Nigel’s mind was working at light speed while he finished the fruitless search. Unfortunately, his mental calisthenics were equally fruitless. He had no weapon, and he wasn’t likely to find one between the accounting office and the exit.
Reminding himself that he’d already decided the trap wouldn’t be sprung until he’d shown the clone the way to home base, and hoping he was right, Nigel focused on trying to figure out some way of leaving the information for someone … just in case he didn’t make it.
They finally reached the point Nigel had been dreading. “Either that’s it, or it isn’t here.”
The clone nodded. “We’ll get this back to home base and let them study it. Maybe they’ll be able to crack it. It’s e-ink. Maybe it isn’t the message that appears on it now, but the one that was on it before?”
Nigel tried to look excited about the suggestion. “I hadn’t thought about that.”
When they’d exited Quasar Corp, he made his gambit. “See you back at base.”
The clone checked. “I don’t see any reason to split up. We’re out. They aren’t on to us. Anyway, I thought you were in a hurry to see Lena. I left her at the base.”
He should’ve known it wasn’t going to be that easy. It didn’t take a lot of thought to figure out if he made a break for it he’d be dead before he’d gone three feet. He had information the gov had already killed a half a dozen people to keep quiet. There was no way they would’ve planted it there for him to find unless they’d been ready to make sure he wasn’t going to live to pass it along.
It occurred to him as he merely shrugged and headed toward the people mover that the whole message might be bogus, but he decided after a few moments’ thought that he could be reasonably certain it was. They would’ve known that it had to be something good or he wouldn’t believe it was the evidence they were looking for. And if he wasn’t convinced, then he wouldn’t lead them back to the base.
He wouldn’t have risked it himself, but it occurred to him that the mastermind behind this nightmare had become increasingly desperate to locate the rebel base. The rebels must be getting close anyway, because he was starting to get really sloppy.
He didn’t even know Dax all that well and he’d sensed almost immediately that the dupe wasn’t Dax. Lena had figured out right away that Morris was a dupe, too. Of course neither man would’ve been easy to replicate. They’d both been like ghosts.
He met up with another moment of truth when they reached the entrance to the tube station. Take the clone on a wild goose chase and hope something would come to him? Or head directly for base and hope they had gotten the message he’d sent earlier and were waiting?
It wasn’t much of a contest. He didn’t want to risk dying with the information he had without making a hell of push to get in the right hands.
* * * *
Dax was sitting at his desk, his legs crossed on the top of it and a glass in his hand when Lena came out of the bath. She tilted her head, studying him for a moment to gauge his mood.
His gaze flickered over her slowly and then returned to the liquid he was idly swirling in his glass.
After a moment, instead of pulling on her suit, she moved to the bed and got in, pulling the sheet up and tucking it beneath her arms. “What is it?”
Dax’s gaze flickered to her. He shrugged, downing the last of the liquid in the glass. “I’ve been playing with the puzzle.”
Her brows rose. “The puzzle?” she echoed curiously.
“We’ve been compiling data for years. With no leads and hundreds of possible suspects, it’s no wonder we’ve barely scratched the surface. I decided to go back over it again after the conversation we had the other day.”
Lena frowned, casting around in her mind in search of what conversation he might be referring to.
“What you said about the gov, and the fact that whoever was behind this would have to be someone in power who didn’t have to worry about losing it through an election.”
“Oh!” She shrugged. “I’m a historian. Mostly we don’t always find specific facts, especially not since the storms when so much was destroyed. We have to figure out things by the process of eliminating the most unlikely.”
His lips curled faintly in a smile. “And sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees.”
Lena’s brows lifted. “Meaning, things go out of focus when you get too close?”
“Exactly. So, assuming the culprit really is somebody in the gov, and not some high powered corp head, eliminating the people we’ve already checked out, and all of the people that have to worry about getting re-elected every four years--the list is a lot shorter. In fact, really short, but I’m not sure any of these possibilities even make sense.”
Lena hesitated, but finally decided if he didn’t trust her nothing she could say was going to make him trust her less. “Can I look?”
As if he’d only been waiting for her to ask, he dragged his legs off of the desk, picked up a sheet of film and moved to the bed. Sprawling beside her, he handed her the list.
Lena read through the names slowly, pausing to dredge up what she knew about each of the men and women on the list. When she’d gotten to the bottom, she went over it again. “This woman is too young. She was only appointed to that position maybe five or six years ago. This man, too. He’s been around maybe twice that long, but the conspiracy predates his arrival on the scene.”
Dax looked her over appreciatively. After a moment, he got up, moved to his desk to collect a laser pen and returned, deleting the names from the list.
