Tears in Rain by Rosa Montero, Lilit Zekulin Thwaites Read Free Book Online Page A

superimposed image of the disembowelment seemed to be real, not virtual. Maybe it was of an animal in some slaughterhouse.
    “It’s in fact a fairly clumsy piece of work, Chi. I’d say it’s a homemade job. But it’s very effective, because that wholly unexpected and horrific butchery prevents you from noticing the defects. Can I hang on to it?”
    “Of course.”
    “I’ll return it as soon as I’ve analyzed it.”
    “As you can understand, there’s no way I want it. But yes, I suppose it’s evidence that has to be kept.”
    Hah
, thought Bruna,
I’ve got you
. Myriam had accompanied the sentence with a small sigh, and her strong and somewhat arrogant pose of the world-leader-who-is-above-such-trifles had cracked a little, showing a flash of fear. Yes, of course she was frightened, and rightly so. Husky vaguely recalled other, earlier incidents during Chi’s rallies that were violent and disruptive, even some supremacists who had tried to shoot her—or was it blow her up with a bomb? When Bruna had arrived at the RRM headquarters, she’d had to go through various security checks, including a full body scan.
    “And you say that, apart from you, there are only two other people authorized to enter this office?”
    “That’s right. My personal assistant and the head of security. And neither of them opened the door. The register that records lock activity shows no one entering here from the time I left the previous night until when I returned the followingmorning. And by then the holograph ball was already on my desk.”
    “Which means that someone has manipulated the register. Maybe someone internal. The head of security?”
    “Impossible.”
    “You’d be amazed at the infinite possibilities of the impossible.”
    Myriam cleared her throat.
    “She’s my partner. We’ve been together for three years. I know her. And we love each other.”
    Bruna had a fleeting vision of Myriam as a potential lover. That cold self-assurance punctuated by the fragility of fear; that loud, intrusive activism linked with her old-fashioned appearance. Why, she even had fingernails painted in the retro style! All those contradictions magnified her attractiveness. For a moment Bruna convinced herself that she could understand why the head of security had fallen for her. But finding Myriam sexy put Bruna in a bad mood.
    “And what can you tell me about your personal assistant? Do you love him enough to exonerate him, too?” she asked, with uncalled-for rudeness.
    Myriam Chi didn’t react.
    “He’s also beyond suspicion. We’ve worked together for too many years. Don’t make a mistake. Don’t waste your time looking where you shouldn’t. I repeat that this is linked to trafficking in adulterated memories. I’m certain of it. That’s what you have to investigate and that’s precisely why I’ve called you: because you saw one of the victims.”
    Indeed, Myriam had told her all this in a commanding tone as soon as Bruna had arrived. The RRM leader had explained to her that before Cata Caín, there had already been four other reps who had died in similar circumstances. And that when she became interested in the matter and went to talk with friends and colleagues of the victims, she began to receive strange threats: anonymous, untraceable phone calls; increasingly threateningmessages on her computer; and finally the holograph ball, more intimidating because of its appearance in her office than because of its gruesome content. Bruna wasn’t used to having her clients tell her what she had to do; usually, it was the opposite. People hired private detectives when they felt at a loss, when they felt threatened but weren’t sure by what, or when they needed to prove some suspicion so dark that they didn’t even know where to begin to look. A private detective’s clients were generally lost in confusion. Otherwise they would have gone to the police or the courts. And Bruna knew from experience that the more confused the