Part 22 (1/2)

She pa.s.sed the first corner, which branched into a hallway that turned left, and was looking for signage when a woman appeared seemingly from nowhere.

Romey had seen that trick before. There was a filter built into the hallway, and employees stepped through it, giving no hint of their presence-from sound to smell-until they just appeared.

”Detective Romey.” Like most people, the woman was taller than Romey. She was also thinner, but the kind of thin that came from enhancements and not eating enough, not the kind that came from remaining in shape. ”I'm to take you to our vice president in charge of operations.”

”You're to take me to a conference room where you'll a.s.semble the staff,” Romey said. ”We don't put our people in the same room,” the woman said.

”Well, you do now,” Romey said. ”Find some place, put them there, and let them know I'll be coming to talk with them.”

The woman stared at Romey, obviously confused by the order.

”Is there a problem?” Romey asked.

”I'm sorry,” the woman said. ”It's just that we're told not to do this under any circ.u.mstance.”

”I'm not a circ.u.mstance,” Romey said. ”I'm the Armstrong Police Department, and I trump any orders given by any boss. If your staff has trouble with that, I can send them all en ma.s.se to jail. Would that please you?”

”Our lawyers-”

”Are irrelevant,” Romey said. ”I'm not going to detain you people. I'm going to question you about Roshdi Whitford's death. Now, unless he died from some kind of conspiracy involving every member of this company, most of your staff have nothing to worry about from me-unless you make sure they don't follow my orders.”

The woman's eyes opened wide. Romey couldn't tell if she was communicating to someone higher up on a link or if she was just one of those people whose eyes got wider when she was surprised. ”I'll send the order,” she said. ”Come with me.”

She didn't go through the filter. Instead, she walked to the next corner-this one on the right-and turned down the right-angled hallway.

Romey turned her head slightly and noted that her street cops were following. Good. She might need them.

”How many employees do you have?” she asked as they walked.

”Here or abroad?” the woman asked.

Abroad. That was a term Romey hadn't heard outside Earth.

”In the building,” she said.

”At present . . .” This time the woman's pause was obvious. ”. . . two hundred and fifty-seven.” ”And how many are employed in Armstrong?”

”We don't give out that information,” the woman said.

”What's your name?” Romey snapped.

”Um, Sally Juhl,” the woman said.

”And your position here?” Romey asked.

”I'm liaison to the senior staff.”

”The senior staff,” Romey repeated. ”I trust that includes Roshdi Whitford.”

”No. He has his own a.s.sistants.” ”Is that what a liaison is?” Romey asked. ”An a.s.sistant?”

”No, I actually serve as a communications and business coordinator for the members of the senior staff. They're not allowed to hire their own a.s.sistants.” She bit her lower lip, as if she'd said too much. ”Well, Ms. Sally Juhl, Liaison to the Senior Staff, you are now allowed to give out any and all information to me.”

”I'm so sorry, ma'am,” Juhl said. ”I just can't. Almost everything we do here is proprietary.” ”We don't care about your proprietary information. The owner of this company is dead. Doesn't that matter to you?”

”He warned us that that might happen,” she said. ”Excuse me.” Romey grabbed the woman's arm, stopping her from continuing down the hall. ”What did you just say?”

”He warned us that he might die,” Juhl said. ”When?” Romey asked.

”When he hired us. He said this is a cutthroat business. If we join it, we have to be willing to give a hundred-thousand percent. And that included our lives. He said that he was always ready to give his life. That's what made him good at what he did.”

”Do you think he died protecting someone?” Romey asked.

”I don't know,” Juhl said. ”We're not allowed to know. That's what the officer who locked us down said. We know that Mr. Whitford is dead, that he died at home, and that we have lost two other employees although we don't know who they are yet, either.”

At least the officer who closed the place down had done his job. Romey let Juhl's arm go. ”That's right, isn't it?” Juhl asked, absently rubbing the place where Romey's fingers had been. ”We're not supposed to know, right?”

”The less you know the better I can interview,” Romey said. She turned to Officer Zurik. ”Send for some backup. I can't cover two-hundred-some-odd employees on my own. And get some techs in here, preferably ones who know something about security systems.”

”Yes . . . Detective.” He nodded, then stepped back, obviously planning to go outside to send the message.

”In here,” Romey snapped. ”We don't have a lot of time.”

”Yes, sir. Ma'am. Detective. I'm sorry, sir.”

Romey narrowed her eyes but didn't say anything. Instead she turned toward Juhl.

”Lead me to your colleagues,” Romey said.

”I don't have colleagues per se,” Juhl said. ”I'm the only liaison on staff.”

Romey wanted to shake her. But if Romey tried, she'd probably snap her like a brittle bread stick.

”The other employees,” Romey said through her teeth. She'd already decided that some junior detective was going to interview this woman. Romey would probably kill her before the interview was done.

”Oh yes, right,” Juhl said. ”I think they've a.s.sembled now. Come with me.”

And she finally stepped through one of the filters, holding the edge of it so that Romey could step inside.

Romey had a sense that Juhl could have done this at any point, taken them directly to the entire staff trapped inside the building, but had been stalling in the mazelike corridors, probably on someone's instruction.

Romey would find out who that someone was. Just like she was going to find out how this creepy place worked. And she was going to find out just why there were so many human staffers on the premises. But most of all, she was going to find out what had initially caused the companywide paranoia, and whether it was related to Roshdi Whitford's death.

32.

Rudra Popova still made DeRicci nervous. Even though they had worked together for almost a year now, Popova still had a look that could make DeRicci uncomfortable.