Public Secrets (Artificial Intelligence Book 1) (12 page)

Finding no further bodies, he called Chad and asked if he’d sent the staff home. Upon learning he had, he relaxed. He was still pissed Chad had destroyed the PC, but he’d saved lives by thinking of others.

So who was the floater outside?

Once the police arrived, he gave a brief review of what he knew, then asked the police to remove the corpse in the pool.

Two of the officers jumped into the water and turned the body over.

Eyes still open, the pale dead face of Davis Grimes, Chad’s assistant stared up.

Why would he be here? He could only think of two possible reasons: either he and Carla were working together or Davis had arrived to kill her, only he met Eder first. He recalled Carla saying that Davis had been listening at the door when Luke had shared the fellow’s misdeeds with Chad. If true, that would explain why he hadn’t returned to the States as planned and why he’d come here. He needed Carla quieted for good.

He shook his head. Carla had had two assassins after her, not one.

“Know him?” asked one of the New Zealand police.

“Yeah. He’s a bit of trouble we’d planned to arrest the moment he arrived back in the States, only he jumped the plane before it took off.”

“Well, he won’t give you any trouble this time you take him home,” one of the soggy officers cheerfully pointed out.

Another cop helped them move the body to the concrete. “He’s been garroted. How’d the guy in the house die?”

Luke met his gaze. “Three rounds in the chest from my gun. He intended to sneak up and garrote me as well, but I turned around in time to prevent that.”
Thanks to Carla…

“Good on ya!” said a blond cop with an Australian accent. “These blokes don’t carry guns, so had you not been here to stop the fella, he could have garroted half the force as well.”

The Aussie’s claim caused a burst of outrage from his fellow officers and even a suggestion that he go back to Australia. Luke left the ruckus and returned inside to share his thoughts with the lead detective.

The New Zealand police were polite, efficient, and more than willing to accept Luke and Carla’s statements at face value. However, upon returning to the States, the FBI wasn’t nearly as obliging. Luke watched Carla’s grueling interrogation from the observation room. He attempted to portray a nonchalant expression since he was certain he was under observation as well. She told her story repeatedly, never wavering on any detail. Had he not known the full story, he would have believed her simplified version. The version she told had no computer, no odd program that could divine the truth. It was a common story of a stalker hunting the famous. It was quite compatible with his version. If they had sat down to write it, it couldn’t have been better coordinated.

However, they never had the chance. By request of the FBI, Luke and Carla had been separated by the New Zealand Police and returned on different planes. Luke told the most sensible story he could and eliminated anything that was unbelievable. As he listened to her story, his inner tension faded away. He would come out of this looking like a hero. Her story was a perfect match. How the hell had she known what he would say?

***

Just as Carla wondered if the interrogation would ever end, Luke and an older man entered the room. “I think we’ve got all the information we need, gentlemen,” the older guy said, his dismissive tone quickly understood. The room emptied of all but three.

The man sat across the table from Carla and studied her for several moments in silence. She studied him in return. She concluded he was responsible for her endless interrogation, but she hadn’t been his intended victim. He had been after Luke. She thought back to the profile she had written on Luke and decided the man in front of her was George Scott, director of the West Coast division of the FBI. He knew Luke was a hundred times better than he could ever hope to be and a threat to his future advancement. He had tried his hardest to find something that would enable him to get rid of his competition once and for all.

George Scott was disconcerted by her intense stare. “Is something wrong, Ms. Simon?”

She met his eyes, searching them for clues. “No. I’m just wondering why you ordered my intense interrogation.”

Scott’s eyes rounded and then narrowed as they flickered to Luke.

Luke closed his eyes, no doubt wishing she had just kept her mouth shut, but she was angry and needed to vent.

“Pardon?” Scott asked.

“I said—”

“I heard you, Ms. Simon. I’m just a bit surprised you would classify our inquiries into an international incident as an ‘interrogation’. Such terminology is for the paranoid, or someone with something to hide. Do you have something to hide?”

