Now she was convinced. They must have changed the settings in his chip. Maybe messed with his memory, too. Interesting, but not unexpected.
“Well, Lexil and Dani said the messages are real, and there’s a definite disturbance in the timestream. We actually do need to get you released.”
He blanched. Was that fear? What was there to be afraid of?
His eyes darted back and forth. His shoulders tensed. He opened his mouth to speak, but only a weird gagging sound came out. Finally, he choked out a few words. “I can’t…say…some things.”
Obviously. “Yeah, I know. I figured that out. Let’s try some nods and head shakes. Can you say yes and no that way?”
He nodded. His shoulders relaxed.
“Marak is going to approach some of his government contacts to let them know of the danger.”
He nodded.
“Can you think of anyone that might be helpful?”
He paused and bit his lower lip. After a bit, a sly grin touched one side of his face. It was almost a smirk. He nodded, slowly. He held up one finger. Wait.
His features changed again to something bland and harmless. And he spoke, this time without interference.
“You remember that time I had you out for a salmon barbecue? You and Marak and the boy?”
“Yes?”
“We sat out on the deck of my boat. Had to get the life jackets out of storage.”
He was looking at her intently. Was this a code of some sort? Okay, she’d play along.
“That’s right. You had four adult jackets under the bench, but we had to find a small one for—”
He interrupted her with a sharp jab of his finger onto the table top. What had she just said? She tried again.
“We needed one for Jored, and you sent me back to the galley—”
Again, a jab. And a sharp nod.
“—into the cabinet under the dish rack—”
Another jab. He looked at her, his eyes willing her to understand.
He cleared his throat. “You should take the family out on the boat again. My lawyer can get you into the marina and give you the keys. You know how to operate her, right?”
She nodded. Yes, she knew how to operate his boat. And she thought she understood the subtext as well.
There was something on the boat that could help them.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Ambiguity
RIACH LABORATORIES, Alki Beach, Seattle, WA. 1015, Tuesday, September 12, 2215.
Dani disconnected from the call. Where was Lexil? He’d want to hear about this.
She found him in the break room.
“I got a call from Detective Rayes. He wants me to go to the station so he can show me something. Want to come along?”
“I’d love to. Let me check in with the team, and then I’ll meet you out front at the tube stop.”
Dani settled herself onto a bench and used her eyescreen to turn on a visual violin piece from Siorlinski’s new album. She closed her eyes to enjoy the soaring notes with splashes of color to accompany the booms and cymbal crashes from the percussion accompaniment. A tube car train arrived and she opened her eyes, looking for Lexil. Where was he? The cars loaded and left, with no sign of him. She closed her eyes again.
“Hey, sorry to keep you waiting. Doc stopped by the lab to get our weekly reports for the board meeting, and we got to talking.”
“No problem. I was just listening to Siorlinski.”
He raised his eyebrows. “I could never get into that guy’s stuff.”
She shrugged. “Tastes differ, I guess.”
Another set of cars arrived. The last train had cleared out most of the passengers, so they got a car to themselves. She stretched out her legs to get comfortable. It would be a good 25 minutes before they reached the police station.
She cast a sideways look at Lexil. After her talk with Kat, she felt as if she was supposed to be sending him signals to show him she was receptive. Even though she wasn’t receptive, not really, she reminded herself. And to be honest, it put her a little out of sorts to know he didn’t like her music, which was silly. But who didn’t like violin music? There was always a violin piece at the top of the charts. She sighed and looked out the window.
Of course, the trouble with tube cars was that there was nothing to look at out there, except when they stopped for passengers. Make conversation, Dani.
She cleared her throat and looked over at him. He had his his left ankle up on his right knee, lounging back against the seat and watching her with an amused expression.
“What were you thinking, back there? Your face went through so many different emotions, it was hard to keep up.”
“Oh, uh, I can’t really remember. I went over to Kat’s place last night. I was thinking about our conversation…I think?”
He laughed. His laughter was boyish, and it made her smile too.
“You think you were thinking? That’s a pretty safe bet. I think.”
She smiled. He was easy to be around. Comfortable. Although, she had to admit, “comfortable” wasn’t the word for what she was feeling back in the woods last Sunday.
“I’m glad we got back in touch. After that conversation about her uncle, we’re back to talking about anything and everything. She’s pretty much the closest thing I have to family here.”
“Do you have family somewhere else?” A fleeting frown crossed his face. “Have we ever talked about that? Seems odd that I wouldn’t have asked you that before now.”
“My mom lives in North Dakota. That’s where I grew up.”
“Brr.”
She swatted at his foot, knocking it off his knee. “People think that’s all there is to North Dakota. It’s got real seasons, that’s all. Hot in the summer, breezy and warm in the spring, real snow in the winter. Not like the sludge we get here that turns brown from the road and dissolves with the first rain.”
“So why’d you leave to come here?”
“RIACH internship.”
“That was when? Last January?”
“A little before. I came to find my apartment and do the orientation in October. Moved in the first week of November. Started the internship in January.”
