“I don’t think you have to be a rocket scientist to figure it out,” Zenzo erupted. “Peter Griffen would have pulled that game. That effect, that rollover into all the other games, that wasn’t an advertising stunt the way some people think. That was a glitch that he wasn’t going to allow.”
“You think they kidnapped him?”
“To keep him from pulling the game? To keep him quiet?” Zenzo nodded. “Oh, yeah. Eisenhower Productions had every reason in the world to do that.” He studied Andy and Mark. “I’m giving you this so you can do something with it. We could pass it on to a HoloNet server, but they’re not going to take it. Not from guys like us. They’ll say we created it ourselves, to get attention. In the meantime, Peter Griffen’s going to be rotting wherever they left him.”
Looking at Mark, Andy said, “I’m in. Zenzo may not have sold me everything, but I want a closer look.”
Mark nodded and shifted his attention back to Zenzo. “What else can you give us?”
Zenzo grinned hugely and swept a hand around the computer hardware-packed room. “Access. And there’s nothing in the world you can’t do when you have access. Peter’s out there somewhere. Let us help you save him.”
“Do you know what luminol is used for?”
Maj nodded, not wanting to look at Roarke. The Net Force agent was too dispassionate in her opinion. They watched from the hallway as the forensics techs finished spraying down the room with the chemical. “It makes blood patterns show up. Even if an area has been scrubbed, trace evidence remains that the luminol can detect.”
“Right.” Roarke leaned against the wall, seeming to watch in the idle speculation, like the whole investigation was just a textbook exercise.
“Agent Roarke,” the lead forensics man called out. “I believe we’re ready.”
“Light it up,” Roarke commanded.
The men placed the ultraviolet projectors in the room to play over the treated carpet areas. They turned them on and switched out the room’s lights.
Immediately a soft blue glow shimmered into being on the carpet. Most of it was gathered in a single area, but there were splatter patterns leading off from it. Maj knew the blue glow represented the amount of blood that had been spilled there recently.
“He was a big guy,” Matt whispered as he came up beside her and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “And maybe that’s not all from him.”
Roarke pushed off the wall and pulled his foilpack out. “Do the entire room. Every scrap, every fiber. I want it all yesterday, and I want it done right.” He glanced at Maj. “Think you and your friends can cover the hospitals? Call and see if someone was admitted to an ER tonight that fits Oscar Raitt’s descriptions? I’m going to see what kind of help Captain Winters can scrounge up for us.”
Maj nodded and took out her own foilpack. Her mind whirled with the possibilities, but it felt good to have something to do. She just didn’t know if Roarke knew that or was just handing off a job he didn’t believe in and didn’t want to do himself.
Back in her room Maj looked over the notes she’d made during the phone calls to all the city’s emergency rooms. It was a short list. Thankfully Oscar Raitt wasn’t just an average person. She’d been surprised how many people had been admitted during the two-hour time frame in question.
Out of all those, only two had any potential for being Oscar Raitt. One of them was in Orange County lockup for attacking a sheriff’s deputy, but Maj didn’t want to overlook any possibilities. She doubted Oscar’d had time to attack a sheriff’s deputy, but maybe he’d gotten spooked. Or maybe the charges were ersatz. Either way, it had to be checked out.
The other possibility was a young man of towering proportions who’d checked into the ER long enough to have a scalp laceration tended to, then walked out when the nurses and doctors weren’t looking.
Maj glanced at the time/date stamp on the muted holo in one corner of the room. It was a handful of minutes past seven A.M. Friday morning. Her eyes burned and she felt worn down to the bone.
Andy was crashed out on the floor in front of the holo, his hands folded behind his head. He snored gently. He and Mark had been out late and had been a little mysterious about what they’d been doing, but Mark had assured her that what they were bringing in would help. Mark was either at home or on the Net.
Catie and Megan had given up only a little while ago, returning to their rooms to grab a shower and a few hours’ sleep. Matt slept facedown on her bed, totally beat. The right side of his face had purpled up dramatically overnight. He’d refused to leave last night, insisting on staying there to guard her.
Leif Anderson had wandered off, presumably to bed.
And the mysterious Agent Jon Roarke hadn’t bothered to reappear after last night’s disappearance.
Maj underlined the two ER incidents she’d isolated from all the lists they’d generated. She answered the vidphone automatically, punching the connect button.
Captain Winters’s face appeared on the screen. A heavy five o’clock shadow tanned his cheeks, but the knot in his tie looked fresh. “Good morning, Maj. I took a chance that I’d find you still up.”
“I’m not sure how good it is,” Maj replied.
“I don’t know if I’m going to make it any better. Do you mind if I stop by? A holo transmission through the Net will be much easier to encrypt than the phone.”
Maj nodded.
A moment later Captain Winters stepped into her room. He gazed around at Andy and Matt. “Attrition in the ranks?”
“More like exhaustion.”
Winters nodded. “I won’t take up much time. You need to get some sleep as soon as we finish here.”
Maj recognized his words as an order, not a suggestion. “Yes, sir.”
“Intelligence turned up a file on Heavener,” Winters said. “If it’s the same person.” He gestured and another holo formed beside him. This one was of a slender brunette.
At first Maj didn’t key in on the similarities between the brunette and the blonde she’d encountered last night. The shape of her chin and jawline had been altered. And the blonde’s lips were more full. But there was something about the eyes — even though they were blue on the holo instead of the tiger’s-eye amber — which made the identification unmistakable.
“She looks a lot different now,” Maj said, “but it’s her.”
Winters waved a hand through the holo, and it shattered into millions of pixels and disappeared. “Heavener is only one of the aliases she uses. She’s a very dangerous woman.”
“I gathered that from last night.”
“I’ve got a full report I’ll send,” Winters said, “but I’ll give you the highlights now. Her real name — our intelligence division believes — is Katrina Mahler. She’s in her late twenties. She’s worked for the German terrorists, became a specialist in demolitions and close-in assassinations.”
Remembering the cold lights in the woman’s eyes, Maj believed it.
“When the German counterterrorist organization, GSG9, turned up the heat on Heavener, she fled to the Balkan countries and set up shop there for a while. Three years ago she apparently gave up political terrorism for the corporate world. There’s no real proof of that, but that’s been the speculation of the GSG9 people.”
“Do they have any idea of who she’s working for?” Maj asked.
“I’m checking around,” Winters replied. “So far the answer is no.”
“Her working for Eisenhower Productions seems unlikely — a gaming company and some kind of industrial espionage or security work?”
“Our profilers agree,” Winters said. “Heavener is addicted to danger. Her assignments in the past have always been a step over the edge. Whoever she’s working for, it’s someone big. Someone with a huge agenda.”
“But it must tie into the gaming world.”
“She’s here,” Winters agreed. “We have to acknowledge that. Figuring out who she’s working for would be a big help, but I want you and the other Net Force Explorers to stay away from her. She won’t think twice about harming any of you.”
