Chapter 4
Leila records while Camden explains how he hacked into the SHIELD server. She can only follow some of it, but she understands enough to know how exceptional it is for a teenage boy to do what he did.
As he explains, he starts to come alive a little, like just talking about hacking has brought him back into his comfort zone.
“And that’s how I did it,” he finishes, leaning back in his chair.
“That’s very impressive,” Leila notes, because it’s true, and because his entire demeanor is begging for an attaboy, and even if it’s for breaking the law, Leila can tell it’s not something he hears a lot. Maybe if he did, he wouldn’t go around hacking intelligence agencies. Who knows.
Camden straightens up a little at this, but shrugs, like he’s trying to act like it doesn’t mean anything. “I’m good with computers,” he says, and there’s something like hope in his eyes. “Always have been.”
He wants to be recruited. And honestly, Leila can’t find it in her to condemn him for childlike whims when she had the exact same thought. SHIELD doesn’t hire people under 18, but that’s only two years away for him, and as he told her about his hacking, she’d considered coming back for him then. Or having someone else do it, anyway.
“Okay,” Leila says. “A few more questions. Your teacher’s mother said you showed up on her doorstep in the middle of the night a few weeks ago. You wanna tell me what that was about?”
Camden goes red. “I had a fight with my parents,” he says, shrugging. “And Harker wasn’t at home. So I did some digging and found out where his mom lived. I thought he might be there.”
Leila almost smiles sadly. Because of the fact that he was driven out of his own home in the middle of the night, and because Harker, apparently, kept his own troubled family life a secret from his protege. Presumably he figured Camden had enough of his own shit to deal with, and he was probably right.
“Did you know Harker’s name was in the SHIELD server?” she asks.
“Literally how would I know that,” Camden scoffs, and then seems to remember himself. He shakes his head. “Sorry,” he says quickly. He’s still trying to make a good impression. Leila can feel a part of her melting. She quickly buries it.
“No,” he continues. “I just saw his name in it and I thought he should know.”
“So it was a coincidence,” Steve murmurs, and Leila glances at him and nods.
“I have a question,” Steve continues, turning back to Camden, who seems to sit up even straighter under the gaze of his hero. “Did Harker...coerce you at all into hacking the server?”
Camden shakes his head quickly. “No,” he says. “He didn’t even know I was doing it until I already did.”
Leila glances at Steve to see if he has any more questions. He doesn’t; he leans back, arms crossed, and nods. “Okay.”
“Do you know who else had access to the information on the server?” Leila continues.
Camden shakes his head. “I only showed Harker. But….”
But he doesn’t know who Harker showed it to.
“That’s okay. I believe you,” Leila says. “Do you know how Harker could’ve gotten ahold of chitauri tech?”
“I’ve heard rumors that they’re all over the black market,” Camden says. “Otherwise…”
Leila nods, and considers something. If Harker was looking to score chitauri tech off the black market, he’d need significant cash to do so. More than a school teacher would make.
A SHIELD server could fetch that kind of money on the black market.
They ask him a few more questions, trying to jog his memory, but Leila can tell he’s getting frustrated. Hell, she’s frustrated. They came all this way, finally got under his skin, and the kid doesn’t know anything.
“Okay,” Leila says finally. “If we think of anything else to ask, we’ll contact you.”
“Thank you, Camden,” Steve adds. “I mean it.”
Camden lights up at this, but stays quiet until they’re just about to leave the office.
“Do you think Mr. Harker’s a good person?” he asks suddenly.
She and Steve glance at each other, and with one look, he passes the ball to her. He can’t give the kid the answer he wants.
“I don’t know,” Leila says after a long moment, and it’s not even a lie, really. Who is she, of all people, to decide if someone’s good or bad? “But I think he cares about you a lot.”
“So that’s it,” Steve says in the hallway, once Camden’s back in his room. “We’re out of options.”
“Maybe not,” Leila says thoughtfully, and Steve studies her.
“What are you thinking?”
Leila digs her nails into her palms to keep herself from flashing back to wide, scared brown eyes.
“I want to talk to the sister,” Leila says. “And I want to talk to her alone.”
“What do you wanna know?” Tessa asks. It’s alarming, how similar her body language is to her brother--the exact same set of her shoulders as she slumps over, arms crossed, staring at the floor.
“I think you know the answer to that, Tessa,” Leila replies. “See, I’m guessing Camden told you all about what was happening long before we showed up.”
