Chapter 1176: Pride and Prejudice

“State your business. My colleagues and I were just in a firefight downtown and got called here right after. You should understand what that means, Mr. Barrett. When someone’s in a terrible mood, there’s no such thing as being reasonable.”

Jack was getting irritated with the lawyer, and that irritation was beginning to spill over onto Attorney General Jackson. The same man who had asked Jack to keep things quiet was now throwing him under the bus now that the case had gone public.

Though Jack could understand Jackson’s complicated motives—he wasn’t trying to cover for the “big shots,” but had his own agenda—that didn’t mean Jack was going to let himself be played like a pawn.

Sensing Jack’s growing impatience, Barrett looked a little unsettled. He was the one who needed something here, but this little FBI agent was acting like he didn’t recognize the power backing his words.

“I apologize.”

As a senior partner at a major law firm, Larry Barrett knew exactly when to bow. He tugged awkwardly at his collar and realized he’d rushed out so quickly he hadn’t even put on a tie.

“But the media can smell blood. If it weren’t for that shooting distracting them earlier, this place would already be swarmed by news vans. I have one simple request—can we handle this discreetly and quietly?”

“I don’t know how you lawyers define ‘discreet’ and ‘quiet,’ but this crime scene...” Jack raised a hand and gestured toward the corpse in the elevator. “You’re not seriously going to ask me to call this a suicide, are you?”

“Of course not.” Sensing a crack in Jack’s tone, Barrett quickly pulled out his business card. “We just ask that no public comments be made to the media for now—same as what you usually do.”

Jack didn’t take the card. Instead, he glanced at his watch—it was 3 a.m.

He motioned to JJ and asked her for a card, handing it to the lawyer. “This is Special Agent Jennifer Jeanneret. She handles all our external communications.”

“We’ve been working all night and need rest. In the morning we’ve got a press conference with the mayor about the shooting. Please contact Agent Jeanneret after 10 a.m. and provide everything on her list—Joseph Fielding’s full background, as well as the previous two victims’—secret accounts, tax records, private emails, everything.”

Barrett opened his mouth to object, but Jack cut him off before he could get a word in.

“I know how tight-knit you attorneys can be. So don’t even try to claim you don’t know who the previous two victims were. If you do, I’ll consider our agreement null and void.”

“Mr. Barrett, I hope you understand this—unless we work together to find the killer, these problems will only multiply until one day, they explode like a time bomb.”

Barrett’s face darkened to the color of burnt toast, but he grit his teeth and nodded. “You’re right. We’ll fully cooperate.”

——

“Wow, if dealing with lawyers was always like that, I might actually fall in love with this job,” Aubrey said, his mouth full of burger.

“I thought you were already in love with being a federal agent,” JJ teased. Still, her expression made it clear—Jack’s confrontation with the lawyer had been deeply satisfying.

As the team’s liaison officer, JJ had to deal with reporters and attorneys the most. She was used to swallowing frustrations, and Jack had just delivered a solid dose of vindication on her behalf.

“I’ll bet that lawyer has no idea we had no intention of going public with this case,” Aubrey said smugly, gulping down a huge swig of soda.

Jack nodded with a faint smile. “That’s exactly what the killer wants us to do. But when Jubal and the rest arrive, we’ll keep the investigation confidential. Only by doing the opposite can we hope to draw the killer out.”

JJ looked thoughtful, her brow slightly furrowed. She picked a French fry off Jack’s plate and chewed it slowly.

“But won’t that increase the chances of more victims?”

Both men rolled their eyes. Aubrey even gave her a look of disbelief. “Paying twenty grand for a night of play doesn’t exactly make these guys the kind of people I lose sleep over.”

JJ could only shake her head in exasperation at the lack of empathy from the two thoroughly non-rich men in front of her.

——

Jack was no longer as resistant to limited media exposure as he had been in the past.

Compared to the slim chance of being hunted by a copycat psycho, being seen as an elite agent and sent on undercover assignments was a much bigger hassle.

He could already feel the tension between his mentor Rossi and FBI Director Womack during the Alcatraz case.

After secretly letting Old Mason go, Womack wouldn’t have solid proof, but Jack was sure the director had added a mark next to his name in some mental ledger.

So the next morning, at the press conference, Jack, JJ, and Aubrey stood beside the rotund David Brown, all three wearing sunglasses, receiving thanks from the mayor for the FBI’s swift response during the previous night’s mass shooting.

“I thought the media would care more about the body count, or maybe focus on the targeting of police officers. But no—all the questions were about the use of a robot to deliver the bomb,” Aubrey said, stunned as they returned to the temporary office.

“They only care about flashy headlines. I even saw some so-called expert rambling about whether robots could rebel against humans,” JJ said with a smirk as she poured coffee.

“That bomb robot is basically a big remote-control toy. It has nothing to do with AI,” Aubrey muttered, annoyed.

Jack, texting Jubal—who was still in the air—couldn’t resist a jab. “Too bad Chief Brown didn’t tell the media the robot idea was yours. You might’ve made history.”

“Some media outlets are calling it the first time in federal history that police used a robot to apply lethal force against a suspect. They even mentioned that movie RoboCop.”