by Nansi Kunze
‘The one who got caught with her boyfriend in the Mainframe Room?’ I asked, happy for any distraction from the nasty scene taking place a few cubicles away.
‘You heard about that, did you?’ Budi sighed. ‘I suppose that kind of story does stick in people’s minds. I always felt a bit sorry for Christina. They fired her, you know.’
‘What happened to the guy?’
‘Nothing, as far as I know. No one was able to find out who he was – this was before they installed a lot of the login protocols – and Christina refused to reveal anything about him.’ He gave a sad smile. ‘Kind of nice to think that some people still know what loyalty is, isn’t it?’
There was a sudden silence as the ranting stopped and Inge stalked off to Grody’s wing of the office. I realised everyone else in the room must have been listening in, although no one showed any sign of concern for Elena. Even though I knew Elena wasn’t real, I couldn’t help thinking of Mr Guildenhall’s question about whether I wanted to be like the people here. I wondered if they’d have behaved any differently if she were human. I glanced at Budi. In unspoken agreement, the two of us headed for Inge’s cubicle, ready to show that there were two people at least who cared about Elena, human or not.
Of course, it wasn’t enough that I’d set the police off hunting some guy I knew nothing about. No, I had to go and put myself and my friends in serious danger, too.
Detective Sergeants Montague and Hargreaves turned up at the office that afternoon to question people about Yasuo. Not that anyone had much to tell them. It seemed that no one knew anything significant about the man they’d shared an office with for almost two years. Li-Mei was almost in tears as she told Budi and me she’d had to admit to the police that she’d never spoken to Yasuo about anything other than work. I could see why. It was horrible to think that anyone could work alongside a bunch of people for so long and mean absolutely nothing to them.
‘I can’t believe I never tried to talk to him more,’ moaned Budi as Li-Mei went back to her desk. We saw Detective Sergeant Montague heading our way. ‘I should’ve noticed he was missing. I wonder if he was ever away before … you know, off sick or something, without anyone ever noticing and asking if he was okay. The poor guy might have been wondering all this time if anyone even cared whether he was dead or alive!’
‘It’s possible, yes,’ said Montague, who’d just arrived at Budi’s cubicle. ‘But that “poor guy” may well have been the person who murdered your boss, so I wouldn’t start crying over him just yet. Ms Thaler, can we have a word with you?’
They took me to the Conference Room. I’d never been inside before, but it was obvious that just as Grody’s office had been designed to intimidate, this place had been designed to impress visitors from other companies. The huge oval table and chairs looked as if they’d been carved from enormous chunks of sparkling white quartz, the ceiling appeared to have been stolen wholesale from the Sistine Chapel, and – in a twist that never would have been possible in realspace, given the alpine view from the open space area – the windows seemed to open directly onto the beach of a tropical island paradise. The two detectives, however, didn’t give the room a second glance.
‘Please take a seat,’ said Detective Sergeant Montague. ‘Now, Alex, I want you to know that we don’t have a lot of questions today – I know you’ve had to do a couple of long interviews, but this’ll be over in a few minutes and then you can get back to your work, okay?’
I nodded.
‘All right. Now think back – can you tell me when you last saw Yasuo Nishimura?’
‘Yes. It would have been only about ten minutes before I found Mr Grody’s body.’
‘Which occurred at …’ Detective Sergeant Hargreaves looked at the virtual notepad in his hand. ‘Approximately 5.40 pm on Tuesday the seventh?’
I nodded again.
‘And where exactly did you see Mr Nishimura?’
‘In the middle of the open space area, near the couches. He was near some other people, but I don’t think he was actually talking to them.’
‘And you’re positive this is the man you saw?’ Detective Sergeant Montague handed me a photo. ‘This is from the Simulcorp Marketing personnel database.’
I looked at the man in the photo. His mouth was curved in a small, shy smile, his hair was neatly combed to one side and his dark eyes shone with a quiet serenity that surprised me. I could see why Budi had thought Yasuo wouldn’t have hurt a fly. I frowned.
‘Yes, but …’ I stopped.
‘But?’ Detective Sergeant Montague raised an eyebrow. ‘If you’re not sure, it’s important to say so, Alex.’
