Dangerously Placed (15 page)

‘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.

I took a deep breath, trying to slow the racing pulse that was thumping in my ears, and crept closer to the bathroom. The power cords continued to slide further inside it. I wondered why anyone would be using power cords in there. In fact, why were there spare cords at all? I paused, staring up at the ceiling, where not one but
two power source boxes hung from the wire rigging. I was sure there was only one box in my Virk Room, connected to my suit – there was no need for anything else to have an external power connection. Unless …

Just in time, I stifled the gasp that had been about to escape me.
A second suit!
That was how Grody had taken Yasuo's place. The one place no one could see you in Virk was in the bathroom. If he'd had a second Virk Suit modified to project Yasuo's appearance and connected to his Virk Room, Grody could have gone to the Virk bathroom near his office, emerged into his realspace bathroom and simply swapped suits whenever he wanted to be Yasuo, without anyone being the wiser and without having to log in and out of Virk itself. To make it work, he must have kept the Yasuo suit logged in all the time, which would explain the disabling of the login records.
No wonder he warned me and Dale to keep out of the bathroom in his wing,
I thought.
It wasn't just a joke at our expense – he wanted to ensure his secret didn't get out.

And now someone was in there, pulling at the cords. Were they using the suit, logging in as Yasuo? I had to know. Holding my breath, I slid up against the wall and slowly bent my head to peer around the edge of the open doorway.

The figure inside was taller than me, slim and dressed all in black, with a balaclava covering their head. There was no suit to be seen, only the two cords which the mysterious intruder was holding in one hand, their
plugs dangling near the intruder's knees. As I watched, the black-clad person pulled a tool that looked a bit like a short chisel from a pouch at their waist, stepped onto the toilet seat and reached up to pry at the edge of the power box. The cords were hanging from an open side panel of the box, but the intruder seemed to be trying to open the base. It resisted, and the intruder strained at the resisting panel of the box with extra force. Suddenly it gave way, and a Virk Suit tumbled out onto the floor. In that split second I could see what was going to happen, but even the reflexes I'd honed over years of gaming didn't allow me to move fast enough. With a cry, the black-clad person fell backwards … and landed on me.

I crumpled under the weight, one ankle twisting beneath me as I slipped on the smooth, grey fabric of the Virk Suit. The intruder shot up with a gasp, and in the low blue light I could see that she was female. I struggled to my feet and, almost without thought, grasped at the neck of her balaclava to try to pull it off. Her eyes widened and she struck at me with her hand. A sharp pain shot through my face as the chisel she still held sliced into my cheek, and I fell against the cubicle wall, the Virk Suit underneath me. Dark fireworks exploded in front of my eyes, and when my vision cleared once more, she was gone.

I limped to the door, holding a hand to the cut on my face. As soon as I emerged from the building, Sky pounced on me like a tiger in ambush.

‘Alex, Alex, are you okay? Oh my God, you're bleeding!'

‘I'm all right,' I said, staring around. It had stopped raining, but the intruder was nowhere to be seen. ‘Did you see her? Wait, is that Joel on the ground?'

I hobbled over to where Joel was sitting on the wet pebbles. Ki was examining his face with a professional air.

‘I highly doubt anything is fractured,' she was saying, ‘though I can already see evidence of periocular discoloration.'

‘What?'

‘She means you're getting a black eye, Joel,' I told him. ‘What happened?'

‘Some chick came running out of the building,' he said as Ki produced a clean tissue and pressed it to the cut on my cheek. ‘When we saw it wasn't you, we figured she must have done something to you. Nix and I tried to stop her, but she punched me in the face.'

‘Nix?' A chill ran through me. ‘Where is he now?'

‘He went after her,' said Joel, letting Sky help him up.

‘Oh no …' I stumbled out onto the street and looked around. There was no one there. ‘Nix!'

‘I'm right here,' called a voice behind me. I spun round. Nix was walking slowly towards us, holding his stomach. Relief flooded through me.

