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Marianella shook her head, but she was thinking about the culling, and the men who’d killed Inéz. Alejo’s men.
Why would Alejo care about culling robots?
Why would Alejo want to investigate Sofia?
“The man who hired you,” Marianella said. “What was his name?”
“Juan Gonzalez. I figure it’s a fake.”
Marianella nodded. No Juan Gonzalez worked for Alejo, but that didn’t mean anything. “What does he look like?”
“Pretty unremarkable, I guess. Youngish. Black hair. Always wearing a gray suit and gray hat. Really light brown eyes, though. They’re practically golden.”
Marianella went cold all over.
She thought about the day Inéz had died.
“Andres,” she whispered.
“What?”
“His name is Andres Costa.” Marianella looked Eliana straight in the eye. “He’s one of Alejo’s aides.”
“What!” Eliana pushed away from her desk and paced back and forth across the room. “One of Alejo’s aides came here asking about Sofia?” She stopped, looked over at Marianella. “He knows about her taking the city over. He has to.”
Marianella shook her head. “No, he couldn’t possibly.” But he clearly knew something. He’d told her Andres was in the park for city business, but why would a city man need to hire a private investigator to look into Sofia? To gain access to her schematics? Alejo was doing something, but Marianella couldn’t see it.
Marianella shivered and wished she hadn’t taken off her coat.
“So what were you coming to see me about?” Eliana said. “This job, what was it? Did it have to do with Ortiz?”
Marianella shook her head. The mysterious code had almost slipped her mind. “I doubt it.” She took a deep breath and explained to Eliana what they had found in the damaged maintenance drone. Eliana listened, nodding, her brow furrowed with concentration.
“The blackouts,” she said. “You found what’s causing the blackouts.”
Marianella nodded.
“And you’re sure a human had to program that in? It’s not some robot—”
“Yes!” Marianella threw up her hands. “I’m sure. It’s not the maintenance drones. They like to brag—well, maybe that’s not the right word exactly, but they’re always open whenever they do something—destructive.” She thought of the burning power plant, the twenty-six dead from the whims of the maintenance drones. “And I don’t know what this is. That’s what we wanted you to do. Find out.”
Eliana started pacing again. “It sounds like AFF work, doesn’t it? At least the code does. But I don’t know why they’d want to mess with the power.” She sighed. “The city’s always blaming the AFF, which tells me the city’s responsible. I bet they’re trying to make it look like the AFF’s done it, but my money’s on the city.”
“Why?” Marianella said. “I think it’s entirely possible the AFF could be responsible.” She paused. “You aren’t as familiar with them as I am, working with Alejo.”
“But the city wants to root out the terrorists.” Eliana paused by the far wall, then made her way back across the room. “If the terrorists are putting our livelihood in danger, that makes the common folk not want to join up with them, you see? So the city makes the blackouts look like AFF work, and people start seeing the AFF as terrorists and not freedom fighters.”
It made a convoluted sort of sense, Marianella had to admit.
“How about this,” Eliana said. “Let’s look into this Andres Costa first. He’s got ties to the AFF, and we can see if that leads us to anything about the code. If not, we can start looking into the city.”
“Yes,” Marianella said, after a pause. “Yes, I think that sounds good.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
ELIANA
Eliana met Marianella at a café near the center of the city. Marianella was a few minutes late, rushing in through the door with her hair wild from ru
“Sorry I’m late,” Marianella said.
“It’s fine.” Eliana slid the paper across the table to Marianella, who read it over without expression.
“You found it,” she said. “Andres’s address.”
“I’m a licensed PI, so the city gives me access to their records.”
“It’s an apartment,” Marianella said, frowning. “Is this going to work?”
“Were you able to get a car?”
“Well, yes, but—”
“Then it’ll work. Come on.” Eliana stood up and tossed down a couple of bills to pay for her coffee. Marianella handed her back the address, and Eliana slipped it into her pocket. They left the shop together, stepping back out into the cold air. Marianella led Eliana down to an old-fashioned mainland-style car that was parked at the meter. It was so wide, it seemed to take up the whole street.
“You got this from the park?” Eliana stared at it. She wished Marianella had picked something smaller.
“I didn’t have much choice.” Marianella frowned, a line appearing between her eyes. “I could see about calling a friend, if this won’t work.”
“Nah, it’s fine.” There were plenty of cars like this one in the city, left over from the park days; it might be enormous and bulky, but it wouldn’t stand out.
They climbed in, and Marianella pulled out into the street, both her hands on the steering wheel, her eyes fixed firmly on the road. Eliana remembered that story from her childhood, about the cyborg who was found out when he got into a car accident. She wondered if Marianella knew that story too.
It didn’t take long for them to arrive at Andres’s apartment. It was one of those garden apartments, locked up behind a gate, all the doors facing into a courtyard where the management usually planted loads of gaudy, bright flowers. Eliana knew these sorts of places. They were a step up, a halfway point between the tenement buildings and an actual house.
“What should I do?” Marianella asked as they cruised past the apartment.
“Park a ways up. We’ll have to check from the sidewalk to see if he’s home.”
Marianella nodded.
They parked in front of a row of tall narrow houses and walked to Andres’s apartment complex. There was a sign out front, a
“The cold,” Marianella said suddenly. “All the power failures. They haven’t kept it warm enough. Not even here.”
Eliana frowned. The truth was, some small part of her had hoped to see flowers.
The gate wasn’t locked. Marianella pressed close to Eliana as they walked into the courtyard. They had a story pla
“I’m going to go look around the back,” she said quietly. “You stand next to the gate like you’re waiting for someone.”
Marianella nodded. Eliana left the courtyard and ambled around along the side of the building, counting the windows until she came to those that belonged to Andres’s apartment. They were dark too. Good sign.
And she didn’t see another soul out. That was a good sign too.
She walked back into the courtyard and nodded at Marianella, who turned and joined her in one seamless motion. They walked up to Costa’s door. Eliana stood off to the side. Marianella took a deep breath. Smoothed down her blouse. Knocked.
No one answered.
Eliana gave a short nod, and Marianella knocked again, this time angling her body so that Eliana could make quick work of the lock. The timing wasn’t exactly right, but the courtyard was empty and she didn’t notice any movement in the windows.