Dangerously Placed (8 page)

I stared.

‘Can't find her in realspace? But it's been nearly two
days since Mr Grody died! Why did they let her out of the office if no one had checked where she really was?'

‘It seems,' said Budi, ‘that there's been a bit of an international stuff-up. And when the police techies went through the system yesterday, they discovered there
is
no Virk Room anywhere in Colombia. They checked back, and it turns out the Elena Sofia Mariposa the Colombians spoke to works as a receptionist in one of Simulcorp's research divisions, which is all realspace. The fact that they have the same name seems to be mere coincidence.'

‘Oh, man.' I put my head into my hands. ‘And I told them about Grody terrorising her!'

Budi put a hand on my shoulder, ducking his head to look into my eyes.

‘Alex! You did the right thing. You told the truth – it's up to them to decide what it means. Yes, it sounds horribly incriminating, but there must be a good explanation for all this.' He looked pained. ‘I
know
Elena. Oh, something weird is going on with her, that's for sure. Maru said she'd been telling the police stuff that didn't add up: a home address that can't be found, the names of the streets she walks down to get to her non-existent Virk Room, all sorts of things. But I don't think whatever she's hiding is murder.' He frowned, rubbing his chin in thought. ‘I'd been hoping you might have seen her around the time Grody was killed. No one else seems to have, but I kept thinking the police would find some evidence that she was doing
other things – maybe preparing some documents they could trace or something.' Suddenly he leapt out of his seat. ‘Dale!'

Dale, who had just come into the open space area, hurried over.

‘Yes?'

‘Dale, did you see Elena at any time on Tuesday? After she checked on you and Alex around eleven, I mean?'

‘No. That policeman asked me about it, but I didn't have anything to tell him. I'm sorry.' He really looked it, too. But he still took a moment to give me one of his heart-melting smiles. I grinned shyly back at him. ‘Inge took me to visit the Legal Department right after that.'

‘Oh, yeah.' Budi's brow furrowed. ‘But Inge was back before lunch, as I recall. She showed me that fascinating article on the return of culottes.' He shuddered. ‘Were you working in here at that point? You might have seen Elena go by and forgotten about it.'

And there it was: a flicker of fear on Dale's handsome face.

‘I … no, I stayed on in the Legal Department a bit longer. I didn't see Elena.'

The heart-melting smile was gone, those blue eyes shifted away. I felt as if someone had kicked me in the chest.

‘I guess we'll just have to hope someone else did, then,' said Budi. ‘I'm going to see if anyone in CGI
might have caught sight of her. You two will be okay to work on your Impression proposal by yourselves, won't you?'

‘Sure,' said Dale.

We watched Budi go. Then Dale turned to me, his confident expression back in place.

‘So, where did we get up to? We were planning the storyboard, right?'

‘I know where you were,' I said hoarsely.

Dale froze.

‘What?'

‘I saw you, Dale. Outside AU-3 at lunchtime on the day Grody was killed.' I gulped. ‘I know you weren't in your Virk Room in Woorenong all that time.'

Once again I saw just how well the Virk Suit masks projected reality. Dale's face turned the shiny, pale green hue of someone who had just broken into a cold sweat.

‘Alex,' he breathed, looking around to check if anyone was listening, ‘you've got the wrong idea. I swear to you, I had nothing to do with Grody's death.
Nothing
.'

‘You
swear
to me? I'm just supposed to accept that? I'll bet you swore to the police that you were in AU-7 all day, didn't you?'

He flinched.

‘If you really had nothing to do with it, then why did you lie?'

‘I can't explain, Alex.' Dale's fingers twitched as he
steadied himself on the desk. ‘But surely you don't believe I could murder someone?'

‘It doesn't
matter
what I believe!' Anger was drowning out the shock and hurt I'd felt at first. My voice rose as I pointed towards Grody's wing of the office. ‘Elena is in that Conference Room being interrogated on suspicion of murder. If you know something about what happened to Grody – anything – you have to tell the police
now
!'

‘Shh!' Dale put on a big, fake grin as Ricky and Li-Mei stared across at us from their cubicles. ‘I told you, Alex, I didn't kill him.'

‘Let's leave that to the police to decide, shall we?' I stood up, ready to march in and denounce him.

‘Oh God!' Dale grabbed me by the wrist, his face white with desperation. ‘Please, Alex, look at me!'

I couldn't help it. I looked up into his eyes as he stood there, pinning my arm to his chest.

‘I'm sorry I lied,' he whispered. ‘I was outside your Virk Room that lunchtime. I'd been using AU-4 that morning – no one else is in it at the moment – and I wanted to see you. The real you.' He stared down at me like a man in a trance, and I struggled to keep the tears from rising in my eyes as I thought how much I'd wanted, only a few minutes ago, to be this close to him. ‘I logged out early so I'd have time to get to AU-3. But I really was talking to Frankie the whole time I was away from you at the party – you can ask her! There's no way I could have killed Grody and got back to AU-7 before
the police came. It's the honest truth.'

My head swam.

‘Then why are you afraid of me telling the police where you were?'

Dale opened his mouth, then shut it again.

‘Just tell me this: do you know anything about what happened to Grody?'

He didn't say a word. But his face told me what I wanted to know.

‘You have to tell them, Dale. Whatever it is, they –'

A sudden murmur from around the room alerted me to the fact that the door to Grody's wing had just opened. The two police officers escorted Elena back into the room. Elena's huge, dark eyes were cast down, her face expressionless. Inge, who had been nose to nose with Kamil and Jorge on the water couch, strutted over to them.

