[Contributor 02] - Infiltrator (2013) (9 page)

It didn’t surprise her when Creator Hartley summoned Andersen up to the Creator level for a closed-door meeting. Every pair of eyes in engineering seemed to follow him as he strolled to the Creator lift. His face betrayed nothing, but she saw a glimmer of satisfaction in his eyes as he basked in the attention.

Rumors flew around engineering, and the grapevine spread to other departments as well. Joshua told her that accounting was abuzz with whispers about a revolutionary new project that would provide Magnum with an unbeatable edge, though no one seemed to have any details.

“It’s strange that people know so much,” Dara said to Letizia at their next covert meeting.

“It’s intentional,” Letizia said, the words crisp. “No one knows enough for it to be dangerous, but they have a hint of something to keep them talking. Don’t forget, the Creators like the Contributors to think they’re on the cutting edge at all times, and rumors like these are good for morale without any expense to Magnum.”

“What if they spread outside of the dome, though?”

“They will. They always do. Haven’t you ever noticed how rumors about other Creators and their domes are constant hot topics of conversation? Part of the game is making the competition nervous.”

Dara nodded. Letizia was right. Magnum had nothing to lose by letting it slip that they had something big in the works, provided that no important details followed. It gave Magnum a psychological edge over its competition and created a sense of anticipation in the Creators that depended on Magnum, instilling confidence that Magnum was pulling its weight and giving them an edge as well.

“Heard any more about Jasmine Shah?” Letizia asked.

“No. She seems to have gone to ground. My dad said Javier has really thrown himself into his work, and people are taking notice.”

“Andersen’s one of them, no doubt.” Letizia frowned. “What I can’t decide is if he’s drawing Andersen’s attention on purpose.”

It seemed like a crazy thing to do, but then Javier wasn’t what Dara would call timid. “It’s becoming more obvious that something is going on with his sister. I’m seeing more posts on the networks, and they’re not as veiled anymore. Someone even went so far as to ask how her stay in the med center was.”

“I’ve seen similar posts. Whatever she has, it must be serious.”

“Raj will figure that out.” Dara rubbed her forehead. “Letizia, when you hacked into Javier’s systems and discovered that he’d stolen my plans, did you notice anything else?”

“If I had, don’t you think I would have shared that?” Her former master’s voice was sharp, and the rebuke made Dara frown.

“I wasn’t accusing you of holding anything back,” she said, honing the edges of her own words.

“I know, I know.” Letizia sighed and tugged her hands through her hair. “I’ve been asking myself that question over and over again. I’m worried that I was so concerned about what Javier was doing to you that I might have missed something. For all I know, the evidence could have been right in front of my eyes and I overlooked it.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself. There are only so many things anyone can juggle.”

“I’m thinking about leaving.”

The abrupt change in topic stunned her, but not as much as Letizia’s announcement had. “What?”

“I’m thinking about leaving the dome. I’m tired, Dara. I don’t know how much longer I can keep doing this. I want to be here for you, help you out however I can, but it’s wearing on me, and I’m afraid I’m getting sloppy.”

Forgetting her own worries, Dara focused her attention on Letizia and was surprised that she hadn’t noticed the signs of strain. Bluish circles darkened the skin under Letizia’s eyes, though she could see that her former master had tried hard to conceal them. A faint line was beginning to appear between Letizia’s brows, and she was pale, washed out.

“If you need to leave, you should do it,” Dara said, afraid for her friend. “You’ve been doing this for such a long time. No one would blame you.”

“I might blame myself.” She gave Dara a tight smile.

“I’m not your responsibility. I appreciate you looking out for me, but it’s not your duty.”

“It is, though. I dragged you into this. I can’t abandon you while you’re in the thick of it. First we need to figure out what’s going on with this project. Once we know, then I can think about what I should do next.”

Dara tried arguing, but it was fruitless. Letizia’s stubborn streak was a mile wide, and Dara was powerless against it, but the knowledge did nothing to dispel her guilt and worry.

