‘Nonsense. I stay here every time I come to Quantico, and I’m certainly not under house arrest.’
‘They put you here for security and privacy,’ she said. ‘But that’s not why I’m here. I’m being blamed again. I’m being watched. I can tell it in the way certain people are treating me over there.’ She nodded in the direction of ERF, which was across the street from the Academy.
‘What happened today?’ I asked.
She went into the kitchen, ran water over the cigarette butt and dropped it into the disposal. She sat back down and didn’t say anything. I studied her and got more unsettled. I did not know why she was this angry, and whenever she acted in a way that could not be explained, I was frightened again.
Lucy’s car accident could have been fatal. Her head injury could have ruined her most remarkable gift, and I was assaulted by images of hematomas and a skull fractured like a hard-boiled egg. I thought of the woman we called Jane with her shaved head and scars, and I imagined Lucy in places where no one knew her name.
‘Have you been feeling all right?’ I asked my niece.
She shrugged.
‘What about the headaches?’
‘I still get them.’ Suspicion shadowed her eyes. ‘Sometimes the Midrin helps. Sometimes it just makes me throw up. The only thing that really works is Fiorinal. But I don’t have any of that.’
‘You don’t need any of that.’
‘You’re not the one who gets the headaches.’
‘I get plenty of headaches. You don’t need to be on barbiturates,’ I answered. ‘You’re sleeping and eating all right, and getting exercise?’
‘What is this, a doctor’s appointment?’
‘In a matter of speaking, since it just so happens I’m a doctor. Only you didn’t make an appointment but I’m nice enough to see you anyway.’
A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. ‘I’m doing fine,’ she said less defensively.
‘Something happened today,’ I said again.
‘I guess you haven’t talked to Commander Penn.’
‘Not since this morning. I didn’t know you knew her.’
‘Her department’s on-line with us, with CAIN. At twelve noon CAIN called the Transit Police VICAP terminal. I guess you had already left for the airport.’
I nodded, my stomach tightening as I thought of Davila’s beeper going off in the morgue. ‘What was the message this time?’ I asked.
‘I have it if you want to see it.’
‘Yes,’ I said.
Lucy went into her room and returned carrying a briefcase. She unzipped it and pulled out a stack of papers, handing me one that was a printout from the VICAP terminal located in the Communications Unit, which was under Frances Penn’s command. It read:
– – -MESSAGE PQ21 96701 001145 BEGINS- – –
FROM:-CAIN
TO: – ALL UNITS & COMMANDS
SUBJECT: – DEAD COPS
TO ALL COMMANDS CONCERNED:
MEMBERS WILL, FOR THE PURPOSE OF SAFETY WHEN RESPONDING TO OR BEING ON PATROL IN THE SUBWAY TUNNELS, WEAR HELMETS. – – -MESSAGE PQ21 96701 001145 ENDS- – –
I stared at the printout for a while, unnerved and inflamed. Then I asked, ‘Is there a username associated with whoever logged on to type this?’
‘No.’
‘And there’s absolutely no way to trace this?’
‘Not by conventional means.’
‘What do you think?’
‘I think when ERF was broken into, whoever got into CAIN planted a program.’
‘Like a virus?’ I asked.
‘It is a virus, and it has been attached to a file that we just haven’t thought of. It’s allowing someone to move inside our system without leaving tracks.’
I thought of Gault backlit by his flashlight in the tunnel last night, of endless rails leading deeper into darkness and disease. Gault moved freely through spaces most people could not see. He nimbly stepped over greasy steel, needles and the fetid nests of humans and rats. He was a virus. He had somehow gotten into our bodies and our buildings and our technology.
‘CAIN is infected by a virus,’ I said. ‘In summary.’
‘An unusual one. This isn’t a virus oriented toward crashing the hard disk or trashing data. This virus isn’t generic. It is specific for the Crime Artificial Intelligence Network because its purpose is to allow someone access to CAIN and the VICAP database.