Valerie rolled her eyes. “This is Public Safety, Vosh. What I believe has nothing to do with it. My job is to find the genome, so I will find the genome.” Her tone left little doubt that, about this matter at least, Captain Bell would say nothing more.
Athena steered the conversation toward a more agreeable subject. “So, Dr. Kirilov…what do we think about her? If Dr. Antares is hiding something, does that mean that Dr. Kirilov is too?”
“That’s what we’re going to find out,” Valerie replied. “I haven’t told you this yet, but at this moment, she’s my top suspect.”
“Wait, what? Why?”
“Well, for starters, she’s one of the few people that had access to the genome’s encrypted server. Plus, she had mozzarella for lunch.”
Athena scoffed. “I'm pretty sure I had mozzarella for lunch, but that doesn't mean I stole the genome.”
“No, Vosh, but your recordings show you were at home for the entirety of the night in question. Your location data confirms it.”
“And Dr. Kirilov’s recordings and location data show something else?”
“Her data shows nothing else. She doesn’t keep her recordings. Her feed is instantly deleted from every server in the world in accordance with her rights under the Personal Data Act of 2063. She never publishes her location to the network.”
Athena stared at a government-issued photograph of Dr. Evelyn Kirilov on her display as she pondered the implications of this new information.
Captain Bell clarified further, “Of course, none of this means that she stole the genome, just that she could have. Right now, that’s more than I can say for anyone else.”
On the fourth floor of the Helix skyscraper, Valerie and Athena made their way into Dr. Kirilov’s private office. The space felt, both personally and temporally, like the complete opposite of Dr. Antares’ office. Whereas Grace had displayed things from her past, such as books and photographs, Eve’s office displayed nothing old and nothing specific to her. Her walls looked practically bare, save for a couple images of abstract, holographic art. Her desk and chairs appeared ultra-modern, minimalistic, and sterile. It was an office that could have belonged to anyone.
Almost immediately, Dr. Kirilov appeared. She wore a white, monogramed lab coat on top of a black body suit, and knee-high leather boots. Her blond hair was tied back in a bun on top of her head. Sharp, attractive angles formed the lines for her jaw and cheeks. Like a cubistic depiction of classical beauty, Eve was striking to look at from multiple directions at once. Her circumspect, pale-blue eyes were topped by thin, sculpted eyebrows. Her face wore an expression of mild annoyance. The rhythmic clacking of her thick boots marked her entrance into the room.
Valerie began. “Hello, Dr. Kirilov. I’m Captain Bell, and this is…” she looked at Athena in her PS uniform and uttered the words, “Officer Vosh.”
Eve chuckled. “Officer Vosh?” A slight Russian accent colored her ridicule. “Congratulations on your promotion, girl.” A sly grin crossed her face. “Grace told me that yesterday you were just a star-struck high-schooler. And now look at how far you’ve come…”
Any other day, Athena might have brushed off the insult. Instead, she fired back. “I’m sorry, doctor, but am I the one who just lost a trillion-dollar genome? Am I the one who’s asking Public Safety to help cover up for my mistake?” She stared Eve down with gray steel in her eyes. “No, that’s right. That was you who lost it. And it’s you who’s asking for our help to get it back.”
Eve’s cool expression revealed nothing. Her sly smile persisted. “Very well,” she replied with pursed lips. “Прости.”
An automatic translation of ‘Sorry’ appeared onto Athena’s display.
“Please accept my humble apology, Officer Vosh.”
All three ladies seated themselves. Athena’s PS stress-app detected not even the tiniest blip of alarm on the part of Dr. Kirilov. You could have set an atomic clock to the metronome of her heartbeat.
“Alright then. Let’s begin,” interjected Valerie. “Here’s a question I don't get to ask very often. Where were you on the night of June 7th?”
“At home, of course,” replied Eve. “Sick with retro-viral flu. Would you like a note from my physician?”
“A note? No.” Valerie laughed. “But I’d settle for a recording of the two of you at eight o’clock.”
Athena butted in. “Maybe I’m too junior to know any better, doctor, but it sure does seem suspicious that you have no way to account for your whereabouts on the night in question.”
Calmly, Eve wet her lips. “Officer Vosh,” she chided. “Women today love to lament how privacy has been lost in our age. Except, it isn’t something we lost. It’s something we eagerly surrendered. We rushed online to give it up as quickly as we possibly could and then acted confused when we found out that we couldn’t get it back. Regardless, it is my human right not to have my every action, location, and thought broadcast to the world. Fighting for my right to privacy doesn't make me a thief.”
“And excusing your lack of an alibi under a cloud of righteousness doesn't make you innocent either,” pointed out Captain Bell.
Eve chuckled softly to herself but said nothing. She leaned lazily against the back of her chair and crossed her legs. Onto her lap, she delicately folded her hands.
