Chapter 10 – A Spy Amongst Us
“This week Luna is celebrating it's hundredth anniversary as an independent nation state. All week there will be events celebrating this fact. In particular they will be focusing on Luna's position as the strongest economy out of the three major states. Detractors say that since it's independence it has become nothing more than a tax refuge for the very wealthy but the Luna government said that this sort of nay saying couldn't detract from the great achievements of the last hundred years.”
***
A week after her anniversary Katherine headed into work as normal. As she walked from the station to the Agency building she got out her data pad and started reading some of the reports. She was so caught in her reading that she almost walked into the doors. Stopping suddenly Katherine looked round to see if anyone had seen her. She then turned back to the doors. “Why didn't you open?” Finally she decided that the cameras probably hadn't got a proper look at her so she walked away a little way and walked back more slowly. Again the doors remained closed. Getting a bit annoyed she hit the intercom button.
“Reception. How can I help?” A tired voice answered.
“Uh, hi. I'm trying to get in but the doors won't open,” Katherine explained.
“This entrance is for employees only. Please use the visitors entrance.”
Katherine quickly counted to ten, “I am an employee. Katherine Goodings.”
“What is your employee number?”
Katherine began digging through her pockets looking for her ID. “One moment.” Finally finding it she read out the number.
There was a short pause. “I'm sorry but we have no employee registered with that number.” The intercom went dead leaving Katherine seething with frustration. She thought about going round to the visitor entrance and sorting it out there, but a stubborn part of her refused to give up here.
She hit the intercom button again, “Hi, it's me again.”
“This entrance is just for employees. Please use the visitor entrance.”
“I told you already I am an employee. I've been working here for five years now.”
“And I told you there is no employee registered with the number you gave,” The voice said, starting to sound annoyed.
Katherine was starting to grow frustrated with this. She shouted, “Let me in!”
“If you don't vacate the premises we'll be forced to call security.” The intercom went off again. Deciding to give up Katherine started round to visitor entrance. She was halfway there when she had an idea.
Taking her phone out she dialled Paul. As he answered he asked “Hey Katherine, what's up?”
“They won't let me in.”
“What? Where?” Paul asked, trying to figure out what she was talking about.
“The Agency building. I can't get in, the doors aren't working.”
“Use the intercom.”
“I did! They keep saying I'm not an employee.”
“Okay, okay. Calm down. Look you stay put and I'll try to sort this out.”
“Okay, thanks.” Turning off her phone she went to sit down on one of the benches outside the visitors entrance.
***
As soon as he had finished the call Paul activated the search engine on his computer and entered Katherine Goodings. It came back with two results but neither were for the right person. Starting to get a bad feeling about this Paul went to see Anne.
After he had explained what had happened she did a similar search to the one he had. After a few minutes she said, “As far as I can see Katherine is no longer listed as being an employee of the Agency. She has been completely removed.”
“How could that happen?”
“I don't know. Even if she had been sacked her records should still be there. Where is she?”
“She's waiting outside.”
“Right.” Anne activated her computers phone and dialled Katherine.
“Hi Anne. Do you know what's going on?”
“Yes, Paul told me. Listen this might take a while to sort out. Why don't you go home, take the day off. We'll try to have everything worked out by tomorrow.”
“Okay then, thanks.”
As Anne ended the call Paul said, “So what are we going to do?”
“We need to go to a higher power.”
***
Anne and Paul went to see Graham and started to explain what was happening.
“Ah yes, Ms Goodings. She's been suspended.”
“For what reason and why are her records missing?”
“For security reasons and because security asked us to.”
“What security reasons and why wasn't I told?”
“There are reasons to believe that she is a security risk and you weren't told because it is need to know.”
“Of course I don't need to know when part of my team is being barred access to the building. Anyway Katherine is as much a security risk as I am.” Anne said, starting to grow annoyed at his attitude.
“With your past, I'd be careful about making statements like that.”
Biting back an angry comment Anne said to Paul, “Come on, we're wasting our time here.”
***
As Katherine got home she immediately knew that something was up. Everything was tidy enough but she could tell it had been moved. Seeing the look on Sandra's face confirmed it. “Honey, what's wrong?”
