Brain Storm (US Edition) (12 page)

Accompanied by
the ever-present thumping beat of too loud music pounding out from behind the door of her across corridor neighbor, Sara swiped her key card through the lock and went inside. Intending to just flop down on her bed and get some well deserved rest. Other things could wait until after that. It wasn't like she  would get any of her questions answered until Ash got back to her anyway.

***************

He checked through the information he was seeing on his terminal screen for a third time. It continued to corroborate what the man on the communications screen had told him.

"You are correct, Supervisor Ash is indeed taking an unhealthy interest in last
night’s activities. It seems he truly believes that agents version of events and is questioning our carefully constructed facade."

The man on the display screen fidgeted. "Yes, sir. When I first monitored the conversation in his office I hoped he would believe what the evidence told him rather than the
agent’s word."

"But he has started to investigate further. What of the agent who started him on this track?"

The man on the display screen looked down from the pickup at something on another screen out of view and then back up. "She was ordered to leave the investigation to him. It seems he is worried that without his precautions the investigation being discovered." He tried out a weak smile but it didn't take.

"Then Ash is the only one we have to worry about for the moment. I will inform the number one of this discovery. Maintain surveillance on the agent who brought him this information if she  lets her curiosity get the better of her she will need to be dealt with as well."

The communications display went blank as he ended the link. Before he opened the next one he collected the sound and video files of the conversation between Ash and the agent together and linked them to the ongoing monitoring of Ash's search through the computer database and Intel-link ready for transferring to the number one at his request.

With that done he opened the direct secure channel that he had only had cause to use on two prior occasions. No sooner had he opened the channel than the link was established at the other end and the number one answered.

"We have a problem."

The number one listened as he explained the situation.

"It will be taken care of."

With that the link was severed.

***************

Whoever had changed the reports was very good. Marc Ash had checked for all of the most obvious telltales of manipulation and had come up with nothing. So then he moved on to those that were used by the hackers serving in ECSIS and other agencies.
The first few of those came back negative and Ash started to wonder whether Sara could be mistaken. Or lying to cover for herself. Was she a CDM sympathizer, had she let Swift escape on purpose? No, Sara had never struck him as a liar. Besides, why would she bring him this story if she was lying.

When even more negative results came up he started to wonder again whether Sara was simply mistaken, even the best agents could slip up. Then he got a positive on one of the reports. The crime scene report from inside the statue where they found evidence of Carla Swift had been tampered with. Another one came up, this time it was the report that said
gunshot residue had been found on Carla Swift.

The audio only communicator on his desk chimed. "Sir, there is somebody here requesting to see you."

Just when he was starting to make progress. Ash slapped at the communicator. "I'm busy."

"Sir, he says it is very important."

"I don't care, make him an appointment and send him away."

"Sir, he is most insistent. I'm sending him through."

"I told you to-"

The door started to open and Marc jumped out of his seat and around from behind his desk. Whoever this was, whether they had a good reason for the intrusion or not, they were in deep trouble.

The door continued to open and Marc got his first look at his visitor.

***************

Sara had tried to sleep but it just wasn't working for her. She was weary, but after laying there for almost four hours she reckoned she had actually only slept for twenty or thirty minutes. Her body wanted rest but her mind wanted answers. Every time she closed her eyes and tried to switch off she would start with theories for who had falsified those reports and why. When she got close to sleep her theories would become more and more farfetched and then her rational mind would realize and drag her back to wakefulness.

Now she was stuck in that limbo between being asleep and being awake. Her restlessness had resulted in her being tangled up in her thin sheets. She struggled against their grip but they clung to her damp skin and refused to yield to her efforts. In the end she just gave up and left them where they were. It wasn't like she needed the sheets to provide warmth it was more of a comfort thing. Like locking
the bathroom door when she went to the toilet even though she knew her apartment was empty it just felt better to have the covers on.

A shaft of light penetrated the edge of the blinds up at her window. It came in through the left hand side and created a bright bar on the wall by the foot of the bed. Little flecks of dust caught in the light danced and floated. Sara watched it until the light had crept further up so that it lay across her bare feet at the bottom of the bed before she finally admitted defeat.

Forcibly extricating herself from the sheets she left them in an untidy bundle on the floor. Padding past the mess of clothes she had left lying around the bedroom in her hurry to get into bed she pulled the night-shirt she had been wearing over her head and dropped it to join them. She entered the bathroom adjoined to her bedroom and climbed into the shower cubicle to remove the sweat from her skin.

When she was clean, refreshed and dressed Sara sat at the desk in the corner of her living room. She took out an old fashioned notebook and pen and started scribbling down her random thoughts. Sometimes this exercise was nothing but a waste of time but often it had let her
organize her thoughts and given her a starting point for an investigation. She had told Ash she wouldn't get involved in case whoever was behind the false reports realized that someone was on to them, but Sara couldn't just wait around doing nothing. There was no way anyone could monitor what she was writing on the paper so she wasn't jeopardizing their chances by doing this.

