“What is in the cache?” Daniel asked.
Some of the tension left Caelan’s face. “A riddle.”
Colin smiled when Caelan didn’t expand on his answer. “Please explain.”
“None of us are interested in finding caches with little superheroes or trinkets in them. And the people who create the caches are far too smart to create something as simplistic as that. So we have cognitive challenges.”
“To see who’s the smartest.” Vinnie leaned back in his chair. “Man, I would be so out of my depth.”
“You would.” There was no malice in Caelan’s reply. “Each cache’s riddle leads us to the next cache. There are always three caches in a set. We’re given an initial riddle to lead us to the first cache, then we have to find our way to the last cache. With each one, the riddles become more abstract and complicated. Until the final cache which always has the hardest riddle.”
“Hold on a bit there, superman.” Vinnie’s frown pulled his brow down. “You gotta explain it real simple for me.”
“Why? You’re not stupid.”
Vinnie’s loud laugh was one of surprise. He shook his head. “Thanks, dude. Okay, my question is this: If you guys get a riddle in each cache, how do you know where to look for the next cache? I mean, how does it lead you to the next cache?”
Caelan took his smartphone from his pocket and put it on the table. “There’s a website, but everything about the caches is on an app on our phones. When you solve the riddle from one cache, you enter the answer into the place for it on the app and the GPS co-ordinates for the next cache are revealed.”
“Aha.” Vinnie leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. “Is there a time limit or some such thing to solve the riddles?”
“No.” Caelan glanced at his phone. “The app gives points for each riddle solved and every other action. The faster you solve the riddle, the more points you get. The quicker you get to the next cache, the more points you get.”
“And the person with the most points wins what?” Vinnie raised both shoulders. “A riddle?”
Caelan glared at his shoulder. “I’m not sure, but I think you’re being sarcastic.”
“Sorry, superman.” Vinnie lowered his shoulders. “But I would still like to know what you win.”
“Nothing. It’s knowing that we were the fastest in solving the riddles and getting the caches that counts. There have been a few members who thought it was stupid not to have big prizes, but only a few. The others kicked them out of the group.”
“Harsh. Does everyone work in teams?”
“No, but most of us do.” Caelan swallowed. “Jace is a perfect match for me. I don’t like being outside among other people. I like searching and researching the locations on my computer with the many satellite mapping systems available. Jace loves running through the city or forest or buildings, looking for the caches. He enjoys being outside. As long as no one talks to him.”
“Then how do you communicate?” Daniel asked. “Only via instant messages on your phones?”
“Not only. Jace has smart glasses. He wears them very often and streams his footage live to me. That way I can see where he is and what he’s doing. When we work like that, I’m on the phone with him, speaking to him.”
“GIPN has been using smart glasses.” Vinnie nodded towards Daniel. He often joined Daniel’s GIPN team when they trained. A few times he’d taken part in their rescues as well. “Pink was going on and on and on and on about it. Just like Franny.”
Pink was GIPN’s IT expert and shared his passion with Francine, my best friend and a world-renowned hacker.
Almost a year ago, Pink had been grievously injured during one of our investigations. My respect for him had grown exponentially watching his determination to recover physically and emotionally from that event. He’d moved into our extended apartment when he’d been released from the physical rehabilitation centre. I’d observed his optimism and relentless hard work to speed up his recovery. It inspired me.
Two months ago, the department had cleared him for active duty after rigorous tests to ensure that he was indeed able—physically and psychologically—to perform his duties.
“I still prefer the body cams.” Daniel looked at me. “If we’re going to be recording things, body cams are better.”
“But smart glasses do so much more.” Vinnie shrugged when we looked at him. “What? I’ve been listening to Pink and Franny sing these things’ praises. And then I tried it. Must say, the fact that these glasses can ID so many things before our brains have time to process them can be very useful.”
Daniel sighed. “Vin is right. The smart glasses are programmed for facial recognition. The idea is for law enforcement personnel to be wearing them all the time. The glasses will process everyone crossing the agent’s path. If someone is on a watchlist and the system recognises the face, it will alert the agent. If the agent is busy in a verbal exchange with a suspect and focused on his face, he might miss the butt of a weapon peeking out from the suspect’s shirt. The glasses will pick that up and alert the agent. There are many life-saving uses for the glasses.”
This information was interesting and I appreciated that Daniel kept his explanation short. I knew Francine well enough to be convinced that she would’ve wasted valuable time going into unnecessary detail. I turned my attention back to Caelan. “When is the last time Jace streamed footage from his glasses?”
“Yesterday morning.” Caelan’s fists clenched. “It was also the last time I spoke to him.”
Something in his tone caught my attention. “But not the last time you communicated?”
“He sent me a photo yesterday afternoon.” He took his phone and swiped the screen. “When I phoned him to ask what this was supposed to be, he didn’t answer. He hasn’t answered since.”
“May we see?” Colin held out his hand towards Caelan’s phone.
The young man immediately pulled the phone closer to his chest. “I’ll send it to Doctor Lenard. No one touches my phone. Lebanon is the only state in the Middle East in which there is no desert.”
I lifted my phone from the conference table. Four seconds later, a notification tone sounded and I swiped the screen. “Is this his flat?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’ve never been there,” Vinnie said.
“I was there this morning.” Caelan’s chin dropped. “But I’ve never been inside my friend’s flat.”
“Could you forward the photo to us, love?” Colin took his phone from his trouser pocket. “Maybe one of us will see something important.”
I tapped the share icon and soon notification tones filled the room. I enlarged the photo to study the view from the floor. At this angle, the only possibility was that Jace had taken the photo while on the floor. It showed a few centimetres of a rug over a dark wooden floor that disappeared under a bed.
I enlarged the photo even more to focus on the space directly under the centre of the bed. “Those are smart glasses.”
Colin leaned towards me and I tilted the phone so he could see what I was looking at. “It sure looks like it.”
Vinnie raised one eyebrow. “This means he took the photo with his phone.”
Daniel cleared his throat and shifted in his chair. He was frowning at his phone, his muscle tension increased. “I think we need his address, Caelan.”
“What’s wrong?” It was written all over his face. His attempt to modulate his tone didn’t fool me. What had he seen in the photo?
“He’s looking at the blood.” Caelan’s words came out louder than usual. “Show them the blood.”