The Burning Ground

Chapter 2

“I have been instructed to cooperate with you, but you’ll have to tell me what you want to know. I can’t have outsiders wandering at will through my files.”

Sunflower Lab’s chief security exec, by name Rez Prehanet, was a man who’d used all the resources of Dr. Denton’s Meat Chop to carve himself into his own idea of perfection. You can see his taste on his skin, Shadith thought, Brrr. Digby said trust him only as far as his own interests run and never be sure you know what they are; he’s not the idiot he looks. Hunh! Dig, I look at him and I want to giggle.

The office was brushed steel and leather with accents in rare woods, all carefully sealed in preservative so nothing could mar their perfection. No way to smell the wood, the leather, to feel their textures-they might as well have been holoas. What a waste of trees and skin.

Autumn Rose’s smile had something of the same artificiality. “Oh, you may be assured, Exec. We will only request what we actually need.”

Shadith slouched in her pulochair, her passive receptors open, trying to wring as much information as she could from the blunted emotions behind the exec’s facade. She’d looked at the chair before she sat, caught a flare of interest from the man and stopped immediately. Psi detecs. Suspenders on his sox, hunh! No doubt he’s got ticky little spytecs tasting every twitch we make. Which is interesting considering how someone strolled in and got away with a big piece of the lab’s assets.

The pulochair shifted shape and inclination as Autumn Rose leaned forward. “The reports we’ve seen are summaries only. This is not adequate. We’ll need to know your security arrangements in the lab building.” She straightened, relaxed slightly. “Don’t get your back hair up, Exec. I know you’ve changed just about everything, you’re no fool. I am not asking for flitter detail. Just an overview.”

A mildly amused look on his perfect face, he glanced at the readouts on his desk, then at her. “Nor are you a fool, given Digby’s rep. It would not be all that difficult to extrapolate the whole from even a limited amount of detail.”

“Ah. Digby’s rep. You must know he considers all client-gained data as strictly confidential. His integrity is… well, I wouldn’t say unquestioned, there are those who would question a god if they could catch him… say rather it has been tested over the years and never found wanting.” Rose crossed long slim legs and rested her hands on her knees.

Not coincidentally minimizing her contact with the chair, Shadith thought, she suspects them, too. Must have done before she even got here. Spla! I wish she’d talk to me. It’d help a whole lot i f I knew something about what she plans before she does it.

This wasn’t going to be an easy collaboration. She and Autumn Rose just didn’t like each’other. Two primas trying to work in harness? I suppose that’s some of it. Oy! that means I’m a prima. She smiled at the thought, felt a surge of interest/annoyance, looked up and saw the exec staring at her.

His eyes shifted, and he went back to watching Autumn Rose without a change in expression.

“If we’re obstructed in the job we were hired to do, we will so inform the Directors and withdraw. The retainer deposited will be claimed as recompense for our effort and irritation.” Autumn Rose let a smile soften the predatory angles of her face. “However, at the moment all this is hypothetical. There are several points that need clarification-points that don’t impinge upon your security except peripherally. You said individuals returning to ships in the Tie-Down were discreetly checked by the OverSec of Marrat’s Market and pronounced clean, but you gave no details. We would like a listing of all ships out of the Tie-Down during the theft window and just after, along with a list and image of every life-form on them. Also, as much data as you have about those life-forms. It would be better if we could have a listing of all ships for the three weeks centering about the event, but the Market being what it is, the OverSec would probably howl and deny, citing confidentiality of customers. We understand that. If possible, we would like to view the original flakes and make our own extracts. You could arrange that?”

Shadith watched him relax. Interesting. Digby was right. Rose is perfect for this part of the business. She’s used to handling these types, he said, she knows the body language and can talk the talk. As for you, Shadow, every time his eyes pass by you, his nerves are going to twinge. You look like you should be sucking your thumb and hauling dolls about. Now now, I admit that you’ve put on a little age and may I say it sits well on you, but you’re not the standard model, are you?

“That will take a while to arrange, but it will certainly be possible. In the meantime, is there anything else?”

“Yes. You can have one of your ops walk us through the actual procedures of getting in and out of the other building and guide us over the route the thief must have taken. Hm. That might not be clear. I don’t mean on comsynth, but the actual route, out there in the building.”

“Why? Comsynth can give you far more data than you’d get just looking at walls.”

“We prefer to have a variety of sources and as many primary impressions as time and circumstances allow.”

Prehanet stood. “I’ll take you myself; that way there won’t be difficulties about what you’re to see. My aide can deal with OverSec.”

