“How could I?” He seemed irritated by the accusation. “It’s a side-effect of being so close to these guys. Interference.”
Possible, but unlikely.
Ruby eyed the path to her right. In her trainers, she stood a decent chance of evading him if she were to make a bolt for it. But, she was too curious to run. “What do you want to talk about?”
“Have the police got any closer to finding Nikoli’s killer?”
She inclined her head. “Why would you be interested in that?”
“He was a decent man.”
“You knew him?”
“A little. We knew each other through OsMiTech.”
Ruby began to calm. “Why have you followed me?”
“I hoped we might be able to help each other out.”
“Unless you can fix my dad’s rent, I don’t think there’s any help I need.”
The snoop took a step forward. “Your dad?”
“Sour grapes that’s all. I can sort it.” Ruby waved her hand in front of her.
“I haven’t introduced myself.” The snoop stretched out a hand. “Biggs Oster, at your service.”
Ruby raised her eyebrows. “Oster as in—”
“I’m Devan’s brother.”
Ruby hesitated. “Devan doesn’t have a brother.”
“That’s what he’d prefer the world to believe.”
Ruby brushed her hands through her hair, the wind was picking up, whistling through the trees. “No one can stay hidden.”
“Anonymity suits me.”
“I don’t believe it’s possible to remain anonymous anymore.”
“It is when your brother controls the most popular communication network in history.”
Ruby looked back along one of the trails, guessing as to which one led her back to the main path. “It’s turning chilly under here. What say we take a stroll?”
“I’d prefer to remain close to the pines,” he responded.
“What’s so important about them?”
“They have an inbuilt telepathic field. That’s why we use them for the remnant boxes.”
Ruby glanced up at the limbs of the tree closest to her. Her eyes scrunched up as she caught sight of the bright sky through the gaps in the canopy. “You’re proposing the trees are telepathic?”
He chuckled. “Not in how you might be used to.”
“But they—what? Talk to each other?”
“They generate a low-level telepathic field that can be read by those sensitive enough in the vicinity. Can you not sense it?”
Ruby concentrated. “No.”
“Close your eyes and relax.”
Ruby was wary. Biggs might be some distance away still, but she didn’t like the idea of closing her eyes in his presence. Recognising her discomfort, he declared, “I’ll stay here. I know you don’t trust me, but I’m not going to hurt you. I only want to talk.”
She closed her eyes.
“Now, focus on the wind through the branches.”
It was simple to do that; the wind had been whistling through the surrounding woods steadily for the last few minutes. In the distance, she heard a train rumbling past, and what she thought were probably wood pigeons cooing from up high.
And then she felt it.
Her eyes snapped open and she saw with relief that Biggs hadn’t moved. “What was that? That’s not possible.”
“None of these trees are possible. We’ve genetically modified them to get them where they are today. Given them strength, robustness, resilience, and something else.”
“We’re growing telepathic trees.”
Biggs laughed. “You make it sound so theatrical. These aren’t intelligent. They’re just creating waveforms that sensitive people can pick up.”
“I’m not sensitive. I’ve been tested.”
“Maybe not on a deep enough level for you to require registration, or even on a scale that we can measure with our toys, but you can sense things. You’ve felt the trees. You know I’m not lying.”
“So why do you want to talk under here?”
“The telepathic field helps bolster my own blocking patterns. There are people that might be looking for me, and I’m taking care to make certain they don’t succeed. Plus,” he added as an afterthought, “the canopy provides useful cover in case anyone’s watching.” He glanced up at the sky.
“If your privacy is so important why tell me who you are?”
“I need allies. Devan’s in serious trouble, and I need to find out what.”
“Why don’t you ask him?”
Biggs glared at her with soul-burning eyes. “Don’t you think I have already?” He sank to the floor and slumped back against a tree. He tried to smile but it was forced and made him look drained, older than he did before. “Eighteen months ago, Devan changed. He’d always been aloof so at first I thought he was just under too much pressure planning the InfiniteYou network, but as I encouraged him to take time away, he did the opposite and worked harder, putting himself farther and farther out of reach.