‘You are taking Elena away?' she asked, putting her hands on her hips and standing rather threateningly in front of them, her stilettoed feet apart. ‘I don't mean to question your authority, officers, but as the senior staff member present, I do need to know what is happening to my employees, yes?'

‘Actually, ma'am, your boss asked us to bring Ms Mariposa here,' said the policeman. ‘Apparently some new evidence has come to light.'

‘My boss?' Inge looked bewildered. ‘But Pierce is dead!'

‘The sergeant meant your
other
boss, Ms
Wellenschnitter,' said a soft voice behind her. A slight man with a thin, dark face and unusually bright eyes had just walked in.

It was as if the whole room gasped at once.

‘Mr Chander!' cried Inge, awestruck. Her usually rock-steady stance wavered for a moment, as though she was wondering whether to curtsey. ‘What an honour to have you here, sir!'

The CEO waved her comment aside.

‘I should have been here two days ago,' he said quietly. ‘My physician had suggested I take a few days' holiday, so I didn't hear of the unfortunate events until this morning. It seems I have a few issues to clear up.'

‘I'm so sorry if your vacation was interrupted, Mr Chander,' purred Inge, who seemed to be recovering her poise. ‘You must have been looking forward to a well-deserved break.'

‘As a matter of fact,' said the CEO, with a small smile, ‘I never would have gone at all if my mother hadn't agreed with my doctor. She told me it was ridiculous for a man in my position to go five years without a holiday. Eventually she threatened to come and live with me if I didn't leave right away.'

All around the room, people were leaving their cubicles to gather round him, chuckling at his remark about his mother. Someone must have messaged the rest of the division, because the golden door swung open and more staff came crowding in. Even Elena looked up briefly, as if the CEO were a ray of hope
to her. There was no doubt about it, the man had charm. I heard people whispering about him all around me.

‘It's really him!' said one.

‘Do you think it's true that he lives in virtual space nearly all the time?' asked another.

‘It wouldn't surprise me!'

‘When I heard of Pierce's death,' said the CEO, bowing his head for a moment, ‘I realised I had to return to Virk right away, not only to express to you all my deep sorrow at what has taken place, but also to assist in putting right some things that have gone very wrong. I believe I am addressing Detective Sergeants Montague –' he nodded at the female officer – ‘and Hargreaves?'

‘That's correct, sir,' said Detective Sergeant Montague. The CEO held out his hand for the two officers to shake. They both looked faintly embarrassed to be standing in front of a man in a beautifully cut cream linen suit, when their own virtual outfits made them look like a pair of streakers in team colours.

‘I'm so sorry I wasn't able to be here earlier,' Mr Chander told them. ‘I could have saved you a good deal of trouble. I understand you have been questioning Elena for some time with regard to her whereabouts in realspace at the time of Pierce's murder.'

‘We have, sir,' said Montague. ‘Unfortunately, we haven't been able to establish where Ms Mariposa
was at that time, since none of her answers have been verifiable.'

‘That's understandable,' said the CEO.

Elena lifted her face to him, the plea in her eyes unmistakeable.

‘The answers Elena gave you were fictitious, but she did not mean them to be so. You see, she has no home, no Virk Room, no presence in realspace at all.' The CEO looked straight at her. ‘Elena is a bot.'

My hand flew up to cover my mouth. I heard Dale's sharp intake of breath beside me, and felt his arm slide around my shoulder. I was too shocked to shrug him away. Elena looked as if someone had struck her.

‘An automated character?' asked Detective Sergeant Hargreaves. ‘That would certainly explain a few things.'

‘Yes,' said the CEO, watching Elena curiously, ‘but at the same time, it raises many questions. I gather from the looks on everyone's faces that no one knew this?' He scanned the crowd, frowning at the shaken heads. ‘Not even Elena herself?'

Elena's lip trembled.

‘No,' she whispered.

‘I am … sorry, my dear,' said Mr Chander, and for a moment his face was full of pity. Then, as if he'd surprised even himself, he blinked and went on. ‘“Elena” is a corruption of LNA – Learning eNabled Assistant. She was created as a prototype office manager bot shortly after the first Simulcorp Virk offices were
activated. I assisted in her creation, as did a number of other technical specialists, including Pierce Grody. But the character didn't work out well in test runs, so we shelved it, intending to revisit the programming at a later date. Pierce asked permission to run the LNA character in this division when the previous office manager went on maternity leave, and I granted it. But the bot we created was nothing like as sophisticated as Elena here obviously is. Someone – perhaps Pierce, perhaps another person – has clearly put in an enormous effort to give her a superior level of interactive capability. Not only that, but she's been given a fictitious realspace background based on another Simulcorp employee, detailed emotive responses and even a sense of self. Extraordinary work – but who did it? And why?' Again he looked around, but no one seemed to have any answers.

‘Well, we can try to look into it, sir, but I'm afraid we will have to concentrate our efforts on the main lines of investigation we've already established,' said Detective Sergeant Montague.

‘I would be happy to examine Pierce's records myself, Mr Chander,' put in Inge eagerly.

‘Thank you, but I'm sure you have plenty of your own work to do, Ms Wellenschnitter,' replied the CEO. ‘I'll investigate this myself. And now, unless the good officers have any other questions, I believe I've delayed you all long enough.' He shook hands with the police detectives again, murmured a few words to
the employees closest to him and left. The rest of the staff began to disperse.

Elena was still standing, motionless, where the police had left her. Budi walked up to her, his face at odds with the cheerful monkey pattern on his sarong.

‘Elena?' he said, tentatively reaching out to her.

‘No,' she whispered again, and a single tear ran down her golden cheek.

I was staring out my bedroom window at the sunset, trying to get the awful image of Elena's face out of my mind, when my phone rang.