Synthetica Read online

  Clay was almost beside himself with rage.

  “Then how do you explain the men who shot them?” he yelled. “How do you explain that?!”

  “It was you, you crazy old man! It's not my fault if you're so messed up in the head you murdered your own wife and children, and then looked for someone else to blame!”

  “You little -”

  Clay made a move as if to dive over the desk at her. Skye shrieked and flew at him, her arms outstretched as though she was about to claw out his eyes. Xander threw himself in front of Skye, grabbing her around the waist to prevent her from getting any closer; while Anais launched herself at Clay, desperately trying to stop him from clambering over the table. Clay was a lot stronger than she was though, and his eyes were bulging madly as he tried to get at Skye. Anais tried to grab his arm, but he shoved her off and flung himself onto the desk, smashing the computer that was embedded in the surface in the process. Anais was right behind him. She jumped onto his back, her hands holding on tightly around his neck as he started to scramble over the worktop. Clay roared in frustration and began trying to bat her off, but Anais simply clung on tighter. Xander, meanwhile, was struggling to keep an incensed Skye in his grip as he hauled her away from Clay.

  “Let me go!” Skye shrieked. “He's a liar!”

  “You're the liar!” Clay bellowed, still trying to fling Anais off his back. “The whole lot of you are dirty, thieving, murdering liars!”

  Skye hissed, and began trying to fight her her way out of Xander's grip with renewed effort.

  “Clay!” Anais shouted as she continued to struggle with him. “Calm down!”

  Clay gave a particularly violent kick that caught Anais painfully on the leg. She hung on grimly, tightening her grip around his neck. There was an ominous groan from the desk beneath them as they continued to struggle. There was a lurching in Anais stomach, and she seemed to watch in slow motion as the whole desk began to tip forward. Clay shouted and tried to throw them both backwards, but it was too late. The floor came rushing up to meet them. Anais shut her eyes, bracing for the inevitable impact. The desk landed with a deafening clang; numerous tools clattered to the ground, scattering in all directions. Anais was thrown from Clay's back, landing painfully on a selection of wire cutters.

  There was a silence. Anais groaned and tried to get up, wincing as small nuts and bolts dug into her un-bandaged hand. Clay rolled onto his back, seemingly dazed. Xander dropped Skye and was by Anais' side in seconds, holding out his hand to help her up.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, his purple eyes round with worry. Anais took his hand and stood up gingerly, wiping the last of the dust from her clothes.

  “Yeah I'm fine. Thanks,” she said to Xander, before rounding on Clay and Skye. Clay was getting unsteadily to his feet while Skye watched him, her breathing rather heavy. Her hands were clenched into fists by her side. Clay stood up, picking up his tiny computer drive as he did so. He examined it for signs of damage before slipping it into his pocket.

  “I don't know what all that was about,” Anais said angrily. “But in case you haven't noticed, two more people are dead and we're all here trying to find out why. We're all on the same side for now, so if you could just stop acting like five year olds for a minute, that would be great. Then maybe we'd have a shot at stopping whoever's behind all this.”

  She glared at them both. Skye's hair was tumbling out of her neat ponytail, blue tendrils falling across her face. Clay looked as rumpled as he always did. Skye at least had the grace to look a tiny bit ashamed of herself, her face struggling to compose herself once more. Clay simply sniffed and avoided Anais' eye.

  “Alright,” Anais said as calmly as she could, though the renewed stinging in her right hand made her want to punch Clay in the face for making such a reckless move. “Now that that's all out of our systems, maybe we can talk about this.”

  Skye pulled out her hair tie and shook her hair loose, so it tumbled over her shoulders. She flicked back the strands that were covering her face and snorted.

  “You'll have to forgive me this time, if I don't take the word of three trespassers seriously,” she sneered. “By rights, I should be calling the police right now to arrest you all.”

  “Yeah, well, you haven't yet,” Anais said. “And I don't think you're going to. You know just as well as us that something strange is going on - why else would you race from that press conference? If you didn't have suspicions that someone else has hacked into your system and has done something to damage Civitas' reputation, then I honestly don't know why you're here.”

  Anais took a step towards Skye as something else dawned on her.

  “Why isn't anyone else here, Skye? Your technicians, your engineers, your security team? Why is no one else rushing to Civitas' rescue? Oh wait, that's right, because you just couldn't bear the thought that Civitas might have done something wrong. That they might have a flaw in their security systems, or that someone within the company has hacked into your files and is now using your SLP program for their own ends.”

  Skye remained silent, holding her head up high, though Anais could see her jaw clenching.

  “So you came here alone,” Anais continued, watching her closely. “You came here to see if there were any truth behind the rumours. What did you say? That people are suspecting your ID chips are malfunctioning? That's what you were checking for, right? You wanted to know about the ID upgrades we all had. And what would you have done, if the rumours had been true? Spun another story about how none of this is Civitas' fault, that they weren't involved at all?”

