Chapter 28

 

‘Euclidean Industries is run by a cult,’ said Jimmy.

‘A cult?’ echoed Giovanni.

The audience of ghosts behind him stared disinterestedly.

Jimmy nodded. It’d be best to stick to the truth as much as he could. Provided he didn’t admit to even partially sharing their beliefs, he should be fine.

‘I’m not sure how widely the cult is involved in the company, but they seem to own it. Most of the board are under their thumb, if not actual members.’

Giovanni frowned. ‘What kind of a cult?’

‘They believe some shit about certain artifacts - I believe that’s what I recovered from them. They think these objects possess magical powers.’

‘Seriously?’ asked Giovanni.

Jimmy shrugged. ‘They take it seriously. Some of them. Some might just have joined because they control a successful company. They seem invested, though.’

‘Enough to raid our facility,’ said Giovanni. ‘Are they doing anything that interferes with our operations? Other than the raid, I mean.’

‘Nothing I’ve been able to find.’ And he had checked. If he was to suggest negotiating a truce, he had to be sure there’d be no complications.

‘So Minetti’s information was wrong? He seemed certain.’

‘More a lie than a mistake,’ said Jimmy. ‘Though I’m not sure who put him up to it.’

Giovanni stared at him, brow creasing. ‘Explain.’

‘There’s a splinter cult called Singularity, that also has designs on these objects. I believe they manipulated us into recovering them.’

‘Minetti was working for them?’

‘Possibly. If so, he wasn’t alone. More likely he was just a patsy. I believe the objects stolen from Carver Labs prior to the raid were taken by this mole in our organisation. Minetti was dead by this point.’

Giovanni stared at his desk, shaking his head. ‘Okay. Do you have any leads on the mole?’

‘Not yet. But now I’ve a better idea of the players, I can start looking properly.’

‘Okay,’ said Giovanni, lost in thought. ‘The Euclideans. You think they’ll still come at us? Looking for the other items?’

Jimmy hesitated. ‘I doubt the fanatics among them will be inclined to give up. Should we engage in parlay, and explain we have a common enemy...’

‘They attacked our place,’ said Giovanni. ‘That can’t go unanswered. Learn all you can about who’s in charge there.’

‘Yes, sir. Should that take priority over hunting the mole?’

‘I’ll assign someone internally to check on that,’ said Giovanni. ‘You focus on the Euclideans.’

Jimmy nodded. ‘Is there anything else, sir?’

Giovanni frowned. ‘The situation’s been drawing too much police attention.’

Did he know about Jimmy meeting with Detective Kinsala? No. If he knew, he’d have asked about her, however circumspectly.

‘One of them made a connection between the Labs and our operations,’ said Giovanni. ‘She’s looking too closely at things.’

Chances were good that was Kinsala. She had been at the Labs. ‘Do you want me to see what information I can find to hold over her?’ asked Jimmy, though he doubted she was the kind to offer such levers.

‘No. It’s been decided to take a more direct approach. Her partner’s one of ours, so we’ll have him solve the problem. He’s supposed to do it cleanly, but just in case, I wanted you to know there’s the possibility of increased interest.’

Jimmy nodded. It was a dumb move. They were being defensive, looking for any target to lash out at, but he knew no argument he could offer would dissuade them. Not that he’d do so for her sake. She meant nothing to him, but increased police scrutiny could make his job harder.

He avoided meeting the eyes of the ghosts, instead focussing on Giovanni. ‘Anything else?’

‘No. Keep me informed.’

Jimmy left, escorted by his ethereal entourage, and keeping his thoughts to himself.

Not a totally wasted meeting. He had a possible suspect for the mole.