Dangerously Placed (13 page)

The air in the cave, already close and musty, seemed to press in on me. If my stalker knew we were in here, we were sitting ducks. Who was this man? Could he be Grody's murderer? If so, why was he watching me? Was he just waiting for me to be in a vulnerable place, somewhere isolated, so that he could dispose of me too? I tried to imagine this was all just a virtuadventure – like
The PI Files
or something – but it was no use. I felt panic welling up inside me and began to gasp for breath. Nix's hand closed over mine, gripping tightly. I clung to it gratefully.

And then the stalker was gone. A few swift steps took his feet out of view. I heard the thunk of shoes on wood. He was climbing the steps.

‘Go make sure he's not doubling back, mate,' said Nix softly. Joel squeezed out of the cave.

‘I thought he was going to kill us,' I breathed, my voice shaking.

‘There are three of us here, Alex. Did you think Joel and I wouldn't protect you?' I could hear the smile in his voice. ‘Besides, if he'd wanted to hurt you, he would have done it by now. I think he's only watching you, trying to find something out. Is there something you know about Grody that he might want to know too?'

I tried to think, but my mind seemed fuzzy.

‘I don't …' Suddenly all I could focus on was the fact
that Nix was still holding my hand. I looked up. In the soft, dim light, I could see his eyes shining beneath the wild spikes of his hair. Was it my imagination, or was his face moving closer to mine?

‘Alex?' I heard him say, and then everything went black.

I opened my eyes. The darkness of the cave was gone, and so was Nix's face. Sky was looking down at me from the bright blue of the open air.

‘Alex? Are you okay?'

‘Yeah. I think so.' I struggled up onto one elbow, feeling sand under me. I was out on the beach. Nix and Joel were frowning down at me in concern on the other side of Sky. ‘What happened?'

‘You fainted,' said Nix. ‘I called Sky – she's the one with a first aid certificate. Don't get up too quickly.'

I sat up gingerly, feeling dizzy.

‘The stalker?'

‘He's gone,' said Sky. ‘I hid in the ladies' toilets up at the top and watched him. He looked pretty annoyed when he got up there and found we were gone. He got out his phone and headed off down Beach Road.' She patted me on the back. ‘Are you okay to walk? We need to get you something to eat and drink. You've been overdoing it, Alex – all this studying and stressing over everything. It's not good for you!'

‘Sky, you think paying attention for half a maths lesson is overdoing it,' I pointed out, but I let her help me up. I wobbled a little, and in an instant Nix was at my other side, slinging my arm over his shoulder. My face flooded crimson.

‘You don't have to …' I began.

‘Now, don't start stressing over this too, Alex!' Nix grinned. ‘You're not
that
heavy.'

I looked away, confused. I'd been embarrassed by Nix before – hundreds of times, probably – but being embarrassed by his mere presence … that was new. Nix, however, looked exactly the way he usually did: like he was about to make a joke at my expense. As he and Sky helped me back along the beach, I wondered if I was losing my marbles.
Perhaps Sky's right
, I told myself.
Maybe I have been overdoing it
.

It didn't make things any easier the next day when I accidentally gave the police a new number one suspect for Grody's murder.

I'd finally made it to the CGI department and was watching with fascination as Frankie turned a short clip of a dog walking in the park into a song and dance act for a solar energy ad, when a message popped up on her screen saying that all employees should gather in the open space area for an announcement. As we made our way down the grassed corridor, I wondered idly whether Nix was helping with something similar to what Frankie had shown me at the special effects studio.

Inge was standing in the middle of the open space. ‘My apologies for interrupting your work,' she said, in an airy tone that belied her words. ‘I have an important
announcement to make. The funeral for Pierce Grody will be held on Thursday at twelve noon Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time, at a memorial garden close to Pierce's home in Brighton. I know we are all deeply saddened by the loss of our head of department,' she continued, putting on an appropriately mournful face, ‘and I encourage anyone who wishes to pay their respects to Pierce to attend. The CEO has authorised the use of the Simulcorp Travel Fund for this purpose, should those of us living outside Australia wish to be there.' She clapped her hands and let her face bounce back to its normal expression of smug authority. ‘So, if you need to discuss the travel arrangements, now is the time to speak with me, yes?'

Budi had come up behind me. ‘I think I'll go,' he said.

‘Really?'

He smiled. ‘I may not have liked the old fire-breather, but he was a great man in his own way, and I learnt a lot from him. It seems only fair to make the effort to say goodbye to him.' He looked down at me. ‘Besides, it'll be nice to see your peachy little face in realspace!'

I smiled back, watching him go up to Inge to tell her he'd be there. I supposed Budi was right to assume I'd be at the funeral – after all, a trip to Brighton wasn't exactly a long trek for me. I followed Budi, waiting to ask for directions to the memorial garden. The rest of the employees stood around or sat on the water couch, talking to each other about the funeral. I gazed around
at them, thinking how much this was like the day – was it really only a week ago? – that Grody had announced the Avatar Robotics deal and everyone had gathered here for the party.

