“I must retract my previous statement, Department Head. I may end up hurting you now after all.”
“Stop. We looked after you all this time. If you kill me—”
“I never said I’d kill you. All I’m doing is dragging you to the negotiation table.”
Steve slowly stepped forward, and then he saw Angus swiftly draw out a pistol he had hidden in his belt.
“I see you two are still fine. Do you know where Hieda and Lucraft are?”
As they sat in their share car parked on the side of the London street, Bigga and Fokine connected to Totoki’s conference call. The two exchanged puzzled glances at her first question.
“Didn’t Hieda and Harold go to secure Professor Lexie?”
“Yes. They should have had her in custody by now, but I can’t get in touch with them.”
What?
From what Bigga had heard from Fokine, the Alliance planned to have Echika and the others disposed of. And indeed, they’d done just that to Gardener in the office. Because of that, she had a sinking feeling about Echika and Harold, but she tried to keep it in check and calm down. They didn’t know for sure that something had happened to them.
“Maybe it’s taking them time to get Lexie into custody, and she still has her isolation unit on?” Fokine suggested, but his face was clearly pale. “Ah, but that doesn’t explain why Harold isn’t picking up…”
“There’s a chance the Alliance contacted them.” The tension in Totoki’s voice made Bigga’s heart race with anxiety. “Also, Department Head Angus called me about the system code we just saw.”
“Did the Alliance do that?” Fokine asked.
“We don’t know yet. But that really is Aide Lucraft’s system code,” Totoki said nervously. “We need to find him and take him back to Novae Robotics Inc. right away.”
Huh?
In a daze, Bigga stared out into the street through the windshield. The headlights shone through the snow, exposing the road covered in wire tracks.
Harold’s an illegal model? That makes no sense…!
“Er, but isn’t that weird?” The words left her lips before she knew it. “If this was true, they’d have seen it in maintenance or something, right? If they hadn’t said anything about it before, then why are they saying it now, all of a sudden?”
“I don’t know the details. Department Head Angus is going to analyze Steve, who’s the same model, to confirm the validity of the leak… Did Lucraft tell you anything about this?”
“No.” Bigga could only shake her head.
“First I’ve heard of this.” Fokine seemed skeptical. “He was always a next-generation model, right? I know he’s very high performance or something, but…calling him illegal doesn’t sound right to me.”
“Yes.” Totoki calmly brushed his words away. “I wonder what Hieda thinks. Do you think she knew?”
“I think if she’d have known, she’d have reported it to you right away. Ms. Hieda’s very serious about her work…”
Bigga thought back to what Hansa had messaged her about the other day. Echika was a smart investigator. If Harold was doing something illegal, she wouldn’t just stay quiet about it. She was loyal to her job, and even if she did sometimes let her emotions get the better of her, she wasn’t the type to break the law. And despite that—
“It’s exactly like you thought.”
She couldn’t keep her heart from flooding with anxiety. What if that wasn’t a mistake? What if Echika did, in fact, know Harold was illegal? Wouldn’t that make for a good enough motive?
“Bigga?”
“What’s wrong?” Totoki and Fokine both asked.
Her mouth was hanging half-open; she felt like she shouldn’t say anything. This was just speculation, and saying it aloud would mean making her suspicions reality. For all that had happened between them, Echika was still a close friend of hers, and Harold meant a lot to her, too.
But in the end—neither of them had told Bigga anything, had they?
No. It’s because there was nothing to tell. They’re innocent, so they didn’t tell me anything. Harold isn’t an illegal Amicus in the first place. But if Echika did know, then why did both of them…?
She couldn’t tell anymore.
“Bigga.” Fokine placed a hand on her shoulder, which made her realize she was holding her breath. “Hey, you all right?”
“I’m fine.” Bigga swallowed a little. The concern was making her eyes feel warm. “This is probably…just me getting the wrong idea, and maybe this isn’t Ms. Hieda’s at all…”
“Calm down, Bigga.” Totoki’s voice was soft. “What did Hieda have?”
Bigga clutched at her chest, like she was holding on to something. Maybe it wasn’t her place to speak on this…
“…A Mnemosyne-modifying HSB.”
An oppressive silence filled the car. Fokine’s grasp on her shoulder tightened. She was instantly hit with intense regret, concluding she should have kept that information to herself.
“Um.” Bigga carried on, so as to not be crushed by the anxiety. “It was inside Ms. Hieda’s necklace… It looked a little suspicious, so I sent it to a bio-hacker friend of mine to have him look into it. And he found—”
“When did this happen?” Totoki asked her. “Why didn’t you tell me at the time?”
“I’m sorry, no!” She moaned in apology. “It’s just, I didn’t think it was important, because—”
“It’s okay, calm down. So…you gave that necklace back to Hieda?”
“Yes. It looked like it meant a lot to her, so I thought I should give it back as soon as possible…”
She’d replaced the Mnemosyne-modifying HSB with an identical-looking one, since she didn’t know how long she would have to wait until Hansa gave the original back. If there was nothing wrong with it, she would have given it back and apologized earnestly. The fact that she’d never told Echika about this did leave a hint of concern in Bigga’s heart, but that had turned out to be overly optimistic of her.
She thought it was all a misunderstanding. Some part of her still wanted to believe that.
“Do you think Ms. Hieda was set up, just like you were?” She said this so quickly that even she realized how unnatural it sounded. “It must be a mistake. Why would she ever have anything like—?”
“That’s enough, Bigga.” Totoki softly cut her off. “You’re right, I wasn’t questioning why she always wore that necklace, but yes…” It sounded like she was talking to herself. “I have to speak to the London Metro Police, so I can’t do anything about it right now. At worst, this will have to wait until morning.”
Bigga got a very bad feeling.
“Chief.” Bigga leaned in, despite knowing Totoki couldn’t see her. “Listen, um, I—”
“Investigator Fokine, make sure Bigga is safe in a hotel, and then go to the police station in Ashford to confirm what they found. Depending on the situation, the London Metro Police might get involved.”
Fokine visibly gritted his teeth. “Understood.”
No. Stop. Don’t suspect them. I don’t want to suspect them.
Keeping that internal scream from leaving her lips took all Bigga had. Then Totoki issued an order in a voice that was clear, yet more suppressed than Bigga had ever heard from her:
“We have to find Hieda and Lucraft. No matter what.”