“Security were here. I'm sorry but they had a search warrant.”
“What did they do?”
“They took your computers and all your files to do with the project. Why are they doing this now?”
“I wish I knew.” Katherine said, hoping that this was a nightmare, or that Anne would be able to sort things out.
***
Katherine immediately set about going over everything to see what had been taken. As she did so she grew more and more worried. She had a few files which shouldn't have been taken out of the space agency, but which she needed to be able to do her work. She hadn't taken anything that was really confidential but it occurred to her that if she was being investigated, the fact that she had those files would look bad. She looked up from her searching as Sandra came in.
“I just had a thought,” Sandra said, “What about talking to Abigail?”
“Of course. If anyone can tell me what's going on, it's her.” Katherine went to the com unit and made a call. After a few moments a woman appeared. She looked a lot like Katherine, except her hair was longer, reaching down to her shoulders, and her features were slightly narrower. Smiling she said, “Kathy, long time no speak.”
Katherine frowned slightly at being called Kathy, but didn't say anything. Abigail was the only person who could get away with it. “Abby.” This earned a similar frown from Abigail. “Actually I'm calling because I need your help.”
“Okay sis, what's up?”
Katherine recounted what had happened to her.
Abigail nodded, “Yeah, you're being investigated by a branch of the security services.”
“Why? What have I done?”
Abigail looked anxious a moment, “I'm sorry I can't tell you any more.”
“But...”
“Listen, things are really tense at the security services at the moment. There seems to be some sort of power play going on. There's a new group who think the services should be more... well efficient is the word they use, but some of the stuff they want to bring in, well it's really scary.”
“It sounds nasty.”
“Well there's just a load of politics going on. I really would like to help you but... I'm being investigated as well.”
“Oh, I'm sorry.”
“It should be okay. I mean there isn't anything for them to find but it'll make it hard for me to help you,” Abigail paused, “I'll see what I can do.”
“Thanks.”
“Well it probably won't be much. Well I better get going.”
“Bye, I hope you get things sorted soon.”
Abigail nodded, then switched off the link.
“So both you and your sister are being investigated,” Sandra said.
“Seems that way,” Katherine agreed.
“Quite a coincidence.”
“Yeah, it is.”
***
The next day security came and picked Katherine up to take her to some questioning. As she sat down in the interrogation room a man there said, “Hello I am Agent Smith and am in charge of the investigation of a breach in security at the Mars Space Agency. You are Katherine Goodings, a former employee at the Agency.”
“What do you mean former? The Agency has a lengthy procedure for firing employees and I haven't been put through it.”
“Under normal circumstances of course but when dealing with matters of national security, Ms Goodings, things can be sped up.”
“National security, what are you talking about?”
“There were several files at your home pertaining to the Alpha Centauri project.”
“So, I was working on it at home, that's hardly a crime.”
“Some of those files were marked as not to be removed from the Agency.”
“Yeah well I needed them for my work and that hardly warrants all of this.”
“We have reason to believe that information about the project is being leaked to Earth.”
“And what? You think it's me?”
“Ms Goodings, you are the most likely suspect.”
“This is rubbish. I'm not a spy.”
“That remains to be seen. Now have you had any contact with Earth recently?”
“No.”
Agent Smith gave Katherine a sheet of paper and said, “These are the call logs for the last few months. Some of the calls are highlighted. How do you explain them?”
“Firstly they are not to Earth they're to Luna. We were checking prices for the hotels there. We were thinking about going there for our honey moon.”
“Why check prices? We don't have money here.”
“Yes but we thought there was a limit to how much we could charge to the state for out honeymoon.”
“How considerate of you. So Ms Goodings you wanted to travel to Earth.”
“No we wanted to travel to Luna. Which isn't a crime. Neither is going to or calling Earth.”
Agent Smith took the paper back and said, “Do you happen to have any accounts on Luna?”
Katherine laughed and said, “Of course not.” Agent Smith handed her another sheet of paper. Katherine took a look at it then said, “This is bullshit.”
“So you dispute this evidence?”
