Called

by Ell Leigh Clarke

  “This feels strangely familiar,” mused Brock. “The workshop is always in the basement. Why is that?”

  Joel shook his head, looking for an answer. “Weight of the equipment you guys use?”

  Brock shrugged one shoulder and tilted his head. “Maybe.”

  The grey-suit automaton showed them into the workshop. “If you need help with anything, there are technicians around. They tend to gather in that office down there.” He pointed to a corridor the other side of the workshop.

  Joel thanked him, and he left.

  Crash and Brock got moving, emptying out the bags of gear they’d just procured.

  “Components,” Brock said, throwing the little box to Crash on the other side of the bench they’d commandeered.

  Crash caught it, and continued rummaging in his bag. “Chip printer,” he called. He tossed it casually to Brock, who caught it with one hand and continued organizing his gear.

  Joel watched the two work, feeling he ought to say something about the way they handled the delicate materials. Then he considered all their experience, and concluded it probably wasn’t necessary.

  Instead he sat down on a nearby stool and decided to call Molly. He flicked his holo.

  The call connected.

  “Hey,” she greeted him. “You back?”

  “Yes,” he told her. “We’re in the basement. Crash and Brock are assembling the device now.”

  Her voice sounded a little distracted. “How long will it take?”

  Joel looked at the guys. “Hey guys, how long?”

  Crash looked at Brock. Brock looked at the ceiling, figuring it out in his brain. “Maybe an hour?” he guessed.

  Joel returned to his conversation with Molly. “An hour probably.”

  “Uh huh,” she acknowledged. “Ok, we’ve discovered a few other things. I was wondering if maybe you wanted to come grab Paige and apprehend our suspect.”

  Joel grinned. He liked that kind of thing. “Sure,” he replied brightly. “On my way!”

  Joel got up, waved to Crash and Brock, and started out of workshop. “Why do I get the feeling you’re going to tell me that the plot has just thickened?”

  He could hear humor in Molly’s voice. “Maybe because it did?”

  “Ok. I’ll be right there,” he told her, and then clicked the holocall off.

  Iantrogen Offices, Tenth Floor, Spire

  Joel arrived on the tenth floor, and Molly carefully caught him up on events.

  Joel perched on the desk, his arms folded, taking in the new information. “I can see why you didn’t want to tell me over the holo,” he said, taking a breath.

  He called Paige. “Ok, kiddo, it’s up to you and me now. Let’s go see what we can find out from Ms. Burns.”

  “Take one of their security details,” Molly suggested. “Makes it look legit and covers our asses.”

  Joel nodded.

  Paige gathered her notes onto her wrist holo and stood next to Joel, ready to go. Joel shifted himself off the desk and unfolded his arms. “Ok, let’s do this.”

  Less than fifteen minutes later he, Paige and two Iantrogen security personnel were in a fully walled meeting room having a conversation with Soraya Burns.

  “I don’t understand why I’m here,” she protested. She wore heavy makeup over her blue Estarian skin. Paige guessed her eyelashes were also fake. Not that she was judging. Being half-human and half-Estarian made her very sympathetic to people being assessed on their appearance.

  Joel pulled up a holo screen of the devices they’d tracked to her desk holo. “You’re here because you’ve been sharing sensitive company intel with people outside the company.”

  She shook her head vigorously. Her raven hair fell around her face, then bounced perfectly back into shape.

  Oh, she totally curls and uses a yogan oil, Paige thought to herself, watching carefully.

  “I haven’t done anything of the sort,” Soraya protested. “I’ve just been doing my job. You can check.” She held out her holo, which also housed her personal communications. “Go ahead,” she said, nodding at the device.

  Joel shook his head. “We’ll get to that. For now, though,” he pointed at the screen he had opened in the meeting room, “how do you explain our tech guys tracking a covert outgoing line from your desk node?”

  The girl looked blank. “I have no idea.”

  Joel noticed her micro-expressions when he posed the question, and again when she answered. She was definitely under pressure, but he hadn’t established a proper baseline yet.

