“Dammit,” Smith snapped. “How are you doing that?”
“I wish I knew.”
Another man popped into existence beside us, staring incredulously around him. “What the…?” he demanded, and then shivered. “What the hell are you doing creating a construct in the portal?”
Smith stared him down. “We are performing network security tests,” he said haughtily. “You might as well go right back out, because I’m going to close all network sessions in fifteen minutes anyway.”
“How am I supposed to get anything done? You’ve been locking us out every half hour all day,” the man grumbled, but he turned and vanished through the portal.
Smith turned to me. “Will you turn off the damn snow?”
“Sorry.” I waved a hand to dissolve my simulation.
Construct, the man had called it. And apparently it was a no-no to create a construct in the portal. In my corridor simulation yesterday, the hallways had been lined with doors. Maybe that’s what they were for.
Smith interrupted my speculations by speaking in a loud, firm voice. His voice seemed to surround us as he announced, “Attention. All network sessions will be terminated in fifteen minutes. Please conclude your work and exit the network immediately. Thank you.”
Seconds later, my corridor simulation reappeared, but I didn’t think I’d been the one to create it. Several people emerged from the doors that lined the virtual hallway and straggled toward us, griping. They all gave Smith hostile looks as they went through the portal, which I could now see as a doorway marked ‘Exit’. Guess I wouldn’t need the holodeck simulation any more.
Smith turned to Kane and me. “You might as well go out, too. I’m going to give a five-minute warning, and then I’ll come out and shut the whole thing down. Again.”
“All right,” Kane agreed. He turned to me. “Let’s go.”
I gritted my teeth and stepped through the door. Sure enough, the pain hit me instantaneously. Resigned, I swore as quietly as possible.
When I pried my eyes open, Spider was looking disappointed. “Not your finest work.”
“It’s been a long day,” I growled. “Next time somebody shoves your brain through a cheese grater, remind me to critique your vocabulary.”
I rubbed my temples while we waited for Smith to come out of his trance. This was the first time I’d been able to observe someone at close range while they accessed the network, and I watched him curiously. He sat immobile in his chair, staring straight ahead. The thousand-yard stare, Connor had called it.
“What if there’s a fire alarm or something?” I asked. “Does his body retain any consciousness or physical sensation at all?”
“Oh, yes,” Spider responded. “Any touch or sudden sound in the physical reality will bring people back out of the network. It’s just like waking up someone who’s sleeping.”
“So here’s another question. What would happen if I created a construct in the network, let’s say, a cliff, and then I fell off the cliff in my simulation. And I believed it was really happening to me, so I fell to my death. In the simulation, I mean. What would happen to my real physical body?”
“Unless you had a heart condition and you gave yourself a heart attack out of sheer terror, you’d probably just wake up back in reality,” Spider said. “Just like a nightmare.”
“But I never actually die in my nightmares,” I argued. “I always wake up right before I die.”
“That would probably happen in the simulation, too.”
“Let’s hope so. It’d be a little tricky to explain to the Workers’ Compensation Board otherwise.”
Smith blinked and straightened. “Okay,” he said. “In five minutes, I’m going to bring down the entire network. Then I’m going to lock it down so it accepts only my login and excludes everybody else, even those with administrator privileges. I’ll block everything but my own biometric ID. We’ll see if that keeps you out.”
“I’m sure it will,” I said hopefully.
He pinched the bridge of his nose and grimaced. “We’ll see.”
Ten minutes later, Smith looked up from his laptop. “Try it now.”
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. And stood back on my hilltop, shivering.
Smith popped into existence. “Dammit, this is impossible!” he yelled, waving his arms. “This can’t be happening! You aren’t me! Our biometric information is completely incompatible!” He seized me by the shoulders and shook me violently. “How are you doing it? How? Tell me!”
I twisted free and backed away. “I told you, I don’t know!”