Valerie resumed. “Dr. Kirilov, we know your lab uses a formally-verified security encryption. Unfortunately for you, that makes you a suspect. Our team believes that only someone with access to your network could have perpetrated the theft.” She flicked a manifest of all Helix personnel onto Eve's display. “Please give us the names of every other person working here, besides yourself, who have access to the server in question. Who among you could have been responsible for the breach in security?”
Eve flicked back the manifest without opening it. Her voice came out thick with disaffected detachment. “It is a matter of record, captain: the only two people with access to the server in question are Dr. Antares and myself.”
A pair of gray eyes grew very wide. Athena looked at Valerie, but Valerie held her gaze on Dr. Kirilov.
“Doctor,” the captain clarified, “you do realize, of course, how incriminating that sounds?”
“Ms. Bell,” Eve cooly replied, “I don't care how it sounds.” Dr. Kirilov’s biometric readings continued to indicate complete calm. “I didn't steal the Lazarus Genome, and I don't know who did. What reason could I possibly have to sabotage all of our work?”
“Jealousy, perhaps?” suggested Athena. “You’re tired of putting in all the effort while Dr. Antares gets all the credit?”
Eve laughed out loud. “Credit? Such things mean nothing to me. I have no interest in a public profile. If Grace wants the fame, she can have it.” She raised up her hand as if to refuse even the suggestion of celebrity. “Also, I am fairly certain that Grace will tell you herself that I’m innocent.”
Captain Bell took a moment to clear her throat. When she spoke, her words emerged loud and clear and slow. She made sure to properly pronounce every syllable. “Dr. Kirilov, let me ask you one more time: do you know of anyone else who could have accessed the genome’s server besides yourself and Dr. Antares? Are there any employees here who have been acting suspiciously or who might have had reason to hurt the project? In this instance, a failure on your part to help us further will be tantamount to either a confession of guilt or an admission of complete incompetence.”
Even with all the accusations, Eve’s bio-readings remained steady and calm. “Captain Bell,” she replied. “I appreciate your situation. However, I cannot offer you what I do not have.”
Valerie waited, slightly stunned, for Eve to say something else, anything that might make her look less guilty. However, the doctor endured the awkward silence in apparent comfort.
“Very well,” declared the captain. “Dr. Kirilov, I cannot yet charge you of any crime, but given your means to conduct the theft, I have no choice but to label you a primary suspect in our inves
tigation. From this moment forward, you are required to activate your location-tracking and publish it without interruption to the PSHQ. Any breach in transmission will be considered an arrestable offense, causing your feed to be remotely incapacitated.”
As ever, Eve remained nonchalant. “Very well,” she said. She air-clicked to activate her location-tracking. “Will that be all?”
Valerie shot her protégé a look as if to say, Do you have anything? Athena shook her head but then remembered her dream. “Original Sin?” she asked out loud. “Do those words mean anything to you, doctor?”
Immediately, Eve looked up. Her eyes focused intently on Athena for a moment. Then, just as quickly, she turned back away. Her body remained completely calm. A smile crossed her face as she replied, “I do not have any idea what you are talking about. Are we finished?”
“Yes, doctor,” the captain declared. “You are free to go…for now.”
Without delay, Eve stood up and began to leave. Her satisfied expression looked a bit like a cat playing with string. “Captain Bell. Officer Vosh,” she oozed, “thank you so much for your help. I do hope you’re able to recover that genome soon.” With that, she quit the room and headed down the hall, the loud clacking of her boots growing slowly quieter and quieter.
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June 10, 2099
27
On the ride back downtown, Valerie shook her head. “I swear to God, in my entire career, I’ve never investigated a theft where the people who’ve been robbed have seemed less interested in recovering their stolen property. Wherever that genome actually is, those scientists don't care at all if we find it.” Her fingers darted quickly and purposefully into the air. “I’m going to get to the bottom of this.”
Coming abruptly to a stop, the captain’s city-car pulled up to the curb just outside of Public Safety Headquarters. Being rush-hour, an unbroken stream of well-dressed pedestrians crowded the sidewalk. Just above them, in their designated lane four meters above the ground, a parade of metallic, frisbee-sized delivery drones flew past.
Valerie grabbed Athena by the arm and led her through the rushing river of people. Her face appeared flush with anger. “Well,” she declared, “since you're working with us, you should know I’ve just requested a warrant to search all of the Helix Campus. Every last square meter of it. Every office, every laboratory, every nook, and every cranny. I am going to turn that place inside out.
“And that’s not all. I’ve also received permission to requisition all of the recordings associated with the lab and its staff. Every last second from every single person that’s entered that building, over 40,000 hours of video in just the last week alone.”
Valerie redirected her gaze from the mind-numbing blur of traffic and focused it on the young Athena, looking confused and overwhelmed in the shadow of the tall PS tower. Her voice softened. “I can’t believe the commissioner asked me this morning to drop this case. Everything about it stinks.” Her teeth clenched. “I am not about to let some crime go unpunished, just because it might besmirch the great name of Dr. Antares. Our job is to uncover the truth, not to protect the guilty, no matter who gets hurt.”
