Dreams in the Tower Part 1 by Andrew Vrana Read Free Book Online Page B

word, a message box popped up on her desk screen that said, “Session terminated: Your activity has been logged and you will hear from a supervisor.” She watched in disbelief, her gut tying itself in knots, as the screen r eturned home. Within seconds, a vid-call box popped up containing the face of Lieutenant Garrol from the San Francisco office.
    “Detective Sabrina Sorensen,” he growled, his eyes pointing down and off screen.
    “Yes,” she whispered.
    “Listen closely.” His double chin wobbled as he spoke. “You are heretofore placed on a dministrative leave. You are to remain at your current place of residence until further notice. Your pay will be docked and you will be removed from all GPA activities and investigations until your case has been examined by an internal regulation committee, chosen from your peers in other departments. Do you understand what I have said?”
    “Yes.” Another whisper: it was all she could manage.
    “Dammit, Sorensen, why were you so persistent?” He looked up, and his voice became softer as he said, “You’ve been an outstanding detective, I’ll give that in my statement if I need to…which is why I want to give you some advice. When they come for you—no, don’t ask me, I don’t know when it will be—but when they come, be there and go with them peacefully. Do that and the worst that will happen is an unpaid vacation, maybe a pay cut.”
    “Are you having me arrested?”
    “No. Not exactly. I’m sorry, that’s all I can say. I’m very busy. Goodbye.”
    “But—”
    “Goodbye, Sorensen.”
    As the lieutenant’s face went to black, Sabrina felt sick. Were they going to inte rrogate her? What if they didn’t like what she told them? Garrol had sounded sincere, but there was no guarantee he even knew what would happen. They could kill her, silence her. Just like those people at the warehouse.
    No, she mustn’t think like that. Looking at a file, one available to any Guardian senior dete ctive, couldn’t be enough to have her killed. And anyway, was the information in the report really enough to prove that Silte Corp had orchestrated a series of murders and that Guardian had helped them? Her gut told her yes, but she didn’t know .
    A horrible feeling hit her then: all those people, the activists and hackers who she had inve stigated, all of them could be walking around with targets on their heads. They were criminals, to be sure, but they hadn’t earned executions, if that was what Silte had in mind. And if Silte (and Guardian, for that matter) truly killed a CIA agent to keep him quiet, then offing lowly hackers, who together might bring down the entire corporation, would be nothing.
    This was all too much. Sabrina had to find out more, but not here; it was too dangerous to stay now. She cleared out everything she needed from her desk into her bag and made to exit the building as quickly and silently as possible. She couldn’t tell Erris, not now or later when they were both back at the hotel. She couldn’t bear to drag her into this and risk her life as well, so Sabrina crept by the slim crack of Erris’s door and hurried on to what she hoped would be an uneventful bus ride back to her room at the Fairmont.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    6
     
    “Watch your head,” the security guard said as he helped Mike into the helicopter, han ding up his briefcase after Mike was in. The roar of the accelerating blades clogged his ears so he didn’t hear what the armored man said next. Mike had never seen Silte security wearing bulletproof armor before; usually not even the private police wore that. But this one looked like he was going into battle, with black body armor covering most of his torso and limbs, a handgun at one hip and a long-range stun gun at the other.
    Inside the helicopter, Mike took a seat on a cushioned leather chair. The interior was not u nlike the luxury cars that had taken him to company events back in