Dangerously Placed

by Nansi Kunze

  Budi shook his head.

  ‘I still should have known you were worried. I’m going to make it my mission from now on to really listen to people – not just for gossip and trends, but to find out what they’re feeling. After all, that’s what made our CEO great!’ He stood up. ‘Now, unless there’s anything else you want to tell me, Peaches, I think I’ll go and check around to see how everyone else is doing. Will you be okay working on your proposal by yourself?’

  ‘Of course.’

  Budi stooped down again for a moment.

  ‘One more thing, Alex …’

  I braced myself for another reprimand.

  ‘I’m very proud of you. You’ve coped really well with some tough times, and your work in the office is still exemplary. Don’t think I’ve forgotten that you’ve been ploughing on with the Impression work alone, without Dale to help you. You’re doing a great job.’

  ‘Thanks,’ I smiled.

  Budi grinned back. ‘But for crying out loud, do try to be careful for a change, Alex!’

  That must be about the tenth time someone’s told me that this week, I thought as I went into my own cubicle. But they had a point, as I was about to find out.

  By the end of the morning I was feeling pretty happy. The Impression proposal was almost done – storyboards, technical specs for the JeanScan system and everything – and most of it I’d done alone. I almost felt bad that Dale wasn’t getting to enjoy the satisfaction of having created something so cool while on work experience. But then, I reminded myself, he should have thought of that before he’d gone telling tales on our colleagues and taking videos of my rear end.

  I checked my personal email before logging out for lunch and was surprised to see a message from Nix.

  ‘How’s the cut?’ it read. ‘The guys here are heading down to film part of the new Sunnybake raisin toast ad in Griffin Street Park around 12.30. I thought seeing an ad actually being made might be useful for your proposal thing. Should be back by 2.30. Let me know if you want us to pick you up on the way. My mentor’s happy for you to come along, if you can stand the zombie make-up.’

  A smile crept across my face. It sounded fun.

  ‘Budi?’ I called over the dividing wall. ‘Would it be okay if I take an extra hour or so out of the office? A friend of mine’s doing a placement with an ad creation agency and he said I could go watch some filming. I’m pretty close to finished with my proposal.’

  ‘Sounds educational,’ said Budi, squinting at my monitor over the divider. ‘Oh, the Sunnybake ads? I love those! Sure thing, Peaches, you go have fun.’

  I typed a quick reply and got up.

  ‘Um … should I tell Inge I’m going?’ I asked nervously, looking over at the other side of the room, where Inge was laughing flirtatiously with Jorge.

  ‘I wouldn’t bother,’ murmured Budi. ‘If she notices you’re gone, I’ll just ask her about those revolting diamanté-studded pumps she’s programmed onto her feet this morning and by the time she’s finished admiring herself you’ll be back again.’

  I wandered down the grass-carpeted corridor. It was strange to think that I only had two more days here. Despite everything, I’d become kind of fond of Simulcorp Marketing, I realised. When the last time came to open the golden door and log out, I would miss it.

  Back in realspace, I unsealed my suit and stepped out. It was a little chilly in just my bodysuit. I rubbed my arms to warm them and opened the door to the outer room to get my clothes. My phone was beeping in my backpack. I wondered if it was Sky telling me not to come over to her place after all, or whether her mum had forgiven me. It was still a moot point, since Mum and Dad had decided I could only visit my friends if they were personally able to drive me there and back. I reached down to see what the message was.

  I’m not sure if it was all those people telling me to be careful, but when I heard a tiny sound behind me, I didn’t hesitate. I whipped round, my hands held up defensively. And there, in the darkest corner of the outer room, I saw a skull staring out at me.

  For a second, I seriously thought I was going to faint again. Then, in a flash, I realised what was going on and the silent scream that had risen in my throat melted. In its place a shaky laugh broke from me.

  ‘Oh my God, Nix, you scared the hell out of me! I guess this is one of the masks you guys made for the raisin toast ad?’ I stepped forward to take a closer look at the skull. ‘Not bad. Terrifying, actually! Sheesh.’ I put a hand over my racing heart. ‘I know it wouldn’t have been as good a test of how scary the thing is, but I do wish you’d let me know before you … came … in …’

  I stopped.

