Tell Me No Spies (7 page)

“Why, has Rossburn
been giving you trouble again?”

“No.”

I hadn’t even seen him
out riding his horse, and I didn’t know whether to feel glad or
sorry. Glad I hadn’t seen him. Sorry I had to avoid him.

Kane glanced at Sam’s
approaching figure. “We’ll talk about it later.”

After a couple of long
hours underground, I burst out of the time-delay chamber into the
lobby, only hyperventilating a little. I handed in my security fob
at the desk and tossed a wave over my shoulder as Spider and Kane
emerged from the chamber.

“See you.” I scuttled
for my car.

The sun-warmed
upholstery soothed my tense muscles, and I closed my eyes and
leaned into it, soaking up the heat. At the tap on my window, my
body spasmed and my eyes flew open.

“Jesus Christ!” I
rolled down the window with shaking hands. “Don’t do that! You
scared the shit out of me.”

“Sorry.” Kane rested a
forearm on the roof of the car and leaned down. “Should I come with
you to Blue Eddy’s?”

“You can if you want.
He doesn’t officially open for another half hour or so, but he’ll
probably give you a beer anyway.”

“I wasn’t thinking of
beer. I was thinking of Rossburn.”

“I can’t imagine why
he’d be there. The weather’s good, so he’ll still be busy on the
farm. He wouldn’t come into town for lunch, and he doesn’t know my
schedule anyway.” I grimaced. “I really don’t think he’ll be too
interested in talking to me again, under the circumstances.”

Kane lifted an
eyebrow. “You might be surprised. I wouldn’t give up on you that
easily. Somehow I doubt if he will, either.”

“Oh.” I spoke into the
short, awkward silence. “Um… I’ve got to go.”

“All right. See you
around three.”

My heart lifted when I
unlocked the back door at Blue Eddy’s. Eddy was obviously hard at
work. The bluesy notes of his piano curled sensuously around me and
I swayed with the rhythm. His face lit up when he caught sight of
me.

“Hi, Aydan!”

I grinned back at him,
the weight of Sirius Dynamics dropping from my shoulders and
washing away in the stream of music. “Eddy, I swear to God, coming
here once a week is the only thing that keeps me sane.”

He laughed while his
fingers continued to dance effortlessly over the keys. “Glad to be
of service.” The tune slowed to a simple, wistful melody as he
examined me, his sharp eyes seeing too much as usual. “Aydan, is
everything okay? You’ve seemed really down lately.”

“Everything’s fine.
I’ve been really busy with one of my other clients, so I’ve been
tired, that’s all.”

“Okay.” He continued
to scan my face, a faint frown creasing his forehead, and I turned
away to forestall any other discussion.

“Guess I better get
started.” I headed for his cramped office, and let the soothing
task of data entry calm my mind while the music eased my soul.

After lunch, Linda
greeted me eagerly when I stepped in the door of Up & Coming.
“Aydan, guess what?”

I grinned down at the
diminutive brunette, envying her bouncy energy. “What?”

“Clyde asked me to
move in with him.”

I laughed out loud.
I’d apparently made some incorrect assumptions based on the fact
that Spider blushed at the faintest hint of sexual innuendo.

“He turned out to be a
fast worker. You’ve only been going out for a couple of months. And
move in where? His house isn’t rebuilt yet, is it?”

“No, he’s still living
with his parents. His house won’t be ready until November or
December. But when it is, I’m going to move in with him.”

“Well,
congratulations. He’s a great guy.”

“He is, isn’t he?” Her
eyes sparkled. “I’m so glad you introduced us.”

“I didn’t,
really.”

“Well, no, not really,
but he never would have come in here if he didn’t have to drop off
those papers for you.”

“That’s definitely
true.” I chuckled, remembering his scarlet face when he’d stood in
the doorway of the sex shop for the first time. I slipped behind
the counter and into their office, still smiling. Life was
good.

I revised my opinion
when I reached the doorway of my office at Sirius and contemplated
Sam’s enthusiastic grin.

I groaned. “Not
again.”

His face fell.
“Sorry.”

I trailed into the
office and flopped down on the couch. “What are we doing this
time?”

He shot a sidelong
glance at Kane’s expressionless face. “This time, I need you to go
into the network and sneak around. I want to see what your brain
activity looks like when you turn invisible. And I’d like to see
what happens when you’re breaching firewalls, too.”

