The Spies That Bind

by Diane Henders

  I mustered all my acting skills and headed for Stemp’s office.

  When I tapped on his door frame, he looked up from his computer with what was almost a smile. “Come in. I see you passed your requalifications.” He nodded toward the marking sheets on his desk.

  “Yeah…” Stepping into his office, I hesitated at the sight of the high-tech lie detector sitting on the corner of his desk.

  “Please sit,” he invited.

  Or maybe that was a command.

  He rose and closed the door as I eased into his guest chair. When he returned and picked up the headband with its crown of electrodes, he answered my unspoken question.

  “A new standard for the requalification examinations.” He fastened the electrodes around my forehead. “Dr. Travers has completed her testing on this device. She claims it has ninety-nine percent accuracy, but…” His lips quirked as he rounded his desk and resumed his seat. “…you know Dr. Travers. A scientist will never claim one hundred percent. Nevertheless, in all the tests she performed, the device was never wrong. So… is your name Aydan Kelly? Please answer yes or no.”

  My heart raced while my mind rocketed back over my recent dealings with Stemp. Had I lied to him lately? Shit, I couldn’t remember…

  “Kelly?” Stemp prompted.

  “Oh. Um, sorry, I was just…” I gathered my scattered wits. “Yes.”

  The green light flashed, but Stemp shook his head. “Let’s try it again. Is your name Aydan Kelly?”

  “Yes.”

  This time there was no doubt about the green light, and Stemp went on with the standard opening questions. Had I ever used any other names; did I work for Sirius Dynamics; did I work for anyone else…

  The green light shone its blessing upon my answers, and he continued to questions designed to test my loyalty and adherence to the non-disclosure agreements. None of them were new to me and I fielded them easily, though not confidently.

  Damn, even when I was being completely honest I felt guilty. My heartbeat thumped rapidly in my ears.

  At last Stemp sat back with a smile. “That concludes the standardized questions we’ve designed to be part of the annual requalification. We’re hoping that this, combined with our upgraded security clearance protocols, will help us identify and eliminate moles or double agents. Are there any other questions you think we should be asking to further that end?”

  “Um…” I thought about it for a few moments. “No. But I’ll let you know if I think of anything.”

  “Thank you.”

  I reached up to loosen the electronic headdress, but Stemp raised a restraining hand. “I’m not quite finished.”

  “Oh. Sorry.” I sat back and waited.

  All the expression faded from his face, leaving a cold and clinical mask. His reptilian gaze bored into me as if to expose every lie I’d ever told, and I suddenly realized his right hand was concealed by the desk.

  Oh, shit.

  Was that a trank pistol trained on me? Or would I get a bullet between the eyes if I answered wrong? I knew how fast he could draw. No hope of escape…

  “Before I ask my next questions, I think you should know that I have trusted you a great deal,” he said gravely. “More than any other agent, and very likely more than I should have. I hope you won’t give me reason to regret that.”

  I swallowed hard, but my voice came out in a dry croak anyway. “I hope not, too. And I hope you’ll ask all your questions before you…” I nodded toward his concealed hand. “…make your final decision.”

  A tiny quirk of humour disturbed his deadpan façade. “I’ve never been in the habit of shooting first and asking questions later.”

  “Good to know.”

  “These questions are specifically designed for you, Webb, and Brock,” Stemp began, and I eased out a small breath of relief. Still standardized questions, then. Maybe I wouldn’t get into too much trouble.

  “Because we have no way of confirming what information you actually access while you’re hacking and decrypting, these questions will address your activities while you are invisible and undetectable inside our internal network and the internet at large,” Stemp went on. “First question: Other than as strictly required by the cases you’ve handled, have you ever accessed our internal restricted, classified, or personnel files?”

  “No.”

  The green light shone steadily, and Stemp blinked.

  “No?” He sounded incredulous.

  I frowned. “No, of course not. Why would I do that? The less I know, the safer everybody else is.”