‘No – I mean, yes, it’s him. But he looked … different.’
‘Different how? You mean he’d changed his hairstyle?’
‘No, his whole face.’
The two detectives stared at me.
‘It’s hard to explain,’ I mumbled, horribly aware that I was beginning to sound like a moron. ‘But he looked like he was a totally different person inside. The expression on his face was so … brutal.’ I gestured at the photo. ‘I wouldn’t have thought this guy could make an expression like that.’
The officers sat back, sharing an ‘isn’t she innocent’ smile.
‘I know it’s difficult to imagine at your age, Alex,’ said Detective Sergeant Montague, ‘but people aren’t always the way they seem to their friends. Mr Nishimura might look like a nice man here in the picture, but that doesn’t guarantee that he didn’t have some very serious issues bottled up inside. He may have been nursing a hatred for Mr Grody for a long time. So, putting his expression aside, this is the same person you saw in the open space area at around 5.30 pm on Tuesday the seventh?’
I hesitated.
‘Yes,’ I said finally. There just wasn’t a way to make them understand what I’d seen. If this was what Yasuo usually looked like, there’d been something very, very wrong with him on the day of the party. That much I was sure of.
‘That’s all we wanted to know, Alex. Thank you for your help,’ said Detective Sergeant Hargreaves, noting something down in his little book.
I stood up, then stopped.
‘Um … is it okay if I ask something?’
‘Sure.’ Detective Sergeant Montague looked up. ‘What is it?’
‘While you’ve been looking into Yasuo, did you happen to find out whether he ever was off sick, like Budi said?’
Montague looked at me strangely.
‘Yes, he was, as a matter of fact. Well, we can’t be sure that the records haven’t been tampered with, given that someone’s obviously deleted him from the personnel file, but if the sick leave files are accurate, he took several days off a week or so before he was last mentioned as an employee. You’re worried that he was all alone without anyone noticing or caring, aren’t you?’ She gave me a kind smile. ‘Oddly enough, there’s some evidence to suggest that Pierce Grody may have visited Mr Nishimura while he was sick. Mr Grody was in Japan meeting with executives from Avatar Robotics at that time, and a couple of the staff here said they remembered him talking about taking a trip to Sendai, which is where we think Mr Nishimura lived. His actual address has been wiped from the files too. Our Japanese colleagues are trying to find it out.’ She looked at Detective Sergeant Hargreaves, who snorted. Obviously the investigation wasn’t going too well. ‘Of course, if Mr Nishimura was harbouring some enmity towards his boss, Mr Grody may have been the last person he wanted to see while he was unwell, but you can put your mind at rest on that point, Alex – it seems unlikely that he felt no one had noticed his absence.’
I nodded.
‘Thanks.’
That evening, I had an idea for using a single gaming glove to control the point of view in JeanScan. I was heading to my room to work on it when my dad called out to me.
‘Hey, Alex! Something on the news here about that Grody chap!’
‘She doesn’t need to be reminded of that horrible business, Eric,’ scolded my mum
as I hurried into the lounge room.
‘Mum, I want to hear this!’ I sat down next to Dad on the couch and stared at the TV, where once again a picture of Grody glared back at us over the caption ‘Simulcorp Murder’.
‘Local authorities in Sendai, Japan, found no sign of the suspect, whose home appears to have been abandoned for several months,’ the newsreader was saying. ‘Police are appealing for anyone who may have seen Nishimura to call the Investigation Hotline on 1800 …’
The newsreader disappeared, replaced with the same portrait of Yasuo that Detective Sergeant Montague had shown me … but Grody’s picture was still up in the corner. In an instant I realised what had been wrong with the Yasuo I’d seen on the day Grody died.
‘Well, I hope they catch him before he does any more harm,’ commented my dad.
‘What? Oh, yeah, me too. Well, I think I’m going to go over to Sky’s to do my work prep,’ I told him, getting up quickly.
‘Make sure you put a jacket on!’ called Mum as I raced into my room to grab my phone. ‘And take an umbrella – it looks like it might rain!’
