Rising Tomorrow (Roc de Chere Book 1), Mariana Morgan [epub e ink reader .TXT] 📗

in his own voice, and he had to suppress a shudder at how pathetic his whining sounded.

‘Your job!’ Wagner laughed. ‘Inspector Bellefeuille is the only one who has done any job around here. Despite having an ass for a boss.’

So, the bitch was reporting to someone after all.

‘Inspector Bellefeuille was more interested in personal pleasures than doing her job, sir!’ Gonzalez wiped his sweaty hands on his trousers, risking a little more defiance and showing his outrage at Bellefeuille’s disgusting habits.

His stomach momentarily twisted as he remembered the carnage he found on her third day in. They had an argument and the little cunt took it out on Marco Schulze, one of the young gendarmes left on Gonzalez’s team. The young man could barely walk after she was finished with him. Not that Wagner would ever care about that.

The sick bastard would probably give the bitch tips on what to do next time.

‘I don’t really care about what she does with her free time,’ Gonzalez added hurriedly, deciding that he shouldn’t display too much fortitude. ‘But if she isn’t focusing on work while at work, then I, personally, don’t consider that good, and—’ A raised hand stopped him.

‘I think I might not have made myself clear. In light of the fact that I am clearly dealing with a mindless ex-DCI here I will repeat myself, but only this one time, so listen carefully. Inspector Bellefeuille was the only one who pushed the investigation forward, according to the reports I have seen. End of discussion. To that extent she will remain on the team as my senior inspector. You will remain on my team in case I need some snippet of information I don’t have time to find in the files personally. Is this sufficiently clear, Junior Inspector Gonzalez?’ Wagner didn’t even smile with satisfaction at how he had demoted Gonzalez by two full ranks in the blink of an eye. He didn’t have to.

***

Raphael Gonzalez spent the following fifteen minutes setting up his new office space in one the small cubicles in the bullpen. He had considered asking for the use of one of the spare rooms they had an abundance of after so many people had been reassigned, but decided against it.

On the one hand, being in plain sight would give Wagner ample satisfaction at seeing him cowering in fear. The chance of Wagner getting overconfident to the point of letting something truly important slip was small, but even little snippets of information could be very useful.

On the other hand, there was Bellefeuille, and that was a different story. She was young, naturally overconfident and soon to be very drunk on the power Wagner was about to bestow upon her. She would take every opportunity to gloat and abuse it. And Gonzalez wanted to be right there, providing her with an easy target. There was no doubt that she held a grudge over how he had held her in check over the last few days. She would relish an opportunity to pay him back. And she wasn’t clever enough to come after Gonzalez in a carefully measured and cunning way. She was the type to turn nasty, letting her emotions run loose. And that was where she would make mistakes…

While the computer was booting up and reconnecting with the network within his now lowered security access, Gonzalez ran through a mental checklist. The special software Megan had installed on his computer was running safely in the background, allowing him to monitor everything Wagner did. He couldn’t keep it up forever, but hopefully for long enough. Wagner might think he was in possession of all the security codes, but he had no idea that Megan O’Haress was an absolute tech witch and every system remained firmly under Gonzalez’s control, though he would get to use his advantage only once.

He would wait until the next day, until Wagner had his little meeting with Eloise Moretti. He would listen in on that and then make his move. He would make sure Megan was out beforehand; he would need her at Roc de Chere. He would also need…

The plan came together with exceptional clarity. It was desperate, but simple.

CHAPTER 4

Chandler N-Suit Research Base

North-West Lyon

Afro-European Alliance

Monday 20 April 2725

DAY 1

The bell on the third gate rang and Eloise stopped, puzzled, her brows drawing together. It took her a moment to identify the sound she hadn’t heard in years.

‘Tilly?’ she snapped, her eyes still on her code but no longer seeing it. ‘Why am I being interrupted?’

The deviation in the water properties was proving to be unusually tricky to correct despite hours of work, and she was feeling more frustrated than she was used to. She didn’t want to deal with any interruptions.

She had added the third gate and run a security perimeter along the furthest edge of her property a few years ago. That buffer zone between her and the world was important. The buzzer was set to silent, and in the rare event that someone did try to ring it Tilly was supposed to deal with the intruder. Eloise worked and lived best when alone and uninterrupted.

‘My apologies, Eloise,’ Tilly replied with a note of hesitation. ‘There is an inspector—she introduced herself as Norah Bellefeuille—from Lyon’s 4th Police Station, and she requires to speak with you.’

‘Deal with her.’

‘I tried, Eloise, but she insists she requires to speak personally with you. About your VRPs.’

‘Tell the NanoC lawyers to deal with it then. Why are we even having this conversation?’

‘I’m sorry, Eloise, but she requires your specific expertise. As a VR programmer.’

‘Tilly!’ Eloise was no longer annoyed; a strange, uneasy sensation had started bubbling inside her. One she was neither familiar with nor liked.

‘I’m sorry, Eloise, but according to Article 6, Section 5, Subsection 45b of the World Government’s constitution from 2178, ratified by the Afro-European Alliance in 2315, all citizens of the Afro-European Alliance are sworn to support ongoing police investigations with relevant information or expertise. According to Article 6, Section