‘You okay, man?' Nix asked Joel.

‘Yeah. That woman packs a pretty awesome punch though. You?'

‘I almost got her,' Nix muttered, wincing, ‘but she twisted away and kicked me in the gut.'

‘Makes you wish we'd gone to karate classes like Ryan, doesn't it?' Joel shook his head ruefully.

‘What happened, Alex?' Nix asked, coming over and frowning at my cut, which I was gently prodding with my finger. The others crowded round.

I told them.

‘You guys didn't get a better look at her, did you?' I asked as I finished the tale. ‘All I could tell was that it was a woman, probably about Ki's height and fairly slim.'

Sky and Ki shook their heads.

‘We couldn't see any more than that with her all dressed up like a ninja,' said Joel. I sighed.

‘I did get this, though,' said Nix, and his green eyes twinkled. He held out his hand, and in it I could see a few strands of dark hair. ‘Her balaclava was coming off by the time I caught up with her, and I managed to grab her hair before she kicked me.'

‘Well done!' I smiled up at him. ‘Maybe the police will be able to do a DNA match on these! Do you think I should go back inside and check if she left anything else behind?'

‘
I'll
do that,' growled a deep voice behind me, and a heavy hand came down on my shoulder. My breath caught in my throat as I looked up at the red hair and pale, freckled face of my stalker.

‘No!' I struggled in his grasp, straining against him
and hoping that when my friends assailed him I could seize that moment to free myself. But the moment didn't come. To my horror I saw that they were all hanging back, not closing in on the stalker at all. Desperately I looked around for Nix, sure that
he
would help me, but he didn't meet my eyes. Instead, his gaze was fixed on the stalker – not on his face, but on his body. I twisted around, trying to see what was stopping my friends. Was my stalker armed? Maybe he had explosives strapped to him! My heart almost stopped at the thought … and then started again with a jolt as I got a good look at the man holding me. He was wearing shiny black shoes, dark pants and a navy jumper with a big, round badge on the sleeve. A badge that read ‘Police'.

So I spent another evening down at the police station, and I couldn't exactly say it was a pleasant night out. Detective Sergeants Montague and Hargreaves ranted on at us for half an hour about how irresponsible we were to try investigating on our own. Then my parents arrived, and they were just thrilled at being called down to the police station
again,
especially when my mum saw the huge dressing over the cut on my cheek. And to top it all off, the police rang my friends' parents to tell them to collect them too. That was pretty much the worst part: having to watch Sky, Ki, Nix and Joel get in trouble for helping me. After all, it was my fault
they'd got involved in all this – a fact that Sky's mum kindly pointed out to me at high volume as soon as she arrived.

‘You are a bad influence on my little Skydreamer!' she added with tears streaming down her face, completely ignoring the fact that Sky is a year and a half older than me.

‘I'm really sorry,' I mumbled.

‘You're sorry! For corrupting and endangering my tiny jewel, all you can say is that you are
sorry
?'

‘Mum, I'm not even hurt,' Sky pointed out. Behind her, Joel was stifling a snigger, presumably at the idea of an eighteen-year-old girl in a ‘Fur is Murder' hoodie being called a ‘tiny jewel'. ‘Don't worry about it, Alex – she's just unhinged because her yoga instructor left to start a Law degree last week. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?'

‘No you won't!' Sky's mum shrieked as they headed off. ‘I will not allow you to spend your time with these dangerous people!'

‘We've got to get going too,' said Joel's brother Ryan, who'd turned up in place of their parents.

‘You're not mad at me, are you, man?' asked Joel.

‘Mad at you? Hell no! Stories like this are like gold, dude – chicks dig a dangerous guy.'

Joel gave a relieved grin. He turned to wink at me. At least, that's what I assumed he was doing – it's difficult to tell if someone's winking when their other eye has swollen shut.