She thought about the events of her last operation and started scribbling down her theories and ideas for who would want to change those reports and why. It was a mostly futile exercise, with no proper frame of reference for her to make a start it was impossible to come up with any results. But even though the exercise didn't bring her any closer to getting any answers it did reveal a starting point for her questions. Amid the scribble one name cropped up again and again, Carla Swift. Whoever had falsified those reports did so to frame Carla. It was logical to assume that    if she could discover the reason for the frame she would be able to discern who had done so.

Sara realized what had been bothering her. She was a woman of action, who preferred to be out in the thick of things getting her hands dirty. She had been itching to do something since she discovered the lies. That was why she had stormed down to face Ash so quickly. She hadn't thought about what the false reports meant, she had accepted that Ash was doing all he could to uncover the plot and that she could do nothing. But both of them had forgotten that someone somewhere had to have Carla Swift in custody. None of the reports had mentioned where Carla had been taken into custody. Sara had handed her off to a pair of what she took to be ECSIS security officers but whether Carla ended up in ECSIS custody or the custody of another security force she had no idea.

Sara pushed the note book aside and
swiveled her chair around to access her personal computer terminal. She connected it up to the Intel-link network, a network developed by Josh Barret the founder of the Omnitech Corporation. Intel-link was a network combining the databases of all of the major EC security forces, it was a variation of the Intel-link system that was used inside the division to give access to the other security networks without it being able to be traced back. Important when you are a division of an agency that doesn't exist. If Barret knew they were using a blatant copy of his system in this way he would be able to sue them down to their last credit.

Intel-link access was divided up into a variety of clearance levels. Sara had used her training, along with a
specialized program given to her by one of the hackers working in the division, who had attempted to break protocol by asking her on a date, to get her access to everything but the top three levels of the system. Or the top three level of the system that existed officially, Sara knew well enough how this game operated to know that there would be at least one level that was so top secret that its very existence was known only to a handful of people.

Sara conducted her search through a rerouting program, given to her by the same
hacker that sent all her data through a series of computer systems located outside the Confederation before they returned to her terminal. That way even if she was being monitored they wouldn't be able to discover what she was searching for. Ash may have thought he was the only one capable of conducting a search in complete privacy but Sara wasn't without her own methods. She entered the parameters of her search; current location, Carla Swift, and waited for the results.

'Current location unknown'. Sara stared at those words on the screen. She had thought that she had a lead, a small thread that she could follow to untangle this mystery. There was no point in tracing Carla's most recent movements, she
knew where she had been last and wherever she had been before then was irrelevant right now.

Sara picked up the pen and started absently tapping it on the desktop between her fingers. Her gut told her that she had to find Carla Swift. Once Swift was located she could start to make sense of the larger picture. The trouble was Sara had tried all she could think of to find her. Maybe Ash, with his higher levels of official access and his much vaunted
connections
would have better luck.

She terminated the link and closed down the computer functions of her terminal. She called up the communications program and entered the signal parameters to transmit a message to the division, specifically to Marc Ash's office. The communication would be routed through a number of different areas in much the same way as her search had been routed through a variety of different computer systems. Throughout its journey the signal would be scrambled so that if it was intercepted somehow by anyone other than Sara's intended recipient all they would see would be static and interference.

"Supervisor Ash's office." It was the same assistant Sara had had a run in with on her last visit to the supervisor’s office.

"Put me through to him."

The supervisor is very busy right now, if you would care to leave a message-" Wasn't he always busy? It seemed as though the assistant was less intimidated by Sara when she wasn't faced with her in person.

"Tell him it's me and I'm sure he'll be willing to talk."

The assistant looked supremely ticked off. "One moment."

The assistant moved out of range of the camera on her end as she informed Ash of Sara's call. She could just make out the faint sounds of the assistants voice.

"The supervisor has agreed to take your call, putting you through . . ."

Ash's assistant's irritated face was replaced by a severely aggravated Ash himself.

"What the hell do you want? If this is something that could have waited . . ."

"It's about that matter we discussed earlier this morning," Sara said.

"I don't recall having a meeting with you this morning. The last time I saw you it was after you pulled that stunt in memorial park where I seem to recall ordering you back here for a debrief and a check-up. I have the debrief in front of me right now but the medics have no record of you ever going to the medical bay."

Why was he chewing her out over that after what they had discovered? "Sir, are you alone?"

Ash's eyes widened with surprise at her question. "Yes I'm alone, not that it's any of your damn business. Now are you going to explain this interruption or are you just wasting my time?"

"I wondered if you had had any luck with regards the search you began based on our earlier conversation? I had some thoughts on a different approach that could prove useful."

What are you talking about?" Ash seemed to be genuinely confused.

"You said you have the report from my debrief in front of you." Ash nodded, the anger was still there but was now vying with bemusement for domination of his face. "You were investigating the discrepancies between my account of last
night’s events and the accounts from other people involved. In particular concerning Carla Swift's involvement in the events."

"Discrepancies?" Ash looked even more confused then he nodded and Sara gave a mental sigh of relief. He did understand. "I understand why you would be bothered by this. You are a very good agent, Sara. Your slip last night will not adversely affect your record. That operation should have been handled by a much larger team to begin with. If that security mech hadn't malfunctioned and started to shoot everything in sight Swift would have been apprehended without any problem. I'm sure you didn't let her go on purpose."