A sense of pride swelled up inside Athena.
The captain unclenched her teeth. “Alright,” she exhaled. “The next step is to start searching through those thousands of hours of Helix personnel recordings. You want to take some for yourself. Start reviewing a few of them tonight?”
Athena’s head lowered. “I’d love to…” she said, “…but I already told my mom I’d have dinner with her tonight.” She spun her toe into the ground before adding, “It’s been a couple months since I last saw her.”
Valerie nodded and looked away. “Of course,” she replied. “Of course. It’s no problem. The work is done better by our analytics software anyway.” Her foot tapped eagerly against the ground. “I just can't stand waiting for it to finish.”
Date of Birth: April 22nd, 2080
Time of Birth: 11:13 P.M.
Hospital: Helix Fertility
District: 1st Midwest
Name: Athena Alinea Vosh
SSID: 74525-85372
Presiding Physician: Dr. Evelyn Kirilov Height: 54 cm
Number of parental genetic donors: 2 Weight: 3.7 Kg
Primary Mother’s name: Charlotte Vosh
Primary Mother’s Occupation: Educator
Secondary Mother’s name: Anonymous
Secondary Mother’s Occupation: N/A
June 10, 2099
28
Charlotte Vosh lived by herself in a modest house at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac. Her educator’s salary could have afforded a larger home, or a personal heli-car, but she preferred instead to spend her money as her H-pro advised: on vacations and experiences. To her, the summer months provided an opportunity to explore the world. Rarely could she be found at home in June.
As Athena’s city-car navigated nimbly through the suburban sprawl, she considered reversing course and taking up Captain Bell’s offer to help with the case. Ultimately, however, she decided to visit with her only family. Following a smooth stop, her car arrived in front of a gorgeous two-story house beside a yard filled with maple trees.
Spying Athena’s arrival through the window, Charlotte ran outside. “My baby, how are you?” she called out. Rushing forward, she squeezed her only daughter in an embrace that would have made a boa constrictor proud.
“Mom…too tight…can’t breathe.”
Charlotte eased her grasp. Her long face, small mouth, and auburn eyes did not, at first glance, appear to make her any blood relation to the gray-eyed girl. However, when one listened closely to the inflection of their similar voices, or studied the parallels in their facial expressions, the genetic connection became immediately apparent.
“Sorry, honey,” Charlotte apologized. “It's just so good to see you. Come on inside. Dinner’s waiting. Aasha made croquettes.”
At her childhood dining table, Athena enjoyed a masterfully-cooked meal from her mother’s high-end food printer. As they ate, it felt as if no time had passed at all — she had never graduated from high school, never moved away from home.
Between bites, Charlotte pressed for details about her daughter’s life. “How’s Nomi?” she asked.
Athena groaned. “Oh, I don't know. I think she's pretty mad at me for v
olunteering to help with this genome case. I haven’t talked to her in, like, two days.”
Charlotte patted her daughter’s arm. "I wouldn't worry about it if I were you, honey. Nomi’s crazy about you. You know that, right? She won’t stay mad at you for long.”
"You really think so?"
“I’m sure so. I remember the first time I saw the two of you holding hands walking out of the 1st grade together. You’ve been friends for far too long to let a little something like this tear you apart.”
Inwardly, Athena smiled.
“So, then…” Charlotte continued without looking up from her food, “what about that genome case? Did you interview anyone interesting today? Are you allowed to tell me?”
"I think so?” replied Athena. “No one at Public Safety ever told me not to talk about it. Anyway, in the morning we spoke to this Women First leader named Mirza Khan. That was…interesting. Then we talked with some higher-up at Helix named Eve Kirilov.”
“Eve Kirilov?” Charlotte’s mouth dropped open. “The Eve Kirilov?” She crinkled a question mark into the space between her eyebrows.
“You know her?” Athena asked with heightened pitch.
“Of course. It may have been twenty years ago, but my brain isn’t completely settled yet. I do not need a one-way ticket, thank you very much, to the nursing home for healthy bodies and frozen minds! Eve was my OBGYN when I had you.”
Athena tilted her chin up and head back with the weight of this discovery. “Wow, I had no idea. I wonder if she remembers me. I wouldn’t exactly have called her ‘friendly.’”
Charlotte leaned forward in her chair. “It’s possible she remembers you, but then again, I’m sure it’s hard to keep track when you’ve delivered as many babies as she has over the years. For decades, Helix Fertility was the number one fertility clinic in the entire country. Didn’t you know that?”
Like most parents, Charlotte Vosh did not pass up an opportunity to reminisce. It took less than a second for her to find the recording of the day of Athena’s birth, almost twenty years prior. She flicked it onto her living-room 3D. It began playing immediately.
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