  He laughed out loud, making me twitch with shock.

  “Kelly, you really are the original straight arrow, aren’t you?” he said, humour still warming his eyes. “I can’t imagine anyone else resisting the temptation.”

  “It’s not hard. All I have to do is think about what would happen if that information fell into the wrong hands.”

  He sobered. “You’re right, of course. But that was not the answer I expected at all. This will considerably shorten my list of questions for you.”

  “Sounds good to me,” I said mildly, still watching his gun hand. Despite his easy posture and laughter, his hand had never wavered under the desk. I felt a moment’s pity for any bad guy who’d faced Stemp while he was an agent.

  “Next question,” he said. “Have you ever falsified or failed to report any information you gathered through your research?”

  “No.”

  Green light.

  “Have you ever gathered more information than was strictly required by the cases you’ve handled?”

  I squirmed. “Well, yeah, probably… I mean, I never really know how much information is actually required, and when I’m in the data stream I can’t help reading stuff. It’s like sitting across from somebody who’s reading a newspaper; you can’t help but read the headlines.”

  “Yes or no, please.”

  Was he trying to frame me?

  I scowled, my heart rate kicking up another notch. “Yes.”

  “Have you ever used information for personal gain or to pursue ideological goals?”

  “No.”

  “Have you ever intentionally avoided reading information to protect yourself or others from suspicion or prosecution?”

  “Um…” I thought it over, but my body was pumping adrenaline and my memory wasn’t cooperating. “No, I don’t think so.”

  “Yes or no, please.”

  Tension wound up in my shoulders. “No…?”

  The green light shone again, and I managed not to let out a sigh of relief. I was pretty sure I was telling the truth, but I’d been semi-conscious in the network so many times I couldn’t be sure.

  Did the detector know if I knew whether I was telling the truth…? The convolutions of logic twisted my brain and I rubbed my aching forehead.

  “Last question,” Stemp said. “Is it in the best interests of the Department and myself personally to continue to trust you?”

  “Yes.”

  The light shone glorious green, and I slumped with relief.

  “Thank you.” His smile was back, and both his hands were visible again as he rose and rounded the desk to remove the band of electrodes from my forehead. He closed the lie detector’s case and added, “Congratulations on your requalification. Dismissed.”

  I suppressed an overwhelming urge to run far, far away. God, he’d taken that headset off me just in time.

  Because I was about to start lying to him.

  Chapter 18

  “Will you have time to spot me in the network for a while today?” I asked, holding my voice level.

  Stemp leaned against his desk, arms crossed over his chest, his face impassive. “Why?”

  “I want to look into Labelle’s business network. I don’t really know what I’m looking for so I can’t request it from Brock, but…” I refused to let my gaze waver. “I just want to go and look around a bit. I don’t think it’ll take too long.”

  Stemp held my g
aze for a moment before responding. “Very well. I have time now, as long as you expect to be finished before noon. By the way, have you reminded Kane about his debriefing?”

  “Um… yeah.” I hesitated. Probably better not to tell him Kane had basically said the Department could go piss up a rope. “He’ll be in touch,” I said instead.

  “It had better be soon.”

  “I’ll tell him.” I backed toward the door. “I’ll just run down and get the network key from Spider’s lab. I’ll be right back.”

  He nodded, and I fled.

  Breathing deeply and willing calm with all my might, I braved the time-delay chamber again and retrieved the mote of technology from its safe haven in Spider’s secured lab.

  Dammit, I hated lying. Would I even be able to pass the lie detector test next year?

  I sucked in a breath and let it out slowly. Shut up, conscience. I really was going to check into Labelle. The medical examiner’s files would just be a little side trip.

  Repeating my rationalizations over and over in my mind, I emerged from the coffin-like depths and trudged back up to Stemp’s office.

  Inside, I sank into the chair he indicated, and at his nod of readiness I closed my eyes and mentally stepped into the white void of virtual reality.