“And that’s when you met Kat?”
She nodded. “She was protesting outside the institute, in the rain. She laughed at my umbrella. Told me she could tell I was from out of town.”
“So you were here for two months before the internship started?”
“Yeah, I guess it was about that. Seemed longer. The first month, I spent getting my apartment furnished and learning where the stores were and how to get around. The second month was pretty boring.”
“Too bad I didn’t know you then. I’d have taken you all sorts of places. We could have had lots of fun.” His raised eyebrows implied more than his words gave away.
She smiled, and ducked her head. “I ended up calling my mom a lot. She was usually too busy to talk for long. She’s involved in a lot of civic organizations. In charge of several.”
“What about your dad? Where does he live?”
She looked out the window, pretending interest in the girders flashing past. She knew he was just making conversation, but this was not a subject she wanted to talk about. She waited about as long as she could without being awkward, but he was still watching her, waiting for an answer. “He’s…gone. I don’t really know where.”
“Oh. So, I gather it would be good to change the subject?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Can’t put anything over on you, can I? Yeah, it’s kind of hard to talk about him.”
“I’m sorry.” He had such a sympathetic tone. Maybe she could say a little more.
“He left us when I was fifteen. At first, we thought he’d be back in a couple of months. Lately, though…” She shrugged. “I don’t think about it, if I can help it. He’s probably forgotten all about us.”
“That must be even harder than having your parents die.”
Now she felt like a se
lf-centered brat. How could she forget that he’d lost both of his parents? “No,” she said softly. “I don’t think anything could be as bad as that. How old were you? Sixteen?”
“Sixteen when my dad died. Seventeen with my mom. But she was never conscious after the accident, so yeah, sixteen.”
“I was so mad at my dad for years. How hard could it be to just let us know where he was or how he was doing? I haven’t heard from him, not even for big events like graduations. He could be on the other side of the world, for all I know. He could even be dead. How would we find out?”
“I was mad, too, even though I knew objectively that it wasn’t my parents’ choice to be in an accident. There was no way my mom, especially, would have left me alone. My dad didn’t have much time outside of work, but I know he loved me too, in his own way.”
Impulsively, she took his hand and gave it a little squeeze. She let her hand linger. He had all the right qualities, she had to admit. She glanced up at him, ready to offer comfort, startled to find him looking at her again, except this time the melancholy had left his eyes, replaced by something more intense. Neediness gave way to desire.
He raised her hand to his face and held it there for a long minute. His eyes held hers. She gasped as he brushed her fingers with his lips. Too fast, one side of her brain yelled. But the other side wanted his touch, wanted his…kiss.
It caught her by surprise. At first, just a chaste brush of his lips on hers, and then she was in his arms, tilting her head up, welcoming his tender passion, his embrace.
Her dream came crashing back, blending with the present. In the dark, in the moonlight. In a tube car, in a dark tunnel. Alone together. Together alone. Was this real? Or was she dreaming again?
The other side of her brain was shouting now. Too fast! She panicked. Adrenaline flooded her system and she pushed, her hands against his chest, standing, stepping backwards. Get away!
There was nowhere to go, except the opposite side of the small car. She was breathing in short gasps, and she concentrated to slow her racing heart. She closed her eyes. Her last glimpse was of his startled face.
When she opened them again, he wasn’t looking at her.
She needed this ride to be over with, and, at last, it was.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Perplexity
ADMINISTRATIVE SQUARE, Seattle, WA. 1040, Tuesday, September 12, 2215.
Lexil blamed himself. It had been so long since he’d had a girlfriend, he’d forgotten how to read the signals. Stupid to rush things. He’d known Dani had some baggage, something that kept her from going any deeper than enjoying the casual time they spent together, but she was warming up. And now, he was sure, he had shut her down again.
Her tawny face was flushed and her eyes were closed. She was so appealing, so beautiful. And now, she was scared. Everything in him screamed to wrap his arms around her, protect her from the dolt who had blundered in and stolen her peace. But that dolt was Lexil himself, and he realized the only thing he could give her was space. They were nearing their stop, and she’d look up soon. He tore his eyes away and stared at the door. She needed time to compose herself.
He hoped it would be minutes, not hours.
Or days.
The car whooshed to a stop. He saw her out of the corner of his eye. He stood aside to let her pass through the doors first, averting his eyes, giving her space.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Necessity
SEATTLE POLICE HEADQUARTERS, Seattle, WA. 1050, Tuesday, September 12, 2215.
Lexil stood aside to let Dani go ahead of him out the doors of the tube car. Although they stood side by side on the slidewalk, she felt a chasm between them. That little moment back there had probably destroyed their working relationship, she thought miserably.
Well, it wasn’t her fault. It wasn’t as if she had tried to kiss him.
She looked sideways at him without turning her head. His gaze was straight ahead, apparently dead set on getting to the police station without saying another word.
That was fine. She could do that too.
Lexil held the door for her when they got to the station. Still no eye contact, no warm smile, no apology. They walked together to the reception desk. The staff sergeant looked up, glancing back and forth, waiting for one of them to announce the purpose of their visit. Since the detective had invited her, she’d take the lead.
