Artificial Absolutes (Jane Colt Book 1)

by Mary Fan

  Perhaps Jane isn’t the only one suffering from a form of paranoia. “That’s rather dramatic.”

  Devin stopped pacing and faced Victor. “With all due respect, sir, you didn’t see her. What she did was unnatural. So I began looking into her background to see if someone was threatening her. However, our efforts were often blocked by—”

  Victor held up a hand. “Stop. With whom were you working?”

  “I enlisted the help of a Netcrew.”

  Agitation jolted Victor. He bolted upright. “You mean to tell me that after everything that happened, after your mother was murdered, you still engage in these criminal activities? Cybergangs, demons, dangerous criminals—how dare you fall back in with them?”

  Devin’s expression was unreadable. “I haven’t. Please, sir, just let me finish.”

  Victor Colt was an important man. Zenevieva shouldn’t have been spying on him through the transparent walls of his office. But her desk was right next to it, and her view unobstructed. Was it her fault she was only human?

  Several minutes had passed since Devin Colt had walked in, looking uncharacteristically distracted. Zenevieva was glad Mr. Colt hadn’t lowered his shades. She wished she were capable of reading lips.

  What were they talking about? Was Devin reporting a coworker he disliked? She’d heard a rumor that he had issues with his manager. Maybe he was trying to talk his father into having the troublemaker fired.

  It’s not fair. I’ve been slaving away at this company longer than he’s been out of school. Why wasn’t I born into a powerful family? Then maybe I’d be on the fast track instead of always getting overlooked.

  Sure, he was good at what he did, but Zenevieva was still annoyed at being outranked by the boss’s son. She had more experience and was probably smarter. Plus, unlike Devin, who was known to have dabbled with the dark side, Zenevieva had a squeaky clean past.

  I guess doing everything right is no match for good old-fashioned nepotism.

  She rested her chin in her hand as she watched. Mr. Colt appeared relaxed in his throne-like chair. Devin stood before him, speaking furiously. It was an interesting sight, since Devin was always so collected and businesslike, the model of corporate conformity. The glimpse of what lay behind all that perfection fascinated her.

  Such a good-looking young man. Maybe he’s a spoiled prince, but at least he’s easy on the eyes. Tall? Check. Dark? Check. Handsome? Very. It’s enough to turn any woman into a cougar…

  Mr. Colt slammed his desk. The office was virtually soundproof, but from the intensity of his movements—and the fact that she could hear anything at all—Zenevieva could tell he was yelling. Devin was startled into stillness for a moment, but then he shouted just as heatedly.

  Zenevieva leaned forward with excitement. A Silk Sector king and his wayward prince in a duel of words—what she wouldn’t give to be a fly on that wall!

  Devin pulled a black laser gun from beneath his jacket and aimed it at Mr. Colt’s face.

  She gasped. She had not expected that. Frozen, she stared at the unimaginable scene. Mr. Colt held his hands up. He looked as though he was trying to tell Devin to calm down.

  Zenevieva wondered why the watchmen hadn’t sounded the alarm, why the internal defenses hadn’t activated.

  She finally found it in herself to speak. “S-Security!”

  Several coworkers who had been buried in their work glanced at her. Their puzzled expressions soon changed to horror when they saw the scene in Mr. Colt’s office. They scrambled to contact Quasar’s security team.

  Bang.

  Zenevieva screamed.

  Mr. Colt sprawled back in his chair. A laser burn blackened his skin and blood dripped down his face from a point on his forehead.

  Devin stood over him with the gun in his hand, his dark eyes coldly blank.

  The security team surged toward Mr. Colt’s office. Zenevieva turned to look at them.

  You’re too late.

  She turned back to the office, morbidly curious as to what would happen when Devin was caught—what he would say, why he had done it.

  Devin was nowhere in sight.

  Chapter 5

  Runaway, Please Stay

  Copy-paste… How the hell was Jane supposed to care about a bunch of numbers when her best friend was captive, and no one even looked for him?

  Pull-data… Adam had been kidnapped, and everyone thought she was crazy. Daddy would cover it up. He couldn’t let word get out that his own flesh and blood was losing her mind!

  Agitation wouldn’t begin to describe Jane’s horrible desire to screech and go on a murderous rampage. It had taken every ounce of willpower she had to show up at work that morning. She didn’t know how much longer she could keep it together.

  Screw everything!

  Jane looked away from her monitor in an attempt to quiet the screaming in her head. She tried to use her usual balm of gazing at the fish tank, but all it did was remind her of the Fringe warlords and how one of them might be torturing Adam.

  Why would they want him? He was too damn nice to be involved in anything sinister. For freak’s sake, he wouldn’t even skip class! He’d be useless for ransom. He’d grown up in an Ibaran orphanage, for crying out loud! Did he fit a profile for some sick scientist’s human experiments? Did a lunatic cult think he was their messiah?

  They all think I’m crazy. Pretty soon, I will be!

  Jane’s gaze drifted toward a vent by the internal defenses. It must have led to the utility conduits—like the ones no one believed she’d crawled through less than twenty-four hours ago. Ever since, she’d fixated on every vent she saw, wondering what went on in there.

