Acknowledged. Commencing silent running.
"What the hell is-" Eve whirled, hand on her weapon, as titanium shields lowered on the windows behind her. Others slid into place over the doors. The lights took on a red cast, and every machine in the room sent out a series of beeps and hums.
"Totally Bond," Peabody murmured with a big, dazzled grin on her face.
Lockdown complete. Silent running fully engaged.
"In your home office." Reva got to her feet, walked over to examine the window shields. "A little paranoid, but excellent. Have you equipped the whole house with SR capability? I'd really like to see the-"
"You kids can play with the toys later," Eve interrupted. "Now I'd like to know why we need them."
"I ran some tests at Securecomp. Very detailed and exacting tests. They showed traces of a mobile bug."
"Mobile?" Reva shook her head. "Someone got through security, all the scanners, with a device on their person? That shouldn't be possible. In fact, it isn't possible."
"So I believed, but the device is also very sophisticated. It wasn't on someone's person, Reva, but in yours."
"In? Internal? That's out of the question. Completely bogus."
"Then you won't object to a body scan?"
Her face went hard, her stance combative. "I submit to one every time I go in or out of the damn lab, Roarke."
"I've something a little more sensitive, a little more specific."
"Go ahead." Reva threw out her arms. "I've got nothing to hide."
"Computer, open Panel A."
Acknowledged.
A section of the wall opened. Inside was a small room, hardly bigger than a closet. It held what looked like a high-end drying tube, with clear, rounded sides and a door with no apparent lock. There were no visible controls.
"Something I've been working on, on my own," Roarke said when Reva lifted her eyebrows. "An individual security scanner, higher intensity than what's on the market currently. It'll also read vital signs, which will come in handy for evaluating a subject's state of mind during scan."
"Is it safe?" Caro had risen, walked over quietly. "I'm sorry, but if it hasn't been approved, there may be some risk."
"I've used it myself," he assured her. "It's quite safe. It'll feel warm on the skin as it scans," he told Reva. "Not uncomfortably so, but you'll notice the change in temperature as it moves from area to area."
"Let's just get it done. I've got the Truth Testing scheduled today. I'd like a little time between scans and probes if it's all the same to you."
"Computer, open scanner."
Acknowledged.
A door opened on the tube with a little puff of air. At Roarke's gesture, Reva stepped inside, turned to face the room.
"Begin process on Ewing, Reva, full body, full power on my command. It needs to read and record your height," he said. "Your weight, your body mass, and so on."
"Fine."
"When the door closes, the process should only take a few moments. There'll be an audio and video readout, if you don't object."
"Just do it."
"Computer, begin."
The door of the tube closed. The lights inside it turned to a cool blue. Eve listened as Reva's body statistics were noted. A horizontal red beam rose up from the floor of the tube, slowly traveling up the body, down again. Her various injuries were listed, and the evaluation of healing.
"Excellent." Reva's voice sounded hollow through the tube, but she was beginning to grin. Eve could see that most of the temper had drowned in professional fascination. "And thorough. You're going to need to get this on the market."
"A few more tweaks," Roarke said.
Then came a series of red and blue beams, crisscrossing her body, pulsing as they scanned her, section by section from feet to head.
Electronic device located, subdermal, sector two.
"What the hell is it talking about?" Her tone a quick jerk of panic, Reva pressed her hands against the tube. "Where's section two? This is bullshit."
Roarke noted the increase in her pulse rate, her blood pressure.
"Let it finish out, Reva."
"Hurry up. Just hurry up. I want to get out of here."
"It's all right, Reva." Caro spoke softly. "Only a little more, and it'll be done. Everything's going to be all right."
"Nothing's all right. Nothing's going to be all right again."
No secondary device detected. Single electronic device, operable, subdermal, section two. Request command to mark location.
"Do so," Roarke ordered.
There was a quick hum, a flash. Reva slapped a hand at the back of her neck, as though she'd been stung by a bee.
Eval and scan complete.
"Save and display all data. Release seal, end program."
The lights in the tube winked off, and the door opened.
"Inside me? Under my skin." She held her hand cupped over the back of her neck. "How could I not know? I swear to God, I swear I didn't know."
"I never thought you did. Sit down now."
"An internal. It would require a procedure. I haven't had a procedure. It can't be there."
"It is there." Roarke drew her to a chair, stepped back when Caro sat beside her, took her hand. "Planted there without your knowledge, without your acquiescence."
"I'd have had to have been unconscious. I haven't been unconscious."
"You've been asleep, haven't you?" Eve broke in. "Somebody's asleep, it's not hard to give them a little bump with a pressure syringe and take them under. Or to slip something into food or drink so they'd sleep through an implant."
"I sleep at home, in my own damn bed. The only person who'd be able to pull off something like that would've been... Blair," she finished on a shaky breath. "But that's crazy. He didn't know anything about internals or subdermal devices."
She saw the look Roarke and Eve exchanged. "What is this? What the hell is this?"
"I didn't tell her, Lieutenant." Roarke inclined his head. "It wasn't my place to."
Eve stepped up to Reva. "You're going to have to toughen up, because this is going to be a punch in the face."