‘Mum, though …' said Ryan as they disappeared down the corridor, ‘Mum's going to absolutely kill you.'

‘Well, Phoenix,' said Nix's dad. ‘We'll talk about this when we get home.'

‘Sorry, Mr Torsten,' I said, hanging my head.

‘I don't hold you responsible for my son's actions, Alex,' he said, though his face told a different story.

Nix stood in front of me for a moment, brushing his hair out of his eyes.

‘Be careful, okay?'

I smiled.

‘You too.'

He flashed a grin at me, and then he was gone.

‘Don't be too concerned, Alex,' said Ki, squeezing my shoulder. ‘We all chose to accompany you, knowing the risks – and after all, no one was seriously injured. I'm sure this surge in parental over-protectiveness will soon subside.'

‘I object to your use of the term “over-protectiveness”, Kiyoko,' said her father, who'd been watching all these exchanges calmly. ‘Especially in light of the indisputable fact that none of the precautionary measures a rational person might consider taking before setting out on the sort of escapade you indulged in this evening were, in fact, taken.'

‘I beg to differ, Father.' Ki nodded to me, and taking her dad's arm, strolled off with an air of unconcern. ‘I would call to your attention the point that there were
five of us, all provided with phones and in possession of a vehicle. Had assistance been necessary, one of us at least would have been able to procure it.'

I turned back to my own parents, who were still talking to Detective Sergeant Montague, with a sigh of relief. Ki was one person, at least, that I didn't have to worry about. Even though her dad was a lawyer, she was well up to the task of persuading him she'd done the right thing. In fact, if Ki handled the debate particularly well, he'd probably end up
pleased
at having to pick her up from the police station. While I, on the other hand, looked like being grounded for life.

The next morning I got another lecture as my dad drove me to work. Mum hadn't wanted me to go back to Virk at all, but Dad's always been big on the importance of having a work ethic. By the time we reached AU-3, however, he'd made it extremely clear that investigating the death of a colleague was
not
part of his concept of a dedicated employee. I was relieved when the security door shut behind me and I saw Dad drive off. My relief didn't last.

‘I think you and I need to have a chat, Peaches,' Budi said as soon as I walked into the open space area. His brow wrinkled a little as he looked at the side of my face.

‘Damn. I thought I'd done a pretty good job of covering this up,' I said, carefully touching the place where my cut was hidden under an extra-large bandaid and half a stick of concealer.

‘It's not the bad make-up that gave you away, Alex,' said Budi. ‘The police spoke to me first thing this morning. They told me you were at AU-2 last night and walked in on someone tampering with the Virk Room equipment.'

‘I thought Inge was doing all that police liaison stuff,' I said, in a lame attempt to shift the topic of conversation.

‘That's exactly what
she
said when she found out I'd taken the call, but she was talking to the CEO in the Conference Room at the time,' grinned Budi. ‘Meanwhile, something tells me Inge wouldn't consider snooping round Pierce's Virk Room an appropriate task for a work experience student, so I kept you out of the report I gave her.'

‘Thanks, Budi,' I said gratefully. I had a feeling he was right about that, and I didn't want to find myself on the receiving end of the kind of telling-off Inge had given poor Elena.

‘All I ask in return is to hear what you've really been up to.' Budi led the way to his cubicle, gesturing for me to sit beside him. ‘The unedited version.'

So I told him, and before long his mouth was hanging open. His hands unconsciously gripped the folds of his sarong when I got to the part where I saw the unknown intruder freeing the power cords in Grody's bathroom.

‘So Pierce had a second Virk Suit?'

I nodded.

‘I told the police last night about my theory that Mr Grody was using a second suit to assume Yasuo's identity, and they agreed that it seems likely. They switched the main power back on in AU-2 and checked out the second suit. It had a modified pressure system and enhanced processing capacity.'