  If this was Nix, how had he managed to get inside AU-3?

  A hand shot out from the shadows.

  But I was ready this time. Whoever was behind the mask was considerably taller than I was, and when I ducked the hand was left grasping thin air. I spun round, launching myself towards the door, but my attacker grabbed my ankle, sending me crashing face-first to the floor. Through the burst of pain that engulfed my face I managed to keep enough sense to kick backwards as hard as I could, and the attacker let go of me with a curse. I struggled to my feet, only to be knocked down again by a blow from behind. Some instinct made me roll as I fell and I landed on my back. The skull-wearer was on me in an instant, and in the light from the narrow outer window I could see that my attacker was a woman, dressed in jeans and a dark top. She pinned my arms with her knees, reaching slim hands to grasp my throat. A terrifying image of Grody struggling for air in his Virk Suit shot through my mind, and with all the power of utter desperation I twisted under her, thrusting with my bare feet against the cold marble floor. The attacker, unbalanced, slid sideways and for a third time I lunged for the exit. My fingers were almost touching the button that opened the outer door when I felt my attacker’s arm close, vice-like, around my neck. I scrabbled at her arm with both of my hands. She yanked my left arm away with her other hand, squeezing harder. I still had one hand free to pull at her, but my strength was no match for hers and a wave of panic rose in me as I realised I couldn’t draw breath. The crushing pressure on my neck was almost unbearable. The green Open button blurred before my eyes.

  No! my brain screamed. This can’t be right! I’m not meant to die here, strangled by some weirdo in a cheap Halloween mask!

  And with that thought, I stopped tearing at the arm around my throat and reached behind me until my fingers met the thick rubber of the skull mask. I tugged at it with all my remaining strength.

  My gamble paid off – with a gasp, the attacker let go of me to grab at the mask and preserve her disguise. I gulped in a lungful of air with dizzy gratitude and stumbled forward to press the green button.

  But not quite fast enough.

  I heard a hiss of anger, then felt a sharp sting as the attacker grabbed my hair and hauled me away from the door. I could barely stand straight. With a sudden horrible clarity, I knew there was no way I could withstand another onslaught. My knees gave way under me, and my out-thrust hands only just stopped me from landing face-first on my backpack. The front pocket lay open, the phone inside still flashing its unread message. I stretched out a shaking hand.

  ‘You think you can call for help?’ The attacker’s voice was raw and low. ‘How long will they take to come? You don’t have that much time, girl.’

  In two strides, she closed the gap between us. I scrabbled desperately in the backpack pocket, succeeding only in knocking my phone out of reach onto the cold floor. The attacker laughed.

  ‘Another poor choice,’ she whispered, looming over me. ‘You should have chosen wisely in the first place – stayed out of things that didn’t concern you.’ I felt her bend down. ‘But now your options are all gone.’

  My fingers closed over something round and lumpy.

  That’s where you’re wrong, I thought, and pushing myself up with one hand, I flung the Giant Moon Rock at the narrow outer window with all my strength.

  I’ve got to s
ay this about gaming: if nothing else, it really enhances your hand–eye coordination. Even in my groggy state, my aim was true. With a crash, the Moon Rock sailed through the window, sending glass flying everywhere. As my attacker flung her hands up to protect herself, I forced myself to my feet, barely registering the sharp pain of a glass shard slicing across my forehead. The deafening wail of an alarm was already rising, and I knew I only had five seconds until AU-3 went into security lockdown. I leapt at the gaping hole in the window, wriggling my body to force a path through the remaining points of glass, which caught and prodded at my bodysuit. Blinding sunlight enveloped me as I thrust my head outside.

  And there was Nix.

  I had no breath left for words, but he didn’t seem to need any. Grasping my arms, he pulled me towards him, leaning his whole weight back. For a moment, I felt myself sliding forwards, but then there was a ripping sound and I cried out as a jagged point of glass pressed into my shoulder. I heard the rumble of shutters preparing to drop right on top of me, and in total panic I thrashed my legs, my weight carrying me backwards into the outer room. But my shoulder was still caught. I felt something push me hard from outside, and then I was free and Nix was tumbling through the window after me, just in time to see the outside door close behind the woman in the mask. A fraction of a second later, the heavy steel shutters slammed down, sealing AU-3 off from the outside world.