“He accused me of working against him. His paranoia was getting worse. It had only been as bad as this after the assassination attempt, but he’d improved since then. Now, projects were moved behind closed doors. Managers were discouraged from leaving OsMiTech at all. Rumours of secret floors surfaced where teams were working throughout the night on projects no one else could see.
“I tried to get into one of these project areas. Level fourteen used to be a shared project space where collaboration and communication were encouraged, but they’d locked the place down. Devan warned me off. Told me that if I continued to scrutinise these projects, I’d be expelled from the organisation.”
“The project on level fourteen—that was the InfiniteYou network, right?”
“I don’t know. I never got up there. I guess it must have been. Weeks later, he reassigned me to the snoops.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“I hoped you would help me like Nikoli did.”
“How? Why?”
“Nikoli was a telepath.”
“I know.”
Biggs looked startled. “You’ve been doing digging of your own. How did you find out?”
“Devan was blackmailing him. At the InfiniteYou event, Nikoli threatened him, and Devan countered by threatening to out Nikoli as a telepath.”
His eyes set on Ruby’s. “You saw this?”
“A security drone recorded it.”
“Have you got a copy of the feed?”
Ruby shook her head. “No. It was wiped.”
“Pity.”
“But, it indicates that Devan had something to do with Nikoli’s death.”
“How so? From what you say, Nikoli was the one with a motive for murder—not Devan.”
Ruby knew that Biggs was right, but she couldn’t dismiss the possibility that easily. Devan and Nikoli were in the midst of a power struggle and hours after they’d revealed their hands to each other, one of them was dead. That wasn’t a coincidence.
Ruby drew in a deep breath. “How did you find out Nikoli was a telepath?”
“By chance. I’d seen him in the building and knew he worked for your department. I speculated that an outsider working within OsMiTech could be useful. I tracked him for a time.”
“You were looking for leverage against him.”
Biggs looked dismayed. “I wanted us to help each other.”
Ruby remained unconvinced.
“I tracked him down one night to a hotel. I thought neutral ground would serve both of us, only he was with his mistress and his blocks were down.” He stopped and broke eye contact. “I went down to the bar and waited for him.”
“So, you used him.”
“No. I used the information to get him to stay and have a drink, hear me out, but I swore I never coerced him.”
“When was this?”
“Six months ago.”
“And you persuaded Nikoli to work for you?”
�
��Nikoli was already suspicious of what was happening inside OsMiTech. He loathed that one man was in charge of such an extraordinary piece of infrastructure and was allowed to be so secretive about it all. Much as you might like to disagree, your department is toothless. Sending auditors into OsMiTech is all an act to settle the people. Nikoli knew this. You know this.”
It was true. Being frustrated daily was part of the job. How could one small underfunded department, hope to regulate telepaths when their sponsor was the wealthiest man in the country?
“What did Nikoli discover?”
“Shortly after we met, his security clearance was reduced.”
“Do you think they knew what he was doing?”
Biggs shook his head. “No. The whole OsMiTech organisation was progressing through an extensive security audit. Inconvenient certainly but nothing to do with Nikoli. If Devan suspected him, he would have arranged for him to be dismissed.”
“Did he find out anything? At the event, he was talking about the tombs, whatever they are.”
“I don’t know what that means,” he replied. “But, he found evidence that there were still ongoing secret projects.”
“That’s not surprising for a technology company like OsMiTech.”
“He uncovered shipment records. A substantial amount of Nanosalve was received four months ago, and Nikoli couldn’t determine why.”
“Nanosalve is normally just for use in hospitals,” Ruby said, remembering the security footage she’d witnessed. Nikoli had opened his attack against Devan with his discovery of these shipments.
“And remnant keepers are allowed controlled supplies to maintain their eye modifications.”
“Could it not be accounted for then with the remnant keepers?”
