "And I feel like it's worth mentioning that despite all this, I haven't blabbed to LB."

"I'm glad to hear it," Hitch said. "Do you want me to apologize again? Because I really am sorry – if there was any other way –"

"No, no, I get it," Lillian dismissed, sounding as if they were waving a hand through the air. "I don't necessarily like it, but I get why you did it. And that wasn't actually why I was calling."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. LB handled the interrogation herself, see- and we both know that's pretty unusual."

"Not really, she did think you were the mole," Hitch pointed out.

"Yeah, but I'm low-level in the big scheme of things, there actually wasn't any concrete evidence to suggest I was, and I hadn't done a runner, like you told her I had. She could have easily delegated it off to, say, Froghorn or somebody. And we still haven't got to the interesting part yet."

"So get to it," Hitch said, not entirely impatiently.

"Right. Well, she didn't actually ask as many questions about me being a mole as you would expect. They were actually more centered around the Count – what I knew about him, what I had been doing related to him, that sort of stuff."

"Huh, that is kind of weird," he allowed.

"That isn't the half of it," they said. "Before she wrapped up with me, the last question she asked was if I knew anything about a place called 'Room 0'."

This made Hitch raise his eyebrows. "What did you say?"

"I didn't – I played dumb. That's something else you owe me for, by the way."

"I appreciate it," he said honestly. "Thanks for letting me know."

"No problem," said Lillian. "Remember – two months of paperwork."

"How could I forget," he sighed, and prepared to hang up.

"Wait –" they said, just before he could. "One other thing."

"Yeah, what is it?"

"LB," said Lillian, with no trace of playfulness in their voice anymore. "Can I trust her?"

Hitch paused for a very long moment.

"I wouldn't say that she's the bad guy," he said, choosing his words very carefully. "But... I'd watch my back around her."

"Okay," said Lillian. "Thanks for telling me. Talk to you later, Hitch."

"Bye," he said automatically, and they hung up.