Synthetica (9 page)

“
W-wait,”
Anais tried to call out, but her throat was suddenly dry, her heart
beating far too fast. She could barely get the word out; but even as
she spoke, the woman turned and fled back the way she had come.

“
Wait,”
Anais cried, her voice stronger. “Come back! I need your help!”

But it was too late. The woman had already gone. Anais looked
round, panic rising in her gut, and for a brief, crazy moment she
wondered if she should simply just run for it. The man in front of
her gave a faint groan. She jumped, not expecting him to make a
noise, and stared down at him, a fog descending over her brain as
she panicked over what to do. It was a few seconds before she
realised the man was still making a noise – he was trying to
speak. She leant in closer, trying to catch his words, but his voice
was now too faint, and he gave a nasty, gargling cough.

“
What?”
Anais said, her heart pounding as she leant in even closer, her ear
almost brushing his dry lips. But he fell silent again, and Anais
sat back up, trying to breathe evenly. If she stayed, she'd be
implicated in the crime. If she left, the man would surely die –
but she couldn't call for the medics without it being traced back to
her RetCom ID. She stared wildly round, praying for someone, anyone,
to come and help her.

Luckily, at that moment, any decision-making was taken right out of
her hands. Sirens wailed, cutting through the night air; and within
seconds a small white medi-cab hummed round the corner towards her.
There was a blinding flash, and Anais shielded her eyes with her
hand, looking up at the source of the brilliant white light. There a
low noise – a sound almost less than sound itself - a deep
vibration that made Anais cringe to hear it. A police hovercraft
descended from the sky above.

“
Suspect,”
boomed a loud automated voice, making the air shiver around her.
“You are required to stand with your hands in the air. Drop your
weapons. If you do not run, you will not be harmed. Suspect – you
are required to stand -”

Anais stood up shakily, feeling her jeans sticking uncomfortably to
her. She was encased in the blindingly white searchlight, unable to
see the scene unfolding around her as she slowly raised her hands
into the air.

The first batch of product had been delivered. His contact had
assured him that they would sell out within days. Not that he'd dare
to say anything else – he knew what was on the line if he should
fail.

Humming to himself, he checked and rechecked the program, making
sure everything was in place for when that all-important call came
through. All that remained now was to sit back and wait.

He didn't have to wait very long.

He answered the call on the first ring. He listened silently to
the caller at the other end and then, without saying a word, he hung
up and began to type commands furiously into the computer.

The test had worked, as he knew it would. But now it was time to
launch on a wider scale – it was time to 'see the bigger picture'.
The first victim had already fallen. Now it was time to see how well
the public reacted to the rest of his products.

And within hours, he had his answer.

Four

The pain in her head was getting worse.

Anais squinted against the harsh light, her heart and the thudding
in her head tapping out the same staccato beat.

She closed her eyes in an attempt to block out the light, to block
out everything, and immediately her mind threw up the memory of the
way the police had surveyed the bloody scene they'd found her in.
They'd taken one look at her terrified face and at the two men lying
at her feet, and immediately put her in handcuffs. The last thing
she saw before the hovercraft door slid shut was of two medics
lifting the injured man onto a stretcher that hovered serenely in
the air, while another medic attended to the attacker, who's hands
were dark with blood. The door had closed and Anais had been left in
darkness, her breath seemingly unusually loud in the cramped space
as she sat wedged between two securibots, one of whom had kept an
uncomfortably tight grip on her upper arm. The sensation of flying
over the city without being able to see anything had been
discomfiting, and if she hadn't already wanted to throw up from
nerves, the ride alone would've been enough to make her nauseous.

Anais
opened her eyes, hoping against hope that this would all turn out to
be an exceptionally bad dream. Her mind felt as though a freezing
fog had descended over it, making it impossible to think clearly. It
was all she could do not start panicking and burst into tears. She
had no idea what was going to happen to her now – the two
securibots had led her from the hovercraft, marched her straight
into the stark interview room and had left her there to panic. Her
shouts hadn't been answered, though she had no doubt that there were
cameras hidden throughout the room watching her every move. She'd
realised as soon as she'd been locked in, that they'd somehow
disabled her RetCom – whenever she tried to call her parents or
Xander or Dalla, an error message she'd never seen before flashed
up:
ERROR
CODE 5: NO FUNCTIONALITY AVAILABLE.