“Not the quantities that Nikoli found records for. There was sufficient in that delivery to feed the remnant keeper programme for ten years. Nanosalve simply doesn’t have such a long shelf-life.”
“What did Nikoli do with his discoveries?”
“I don’t know. I suspect he didn’t tell me all of what he uncovered, but I don’t have access to his files. If you could get into them—see what he’d found.”
Ruby shook her head. “No chance. I’d get into major trouble if I was detected trying to get into Nikoli’s files.” Ruby didn't reveal that she’d already tried to do precisely that on the day of Nikoli’s funeral.
Biggs stood and brushed the dirt from his trousers. He looked crumpled. “I’ve shared a lot. You know that Nikoli was investigating something. Even if you can’t trust me, trust that Nikoli was doing the right thing and help him.”
“What about the police?”
Biggs offered a wan smile. “What are you going to tell them? They’ll think you’re delusional. And the police won’t dig around OsMiTech without significant reason. Trust me, they know what side their bread’s buttered.” He sighed. “I can understand your doubts. But, if you can get inside OsMiTech, find out where these projects are happening…”
“I can’t get access to OsMiTech unless the DRT and OsMiTech both agree to me taking over Nikoli’s role. I’ve asked, but it’s not a given. I might have to wait for my answers for a while longer.”
Biggs looked frazzled. He peered around him at the trees again. “These are grand, but it’s exhausting being this close to them.” He stared across at Ruby. “Do what you can. I’ll be in touch.”
And he swung about and headed up the path to the right, leaving Ruby alone and bemused by the encounter.
8:29 AM
Fin was lingering in the kitchen, coffee cup in hand, staring out of the window. “Hey, that was some run. What are you training for?” He came to hug her, then feeling the sweat, backed off and grinned. “Maybe you want to freshen up?”
Ruby grabbed a glass of water and downed it before sloping to the bathroom and getting in the shower. She dropped the temperature and let the cooling water rinse away the sweat and grime from the run. With eyes closed, she lifted her chin and let the spray massage her face.
Biggs was not the man she’d thought he was. Neither was Nikoli come to that. Men with secrets intersecting her life. There was a pattern here. Stepping out of the shower, she saw Fin’s used towel folded neatly over the towel rail. She needed to address the question of whether he would be staying longer than a day or two.
The bathroom door opened.
“Whoops. Sorry.” Fin tried to look like he’d mistimed things, but Ruby knew him better than that. She grabbed a towel and covered herself. “What say we head to the park later for a picnic or something?”
“A picnic?”
“Yeah—or something. Whatever, you choose.”
“I’m working.”
“I can meet you at lunch. You’re allowed a break aren’t you?”
“Yeah, sure—whatever, that sounds great.”
He left but left the door open behind him. Yes, Ruby thought, she would have to get things clear in her head as to what she wanted. This couldn’t carry on any longer. A nice distraction perhaps, but that’s all it was—a distraction. Her dad had told her that life without purpose was an empty vessel and being carried aimlessly through her relationships was the emptiest feeling in the world.
In the kitchen, Fin had prepared a simple breakfast of cereal and a cup of Jasmine tea. He leant back against the kitchen sink with a childish expectant look on his face.
“You shouldn’t have, Fin. I’d have sorted it.”
“You look frazzled. That run must have taken it out of you. I wanted to help. Besides, it’s nice doing breakfast for someone else.”
The cereal was off. It had been in the cupboard for weeks. Probably since Fin had moved out, and he’d put milk in her tea. Still, the thought was there, she supposed.
“I’m sorry, let me make you something else.” He rushed to take the bowl from her and she let him, but went to the bread bin herself and put a slice in the toaster.
“You want one?” she asked, but he shook his head.
“What’s up? You’re acting funny.”
Ruby hesitated. “I met someone out running today.”
“Oh. Who? Someone I know?”
“Why would you know them?”
He looked at his hands. “Oh, I thought that’s where you were going with this.”
