The Second Shooter Page 4

  Laura knew he was right. “I’ll keep digging.”

  * * *

  David looked up into the stands of University Stadium and saw the brightly coloured seats of purple and gold, the colours of the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks. This was their home opening soccer game against the McMaster Marauders. They always hoped for a big crowd, but there were only about two hundred people in attendance. That was probably a good thing as it was a pretty boring game, even for those on the field. The Golden Hawks were ahead two-nil and David was finding it difficult to keep his focus.

  Suddenly he heard someone yell “Go Hawks Go” in a very thick Bronx accent. That could only be one person. He scanned the faces of the people in the stands until he locked in on her. She was carrying a sign, but David couldn’t make out what it said.

  He found himself thinking about her New York City T-shirt as he ran down the field – and how she smelled. How did she manage to smell so good?

  David was jolted awake from his trance when the ball glanced off his shoulder and out of bounds. A teammate had passed him the ball and he hadn’t even seen it coming.

  “David, get your head in the game!” his coach yelled from the sidelines.

  David heard a few of his teammates chuckle. They knew what he had been focused on. He could feel his face flush as he hustled back into position. He was now determined to finish out the game without getting distracted again. Sure enough, he intercepted the ball and sent a clear pass forward to one of their strikers. Unfortunately, the McMaster defender got a head on it and deflected it out of bounds along the end line.

  Since they were now into injury time, this would probably be the last play of the game. The coach yelled for Alex to leave his position as defender to take the corner kick as he had the most powerful leg on the team.

  “B5,” the coach yelled from the sidelines.

  The team had spent a lot of time on corner kicks at their last practice and the coach was anxious to see whether the work would pay off in a goal. B5 was the play where all of the forwards would move toward the front of the net and the near goalpost, but David would drift back away from the other players toward the far post.

  The plan was working to perfection as all of the defenders moved forward leaving David unmarked. With Alex’s leg strength, he easily curved the ball over the heads of the defenders to David.

  David could have easily just tapped the ball into the open net when it came to him, but for some reason he leapt high into the air and scissor-kicked it over his head into the net. The partisan crowd rose from their seats and roared their approval.

  David’s teammates came over to congratulate him on his highlight-of-the-night goal, but the McMaster goalkeeper was pissed. “Fucking hot dog,” he said as he pushed David to the ground. David’s teammates came to his defense and there was a lot of pushing and shoving among the players until the referee got things under control. The referee called the goalkeeper over, showed him a yellow card and then waved for him to get back in his net.

  Then the referee called David over and showed him a yellow card as well. “You’re lucky all he did was shove you. I don’t want to see any more showboating from you. Got it?”

  David nodded. He knew he was right. It was a hot dog move and he felt embarrassed about doing it. It was okay to score and win, but it was never okay to embarrass your opponent. “I don’t know why I did that.”

  But that was a lie. He knew exactly why he did it and she was watching him from the sidelines.

  * * *

  The building manager looked up from his computer to see two strangers standing in the doorway to his office.

  “Can I help you?” he asked.

  “I’m Officer McKee, RCMP,” the first man said flashing his badge. The second man didn’t identify himself, but he also looked like a police officer. “We’ve traced some illegally downloaded information to one of the tenants in this building. We’d like your help in identifying exactly who it was.”

  “I’d like to help you, but I’m not sure I can.”

  Officer McKee placed a warrant down on the desk and leaned in until they were almost nose to nose. “Then I suggest you find someone who can.”

  The building manager picked up the walkie-talkie on his desk. “Paul, can you come to my office please?”

  “Give me two minutes,” Paul answered.

  “Paul’s our telecom guy,” Scott said to the officers. “I don’t know much about the techie stuff, but Paul does, so I’m sure he’ll be able to help you.”

  He started shuffling all of the stuff around on his desk to try to make it look more organized. “You know, these kids get away from home for the first time and before you know it, they’re downloading stuff from porn sites. But I don’t think they’re criminals, just curious kids.”

  “This is not about kids downloading porn,” Officer McKee said.

  Scott had no idea what else it could be. “So what are they downloading?”

  “We’re not at liberty to say.”

  Just then, Paul showed up. “What can I help you with?”

  “These guys are from the RCMP,” the building manager said, “and they’re trying to figure out who’s been downloading some illegal stuff off the Internet. I told them you should be able to help them.”

  “Maybe,” Paul said. “Do you have a warrant?”

  Officer McKee snatched the warrant from the desk and held it about two inches in front of Paul’s face. “It’s a matter of national security.”

  Paul looked a little skeptical.

  “I’m sure we should be able to help out the RCMP,” the building manager said, trying to avoid any confrontation.

  “A very large amount of data was transmitted to the IP address of this building,” Officer McKee said. “We simply need to know which tenant received the data.”

  “Our system tracks that type of information,” Paul said. “I can tell you who made long distance phone calls or how many bits and bytes were sent or received from any location in the building, but I can’t tell you what was in the transmission.”