He churned his hands in his lank, greasy hair. “You must have a fob. A skeleton key. Something that totally overrides all security protocols. Where is it? Where have you hidden it?”
“I don’t have anything. Kane searched me himself yesterday.”
“Kane searched you. I think I need to search you.” He made another grab for me, but I darted away and dove through the portal.
Brilliant agony slashed me while the world looped end over end. The sound of my own screams was deafening. My body thrashed and jerked beyond my control, mindlessly struggling to escape the torment. A tumult of noise slowly resolved itself into a voice shouting, “Aydan! Aydan, hold still! It’s Kane, you’re safe, hold still! Aydan!”
I went limp, still keening while waves of pain hammered my head. Black splotches began to overtake my blindness. The splotches lightened and I glimpsed Kane’s face above me, shot through with brilliant flashes of colour.
His voice was quieter now. “Aydan, stay with me. You fell, but you’re going to be all right. Just stay with me.”
I blinked furiously, willing the spinning colours to subside. Gradually, the pain receded and the meeting room swam into focus. I lay on the floor. Kane was on his knees, supporting my head and shoulders while Spider and Smith hovered on each side of me, white-faced.
“Ow,” I croaked. “Fuck.” Something tickled my nose, and I pawed at it clumsily, generating fresh pain. “Ow,” I repeated.
“That seems a little inadequate,” Spider quavered.
I squinted up at him. “Always with the criticism.” My voice shook with the tremors that still vibrated my body. I swiped at my nose again, a little more carefully this time. My hand came back smeared with red.
“You hit your face when you fell, but I don’t think your nose is broken,” Kane reassured me.
His arms felt so good I had to resist an inappropriate urge to snuggle a little closer. I reminded myself that ‘blood and snot’ probably wasn’t an alluring look for me, and the momentary desire trickled away into embarrassment.
“I’m okay now,” I mumbled. “Other than I probably need to wash my face.” I struggled upright, and Kane helped me into a chair.
“What happened?” he asked. “Was it the beefed-up security that caused such a bad reaction?”
I scrounged a tissue out of my waist pouch and dabbed at my nose with a shaking hand. “Hard to say. It could have been that, or it could have been that I hit the portal at a full run.”
“Why were you running?”
I jabbed my chin toward Smith. “He attacked me.”
Kane turned to Smith, frowning.
“She’s lying,” Smith snapped. “I caught her trying to access the restricted files, and I chased her out.”
I erupted from my chair, fists clenched. “You filthy lying shitbag-” I bit off the incipient stream of abuse and jerked my scowl over to Spider instead. “Show the data record!”
“The portal monitoring was disabled for the test,” Smith said smoothly.
I took a step toward him, rage swelling inside me. “How very convenient for you,” I whispered, not trusting my voice. Kane’s large hand wrapped around my arm. I shook him off. “I’m going to wash my face,” I hissed, and stalked out of the room.
Kane was right behind me. “Aydan, you know I can’t-”
“Can’t let me out of your sight, I know. You can come into the ladies, or
I’ll go into the men’s, I don’t care. I’m just going to wash my face. Your choice.”
“Men’s,” he decided, stepping into the room ahead of me and scanning it briefly for occupants. “Come in.”
I went straight to one of the sinks and started running the water. In the mirror, I saw Kane prop the door open with the garbage can. “Yeah, maybe you should get Spider to chaperone,” I snarled. “You wouldn’t want me to falsely accuse you.”
He met my eyes in the mirror. “I don’t believe you’d do that.”
I regarded him for a moment. “Thanks.”
I splashed water on my face, cleaning away the smeared blood. Kane handed me a paper towel, and I patted my face dry, checking the mirror to make sure I’d got it all. My nose was red and puffy.
I plucked at the smears of blood on my good sweater and growled frustration. “I’m never going to dress up again.”
Kane leaned on the counter beside me. “Aydan.” I met his serious grey eyes. “Were you hurt in the simulation?”