“Yes, I dispute this evidence. I dispute this whole inquiry. I know what it's about you know.”
“And what is that?”
“I know my sister is being investigated as well. It's about us being bioengineered. This is the only reason we're suspects.” Katherine stood up and threw the reports at Agent Smith, “I've had enough of this.” She started towards the door.
Agent Smith stood up and said, “Katherine Goodings I'm placing you under arrest for espionage.”
“Damn.”
***
As soon as he got the news Paul went straight round to see Anne. The first thing he said as soon as he was through the door was, “You've heard that Katherine's been arrested.”
“Yes, I was actually informed about it this time.”
“So what are you going to do about it?”
“There's not a lot that I can do.”
“So you're just going to abandon her.”
“That's a pretty radical interpretation of what I said.”
“This is just like you. Being linked to a suspected spy isn't going to help your career so you're not going to do anything.”
“Goddamn it.” Anne hit the table, surprising Paul. “How long have you known Katherine?”
“A few months.”
“Right. I've been friends with her for more than two years now and the fact that she's having to go through this is tearing me up. So I really don't need you coming in here acting as if it's my fault.”
“Sorry. I know that this isn't your fault.”
“Well I guess we're both upset by what has happened. Look I'll do whatever I can to help Katherine I just don't know what that is yet.”
***
Anyone looking in Katherine's cell would have thought that she was asleep. She was sat with her back resting against the wall, her head tilted forwards and her eyes closed. She was actually thinking about the project. There had been a problem with the sensor arrays and before the arrest she had been close to finding a solution. She was now mentally going over the schematics, trying to work out what to do.
Katherine looked up as she heard the door opening. As a guard came in she jumped to her feet and said, “So am I going to be released?”
“I'm afraid not. You might be here a while, so we've been instructed to move a different building, where the facilities are better. You might actually be able to get some sleep.”
“Staying here bad, sleep good.”
The guard held out form, “We need you to sign this.”
“And if I don't?”
“We can't move you.”
“Fine,” Katherine held out her hand. She was about to sign it but stopped. Looking at the guard she said, “This isn't a confession is it?” The guard didn't respond to this. After reading over the paper and finding it just gave permission to be moved to a different building Katherine signed it. Handing it over she said, “Well then let's go.” The guard put some cuffs on her and led her out.
***
Katherine was taken to a shuttle which took her to the prison centre. She was met by a pair of guards who led her to a waiting room. The walls were an antiseptic white colour and the room was bare save for a table and a few chairs. “Wait here, your lawyer wants to talk to you.”
“My lawyer?” Katherine asked. Seeing the guards had gone she sat down saying to herself, “I've never needed a lawyer before.”
***
After Paul had left Anne spent her time alternating between working on the paperwork for the project and trying to find a way to help Katherine. By the end of the day, she wasn't sure which was the more frustrating. She just knew that she hadn't made much progress with either. Glancing over at the clock she decided to start again on both the next day. Sitting back in her chair Anne glanced at the pile of paperwork that remained. It suddenly didn't seem important to her. Sitting forwards Anne wrote a note for one of the administrators to handle it and stuck it to the pile. She then activated her her com system and made a call to Abigail.. As the answer service came on she said, “Abigail, it's Anne. I need to talk to you about Katherine. Call me as soon as possible.”
***
Paul was starting to prepare dinner for himself and his wife when the doorbell rang. “I'll get it,” Karen said. Going and opening the door she greeted the person there, “Sandra.”
“Hi,” Sandra said, “Can I come in?”
“Sure,” Karen said, leading her into he living room. “So how are you holding...” Karen started to ask as she turned towards Karen. She stopped, seeing that Karen was struggling to keep from breaking down. Quickly moving over to Karen Sandra wrapped her arms round her, whispering “It'll be okay, it'll be okay.”
After a couple of minutes Sandra broke away saying, “I'm sorry. I didn't come here to cry all over you.”
“Don't be, I understand.”
Paul came in saying, “Who was...” He stopped when he saw Sandra and said, “Ah, Sandra have you been to see Katherine?”
Sandra shook her head, “She's been transferred to another building. There's been a clerical error and they don't know where she's been moved to.”
