Free Tails You Lose by Lisa Smedman Page A

into the one called Treading. She'd thought the I Ching had been referring to Gray Squirrel, but he wasn't the innocent person the coins had spoken of.
    Alma was.
    As Alma looked at Hu's cold stare and poised-for-trouble posture, however, she could see it would be difficult to convince her boss of her innocence. Mind racing, she tried to puzzle out what had happened.
    "I was framed," she concluded. "Someone wanted to make it look as though I was involved in Gray Squirrel's extraction. Somehow they got a sample of my DNA sequence, replicated it, and engineered that saliva." Even as she spoke, however, she realized how ridiculous her conclusions sounded. Who would go to such lengths—and why?
    "What about the manual-override combination for the maglock?" Hu asked in a soft, dangerous voice. "Where did they get that?"
    "I don't know," Alma agonized. "Perhaps one of our secguards managed to lie under gamma scopolamine. Have any of them shown signs of—"
    "No," Hu said grimly. "You are the only suspect—your own DNA places you at the scene. I'm surprised you managed to conceal the grace of your move-by-wire system. Until last night, I was completely fooled." Beside him, Mr. Lali nodded.
    Alma protested: "But I was—"
    "Home in bed," Hu said. "Just as you presumably were last night, even though you didn't answer my urgent-flagged calls until this morning. You were alone on the night of Gray Squirrel's extraction, I presume?"
    Alma nodded mutely. Hu would know from her personnel file that she lived alone and did not have a lover. There was no one to back up her alibi.
    Mr. Lali stared at Alma for a long moment before pronouncing her sentence. "You've always been a loyal employee, Ms. Wei. You've provided PCI with twelve years of commendable service, but in the light of this deliberate act of sabotage, I have no other choice but termination. You will have no further access to PCI's buildings or facilities, and the personnel and security files in your headware memory will be wiped. Hu will accompany you to your home and ensure that any PCI data you have there is erased. If you cause him any trouble, he is authorized to take whatever steps are necessary to ensure your cooperation. Do you understand?"
    Alma winced. She felt like a child, unable to find the words to defend herself against a parent who had unjustly accused her. "I understand. I'll cooperate." She noticed that her left hand was trembling again. She couldn't tell if it was anxiety or the initial stages of TLE. Asking for reparative surgery, however, was out of the question now. She'd have to find some way to prove her innocence first.
    "We must bear in mind one other important matter," Mr. Lali continued. "Your REM inducer." He glanced at Hu.
    Hu placed both palms flat on the table and leaned across it as he rose to his feet. The pose was one that the Justice Institute taught, designed to be intimidating. His words, however, were what frightened Alma.
    "If you were thinking about trying to sell the tech, don't," he said. "PCI included an additional feature in the beta-test REM inducers: a miniature cranial bomb—one just large enough to fuse the inducer's circuitry. It's activated by a 'dead man' switch—the moment all brain activity ceases, it goes off. It's also designed to trigger if anyone other than a PCI technician attempts to surgically remove the inducer. We had to be certain the inducer wouldn't fall into the wrong hands if a test subject was killed, or extracted—or tried to sell the tech to another company."
    Alma nodded, unable to speak. The REM inducer was the last thing she'd been thinking about—how could Hu accuse her of wanting to betray PCI by selling it? Pacific Cybernetics Industries was her home, its staff were her family—and now she was losing them.
    "The bomb wasn't intended to injure surrounding tissue," Hu continued. "But given the inducer's placement within the brain, there's a high likelihood of serious trauma. If it goes off, the