“It’s a chip manufacturing plant. The smallest ever built. They produce the ID chips that everyone in Daydawn has to carry. Every single machine is supposed to be licensed and in the hands of the government or its agents.”
“So, Zurine should not have had this,” Hallie concluded, looking around the rest of the room. If she’d been asked to describe what she would have expected a forger’s workspace to look like, she’d have come up with something like this. The place was spotlessly clean. One wall held two sets of shelves. One was a rack of wide, shallow shelves which contained what Hallie thought were sheets of different weights of paper and plastics. The other set of shelves were deeper, holding wire baskets all neatly labelled. From what Hallie could read and understand there were various tools and different types of metal and other components. There was a long workbench that held no fewer than three different printers, all of various sizes, and another workbench that held what looked to Hallie like a full chemistry set.
On the other side of the machine Girard was still muttering about was a wooden partition that went most of the way across the room. On the other side of the partition was what looked, for all the world, like an ordinary shop front if shops had no windows. The shop front was divided by a short workbench that sat in the middle of the room and had plain, three-legged stools on either side, for the forger and her customers, Hallie guessed. From Hallie’s vantage point behind the bench she could see that the shelf under the bench was filled with bits of equipment anda couple of desk lamps whose heads could be angled and tilted. There was nothing else in the room, not even a lock box for cash. At the other side of the room was a plain door that would, if Hallie’s guess was correct, lead out at the back of the building. So Zurine’s patrons would be able to come around the back, into an anonymous door and meet her in this plain room. Zurine would be able to hide most of her equipment away behind the partition, which also had a sliding door so the business side of her operation could be sealed off. And Hallie also guessed that the outside door was far enough away from the shop’s back door that, from the outside, the two felt quite separate. Although she was also sure that Zurine would have conducted her side business when the clothes shop was shut. The forger would not have wanted to risk the two getting mixed up.
“This is definitely her base,” Hallie said, coming back to the workroom. Taking another look around, she could see a stool and a blank spot on the workbench next to the chemistry set, with a connector lead sitting on the scarred wooden surface. “She had a laptop here, too. But I would wager she has that with her.”
“I’m not taking that bet,” Girard said. He shook his head, looking around. “I’m not an expert, but this looks like exactly what you’d need to create false IDs. And I’m guessing that that set up,” he pointed to what Hallie had mentally labelled the chemistry set, “would allow her to make fake skin as well, to mask the original chip.”
Hallie looked around the room again and felt a combination of frustration and elation. She knew that this was a major discovery. From what she knew, and what others had said, it was virtually impossible for someone to falsify identities down to the ID chip so that someone could adopt a completely new identity. Thehochlenwould take this find as a major triumph, putting a stop to perhaps the only person in the world - and certainlythe only person in Daydawn - who had managed to master the techniques.
But - and it was a big but - none of this took them any closer to finding Findo Trask, to working out if there was a connection between him and whoever was threatening the Conclave. That was the real job. That was why they’d been looking for the forger.
Someone would need to go through the room and see if there was any information or clues as to where Zurine might be going, or who her clients were. But from a glance around, Hallie didn’t think there would be anything here. For one thing, she had spotted a box of blue latex gloves in one of the wire baskets. It was unlikely they’d find even a fingerprint in this room. So nothing to trace it back to Zurine, if that was her name, and if they could find her. There might be fingerprints in the shop area, although Hallie wasn’t confident about that. Zurine seemed to be meticulous and careful, and Hallie could imagine she regularly cleaned all the surfaces that might hold prints.
Her mind spun in circles, trying to piece together what she knew and what she didn’t know, and fill in the gaps and make some guess as to where Zurine might go or what she might do next. Without much information, it was a fruitless exercise, but Hallie’s mind still tried to do it. That, combined with the sense of displacement she had after the rapid move the night before and her mother’s unexpected and angry visit was making her whole body itch, leaving her restless and slightly crazed. She wanted to do something.
“I need to move,” Hallie said to Girard. “I know someone has to go through the stuff here, but I’d like to move, to walk, for a bit.”
“I’ve sent the director the address and serial number of the machine,” Girard told her, putting his phone away. “He’s sending Jasper and Dudon right now. I’ll make sure this is secure, then head back to the shop front. It will be easier todirect them there. Can you stay close by, perhaps walk around the block, until the others get here?”
Relieved he hadn’t insisted that she stay put and wait for the more junior investigators, Hallie nodded. She headed out the plain door into the chill mid-morning air and drew a much-needed deep breath. She’d been right. The door did lead to the back of the building, a narrow road which had a few commercial waste bins on the shop side. On the other side of the road was a plain, high stone wall that probably bordered the gardens of the few large houses in this area. She heard Girard lock the door behind her. A sensible precaution. Neither of them wanted anyone else stumbling onto Zurine’s secret before they’d had a chance to study things further.
With her body tense, feet itching to get going, Hallie set off alongside the high wall, following it to the end and then turning the corner. Even if she went out of sight, she knew Girard would be able to find her with his tracking magic. And moving was helping. Even the few strides along the wall to the end had calmed her, settled her. She started trying to focus on the things around her to take her out of her own head. Thinking in circles wasn’t going to help. Walking in circles and paying attention to her surroundings might.
She caught the faint scent of some kind of winter-flowering plant, almost certainly from just over one of the high stone walls, and the faint murmur of what sounded like running water. The gardens here might have water features. She noticed that the walls were all well-maintained, free of weeds and odd gaps. The ground under her was plain tarmac, in contrast to the cobblestones in the main street. Whoever was in charge of the maintenance of this area must like the look of cobblestones, even though tarmac was far more pleasant to drive and walk on.
She got to the end of the block and paused, wondering where to go next. By chance, she’d stopped in the shadow of thebuilding, and so had a very clear view across the street to a large, dark, panelled van that was pulling to a halt and the black-clad person in the driver’s seat. She pressed back against the wall, heart thudding. She’d last seen that sort of outfit in Minamaan when she and Girard and Frollo’s team had been attacked.
Not giving herself time to think, she turned and ran back along the length of the building, finding that the storeroom door was still open. She burst inside, remembering to pause and bar it shut behind her, and then ran into the shop front, where Girard was standing at the cash register, frowning at his phone screen.
He looked up when she came in and started a welcoming smile.
“That was quick, I thought -” He broke off, putting his phone away. “What’s wrong?”
“More attackers on the way,” Hallie said, a little out of breath. “Dark van. Other side of the street. Look.”
Girard took a look and muttered a curse. “Let’s head upstairs. Best defensive position,” he added, following her as she turned and headed back into the stockroom.
She sprinted up the stairs, remembering to skip over the tripwire and followed him into Zurine’s apartment. Girard was on his phone as the two of them made it into the entryway.
“Sir, we’ve got trouble here. Requesting backup.”
There was a brief pause, then Girard went on.
“Unknown number of hostiles but wearing the same gear as those we encountered in Minamaan, so assuming similarly well-armed.”
Another pause. Hallie could hear that it was Peredur on the other side of the call, although she couldn’t make out his words.
“We both have handguns and a couple of extra magazines each. I’ve got body armour. We’re upstairs in the forger’s apartment.”
Another pause.
“Yes, I think the equipment is secure. The doors are back in place and locked.” Girard was tense, eyes briefly meeting Hallie’s as they stood next to the wall. “Understood.”
Girard ended the call, made some adjustment to his phone, then set the camera against the peephole in the door, extending his arm so he was to one side of the door, with Hallie, but they could both see what was on the screen. Just then it was a rather boring view of the stairs leading up to the apartment.
“Clever,” Hallie approved. “Backup on the way?”