“Our own firewalls in
the Sirius network, or external ones?”

“Both.”

“So you’re just going
to hook me up to the headband again?”

“Yes, that’s all.” I
could tell he was trying to contain his excitement, but his eyes
were sparkling, and his fingers combed his beard over and over.

I sighed and heaved
myself to my feet. Everybody seemed to have excess energy but me. I
just wanted to shove my head between the sofa cushions and
hibernate.

Feeling like a
prisoner going into lockdown, I followed the three men
downstairs.

Underground once more,
I dropped into the chair in Sam’s lab with a notable lack of grace
when my trembling knees collapsed.

Spider regarded me
with concern. “Are you-”

“Don’t even ask.”

He subsided, looking
worried, and my conscience prodded me. “Sorry,” I told him. “I’m
fine. Thanks for being concerned.”

“Don’t take this
wrong…” He hesitated. “You don’t look fine. You’re shaking like a
leaf, and you’re the same colour as the wall.”

“I’ll live.”

Kane glowered in Sam’s
direction. “How many more times does she need to do this?”

“This might be the
last,” Sam responded cheerfully. “I just need to gather data from a
full range of her activities.”

Kane squatted in front
of me to look up into my face. “Aydan, can you do this one more
time?”

“Yeah, no problem,” I
lied. “Ready whenever you are.”

He eyed me dubiously
before rising to walk over to his chair. “All right.”

With the crown of
electrodes in place, I closed my eyes for what I fervently hoped
would be the last time I’d enter the network underground.

I willed myself onto
the mountaintop again, unable to control the urge to flail my arms.
I caught a bare glimpse of Kane’s avatar popping into existence
before the chasm opened under my feet and I plummeted.

I hurtled downward,
blackness and panic swallowing me. Rocks gouged my flesh as the
shaft narrowed. My arms were pinned to my sides. I jerked and
twisted, animal shrieks tearing from my throat. The rocks squeezed
more tightly.

Trapped. Buried alive.
My throat closed, my screams smothering into shrill rapid wheezing.
My heart hammered, uselessly trying to batter its way out of my
chest.

Kane’s voice boomed
around me. “Aydan, stop!
You control this
!”

Light bloomed as his
arms closed around me. Suddenly he was carrying me, and I fought to
control my shallow panting.

“Stay with me,” he
urged. “You’re going to be all right.”

My breath stopped
momentarily at the sight of the blood soaking his T-shirt and
smearing his arms. “Stay with me,” he repeated. “Just breathe with
me. Nice and slow.”

“I’m okay! Put me
down. Where are you hurt?” I struggled, and his arms tightened
around me while he kept up his rapid pace.

“Just lie still.”

“No, I’m fine. Where
are you hurt?” I ran shaking hands over his blood-soaked shirt,
searching for injuries.

“I’m not hurt. It’s
not my blood.”

“Oh.” I glanced down.
Blood leaked steadily from my gaping wounds, leaving a crimson
trail behind us. The jagged yellowish ends of a broken bone
protruded from the torn bloody denim over my right thigh. “…oh,” I
repeated.

I took a few calming
breaths, my panic subsiding when I realized he was unhurt and it
was only a sim. “Well, let’s just fix that.” I waved a hand down my
virtual body, repairing bone and muscle and skin and clothing.

Kane stopped and blew
out a breath, dropping my feet to the ground and holding me close.
“Thank God.”

“No, thank
you
.
For saving my ass yet again.”

He turned me gently
toward the exit portal. “Come on, let’s get you out of here.”

“No, I’m okay now. I
just lost it for a second there, but I’m fine. Let’s get this
done.”

“Absolutely not. This
ends now.”

“We’re here. We’re
already in. I’m fine now. Let’s just do it,” I argued.

Spider’s tremulous
voice floated down from the virtual sky. “Aydan, are you really
okay?”

“I’m fine.”

My knees wobbled
uncontrollably, and I pulled away from Kane and dropped to the
ground. “I’ll just start from here.”

Kane stared down at
me, and for an instant I thought he might carry me bodily out of
the sim. Then the moment passed and he sank down beside me, looking
resigned. “Fine. Give me your hand.”

“Why?” Sam’s voice
startled me.