Andersen gave no indication of how he felt about his meeting with the Creators, nor did he say anything more about the project. Dara doubted he’d gotten what he wanted, but whatever he’d been offered must have been enough to placate him, because she saw no discernible change in his behavior. Wondering if Andersen and the Creators had made any alterations to the plans, she tried to access them to see if she could discern something new, but access had been restricted. This wasn’t entirely surprising, given the impact of the project, but it still didn’t sit right with her.

What could she be missing? New domes could lead to population expansion due to the increase in capacity, which would be welcome news to everyone, regardless of which dome they lived in. After all, the Creators had been promising since the inception of the domes that the limited capacity was meant to be a temporary situation. Their ultimate goal was to expand the human population and devise ways to solve the environmental problems that plagued the Earth. It would be a boon for the Creators to be able to tell everyone that their promise of improving living conditions for all would be realized. Like anyone else, Dara was eager for that to happen. So why all the secrecy?

Telling herself she was making something out of nothing, she returned her attention to the work Andersen had left her. The project details were too important to risk them being leaked, which was why the Creators had locked them down. There was nothing more to it than that.

“I understand you had a very productive day off,” Andersen remarked the day after his meeting, as he paused at Dara’s desk.

Folding her hands in her lap to conceal her sweaty palms, she raised her eyes to his, trying to ignore the pounding of her heart. “I did, thank you.”

“Creator Hartley finds your fitness numbers impressive. Between those, your testing scores, and the reports I’ve sent her, she was very complimentary about your work and remarked on your potential.”

“Thank you, sir. It’s my pleasure and my duty to contribute to Magnum’s success.” She wondered if he could tell she was parroting the words. His praise made her sit at attention, every nerve in her body tingling. It wasn’t like him to praise her. Did he suspect she’d manipulated her fitness numbers?

“As it is for us all. Creator Hartley was pleased to note that I take my mentorship of you so seriously.”

That was it, then. He wasn’t really complimenting her, he was letting her know that both he and the Creators were keeping an eye on her. She recognized the implied threat: she’d better not slip lest she cast doubt on him and his abilities. Did he care at all whether or not she had fudged her numbers? As long as those numbers reflected well on him, what did it matter if they were fiction?

“I’m honored to have you as my mentor.” She forced herself to say the words, knowing it was what he expected to hear.

“Yes, you are. See to it that you continue with your productive weekends. Some Contributors have a tendency toward laziness on their free days, and laziness is one flaw I will not tolerate.” Andersen’s eyes flicked around engineering, pausing every now and then on certain Contributors, and Dara felt a sick sensation in her stomach. He was keeping watch on them, just as she had been told.

“Laziness is unacceptably wasteful. Productivity is my goal at all times.”

If he noticed that the words sounded stiff, he said nothing about it. Giving her a chilly smile, he said, “See that you have those reports to me in an hour.”

“Of course, sir.”

Focusing her concentration on the reports was all but impossible. Andersen couldn’t know as much as he seemed to about the other Contributors unless he had informants, and it made her wonder how extensive his personal spy network was. With crystal clarity she understood why Letizia had never befriended anyone else in engineering. Had Dara not reminded her of herself, Letizia probably wouldn’t have befriended her either. It was safer not to trust anyone.

Andersen had made it clear that he intended to monitor how Dara spent her free time, which meant she’d have to make sure she could prove that she’d been spending it productively. Adding this task to the endless list of her responsibilities was onerous. How would she manage everything? Her training with the Free Thinkers would absorb almost every minute of her free time.

Stupid, Dara, it was stupid.
Letting out a small sigh, she cursed herself for allowing her numbers to become remarkable. Had she kept within more average parameters, she would never have garnered this extra attention from the Creators and, by extension, from Andersen. Average was what she needed to be, all but invisible, and instead she had aimed a giant spotlight on herself.