  He signaled for Paige to take over and question her about the finances. He’d be able to observe better, and he could easily switch back to that question when she wasn’t expecting it.

  Paige opened her holo notes and shared the screens showing the debts Soraya owed. She was embarrassed, but dealt with the questions one by one. Then Paige showed her the recent large deposits.

  Soraya scrambled a little, trying to explain. “They’re from my grandparents. They wanted me to have a fresh start.”

  Joel interrupted, “We’re going to need their contact details, please. Paige, could you get those and follow up?” Joel stood up. “I need to make a call.”

  He left the room briefly, pretending to open his holo. He let the doors slide closed behind him and wandered down the corridor for a few minutes. When he felt that enough time had passed, he headed back into the room.

  He sat down again, directly opposite her. “Ok, Ms. Burns. You’re going to have to start being honest with me.”

  Her forehead folded upward in a fear expression for a fraction of a second, but she pretended to look confused.

  Joel took a guess based on the questioning and the micro-expressions she’d displayed throughout the process.

  “Here’s what I think,” he told her. “I think you were either blackmailed or bribed into installing that device in your desk holo, and then taking the fall for corporate espionage.”

  Her face flickered with surprise, and then fear again.

  “I can see I’m right.” Joel said confidently. “So which is it? Blackmail or bribery?”

  Soraya’s eyes hit the desk, and her shields came down. She started to cry, her face flushing even under her makeup. She looked up; her mascara had started to run.

  Paige’s inner beauty critic kicked in. Should have worn waterproof today.

  Joel sensed she’d gone into victim mode, but her transition had been a little too fast to be genuine. He deduced she was going to say blackmail, which would actually mean bribery. He didn’t wait for her answer. He had all the information he needed on that one.

  “Ok. Never mind about that now. Who were you going to confess to sending the intel to?”

  Soraya looked up, shocked. “Why, Drogue R&D, of course.”

  There was no weight in her words. She didn’t hesitate or resist any more. “Or one of their smaller R&D branches. I’m not sure exactly. The device was already set up and paired when it was sent to me. Drogue is Iantrogen’s biggest rival. With them tied up in court for the next couple of years, Iantrogen can focus on getting their next anti-inflammatory to market without having to fight a patent suit on the side. It would be an enormous payday for them.”

  It was all coming together, at least in terms of the story that had gotten the young Ms. Burns involved. Joel had what he needed. He signaled for Paige to continue the interview and stepped out of the room again.

  This time he actually placed a holo call.

  Iantrogen offices, Second Floor Meeting Rooms, Spire

  Joel sent a message to Oz.

  OZ, CAN YOU SET UP AN ENCRYPTED CALL BETWEEN MOLLY AND ME?

  He got a response back immediately:

  OF COURSE. ROUTING NOW.

  Joel’s holo buzzed, and he answered. It was Molly’s voice. “Hey,” she chirped. “Oz said we needed to talk?”

  “Yes, that’s right,” he started. Joel filled her in on his discovery.

  When he was done, there was
a pause on the other end of the line. He waited.

  “Ok,” she told him, “this is good to know. I’ll pass it on to Pieter. Can you see where Brock and Crash are with the device? We’re set to make the switch whenever they are.”

  Joel nodded. “Sure. On it now.” He hung up, then headed down to the basement workshop, checking the time. It had been nearly an hour since he’d left them working on the device.

  Iantrogen offices, Basement Workshop, Spire

  Joel strode into the workshop. There were a few employees working on something at the far side of the workshop now. Brock and Crash were still working at the bench where he had left them.

  He headed over to them. “How goes it?” he asked as he got within earshot.

  Crash looked up. Brock kept working. “Nearly there,” Brock answered. “Just need to make sure this connection is secure and then we’re good to go.”

  Crash continued to fiddle with the tiny device on the bench. He seemed to be using some kind of voltmeter to do the testing he was talking about.

  Joel sat down and discretely filled them in on the revelations of the last hour.

