Watch Dogs Read Free Page A

be able to pay them off. And goofy on dope or not, Pussler had gotten the job done. He was one of Pearce’s go-betweens on the street; he’d been on call, had gotten the pre-loaded emergency text, and he’d responded quickly. Because Pearce had suspected someone was stalking him, shortly after he set out for the meeting. So he’d told Pussler to get with the ambulance escape team, and stay close for a getaway with good cover, if he needed it—he didn’t expect to be shot.
    Stupid, he told himself. Shouldn’t have risked it.
    If someone had set him up—who was it? Pussler just didn’t seem that complicated—and for some reason Pearce trusted him. There was Clyde Merwiss——a programmer who worked with Pearce sometimes, had for about four months...But he hadn’t known about the meeting.
    So——had Mick Wolfe set him up for the gunman?
    If Wolfe had set him up, he was a better actor than Pussler. Mick Wolfe had seemed glad to see him. Had even tried to warn him.
    Had, in fact, saved his life. Wolfe’s warning had given Pearce a chance to duck from the line of fire, so he’d only caught one round, and only glancingly.
    Luckily the gunman had seen all that blood splash from the scalp wound and thought he’d done better than a graze...
    Pearce had done a hack into the cameras on the street, before getting out of his own car and walking down there; he’d checked to see who was meeting him; who it was, exactly, who knew that old code phrase.
    The street camera had shown him a vaguely familiar face. He’d used the ctOS facial recognition system, and it confirmed: Mick Wolfe. Colin’s boy, whom Pearce had last seen when Mick was in his early teens...
    Pearce took out his smartphone, wiped some dried blood off it, and then went to his ctOS penetration mode...
    Time to find out what Mick Wolfe had been up to.
    #
    “ What ’d you say your name was, officer? Actually——could I just see that badge again?”
    A big pink-faced man with a flattop and a square jaw, the detective growled to himself but reached inside his gray suit jacket and pulled out his gold badge again, held it up in his scarred, beefy pink hands. “ Tranter. Lieutenant Tranter. That enough stalling?”
    Wolfe memorized the badge number.
     “Sure, detective.”
    Tranter put his badge away. “Now fork over your I.D., wise guy.”
    Wolfe only had one set of I.D. so far, besides a driver’s license. But he wasn’t exactly wanted for anything. He pulled out his military I.D., hoping the detective was sentimental about soldiers, and passed it over.
    “This Army I.D.’s expired.”
    “Yeah. I was discharged.”
    Tranter handed it back. “I’m investigating a shooting. An...alleged shooting. You were at the hospital, asking about someone who may or may not be involved in the shooting.”
    “And you found me here? Man, ctOS is fast.”
    “It is. Facial ID. Camera on the street, in the hospital and out front here. Your I.D. card confirms it. But... weird thing is, when you got close to that corner, ctOS cameras snowed over. Just lost the picture! We didn’t see what happened after that.”
    “Not my fault the cameras fritzed.” This was interesting. Cameras had gone down, when he’d gotten closer to Pearce. That wasn’t Wolfe’s doing. Was it Pearce’s? Had Pearce blocked the local camera feed?
    Tranter was looking Wolfe distastefully up and down. Taking in the unshaven jaw, rumpled clothes with disapproval. “Where you going at this instant?”
    “Me? Tell you the truth, I was going to commit a misdemeanor. I was going to pee behind the building. Man, I go t to go. They wouldn’t let me use their bathroom in there.”
    “You weren’t going to that car parked in back?”
    “Me? No.”
    “So the Acura’s not yours?”
    “Naw. I look like a guy could own a nice new car like that? I heard freckles inside talking on the phone about his new Acura. Leasing. You wouldn’t believe what he’s paying.”
    Tranter nodded, but it was not