  “You know nothing,” Skye spat, her lip quivering. “You don't have any idea what it's like, to see the company you love, the company you gave everything for, threatened. I will not allow everything I've worked towards for the last forty years to be cast aside so easily.”

  Anais stared at her in shock. She knew that HelixPods were good, that barely anyone looked their real age; but Skye was over forty? She didn't look a day over twenty one. Skye took a shaky breath to calm herself.

  “For your information,” she said, her voice cracking slightly. “Yes, I came here to double check the testing and analysis we did on the new software upgrade for the ID chips. I heard one of the lifts moving and came to investigate. When I got to the lifts, I saw one of the lifts to the research labs was moving. Though why you thought to come here, I don't know.”

  “But,” Xander said. “This is your most secure research lab. You don't let anyone but your top engineers and designers in here. Where else would you store your sensitive files?”

  Skye opened and shut her mouth, looking as confused as Anais felt.

  “You didn't tell them?” Skye asked Clay with a frown. “I wondered why you broke in here and not into one of the offices.”

  “What are you talking about?” Anais asked, but there was a bitter taste in her mouth as she spoke.

  “The computers in these labs only house the files that the researchers are working on at that moment,” Skye explained, her eyes never leaving Clay's face. “Once a project is finished, the files aren't stored on individual computers any more – they're sent to a secure server that only members of the board can access, or grant access to. It's been standard protocol for years now. I thought your little friend here would've realised that when he tried to break into our systems last week. After all, it's thanks to him we put the system in place to begin with.”

  “That was you who broke in?” Anais said incredulously. “But...why?”

  “None of your damn business,” Clay grunted. “And where's your evidence, sweetheart? Sayin' things like that without any evidence is slander, in case you didn't know. I could sue you for that.”

  Skye looked pointedly around the mess they'd created in the lab.

  “Somehow, Clay, I doubt it,” she said.


  “Hang on,” Anais interrupted. “Clay, did you know that the SLP files wouldn't be here?”

  Clay still met her eye, but underneath his defiance Anais thought she could detect a trace of guilt.

  “I thought this would be the best place to start,” he said evasively.

  “Start what?” Anais asked, trying and failing to keep the anger out of her voice. “If you broke in here last week and didn't find anything, what did you think you were going to find now?”

  Clay didn't answer.

  “You knew?” Anais asked him furiously. “You knew we wouldn't find anything here, but you let us carry on anyway?”

  Clay gave her an even look.

  “Look, kid, I thought – I hoped – I was wrong. But ask yourself this - where else could we have gone? What, we were just supposed to search every damn computer in this place til we found what you were looking for? You know how many computers are in this place, Annie? Trust me, it's a hell of a lot.”

  Anais could only stare at him as rage built up inside her. She was trembling, her hands curled into fists as she tried to control her anger. There was a light pressure on her arm and she looked up to see Xander shaking his head at her, warning her not to rise to it. She took a deep breath, but her voice was thick when she spoke.

  “Then why did you even agree to help us? Why did you come here?”

  “Oh sweetie, haven't you realised yet? He would've jumped at any chance to come in here and destroy our work,” Skye said. Anais rounded on her.

  “You can't talk, you're just as bad as he is! You've been sneaking around, making sure your precious company can't be implicated in this whole mess. What else have you been lying about? If you can pull a stunt like this, then why shouldn't I believe Clay, and think that you are capable of murdering anyone who stands in your way? I can't – I just can't -”

  She broke off, shrugging out of Xander's grip and started pacing across the floor, needing to get away from them all. The desks in front of her swam out of focus, as her vision blurred from the tears of frustration that were welling up. She could hear Xander murmuring to Clay behind her back but she blocked out the noise.

  None of this was going like she'd planned. It wasn't adding up. Skye was so determined that Civitas wasn't involved, that it simply made Anais believe even more that she had something to hide. And Clay had dragged them into this lab for no apparent reason. She had trusted him to get them to the right place. She had trusted him to help them. But instead it sounded like he had lead them all on. Why? Why would he waste their precious time like that? It didn't make sense.

  Time. They were running out of time. Anais kneaded her temples with her fingertips. They had come here to try and find some clue about who killed Dalla. She'd be damned if she was going to give up now, not when they were so close to getting some answers at last. Even if it did mean working with a liar and a traitor.

  Swallowing her pride, she wiped her eyes free from any lingering tears before striding back to the trio, who stopped murmuring and eyed her nervously. Anais wasn't even sure what she was going to say until she was standing right in front of Clay.

  “You betrayed us,” she said bluntly to Clay. “I trusted you to help us, and instead you brought us to this lab for your own twisted reasons. I don't know why you thought you'd bring us here instead of were we actually need to be, but I don't care right now. I'll find out the truth eventually, but I came here tonight for one reason and that's to stop whoever it is that took my best friend from me. I'm not going to let them get away with murder again. Whatever grudge you have against Civitas and Skye, I don't give a shit. You said you'd help us, so that's what you're damn well going to do.”

  She rounded on Skye.

