Second Skin by Eric Van Lustbader Read Free Book Online Page B

through the tech’s blood, observing as the nerve toxin swept along, until he isolated the substances he needed. Moving his psyche to different organ sites within Watanabe’s body and brain, he stimulated the production of antibodies, hormones, complex neuropeptides that would naturally inhibit the poison. Only when he was certain the tech was stable did he ascend backward into the cool, monochromatic light of normal reality.
    Nicholas, emerging fully from Tau-tau, called for security and, when the three men came at the run, had them move Watanabe to the company infirmary. ‘Get some ice on this as soon as you get him upstairs,’ he told one of the security officers. ‘When the ambulance arrives, tell them this man has been poisoned with a form of nerve paralyzer. And I want you and another man with him at all times, even in the hospital. Don’t leave his side. Got it?’
    ‘Yes, sir,’ the officer said as the elevator doors closed.
    Nicholas sprinted for the chairman’s elevator, used his key, punched up the fortieth floor. An icy dread gripped his heart. Watanabe should not have been off the R&D floor. What was he doing in the men’s room on the mezzanine at the same time that the American Cord McKnight was in there? Nicholas thought he knew, but he needed confirmation, and that would only come at Watanabe’s workstation in R&D.
    The elevator door opened and he stepped out onto the main floor of Sato International’s Research and Development division. He found the night-shift manager, told him in broad strokes what had happened. ‘Get a security detail up here on the double,’ he said. ‘I want the main corridor manned night and day. I’m going to be fiddling with Watanabe-san’s computer, probably taking it off network, so make sure the internal alarm is overridden.’
    ‘Yes, sir,’ the stricken man said. ‘Right away.’
    ‘Also, get me the man in charge of transferring the CyberNet data.’
    ‘That was Watanabe-san.’
    ‘His supervisor, then. Tell him to meet me at Watanabe-san’s office.’
    ‘I’ll find Matsumura-san immediately.’
    Nicholas followed the night manager’s directions and found Watanabe’s office without difficulty. The tech’s computer was on. It showed that the downloading of the CyberNet data was still in progress. On the other hand, when Nicholas accessed the menu for the main data bank and punched in his access codes, he discovered that the CyberNet data had already been transferred to the core. That meant despite all the safeguards that had been put in place, someone had made an unauthorized copy of the proprietary CyberNet data.
    Returning to Watanabe’s program, he saw that it was off-line the R&D network. Watanabe had somehow run the CyberNet data through his own program. That meant he could have made a minidisc copy. Theoretically, this should have been impossible. Nicholas’s own techs stateside had assured him the version they were sending contained an encryption that prohibited unauthorized copying. He could not, however, refute the evidence of his own eyes. Watanabe had found a way to defeat the encryption.
    ‘Linnear-san?’
    A slender, pale-faced man with wire-rimmed glasses and almost no hair had appeared. ‘I am Junno Matsumura.’
    ‘You are Watanabe-san’s supervisor?’
    ‘Yes, sir.’
    Nicholas brought him up to speed.
    His eyes were wide behind the lenses. ‘I can’t believe what has happened.’
    ‘That makes two of us. I’ve found that Watanabe-san took his terminal offnet. Can you tell me if any other terminal was offnet at the same time?’
    ‘Let me check.’ Matsumura bent over the terminal and, using the trackball mouse with lightning speed, went into the core data banks. ‘None, sir. Only this one was offnet.’
    Nicholas breathed a bit easier. That meant that whatever Watanabe was up to, he did it on his own. So now Nicholas knew what Watanabe had been doing in the mezzanine men’s room: passing the copy he’d made of the