Dangerously Placed (22 page)

Christina stared off into space, as if seeing the scene before her again.

‘It doesn't matter what you believe, really. I never intended to kill him, though. What I wanted was to make him admit what he'd done. I wanted to force him to give back everything he'd taken from me.' She blinked a few times. ‘And it was such a tiny thing that changed all that.'

Budi frowned. ‘What was that?'

‘The security system itself,' said Christina. ‘I'd been waiting close to the entrance of AU-2, but when I saw that the end of the office day was approaching, I started to worry that I wasn't close enough. What if Pierce came out too quickly for me to push him back inside? I stepped up to the door. It asked me to align my eye
for a retinal scan. And I suddenly thought: why not? The worst that could happen was that it wouldn't open for me. So I let it scan me – and it opened.' She smiled. ‘I could hardly believe my luck … but then my retina
had
been on file when I was employed at Simulcorp. Evidently it had never been removed.

‘I went into the Virk Room. I couldn't see Pierce at first. Then I spotted his power cords over the bathroom, so I went over to it, ready to hold him hostage in his suit as he came out. But when I got up close, I saw that there were two sets of cords hanging there. My curiosity got the better of me; I opened the bathroom door just in time to see Pierce seal himself into a second suit and give the password to get into the office.'

‘So you followed him into Virk?' I asked.

‘Yes. I wanted to know what was going on. I put on the suit Pierce had just taken off and repeated the password, but to my surprise, instead of the usual empty Virk bathroom, I found myself in a room equipped with a computer terminal and a mirror. And staring back at me from the mirror was the image of Yasuo Nishimura. Once I got over the shock, I saw that the computer was set to access the system files we'd always used to program our appearances. Now I knew: this was how Pierce had managed to become Jamie. I accessed my own file, still there after all this time, and voilà!' She spread her hands. ‘I was the virtual me again. I undid my mask and pulled it off half of my face so I could see Virk and realspace – I didn't want to run into the
real Pierce as I walked around – and left the bathroom. With one eye I could see the empty hallway; with the other, Pierce sitting down at one end of the Virk Room. I realised he was probably in his office, so I made my way there.'

‘Clever,' Budi nodded. ‘If Pierce didn't know you were close to him in realspace, you could take him by surprise if he didn't cooperate.'

‘If I had to,' acknowledged Christina. ‘But I wasn't expecting trouble. When I walked into his office that day I could see what would happen so … clearly.' She paused, and when she spoke again, her voice was almost dreamy. ‘It was going to be so easy. I would threaten Pierce – frighten him until he realised that he'd never really beaten me. He was going to call the CEO and tell him that I should have my job back. And then he would say: “I'm so sorry, Christina. I'm so very sorry.”'

I heard Sky draw a sharp breath beside me as tears began to course down Christina's cold, thin face.

‘But when he saw me, he wasn't shocked at all. Even when I grabbed him and shoved him against the wall, I couldn't wipe the smug smile off his ugly face. Instead of telling me he was sorry, he told me that all the time he'd been posing as Jamie, he'd been thinking how incredibly pitiful I was and how easy it was to dupe me just by saying he loved me. And then he
laughed
.' She was whispering now. ‘And I pulled off my mask and took the power cord from his suit … and then he wasn't laughing any more.'

I turned my face away.

‘I knew I had to get back to Pierce's bathroom and log out,' Christina continued after a moment, ‘otherwise the suit would keep projecting my image even without me inside, and it would be obvious it was me who'd killed him. I ducked into the Mainframe Room when I saw the hall door opening – it was you, I suppose – and hoped whoever it was would be too embarrassed to look in properly if I pretended to be fooling around with someone. I had my mask half off again, to make sure I didn't trip over Pierce's body in realspace. If you'd looked closely at me, you'd have seen that my face was broken in two. Like my life was.'

None of us spoke as she finished her story. I glanced up at Sky, whose eyes were brimming with tears, and Budi, who was looking unusually pale.

‘I'd … like you to take the original notes I made on the mobile virtual projection concept to the CEO, if you don't mind,' said Christina. ‘I'd like him to know the truth, even if it won't help me any more.' She gestured to the door she'd come out of, which was still open. ‘They're in the next room – through the hallway there – hidden in a hole in the wall behind the desk.'