“No. Smith was upset that I’d gotten in, and he got a little physical. Then he decided I hadn’t been adequately searched, and tried to take matters into his own hands. So to speak. That’s when I left.”
Kane’s face darkened, and a muscle jumped in his jaw. “I’m sorry.”
“Not your fault. Let’s finish this.” I turned and left, and he followed me back to the meeting room.
I took my seat. “Okay, we need to find out whether it was the extra security or the speed of the exit that caused the problem for me.” I glared at Smith. “Shall we step into the network and find out?”
“No,” Kane said. “This time I’m coming with you.”
“You can’t,” Spider countered.
“Yes, I can. Set it up.”
“No, that’s not what I meant,” Spider explained. “In order to properly test this, all the parameters have to remain the same except the way Aydan exits the portal. If we change anything, it could change the outcome. We’d never know whether it was a valid result or not.”
I nodded agreement.
“Aydan, you don’t have to do this,” Kane said. “I can’t ask you to put yourself through that again.”
I summoned up some bravado. “Yes, I do have to do this. I want this resolved. It would be nice to avoid another faceplant, though, so if you could prop me up in my chair, I’d appreciate it. I’ll go into the network first. Smith can follow me. If I don’t come out within fifteen seconds of him going in, wake me from here.” I gave Smith a hard look. “Let’s go, Smith.”
Smith fiddled with his collar, his gaze sliding away from mine. “This really isn’t necessary. We’ve established that she can bypass the security. That’s all I needed to know.”
“That’s not all I need to know,” I growled. “Come on.” This time I willed myself into a white void, not bothering with a simulation.
A few seconds’ delay made me think Smith wouldn’t come. When he finally popped into existence, he was looking fearful. Rightly so. My fist was already on its way to his face.
Pain shot through my knuckles as his nose squished sideways under them. I followed up with a solid kick to his nuts and watched while he folded. Then I turned back to the portal, taking a deep breath.
The memory of the devastating agony was so fresh I hesitated for a long moment, swallowing the tightness in my throat. Smith’s strangled groans reminded me I couldn’t afford to stick around until he recovered. I clenched my teeth and stepped through.
Pain crashed over my head, and I slumped down in the chair, holding my skull with both hands. Kane’s powerful arm supported me, and I leaned into him for a few seconds before straightening slowly.
“I guess speed kills,” I croaked. “I took it slow, and this time was no worse than usual.” I looked up at Kane’s concerned face. “Thanks, I’m fine now.” I massaged my eyes and temples, trembling with relief while he went back to his seat at the table.
Spider eyed Smith’s vacant face. “What’s taking him?”
“I guess he had a few things to work out,” I muttered. I caught myself unconsciously flexing my fist. The knuckles didn’t hurt anymore. Gotta love simulations. Kane gave me a sharp glance, but made no comment.
A few moments later, Smith’s eyes refocused and he sagged, then pushed himself up straight, palms on the table. “She assaulted me!”
I gave him a deadly look. “Play back the data record.”
“You know it wasn’t being monitored,” he snapped.
I shrugged. “Oops. I forgot.”
Smith scowled at Kane. “Arrest this woman. She’s a spy, and she attacked me.” He turned back to me. “Admit it!”
I maintained silence.
Kane gave me a level look. “Aydan, you didn’t respond to Smith’s accusation that you assaulted him,” he said carefully.
I stared at him. I couldn’t believe it. Mr. By-The-Book had left me a loophole. I took it.
“I didn’t,” I agreed.
Spider spoke up. “Which didn’t you...” He intercepted Kane’s look. His eyes widened and he shut up.
“She lies!” Smith cried.
Kane’s baritone was silky, and I shivered. That voice bypassed my intellectual processes and went straight to sensation, like velvet on skin. “You have each accused each other of assault, and you have each denied it. I have no possible method of determining whether either of you is lying. This issue is closed.”
He turned to Smith. “Get the monitoring back up, and open up the network,” he said, his velvet voice turning rock-hard.