Prehanet waved a hand at the shield that enclosed the large asteroid, pulled the hand around in a wide curve to take in the transfer tubes that led to the other asteroids that made up the Market. “As you see, this is a closed environment which can be separated from the other nodes at an instant’s notice, one of the benefits of operating at Marrat’s Market, along with a certain docility in the workforce and the opportunity to maintain control over the product until we’re paid for it-though we are careful to guarantee our clients anonymity as well as safety and quality products. We have a quiet but considerable reputation in the realm of pharmaceuticals and the mechanisms by which they are delivered. I should tell you that it was my advice to the Directors to write off the stolen articles and replace them as quickly as possible. It’s my opinion that this is a one-off operation, so we don’t have to bother ourselves with notions of repetition.” He turned. “The lab building.”

The lab’s facade was a trapezoid two stories tall, with a modified holoa playing across it, a field of sunflowers blowing in a gentle wind, swaying against a deep blue sky; the entrance was concealed until someone on the slidewalk was within arm’s reach of it. Behind them, the administration building where Prehanet had his office was a more conventional four-story structure of matte black stone and black glass windows; the kephalos that controlled both buildings was buried in the bedstone of the asteroid beneath Admin.

“Ordinarily, clients are not permitted in this area except when taking delivery; I doubt any of those involved discussed the arrangements with outsiders.”

“YOu can never be sure,” Rose murmured. “People do the most idiotic things. You might like to know that Digby echoed what you said when he spoke to the Director who hired us. That it would be a difficult, perhaps impossible, and certainly expensive business to locate the thief, and the possibility of recovering what was stolen is somewhat remote. There was one item the Director was very… mmm… anxious to reclaim.”

“Yes, well, we won’t discuss that out here.” Prehanet stepped onto the slideway. “We don’t issue passes to the labs. Unless someone is with me or with a designated op, they have been deepscanned and a template made. Every individual who presents himself has to match one of those templates, otherwise the door won’t open. Anyone out of his, her or its area or off the designated route to a workstation will trigger first a vocalized warning, then an alarm every time he or she passes a checkpoint without proper authorization. So this cannot be a matter of someone working here.”

“No doubt you occasionally have a false alarms when someone’s strayed.”

“One or two every few months. Mostly the more independent workers cause them,, lab techs on a looser rein than the contract labor. They seldom do so twice. We have a few prima donnas..” He stepped from the slidewalk, took Rose’s arm to help her into the entrance alcove. Shadith he left to hop down on her own. “… who are at present too valuable to discipline,” he finished. “They are always causing trouble. No alarms any time during the theft window, however. Stand there, please. A moment.” He waved Shadith back. “If you’ll wait. We’ll set your temporary template next. May I remind both of you that the template is wiped the moment you leave the building. This is a one-time pass-through.”

The corridor they stepped into was provided with demiholoas of sunflowers mixed with other scenes to give a sense of airiness and expansiveness at first glance, though Shadith wondered what seeing the same thing for months if not years could do to the perceptions of the people working down here. A slidewalk ran down the center, but the exec ignored it and led them to the right, his boots silent on the springy flooring.

“The storage space for the ananiles is in the first sub-floor. There’s a lock on the door, but that’s more to keep down pilferage than for any actual security reasons. The ampoules are packed in numbered, standardized lots, sealed in ceolplas wrapping. Inventory control is very strict and we have almost no leakage.” He stopped at the mouth to the dropshaft, frowned as Shadith tapped his arm. “What is it?”

“Are dropshafts the only method of moving from floor to floor?”

“You have a problem?” He eased back so her hand fell away.

“No.” She gave him one of her most ingenuous smiles. “The Director didn’t include a schematic for this building in the packet he passed to Digby, so I was just wondering if there were alternate routes. You know, like emergency ladders if the power goes for some reason.”

“I see. There is such a ladder. The doors are locked, however, and those locks will only open if the power fails. Any attempt to interfere with any lock will activate alarms and send security ‘hots to that location. Even if there are no alarms, the kephalos checks the locks periodically. They were, of course, also checked the moment the thefts were discovered, found untouched and intact. Hm. There’s also the cleaner’s lift, but that is limited to one specific female and her cleaning ‘hots. There are no other routes.”

“Thank you, despoi’ Prehanet.”