She grinned. “No, don’t be daft. You don’t know anyone around here.”
Fin’s eyes widened. He was giving her that wounded look again. She ignored it and continued. “There was a man at the InfiniteYou launch. A man called Biggs. A snoop. He sought me out.”
“Sought you out?” His voice was troubled, and his posture had straightened. “Are you OK?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. He wanted to talk. I think he followed me.”
Fin’s frown deepened. “Followed—he followed you? Like a stalker?”
“No. At least, I don’t think so. I don’t think he wanted to hurt me. He wants to help. He told me things about Nikoli. Stuff he shouldn’t know.”
“What like?”
The toast popped. It was burnt. Fin had been playing with the settings. She chucked the slice in the bin and started again, lowering the dial.
“He knew that Nikoli was a telepath. They’d been working together on investigating OsMiTech.”
“Wait, back up. What do you mean, Nikoli was a telepath?”
“Nikoli was a telepath.”
Fin frowned. “You never told me.”
“I only just found out.” She lifted the lid on the butter dish.
“Are you suggesting he wasn’t registered?”
Ruby nodded.
Fin shook his head. “Jesus.”
“Fin, I think his death was at least partly due to that. I’ve seen the footage.” And she told Fin about her afternoon at the Arts Centre finding the security footage of Devan and Nikoli.
After she’d finished, Fin took a seat at the table.
“You OK?” she asked him.
“Why would he risk keeping it a secret?”
/> “I don’t know. He must have had his reasons, though.”
“What about this Biggs? How does he fit in?”
“I’m not sure. He claims to be Devan’s brother.”
“I didn’t think Devan had a brother.”
“Neither did I.”
He scrutinised her. “Why did he want to tell you any of this?”
Ruby popped the toast—it was underdone. She lowered it again. “He wanted me to pick up where Nikoli left off. Find the threads of Nikoli’s investigation and expose what Devan’s up to.”
Fin was shaking his head, slowly as if he was afraid that she would not get the point. “Absolutely not. No way. You’re not getting mixed up in this. It got Nikoli killed.”
“We don’t know why Nikoli was killed. It might have had nothing to do with what he was investigating.”
“Don’t spin me like that, Ruby. Goddamnit.” He stood quickly, shoving the chair back, letting it scrape on the tiles. “Why tell me if you don’t want to listen to my opinion? Nikoli was murdered. You suspect it’s something to do with Devan Oster, and you’re taking the advice of a man you’ve never even heard of and shouldn’t even exist. What the hell do you think you’re playing at?”
The toast popped. Burnt again. Ruby let it sit in the toaster. The acrid smell hitting her nostrils. “I wanted to sound things out. See if it made sense.”
“Of course it doesn’t make sense. It’s a bloody mess is what it is. You need to go to the police. Tell them what you’ve told me—or at the very least, tell Glynn. Let him deal with it.”
“Nikoli was my friend.”
Fin ruffled his hair. “And this is what he would have wanted? If he was your friend, and this wasn’t dangerous, don’t you think he’d have spoken of it when he was still alive? He kept it apart from you for a reason. He didn’t want you involved.”
“It’s too late. I am involved.” Ruby watched as Fin shook his head and stormed out. The front door slammed a moment later and Ruby wondered how much longer she could avoid putting off the inevitable.
10:21 AM
Ruby perched on one of the hard chairs in the waiting room and wondered why she was the only person waiting. Clinics were never on a Thursday, so when she got the call to bring her dad in she was surprised. Normally, appointments got pushed back, not forward. He'd been in a happy place this morning so leaving him in the hands of a friendly nurse at reception hadn't been difficult, but Ruby was worried. They wanted to keep him in—monitor him through the night. This didn't feel right. She shifted in her seat and peered at the scattering of magazines on the coffee table. Hospitals made her think of Mum. They always did. It wasn’t healthy. She knew that, but it didn't help.
The Infinity Mainframe (Tombs Rising Book 3) Page 8