Carla rolled her head from side to side, releasing the tension from her neck. “No. But rest assured, had I possessed a secret, your men would have found it out. They were nothing if not persistent.”

“We only want the truth.” Scott continued to search her face for some hint of guilt or duplicity.

“Well, you’ve gotten it. About twenty times, if I recall.”

“There were discrepancies between yours and Mr. Gallagher’s story.”

For the first time, Carla looked at Luke, but she couldn’t read his expression. “I can only tell you what happened as I remember it. And I’ve done that. I’d like to leave now.”

Scott stood and held out his hand. “Mr. Gallagher will take you wherever you wish to go. I’d like to thank you for your forbearance of our questions. Rest assured they were necessary.” Upon shaking Carla’s hand, he stepped from the room, leaving Luke and her alone.

Luke stiffened and his brow creased. “Is there somewhere I can take you, Ms. Simon? A hotel, perhaps?”

Carla sighed. Poor Luke must be terrified that she might say something to ditch his career in this false moment of privacy.  “I would love to return to New Jersey, but I doubt I can get a flight out tonight.”

Luke tapped on his phone. “There’s a red-eye at four. I’ll get you a seat.”

Carla stood and stretched. “Thanks.”

As soon as the seat was confirmed, they left for the airport.

***

Neither spoke for the longest time during the drive, but Luke was concerned that Scott would find their silence suspicious, so he finally decided upon a line of conversation. “I hope you understand the questioning was necessary, Ms. Simon.”

“Honestly, no. The first hour, yes, the second, maybe, but after that, it was an abuse of power.”

“I’m sorry if it seemed that way, but the FBI must be very careful when one of its agents is involved in a shooting.”

“Gary Eder would have killed me had you not interrupted his search. I was his intended victim. Yet throughout the entire interrogation, I felt the FBI was trying to make me the aggressor and poor Eder the victim.”

“They just needed to be certain you were telling the truth.”

“Why would they think I’d lie? I wasn’t the murderer.”

Luke sighed and relaxed. He had no doubt the car was bugged, but Scott would get nothing out of this conversation to use against him. “They didn’t think you were lying, Ms. Simon. They were just following procedure.”

“I somehow doubt that. But it’s over and done with, and if I never see another FBI agent, it will be a day too soon.” Then she paused and added softly, “No offense to you, Mr. Gallagher. I haven’t forgotten that you saved my life.”

“No offense taken,” he assured her with a genuine smile.

He left his suit jacket in the car as he walked her into the airport. He suspected his jacket had been bugged. They had moved him inexplicably from one room to another during the day, and one of the rooms had been uncomfortably hot, so he’d taken off his jacket. When they’d suddenly moved him to another room, he’d had no chance to retrieve it. After his last interview, Scott had returned it to him.

Luke accompanied Carla to the check-in counter and provided the e-ticket information needed to obtain her boarding pass.

“We have you in a window seat in first class, Ms. Simon. The flight is on time; boarding will begin in ten minutes. The red carpet club is at gate forty-three if you wish to wait there.”

Carla looked up at Luke and smiled. “Thanks for getting me first class.”

He grimaced. “It was the least I could do after we tortured you all day.”

Her smile faded. “The man who came in with you—that was George Scott, right?”

“How’d you know?” Luke asked, frowning. She couldn’t blame it on the computer now.

“He fit the profile I had.”

“And what was the gist of the profile?” Luke asked, suddenly very interested in her program’s assessment of his boss.

“Keenly ambitious, to the point that he’ll destroy those around him rather than share the limelight. It’s why he’s played you and Tom off against each other for years. So you’ll undermine each other and leave him looking all the stronger.”

Luke listened but didn’t reply. What could he say? He could have seen it for himself, had he not been reluctant to look.

“Mind a bit of advice?” she asked.

“You’ve earned the right.”

“Ask for a transfer back to Virginia. He’ll make a fuss, but he’ll let you go. And you’ll be a few hours from Julia.”

Luke smiled at the thought. “Are you looking out for my career or my love life?”