So she'd sank shakily into one of the hard plastic chairs, waiting
for someone, anyone, to come along and either possibly charge her
with murder - just the thought of it made her start to
hyperventilate - or let her go, providing the man's injuries hadn't
been as bad as they'd appeared. Anais clung to this tiny shred of
hope, though deep down, she realised it was a lost cause.

After what seemed like half the night had passed, the door in the
corner of the room slid open. Anais jerked upright from where she'd
been laying her head on the white plastic table. Two human police
officers entered the room.

“
Please,”
Anais blurted out, trying hard to keep the hysteria from her voice.
“I didn't do it, I -”

The female officer raised a hand to stop Anais from speaking. She
had short black hair with dark purple highlights, and her eyes were
a warm brown colour, flecked with silver. The male officer who
accompanied her had dark green hair, swept over to one side. His
features were arrogantly handsome, as though he was well aware of
how good looking he was. His eyes were dark silver, sharp and cold.

“
Miss
Finch,” the female officer said, as she sat down opposite Anais.
The male officer took the seat next to her, placing a wafer thin
glass screen on the table in front of him as he did so, his eyes
never leaving Anais' face. “I'm Officer Hughes and this is Officer
Nox.”

“
The
man,” Anais said urgently, barely listening. “The man who was
attacked. Where is he? Is he alive?”

The two officers exchanged glances and Anais' heart sank.

“
I'm
afraid he died on the way to hospital,” Officer Hughes said
gently.

“
And
– the other one?” Anais' voice was almost a whisper. Her throat
was dry, and she was having difficulty swallowing.

“
He
was pronounced dead at the scene.”

Anais' vision swam and she closed her eyes. This was it. Her life
was over. There was no one else to testify that she wasn't
responsible for the death of both men – the position she'd been
caught in was too compromising. The sentence for murder was life
imprisonment – no excuses, and no hope of getting out early.
Anyone who had been given a life sentence died in prison.

“
Anais,”
Officer Hughes gentle voice brought her back to the present.
Unwillingly, Anais opened her eyes once again. “We know you didn't
do it. We've already matched the DNA on the murder weapon with the
DNA of the second man.”

A warm wave of relief flooded through Anais. She almost laughed out
loud in sheer relief, but managed to stop herself just in time. She
wasn't being charged. She was free.

“
Don't
think you can just skip off home just yet, Miss Finch. We do still
have a few questions for you - it's protocol,” Officer Now spoke
up for the first time, his voice cutting. He was looking at her in
way that made her realise that he didn't believe she was innocent,
not for a second, and Anais wasn't entirely sure how to react. His
eyes took in her blood soaked clothes, and his lip curled. Officer
Hughes glanced at her partner.

“
Anais,
would you be able to begin by telling us what you were doing earlier
this evening?” Officer Hughes asked.

Anais began explaining how she was walking home from the financial
district, but she'd barely gotten to the part where her RetCom was
showing her which way to go, before Officer Nox cut in.

“
Why
were you walking home? Why didn't you take the train?”

“
It
was rush hour. I wanted to walk instead,” Anais said, her voice
stronger now that she knew she wasn't going to be charged with a
crime she hadn't committed.

“
From
downtown?” asked Officer Nox, sceptically. “You decided to walk
all the way out to -” here, he looked down at the glass screen
he'd placed on the table in front of him. “ - to Newhaven?”

“
Yes,”
Anais said, with a touch of defiance. Officer Nox raised his
eyebrows.

“
What
were you doing in the financial district in the first place?”

“
I
went on a tour around Civitas,” Anais replied bluntly.

Officer Nox narrowed his eyes, as though trying to judge whether or
not she was lying.

“
Anais,
please continue,” Officer Hughes' calm voice rose slightly. “You
were saying...?”

“
I
was walking home,” Anais continued, her eyes never leaving Officer
Nox. “I was following the directions on my RetCom, when I heard -”

“
Would
you care to explain why you were down that particular alley?” Nox
interrupted again. “RetComs provide the shortest direct route to
your destination – so why would it send you down a residential
side street?”

Anais was beginning to feel seriously annoyed.

“
As
I was about to say,” she said through clenched teeth. “I heard a
noise down that alley and I went to see -”

“
You
heard a noise?” Officer Nox's disdain was clear. “You just
happened
to hear the sound of someone being attacked, and instead of
contacting the police, you thought you'd just skip along and
investigate yourself, did you?”

Anais snapped.

“
I'm
sure if someone bashed your head in with a brick you'd make a lot of
noise too,” she said loudly. “What was I supposed to do? Run
away and leave him to die?”

