The Spy Is Cast (31 page)

I passed the phone
over to Kane and slouched on the bench. Dredging up my ancient
computer knowledge, I tried to figure out how the simulation might
work. My brain tied itself in a knot while I contemplated sims
inside sims, and I made fists in my hair. I really had no idea. I’d
just have to try it and hope for the best.

Kane disconnected and
gave me a level look. “No.”

“What?” I floundered
up out of my abstraction, wondering if I’d spoken that last part
out loud.

“No,” he repeated. “If
you’re not absolutely positive you can do this, then it’s not an
option.”

“Spider said it
worked.”

“Webb said it worked
for him
.”

“Did he just rat me
out?”

“Yes.”

I sighed. “It could
work for me. You know I used to be a network administrator.”

“The operative words
are ‘used to be’,” he said severely.

“Okay, how about
this,” I proposed. “What if I go in and try to create my
workstation sim. If I can’t create it at all, then nothing’s lost.
If I can create it, I could test it with one file, just for a
second. Worst case scenario, it updates the data record. It would
only be that one record, and I’d only be in it for a couple of
seconds. And if it actually works, the best-case scenario gives you
exactly the answers you need.”

He scowled, and I knew
I’d won. The cost/benefit analysis really didn’t leave him much
choice.

“All right,” he said
reluctantly. “When can you be ready to go?”

“Just let me put my
leathers on.”

We pushed through
dense thickets of diamond willow, and I blessed my protective
leather clothing as the twigs raked at me. The small creek trickled
feebly beside us.

Kane held up a hand,
and I waited while he scanned the way before we resumed our slow
progress. In a few yards, he dropped to a crouch to thread his way
through the beginning of a steep cutbank. I followed, and after a
few more minutes of stealthy travel, he straightened with a barely
audible sigh.

“We’re inside the
security perimeter,” he whispered. “Try it now.”

I obediently sank to
the ground and concentrated, but to no avail. I shook my head, and
he shrugged resignation and jerked his head to indicate that we
should continue. I followed him again while he made his way further
west.

I tried to ignore an
unpleasant sensation of déjà vu. This is how he’d gotten captured
last time, babysitting me. If they caught him this time…

My foot sank up to the
ankle in the muck of the stream bed. I pulled it loose with a
sucking sound and shook my boot vigorously to dislodge the clinging
mud.

I yanked my mind away
from my worries and focused on deflecting the twigs that threatened
to poke my eyes out. Mosquitoes swarmed enthusiastically. I shook
my hair loose from its ponytail and let it fall around my shoulders
to ward them off. Ahead, Kane smeared one of the little
bloodsuckers across the back of his unprotected neck.

He sidestepped onto
solid ground and surveyed the surroundings cautiously before
nodding at me again.

I sat, and was
surprised when I actually stepped into the network. I took a few
deep breaths to slow my pounding heart and began my check for
active sims, wondering what creative fantasies I might discover
this time. Now that I knew the truth behind the porn simulations, I
wasn’t sure whether having to spy on them was worse or better.

The security sim was
active but unoccupied. I slipped in and surveyed the displays, but
I was afraid to alter the camera views, and urgency prodded me
on.

In another sim,
Harchman was entertaining himself with my construct again.
Apparently the cute blonde hadn’t held his interest for long. I let
out an inaudible sigh of irritation and floated down the virtual
corridor.

The happy couple had
apparently checked out, and I allowed myself a smile at the thought
that Harchman had added a little bit of joy to the world, however
unintentionally.

When I approached the
blond man’s room, my pulse raced a little faster as I wondered yet
again about the true nature of his sim.

I peeked in and
doubled over the stab of icy horror in my gut, clamping both
invisible hands over my mouth to smother my reaction. In an
instant, I was rocketing through sim-space to stand in front of the
portal.

When I stepped
through, I struggled against the pain and the hard hand clamped
against my mouth. When I managed to control my frantic whimpering a
few moments later, Kane released his grip, staring down at me.

“What?” he
snapped.