“Well that's just not acceptable,” Karen fumed, “What are they doing about it?”
“They say they're doing everything they can but...” Sandra just shrugged, indicating she didn't think it was enough.
“We were about to have dinner,” Paul said.
“I'm sorry, I didn't mean to intrude.”
“You're not,” Karen interjected, “What my husband meant was, you should join us.”
“Yeah,” Paul said, “That's what I meant.”
“Thanks, I should just go and clean up.”
“Poor girl,” Karen whispered, almost to herself when Sandra had gone.
“Which one?” Paul asked.
“Both.”
***
It wasn't till a couple of days later that Abigail called Anne back. "Sorry," She said, "I've been tied up here, only just got your message. So what can I do for you?"
"You're aware of what's happened to Katherine, I'm sure."
"I knew she was being investigated, how's that going?"
For a moment Anne couldn't say anything, surprised that Abigail didn't know that her sister had been arrested. "She was arrested two days ago."
"Son of a bitch," Abigail swore, "I'm sorry, I had no idea that had happened. What evidence do they have?"
"They're keeping pretty quiet about that."
"What does Katherine say?"
"That's the thing. She was transferred shortly after being arrested and seems to have fallen through the beuracratic gaps."
Abigail considered this a moment, "Suspicious."
"That's what I was thinking."
"Okay, well I'll look into finding her and making sure she gets a decent lawyer, but there really has been a leak from the agency hasn't there?"
"Surely you don't think it's her?"
"Of course not. It's just the only way to get her out might well be to find the real culprit." Abigail sat back a moment, considering something, "You know I've read your record."
"That must have been interesting reading," Anne said in a wry tone.
"I admit I've never seen the word redacted so often in a single file. However what little wasn't classified did suggest you're pretty good at analyticiall thinking, working out clues and things. So maybe this is right up your alley."
"I'll consider it."
"And I'll work on finding my missing sister."
***
After talking to Abigail Anne brought up her schedule and instructed the computer to cancel all of her appointments for the day. After a while it told her that she had a meeting that morning which had been flagged as high priority. Bringing up the details she saw that it was with Mr Malovich. “I thought that Graham was dealing with him,” She muttered.
***
Walking into the meeting room Anne was surprised to see Ada waiting for her rather than Mr Malovich. "I was expecting Mr Malovich," She said.
"He had to return to Luna for some business. He has left me to take care of everything."
"Very well then, let's get started."
Anne brought up some schematics and started going over the plans for the ship. After she'd been speaking a while Ada interrupted saying, “Is something wrong?” As Anne looked up at her she went on, “You seem worried about something.”
“It's... not important, just a personal matter.”
Ada nodded then said, "One thing that concerns me is how are you going to communicate with the ship?"
"We'll be able to use the standard tachyon arrays once it has arrived."
"When it's arrived, not when it's in transit."
"We've been working on a means to communicate with the ship while travelling, but haven't been able to get it working."
"So if something goes wrong on route they'll be on their own."
"Which is why we're making sure to send an experienced team who can deal with any problems."
Ada nodded and turned back to the display.
When Anne had finished Ada said, "Well you seem to have it pretty well worked out, the question is what do you need from Malovich industries?"
***
Once Anne had finished her meeting with Ada she returned to her office. After instructing her computer that she didn't want to be disturbed she started working a way to help Katherine. The only thing that she could come up with was to find the real spy in order to get Katherine off the hook, though she knew that that would hardly be easy. Anne accessed the personnel files and began looking at people who had access to critical information. She stopped after looking at a couple of files as it occurred to her that it might be someone outside the agency who had contacts within it. On a hunch she looked at Tony's file. There were a number of warnings and criticisms of his attitude. However it had gotten a lot worse recently. Checking the dates she saw his behaviour had deteriorated around the time he was chosen to be the main test pilot for the project. It was also around the time that Paul's design was chosen for the project. “So did something happen then? Or was he being influenced somehow?”
Remembering something that Simon had said to her she turned on her comunicator and called him.
“Hi Anne, what can I do for you?”
