Free Marked by Alex Hughes Page B

murder. Even in the normal world, you get copycat suicides. You get waves of the things. It hurts nothing to check it out.” But I was still worried, and still waiting for an opportunity not to do what I was being forced to do.
    Nelson frowned at me.
    â€œYou’re a convicted felon,” he said. “You could infect my people with more than whatever Meyers had.”
    I swallowed. Why did it always come down to that? “Trust me, it doesn’t matter. If I know the Guild, you’re cracking down on all nonessential movement right now. People are going to be largely locked in their rooms anyway. Who am I going to infect at this point? And anyway, I’d be exposed thirdhand. There’s no way I’m contagious.”
    My brain caught up and I realized then that I was arguing to do what I’d just been threatened into. Blackmailed into. What was I thinking?
    But I could get rid of my debt, of the power the Guild had against me, by investigating the death of a man who deserved the truth. Maybe I did believe in this. Maybe enough to risk madness, if Nelson was standing in front of me covering it up.
    â€œWhat do you have to lose, Nelson?” I asked.
    He sighed, and told Turner, “Take him back to his police friends. I’ll see you tonight,” he told me then. “I expect you to stay out of my way and not cause trouble. Or I will cash in that chip, and you will end up dead.”
    â€œUnderstood,” I said. Oh, joy, I was caught in a power struggle of epic Guild proportions. For a dangerous cause I had nothing to do with. And, worse, I was late to work.

CHAPTER 5
    Turner dropped me off in the Guild transport vehicle two blocks from the department. She opened up the car door in the back, gridded-off section. I got out, cautiously, feeling like a criminal in a way I hadn’t since my drug convictions.
    â€œNow, remember, I will pick you up tonight at five thirty,” she said. “I will have additional backup available. If you do not show on time, I will come and get you.”
    â€œI’ll be in the police station,” I said, huddling deeper in my coat against the wind. It seemed colder than usual today, colder than usual all month, actually.
    â€œI will get a teleporter,” she said. “I’m not playing. Pack an overnight bag. You may or may not end up back here for your job. Rex and Nelson were both very specific. Guild first.”
    â€œYeah, that seems to be a theme these days,” I said, and started the hike to the department, feeling like something the cat dragged in.
    â€¢Â Â Â â€¢Â Â Â â€¢
    I knocked on my boss’s doorframe, metaphorical hat in hand. Might as well head this off. Lieutenant Marla Paulsen didn’t like being interrupted for anything short of an asteroid barreling toward the earth—but neither would she accept silence when I was this late to work.
    â€œHave a minute?”
    She waved me in, pulling together a set of papers and putting them on top of an already overflowing stack. There were deep circles under her dark eyes, and the lines on her face had deepened, seemingly overnight. She was a young sixty-mumble black woman with high standards and endless energy, but today, she seemed older and somehow smaller. Judging from that and the general feel of exhaustion coming off her in Mindspace, I’d be shocked if she’d gotten any sleep at all last night. That made two of us.
    â€œWe’ve got final budget arguments this afternoon, and so far it’s not going well,” she said. “I have ten minutes at most, and that only because of the stunt you pulled yesterday. You realize you were over an hour late to work today. After you left hours early yesterday, with no information.”
    â€œI left a message,” I said. “I’m here now.”
    â€œAnd trust me, that’s all that’s keeping you in the job right now. Clark is angrier than I think I’ve ever