She told Reva the way she'd want to be told. Straight, clean, without emotion. She watched her sag, lose color, saw the tears swim into her eyes. But they didn't fall, and the color came back.
"He... they marked me, as a source for information." Her voice was hoarse. "To spy, through me, on Securecomp, and possibly other areas of Roarke Industries through my mother. Also..." She paused, cleared her throat and spoke in stronger tones. "It makes sense to assume they were using my connection with the Secret Service, President Foster, and members of her staff I remain friendly with. They would, through this implant, have recorded any and all conversations, professional and personal."
She took the glass of water Peabody brought over without glancing up. "I have, in my supervisory position at Securecomp, numerous discussions every day with techs, giving directives, receiving status reports. It's my habit to log my own reports verbally. It helps me to see the progress, or any necessity for a new direction. They'd know everything about my projects, and any I assisted on since they put this thing in me. They were sucking me dry, the two of them. Every day. Every day."
She looked up at Roarke. "I betrayed you after all."
"You did not." Caro's tone was harsh and impatient. "You were betrayed, and that's a difficult thing. But feeling sorry for yourself isn't productive. No one's blaming you, and blaming yourself at this point is an indulgence you can't afford."
"I'm entitled to a little brooding time when I've been technologically raped, for God's sake."
"Brood later. How do we remove it?" Caro asked Roarke, then shifted her gaze to Eve. "Or do we?"
"I thought about leaving it in. It's an option, but I'd rather have it out. I'd rather, if anyone's still listening, that they know we're onto them. It could bring them to the surface faster."
"They killed Blair and Felicity, and set me up. Why?"
"The setup? I'd say because you were convenient. As to the hit, I don't know yet. Maybe it was HSO, maybe it was the other side. Either way, they knew how to get in, how to corrupt data, and how to get you where they wanted you to take the fall. All that took some time and some planning. Either Bissel or Kade, maybe both of them, were marked for termination. When I find out why, I can work from there."
"We can have the device removed here. I have someone in-house with medical training," Roarke explained.
"Get it out." Reva rubbed a hand at the nape of her neck. "I want a look at it."
"Set it up," Eve told Roarke. "Reva, you can't discuss any of this on the outside. Not even with your lawyers. Not yet. But I want you to contact someone in the SS, or on Foster's staff, whoever you think best. I want them to set up a meet for me with someone in the HSO with enough grease to know about Bissel and Kade. I don't have time to waste on some office drone. I want someone with juice."
"I'll reach out."
"Good. I'm going to leave the electronics to the people who know what the hell to do about them." She said this, looking at Roarke. "And I'm going to go do some cop work, if you'll open this place up again."
"Computer, end lockdown. Resume normal operations."
Acknowledged.
"I'll be a few moments," Roarke told Reva and Caro, then left them alone to walk out with Eve.
"Peabody, go see how the EDD boys are doing. I'll catch up with you."
"Sure."
Eve turned into her own office ahead of Roarke, slipped her hands in her pockets. "I thought you'd told her about the HSO angle, about the conclusions on Bissel and Kade."
"I'm aware of that, and aware that you'd have reason to assume it."
"The assumption factored in to the speed with which I crawled up your ass."
"Understood."
"I'm still irritable and annoyed."
"Well, so am I, so you've company."
"I might still want to have a go at you later."
"I'll pencil you in."
She stepped up to him, and keeping her hands in her pockets, planted a hard kiss on his mouth. "See you," she said, and strolled out.
***
Since she didn't understand what EDD was doing in Roarke's home lab, she dragged Peabody away, and gave her the task of locating and contacting Carter Bissel while she begged a brief consult with Dr. Mira.
"Your assistant's starting to hate me," Eve commented.
"No, she's just very inflexible about schedules." Mira programmed her habitual tea and gestured toward her blue scoop chairs.
She'd gone for red today. Not really red, Eve thought. There was probably a name for the color that looked like faded autumn leaves. She wore a trio of necklaces that were little gold balls strung together like pearls, and matched them with minute gold earrings.
The shoes, some sort of textured heels, were the exact color of the dress. Eve could never figure out how women managed that sort of synchronicity-or really, why they bothered.
But it looked good on Mira. Everything did. Her sable hair with its sunny highlights was drawn back today into some sort of twisty knot at the nape. She was letting it grow again.
However Mira dressed or groomed herself, Eve decided she'd always look perfect, and nothing like the standard image of a top profiler and police psychiatrist.
"I assume this has something to do with Reva Ewing's Truth Test this afternoon, as you requested I handle the test personally."
"It does. This conversation, any conversation with Ewing, and the results of the test are highest classification. My eyes, yours, and Commander Whitney's only."
Mira sipped her tea, pursed her lips. "And what warrants that classification?"
"Global espionage," Eve said, and told her the rest.
"You believe her." Mira rose for another cup of tea. "That she was duped, and is innocent of any involvement-deliberate involvement-in the murders and in the background that may have led to them."
"I do. I expect you to confirm that."
"And if the results contradict her, and your beliefs?"
"Then she'll go back into a cage until I figure out why."
Mira nodded. "She's agreed to level three. That's a very difficult process, as you know from personal experience."
"I got through it, so will she."