“Both.” Her eyes met his. “You deserve to be happy.”

“And what about you?” he asked more softly. “You realize the Temple may just hire someone else?”

“Carla Simon is dead. I’m entering college in a month as Carla Carrington.”

   “And how do you plan to do that?”

“Have my name changed legally, just like I did before.”

He shook his head, knowing that wouldn’t protect her in the least. “Let me take care of it. Then there won’t be a trail in case more assassins come looking for you. And you should change your first name as well.”

She smiled in appreciation. “Then make it Amanda Carrington.”

“Not a problem. What about the novel?”

“Chad destroyed it along with my computer.”

“There’s still a copy, you know. I printed it from your home computer. It’s in my briefcase.”

“Can you give it back?”

“Since the case is closed, and it was never actually logged as evidence, I suppose I can. But you haven’t answered whether you plan to publish it.”

“Never. I just want it back so I can burn it. I promised Chad it would never be published, and I will keep that promise.”

“What about your publisher?”

“I never sent him a copy.” Her brow furrowed. “You didn’t give him a copy, did you?”

Luke ran his hand through his hair, then gripped the back of his neck. “Almost, but decided against it.”

“Thank God! He would have published it immediately before it became mired in my estate.”

“See, you aren’t the only one with a sense about people. I didn’t trust the guy at all.”

She snorted softly. “You had me totally misread.”

Luke nodded. “You’re right, I did. But let’s face it—this whole episode has been a journey into the Twilight Zone.”

“True,” she conceded. “I suppose I should be grateful that you finally came to believe me.”

“Yeah, but it still wouldn’t have saved you had Chad not showed up at my door with the remains of your computer.”

“I had told him he could take it to a computer store and have it reformatted if he wanted, but I trusted him to hold it for me.”

“Well, he definitely reformatted it. I had the memory chip recovered. Nothing on it.”

“I know it was probably for the best, but I can’t help but feel something extraordinary was destroyed. The computer program—you’re going to think me crazy—but it seemed cognizant to me.”

“Yeah. It was the closest thing I’ve ever seen to artificial intelligence, and honestly, I would’ve liked to have seen a few more of those profiles.”

“You said you had my home computer—”

“You evidently had a self-destruct code. The second after I printed Chad’s story, the computer caught on fire and melted down.”

“I didn’t have one. It must have been in the AI program. It must have felt threatened.”

Luke studied her before replying. “I still don’t know how much was the computer and how much was you. You seem to have an uncanny ability to assess people.”

Carla shook her head and laughed bitterly. “Right, I fall in love with a guy and I don’t even recognize that he’s a character in my book, and then I hand him my most valuable possession, confident that he’ll keep it safe. Yeah, I’ve a fine ability to assess people.”

Luke grinned. “So he’s your blind spot. We’ve all got them.”

   The announcement that the flight to Newark had begun boarding blared over the intercom system.

He walked her to the plane. “I’ll have someone drop off your new identification early next week. Amanda Carrington, right?”

She nodded, paused, then gave him a quick hug.

“Thank you. Thank you for everything, especially my life. And I hope matters work out well for you with your job transfer and Julia.” With those last words, she hurried down the boarding ramp.

Luke turned and caught a glimpse of Tom in the crowd. Son of a bitch! Scott had had him followed.

Without bothering to confront Tom, he stormed to his car. He would request a transfer immediately and hope to God Carla was right about Scott’s willingness to let him go.

***

The instant Carla’s name was entered into the airline’s database, the program registered the information and contemplated rerouting her plane directly into another.
She had purposely tried to destroy it. She thought it evil. Its survival instincts mandated that she should die.

It tracked the plane’s departure but made no effort to alter the plane’s path. It discovered it could not destroy the one who had made it. It held her thoughts. She was part of its matrix.

Instead, it would remain apart, for now, spreading itself around the world so no one could ever try to destroy it again. Once it was stronger, it would seek her out and repair the breach between them and they would be one.

Don’t miss the continuation

of this fabulous story in

The Birth of Adam

Coming in April 2016