Chapter Seventeen
Interrogationsthat he ran took every ounce of Jesse’s patience. Being on the opposite side of one was exhausting. Jesse wished he had his phone or a watch. There was no way to tell how much time had passed, which was part of the point in these kinds of rooms. Remove time, and things got weird. Remove comfort, and everything was tiring. Jesse rubbed his hands up and down his face. Stubble pricked at him, but he hadn’t shaved since that morning. Hair wasn’t quite long enough to be a day old yet, though. And he wasn’t hungry, so dinner couldn’t have been that long ago.
But fuck, was he tired.
The questions went on and on. Bonnell wanted to know everything from the first time he’d heard of the DWO through to what he ate for dinner.
All right, she hadn’t asked about dinner. But she had brought up Bryce’s two unannounced visits. And Lawson’s apartment. And the vision he’d had. And the nightmare pressing ever closer to his consciousness. Bryce brought in a bottle of water at one point, but he didn’t stay.
At least he didn’t have that awful tension in his shoulders. Jesse had a feeling he was listening in on the other side of the one-way mirror. If their situations were reversed, Jesse would have demanded to be in the room leading the interrogation. Of course, Jesse running in where he was uninvited was about half his problem at the moment.
“And you discovered a potential conspiracy about Crowley Construction on your own?” Bonnell said.
“Naw.” Jesse took a sip of water. “Someone sent me an email. I’ve got an account I use for my Ephraim O’Shay cover and for website forums.”
“Who alerted you to the problem?” Bonnell asked.
Jesse tightened the lid on the bottle of water. He knew Bryce wanted him to give all the answers, but this was one he wasn’t sure he should share. If the DWO didn’t know about them, then he didn’t want to call attention to their operation. As much as he wanted to trust Bonnell and her people had the best intentions, he didn’t want anyone trying to quash the network of people out there. They fought the same fight without the same resources.
Bonnell set down her pen. “Jesse, I need to know everything. Where this information came from might be relevant to everything else going on.”
Jesse had promised Bryce that he would cooperate, and that he wouldn’t lie. There were lines he wasn’t willing to cross, even to be part of the DWO like he’d always dreamed. Loyalty mattered to the connections he’d made. He couldn’t sacrifice it easily.
But he didn’t have to be completely obscure about them either. He said, “They don’t cooperate with corporations. They expose them.”
“That’s what we hope people think aboutSpooky True Talesand the government.”
“That’s different,” Jesse said. “You actively ask for stories on that podcast. These two don’t send out mass invites. In order to get into that chatroom and make that connection, it took years of scouring the internet.”
“These may be contacts we’re already aware of,” Bonnell replied.
Jesse shook his head. “If they knew I was FBI, I’d be doxed by the community. I have worked too hard and too long to lose my network because they get a whiff of government off me. I can try reaching out to them. Find some way to word it so that it’s clear that you’re looking for more information to shut this shit down. Even that may cost me contacts.”
“Clearly you can see that we’re not the awful boogeymen the internet believes we are,” Bonnell said.
Words any evil boogeyman would declare. Jesse leaned back in his chair. He didn’t think he was in any real trouble, but then Bonnell could be luring him into a false sense of security. She had demanded a copy of Uncle Ephraim’s journals early on. Since he had the physicals and two versions of backups, he wasn’t paranoid about losing the information, but he couldn’t be sure that she wouldn’t ask him to delete the others. As much as Jesse believed in the good the DWO could do, they were still a government agency. They might operate in the shadows, but eventually the public would find out about them. Or worse, the DWO might mutate into an untrustworthy organization. Someone needed to be out there fighting, and he couldn’t expose them.
No, there were some lines he couldn’t cross, not even to keep his chance with Bryce alive.
“I can reach out to them, but I’m not giving you their screennames,” Jesse replied.
“And that’s your final answer?”
“Yes.”
Bonnell clicked her pen. “Then I think I have everything I need tonight. I’ll have Bryce drive you home.”
“I’m free to go?” Jesse asked.
“We don’t arrest curious citizens, even if we do wish they were more forthcoming,” Bonnell replied. “But be careful. Follow Bryce’s orders, or our next conversation won’t end this pleasantly.”
They both stood. Bonnell added, “And when you get home, do us a favor and pack those journals. I’d like to get them into the archives.”
She wanted to take his legacy from him. No matter how many times she promised to give them back, he couldn’t help thinking that it was a long play to cut him out entirely. He said sternly, “I said you could have a copy of them.”
“We prefer to make our own.”
“Well, tough shit. Besides, they’re not all here.”