The party …

In a flash I saw it again: Budi and Inge laughing over Grody's unpleasantness, my virtual Pepsi spilling from my glass, the face in the crowd with its contorted, hate-filled expression … a face I was now sure was somewhere else in my memory, if only I could find it.

‘Budi!' I clutched at his arm, making him start in surprise and Inge scowl in displeasure at being interrupted. ‘Budi, there was some guy who worked in one of these cubicles. Medium height, dark hair …' I pressed my fingers to my temples, trying desperately to remember more clearly. ‘I think he might have been Asian?'

Budi stared at me.

‘You mean Yasuo?'

‘Yes!' And there it was, clear in my mind at last: the same face, peering out at me on my very first morning at Simulcorp Marketing, as Inge introduced me. Yasuo. The man I hadn't seen since the afternoon of Grody's murder.

‘He's not here. I mean, I haven't seen him since Mr Grody died. Have you?' I gazed up at Budi, searching his face.

‘No,' he said slowly, comprehension dawning. ‘No, I haven't. Inge?'

‘My God,' said Inge, shocked. ‘He is gone? Yes, he must be … But why has no one noticed this? Elena!' She beckoned imperiously to Elena, who was hovering near the people from the Legal Department a little way off.

‘I saw him, Budi,' I explained as Elena hurried towards us. ‘You remember at the party, when you and Inge were talking about how Mr Grody was a bit of a … well, you know, a bit tricky to get along with? I saw Yasuo looking at us through the crowd. He looked mad. I mean, really angry.' I gulped. ‘You know how they say “if looks could kill”? He was pretty much giving us that look.'

Budi had gone pale.

‘Are you sure it was him? I would have said he was the most mild-mannered guy alive, Yasuo – wouldn't have hurt a fly. But then I didn't know that much about him …' He trailed off. ‘I never even noticed he wasn't here any more.'

Inge dismissed his self-reproach with a wave.

‘None of us did – we are all very busy, Budi. But it was Elena's
job
to notice. Elena, you gave the police the list from the personnel files – was Yasuo on it?'

Elena looked startled.

‘No.'

‘Why not?' demanded Inge sharply.

Elena paused for a moment. ‘He was removed from the list some time ago.'

‘You
knew
he wasn't listed as an employee?' asked Budi, astonished.

‘When was he removed? Show us the list!' barked Inge.

Elena scurried over to the nearest cubicle and brought up a long list of names on the screen.

‘Here,' said Elena, pointing. ‘This is the last mention of Yasuo.'

Budi squinted at the monitor.

‘Elena, this is over two months ago!'

Inge looked ready to explode with wrath.

‘Two months!' she shrieked, causing heads to turn all over the room. ‘It is your task to check these files every fortnight to ensure pay records are accurate, yes?'

‘Yes, but he was still listed on the pay files,' whispered Elena.

‘That's even worse! You were paying someone who wasn't even an official employee! Why didn't you tell anyone that Yasuo was not listed, when you saw him here at work every day?'

Elena's face was completely immobile except for the huge, dark eyes, which flickered in confusion. It was obvious that somehow she'd never connected the fact that she saw Yasuo with the fact that the files showed he wasn't supposed to be here. For the first time, I saw that underneath her kind, human exterior she really was only virtual … a bot. It was almost as horrifying as if someone had pulled off her skin to reveal a mass of circuitry underneath. I looked away.

‘If he wasn't on this list,' Budi put in quietly, ‘the police wouldn't have noticed that he wasn't here. And
they wouldn't have checked his Virk Room to make sure he was in Japan. He could have been in one of the Virk Rooms near Grody for days. More importantly, by now he could be
anywhere
.'

‘But at least we know this now.' Inge picked up the phone by the computer. ‘I am calling the police. Detective Sergeant Montague?' Her voice became soft and purring again as she spoke into the phone. ‘Inge Wellenschnitter from Simulcorp Marketing. I'm well, thank you. I've just made a terrible discovery – one of our employees was left off the list that was given to you, and hasn't been seen since last Tuesday. I'll email the details to you right now. Yes, I know – most regrettable.' She turned her gaze on Elena, eyes narrowing. ‘Rest assured, the individual responsible will be disciplined. No, I don't think we can consider her suspicious – it's just the bot office manager again. Yes, I will. No, thank
you
. Goodbye.'

Inge put the phone down and drew herself up to her full height.

‘I will speak to Elena in private now.'

Elena followed Inge to her cubicle with the helpless despair of a condemned criminal. Evidently Inge's idea of privacy wasn't the same as mine – everyone in the open space area could hear her tirade on how useless Elena was, the shame she'd brought on the division and Inge as its Acting Head, and Inge's intent to request that the CEO remove her from the office. Budi looked at me, his face sombre.

‘I suppose we should make allowances for Inge,' he said. ‘It's the middle of the night in Germany, you know. She's given up a lot to make it in this business. But still …' He shook his head. ‘She's really becoming more and more like Pierce every day. I heard him give a speech like that a long time ago, to a woman who'd just let herself get a bit carried away romantically.'

‘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.