  “I think it's despicable the way you're even trying to cover up Civitas' tracks, even if they haven't done anything wrong - yet. If you build something based on lies, one day, it's all going to come crashing down. And when that day comes, I'll be the first one to say, 'I told you so'. But for now, I'm going to choose to believe you when you say you're not behind these murders. I think you're sadly misguided when it comes to Civitas, but we need your help. So I'm offering you a deal. We'll help you find out who's behind these attacks, and you let us go free.”

  Skye blinked at her.

  “Why would I do that? Why shouldn't I hand you into the police?” she asked, though the fight seemed to have gone out of her.

  Anais hesitated for a moment, remembering that awful night she was questioned over a murder she had had the bad luck to stumble on, their suspicion at how she knew seconds before Marcus died that he would die, and how she'd tried to flee from the police station. There was no way she could get the police involved again. If Nox got wind she was still involved, he'd have her thrown in prison faster than she could blink.

  “It's complicated,” she said finally. “Call them if you want to, but think about this – you hand us in, and you're selling out your only hope of catching this person. If we're arrested, we can't help you. Don't forget, we've seen these SLPs in action. If any more attacks happen and Civitas is blamed for them, well then, I hope you're as good at PR as you think you are, because you're going to need every last bit of persuasion you have.”

  Anais and Skye stared at each other for a long moment. Anais' heart was hammering in her chest. She prayed that Skye was as in love with Civitas as she seemed, otherwise their last hope of going free had gone. Eventually, Skye broke the silence.

  “Alright,” she said. “But on one condition - you have to tell me everything you know so far. About these SLPs, the murders, everything. And if I get the slightest hint that you've double-crossed me, I'm calling the police. Deal?”

  Her eyes flicked to Clay. Anais nodded.

  “Deal.”

  “So, where do we start?” Xander asked. “If you don't know who it is that's hacking into your systems, and we don't know either...where do we go from here?”

  Clay coughed and Anais looked at him coldly.

  “Yes?” she said icily. “Don't tell me you've got another fantastic idea for us.”

  “Look, Annie, you may not like me any more than I like being here, but right now, I'm the best chance you've got. I'm the only one of you that can hack into a computer system and see what none of the rest of you will be able to see,” he turned to Skye. “Now I think the question should be, how can we access your actual research?”

  Skye contemplated him for a moment.

  “Fine,” she said finally. “Follow me.”

  The wind was biting, but he couldn't feel the cold. He hadn't felt the cold in years.

  He hung, suspended almost one hundred floors up, in the air. The rope creaked in the wind. His hands were slick with paint and his clothes were flecked with red. He craned his head back to admire his handiwork, a hidden smile creeping across his masked face.

  It was perfect. His work would shine like a beacon; it would become a symbol of hope to the lost souls in this city. He was their light. He would show them the way.

  He began to haul himself back up the length of rope to the open window, the muscles in his arms taunt as he pulled himself upwards. He reached the window and slithered back inside the small gap, jumping cat-like to the ground and landing softly on his feet. He untied the rough knot around his waist and began winding the rope back inside. Once everything had been packed neatly back inside his battered bag, he ran through all the items twice, making sure everything had been accounted for. He zipped the bag shut and closed the window carefully.

  Now for the fun part.

  This hadn't been part of his initial plan, but why let an opportunity go to waste? There were four possible suspects in the building; not that it would matter after tomorrow who got the credit for his work, but he wasn't one to pass up a chance to have a little fun.
/>   He took the lift back down to the empty atrium. He padded across the floor to the security desk. Using the dead security guard's ID chip, he brought up the alarm system on the holographic computer. After making sure that there wasn't a device that would lock down the building before he could escape, he pressed the panic button with relish.

  The alarm began to wail and orange lights flashed on the walls. An automated message boomed out over the speaker system, asking everyone to remain calm. The lifts went dark as they shut down automatically. He fled to the supply corridor, slamming the door shut behind him. He reached the exit and, under the cover of the commotion he had created, slipped away into the night to complete his next task.

  Seventeen

  Skye led them back to lift in silence.

  They travelled up the building, past the observation deck, right up to the 300th floor. As soon as the door slid open, Skye marched them down the windowed corridor. This time, the lights didn't come on automatically but the moon hanging low in the sky outside provided more than enough light for them to see by.

  Anais was still angry with Clay over deceiving them, but she forced herself not to dwell on it. If he managed to discover who had stolen Civitas' program, he didn't have to stick around after that. She'd never have to see him again. And as for Skye – the same rules applied. Once they'd upheld their end of the bargain, Skye would no longer have anything to threaten them with. If they saved her precious company from being dragged through the mud, she wouldn't sell them out to the police. Not for the first time, Anais wondered how on earth she'd gotten herself mixed up in such a messed up situation. Everything still didn't seem real, as though she was viewing the world through warped RetCom.

  Almost subconsciously, she reached out and took Xander's hand. He squeezed her hand back gently. Anais felt as though, at the moment, he was the only thing anchoring her to reality. She needed his reassurance that she wasn't going completely insane.