‘I'll go,' said Sky. Christina stepped aside to let her pass.

There was a muffled curse.

‘The desk's too heavy,' called Sky.

Budi looked at Christina, sizing her up.

‘I'll stay here where you can see me,' she told him, anticipating his question.

He watched her carefully as he approached, then disappeared through the door to help Sky.

Christina turned to look out of the window.

‘I suppose I'll be telling all that to the police in a short while,' she mused.

‘I suppose so.'

‘I wonder if they'll consider what I did cold-blooded murder,' she continued. ‘Or if they'll see how far I was provoked.' There was a pause. ‘You see, don't you?'

I cleared my throat. ‘If you're asking me to condone killing a man because he ruined your career, I can't do it.'

‘I didn't kill him because he ruined my career,' Christina said softly. ‘I did it because he broke my heart. I loved Jamie – I was prepared to give up everything for him. And then I found out that the man I loved was using me. I found out he was a liar and a thief. I found out I'd never really known him at all.' Her head drooped, and she leant her whole body against the window. She looked utterly defeated. ‘You can't begin to imagine how much that hurt.'

I thought about Dale.

‘Maybe I can,' I said. ‘A little.'

She didn't reply.

‘Christina,' I began, without any clear idea of what I could say to help, or even if I should try. But before I could continue, I realised that something
seemed strange about her. She was completely still – too still. Corpse-like.

I took an uncertain step towards her.

‘Christina?'

There was a soft click behind me.

In an ice-cold instant, I realised it was the sound of the deadlock sliding home.

With a gasp, I spun round, but the real Christina was already upon me, the thin cord in her hands flashing over my head and biting into my throat even as I staggered forward, my body passing right through the frozen image I'd been talking to a moment before. My own nails cut into the flesh of my neck as I scratched desperately at the cord, heaving my bodyweight against Christina's grip. Muffled shouts and thuds from Sky and Budi punctuated the growing ringing in my ears as I struggled, and dimly I realised that Christina must have locked them in. I tried to throw myself sideways, but my vision was darkening and my hands growing weak …

And then the world exploded.

The force of the blast threw me to the ground, freeing me from the encircling cord. I drew in great choking gasps of air, not caring that it tasted strangely sulphurous, and raised my head to squint through the cloud of smoke that had filled the room. Behind me, Christina was lying unconscious on the floor, blood trickling from her nose.

‘Sky? Budi?' I croaked.

Then a familiar voice rang out.

‘Dude – that was one awesome explosion!'

‘
Joel?
' I wheezed incredulously.

‘Alex!' called another voice, urgent and anxious.

Tears of relief sprang up in my eyes.

‘I'm here!' I managed, and a second later Nix was falling to his knees beside me and holding me so tightly that I almost lost my newly recovered ability to breathe.

‘I solemnly swear I will
never
doubt your opinion of what's dangerous again,' I choked, clinging to him as the smoke around us dispersed.

‘I'm glad to hear it,' he murmured into my hair. ‘And
I
swear I'll stay and listen to you next time you try to explain how you feel.'

I drew my head back from his chest, gazing up at him.

‘I thought you'd given up on me.'

‘I decided I might have … misinterpreted things a bit.' He grinned. ‘Besides, Ki told me you said I was perfect for you.'

‘I think you are.' I gestured at my face and neck, which were beginning to sting with yet another set of cuts and bruises. ‘That is, if you can stand the zombie make-up.'

His grin widened as he cupped a hand carefully under my chin, and then his lips were on mine.

Sky told me later that I should have seen the look on Senior Constable Rivers's face two minutes later, when
Sky and Budi managed to break their door down and the police finally arrived to find Nix and me still lip-locked in the middle of the smoking room. Personally I'm not sorry I missed it. I wouldn't have given up a moment of that kiss for anything.

‘So all the time she was speaking to you, she was just a projection?'

‘Yes, sir,' I said. ‘We found out afterwards that she had a small Virk Room set up in her apartment, linked to a prototype of the mobile virtual projector. When we got into the apartment, she ran to the Virk Room and set the projector going – it was a projection of her that stepped out and talked to us. She told the police she froze the projected image, snuck out of her Virk Room, locked Sky and Budi in and used the second hallway door to come around behind me.' I clenched my hands in my lap. ‘The police told me she wasn't seriously injured in the blast. They have her in custody now.'