  ‘Alex! Are you okay?’ Nix knelt down beside me.

  ‘I think so,’ I said, and fainted onto his lap.

  I didn’t have long, once I regained consciousness, to enjoy the major embarrassment of finding myself with my head in a guy’s lap. Even as I opened my eyes, blinking in the dark blue half-light, I could hear the sound of barked commands outside. The police were here to let us out.

  Something was pressing against the side of my face. I put a hand up to check it out and encountered another hand. Nix was holding a tissue to my cheek.

  ‘Your cut opened up again,’ I heard him say. That was when I realised exactly where I was. With rapidly reddening cheeks I shot upright as fast as I could. I couldn’t see Nix clearly in the gloom – evidently the main power had been cut as part of the security lockdown – but I could see enough to know that he was grinning.

  ‘How long was I out of it?’ I demanded, feeling very grateful for the lack of light as I shuffled backwards to a respectable distance. At least Nix wouldn’t be able to see just how embarrassed I looked.

  ‘Two or three minutes, I’d say. I was worried about you for a while there, but if you can move that quickly I guess your injuries aren’t too critical.’ I could even hear how big his grin was, damn him.

  ‘I’m fine,’ I said, wincing as I tried to get up.

  ‘That’s what you thought just before you passed out,’ Nix reminded me, grabbing my hand to stop me. ‘Why don’t you just stay sitting down for a minute?’

  The cuts on my cheek and forehead, and the various bruises I’d collected from my struggle with the masked attacker, had begun to throb painfully, but when Nix took my hand in his a warm, giddy rush of happiness flooded through me. I sat there, speechless, and looked across at him, all pain forgotten. My eyes were adjusting to the darkness. I could see Nix’s eyes twinkling back at me, half-concealed by his unruly hair. A dark trickle was slowly making its way down his temple. He must have been cut by some of the glass as he came through the window, I realised. As if he could read my mind, Nix wiped away the blood with his fingers.

  ‘Thanks,’ I said, trying to keep my voice calm and even, but without success. All I could focus on was the fact that Nix was still holding my hand. ‘For helping me out of the window, I mean.’

  ‘Any time,’ he said softly.

  There was a loud grating sound, and I looked around to see light flooding through the broken window as the security shutters rolled back up. The door slid open, and through it marched the tall, familiar figure of Constable Byrne, my one-time ‘stalker’.

  ‘You okay?’ He crouched down to take a look at the two of us, then ran a hand over his face. ‘Phew! I was worried we were going to get in here too late and find you … well, you know, past reviving. Can you walk?’

  I nodded. As he helped me up, I felt Nix’s hand slip away from mine. I looked back at him, but he was getting to his feet too and I couldn’t see his face.

  The constable led me away to be checked by one of the officers who knew first aid. As she put a fresh dressing on my cheek and the long graze on my side, gently prodding my neck and body to check for further damage, a car drew up and Detective Sergeants Hargreaves and Montague stepped out. I watched them speak to Constable Byrne, then head straight for Nix, who was having his own cuts examined not far away.

  ‘Can I get you to sit still please, dear?’

  ‘Sorry!’ I turned back to the first aid officer, listening intently as Nix told the sergeants how he’d come to pick me up, seen the window smash and come to help me. Then it was my turn to recount what had happened.

  ‘This attacker,’ said Detective Sergeant Hargreaves, when I’d finished, ‘do you think it may have been the same woman you saw leaving AU-2 last night?’

  ‘I only saw her for a moment, but yeah, it could have been.’ I looked over at Nix. ‘Did you find out anything from the hair Nix got yesterday?’

  Hargreaves shook his head. ‘The DNA wasn’t on file. Whoever the woman was, she wasn’t a known offender.’

  The officer who was checking me got up.