  “We already know the what. We just need you to tell us the who.”

  Paul used the building manager’s computer to log into the telecom management system and started scrolling through the log files. Most were small transmissions, but one large download stood out like a sore thumb.

  “Which room did that download take place from?” Officer McKee asked, looking over Paul’s shoulder at the listing.

  Paul flipped to another screen and was surprised to see which room it was. He paused before answering, but the officer could see the answer for himself.

  “W308. We’d like to visit that room immediately,” Officer McKee said.

  “I can show you the way,” the building manager said. He led the two officers down the hallway toward the elevator.

  As Paul sat in the office, he had a bad feeling. He knew exactly who was in W308. Those two kids didn’t seem like the type who would be involved in anything criminal. He wandered back down the hall toward the wiring closet wanting to do something to help them, but was at a loss as to what. But the answer suddenly appeared right in front of him in bright red letters - In case of emergency. He knew it would cost him his job if anyone found out, but he felt this qualified as an emergency. He looked down the hallway to make sure no one would see what he was about to do. Then he pulled the fire alarm.

  * * *

  Robert headed out of the building along with all of the other students. David was still at his soccer match.

  False alarms had happened quite a bit over the last week and the students knew it would probably only be fifteen or twenty minutes until they were given the all-clear signal to return to their rooms.

  Robert was just about to leave anyway. He was heading over to the Coffee & Doughnuts lounge in the Math and Computer building to play Magic. Magic: The Gathering was a trading card game that Robert had become hooked on a few years earlier and he had been pleased to find out that it was a popula
r game with university students, and even a few professors.

  The RCMP officers looked completely frustrated as the students streamed by them and out of the building. They knew there was nothing they could do to stop them.

  “We should really leave the building as well,” the building manager said to the officers.

  “We’ll take our chances,” Officer McKee said. “Take us to W308.”

  The building manager took them up to the third floor and used his master key to unlock the outside door. The door to Robert’s room was wide open, but David’s was locked.

  “What’s in there?” Officer McKee asked.

  “The other bedroom,” the building manager said. “Every suite has two bedrooms and a common area.” He used his master key to open the door to David’s room. “We tell the students to lock their rooms, but most don’t.”

  Both rooms looked like the typical chaotic mess found in residence with books and clothes scattered everywhere. “I want these computers searched,” Officer McKee said as he pointed to the computers sitting on both Robert and David’s desks. His partner used his cell phone to call headquarters to bring in some techies to conduct the search.

  “Who’s in these rooms?” Officer McKee asked the building manager.

  “David and Robert Shaw,” the building manager said. “They’re brothers – seem like great kids. I find it hard to believe they’d be involved in anything illegal.”

  “Thanks for your help,” Officer McKee said as he shuffled the building manager from the room. “We can take it from here. We’ll let you know if we need anything else.” The officer did not want the building manager to know any more details about what they were looking for.

  * * *

  When David came out of the front doors of University Stadium, he found his distraction waiting for him. “Hi, Heather. I didn’t expect to see you at the game.”

  “Call me Bronx – that’s what my friends up here in Canada call me. How ‘bout you call me Bronx and I’ll call you Goliath?”

  “Don’t call me that!”

  David felt guilty as soon as the words were out of his mouth.

  “Sorry,” Bronx said. “Are you super-religious or something?”

  “No. Why do you want to call me Goliath anyway?”

  “I dunno. I just thought it was cute ‘cause of the whole David-Goliath thing. I’ll just call you David from now on.”

  “Sorry,” David said. “Didn’t mean to bite your head off.”

  “Do-ya like the sign I made for the game? I got the picture of you in your jersey off the website.”

  The sign showed a picture of David kicking a soccer ball. It said “Go #14 Go” in bright gold letters above the picture and “We love you” below it, with small hand-drawn hearts all around the picture.

  David sighed. “Yeah, it’s great. But I already told you I’ve got a girlfriend back home.”

  “Yeah, but not a serious one.”

  David didn’t answer.

  “Do you wanna walk back to the residence together?” she asked. “I’ve been assigned to E106 but my roommate doesn’t move in ‘til tomorrow and there’s not much to do.”

  “No, I said I’d wait for Alex. He’s icing his knee so we’ll be a while. You should just go ahead.”

  David saw her lower lip start to quiver. She turned and started walking away. As he watched her, he was filled with guilt. He’d been cold and harsh, but it had to be done. It wasn’t that he didn’t find her attractive. In fact, it was the exact opposite. It scared him how attracted he was to her. She made him think and do things he wouldn’t normally do.

  As she walked away, David saw her stuff the sign she had made for him into the huge trash can by the entrance. He was sure he’d just closed the coffin on any potential relationship with her.

  The coffin may have been closed, but it wasn’t nailed shut just yet.

  *** Chapter 8 ***

  David turned to see Alex hobbling towards him. “If this swelling doesn’t go down overnight, I don’t think I’m going to be able to go with the national team tomorrow,” Alex said. The team bus was scheduled to pick up Alex, David and one other player just outside the University Stadium at 9:30 the next morning.