“Another prisoner!
They’ve got another prisoner! They’re torturing him…” I gasped a
couple of wheezing breaths. “We have to stop them!”

“Aydan, calm down.
Breathe,” he commanded.

“But…”

“Stay focused. This
might be our only chance to get back in the network, and we can’t
waste it.”

I clutched his hand,
trying to control the shrill voice that issued from my throat.
“John, we can’t leave him!”

“Aydan.” He gripped my
shoulders, his big warm hands radiating strength into me. “Stop.
Focus on the mission.”

I fought to bring my
breathing under control again, knowing he was right. The best way
to save the blond man was to do what we came for. “Okay. I’m okay,”
I gasped. “Sorry.”

“It’s all right. Tell
me what you saw.”

I avoided thinking
about what I’d just seen and concentrated on the information Kane
needed to know. “There wasn’t anybody in the sim with him at the
moment. Whoever is torturing him is…” I swallowed hard, reaching
for composure. “…obviously more sophisticated than the guys who
worked you over. They held him at least twelve hours before they
started. It looks like they’re planning to make it last this
time.”

I overcame my
revulsion with difficulty and squeezed my eyes shut to consult the
horrible memory. “I didn’t see any injuries that looked potentially
fatal. Yet.”

Kane nodded grimly.
“That’s closer to what I expected. They’ll work on him for a while
and then leave him to think it over. Repeat that for a while to
wear him down with pain and fatigue and hopelessness. Sounds like
they’ve got some professionals at work this time. What else?”

I did a bit more deep
breathing. “That’s all… so far. I didn’t see anything else. I
guess… I’d better go back in and see if I can play back the sims to
find out what questions they’re asking. And look at some files.
Sorry I freaked out.”

Kane squeezed my hand.
“Aydan, you’ve got nothing to apologize for. You’re amazing.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled,
and stepped back into the virtual network’s white void before I
could blush at the compliment.

As I slipped through
the wall into an unoccupied sim room and began to think through the
process, the flaw in my logic suddenly became glaringly
obvious.

I’d be creating a
whole new sim data record. Shit, shit, shit!

I hadn’t thought of it
until just now. Spider was obviously even more exhausted than I’d
realized, because he normally would have caught something like this
right away.

I hovered indecisively
while my heart practiced layups in my chest. Kane needed this
information. I could just go ahead, quickly check the sims, and
then delete my own data record once I was done. I was pretty sure
Kane would absolutely forbid it if he knew what I was planning. But
he wasn’t here.

I took a deep breath
and started building my sim.

Vibrating with
tension, I scrolled through the directory of sim data records and
selected the most recent. Without giving myself a chance to
reconsider, I opened the record and closed it immediately.

Now I was afraid to
look at the directory again.

Fingers crossed, I
forced my gaze to the simulated screen. A breath of relief seeped
out when I located the unchanged timestamp. Thank God. Now I could
get on with it.

I quickly began
reviewing the sim data records, beginning the day after the party.
The first several featured Harchman and me in various poses, and I
closed them as soon as I identified them. God, I was going to need
a bottle of brain bleach after this.

I raised a cynical
eyebrow at the spate of porn sims starring various unattractive
middle-aged men with the Barbie-doll-like ‘therapists’. Apparently
not too many of the clients brought their wives.

At last, I discovered
a record of the first captive. At the beginning of the sim, I saw
the middle-aged man whom I’d tentatively identified earlier. Arthur
Ketchum. I swallowed a large lump in my throat, and steeled myself
for what I knew was coming.

After fast-forwarding
through the first few minutes, I paused the playback with trembling
hands and turned away, breathing carefully. In. Out. Slow like
ocean waves.

When I’d regained some
composure, I turned back to the sim and blanked out the video
display. The audio alone wasn’t much better.

I forced myself to
listen to the entire record, making sure I didn’t miss any of the
torturers’ questions. The audio track ended with the sound of a
gunshot. One healthy middle-aged man dead of an apparent heart
attack. I wished I hadn’t known his name. Somehow it made it worse.
I bowed my head and fought for control.

