Doctor Who_ Sleepy - Kate Orman [57]
Yellow stopped again. ‘Look,’ she said. ‘Is there a point to this?’
‘I’m just looking for a good topic of conversation,’ he said distractedly. ‘It’s hard to chat with someone who’s got orders to shoot you if you make trouble.’
Yellow didn’t say anything, keying open the newly installed lock of the common area. The Doctor walked up to the doors as they swished open.
Someone shot him.
If Benny tried very hard, she could move her head. She rolled it to one side, looking for Roz.
The Adjudicator was propped against the wall of the big room like a doll. From time to time she opened her eyes. She saw Benny looking at her, but the white woman couldn’t interpret her expression.
Benny couldn’t feel anything below the metal pin they’d pushed into her neck. It had taken four of them to do it, three of them holding her down while she fought, the fourth one forcing the device into the skin above her collarbone. She’d seen them do the same to Roz, seen the woman’s whole body convulse and go limp.
And it had all been going so well.
The top dog of the Dione base himself had met them when they’d landed, striding across the foyer (white, pot-plants, brochures) as they’d left the airlock, accompanied by DKC troopers. Their uniform wouldn’t change much in the next thirty years.
‘I’m Director Madhanagopal,’ he said.
‘We’re pleased to meet you, Director,’ said Roz smoothly. ‘We’re fully prepared to brief you on the details of our investigation.’
‘But of course.’ He took her hand and kissed the back of it. Forrester didn’t seem to know what to do with herself. If Benny hadn’t been so tense, she might have giggled.
‘Please, ladies, come to my office and drink coffee with me,’ the Director was saying. ‘I have a supply of the genuine Kenyan product, the finest in the solar system.’
They followed him through shining white corridors, punctuated by vast windows that showed off the moon’s stark surface. He was tall and slender, walking with his hands clasped behind his back. He had a uniform too, executive beige instead of trooper white, with the blue Company logo on the breast pocket.
Saturn loomed gorgeously through the Director’s vast office window. He sat them down on a sofa covered with some sort of animal skin (real?) while he made the coffee.
Roz took out a thick paper file as Madhanagopal brought a tray to the table. He raised an eyebrow at the hard copy.
Another anachronistic eccentricity of the National Unit, he was probably thinking. Roz unpeeled the top few pages and handed them to him.
‘As you can see,’ she said, ‘our suspect has already managed to kill several important executives in three different companies, as well as nearly a dozen others who got in his way.’ For someone who had protested she’d had no training in undercover work, Roz was doing just fine. Benny supposed it was easy to fake being a police officer when you were a police officer.
Madhanagopal was nodding, his eye running down the list of victims’ names. Benny peeked over the top of the document. It was a partial list of the colonists from Yemaya.
‘We believe the suspect’s modus operandi is to infiltrate a company, perhaps at a middle executive level, and then to choose one or two targets higher up in the company’s structure.’
Benny realized that the slow movement of the planet outside was making her slightly queasy, like something seen from a revolving restaurant.
The Director was nodding vigorously. Suddenly, the penny dropped. ‘How recently might this have happened?’
‘Our suspect disappeared over a year ago. He might have gone into hiding, or he might have moved straight on to Dione-Kisumu. In any case, he will certainly have changed his appearance.’
‘Ah.’
‘So you can appreciate the urgency of our request.’
‘I can indeed. We have just taken on a new shift of staff.
I’ll make certain you have access to whatever you require.’
‘Well, it would be ideal if we could have a tour of your facilities. The suspect