by Krister Persson
Martin was also heading down to the garage, when he realized his car was still in the shop. He excused himself from Vanessa and Jordan's company and walked across the sidewalk to hail a cab. Ten minutes later, the cab pulled up outside City Hall. Martin paid the driver and went up the marble stairs.
Upon asking about property records, he was directed to a small, stuffy office. Two of the three computer terminals were taken, so Martin eased down in the seat in front of the third one. From the corner of his eye, he saw a tall black man enter the room. He whispered something to the woman sitting across the room from Martin and they both left the room. A while later, the black man re-entered and sat down, in front of the now available terminal. He glared at Martin. Martin shrugged and went to work.
He started by doing a search on buildings owned either by CrossTech Industries or companies affiliated with them. The terminal displayed a few hundred matches. Martin sighed, but added Thaddeus, Rebecca and Ted Cross to the search criteria anyway. Another 80+ buildings were added. Finding a needle in a haystack was probably easier than finding the correct cabin, but Martin wasn't about to give up. This kind of research was right up his alley.
After removing all industrial buildings and all foreign buildings, except for those in Canada, he was down to less than fifty residential buildings. He tried to limit the search to cabins only, but the computer system didn't differentiate between cabins and other houses. Getting more and more into his work, Martin didn't notice that the man across the room was studying him carefully. Every now and then, the man looked down at his screen, displaying the exact same information as Martin's screen. He obviously had access to some sort of Administrator's code.
Martin tried to come up with another way of limiting the search, but drew a blank. Then he realized it was more than two hours since his last cup of coffee. The coffee from the machine in the hall tasted like crap, but at least it contained enough caffeine to get Martin's brain going again. He tried adding a size limitation to the search criteria and managed to get the number down to 24. The majority of the buildings found were located in two different vacation villages. Martin figured the Crosses were smart enough, not running the risk of having nosy neighbors finding out what they were doing, so he scratched twenty more buildings. He couldn't find a way of limiting the remaining four buildings further, so he printed their addresses. One was located on Prince Edward Island in Canada, two in Maine and the last one in Oregon.
Shortly after Martin had left, the black man picked up his cellphone and dialed the number to CrossTech Industries....
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[Meanwhile, in an office, somewhere in Brooklyn]
"John, I need you to do me a favor." Thaddeus Cross III always went straight to the point.
"What kind of favor, Sir?" John was careful never to use Mr. Cross' name over the phone. The line was supposed to be safe, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
"The fianc�e of an enemy of mine is in New York City. I want her floating face down in the Hudson before this weekend. This enemy is going be taught a lesson, he'll never forget."
"What's the catch?"
"She's with the FBI, plus she's no push-over."
John hesitated for a moment. "Hitting someone with the 'G' will cost...a lot. What's in it for me?"
"How about the names and current addresses of the five key witnesses in your upcoming RICO trial?"
"If you can get me such a list, I would even knock over the mayor of New York City for you."
"That won't be necessary," Thaddeus smiled, "but I'll get back to you if Mr. Giuliani ever gets in my way..."
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[NRPG] Sorry about the lack of posting. I've been meaning to write numerous times, but something has always come in the way. You all know what that's like, I guess. I will try to write more often in the future.