No time. I shook
myself and moved on to the rest of the data. I hurriedly closed the
next record at the sight of Kane hanging from the ceiling. I didn’t
need to see that again.

I waded rapidly
through more porn to find the data record for Richard Willis. The
torturer was the man I’d seen monitoring the security sim the
previous night, and the footage was short and brutal. By the time
the sound of the gunshot signalled the end of the record, my eyes
were closed while I gulped down nausea.

More porn. Then, at
last, the handsome young blond man tied to the bed. I immediately
flicked the virtual video display off. I would listen; it had to be
done. But I couldn’t watch.

The audio was very
different than the other two records. Other than the torturer’s
questions, the only sounds were grunts of pain. None of the
screaming and helpless crying I’d heard from the others. No abject
pleas for mercy. In a way, it was worse. When the recording ended
at last, my arms were wrapped tightly around my body while I rocked
comvulsively.

I forced myself to
uncurl and move on to the few remaining records. They all starred
Harchman and me, so I closed them as quickly as possible.

I blew out a long,
trembling breath and closed down the sim. Time to go hunting for
files and delete my own sim record.

I drifted through the
wall and visualized a map that would lead me to the storage vault
for the sim records. I zipped to my destination and sighed with
relief as I made the record vanish.

Then I searched out
the data files. I’d work my way backward from the most recently
used ones. Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be too many of them. I
opened the first one and was beginning to read when agony ripped
through my skull.

Raw screams wrenched
from my throat while my body convulsed, racked with excruciating
pain. I thrashed wildly, trying to escape the torture. The world
spun and flashed with razor-edged colours. I coiled down into a
keening ball.

As the brutal pain
began to recede, terror trickled in to take its place. Something
had gone disastrously wrong. I forced one eye open, but the stab of
light made me cry out and clutch my head again. A few sobbing
breaths later, the din in my ears subsided enough for me to hear an
urgent voice.

“Ma’am! Ma’am! It’s
okay, you’re safe. It’s okay. Ma’am, please calm down.”

I squinted up at a
clean-cut, uniformed young man leaning over me. I tried to speak,
but only a wordless moan came out.

“Ma’am, don’t be
afraid. It’s over. You’re safe.”

My throbbing brain
lurched into gear again. This was one of Harchman’s security
guards. Shit!

On the upside, he
didn’t seem to be accusing me of trespassing. Yet. Then again,
they’d been nice to Kane when they first captured him, too.

Kane!

I struggled to sit up
and blinked hard to clear my eyes. The young security guard hovered
in front of me. “Ma’am, are you all right? What happened?”

I spotted Kane
standing motionless a couple of yards away, his hands in the air.
Another guard held a gun on him, and a dog growled softly inches
from his leg.

As I met Kane’s eyes,
he glared at me and spat. “You fucking dumb cunt!”

The shock of the
vulgar words coming from his lips made me recoil as if he’d slapped
me.

As I gaped at him, he
continued, his face twisted into an ugly expression. “That’ll teach
you a lesson, cunt. Next time you’ll suck my cock when I tell
you.”

“Shut up, you!” the
guard rapped out, and the dog lunged at Kane, snapping at his leg.
Kane froze, and the dog subsided onto its haunches again,
growling.

Pain still hammered my
head, and I didn’t have much difficulty summoning up some tears
while I struggled to process what was happening. Kane obviously had
some kind of plan. His deliberate choice of those words told me he
wanted me to be angry. I just didn’t know why. I didn’t know what
the hell he needed me to do, and I was afraid to guess without more
information.

“You…” My voice was
trembling anyway, so I went with it. “You hurt me! You…” I turned
to the young security guard as I sobbed. “Don’t let him hurt me…” I
buried my face in my hands, thinking furiously. Maybe Kane could
take out the other guard if we could separate them. The dog made it
too dangerous, though. And we were far from the buildings, so these
would be well-meaning staff from the security company. I was sure
Kane wouldn’t use deadly force against innocent men. Dammit.