“Because when Aydan
goes searching along network paths, she… stretches. I’m her
anchor,” Kane replied.

“Ooooh…” Sam sounded
utterly enthralled. “Aydan, tell me exactly what you’re going to
do.”

“First I’m going to go
invisible. Then I’m going to stretch into the network and start
tasting data packets…”

“Tasting?”

“Well, yeah, sort of.
I don’t really know what the correct word would be. I kind of… I
don’t know, taste? Smell? Listen? Absorb? It’s like a sponge
floating in a stream.”

“This is so exciting…”
Sam’s voice was trembling. “Can you talk to me while you do
it?”

“No. Invisibility
itself doesn’t prevent me from talking, but once I start sniffing
around down network connections, I can’t speak. And the further
away I go, the less I can hear from this end. That’s why John holds
onto me. In case he needs to pull me back.”

I willed myself
invisible, feeling Kane’s grip tighten on my hand.

“Wait!” Sam’s voice
was urgent, and I popped back into visibility.

“What?”

“Oh, good, you’re
still here. Can you just stay invisible for a few minutes while I
monitor the readings? Then move into the network and just stay
around here. Then go through some of our internal firewalls, maybe
manipulate a couple of files. And last thing, go and breach some
external firewalls.”

“Sure.” I faded away
again, but remained seated where I was. After a few minutes, Sam
spoke again. “Okay, go and travel the network now.”

“On my way.” I
stretched my consciousness into the swirls and eddies of the Sirius
Dynamics network, loitering in the stream and watching the data
flow by. I idly sifted through the packets, not paying much
attention while I waited for the requisite time to pass.

A sudden familiar
flavour tugged at my attention, and I focused on the string of
packets. What the…?

I latched onto the
last packet in the burst of data and rode its rollercoaster course
through the Sirius firewalls.

At its destination, I
shot tentacles of consciousness through the file repository,
tracking and tracing all the related information while I wrapped
myself around the accumulated data packets like a feeding
jellyfish.

Icy chills raced over
me, chased by fiery heat as I absorbed the contents in a voracious
gulp.

Rage engulfed me, and
I flung my consciousness back to the mountaintop. Kane leaped to
his feet as I burst into existence beside him and yanked my hand
from his grasp.

“Aydan, what…?” he
gasped. Seconds later, a fire hose materialized in his hands and he
turned the full force of the water on me, his eyes wide with
horror.

I barely spared a
glance at the blue-white fire hissing from every surface of my skin
and licking along the upraised blade of the sword in my hand.

“Get. Out.” I could
barely form the words. The flames roared to the sky. The water
evaporated before it could touch me. “Get. Out. Now!
Go
!”

Soon I would immolate
everything. Everybody. Even him. Especially him.

Unable to trust
myself, I folded sim space to reach the exit portal between one
heartbeat and the next, blazing fire and fury. When I stepped
through, the pain goaded me into instant violence. I lashed out
blindly, shrieking obscenities. My arms were pinned by a powerful
grip, and I redoubled my struggles, incapable of rational
thought.

At last, a semblance
of sanity returned. Kane still held me tightly, calling my name
over and over.

“Let. Me. Go.” The
words boiled from my throat in a satanic growl. As his arms
loosened, I jerked away from him and stormed for the door.

“Aydan, wait! What’s
wrong? Are you all right?” I heard rapid footsteps behind me, and
Kane’s large hand closed on my shoulder. I whirled to face him.
“Leave me. Alone,” I hissed.

I took the stairs two
at a time and glared into the retinal scanner. As the time-delay
chamber door released, Kane came up quietly behind me. I stepped
into the chamber and shot him a look when he made as if to
follow.

“If you come in here
with me, I will rip you limb from limb.” My voice shook, and he
took a slow step back, still holding the door of the chamber
open.

“Close the door.” My
hands ached as my fists clenched. The time delay wouldn’t start
until the first door was shut. “Close the fucking door!”

“Aydan, what’s wrong?”
He searched my face as Spider and Sam pounded up the stairs behind
him.

“Fuck off!” I roared.
“Close the goddamn fucking door!”

Kane shot a quick
glance over his shoulder. “Go back down,” he commanded, and the
other two did a fast fade down the stairs. He turned back to me,
his movements slow and smooth, his voice soft. “Aydan, I need you
to talk to me. Calm down. Tell me what’s wrong.”