  “I’m sure it’ll be fine by tomorrow,” David said, “and our game in Chicago isn’t for three more days so you’ll have a few days to rest. Don’t forget to bring your player card and your passport. Coach said they won’t let us across the border without them.”

  “Already got’em,” Alex said, holding them up. When he reached around to put them back in his soccer bag, his leg gave out and he dropped them when he fell to the ground. David picked them up and shoved them into his pocket. Then he helped Alex back on his feet.

  “Want me to call you a cab? I’m not sure how much more walking you should do on that leg.”

  “No, I’m fine,” Alex said. “It’s only a block and a half.”

  Rather than staying in residence, Alex was renting a house along with four other guys. It was quite convenient – only a few blocks from the university and the soccer fields.

  After David helped Alex back to his place, he walked a few more blocks to the new residence building. He was surprised to see a few hundred people gathered outside along with a couple of fire trucks.

  “What’s going on?” David asked the student standing next to him.

  “The fire alarm went off – again – probably just another false alarm. I think this is the third time this week.”

  David scanned the crowd looking for his brother, but didn’t see him. He could see Bronx standing about forty yards away, but he didn’t think she saw him. He also saw a few guys dressed in suits in the crowd, which seemed strange. One of them was standing right in front of David and he could see the man was wearing an ear-piece like the ones the secret agents wear on TV.

  David decided to call his brother to make sure he was okay. David had turned off his phone during the soccer game so it took almost a minute to start up. As soon as his phone became active, he heard the man in front of him talk into the microphone inside his suit jacket.

  “His cell phone just became active. He’s somewhere in the crowd. Spread out to find him.”

  David had the eerie feeling they were talking about him, but he had no idea why. He started backing away from the man in the suit as he tried to call Robert, but his call went straight to voice-mail. When he turned to see what the man in the suit was doing, they locked eyes.

  “Got him,” the agent said as he started to run toward David.

  David had no idea what was going on, but his instincts told him to run. He tossed his phone to the ground and started maneuvering through the crowd. Every time he looked back, the agent was hot on his trail. He was within about ten yards of David when the agent went flying to the ground.

  “Hey, watch where you’re goin’,” Bronx said as she fell down beside the man. Bronx made eye contact with David for a split second as she waved for him to get away. Then she turned her focus to the man on the ground. “What do-ya think you’re doin’, racing through here and knockin’ me down?” She gave the agent a kick.

  “You tripped me,” the agent protested.

  A crowd of people gathered around them trying to see what was going on.

  “Yeah, right!” Bronx said. “I barely weigh a hundred pounds soaking wet and you expect everyone to believe I knocked you down? Someone should kick your ass!”

  A few guys in the crowd immediately came to Bronx’s defense. “Why don’t you take on someone your own size?” one of the bigger ones said.

  The agent reached into his suit jacket and pulled out his identification. “RCMP,” he said to the man. “I suggest you back off or I’ll have you arrested.”

  “Police brutality!” someone yelled from the crowd, but the man decided to back off rather than challenge a police officer.

  The diversion had helped David gain an advantage, but he wasn’t out of the woods yet. Being an athlete, he quickly distanced himsel
f from his pursuers by weaving his way through the crowd at full speed, despite carrying his soccer bag. When he was away from the crowd, he cut through the numerous apartment buildings at Waterloo Place, trying to remain out of sight.

  He decided he would try to make it to the Math and Computer building on the Waterloo campus as he remembered that Robert had told him he was meeting some friends at the C&D lounge that night. Robert had the ability to remain calm in times of crisis and David could sure use his brother’s help right now.

  Since he thought his Laurier purple and gold jacket would bring too much attention to him on Waterloo’s campus, he decided to ditch it in a hedge beside one of the apartment buildings.

  David hung back in the shadows alongside the building until there was a break in the traffic on University Avenue and then sprinted across the street hoping he wouldn’t be seen. He thought he had made it there undetected until he heard the squeal of tires as a police car did a U-turn and started heading back in his direction.

  He sprinted between the two engineering buildings heading toward the Math & Computer building. There was some kind of celebration going on at the Grad House that night and there was a large crowd of people milling around the small white building. He slowed to a walk as he thought that would make it easier to blend into the crowd. When a few of the patrons started heading off in the direction David wanted to go, he joined them.

  Ahead, he could see two agents coming toward him. He was sure he would be caught. Fortunately, the path took them through a wooded section on campus called the Peter Russell Rock Garden. He quickly ducked behind one of the boulders and watched as the two agents walked by him and continued on toward the Grad House.

  When a group of Chinese students came through the path shortly thereafter, David fell in behind them as if he was part of their group. He hoped he could easily just follow them into the Math & Computer building. However, they headed into the Quantum-Nano Centre instead and David felt it would be safer to stay as part of their group. The QNC was an impressive looking building of glass and mirrors that almost made you feel like you could see into the future.