“Remember when we were working on the presentations? You said you had a new girlfriend.”
“Yeah, she left me soon after that.”
“What was her name?”
“Crystal. I seem to recall she went off with the test pilot. I guess I wasn't exciting enough for her. So why bring this up now?”
“We still on for Friday?”
“Of course.”
“I'll tell you then.”
Simon sighed, “I don't seem to have much luck with the women.” He brightened a little, “You know I always thought that we'd be good together.”
Anne shook her head, “Sorry, you're not my type.”
“To be frank, I'm starting to think you don't have a type.”
“Well, to be Anne, I think you might be right. Well I'll see you Friday.”
“Sure, I got a new deck yesterday.”
“hopefully ones which are opaque to infrared light.”
“Uh,” Simon blushed, “I'm telling you that was an honest mistake.”
“Of course it was. Well bye.” Turning off the com unit, Anne sat back and thought about what Simon had told her.
***
Anne spent the next couple of hours double checking her theory, Once she was sure of the facts she called Paul into her office.
“What's up?” He asked.
“I know a way to help Katherine.” Anne hesitated a moment, wondering if she should really involve Paul in her plan. “However it's illegal.”
“What, we're going to break her out of prison?” Paul didn't really see that as being a long term solution.
“No but we will be arrested if we're caught. So are you in?”
“Sure.”
***
As they walked down a corridor of an apartment complex Paul asked, “Who are we going to see?”
“Crystal.”
“Whatever for?” Paul asked, after a moments thought he said, “Unless you think that she's the spy.”
“Exactly. I checked Tony's record and his behaviour took a turn for the worse about the same time as he started dating Crystal which just happens to be the same time that he was chosen to act as the test pilot. Also there's her predilection for people who are working for Agency and connected to the project. Not only Tony and Michael but also Simon, when his design was the favourite.” Stopping at a door Anne hit the door buzzer.
“What are you going to say? Have you been selling confidential information to Earth?”
“I'm hoping that she isn't in.” Anne pressed the buzzer again. After a few seconds she got some tools out of her bag.
Paul watched as she opened the panel and began fiddling with it. “Come on. You don't think that you're going to...” Paul stopped as the doors opened. “Where did you learn to do that?”
“Misspent youth.” Was all Anne said as she entered the room.
They began searching through the room. After a few minutes Anne said, “Aha.”
Paul rushed over to see her moving a picture to show a safe behind. “Can you open it?” He asked,
“I should be able to. The tricky part is it's most likely to be rigged to destroy the contents should anyone tamper with it.” She began examining the safe, “This may take a while.”
Paul went and sat down as he waited. He kept glancing over at the door, certain that at any moment Crystal would return and catch them there. Paul jumped as he heard something opening. It took a moment to figure out it was the safe. Getting up he asked, “What have you got?”
“Looks to be a lot of classified information from the agency. Here.” Anne passed some of the files from the safe to Paul. “I think this will get Katherine off the hook. I mean she has no reason to have this stuff.”
“But how do we explain being in here?”
“Let me handle...” Anne stopped and moved to one side of the room as the doors opened.
***
Crystal paused outside her apartment, there seemed to be something wrong with the door control. Deciding that she'd check it later she opened the door. For a moment she couldn't believe what she was seeing. What was an engineer from the agency doing in her apartment. “What are you doing in here?”
“Just looking about. I'm thinking about getting an apartment in this area and wanted to see one first.”
“I'm calling security.” Crystal started towards the com unit, keeping Paul in her sight. As she did she tried to figure out how he'd gotten in.
“Go ahead, I'm sure they'd be interested in this stuff.” Paul lifted the files he had been holding.
Crystal looked at the files in his hand then. For a moment she wondered how he had managed to break into her her safe without setting off the alarm that should have destroyed the contents. Deciding that that was rather moot now she walked up to him saying, “Then again why trouble them over such a small thing.” Crystal smiled slightly.
“Uh well...” Paul stammered.
Crystal raised her hand to his chest, “I mean it's not as if I mind you being here.” with her other hand she reached behind her back and began to slowly pull out a long needle.