Then again, maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing. She suspected Andersen wouldn’t have been content with an average assistant, because he wasn’t content to perform at expected levels himself. He wanted to stand out above everyone else. Hadn’t he chosen Letizia as his assistant, and hadn’t her excellence bolstered his reputation? Producing a second extraordinary assistant would allow him to reap even greater benefits.

It might stretch Dara to the breaking point to take on all the extra work, but the irony was that it might make Andersen suspect her less. Fatigue would be chalked up to her diligent study and exercise regime. Renowned for the long hours he put in, he would likely be pleased to see her following his example.

It was a reassuring thought, but not one that could give her any real comfort. She’d thought she’d suffered a great deal of strain when she’d been trying to keep up with the other apprentices while also caring for her mother, but something told her that experience might seem like a walk in the park in comparison.

Another free day of extreme fitness seemed like it would be too suspicious, so Dara decided that she would instead pretend to devote her time to study. It meant she could look forward to forfeiting sleep and reading a lot of dull, dry Magnum propaganda once she was finished with the Free Thinkers.

When she mentioned this to Raj, not bothering to hide her tiredness, he said, “Don’t worry about that. We’ll give you devices you can use, have the hackers set up algorithms to make it appear as if you’re moving through the material and switching from one source to another.”

“Thanks, I appreciate that. But I’ll still need to know the information, in case Andersen decides to give me a pop quiz.”

“Would he really do that?”

“He would really do that.”

He frowned. “I’ll talk to Mal about it, see what I can come up with. We must have an abbreviated version or something else we can give you.”

“I’ll take whatever help I can get.”

“Did you find anything else out?”

“No. I didn’t go to the Creators meeting with Andersen, and he hasn’t said a word to me. I did notice that the project is now on lockdown, though. Even I don’t have access to any of it anymore.”

“It’s too big to risk it leaking. Mal’s had people on it all week, picking it apart and putting it back together, and they told him they’ve never seen anything like it. It has huge implications for all the Creators.”

“The project’s success would make Magnum look like a savior. It would be the first time the Creators would be able to deliver on their promise of not just ensuring our survival, but actually doing something to expand the population and help improve our conditions.”

“Exactly. The other Creators couldn’t speak out against it without looking like they’re trying to impede progress, but that doesn’t mean they’ll like it either.”

“Something in the plan must lessen the blow to the other Creators, something that would make them want to come on board with it rather than sabotage it. Whatever it is, I never had access to it.”

“We haven’t been able to gain access either. The hackers have never seen the level of security that’s been built around those plans.”

“So we’re on the right track, but we’re stuck for now.”

“That pretty much sums it up.”

Dara pressed her thumb to the center of her forehead, trying to ease the ache. “No pressure on me or anything.”

“Hey, it’s not all on you.” Raj’s voice was gentle, and he put his hands on her shoulders. “You can’t do this all on your own, and no one expects that you will.”

“Okay.”

Lowering his head, he forced her to meet his gaze. “I’m serious. You know I’ve had medical training, and that includes monitoring a patient’s state of mind. There’s a reason why I wanted to be your mentor. I know you feel like you have something to prove, and I’m determined to make sure you don’t do anything reckless in the process.”

“Have you ever mentored anyone before?”

“Not many.”

“Thank you for being my mentor.”

He gave her a humorless smile. “You might want to save your thanks. You might have second thoughts about it later.”

“No offense, but I’ve kind of had my fill of ominous statements lately.”

This time his smile was genuine. “Yeah, it’s all been kind of doom and gloom, hasn’t it?”

“Look, I know what we’re doing here is serious. I get it, and I know I have to be on guard, but it gets a little exhausting to be told that over and over.”

“I’ll try to lay off.” He squeezed her shoulders and took a step back, then led her down a long corridor.

Her chauffeur had been the same as last time, but he’d dropped her off at a different location. They’d driven much farther, and she had found the featureless landscape disorienting. She had asked the driver which domes were looming in the distance, surprised when he told her they belonged to Biotechnologie Leclerc and Desai Nanotechnology. It was the farthest she’d been from home yet.