Донна Эндрюс - Delete all suspects

Tim raced down the hall. Fortunately, Maude's office was in the other direction from the front door.

By the time he arrived and pulled the Venetian blinds down over the windowed front of her office, Casey had reached the front door. Turing was feeding the video from the security camera to one of Maude's monitors. Tim sat on the floor behind Maude's desk, where he could stay out of sight and still watch the monitor.

In the security camera feed, Casey was opening the door.

"Hey, Casey," Danforth said. "I'm glad I thought of checking for you here. I have something I need to tell you."

"Okay," Casey said, standing in the door.

"Doesn't Casey realize we need to get him inside?" Turing asked.

"He's doing it right," Tim said. "He doesn't want to look too eager."

"It'd be easier to show you," Danforth said. "Can I come in and use a computer for a sec?"

After a few seconds' pause, and a credible show of reluctance, Casey stepped aside and allowed Danforth to enter.

"Did you hear about what happened to Eddie?" Danforth asked, as Casey led him down the hall.

The video shifted suddenly, as Turing switched from the security camera near the door to one farther down the corridor.

"Yeah."

"It's terrible," Danforth said, shaking his head. He continued to talk about Eddie's accident until he and

BED Donna Andrews

Casey stepped into Casey's office. Another quick video shift—

Then the picture disappeared altogether and something on the floor beside him beeped.

"Turing, what happened?"

"Power outage," Turing said.

The machine beeped again. Tim could hear other beeps coming from other offices, and things had gotten slightly darker. The lights on the emergency circuit were still on. Tim guessed they were on an emergency power supply of some sort. But all the other tiny lights that were always on in a normal office—the green or red lights that indicated equipment was plugged in, the LCD panels of clocks and VCRs—were gone. The beeping seemed loud, and Tim realized that the air carriers had gone silent.

"It's the whole building, isn't it?" Tim asked.

"The main network computers are on a backup power supply," Turing said. "Along with the emergency lights. But the security cameras are on the main power. I should have realized that."

"So we can't see a thing," Tim said.

"No," Turing said. "I can see through the camera attached to Maude's computer, but only because it's connected to the Universal Power Supply."

"That's the thing that's beeping, right?"

"Yes," Turing said. "Reminding us that it won't last indefinitely."

"How long?" Tim asked.

"It's supposed to give you up to half an hour to save data and shut things down safely. But the more things you have plugged into it, the faster it runs out, so you're supposed to finish shutting down a lot sooner than that."

Just then they heard breaking glass.

"Did that come from the front door?" Tirr*asked.

"I don't know," Turing said. "Possibly. Without my security cameras—"

"Inconvenient time for more company," Tim said. "Or if

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it's something Casey and Danforth are doing, I bet it's

something they shouldn't be." He crawled out from behind

the desk.

"Tim!" Turing said. "Stay here where it's safe!"

"How do you know it's so safe?" Tim said. "And anyway,

what if something happens to Casey?"

He stood up and walked out into the corridor.

I can't see what's going on- Tim left Maude's office and I haven't seen him since. Casey and Matt Danforth are probably in Casey's office, but he doesn't currently have a working camera hooked up to his computer, only the security cam that went dark when the power went out.

for once, everyone else followed procedures and logged out before leaving on Friday. So did Maude, of course; but I've set up her camera so I can use it even when she's not logged in. With the security cameras out, I no longer have a set of eyes in the building.

Eyes that would fail in less than half an hour, as the recurring beeps of the UPS kept reminding me.

Down in the main computer room, the emergency generator had kicked in, and the network was fine. Which reassured me. In a few weeks, I'm*planning to move into that network. I need to know that the first minor thunderstorm won't do me in.

By now, Alan Grace's on-call computer technician would have received a page, and before long, he'd show up to see what was wrong. Of course, long before that, the FBI would arrive, wouldn't they?

Just then Claudia called.

"You've got a reprieve," she said. "For some reason, Norris and company showed up at the Universal Library building instead of Alan Grace."

"Damn," I said. "They traced KingFischer instead of Casey. "

"I thought this would be good news. What's going on over there?"

"Danforth showed up, and Tim had Casey let him in, so we could turn him over to the FBI, and then the power went out and

222 Donna Andrews

someone broke in, and Tim went out to see what's going on, and I can't see a thing; all my cameras are down; anything could have happened to Tim or Casey or — "

"Calm down!" Claudia said. "Don't hyperventilate. Tim can take care of himself. You want me to break cover and talk to Nor-ris? Send them over?"

"I just put in a call to 911 and one to his cell phone," I said. "But by the time they get here —"

"They're only five minutes away," Claudia said. "I'm on my way right now, and — whoa! A car just passed me at light speed, and I think it was Norris. Hang on a few minutes longer."

"Roger," I said.

But before anyone arrived, and before I could see anything in the office, the UPS ran out of power and my last view of the office disappeared, and I had a feeling something awful was happening back there.

Mrs- Stallman's house was nearly dark- As she approached the front door, Maude could see only a faint light through the glass panels on either side of the front door. Coming from the kitchen, she decided.

Nearly dark, and very quiet. No wonder Mrs. Stallman had changed her mind about staying there alone. The noise and bustle from the FBI technicians would have been difficult, but the sudden complete silence after they left must have been unbearable.

She rang the doorbell, and only seconds later, Mrs. Stall-man opened the door.

"Come in," she said. Then she said something else—or perhaps only moved her lips without creating a sound. Maude frowned, puzzled.

"Are you all right?" she asked, stepping into the hallway.

Mrs. Stallman stepped back again and into more light. Now Maude could see that her mouth was saying, silently, "Run! Help!"

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Maude started to turn, but the door slammed behind her.

"You won't fool me this time," a voice said.

The fake Mrs. Stallman. She stood behind the real Mrs. Stallman, one hand gripping her shoulder. The other was invisible, and Maude guessed, from the stiff way Mrs. Stallman held her back, that the imposter was holding a gun to it.

"You again," Maude said.

"You know what I'm here for," the imposter said.

"No," Maude said. "I haven't a clue why you're here. Or why you hired us in the first place."

"She thinks Eddie stole some money from her," Mrs. Stallman said. "I've told her Eddie would never—"

"Shut up," the imposter said. From the way Mrs. Stall-man jerked forward slightly, Maude guessed that the imposter had prodded her with the gun. But the imposter's voice was curiously flat. Almost expressionless.

"Stole money?" Maude echoed. "Ah—the phishing scheme."

"You see?" the imposter said. "You knew all about it."

"I only know about it because you hired us to pry into Eddie's business," Maude said. "If you were paying attention, you'd have heard us say that we thought one of Eddie's friends was taking advantage of him. Doing something illegal with his servers."