“You're right. Lets leave security out of this,” Paul grinned at Crystal as he said this.
“Now why don't you...” Crystal stopped as she felt a gun being put against her head. She let go of the needle and raised both her hands.
“Why don't you try that succubus crap on me?” The person holding the gun asked.
Without moving her head, Crystal moved her eyes to see who it was. “Anne.”
“And you would be Marta Hari. I know what you're doing to him.”
“You probably think you're immune.”
“I know I am.”
“Yes Tony did mention that about you.” Crystal smiled as Anne started to blush. Realising that her abilities weren't affecting Anne, Crystal decided to try a different tact, “I could just ask Paul here to take the gun off of you and he would.”
Anne pressed the gun harder against Crystal's head, “You'd be dead before you finished the sentence.”
It was clear to Crystal that if she was going to get out of this then she would have to buy herself some time. She released her hold on Paul saying, “Fine, have it your way.”
Paul blinked a couple of times, looking dazed. “What just happened?”
“You were just being a man.”
Paul focused on what Anne was holding, “You brought a gun?”
“My mother always told me to be prepared.”
“But a gun? Is it even legal?”
“Don't worry I have a valid license. Well are you going to call security?”
“Oh yeah.”
With her free hand Anne reached behind Crystal's back and pulled out the needle she had there. She looked at it a moment then said, “Interesting, poisoned I presume.”
Crystal smiled, “If you give it to me I'll show you.”
Instead of answering Anne turned slightly and threw the needle onto a desk. “If you've got any other weapons like that then don't even think about going for one of them.” Anne went to sit down, still keeping her gun aimed at Crystal. “You know, I used to know someone like you.”
“Like me? You mean someone who's perfect.”
“I mean a succubus. She had silver hair and really large eyes, she looked like something out of those old Manga films.” Anne looked into Crystal's eyes and said, “Believe me when I say that you don't want to know what happened to her.”
***
Paul wasn't certain how, but somehow Anne was able to explain to security what they had been doing in Crystal's apartment. Crystal was taken into custody and the evidence collected up. The security services promised to evaluate the new evidence. A couple of days later Anne called Paul into her office to tell him that Katherine had been located and that she was being released. Before long they were both sat in the security office waiting for Katherine to be released. Paul hadn't had much chance to talk to Anne, let alone discuss what had happened. Deciding he needed to discuss it with someone he said, “I still can't really believe what happened.”
“What, that we got Katherine off? I have to admit I wasn't expecting it to be quite so easy.”
“Easy? Not quite how I'd put it. Anyway, what I meant was the fact that I wanted to sleep with a woman who wasn't my wife.”
“Oh, that. Well it wasn't your fault.”
“How could it not be?”
“Because she's a succubus.”
Paul remembered Anne having used that word before but still didn't understand, “I don't know what one of those is.”
“It means she's had cybernetic implants to help her control people, using pheromones and stuff like that.”
“You weren't affected. But I guess that you're immune because you're a woman.”
“No. I'm immune because I've been conditioned to be immune.”
“Oh.” It occurred to Paul that there was a lot that he didn't know about Anne. “So will we have to testify?”
“I doubt if this will go to trial.” Seeing the look of disbelief on Paul's face she went on, “I mean we might have been able to get the security forces to accept us being there, but any decent lawyer will get the evidence thrown out.”
“So then what was the point?”
“What was the point? That was.” Anne indicated the other side of the room.
“I am not a spy.” Katherine said as a guard removed her manacles. She started to approach them, but stumbled slightly. Righting herself Katherine walked over to them. “So I take it I have the two of you to thank for my current state of freedom.”
“We didn't do much,” Anne insisted.
“Well I'm grateful to both of you. I understand the actual spy was little miss skankbot.”
“If by that you mean Crystal then yes it was,” Paul said, “How have you been holding up, I can imagine it was very nice.”
“You know it wasn't so bad. I mean the cell was pretty clean, and I got room service. It was quite nice to get a break away from work.”
“I'm glad you're well rested,” Anne said, “Since you'll need to get right back to work. You've got a lot of wasted days to catch up for.”
“Right away.”
TBC
bad writer, no cookie