  Why the hell are they so small? Is someone up there right now, fixing some piece of Quasar’s mainframe? Is this whole building crawling with midget technicians?

  Jane gripped the stunner in her pocket, wrapping her fingers around the small, gun-like device. If only she’d remembered to bring it the day before. Maybe she could have fried the machine’s circuits. Then maybe Adam would be on a retreat.

  She wished fiercely that she were just crazy. Why couldn’t she just be crazy?! And why the hell wouldn’t anyone believe she wasn’t?

  Far from giving up after getting home the previous day, Jane had acquiesced to a violent energy and called the Via facility on Dalarune, intending to prove that Adam wasn’t there.

  “So where is he?” she’d yelled.

  The unfortunate receptionist was practically in tears after suffering half an hour of her verbal abuse. “I’m sorry, Miss Colt, but as I said before, our policy is very clear. Anyone who participates in the retreat is not to be contacted under any—”

  “Stop repeating yourself.” Jane banged the table near the screen in her living room. “My request is simple: I want to talk to Adam Palmer. If he is on Dalarune, then why can’t anyone find him?”

  “He is most certainly here, and our records show—”

  “And why hasn’t anyone spoken to him?”

  “Miss Colt, you must know by now that isolation is paramount to—”

  “I don’t care, and I’m not getting off the line until someone either lets me talk to him or acknowledges the fact that he’s not there!”

  She’d been in the middle of a list of threats when Devin arrived at her apartment. Furious about what he’d said at the police station, she’d ignored his request for entry. He’d disabled her lock and come in anyway, then gently told her it wasn’t the receptionist’s fault Adam was gone. As with Counselor Mayuri, he’d apologized for Jane’s behavior, attributing it to mental instability, while Jane clenched her hands behind her back to keep from punching him.

  As soon as Devin ended the communication, Jane turned her interrogative fury toward him. “Are you gonna tell me why the hell you lied to
the Counselor? Or have you really bought into this freaking charade? Are you here to tell me I’m actually crazy?”

  A glimmer of gold caught her eye. The Via pendant Adam had given her lay on the table. Jane picked it up, choking back the sudden urge to burst into tears.

  Devin put a hand on her shoulder. Jane looked up at him. “Just tell me. What’s going on? I lied because I trust you, so why don’t you trust me?”

  He let go and walked toward the window. “It’s not that I don’t trust you. I… I don’t know what to tell you. Whoever took Adam is very powerful. All you’re doing by insisting on your story is signing yourself into a psych ward. It’s your word against the records, which the authorities view as solid evidence.”

  Jane slammed the pendant onto the table. “That’s so stupid! With the Collective screwing up Netsites day in and day out, you’d think people would stop treating their freaking computers like the Absolute!”

  “They left no trace, but I have people looking anyway.” Devin stopped by the window and faced her. “Don’t worry, Pony. I’m handling it.”

  Jane was too weary to tell him not to call her Pony, and she got the message: keep out, little sis.

  She approached her sofa and crumpled onto its plush cushions. “All right. Fine.” She’d had enough aggravation for one day. Her brother had never let her down before.

  He probably saved my life today. Speaking of which… “Devin? How’d you know so much about the dorm? The conduits and whatnot?”

  Devin looked out at the round form of Kydera Minor, their world’s sister planet, which glowed blue-green above the city’s brightly colored nightscape.

  “Nothing I knew was a secret. Any of it can be found in the civil engineering section of a public library.” He paused. When he continued, it was in the same artificial manner Jane had watched him use during work presentations. “I used to have an interest in the construction and internal layouts of urban buildings. They may look different on the outside, but most share the same features. I assumed the dormitory was like any number of other structures built around the same time by the same company. It’s practically common knowledge.”

  Weird. Devin had dabbled in many esoteric subjects—Fringe justice, interstellar flight, Net activism—but buildings seemed absurdly different from the rest. “C’mon, bro. What’re you hiding? Dad said you used to… um… get in trouble. Were you really a thief?”

  He turned away. “It’s all in the past. Please, Jane. I… I don’t want to talk about it.”

  Jane was accustomed to her brother’s moodiness, but his current distress was different. There was something deeply sad about his tone—whatever he was thinking about caused him profound pain.

  She nodded. “Okay.”

  Okay. It’s okay. Devin said he’d handle it and he will. Everything’s gonna be fine. I just have to get through today.

  Jane brought her attention back to the office and noticed something unusual. Her coworkers twittered like schoolgirls spreading rumors. She stood but couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. “What’s happening?”

  A nearby woman answered, “They’ve locked down the upper levels. No one knows why.”

  A team of Quasar’s gray- and violet-clad security personnel burst into the office area. The building’s intercom emitted a loud beep, causing the chatter to desist.

  “Attention: all Quasar employees. There has been a security breach. Please remain at your desks until further notice.”

  Jane sat down, her previous agitation displaced by an intense craving for knowledge. She wasn’t too worried, and neither, it seemed, were the others. Such alerts were rare but no cause for alarm. The past few times had been due to sensitive documents being accessed without permission. Maybe the Collective hacked us and is forcing us to give money to poor people.