“So why am I being dragged into it?” She’s still looking at the ground, but she keeps glancing up to meet Leila’s eye, and Leila wishes she didn’t know what Tessa was hoping to find there.
“There was just one question Camden couldn’t answer for me,” Leila says. “We wanted to know if Harker shared the information on the server with anyone else. And he didn’t know. And I was just wondering if maybe you saw anything?”
Tessa shrugs and looks down again. Leila stays quiet, watching the wheels turn in the younger girl’s head.
Finally she looks up. “Why should I help you?” Tessa challenges, and Leila knows what she’s really asking. What’s in it for me?
“You want to live with your older brother,” Leila says, and Tessa sits up straighter. Daniel Fisher, the twins’ older half-brother, was barely a foot-note in their file, and Leila suspects that lack of dirt, that normalcy, ispart of the appeal. It’s not hard to figure out Tessa’s angle; anyone in her situation would want an out, and Daniel Fisher is the nearest safe place to land.
“It’s better than here,” Tessa says noncommittally, but Leila can tell she’s more than interested.
And Leila’s allowed to lie to her and promise beyond a shadow of a doubt that she’ll get Danny custody of Tessa and Camden, she’s allowed to say almost anything to get what she needs, and she usually does. She probably lies more than she tells the truth at this point, and she should. Not just because she shouldn’t care, but even if she did, there are lives at stake. One girl’s feelings don’t outweigh the lives of multiple SHIELD agents, she’s pretty sure.
It’s just that Leila can’t forget those eyes. They’re hazel now, but in the lighting when she left the other night, they looked brown. They looked like her own. And now she can’t unsee it. Maybe, in an upside down way, she’s being selfish.
She’s not sure; she can’t really think it through just then. All she knows is that the smart part of her is telling her to make the promise and then try to follow through, and the rest of her is screaming at her to not give this kid false hope.
Not again. Not again. Not again.
A long time ago in a land far, far away, there was another girl who thought she was free, too.
She digs her hands into her palms to ground herself again.
“I’m not going to bullshit you,” Leila says. “And I’m not going to make you promises I’m not sure I can keep. I can tell you that I’m going to try my best to make that happen for you, and I can tell you I’ll do it even if you don’t say another word to me. And you can choose to believe me or not.” She leans back in her chair. “If there’s anything else you want--”
“There’s not,” Tessa says quietly, and tilts her head to the side, sizing Leila up. Deciding whether to trust her, figuring out what leverage she has left. Calculating. Leila knows that look.
“There was this dinner party that my parents threw a month ago,” Tessa says finally. “It was this fundraiser for rebuilding New York after…” she waves a hand, indicating the invasion, and Leila nods.
“I saw Harker there,” Tessa continues. “Just for a second. He was talking to this guy who comes to all my parents’ parties. I don’t remember his name.”
“That’s fine,” Leila says. Once they have the guest list, they can run background checks on everyone on it. “This is actually really helpful. Thank you, Tessa.”
Tessa shrugs, glancing at her.
“Why didn’t Cam know, by the way?”
“He wasn’t there. He was supposed to be, but they don’t really notice.”
Jesus, Leila thinks.
“I just have one more question,” Leila says.
“Okay.”
“Are you okay?” Leila asks, and it’s sort of like touching a wounded animal to see where it’s hurt. She knows Tessa’s going to lash out at the question, but the way that she does can tell her everything.
Tessa blinks. “Why wouldn’t I be?” She gets to her feet, like she’s getting ready to run.
“You just seem….troubled. The fights, the setting your house on fire, you know, normal teenager stuff.”
“That was….” Tessa stammers, overwhelmed. “They started it. And the fire thing was just--why do you care, anyway? You’re basically just a cop, you’re not a guidance counselor. Fuck off.”
Leila glances at her hands, clenched into fists. Tessa seems to realize what she’s doing, because she unclenches them suddenly, dusting her hands off on her jeans. And just barely, Leila can see the crescent moon shapes on Tessa’s palms from her fingernails.
She holds up her hands in surrender. “Okay,” she says. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I overstepped.”
Tessa shrugs and looks down, receding again. That’s fine. She doesn’t have to like Leila. It’s probably better if she doesn’t.
“I think we’re done here. I’m gonna go talk to your parents about the guest list, and...some other things.”
“They’re not going to let me go just because you ask nicely,” Tessa says bitterly.
They. Not he. The mom knows.
Leila takes a moment to let the rage quiet down to a simmer before managing a tense smile. “I can be pretty persuasive,” she replies.
