Part 36 (2/2)

Gramming had been doing this for twenty years. Which meant that the older children had reached eighteen, which was the age of majority in the Earth Alliance.

He could use the files from eighteen to twenty years ago. Those clones would legally be adults.

And he could use the pending files as well, the children that weren't yet sold. That would be more than enough to convict anyone of baby selling-or whatever DeRicci wanted to do. It would give her motive if nothing else.

If he deleted the information properly, it would look like Gramming itself was trying to cover its own tracks.

He didn't have a lot of time. And he couldn't follow the back trace all by himself, not and complete this before DeRicci arrived. All of the material had to be gone before she seized the computer systems. ”Talia,” Flint said. ”Get a networked notebook in here, and sit down beside me. I'm going to need your help.”

62.

Nyquist was having a very strange day. First he arrested one of the most powerful attorneys in the Earth Alliance on charges that just might stick, and then he got a message from another attorney, not quite as powerful, that told him the people who killed Ki Bowles had been hired by Gramming Corporation. Oh, and that he was not to contact the second attorney with questions. She wouldn't answer them. But she recommended that he pet.i.tion a court for a warrant to look at the material Noelle DeRicci was about to seize from Gramming in a raid she was conducting now.

He sat at his desk, feeling a bit stunned. Gramming had been in Bowles's report. He remembered the name. He also remembered that she had mentioned it in pa.s.sing.

Which meant that Gramming was tied to WSX, and Flint had implied-in that one strange communique before he got kidnapped-that WSX's files were tied to Bowles.

So there was a link; Nyquist just didn't know what it was. And he probably wouldn't know, not without files that DeRicci was somehow going to get.

He shook his head. After DeRicci's coldness to his request to shut off the Hunting Club's security system earlier, he wasn't going to contact her about this.

Instead, he was going to take Maxine Van Alen's advice and request a warrant for the information. It wouldn't be hard to get: He had an ongoing investigation and a tip from an informant. Plus a mention of the company by the victim.

If it all worked, he would finally get his answers.

63.

Gramming Corporation was at the outskirts of Armstrong, in an older section of the dome. The dome here wasn't as old as it was near Flint's building, but it was old enough to have a yellowish tinge to its plastic and chips in its exterior that looked dangerous enough to warrant replacement.

DeRicci had already studied the maps. Gramming's building was small. The corporation itself had eleven employees, and they filled the single-story rectangular building almost to capacity.

The building had six windows, four doors-two industrial strength-and no bas.e.m.e.nt level.

DeRicci brought a team of twenty, all in survival gear, all with laser pistols and laser rifles and an emergency knife. They wore masks, just in case someone used a gas in part of an attack, and they moved with quiet deliberation.

She'd made the security vehicles park nearly a block away. She monitored Gramming's communications before she approached, and jammed them after the vehicles were in position.

By now, the company's employees had to know something was up, but they wouldn't know what. She doubted that people who worked in an adoption agency-no matter what illegal activities some of them were partic.i.p.ating in-would expect a full-fledged security raid.

When she told the governor-general she was planning this, she had said she would just supervise. But they both knew better.

DeRicci did send the first team in, so that they could surround the exits, but she was going to break into the building herself.

She hadn't done something like this since she had been a detective, and she missed it. She slipped the environmental mask over her face, let it distort her vision for a moment, and then took her position at the front of the phalanx.

Her team spread beside and behind her in an open triangle. They moved slowly, taking each step as if they expected an attack.

Someone announced to the building that they were being raided and that they'd better open the doors, or the doors would be opened for them. The voice, distorted by the mask and the amplifier, was one DeRicci didn't recognize.

She held her laser rifle tightly, crouching just a little, as the double doors up front swung open. The woman who stood behind them was slight and gray haired. She wore a dress that didn't quite fit properly and she was in her stocking feet.

She raised her hands and yelled, ”You have the wrong building. We're an adoption agency.” ”Gramming?” DeRicci shouted. Her voice didn't sound like her own, either.

”Yes.”

”We have the right building.” DeRicci turned to the man beside her. ”Secure that woman. The rest of us are going in.”

The woman screamed as the security officer grabbed her and moved her out of the way. The rest of the team poured through the door, laser rifles out, ready to shoot if necessary.

Other employees, standing near the door, fell to their knees, covering their heads. A few screamed. Others started to cry.

DeRicci's sense of enjoyment was fading. She didn't want to terrorize do-gooders.

She could feel the energy leave the bust. So she went through the central door first.

Now she saw some desks and a few more employees. They hid behind the chairs or the desks and peered around them, s.h.i.+vering in terror.

Only one door remained closed.

It had a sign in the center: pREsiDENT AND CHIEF: OHARI KINOY.

The sign itself seemed a bit pretentious for the business, and that sinking feeling that DeRicci had faded. This was right. She knew it.

She kicked the door open. It slammed backward with a bang.

A small redheaded man sat behind a very big desk. He had a laser pistol pointed at his own head. Behind him, a computer screen rose, ostentatiously deleting information.

”Stay back,” he said.

DeRicci pulled up her mask. ”You're going to kill yourself? Are you kidding?”

”I mean it,” he said. ”Stay back.”

She let her own rifle down. ”You realize this is a security raid. You've been messing with the power grid. That's illegal.”

And then she recited the code. ”But it's certainly not something to kill yourself over.” He was shaking. His eyes were full of tears.

”Oh, for G.o.d's sake,” she said, and dropped her own rifle. She motioned at everyone else to come in the door. ”Seize the computers and stop them from deleting information.”

”I'm going to shoot myself,” the man said.

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