  Jane smirked. That would be hilarious. The company would probably have the internal defenses shoot their own central computer rather than let that happen.

  Run-app, copy-paste…

  “Jane Colt?”

  A laser gun hung from a reflective black belt. Jane looked up to see a harshly buttoned black jacket. Two uniformed members of the Kydera City Police Department towered over her with stern, no-nonsense expressions.

  “Yeah?” What did I do?

  The closer one, who had steel-gray hair and even steelier gray eyes, responded, “We’re here about your brother.”

  “Devin? Why?”

  The second officer, whose rusty-iron hair framed severe features, motioned for her to stand. “I think you should come with us.”

  But… But why?

  Jane nervously followed the two officers. She sensed her coworkers staring as the officers escorted her into an empty office.

  The iron-haired officer shut the door and gestured at a chair. “Please, Miss Colt, you should sit down for this.”

  Jane complied. “What’s going on?”

  “I’m afraid we have some bad news.” The officer spoke in a sharp, matter-of-fact tone. “About fifteen minutes ago, your brother shot your father in the head point-blank. He managed to elude Quasar’s security, and we are currently conducting a manhunt for him.”

  Jane stared. The words didn’t register. They were too bizarre to be real. She refused to react.

  The steely-eyed officer put his hands on the armrests of her chair and leaned toward her face. “Do you know where he might have gone?”

  Behind him, the iron-haired officer narrowed his eyes. “Did you know of his intentions? Has he contacted you?”

  Jane shrank. The usual denials filed through her mind. That was absurd. That wasn’t happening. That couldn’t be true.

  Instead of answering, she looked past the officers. Her gaze once again wandered toward a vent in the ceiling.

  The steely-eyed officer straightened. “Miss Colt, I ask that you please cooperate.”

  Jane forced her eyes down. “I—I don’t believe you. You—You’re wrong. It couldn’t have been Devin. You must… there must… you’re wrong.”

  The officer pursed his lips. “I understand that this is difficult for you. However, the evidence is indisputable. There are several eyewitnesses. Furthermore, Quasar’s security team found your brother’s gun at the scene. It was recently fired. He disappeared before they could apprehend him.”

  Jane shook her head vigorously. “They’re all wrong. Devin would never… this can’t—”

  The iron-haired officer held up a hand. “Please, Miss Colt. Stop denying the facts.”

  That’s it. Jane stood and matched the officer’s severe expression. She didn’t care what kind of authority he or his companion had. They were idiots, and they no longer frightened her. “Listen, Devin loves our father. He’s the perfect son, does everything according to Dad’s wishes. Which is why you’re wrong. I don’t care what the evidence says.”

  The officer’s expression hardened. “I’m afraid your brother hasn’t been honest with you. We have information about his past that shows he had ample reason to resent your father.”

  Jane, focused again on the vent in the ceiling, didn’t hear what the officer said next. Something up there had moved.

  Devin?

  The officers noticed her gaze and started to follow it—

  “Nooo!” Jane deliberately collapsed forward between the officers. Both rushed to catch her.

  “Miss Colt!”

  She let her body hang limply against them and kept her eyes closed. She flopped like a ragdoll when they placed her in the chair, allowing her head to roll from side to side. One of them shook her and the other yelled her name. Someone slapped her across the face. She opened her eyes, startled. Steely eyes peered at her. She twisted her face into a pathetic expression.

  “Tell me it’s not true! It can’t be! You must be lying! Tell m
e it’s not true!” Jane wasn’t exactly a good actress, but her being a girl meant the two manly officers wouldn’t question her sobbing.

  “Miss Colt—”

  “He can’t be dead! Daddy can’t be dead!”

  As she said it, the facts finally hit her. She choked as the realization swelled in her chest. She sobbed for real, covering her face in an attempt to block out reality. It can’t be…

  “Please, Miss Colt.” The officer sounded uncomfortable. “Please don’t cry.”

  “Your father is alive.” The other sounded equally uncomfortable. “The medical team reached him seconds after the incident and placed him on life support.”

  Dad’s alive. Jane desperately wanted to stop crying. She hated the uncontrollable way it shook her body and left her gasping for breath, the way the tears cascaded down her cheeks and fell, drop by drop, onto her chest. Most of all, she hated the damn snot. One of the officers handed her a tissue. She blew her nose rudely, certain she must be the ugliest crier they’d ever seen.

  The gray-eyed officer knelt down to her level. “We apologize for upsetting you. Are you all right?”

  Jane slumped in her chair and didn’t answer.

  “Do you know—?”

  The other officer tapped him on the shoulder and shook his head. The veneer of severity remained, but to Jane, he was just another guy, his professional iciness thrown by a girl’s tears.

  The reddish-haired officer handed her another tissue. “How are you feeling? Do you want us to call someone for you?”

  Suddenly livid, Jane bolted up. “Who’re you gonna call? My dad? My brother? Adam? I’m fine. Just leave me alone.”

  The officer stiffened. “Miss Colt, we still have some questions for you.”