The CEO sighed, leaning back on his cloud.

‘Such a tragedy – she was obviously far more brilliant than any of us had realised. From what you
tell me, Christina's projection device was superior to anything Pierce had managed to create for his mobile system. You said you saw her tears, even?'

‘Yes, sir.'

‘Extraordinary.' Mr Chander shook his head sadly. ‘If only I'd taken her seriously when she tried to exonerate herself, perhaps all this could have been avoided.' He tapped his fingertips together, lost in thought.

I took the opportunity to look around me once more. It was Friday afternoon. I'd spent most of the day going over my statement again with the police – and accepting profuse apologies from Senior Constable Rivers for getting Kroeber Street confused with Grover Street on the other side of Brighton (which was apparently where the patrol cars had been sent to storm number 26, giving the pensioners who lived there a far more exciting afternoon than they were accustomed to). By the time I logged into Virk, there was only time to say a quick goodbye to everyone, because – to my surprise – Inge had informed me that the CEO wanted to see me in his office before I left. I was even more surprised when I stepped through the door Inge showed me at the back of the Conference Room and emerged into paradise.

If this was where the CEO worked, it was no wonder he hardly ever went on holidays. We appeared to be in an enormous outdoor space with no boundaries, just a far-off horizon. All around us, silvery pools reflected the warm blue light of a perfectly clear sky, with lofty
fountains of water cascading down into each pool from thin air. Behind the CEO rose a vast, golden-domed palace flanked by eight white minarets, which reminded me of pictures I'd seen of the Taj Mahal … although I had the sneaking feeling the virtual palace might be the larger of the two. Tall, ancient-looking trees with artistically gnarled branches lined a gem-strewn path leading from the palace to us, and several peacocks were strutting about between them. Three soft white clouds hovered over the flower-sprinkled grass, serving as a desk and chairs for Mr Chander and myself. Strangest of all, at the CEO's feet lay a gleaming dragon. It was identical in shape and size to the one Grody had kept in his office, but its scales were a pearly white and it had beautiful emerald-green eyes that blinked sleepily at me as I watched it. I wondered if the CEO had adopted it, so to speak, after Grody had died. If so, I liked the way he programmed his pets a lot better than the way his former employee had.

‘There's one thing I still don't understand,' said the CEO suddenly, bringing my attention back to him. ‘How did those two young men of yours come to blow up the apartment door?' His dark eyes twinkled. ‘It was a rather extraordinary solution to your difficulties at the time, if you'll pardon my saying so!'

‘I guess it does sound a bit extreme,' I admitted, grinning. ‘You remember that we left my friend Kiyoko outside the building to pay the taxi driver to leave, and to guard the exit in case Christina tried to escape?'

He nodded.

‘Well, apparently she'd already texted my friend Nix to say we might need help before we even went inside. And just in case he didn't get the message, she sent one to his friend Joel, as well.'

‘Very wise,' commented Mr Chander approvingly.

‘Yeah – people are always saying that about Ki,' I agreed. ‘So the boys rang each other and decided they'd better get there right away. Only neither of them has a licence, so Nix's work experience mentor drove him in the truck they use when they go to different locations to do special effects, and, well …'

‘Go on,' urged the CEO.

‘They got worried,' I explained, feeling a little ridiculous. ‘Ki had been watching the apartment through her phone, and apparently when Nix and Joel arrived, she'd just seen Sky and Budi leave the room. She was concerned that I was alone with Christina, so she got the boys to climb over the security gate and told them to bust into the apartment if it looked like I was in trouble. Obviously it did, so since they didn't have an axe or a crowbar or anything, they used what they
did
have.'

‘Which was explosives?'

‘They've been doing these ads for something called Fiery Fries,' I said.

‘Ah,' said the CEO, nodding as if it all made sense now. I couldn't help smiling. For a guy who could probably buy an entire state, he was surprisingly easy to talk to.

Mr Chander leant an elbow on his cloud desk.

