Synthetica (26 page)

Sixteen

Skye glared at them all, livid.

Her hair was tied back in a severe ponytail and judging from the
outfit she was wearing, she'd come straight from giving Civitas'
statement to the news channel to here. Her blue eyes flashed like
chips of ice.

“
Explain
yourselves,” she said. “Now.”

Anais was too stunned to move or speak. Out of the corner of her
eye, she could see Xander and Clay looking equally dumbfounded. How
on earth could she explain what they were trying to do, and her
theory about Civitas to anyone else, let alone Civitas' Head of PR?
When none of them spoke Skye stepped forward, her eyes glinting.

“
Well
then, I think we're going to have to see what the police think about
all this.”

She half turned as if to leave, but Anais found her voice.

“
No!”
Anais cried sharply. She took a deep breath. “Please, don't call
the police. I can explain.”

Skye raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow.

“
Oh,
is that right?” Her blue eyes roved over to Xander “I expected
more from you Mr Silvas. How disappointing that you'll be out on the
streets without a reference, or the prospect of getting another job
in this city, at your age.”

Skye turned back to Anais.

“
And
you...I knew you were trouble the moment I saw you sniffing around
here the other day,” she said. Then her gaze fell on Clay and she
positively hissed.

“
You.”

Clay didn't flinch, though a lesser man might have under Skye's look
of wrath.

“
What
are you doing here?” Skye's voice was full of venom.

“
Do
you two know each other?” Anais asked and Skye laughed, though the
sound was full of scorn.

“
Who
hasn't heard of Clay
fucking
Winterbourne?” Skye snarled, her face suddenly looking a lot less
beautiful as she threw Clay a look of hatred. “The most ingenious
man to ever work for Civitas; the company's golden boy, who threw
everything back in their faces in a hissy fit.”

Clay drew himself up and looked Skye directly in the eye.

“
What
are you doing here?” he demanded. Skye cocked her head to the
side.

“
That
sounds suspiciously like a group of intruders questioning why a
Civitas employee is in the Civitas building,” she said in a voice
dripping with sarcasm. “I can stay late if I chose to - you on the
other hand are breaking and entering. So unless you have explicit
instructions from someone higher up than me or a special permit to
be here, I'm calling the police
right
now
.”

“
No
wait!” Anais held her hands up. “You have to listen to us.
You're right, we're not supposed to be here. We were looking for
information on your SLP programs.”

The words seemed to hang in the air between them. Skye stopped
short. For the first time, she dropped her ferocious act as she
looked at Anais in disbelief.

“
What?”
she asked.

“
We
wanted to see...if the files had been tampered with,” Anais
replied, avoiding Skye's gaze.

"And why," Skye asked slowly. "Would you do a thing
like that?"

It was Xander who answered her.

"Those murders that you're being framed for? We think they're
something to do with the SLPs. We know for definite that two people
who bought them ended up dead. One was Marcus. The other was Dalla.
And there are similarities between their deaths and the way that all
these murderers are dying too. We thought that maybe someone
tampered with the SLP files, or stole them.”

The slight emphasis on the word 'someone' and his hard look at Skye
made it clear who Xander thought was behind it. Skye's eyes narrowed
as her gaze flicked between the three of them.

“
And
you think it's someone at Civitas who's doing all this,” Skye said
finally.

“
Well...yes,”
Anais admitted. “We - I - thought that Civitas altered the SLP
programs and then used them to...” she trailed off nervously at
the look on Skye's face.

“
I
knew when I met you before, Miss Finch, that you obviously weren't
stupid. So, I'm a tiny bit confused as to why you think an
outstanding pillar of the community like Civitas would do something
so stupid to damage their own reputation, to what? Get rid of a few
competitors?” Skye's eyes had that fervent look Anais had seen the
day she'd visited the building with Dalla and it dawned on her, too
late, that in Skye's opinion Civitas could do no wrong.

“
We've
seen what those counterfeit SLPs can do,” Xander said. “You're
the ones that make the SLPs, you're the ones that are launching them
tomorrow - can you blame us for thinking that you might possibly be
involved somehow?”

He was staring hard at Skye. Anais couldn't help feeling a tiny
swell of pride as Xander stood up straight and met Skye's gaze. Skye
simply stared back at him, unfazed.

“
Well
I hate to shatter your delusions Mr Silvas, but Civitas had nothing
to do with those murders, or these SLPs that you're talking about,”
Skye said coldly. “It was news to us tonight that someone
obviously suspects us of messing around with everyone's ID chips,
let alone you thinking we've also somehow hacked into our own SLP
programs and murdered innocent people that way. You're quite
mistaken, This is someone – or something – else. It has nothing
to do with my company.”

The loving use of the word 'my' didn't escape Anais, but she was
focusing too hard on Skye to say anything. For the first time that
night, Anais noticed something beneath Skye's usual beauty. Skye's
face, although still perfectly made up, was pale and the dark
shadows under her eyes hadn't been concealed well enough. There was
the tiniest hint of a wrinkle on her forehead. She looked completely
stressed out.

“
So
you're telling us that this has nothing to do with Civitas, despite
your rivals conveniently being killed off right before you launch a
new product?” Anais couldn't keep the edge out of her voice. She
simply couldn't let go of the idea that Civitas wasn't involved
somehow. The SLPs were their product, they must have something to do
with it. But at the back of her mind she knew what the real issue
was; she didn't want to think about the consequences for them all if
what Skye said turned out to be true.