  His avatar popped into existence beside me a moment later, and we made our way to the virtual file repository that served as the home base for my forays into the internet’s vast sea of data.

  Stemp materialized a desk, chair, and computer terminal from thin air. “I’ll continue my work here while you’re gone,” he said. “I presume you only need me to act as your anchor as usual?”

  “Yeah. I’ll try to be back before noon, but if it’s getting close you could start pulling on my hand. Sometimes I lose track of time. And if I disappear completely, start doing computer searches for, um…” I hesitated, trying to think of something unusual but not suspicious to outside observers.

  “I’ll search for ‘dwarf hardy hibiscus’,” Stemp supplied. “I’ll rotate my searches through pink, red, white, and yellow, and keep repeating until you respond.”

  “Perfect.” I reached for his hand. “Wish me luck.”

  He nodded without expression, and I faded into invisibility and seeped into the turbulent data tunnels of the internet. Letting my virtual self stretch from his anchoring grip, I made for the medical examiner’s internal network.

  Arbuckle Murphy’s autopsy report was easy to find. I slid invisibly through the firewalls and stole a copy, encrypting it and temporarily storing it on a convenient public server. Then I traced my route back to the email account Kane had created the previous night, selecting a convoluted path and hiding my tracks.

  There would be no incriminating header information in my email. Completely untraceable. And as soon as he removed it and deleted the account, all evidence of this little transaction would be gone.

  We’d be fine. Almost no chance of getting caught.

  I hesitated.

  What if Kane needed something else later? I’d have a hard time convincing Stemp that I needed to poke through the internet on a regular basis. He’d expect to see some results of my so-called case research sooner or later.

  I might not get another chance. I should make this count.

  Disregarding the prodding of my conscience, I insinuated myself back into the data stream and headed for the police network.

  Its security was almost as daunting as Sirius’s. Floating in the data tunnel while the busy streams of data packets buffeted me, I sent virtual feelers out to examine their external firewall.

  This was going to be ugly. I’d likely lose my connection to Stemp back at Sirius, and he’d have to call me home with his internet searches. And then I’d have to explain what the hell I’d been doing.

  If my bodiless self had been capable of sighing, I would have. Instead, I gathered my courage and flung myself at the firewall, thinking of body-surfing with all my might.

  The proxy server bounced me, dragging me under and flinging me back time and again like pounding waves with a vicious riptide. My virtual consciousness shredded under the assault and instinctive terror seized me. I flung out frantic tendrils in all directions, completely disoriented. At last I found a grip, and gradually extracted my quivering consciousness from the maelstrom of data.

  My connection to Stemp was severed; my sense of Sirius’s well-concealed servers long gone.

  Lost.

  Trapped in the vast interminable tunnels of the internet…

  I jerked myself back from the edge of panic. Shut up and get it done. Stemp would be sending his internet searches out, and I still needed this data.

  Do it.

  I flung myself at the firewall again.

  This time I was successful, rocketing through into the peaceful backwater of the internal network.

  Thank God.

  Vibrating with reaction, I pulled my data bits together and went hunting.

  Mayweather’s case file fell to my voracious tentacles first. I grabbed everything including the forensic reports from Murphy’s truck and campsite before rummaging hurriedly through the rest of the network. The knowledge of time ticking away thrummed tensely in my consciousness.

  I was just about to pull out with my treasure when a nagging feeling dragged me to a halt. I took a closer look at the data I’d gathered.

  If I’d been capable of breathing, I would have sucked in a breath.

  Oh, shit.

  No, that had to be wrong.

  But…

  Sickness pooling in what would have been my stomach in real life, I gathered every scrap of data before launching myself back into the internet.

  It took only a few minutes to pack the files into a single communication and dump it to Kane’s bogus email account. Then I returned my consciousness to the internet, watching and listening.

