Jack was exhausted. After showing agent Franks his bank account, it took another hour before they could actually leave, and it was now two in the morning. Wendel had confirmed that Denise had arrived and was consulting with Madison. And Jack had confirmed with Madison in his soul space that she was still conferring with Denise. Denise had told Madison that her interrogation would be mind numbingly exhausting and had suggested that Madison take a nap. Denise could claim that they were still conferring, even while Madison slept. So, Madison's physical self was curled up in a corner of a conference room, while her soul space self tried to sleep. Jack had disabled his parallel self, then cranked up the time ratio to 10:1 so that Madison could hopefully get a full night's sleep. She would need it.
Wendel had insisted on driving Jack home, and as they pulled into Jack's driveway, he noticed that his front door was partially open. As they got out of Wendel's car, Jack asked, "Will they pay to fix my door?"
"No. Any damage done while in the performance of their duties is outside the scope of reimbursement. The police can, and have, blown up houses, and not paid a single cent for repairs. The FIS are usually not as heavy-handed as local police, but they have, on occasion, thoroughly trashed homes in their search for evidence."
"Damn. Seriously, blown up houses?"
"Yes. In one case, the family, whose home was destroyed, were not even involved in a crime. The police were chasing a suspect, and the suspect fled into the family's home. The police then blew up and bulldozed the home in their attempts to flush out the suspect. And, the police refused to pay anything in restitution. The case went to the supreme court, but they refused to hear it."
"Fuck me, that's brutal."
Jack pushed the door to his house open and walked into the living room. What he saw left him stunned. The couch was destroyed, slashed into small ribbons, and the coffee table was smashed. The T.V. was gone, the stereo speakers were gutted, and the carpet was torn up. That by itself was a real gut punch, but worse was that someone had utterly destroyed the walls and ceiling. The sheet rock had been ripped out and scattered in shredded chunks all over the room. Even the wiring had been ripped out. Fran and Jacob had put a lot of time and energy into this home, had made Jack feel welcome and loved in this home, and someone had destroyed it. Desecrated it.
"What the fuck?" blurted Wedel, when he walked in behind Jack. "This...Touch nothing!"
He gently grasped Jack's shoulders, turned him and walked him back outside while saying, "Let's wait in my car. I need to call some people to come over and record this. This is unconscionable. No one in their right mind could possibly justify the level of destruction I just saw. Someone has lost their damn mind."
Remembering the voice he had heard as he was headed to the conference room, he thought, Fucking Jackson. I bet it was that little weasel that did this. The rage Jack had felt growing inside him turned cold, like an arctic winter. He was going to make them pay. Whoever did this, they would pay. Even if he had to make use of Genesis Heart to see it done. He'd let the lawyers have a go at it first. But if they failed, and it seemed likely. Then he would find another way.
Wendel pulled out his phone and started making calls, but Jack paid no attention. He was plotting. At the very least, he could probably plant drug money in the house, or houses of whoever did this. Finding drug money would probably be tedious, but once he found some, making it appear in someone's home would not be difficult.
About an hour later, a van pulled up, followed by a black SUV. The van had "Jensen Forensics" stenciled on the side. Two men got out of the van and agent Franks got out of the SUV.
Jack got out of Wendel's car and just stared coldly at Franks. Franks walked straight to Jack's front door, looked inside and said, "Jesus!"
Then he turned and marched straight back to his SUV, not even looking at Jack. As Franks walked past Jack, he noted that Franks didn't look sad or angry; he looked determined, like he was on a mission.
Figures, thought Jack. Probably rushing back to the office to circle the wagons and make sure they have their ducks in a row. Typical law enforcement. More concerned with covering their own asses than they were with carrying out justice.
The two men from Jensen Forensics walked up to Wendel, then pointed at Jack's front door. They both walked over and as soon as the older of the two looked inside, he said, "Jesus. I've seen crack houses after a police raid that looked better than this."
The two men grabbed some equipment from their van, then went inside. And soon, Jack could see bright flood lights streaming out from the windows of his living room.
"Jensen Forensics is a certified forensics team. Any evidence they collect is admissible in court. They'll record everything as it is, then put a temporary lock on your front door. It's best if you stay at a hotel tonight."
Jack just nodded. There was nothing he could do right now, and like Madison, he, too, needed sleep.
Wendel drove Jack to a nice hotel and waited until Jack had obtained a room. Even walked him to his room door before saying good night and promising to contact Jack late in the day with an update.
As soon as he lay down, he closed his eyes and entered his soul space. About seven hours had passed inside his soul space since he had cranked up the time ratio and when he arrived, he found Madison just walking out of her room and heading towards her office.
Seeing him, she rushed over, wrapped her arms around him.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"He wanted to say, no, he was not okay, but he understood she was asking if he had been charged. She didn't know about his house. And he wasn't going to tell her. Not until after she was released. She didn't need the distraction.
"I'm fine, just really tired. They released me, no charges. So I think I'm free and clear. How about you? Did your consultation go well with Denise?"
"Yes! Thank you so much for sending her. She'd great. Did you know she even has the Offensive Security Certified Professional certificate?"
"I have no idea what that is."
"Right, because you're a techno-philistine," she said, teasing him.
He just shook his head.
"Anyway, she asked a bunch of questions, then told me to take a nap so I'd be fresh'ish for the interrogation. Said, it would be rough, that they would try and trick me into making false claims."
"Yeah, they tried the same with me. Wendel told me how to handle it."
"Is that the lawyer Henry found for you?"
"Yes, he's also the one that sent Denise. So, it's probably him you should thank for such a good pick."
"Hmm. I'll have to remember that when I get out. Assuming they don't lock me up."
"Denise said that, based on what I had told her, either Cascade attributed a malicious hack to me by accident, or they were trying to frame me. They might be hoping I couldn't afford a proper defense and would just take a plea bargain."
"Wendel mentioned the same thing. If they are trying to frame you, is there anything we can do to prove it?"
"Maybe. Can you take a snapshot? Like, right now? I want to make sure we have a copy of their computes in case they try and delete evidence later. I also want to try and go through their computers and see if there even is any evidence."
Jack triggered a snapshot that covered the whole earth. He still had all the other snapshots he had taken, so they had multiple possible points in the past they could investigate if needed.
"Done. Let me know if you need any more snapshots. I have enough EP saved so we can afford to run a few sims."
"Great."
She squeezed him, then stood on her toes and kissed him. Before it could get passionate, she backed off and said, "I need to get back and get this over with. Are you going to sleep?"
"Yes. I'll sleep here with the time ratio at max." He adjusted her permissions to his soul space, then said, "I've given you temporary access to the time acceleration controls, so you can drop the ratio down to 2:1 or 1:1 if you need to run parallel self."
"Okay, thanks."
Then she disappeared, returning to her physical self.
After entering his bedroom, he enabled linked self and felt the physical fatigue hit him. He flopped onto his bed, face down, and within moments, he was fast asleep.