Part 36 (1/2)
He appeared as a holoimage on her desk. She didn't know he had that capability. In fact, she didn't know that her desk could show holoimages.
Then she realized he wasn't using his usual system. He was coming through someone else's security filter, and instead of creating a two-dimensional visual image of his face in front of her vision, it created a holoimage.
”Where are you?” she asked.
”My lawyer's,” he said, apparently not minding that she hadn't said h.e.l.lo. DeRicci nodded. ”We had a power glitch here,” he said. ”I traced it to the source. It came from Gramming Corporation.”
”We've had a number of those glitches,” DeRicci said, ”and we know that Gramming is causing them. Do you know why?”
Flint's mouth narrowed. DeRicci knew that expression. Her old partner wasn't going to tell her everything.
She hated it when he did that. ”Let's just say that Gramming is trolling for information it shouldn't have.” ”In a lawyer's office?” DeRicci asked. ”And other places,” Flint said. ”It's also deleting records.” DeRicci frowned. ”Do you know why?”
”It's a security breach,” Flint said, not answering her at all. ”A serious one. Gramming has gotten into the public database and now it's working on some private ones. The company is misusing minute power failures to interrupt and destroy information in various locations. It seems to me that such behavior should worry the Security Chief for the United Domes of the Moon. Imagine if this gets bigger. Imagine if they want to shut down the environmental systems domewide.”
”Imagine if you just answered my question instead of giving me information I already know,” DeRicci said. ”Do you know why?”
”Shouldn't you stop them and ask them yourself?” Flint asked.
DeRicci grinned at him. ”You want me to go into Gramming and seize their equipment.”
”Seems to me the situation warrants it. And the police can't do it. Only the Moon's security chief has the authority for such a large seizure.”
”And you want to come with me, right?” DeRicci asked.
Flint smiled back at her and nodded. ”You know me well, Noelle.”
”I know you well enough to know you have your own agenda here. You'll compromise my raid.” ”I will not,” he said.
She tilted her head, unsure how he would see her. ”You realize you're transmitting a holoimage.”
”Yeah. It's one of the security protocols that I haven't shut off yet. When this system feels threatened, it goes to more complex matrices.” He paused, then gave her his most charming look. ”Take me along. I promise I won't compromise anything.”
”A civilian on a government raid will compromise this,” DeRicci said. ”Especially when said civilian just completed an adoption of his own.”
”I didn't work through Gramming,” Flint said.
”Yes, but Ki Bowles mentioned them in that brand-new report of hers.” DeRicci was finally glad she'd watched it more than once. ”Is that what got her killed?”
”Probably,” Flint said with reluctance. ”Have you told Bartholomew yet?” DeRicci asked. ”No,” Flint said. ”You probably should.” ”You're not going to take him on the raid, either, are you?” Flint asked.
”Nope,” DeRicci said. ”Although I will share information with him. Which is more than you're probably going to do.”
Flint's entire body looked deflated. Or maybe that was just the smallness of his image, standing there on her desk.
”You're going to need me on this, Noelle.”
”I already have enough to arrest everyone at Gramming and seize their a.s.sets,” DeRicci said. ”I don't need you at all. But I appreciate the heads-up.”
”Noelle-”
”Tell me one thing, Miles. How come you're just letting me know about this now?”
”Because I just found it,” he said.
”I wish I could believe that,” DeRicci said, and signed off. Flint was planning something. He wanted access, and he wanted her to give it to him.
So she had to act quickly.
61.
Flint felt rather than saw DeRicci sever the connection. One moment they were talking, the next he felt like he was on his own.
He put a hand to his forehead and closed his eyes.
”What's wrong?” Talia asked.
He didn't have a lot of time. If he'd gone with DeRicci he could have taken some of the records on his own. But he couldn't do that now.
”Dad?” Talia asked.
Flint opened his eyes. Both Van Alen and Talia were watching him from the table.
”Maxine, contact Nyquist. Let him know that Gramming is connected to Ki Bowles's death. Tell him that DeRicci is going to run a raid on that organization and he needs a court order to get some of the records.”
”All right,” Van Alen said. ”But what about this discussion of revealing to children that they're clones, maybe destroying families?”
”I'm going to have to wipe the records,” Flint said. He didn't want to, but he would have to. It was the only way to protect the children.
”Then there'll be no case,” Van Alen said. ”At least not for the murder, and maybe not even for the United Domes. They'll be accused of hara.s.sment.”
”Gramming did use power glitches to steal information.”
”Or maybe its system malfunctioned and sent out some virus that did that. Without motive, a case could fall apart. You can't touch those records.”
”He can't just leave them,” Talia said, her voice rising. ”The news stories alone will break up families. And maybe parents will get arrested for buying children.”
”Probably not,” Van Alen said. ”I'm sorry to say that clones are viewed differently.”
”And that's the problem,” Talia said. ”Dad, you can't let those records get out.”
Flint stared at Talia for a moment, then at Van Alen. They both had valid points, and while he contemplated them, he was losing time.
Families were fragile, but families broke up naturally when the children grew up. The child left home and the family re-formed into something different.