“Danarin Adams, here to see Detective Tom Rayes.”
The sergeant nodded. Then he turned expectantly to Lexil. “You?”
“Lexil Myles. I’m…with her.” He gestured toward Dani, and their eyes met. Dani wanted to hold that moment, search his expression. But he looked away. For all she knew, he’d ask her to transfer to another section. Not because she’d refused his kiss. That would be rude, not to speak of illegal, and he was neither an inconsiderate person nor a lawbreaker. No, if he asked for a transfer for her, it would be to spare her the awkwardness. And that might be for the best.
The detective came in through a door marked with a warning sign: “Civilians must have police escort.”
“Dani, Lexil! Thank you for coming. I’ve got news of the case, and I thought you’d want an update.” He paused. Then he tilted his head. “Did I interrupt something?”
“No, nothing,” Dani said, without looking at Lexil. She forced a smile. “What’s your news?”
“Come back to the vid room with me.”
They followed him through a maze of hallways, though a series of workstations, to a single room in the back of the building.
“There’s a warming closet for your coats.”
Dani took off her jacket and put it in the closet. Lexil kept his, and draped it over a chair.
The detective continued. “We’ve heard from the kidnapper. A ransom demand—it had a hologram of Morgan, bound and unconscious on a mat—was left in a park in West Seattle, a little under five miles south of where you all work at RIACH. It was set to give off a piercing noise this morning when the joggers were out running. We brought it in and watched it. He was absolutely unmoving. We’d have thought he was dead, except we could see him breathe.”
Lexil sat down on the corner of a table with one foot up on a chair. “What does the kidnapper want?”
“Money from Morgan’s accounts. Quite a lot of money.”
“Can you get to it?”
“Well, that’s the second demand. Morgan’s daughter, Althea, is required to deliver the money. She’ll help us access it as well. She’s catching a flight from Australia in a few hours.”
Dani had quietly found a seat behind Lexil, at the far end of the table. She wondered why the detective had asked for her, in particular. “Did you get any clue to the kidnapper’s identity?”
“Possibly. We found a holovid of a helicar getting fuel from a station near the park. The man who paid for the fuel had the same overcoat and cap that we saw in the kidnapping video. We’re trying to trace the owner of the car, but we didn’t get full identification from the station. Apparently, they don’t keep very good records of payments.” He grimaced. “Or the payment went right into the clerk’s pocket. Here, I’ll show you what we have. Remember, this may be some random guy with the same overcoat. We have nothing to link him to the kidnapping yet.”
The hologram came to life on the table behind Lexil. He hopped off and turned around to get a better view.
A helicar pulled up and the man in the overcoat jumped out. He walked in. Only the upper half of his body was visible when he was inside, a weird effect of the hologram recorder. As he moved close to the door to peer nervously at the car, one leg would appear. When he stepped back, an invisible diagonal blade cut his body off just above the waist.
Dani could also see the upper part of the clerk’s body, and the counter.
“I’m going to slow it down here. Watch their hands.”
The man in the overcoat reached out his hand. She assumed it was to get it scanned for payment info. But he reached right past the scanner.
For a few seconds, almost too brief to notice, the man’s hand was back-to-back with the clerk’s hand. Just long enough to transfer funds.
Lexil turned to face the detective. “That’s what it looks like, all right.”
The detective nodded and got ready to turn off the projector.
“Let’s keep watching,” Dani said.
Lexil turned back.
The man went back outside. He removed a WindoWand from the rack and swiped each of the windows, but his hat stayed over his face, making him unidentifiable. He returned the wand, and then he entered his vehicle, lifted off, and flew away.
“There,” Dani said. “Go back a few seconds.”
The detective backed up the vid. Just before he lifted off, they could see a view inside the car. There was a figure there, wrapped in a blanket, laid across the back seat.
“Well, that makes it a little more likely,” Lexil said with a grin.
“Do you want us to scan something metal from the station?” Dani asked. “Maybe we can get a better view inside, of that seat.”
“Yes, I was going to ask you to do that. We’re chasing down a few other leads in the meantime, but we’ve got agents going out to get something to bring back to you.”
Lexil picked up his coat and shrugged it on. “You’ll let us know?”
“I’ll do better than that. If we find something, I’ll bring it to you. We’ll know the exact time, so I’d like to wait while Dani scans it so I can see it right away, if that’s okay.”
“That’ll work. We’ll be watching for you.” He turned to Dani. “You ready?”
His smile was polite. She nodded without smiling.
“Then let’s go.”
Out on the slidewalk, Dani was dreading the ride back to the lab. She rode beside him silently. This is stupid, she thought. Two people can work together without being involved. They’d proven that for months already. She was going to face this head on. She had no idea what she’d say though. Not yet.
They waited on the almost empty platform for the next train of cars. They were going to have a private car again. She’d have preferred a crowd. She squirmed inside.
A Chronetic Perspective (The Chronography Records Book 2) Page 8