Budi shook his head in amazement. ‘Well, you'd need that if you were going to make major changes to your projected image – the standard suits can handle clothing and minor shape modification, but not big recalculations like height and build. It'd be no easy task to make those modifications, though! Still, if anyone could have done it, it was Pierce … But why didn't the police find the second suit before?'

‘It seems someone hid it inside the power box in the rigging, probably at the time Mr Grody was murdered,' I explained. ‘Detective Sergeant Hargreaves said the intruder had probably returned to remove it. Their theory is that she saw the picture of Yasuo on the news and realised the police might discover that Mr Grody had a second suit and a second virtual identity, so she came back to AU-2 to remove any evidence of it.'

‘But why?' Budi asked. ‘Was she trying to protect Pierce's memory? Or do they think she was an accomplice of Yasuo's?'

‘It doesn't seem likely that Yasuo had anything to do with Mr Grody's murder,' I said slowly. ‘They didn't tell you?'

‘Tell me what?'

‘While I was at the station last night, the police got a fax from their counterparts in Japan. They found Yasuo's body in a shallow grave near his apartment. Because it's only the end of winter over there, the cold had preserved his body pretty much as it was when he died … about two and a half months ago. They said the preliminary reports suggest he died of pneumonia – there's no evidence of foul play. Some emails the police were able to retrieve showed that when Mr Grody was in Japan, Yasuo contacted him and asked him to come to his apartment to discuss a marketing idea Yasuo had been developing – they'd been supposed to meet in Virk that week, but Yasuo was too sick to leave the house. The police believe Mr Grody may have found Yasuo already dead when he arrived, and then decided to dispose of his body so he could use Yasuo's identity for his own purposes – perhaps so he could take over the marketing idea Yasuo had been working on, or possibly so he could keep Yasuo on the pay files and take the money for himself.'

‘Or even just so he could spy on the rest of us,' murmured Budi. He was silent for a moment, eyes downcast. ‘Poor Yasuo.'

‘I'm sorry, Budi.'

‘There's no need to be, Peaches. I barely knew him, really.' Budi looked up with a half-smile, but I could see that was exactly the point that was going to haunt him for some time to come. ‘What happened then?'

I told him about my scuffle with the unknown woman, and how Nix and Joel had tried to stop her.

‘But my friend Phoenix got some strands of her hair, which the police are running a DNA check on now. And then my stalker came up and busted us.'

‘You have a
stalker
?' Budi's eyes bugged out.

‘No, not really … I mean, I thought he was one,' I hastened to explain, blushing. ‘His name's actually Constable Byrne. He was assigned to keep an eye on me after Mr Grody's murder, for my own safety. But I didn't know, so when I spotted him following me last week I thought he was some kind of stalker.'

‘For a bodyguard, he doesn't seem to have done a very good job last night,' commented Budi.

‘Well, that was kind of my own fault,' I said. ‘My friends and I tricked him into losing sight of us a couple of days ago. After that, he stopped watching me from such close range, so he was too far off to work out what was going on when I left my house to go to AU-2. Plus he didn't know my friend Sky was old enough to drive, so we kind of got the jump on him. He's actually a pretty nice guy,' I reflected. ‘He was the only one at the police station who didn't yell at us.'

‘But why didn't they just tell you they had an officer following you?' Budi looked perplexed.

‘I know! I asked the same thing.' I sighed. ‘Unfortunately, I wasn't really in anyone's good books right then, so I just got a lot of stuff about how that would have compromised the investigation and how they didn't want to frighten me. Apparently some people consider it less scary to let a person think they're being
stalked than to tell them they might be in need of protection.'

‘And I had no idea any of this was going on.' Budi pressed his lips together. ‘There's a lesson in all these things, Alex. You, Yasuo, Elena – all with troubles in your lives that I knew nothing about. It's time I made sure I'm really in touch with the people around me.'

‘I don't see how you could have known about Elena being a bot,' I pointed out, ‘and I'm the one who should have said I thought someone was following me. I just thought I could handle it myself.'

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.