  Crash stopped what he was doing, and stepped away, making an exaggerated stomp on the ground. “No fucking way!” he exclaimed as quietly as he could, shocked and excited by the cloak and dagger shenanigans they had unearthed.

  Joel nodded, pretending to be solemn. “Waaaay,” he said.

  Crash rubbed his chin. “So, hang on. How do we know that this device isn’t going to backfire on us? Seems someone has put a lot of effort into…what exactly? Making sure it looks like the perp is in this other company, and then we apprehend an innocent person?”

  Joel considered the implication. “Yes. I mean, that would give them the ammo they need to wrap this other company up in a legal battle and take their time with the patent.”

  He could feel his inner conspiracy theorist raise his head. “There might be another angle on this…” he started slowly.

  Brock sat down, presumably satisfied the device was functional. Joel continued, “You remember those strange news reports about Molly being associated with the toxin?”

  Crash and Brock both nodded. Crash leaned in a little to hear better.

  Joel shook his head. “I can’t help but wonder: what if someone is trying to set us up? Frame us for getting something wrong. I mean, it still puzzles me why the police didn’t push the thing with Paige, for instance. And I think that if Garet had been involved, he would have said something to Molly.”

  Brock held his hands out; the outer edges of his hands rested on the bench. “So, lemme get this straight,” he started slowly, “Your inner conspiracy theorist thinks that maybe we’re being set up to apprehend someone who is innocent. So we take the fall for it?”

  Joel nodded. “Norm.”

  Crash and Brock looked at him. Crash shook his head. “You what, bro?”

  Joel bobbed his head. “Norm. My inner conspiracy theorist needed a name. I’m gonna call him Norm.”

  Crash sniggered through his nose, before composing himself. He noticed a few glances from the employees across the workshop.

  Joel glanced back at them, and then ducked his head lower. He continued with their conversation. “Well if that’s the intention then they win either way. If we apprehend them, and it doesn’t come out it’s the wrong person, they have their patent. If it does get exposed for being a flawed arrest, then we get embarrassed, and potentially charged.”

  Crash sighed. “Who would be after us like that, though? What would they gain?”

  “That,” mused Joel, “is the million-credit question.” He lifted his head, showing his normal composure. “Ok, let’s get going. See what this baby can do.” He nodded at Brock’s new device.

  The guys cleared up and packed up their gear. Brock carried the device carefully in his hands, and they headed back up to the tenth floor to rendezvous with the troops.

  Iantrogen offices, Second Floor Offices, Spire

  It was getting late in the afternoon, and the office was still busy with people trying to wrap up for the day.

  Mr. Iace practically had to jog next to Molly as she and her team strode through the second-floor office to Soraya Burns’ workstation. “Are you sure you can’t delay this until after hours?”

  Molly stopped suddenly, causing Brock to bump into Pieter and Pieter to crash into Joel. Paige kept walking in the direction of the workstation where they had picked Ms. Burns up a little earlier.

  Molly turned to Mr. Iace. “Do you want to catch the person who has been receiving this data?” she asked. She eyed him carefully. “Or would you rather he went home at six o’clock and we miss him because, well, you didn’t want your staff knowing something was going on?”

  She felt she let him off the hook a little there. No point in accusing him of a set-up until they knew precisely who and what they were dealing with.

  Mr. Iace looked flustered. “No, no, of course not!” He hesitated, like he didn’t know what to do. In the end, he just waved his hand in the direction Molly had been walking and let her continue.

  Molly kept walking and the team followed, trailed at a distance now by Mr. Iace.

  The group assembled around the workstation, and Brock sat himself down at the terminal and began to work.

  Oz, you wanna be in on this?

  Yes, I’ll communicate with Brock through his holo and implant. I have no microphone accessible for him to speak to me.

  Ok, fine.

  Molly placed her hand on Brock’s shoulder as he sat at the terminal. “Oz is going to patch into your holo and audio implant so you can communicate,” she told him discretely.