‘Okay, Mum.’ I took my umbrella off its hook in the hall, even though my getting soaked would have been the least of her worries if she’d known what I was up to. I dialled Kiyoko’s number as I stepped outside, checking the twilight street for signs of the stalker. There was nothing to be seen, thankfully.
‘Hi, Alex.’
‘Ki! I think I know why Yasuo didn’t look right!’
‘You’re talking about the guy you texted me about, I assume – the one who went missing?’
‘Yes, of course!’ I said impatiently, hurrying down the deserted street in the direction of Sky’s house. ‘I tried to tell the police that he looked like he was different inside, and that’s exactly what he was. I think Yasuo was actually Pierce Grody.’
‘So you’re saying that Grody somehow modified a Virk Suit to make him look like this Yasuo guy, is that it?’ Sky flicked the windscreen wipers to a higher setting. It was getting wetter and darker by the second. I was so glad Sky had her licence. Without a car, I’d have had no chance of getting to Brighton without being completely soaked – and practically no chance of persuading the others to come with me, either.
‘Well, it may not have been the suit itself,’ I explained from the passenger seat of the little yellow Toyota. ‘I don’t know enough about how Virk functions to be sure of that – he might have reprogrammed something within the office system instead. But I’m almost certain that the Yasuo I saw had Grody’s face underneath his skin, if you know what I mean.’
‘Dude, that’s sick!’ said Joel, in a tone of fascinated awe. ‘You think he murdered that Yasuo guy and, like, took off his face and wore it over his own face?’
The rest of us greeted this idea with cries of disgust.
‘No, Joel, I don’t! I can’t even start to say what’s wrong with that. What I meant was, it was Grody making the expressions, but looking like Yasuo. Grody was the king of dirty looks, and I know he had the skills to change his appearance in a virtual environment, because the photos they showed of the real Grody looked different to the one I met. I think he made it so he could look like Yasuo whenever he felt like it – maybe so he could check up on his underlings or something.’ I paused. ‘But I guess it is possible that Grody murdered Yasuo. Or maybe he was keeping him prisoner. I mean, you couldn’t pretend to be Yasuo if the real Yasuo was still around.’
‘If Yasuo were being held captive, perhaps he escaped and murdered Grody as revenge,’ mused Ki from the back seat.
‘I don’t know about this, Alex,’ said Nix. I twisted in my seat to look at him. The glow of a streetlight flashed across his face and I could see that he was genuinely worried. ‘Grody’s Virk Room is private property and a crime scene. We could get in a lot of trouble going in there. Maybe you should just tell the police about this theory of yours.’
‘I’m the only one who’s going in there,’ I pointed out. ‘The rest of you guys don’t have your retinas on file, and the scanners check that only one person goes in when the doors open. I already tried telling the police that there was something weird about Yasuo’s face, Nix, and they didn’t believe me. I need some proof before I can try that again, okay?’
Nix considered this.
‘What about your stalker? He could be following us right now for all we know.’
I’d thought about that. The idea of the unknown man shadowing me was still a frightening one, but looking out at the pouring rain and the houses flashing by, it didn’t seem very likely that a guy I’d only ever seen on foot would be following us. Besides, if he was the murderer, then the only way I was sure to be safe from him was to clear up the mystery behind Grody’s death.
‘You said it yourself: if he was going to hurt me, he’s had plenty of chances before this. Besides, that’s what I have you guys for – to protect me, right?’ I grinned at Nix, and as an answering smile crept over his face, I was sure I was doing the right thing. With friends like mine, who needed to be scared?
‘Is this it?’ asked Sky. She slowed down as we approached a building like a big, dark cube with a courtyard full of black pebbles in front of it. It looked exactly like AU-3.
‘Must be,’ I said. ‘It’s just like where I work.’
‘You work in a place like this?’ asked Joel. ‘No wonder you fainted yesterday – this place is, like, Bad Vibes HQ.’
‘It’s a lot nicer in Virk itself, Joel.’ I squinted out through the rain-splashed windscreen as Sky stopped the car. There was no sign of police tape or any other barrier around the building, and I couldn’t see anyone out in the street. ‘It looks okay to go in. Do you guys want to stay in the car?’
Joel looked like he wanted to say yes, but Ki immediately said, ‘No, we’ll come out with you.’
