Amber hadn’t even finished her wine, and she felt herself begin to panic. She glanced again at the laptop. She only needed two minutes. She thought fast. Had she misjudged with her timings? Where the hell was he?
“He didn’t say anything to you? About what he was doing?”
This question seemed to surprise Lily, and she turned away, thinking before answering. A hope flared for a moment in Amber. It wasn’t a real chance, not with Lily still in the room, but she only had to keep her talking. Surely it would only be a few more minutes.
“No.”
“Why do you think he might have done it?”
Lily seemed to be losing her patience fast now. “Look I don’t think he meant to kill, if that’s what you mean. If that’s what you came for.” She said. “I think he had some confused, wrong-headed idea about what Fonchem is, and he set out to destroy it, by any means. But he was wrong. Fonchem is a good company. Well run. And maybe Billy didn’t care as much as he liked to pretend. Maybe he didn’t care if other people got hurt.”
Amber nodded awkwardly. Somehow she’d expected to see Lily in some stage of grieving. That didn’t seem to be the case.
The doorbell rang, a deep trilling of an old fashioned device, built to last. Lily looked confused, frustrated. Amber looked at her, expectantly, putting pressure on her to answer it.
“I uh,” Lily frowned again. “I don’t know who that is?”
“Do you want me to go?” Amber offered, gambling that Lily wouldn’t want whoever was at the door to see her leaving at the same time.
“No. I’ll… Just hold on. I’ll be right back.” She got up, and left the room.
Amber got to work at once. She moved immediately to the laptop and pulled up the screen. It took a few seconds to wake from its sleep mode – seconds that seemed to take forever. But while they happened Amber already had the USB drive in her fingers, and was ready to slot it in. The computer sounded a soft tone, and was ready to use. She pressed the drive in.
There were more seconds. Agonizingly slow. While Amber heard the front door opening. And then a box popped up, just as Billy had described. It was just like installing any other software, you had to launch it, and let the files copy across, shown by a bar that filled the screen. She wasted a few seconds wondering why it wasn’t even getting past zero percent, before realizing she had to click OK on the touch pad before it would start.
“Fuck”, Amber muttered, knowing she’d made the task even harder. But now the bar was filling, and her mind allowed the sounds from the hallway to filter into her consciousness. Lily’s voice, confused.
“I didn’t order a pizza.”
“What do you mean?” A man’s voice, annoyed. “It’s all paid for.”
“Whatever, I don’t care. Please just go away.”
Shit, this was going to happen much quicker than she’d planned. When she’d ordered the pizza, asking it to be delivered at precisely six o’clock, she had thought it might take a couple of minutes for Lily to sort out the mistake, perhaps working out which of her neighbors had made the mistake. Now Amber realized this was wildly optimistic.
“It’s vegetarian. The lady on the phone was very specific.”
“I don’t care. I don’t want it.” There was the sound of the front door being firmly closed. Amber looked at the screen. Ten percent done. Not even close. She delayed another second, wondering whether to yank the USB out now, and just abort, and by then it was too late. Lily was already re-entering the room. Amber – up and out of the chair from where Lily had left her – had no choice but to improvise. She grabbed the wine bottle.
“I was just topping myself up. I’m sorry – I hope you don’t mind? This has all been so stressful for me.” Amber took the bottle back to the table, and before Lily could reply, she refilled her glass. Her hand shook slightly as she did so, but not as part of the subterfuge.
“Of course,” Lily said, her voice was cold and hard. Amber stopped herself from asking about the pizza delivery, that would be too conspicuous. She tried as well, to keep her eyes off the laptop computer on the counter top. The screen was still open, the USB device still sticking out of the side, the files still transferring. If Lily glanced at it this would all be over. And in a way that Amber didn’t want to see.
“I have to go out though. You can’t be here long.”
Amber nodded, and put down the bottle. She took a swig from the glass, letting her eyes glance at the screen as she did so. The wine helped. She was at a complete loss what to say next, but to her surprise Lily kept the conversation going.
“I’m sorry. I guess he tricked you too.”
Amber felt herself wanting to weep, and since she couldn’t think of anything better to say, she let it happen. But it wasn’t the sobs that had hit her when she really thought Billy was dead, it was just nervous, awkward shudders that rocked her shoulders. She realized she could see the screen reflected back at her, in the window at the back of the kitchen. The bar looked about three quarters done. Billy had said that once it was installed she wouldn’t have to do anything, the software was designed to be secretive and covert, it would begin hiding itself the moment it was installed, including removing any evidence that it had been installed. All she had to do was remove the USB stick, and get out of there.
“Yeah. I guess he did.” Amber took another large gulp from her glass. “Look I’m really sorry. I don’t know why I’m here. I just thought… Well I knew that you and he were together, for a while.”
The