  As the stream of ‘…hardy dwarf hibiscus, yellow; hardy dwarf hibiscus, pink; hardy dwarf…’ tickled my feelers, I turned to follow it back to Sirius Dynamics.

  When I tumbled back into my gasping avatar in the virtual file room, Stemp lunged to his feet and barked, “What happened?”

  “Nothing…” I hunched over, elbows on knees, and panted out the last of my fear. “I just… hit a high-security firewall… and got scrambled. Thanks…” I sucked in some more air, trying to calm my rapid breathing. “Thanks for the searches.” I straightened slowly. “I have to go back. I didn’t get what I wanted.”

  I suppressed a wince at the profound truth of that statement. If that police data was what I thought it was, I really didn’t want it.

  Stemp eyed me critically. “Is it safe for you to go back?”

  “Yeah.” I spread my hands. “See, my avatar is fine. You only have to worry if I can’t hold my avatar.”

  “If you can’t hold your avatar, it’s already too late,” Stemp said dryly. “You may recall I’ve had to drag your mangled remains out of here before.”

  I blew out a breath, trying to hide my trembling. “You won’t have to this time. I’m fine. But I need to go back. I’ve still got…” I consulted my wristwatch. “…a little over an hour. And I need it.”

  “Very well.” Stemp reached out to grasp my hand again. “Good hunting.”

  “Thanks.” I faded into invisibility again and went to do my real job.

  An hour later, I slipped back into my avatar in the virtual file room with a sigh and let go of Stemp’s hand.

  “That’s better,” he observed. “Did you find what you were looking for this time?”

  I grimaced. “I don’t know. I need to go over the data again and give it some more thought.”

  He nodded, unsurprised. “Very well. Let’s go, then.”

  We abandoned the file repository and strode to the virtual portal together. He stepped through first, leaving me to brace myself for the misery that was to come.

  When I stepped through the portal back into reality, the usual pain crashed into my skull. Hissing o
bscenities through my teeth, I locked my hands around my head and rocked impotently in my chair until the torment subsided enough to open my eyes.

  Stemp regarded me expressionlessly across his desk. “That alone convinces me that you wouldn’t do this unless it was absolutely necessary.”

  “You’ve got that right,” I gritted, and dragged myself to my feet. “Thanks. I’ll take the key back down to Spider’s lab now.”

  “Leave it with me.” Stemp rose, too, extending his hand. “I’m going down anyway.”

  “Thanks,” I repeated with sincere gratitude. I dropped it into his hand and staggered back to my office to retrieve the pheromone detector, rubbing my still-throbbing temples.

  When I stepped out of Sirius Dynamics’ air-conditioned chill, the blazing sun was a welcome relief. Sliding into my oven-like car to head for Blue Eddy’s for a late and truncated bookkeeping session, I let the heat seep into my tense shoulders and drew a few calming breaths.

  I had to be wrong about what I’d found. I was just being paranoid. Kane would go over the data I’d sent and laugh at me for being so silly.

  Please let that happen…

  Sitting in Eddy’s office a few minutes later, I contemplated the free burger he’d supplied along with his usual smile and banter. I knew the burger would be delicious as usual, but my stomach was still clenched with queasy fear. I sighed.

  I should call Kane right away.

  But I really didn’t want to…

  My phone vibrated and the sight of Kane’s caller ID made my stomach twist.

  Shit.

  I issued a cautious, “Hello?”

  “Aydan!” he growled.

  “Um… yeah…?”

  “I thought you were going to call me!”

  “I was. I just… um… I couldn’t call until I got out of Sirius-”

  “We need to talk,” he interrupted. “We’re coming up to Silverside. Come to my house as soon as you’re finished work.”

  My heart sank into the churning acid of my stomach. Oh, no. I hadn’t been wrong.

  “Um, I can’t. I have a… thing… right after work.” Stemp probably wouldn’t thank me for blabbing about his dinner party. “I don’t think it’ll run late, though,” I added. “I’ll come over as soon as it’s finished.”