‘We can’t keep a good enough eye on you from here,’ agreed Nix.
‘Thanks, you guys.’
We ran through the rain and across the crunching pebbles until we reached the shelter of AU-2. The windows were completely dark. I tried to look calm and confident as I prepared to go inside.
‘I won’t be long, okay?’ I looked round at the others’ faces as they huddled together under the narrow overhang of the entrance. Sky, Ki and Joel all showed varying degrees of nervousness, but Nix’s eyes just glittered under his dripping fringe, his face unreadable. ‘I’m going to take a look at Grody’s Virk Suit, maybe try it on to see if I look different in Virk.’
‘If you’re not out in ten minutes,’ said Ki grimly, ‘I intend to call the police.’
I nodded. Then I stepped up to the door.
‘Please align eye for retinal scan,’ the door said, sending out its red beam.
‘Dude!’ breathed Joel, awestruck.
The scanner beeped its acceptance. I stepped inside.
Only the backup lighting came on as I walked through the outer room – two soft, blue lights set into the floor. It was freezing cold inside too. Clearly most of the power to AU-2 had been switched off now that it was unoccupied. It gave the place an eerie feel, like some kind of subterranean cavern. I found myself tiptoeing through the blue half-light, as if any noise I made might wake up a colony of bats or something.
‘Gamma nine two beta,’ I said as I reached the Virk Room door. It opened.
It was just as dim inside the Virk Room itself. The empty grey floor looked icy. A Virk Suit hung limply from its power cords in front of me. I bent down to examine it. It looked just like mine, but bigger. I peered closely at the mask section, although I knew that if there was anything obviously strange about it the police would have noticed. Nothing. I suddenly wished I’d taken the time to put a bodysuit on at home – I was going to have to put the suit on over my clothes. Well, at least it looked big enough to cover the extra bulk. Taking a deep breath, I slipped my arms and legs into the suit, pulled on the mask and let it seal. I could feel the extra material scrunching up around my elbows and knees as it tried its best
to cling to me, and then the visor went online. I was standing in front of the golden door at Simulcorp Marketing. My heart began to beat a little faster. What if someone was about to leave Virk after a little overtime and saw me? I gulped, imagining the reaction I might provoke if someone thought they were seeing Yasuo … or worse yet, our former boss, returned from the dead. Hastily, I looked down at my hands. They looked right – they were mine. My legs, too, though wearing the same dark, pinstriped pants as Grody had worn before his death, were roughly the size and shape I’d have expected to see in a mirror, if a little lumpier because of the jeans I had on. It looked as though this suit was untainted. The only other possibility I could think of was that Grody had some kind of password system that changed the appearance the suit projected into Virk.
‘Um … Yasuo Nishimura?’ I tried softly, watching my body to see if anything happened. It didn’t. ‘Change image?’ Nothing. ‘Execute Grody Program One! Suit, please acknowledge!’
Suddenly I heard a noise. Nothing big, just a soft scraping sound, but it was enough to freeze my blood. The Virk Rooms were all soundproofed, and since the different office rooms in Virk weren’t actually next to each other in the realspace sense, sounds never leaked through their doors either. There was only one explanation. Someone was in the Virk Room with me.
With shaking hands I ripped off the mask and stared around. The Virk Room was empty. I pulled the rest of the suit off me as quietly as possible, turning my head to check that I wasn’t missing someone in the shadows. And then I saw it: two power cords hanging from the ceiling were being drawn into the bathroom cubicle. Of course! I cursed myself for not having checked there at the start – I should have remembered that, like every other Virk Room, AU-2 would have a discreet little room with a toilet and basin in the far corner. Whoever was in there must have come in before me. I could just distinguish the outline of the doorway. My lungs felt tight in my chest. What should I do? I knew that in many ways the sensible thing to do was to make a run for the entrance and get away with my friends as quickly as possible. But part of me wanted so much to know who was in there. What if this was my one chance to find out everything – my opportunity to discover what happened to Grody, who the stalker was and why I was being followed? Whoever was in the cubicle, they didn’t seem to have heard me so far. If I could sneak over and take a look, I might be able to get out again without them ever knowing I’d been there.