‘Well,' he remarked, ‘it's certainly been a busy couple of weeks in the Marketing Division! It's been a rough time for the company, but I think we'll bounce back fairly quickly – and I'm feeling quite optimistic about the new staffing arrangements.' He smiled at me. ‘You might be pleased to know that I spoke to Budi this morning, and he's accepted the position I offered him.'

‘What position is that?'

‘Head of Marketing Division,' said the CEO. ‘He'll be moving to Australia permanently.'

‘Excellent!' I clapped my hands together, delighted. From what I'd seen yesterday, I had a feeling Sky might be pleased to hear that too. A sudden thought struck me. ‘But Inge …'

‘Will be furious? Yes, I know,' murmured the CEO, eyes twinkling. ‘But she'll get over it. Young Budi has something I now realise was lacking in his predecessor – the ability to work with people and care about his employees. It's a mistake I don't intend to make again.'

We sat in silence for a moment, then the CEO shook himself and straightened up.

‘It must have been a pretty intense couple of weeks for you too, Alex.'

I laughed. ‘Yeah. Intense barely covers it, to be honest. No one can say I didn't learn anything on work experience, anyway!'

‘You seem to have learnt a great deal,' commented
the CEO. He turned and called over his shoulder. ‘My dear!'

A figure appeared on the gemstone path. I gasped.

‘Elena!'

‘Alex! How lovely to see you!' Elena beamed at me as she came to stand by Mr Chander's side.

‘And you!' I looked from Elena to the CEO and back again. ‘I thought I'd never see you again. They told me you'd been deactivated.'

‘Do you have the message Ms Romano sent us?' asked the CEO. Elena took a piece of paper from the file she was carrying and handed it to him. ‘Thank you.' He looked at me. ‘Not deactivated, Alex – merely relocated. I decided Elena's talents were entirely wasted on the Marketing Division, so I offered her a position as my personal assistant instead.' He smiled up at her. ‘And she's already doing a wonderful job.'

Elena's golden face lit up. I watched, amazed, as she smiled her goodbye to me, then bestowed a look of adoration on Mr Chander. I could have sworn she was blushing as she walked away.

‘It
was
Pierce Grody who upgraded Elena, you know,' the CEO told me. ‘As far as we've been able to discover, he did it just to see how far he could take the bot program. Such a pity he didn't appreciate how magnificent his creation was.'

I nodded.

‘But let's get back to the point.' The CEO ran an eye over the paper in his hand. ‘According to this, the
senior staff at Impression Jeans were most pleased with the marketing proposal you created. So much so that they've decided to take the whole thing on board – they've already agreed to have our Hardware Division supply the equipment for the JeanScan system. Congratulations, Alex!'

‘Wow!' It was my turn to do the blushing. My face was even sorer than yesterday, but it didn't stop a huge grin from spreading across it at the thought of my first big success.

‘It's clear to me that you're not only a very brave young woman, you're a very talented one too,' said the CEO. He fixed his bright eyes on me. ‘And it strikes me that Simulcorp would be very lucky to have someone like that on the team. So I'd like to offer you an internship in the Marketing Division once you've finished school …' He paused. ‘And a guaranteed job here when you're ready for it.'

I stared at him, speechless.

‘You could go far here, Alex.'

‘Thank you, Mr Chander,' I said slowly. ‘That's incredibly generous of you – an internship sounds fantastic! As for the job though …' I hesitated, then looked him in the eye. ‘I think I'd like to keep my options open for now – look around and decide what I really want to do with my life.' I smiled. ‘A few people have told me lately that life's not all about career prospects, and I think they may be right.'

The CEO seemed much struck by this.

‘Yes … yes, perhaps they are! Good for you, Alex.' He stood. ‘I look forward to seeing you when you take up your internship, but in the meantime, enjoy your freedom.' He smiled. ‘Enjoy being young!'

‘Thank you, sir. I intend to!'

The CEO showed me to the archway at the front of the palace that led directly back to realspace. Back in my Virk Room I took off my suit for the last time. Through the narrow window of the outer room, I could see a tall figure waiting outside, bodyboard in one hand, the other pushing his unruly brown hair out of his eyes. As I opened the outer door, Nix flashed me a welcoming grin and I forgot all about the CEO in his paradise.

Smiling, I stepped out into mine.