  Brock nodded, and glanced at Mr. Iace briefly before continuing to hook up the device.

  Joel started talking to Mr. Iace about managing the staff and the building, deliberately running interference so Iace couldn’t see exactly what they were doing.

  Paige and Pieter stood in his line of sight too. They had placed themselves between him and the workstation, and were chatting casually.

  Ok, we’ve isolated the connection, and their original covert relay. Brock is going to have to switch out the mirror device somewhere between the eighteen-second cycles. I can attempt to synch it and control any spike in current, but he’s going to have to catch that window or else it will trip all their alerts.

  Does he understand that?

  Yes. He’s ready to do it any time you give the go-ahead.

  Ok. Make it so.

  Molly watched as Brock deftly took the complex device he had built in less than an hour and unhooked what looked like a transformer from the innards of the workstation. Halfway through the changeover, he started typing fast on the holo. Pieter noticed this, and sat down next to him, following what was happening.

  Brock looked surprised.

  Oz? What’s happening?

  I’ve just pulled Pieter in to help. There is a subroutine that has detected our interference. We need to catch it before the end of the cycle so it doesn’t report back.

  Can you do it?

  Yes, Pieter is working on trapping it. I’m still isolating it from the device.

  Brock moved away from the keyboard and continued rewiring. He looked worried. Stressed.

  What’s going on?

  The new device isn’t mirroring exactly.

  Brock opened the device and checked a few things. Noticing that one of the connections had come loose, he tightened it as best he could without any glue or solder.

  Brock closed the casing. “Ok, it’s connected,” he reported.

  He finished the task on his holo and looked at Pieter’s screen.

  Pieter was still typing furiously, reading code and altering it. Countering the program that had taken over the hard drive of the terminal.

  A moment later he stopped. Pushing himself back from the screen, he just stared.

  Brock was motionless, watching the screen, occasionally glancing at his mirror device nervously.

&nb
sp; What? What’s happening?

  Oz was silent.

  Oz! Tell me!

  It’s… it’s ok. We’ve...

  Another long pause.

  We’ve got it. Tracing now.

  Brock breathed a sigh of relief and leaned his arms on his legs, dropping his head.

  Pieter started shaking his head and took a deep breath. “Bloody close call, that was!” he exclaimed.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Iantrogen offices, Second Floor Offices, Spire

  Molly was back on the case. “Ok, let’s make sure we track it properly. We don’t know how many cycles we’re going to get before we’re detected.”

  Pieter pulled his chair back to his holo station, and Brock was already typing furiously, tracking the signal.

  Oz. Any thoughts?

  I’ve been scanning the network beyond the building’s router. I can’t see any signal of the type we’re looking for. Checking now to see if it’s being disguised in a normal packet somewhere before it leaves the building.

  Ok. Let me know.

  Brock stopped typing. “Erm. I don’t know if this is right,” he said, hesitantly. He turned his head toward Molly but kept his eyes on the screen.

  Molly stepped over to see. She looked at the data and cocked her head. “That says it’s sending the data within the building. Oz was just saying he can’t see anything unusual outside the building.”

  Brock shook his head gently. “I just… I dunno.”

  Pieter had stopped typing too. “I’m getting the same result.”

  Molly frowned. “What location do you have?” she asked Pieter.

  Pieter tapped a few keys to check. “Ninth floor. Terminal assigned to Jessica Newld. CEO.”

  Molly raised her eyebrows. She turned back to Joel, “Isn’t she…”

  Joel nodded. “All over the news all the time,” he agreed.

  Mr. Iace stepped forward. “Jessica Newld is our CEO. Her family founded this company several generations back.”

  Joel was unfazed by her status. “Giving her a perfect motive, from what we can see,” he interjected. “May I take a security detail to have a word with her?”

  Mr. Iace didn’t know what to do, other than to cooperate. “Yes, yes of course,” he stammered, pulling out his holo to make a call. He started walking toward the elevators. Joel beckoned for Crash to come with him, and the two of them followed him out.