They stepped into a corridor much like the one on the floor above. Two turns later they were in a tunnel rather than a corridor, the rock of the asteroid given a perfunctory polish and fitted with strip lighting; the walls were interrupted at short intervals by doors of gray plasteel with numbers shoulder-high in the center. He stopped in front of 22, flattened his hand on the palmplate, then stepped aside as the door slid open and a light came on in the cubicle beyond.

“As you can see, we have refilled this order. The buyer will be here tomorrow to pick up his goods. To increase the security we have installed EYEs in the storeroom and along the corridor. An unnecessary expense, but whatever helps the Directors sleep soundly will be done. They know my opinion, in case you’re wondering.”

Shadith moved past him and stood in the center of the cubicle looking around. No dust. “Was the due date pushed back at all?”

“Yes. We informed the buyer that there was an accidental contamination of the, Phase Three drugs, that they would have to be replaced.”

“The former due date?”

“The morning after the theft. Why?”

“Do buyers inspect the merchandise before it’s loaded?”

“Sometimes.”

“Do you always clean the cubicles before the person arrives?”

“It depends upon the individual. This particular buyer, yes. There is an aversion to dust or any other signs of uncleanliness. The cubicle and every container in the shipment is cleaned thoroughly on at least three nights before it is to be inspected. But if you’re interested in the cleaner, you’ll get no joy there. She has passed a thorough probing and has no connection with the theft. And there is only one breather involved, the rest are ‘bots.”

“I see. Nonetheless I’d like a schedule of her movements on a typical cleaning pass. Rose?”

“If you’re done, then I am.”

The laboratory where the object had been stored looked open and airy despite being on the sixth level below ground; it was also quite empty. They’d passed a number of men, women, and others moving along the slideways and looking intently thoughtful or filled with purpose as soon as they caught sight of Prehanet. The only voices Shadith heard were those coming round corners; it seemed that the exec induced a zone of silence around him as he moved.

As they entered the lab, for the first time he had a shadow of a natural expression on his face, a crisscross of tiny wrinkles marring the skin about the eyes and mouth. “Several of the techs working on this project tried to refuse probe, but this is outside the reach of such conventions. They had reason, been running their mouths as if they had no off-switch in places with lots of ears. They have been disciplined. It is to be hoped Digby’s people are more prudent.”

Autumn Rose smiled. “It’s part of the service. Proprietary information is restricted to those who need to know.”

Ignoring this exchange, Shadith drifted about the room. It was a squat rectangle with smaller rooms opening out from three of the walls. The lock box where the gadget had been kept when it wasn’t being worked on was set into the floor in the room most distant from the corridor.

She knelt, brushing her fingers across the face of the lock, a pahnlock like that on the door of the storage cubicle. It was, after all, a working lab and the techs employed here would need to get into the thing without too much trouble. I could do it easy as spit and not jiggle a flake in that kephalos. Only problem is getting into the building. No way of faking it I know of. Inside job? Our pretty Exec says no and I’m inclined to believe him. Otherwise the Directors would have the thief and Digby would never have been brought in.

She got to her feet and looked around. Spotless as before. Impossible that it should be the cleaner, but who else went everywhere? These techphiles… depend on their instruments too much… I beat a probe once… different circumstances, still… “I want to talk with the cleaner, do her rounds with her tonight.”

“That is not possible.”

The answer came so fast she knew he hadn’t even considered the question, reinforcing her impression of his rigidity. “Why?” she said. “You operate on a diurnal schedule with most things shut down during the assigned night hours.”

“The schedule is to conserve trained workers; it costs less than finding adequate replacements and importing them. And it only applies to the subcategories. The Researchers come and go as they please, work to their own rhythms with such assistants as they consider necessary. They demand privacy and we ensure that they get it.”

“I see. Have you considered a Researcher as the thief?”

“We have considered everything. The Researchers were not probed, but none of them were here alone at any time during the window and the assistants were tested thoroughly. Their evidence and that from the overlooks provide reasonable proof that none of the Researchers on this level or any of the others could have accessed both this lab and the storage cubicle without being seen. And probing gave further evidence that the assistants were not involved. We have also investigated the lives of all employees back for several months, which is not difficult given the conditions here. All interactions with outsiders or even with other Houses in the Market have been explored; none of them involved anything remotely connected to the theft.”

Shadith strolled about, inspecting the instrumentation and making Prehanet very nervous. Looked a whole helluva lot like the lab was trying some back engineering. No wonder they’re so antsy to retrieve their gadget. Bet a year off my life they stole it themselves. Well, that’s not our business as the esteemed employer would say. Wish I had a clue how the thief got in… “I’ve seen enough here. Walk us through the night security posts, please.”