Skye gave her a withering look.

“
Of
course not, why on earth would we? If anything, I relish the
competition other companies bring,” she said, with a smile that
made a shiver run down Anais' spine. Skye jerked her head at Clay.

“
Did
he
have anything to do with bringing you here?”

“
No,”
said Xander. “We're the ones who needed his help.”

Clay narrowed his eyes at Skye.

“
I
wouldn't believe anything this man tells you,” Skye said, pointing
straight at Clay, her lip curling “If he's here it's because he
has his own agenda, not because he wants to help you.”

“
Forgive
me,” growled Clay. “But for once, I'm not trying to sabotage
your precious company. If I did, trust me darlin', you'd already
know about it.”

Skye actually stamped her foot in frustration.

“
For
the last time,” she shouted, making Anais and Xander jump. “We
had nothing to do with your family! Why won't you just
give
it a rest
?
It's over and done with, you stupid old man!”

“
And
who else would it have been?” Clay shouted back, his hands
trembling. “My wife and kids, just dropped dead of their own
accord did they? No one else had any reason to murder them – just
you, when you all realised I wasn't going to blindly follow you
anymore!”

Skye looked as though she was about to rip out her hair in anger.

“
WHY
WOULD WE?!” she shrieked. “What possible motive would we have
for murdering them?! They didn't have anything to do with our ID
chips! All we wanted
you
to do was design them, and when you refused and destroyed our labs,
we fired you! That's it! End of story!”

Clay was almost beside himself with rage.

“
Then
how do you explain the men who shot them?” he yelled. “How do
you explain that?!”

“
It
was you, you crazy old man! It's not my fault if you're so messed up
in the head you murdered your own wife and children, and then looked
for someone else to blame!”

“
You
little -”

Clay made a move as if to dive over the desk at her. Skye shrieked
and flew at him, her arms outstretched as though she was about to
claw out his eyes. Xander threw himself in front of Skye, grabbing
her around the waist to prevent her from getting any closer; while
Anais launched herself at Clay, desperately trying to stop him from
clambering over the table. Clay was a lot stronger than she was
though, and his eyes were bulging madly as he tried to get at Skye.
Anais tried to grab his arm, but he shoved her off and flung himself
onto the desk, smashing the computer that was embedded in the
surface in the process. Anais was right behind him. She jumped onto
his back, her hands holding on tightly around his neck as he started
to scramble over the worktop. Clay roared in frustration and began
trying to bat her off, but Anais simply clung on tighter. Xander,
meanwhile, was struggling to keep an incensed Skye in his grip as he
hauled her away from Clay.

“
Let
me go!” Skye shrieked. “He's a liar!”

“
You're
the liar!” Clay bellowed, still trying to fling Anais off his
back. “The whole lot of you are dirty, thieving,
murdering
liars!”

Skye hissed, and began trying to fight her her way out of Xander's
grip with renewed effort.

“
Clay!”
Anais shouted as she continued to struggle with him. “Calm down!”

Clay
gave a particularly violent kick that caught Anais painfully on the
leg. She hung on grimly, tightening her grip around his neck. There
was an ominous groan from the desk beneath them as they continued to
struggle. There was a lurching in Anais stomach, and she seemed to
watch in slow motion as the whole desk began to tip forward. Clay
shouted and tried to throw them both backwards, but it was too late.
The floor came rushing up to meet them. Anais shut her eyes, bracing
for the inevitable impact. The desk landed with a deafening
clang;
numerous tools clattered to the ground, scattering in all
directions. Anais was thrown from Clay's back, landing painfully on
a selection of wire cutters.

There was a silence. Anais groaned and tried to get up, wincing as
small nuts and bolts dug into her un-bandaged hand. Clay rolled onto
his back, seemingly dazed. Xander dropped Skye and was by Anais'
side in seconds, holding out his hand to help her up.

“
Are
you okay?” he asked, his purple eyes round with worry. Anais took
his hand and stood up gingerly, wiping the last of the dust from her
clothes.

“
Yeah
I'm fine. Thanks,” she said to Xander, before rounding on Clay and
Skye. Clay was getting unsteadily to his feet while Skye watched
him, her breathing rather heavy. Her hands were clenched into fists
by her side. Clay stood up, picking up his tiny computer drive as he
did so. He examined it for signs of damage before slipping it into
his pocket.

“
I
don't know what all that was about,” Anais said angrily. “But in
case you haven't noticed, two more people are dead and we're all
here trying to find out why. We're all on the same side for now, so
if you could just stop acting like five year olds for a minute, that
would be great. Then maybe we'd have a shot at stopping whoever's
behind all this.”

She glared at them both. Skye's hair was tumbling out of her neat
ponytail, blue tendrils falling across her face. Clay looked as
rumpled as he always did. Skye at least had the grace to look a tiny
bit ashamed of herself, her face struggling to compose herself once
more. Clay simply sniffed and avoided Anais' eye.

“
Alright,”
Anais said as calmly as she could, though the renewed stinging in
her right hand made her want to punch Clay in the face for making
such a reckless move. “Now that that's all out of our systems,
maybe we can talk about this.”