“Okay,” Leila says as she sits down across from the Harrises. “This shouldn’t take a long time, I just have a few questions.”
“Of course,” Richard says.
“Anything we can do to help,” Anne Marie adds.
Leila glances up at them, trying to make her disdain invisible.
“Tessa told me she saw Felix Harker at a dinner party you threw a few weeks ago,” Leila says. “Were you aware of that?”
“Oh, I didn’t know,” Richard says. “Honey?”
“There were so many people at that party,” Anne Marie says, like she’s admitting something. “It’s possible he might’ve dropped by without us noticing.”
“Right,” Leila says flatly. “Can I get a guest list for the party? Just so I know who Harker might’ve spoken to.”
“Of course,” Anne Marie says, and excuses herself to go find it. While she’s gone, Leila asks a few more procedural questions, none of which are the ones she really wants to ask.
Why didn’t you know your son was gone last night?
Why didn’t you know he left in the middle of the night three weeks ago?
Why aren’t you worried that your son’s teacher is a bomber?
Why is your step-daughter afraid of you?
Anne Marie comes back in and slides the guest list across the table to her, and Leila thanks her.
How long have you known your husband was a monster, Mrs. Harris?
How long has your daughter known that you know?
She glances over the names, and one sticks out to her. Adrian Bianchi. She used to do business with him. Definite connections to the black market. She makes a note to point that out when they file the paperwork for the case.
“Okay,” she says finally, “one last question.” She looks down at the guest list, as if her last question is written in it. “How long have you been molesting your stepdaughter?”
The air is sucked out of the room. “How dare you,” Anne Marie hisses, and Richard’s face has gone red.
She lets them shout. She lets them get it out. She lets them implicate themselves with their rage.
“You come into our house--”
“We’ve shown you nothing but hospitality--”
“I would never--”
“Well? Do you have anything to say for yourself?” Richard demands finally, slamming a hand on the table, like he’s chastising a child.
Leila smiles serenely. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have made assumptions. It doesn’t matter, anyway.” She stands up, pushing her chair in after her. “Here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to give Daniel Fisher custody of your kids, and in return, I’m not going to tell the whole world about what’s been going on in your house.”
“You have no proof!” Richard insists.
“No. But I have a coworker who’s a literal God. And another one waiting outside that door with a hero myth surrounding him.” She tilts her head. “Who do you think people will believe?”
“We’ll do it,” Anne Marie says quietly, and Richard looks at her incredulously.
Leila turns her attention to her, and Anne Marie looks up at her with absolute loathing.
“We’ll let the kids live with Daniel,” she says. “Just get out of our house.”
She starts to leave. “I’ll be following up,” she says, “so don’t think I won’t know if you’re lying.”
“Wait,” Richard says, his voice dark, and she turns and smiles curiously, like a cat playing with a mouse.
“You know, I’ve heard some interesting things about you, too,” he says. “Some people say that you and your friends are responsible for the greatest damage to this city since 9/11. And you, especially--who knows anything about you? Why the secrecy? What are they covering up for you?”
Leila leans against the doorway lazily, letting him go on.
“Now look,” he continues, stepping closer until he’s right in front of her.. “I may be flawed--” Leila raises a brow at his understatement--”But I’m not the one with blood on my hands. So you can come here, and threaten us, and take our kids away, but don’t you dare judge us, girlie.”
He reaches out, pointing, and shoves her chest with his pointer finger to make his point.
Leila stares up at him, and then smiles, and grabs his wrist and twists it until he yelps.
“You’re right,” she says quietly. “I do have blood on my hands. And let me promise you that whatever I’ve done to anyone else is child’s play compared to what I’m gonna do to you if you ever even dream about touching a child again.”
She leans forward, twisting harder until he hisses in pain. “I’ll be watching,” she whispers into his ear. Then she lets go, letting him stumble back, cradling his wrist and elbow. She glances at Anne Marie, who’s staring at her, horrified, and smiles before she leaves.
“What went on in there?” Steve asks as they leave through the front door.
“Just some questioning.”
“I heard screaming.”
“Aggressive questioning.”
“From them?”
Leila rolls her eyes. She keeps waiting for it to hit, the emptiness. She keeps waiting to leave her body, but it’s not happening. She’s aware of everything--the cool summer breeze, the sound of the gravel under their shoes, the emerald green of the lawn. If anything, she’s more awake than she has been in a long time.
“I might’ve made some parenting suggestions,” Leila says noncommittally.
“And they didn’t take it well.”
“Not at first,” she says, “but I think I got through to them.”