“Something I’ve been working on, on my own,” Roarke said when Reva lifted her eyebrows. “An individual security scanner, higher intensity than what’s on the market currently. It’ll also read vital signs, which will come in handy for evaluating a subject’s state of mind during scan.”
“Is it safe?” Caro had risen, walked over quietly. “I’m sorry, but if it hasn’t been approved, there may be some risk.”
“I’ve used it myself,” he assured her. “It’s quite safe. It’ll feel warm on the skin as it scans,” he told Reva. “Not uncomfortably so, but you’ll notice the change in temperature as it moves from area to area.”
“Let’s just get it done. I’ve got the Truth Testing scheduled today. I’d like a little time between scans and probes if it’s all the same to you.”
“Computer, open scanner.”
Acknowledged.
A door opened on the tube with a little puff of air. At Roarke’s gesture, Reva stepped inside, turned to face the room.
“Begin process on Ewing, Reva, full body, full power on my command. It needs to read and record your height,” he said. “Your weight, your body mass, and so on.”
“Fine.”
“When the door closes, the process should only take a few moments. There’ll be an audio and video readout, if you don’t object.”
“Just do it.”
“Computer, begin.”
The door of the tube closed. The lights inside it turned to a cool blue. Eve listened as Reva’s body statistics were noted. A horizontal red beam rose up from the floor of the tube, slowly traveling up the body, down again. Her various injuries were listed, and the evaluation of healing.
“Excellent.” Reva’s voice sounded hollow through the tube, but she was beginning to grin. Eve could see that most of the temper had drowned in professional fascination. “And thorough. You’re going to need to get this on the market.”
“A few more tweaks,” Roarke said.
Then came a series of red and blue beams, crisscrossing her body, pulsing as they scanned her, section by section from feet to head.
Electronic device located, subdermal, sector two.
“What the hell is it talking about?” Her tone a quick jerk of panic, Reva pressed her hands against the tube. “Where’s section two? This is bullshit.”
Roarke noted the increase in her pulse rate, her blood pressure.
“Let it finish out, Reva.”
“Hurry up. Just hurry up. I want to get out of here.”
“It’s all right, Reva.” Caro spoke softly. “Only a little more, and it’ll be done. Everything’s going to be all right.”
“Nothing’s all right. Nothing’s going to be all right again.”
No secondary device detected. Single electronic device, operable, subdermal, section two. Request command to mark location.
“Do so,” Roarke ordered.
There was a quick hum, a flash. Reva slapped a hand at the back of her neck, as though she’d been stung by a bee.
Eval and scan complete.
“Save and display all data. Release seal, end program.”
The lights in the tube winked off, and the door opened.
“Inside me? Under my skin.” She held her hand cupped over the back of her neck. “How could I not know? I swear to God, I swear I didn’t know.”
“I never thought you did. Sit down now.”
“An internal. It would require a procedure. I haven’t had a procedure. It can’t be there.”
“It is there.” Roarke drew her to a chair, stepped back when Caro sat beside her, took her hand. “Planted there without your knowledge, without your acquiescence.”
“I’d have had to have been unconscious. I haven’t been unconscious.”
“You’ve been asleep, haven’t you?” Eve broke in. “Somebody’s asleep, it’s not hard to give them a little bump with a pressure syringe and take them under. Or to slip something into food or drink so they’d sleep through an implant.”
“I sleep at home, in my own damn bed. The only person who’d be able to pull off something like that would’ve been… Blair,” she finished on a shaky breath. “But that’s crazy. He didn’t know anything about internals or subdermal devices.”
She saw the look Roarke and Eve exchanged. “What is this? What the hell is this?”
“I didn’t tell her, Lieutenant.” Roarke inclined his head. “It wasn’t my place to.”
Eve stepped up to Reva. “You’re going to have to toughen up, because this is going to be a punch in the face.”
She told Reva the way she’d want to be told. Straight, clean, without emotion. She watched her sag, lose color, saw the tears swim into her eyes. But they didn’t fall, and the color came back.
“He… they marked me, as a source for information.” Her voice was hoarse. “To spy, through me, on Securecomp, and possibly other areas of Roarke Industries through my mother. Also…” She paused, cleared her throat and spoke in stronger tones. “It makes sense to assume they were using my connection with the Secret Service, President Foster, and members of her staff I remain friendly with. They would, through this implant, have recorded any and all conversations, professional and personal.”
She took the glass of water Peabody brought over without glancing up. “I have, in my supervisory position at Securecomp, numerous discussions every day with techs, giving directives, receiving status reports. It’s my habit to log my own reports verbally. It helps me to see the progress, or any necessity for a new direction. They’d know everything about my projects, and any I assisted on since they put this thing in me. They were sucking me dry, the two of them. Every day. Every day.”
She looked up at Roarke. “I betrayed you after all.”
“You did not.” Caro’s tone was harsh and impatient. “You were betrayed, and that’s a difficult thing. But feeling sorry for yourself isn’t productive. No one’s blaming you, and blaming yourself at this point is an indulgence you can’t afford.”
“I’m entitled to a little brooding time when I’ve been technologically raped, for God’s sake.”
“Brood later. How do we remove it?” Caro asked Roarke, then shifted her gaze to Eve. “Or do we?”
“I thought about leaving it in. It’s an option, but I’d rather have it out. I’d rather, if anyone’s still listening, that they know we’re onto them. It could bring them to the surface faster.”
“They killed Blair and Felicity, and set me up. Why?”
“The setup? I’d say because you were convenient. As to the hit, I don’t know yet. Maybe it was HSO, maybe it was the other side. Either way, they knew how to get in, how to corrupt data, and how to get you where they wanted you to take the fall. All that took some time and some planning. Either Bissel or Kade, maybe both of them, were marked for termination. When I find out why, I can work from there.”
“We can have the device removed here. I have someone in-house with medical training,” Roarke explained.
“Get it out.” Reva rubbed a hand at the nape of her neck. “I want a look at it.”
“Set it up,” Eve told Roarke. “Reva, you can’t discuss any of this on the outside. Not even with your lawyers. Not yet. But I want you to contact someone in the SS, or on Foster’s staff, whoever you think best. I want them to set up a meet for me with someone in the HSO with enough grease to know about Bissel and Kade. I don’t have time to waste on some office drone. I want someone with juice.”
“I’ll reach out.”
“Good. I’m going to leave the electronics to the people who know what the hell to do about them.” She said this, looking at Roarke. “And I’m going to go do some cop work, if you’ll open this place up again.”
“Computer, end lockdown. Resume normal operations.”
Acknowledged.
“I’ll be a few moments,” Roarke told Reva and Caro, then left them alone to walk out with Eve.
“Peabody, go see how the EDD boys are doing. I’ll catch up with you.”