“
He
died anyway,” Officer Nox pointed out.

“
At
least there was a chance I could've saved him,” Anais was aware
she was almost shouting, but she was too wound up to care. “At
least I didn't just walk away from someone who needed help!”

Officer Hughes held up her palms.

“
Anais,
please, calm down. You're not under arrest – we're just simply
trying to find out what happened.”

Anais' breathing was shaky as she took in a deep breath, willing
herself to calm down. She didn't like the slight smile that was
playing around Nox's thin lips. After a few moments, she carried on.

“
I
heard a noise,” she repeated, her voice deliberately calm. “When
I looked round the corner, I saw the man, the one with the pale
jacket, hitting the other man over the head with a brick. I called
out, and he turned, but -” she hesitated. Officer Hughes nodded
encouragingly, while Officer Nox looked at her, almost as though he
was actually interested in what she had to say. “But it was like
he was looking straight through me. It was like I wasn't there at
all.” She swallowed hard, remembering his odd, blank stare and the
chill that had gone down her spine when she'd seen his dull, dead
eyes.

“
And
then?” Officer Hughes' quiet voice made her jump.

“
And
then...he collapsed. He didn't call out or anything – he just fell
to the ground.”

“
He
collapsed?” Officer Nox sounded disbelieving. “Just like that?”

Anais nodded.

“
Once
he was on the ground, I ran to see how the other man was. I knelt
down next to him, but my RetCom told me he needed professional
medical attention. He tried to speak to me, but I couldn't
understand what he was saying. And that's when you all turned up,”
Anais finished her story abruptly. She didn't want to elaborate any
more. The pounding in her head was getting worse. All she wanted to
do now was to go home and try to forget the whole sorry thing ever
happened.

She thought Officer Hughes looked satisfied with her explanation,
but Officer Nox had a nasty glint in his eye.

“
So
the attacker just happened to conveniently faint, just as you
arrived?” he said sarcastically. Anais glared at him.

“
Yes,”
she said shortly. “He did.”

He gave a little snort that was clearly supposed to show what he
thought of her story, and Anais felt anger bubbling up once more.
She rubbed her temple in an effort to alleviate the thumping in her
head.

“
Look,
that's what I saw. I know how it sounds, but it's the truth. I don't
know what else you want to hear from me,” her voice was beginning
to rise again. “I heard someone in trouble, I saw a man being
attacked, the attacker collapsed, I ran to the victim's aid and
that's all. Now can I please just go home?”

“
Why
are you so keen to go?” Nox jumped in before Officer Hughes had so
much as opened her mouth. “Why do you want to leave?”

Anais gaped at him.

“
Why
do I – because I'm tired of all this bullshit, you moron,” Anais
said furiously. “I'm tired, it's late, I have a headache, I've
just seen a man being beaten to death and I just want to go home. Is
that really too much to ask, or are you just a complete
fucking
idiot
?”
Her voice rose to a shout.

Officer Nox was on his feet within nanoseconds. He reached over the
table and grabbed her shirt, yanking her face up close to his own.
She cried out in pain and fear.

“
Don't
you dare take that tone with me, you little -”

Anais struggled as Officer Hughes jumped up and started yelling,
pulling Nox away.

“
That's
enough,” she shouted, jerking him back. He released his grip on
Anais' shirt and she stumbled backwards into her chair. The two
officers remained standing – Officer Hughes visibly restraining
Nox as he glowered down at Anais, breathing hard, all traces of
handsomeness gone from his face.

“
Officer
Nox,” Hughes said forcefully, as though reminding him she was
there. He blinked and jerked away from Officer Hughes. He sneered at
Anais before turning on his heel, wrenching the door open and
stomping out of the room. Officer Hughes was hot on his heels,
shooting a look of apology over her shoulder to Anais as she walked
out.

Anais sat still, still reeling from the encounter. She knew she
shouldn't have sworn at him, but he really was starting to wind her
up. If they had the evidence that she didn't do commit the crime,
why bother trying to make her confess? She absentmindedly rubbed the
spot where Nox had grabbed her. She heard a raised voice, followed
by someone speaking in lower, more urgent tones. Looking up, she saw
that the door hadn't slid all the way shut. Anais glanced round the
room, even though it was pointless considering how small and well
hidden the cameras were, before getting up as quietly as she could
and tiptoeing over to the door. She pressed her ear against the gap
between the door and the wall and began to listen to the
conversation taking place outside.