Rising Tomorrow (Roc de Chere Book 1) by Mariana Morgan (essential reading txt) 📕

ones they ordered. NanoC still operates under my grand-uncle’s name as a freelance company.’ Eloise frowned. ‘Now that I think about it, I evidently had some premonition when I re-issued those instructions. The shit clearly did hit the fan when the first person showed up on my doorstep to ask questions.’

She shot Gonzalez a murderous glare, which Ingram thought was only partially fair. Inspector Norah Bellefeuille was technically the one who had showed up on her doorstep, and she wasn’t even acting on Gonzalez’s orders at that point. Maybe it was a good thing Eloise did not know it was Ingram who had piloted the XST that landed within the boundaries of her property that day.

‘Thank you, Ms Moretti, for the clarification,’ Gonzalez replied without missing a beat. ‘Aisha, please continue.’

‘Among the data we retrieved from Wagner’s account we have found a multitude of references to frequent contact between him and Cassandra. Yesterday morning we heard from Sergeant Selissa Bassett, acting as Gendarme Megan O’Haress, Wagner’s aide, at the 4th. She mentioned Wagner meeting with a woman whose identity remained a mystery at the time. Thanks to the emails and appointment notes, Tilly has estimated with a probability of sixty-eight point two per cent that the woman in question is Francesca Harper, Cassandra’s main shareholder with a seat on their board of directors, and up until three years ago one of their CEOs. Unfortunately, as predicted by Megan, we have been unable to recover any actual logs of the comp conversations she had with Wagner. Due to the encryption software she used, the recordings do not exist.’

A selection of photos appeared on the holo-screen showing a tall, ginger, middle-aged woman with a well-practised and perfectly symmetrical smile on her heavily freckled face.

‘Further investigation showed a trail of money coming out of Harper’s bank account and landing in Wagner’s pocket. The last transfer took place less than a day before Wagner took over the investigation at the 4th with a “get her” memo attached. Tilly estimated with a probability of ninety-three point four per cent that—’

‘Ninety-four point three per cent, not ninety-three point four,’ Tilly corrected with an almost audible sniff, to general amusement in the room.

‘What Tilly says,’ Ingram agreed with a chuckle. ‘There is a ninety-four point three per cent probability that the “get her” note was a prompt to have Ms Moretti assassinated. Following Wagner’s failure, a number of threatening messages arrived that can be traced back to more than one person based on writing style and syntax.’

‘A question.’ Sergeant Kizenberg lifted her hand, and Ingram nodded. ‘If Cassandra’s main shareholder, and an ex-CEO, is personally interested in Ms Moretti’s demise, and they have been acquiring and distributing her VRPs for the last three decades, how is it that they didn’t get to Ms Moretti to silence her a long time ago? If anyone could have traced one of their most experienced freelance VR designers, surely it would have been them?’

Sergeant Ula Kizenberg was by far the bolder of the two Leeches that had joined the team, and it was no surprise she felt comfortable speaking up. She was in her sixties, which made her the oldest and most life-experienced person in the room. Physically, she was unusually short, even for a Leech, with dark hair and skin. She had joined the military all the way back in the early 2680s, over two decades before the Final Strike had brought the Wars to an abrupt end. The only reason she had survived the odds for so long was that she had spent most of those years in a POW camp. She had never talked about her experiences, and Ingram suspected it was because the enemy had treated her substantially better than the Armed Forces of the Afro-European Alliance. Within days of a prisoner exchange she had been offered a job at the MIS to put what she might have learnt behind the lines to good use, and she had stayed ever since.

‘Valid question,’ Ingram replied, glancing at Gonzalez to check whether he wanted to take that one, but the man only nodded for her to continue. ‘We believe the identity of the person behind the NanoC front was known to Harper for a long time, yes. We also believe that while the plan to eliminate Ms Moretti was always a carefully calculated option, there was no need to put it in motion until our official investigation at the 4th got close to her.

‘What we discovered among Wagner’s messages is that we, specifically Megan O’Haress, were closer to pinpointing Ms Moretti’s identity than we realised. At the same time our official means for gaining such information via NanoC lawyers had been forestalled by someone identified by Tilly as TGH, from Chief Commissioner Brianna Michelle Brau-Hastings’ office. Which explains why—’

‘Her office?’ Palmeiro cut in, one of his one-sided smiles plastered over his face, mocking Ingram’s choice of words.

‘Yes, her office.’ Ingram’s voice turned just a tad colder. ‘We have no proof that the chief commissioner was personally involved. The official inquiries made to the NanoC lawyers to divulge Ms Moretti’s contact details were redirected to Brau-Hastings’ office and tagged as spam by someone sorting her incoming messages. That is—’

‘And you think a Leech desk clerk had the authority to do so?’ Palmeiro said with audible contempt.

‘Obviously, a Leech clerk would not have the authority for it. But it doesn’t take any special skills to misdirect a message. We don’t know who actually gave the order, as I’m sure you already know, Captain.’ The emphasis on his rank was subtle, but it did not escape Gonzalez’s attention. He had already sensed that there was something going on between Ingram and Palmeiro.

‘I was merely clarifying,’ Palmeiro replied, his eyes locked with Ingram’s, a crooked smile still on his face.

‘Moving on.’ Ingram almost managed not to sigh. This is going to be a long briefing.

She waved her hand multiple times, shifting from slide to slide in search of what she wanted to talk