Chapter 21
Smith reached sullenly for his laptop and began to type. Kane appraised me from across the table, and I met his eyes squarely.
“We need to resolve this search issue once and for all,” he said at last. “I checked with the Drumheller RCMP detachment this morning. They have a female officer on staff. Aydan, will you consent to a thorough body search?”
Oh, joy.
“Yes,” I said firmly. “I want this resolved as much as you do. Probably more.”
He made the call. When he hung up, he turned to face us again. “The officer will be here in about forty-five minutes. Smith, arrange for a meeting with Sandler in an hour. You and he will check Ms. Kelly’s clothing and belongings to make sure I didn’t miss anything.”
I recoiled. “I don’t want either of those creeps whacking off with my panties!”
Spider and Smith both blushed scarlet.
Kane sighed. “This is the only way I can be sure nothing has been missed.” He added in a steely voice, “There will be no impropriety.” His look scalded Smith.
“If he even touches my underwear, burn it,” I said. “I’d rather go without.”
“I’ll supervise the entire search,” he reassured me. “Now, I have some more questions for you.” He turned to Smith. “Go set it up with Sandler.”
Smith packed up his laptop and shuffled out of the room, and Kane returned his attention to me. “Does the name Kasper Doytchevsky mean anything to you?”
“No, should it?”
“I wanted to ask you about your comment to Smith yesterday about the alias.”
I scrambled to catch up with the non sequitur. “Um… Oh. Yeah, I was out of line. Sometimes my mouth starts up before my brain is in gear.”
“Really. Because after the way he reacted yesterday, I decided to check into it. He changed his name to John Smith about five years ago. His real name is Kasper Doytchevsky,” Kane said. “Did you know anything about that?”
I internally cursed my inappropriate sense of humour. “No, I was just running off at the mouth.”
“All right,” he agreed without inflection.
I resisted the urge to beat my head against the table. What sadistic fate kept putting me in these situations?
“I don’t know what to make of you,” he said. “You claim this is all coincidence, but you drop these hints that tell me that you know more than you should.”
&
nbsp; I threw up my hands. “It’s all just stupid coincidence. That’s all I can tell you.”
He assessed me, his brow furrowed. “But I wonder if there’s something you can’t tell me. Aydan, are you under duress of some sort? Are you trying to communicate something without telling me directly?”
“No, I’m not under duress. I’m not trying to tell you anything. I’m not spying. It’s all just coincidence.”
“I don’t believe in that many coincidences,” Kane said. “Let’s go over the list, shall we? First, we suspect Samir Ramos of spying. You coincidentally meet him in the portal, which you accidentally accessed during an implausibly small window of opportunity. Then you coincidentally fling yourself out of your car right in front of us, drawing attention to yourself. You were the one who suggested talking to Mike Connor. Why would you do that if you were trying to hide your access to the network?”
I shrugged. “I told you, I didn’t know what was happening.”
“Let me finish. We check the data record, so Ramos’s access to the network is revealed. We would have missed it due to Connor’s cover-up, if you hadn’t suggested the meeting. But why cast suspicion on yourself?”
I kept silent, realizing it was a rhetorical question.
“Then, you access the network right in front of us, proving once and for all that our security has been and still is compromised. Why? If you’re a spy, why would you do that?” He frowned at me.
“We search you and find nothing, proving it’s not a simple security breach. It’s complicated and potentially disastrous. Again, you draw suspicion. You make an apparently casual joke that uncovers a name change you should have no way of knowing about. Which, by the way, was in his personnel file.”
He rubbed his forehead and continued. “We beef up security and bring you in again to test it. You break through, and you make no effort to hide that fact. If you were a spy, why wouldn’t you just lie about it and tell us you couldn’t get in? But you don’t. You tell us. Now you’ve consented to an invasive search that anybody in their right mind would prefer not to undergo.”
Never Say Spy (The Never Say Spy Series Book 1) Page 13