  ‘It doesn’t look like you’ve sustained any serious damage,’ she told me, ‘but we’ll probably have to take you to the hospital and have them look at you just to make sure, okay? Now, I’ll just go and fetch you a blanket. You must be cold in that.’

  I looked down. I was still in my bodysuit, which was more revealing than usual now that it had a long gash down one side.

  ‘Nix, my man!’

  A guy with a black goatee and sunglasses was making his way across the pebbled courtyard, accompanied by another officer.

  ‘You’ve just got a thirst for danger, haven’t you?’ said the goateed man, grinning at Nix. ‘And I thought you nearly blowing yourself up along with that bucket of chips was extreme! You okay, my friend?’

  This must be Nix’s mentor, I realised. Obviously Nix had kept a few details about the Fiery Fries explosion to himself.

  ‘Yeah, I’m fine. I’m sorry, Gazza.’ Nix ran a hand through his hair, looking rueful. ‘I forgot you guys would still be waiting for me. Alex seemed to be in trouble …’

  ‘I gathered that. Don’t sweat it, Nix – you can tell me all about it later. But we’ve got to get down to Griffin Street before our window for the shoot closes.’ Gazza beamed around at the police officers. ‘You guys still need my protégé here for questioning, or can he come with us?’

  ‘We’ve got his preliminary statement, so he can return to work if he feels up to it,’ said Detective Sergeant Montague. ‘We’ll need to do a more formal interview at some point today, though. We can have an officer take you back to work later if you’d prefer, Phoenix.’

  Nix glanced over at me.

  ‘I think I might stay for a bit longer,’ he said, and my heart gave a leap.

  Gazza raised his eyebrows, his grin widening as he looked me up and down in my torn bodysuit.

  ‘Can’t say I blame you,’ he murmured, winking at me. He clapped Nix on the shoulder and left.

  Embarrassments were just going to pile up on me today, I realised, feeling extra grateful for the blanket the first aid officer was carrying towards me.

  ‘Station put a call through to you, Sarge,’ she said, holding out a phone as I took the blanket from her other hand and wrapped it around myself.

  ‘Yes?’ Detective Sergeant Montague frowned into the phone. ‘Yes, Ms Wellenschnitter.’

  Inge! Of course – when the alarm went off, Virk would have been notified. I wondered if Inge was expecting me to explain what had happened. Remembering how Budi had kept my name out of his report o
n last night’s security breach at AU-2, I hoped not. The only way I could make any sense of this attack was to suppose that it had been the same woman, trying to ensure I couldn’t be used as a witness against her. I strongly suspected Inge’s reaction to that story wouldn’t be of the cup-of-tea-and-a-shoulder-to-cry-on variety.

  Some of what I was thinking must have been obvious, because Nix came over to stand beside me, a reassuring smile on his face. I looked down, shifting my still-bare feet on the pebbles and wondering if he’d heard how my breathing quickened as he came close to me.

  ‘Yes, she’s here,’ said Detective Sergeant Montague. ‘Well, we’ll be sending Alex down to the local hospital to be checked out in a minute.’ A pause. ‘I expect so. We don’t have the full picture of events yet and we’ll need to question her before she leaves, but if she wants to and her parents don’t object … You can speak with her now if you like. Yes, we’ll keep you fully informed.’ She held the phone out to me. ‘It’s your mentor, Alex.’

  I gulped.

  ‘Thanks.’ I took the phone. ‘Hi, Inge.’

  ‘Alex!’ shrieked Inge, so loudly that I had to hold the phone away from my ear. ‘Thank God you are all right!’

  She actually sounded concerned! I’d been beginning to think she was as cold and unfeeling as Grody’s dragon.

  ‘It was pretty scary, but I’m okay.’

  ‘And was any of the equipment damaged?’

  ‘Um … I don’t think so. The whole thing happened in the outer room, so I don’t think any of the Virk Room stuff would have been wrecked.’

  ‘Thank goodness! Now, you won’t tell anyone about this incident, will you? I don’t know what the CEO would say if our stocks dropped any further, Alex!’

  Nix snorted. I realised Inge’s wailings were so loud, even he could hear them. Yet another layer of embarrassment settled on me. It was amazing I could even string two words together at this point.