The Peyti Crisis: A Retrieval Artist Novel: Book Five of the Anniversary Day Saga (Retrieval Artist series 12) Read Online Free Page B

just the right way to kill someone.
    Had Didier done that?
    If so, how had he kept his hands clean?
    She wasn’t sure she wanted to know.
    She knew too much already.
    Somehow, she reached the security area. From the inside, the entrance into the cell block looked like a gauntlet. Windows, android guards, obvious cameras everywhere. Her own features faced her in the security window. She looked gray and unfocused, barely human at all, her dark eyes sunken into her gaunt face.
    She placed her palm against the scanner, then leaned in so that it could also take her retinal scan, as well as go over every single security chip she had.
    The new position unbalanced her. The world grew black around her, and from a distance, she heard a voice in her own head—her voice, saying from very far away, Don’t faint. Don’t faint. Don’t faint.
    “Okay,” she whispered. She blinked, reminded herself that she was only a few meters away from real air, and looked up.
    Two of the android guards were peering at her.
    Are you ill? That voice wasn’t hers. It belonged to the system. She recognized it. She heard it when the shuttle she took from home docked every morning, when her passes got approved as she tried to enter, when she had to look into the various scanners, sometimes even when she sat down at her desk.
    No , she sent. Not ill . I mean, yes. Oxygen Deprivation Syndrome. I need air. I need to get out of here or I swear to God, I’m going to puke. (I might puke anyway.)
    She wasn’t sure she added that last thought to her link or if she just felt it and didn’t send it.
    Her stomach lurched.
    You will have to go through decontamination , the system told her.
    The androids were still peering at her, as if they didn’t understand what she was doing.
    Okay, fine , she sent. Just get me the hell out of here .
    It wasn’t until the first security door slid back with a clang that she worried she had just made the wrong choice. Would decontamination discover the evidence bags of DNA? Would it nullify them? Alter them?
    Would that make Didier angry?
    She took a deep breath. The air seemed richer here. Maybe it was. She felt a little less dizzy.
    She stepped inside the decontamination chamber.
    Screw Didier. She didn’t work for him. He was probably going to get her in trouble. She was the one who had carried the damn bags in, and she was the one carrying them out filled with stuff. The security monitors were off near the cell. All he had to say was that he had asked for the bags to follow protocol, and she had brought extra so that she could steal DNA.
    She set the box on the ground, then braced her hands against the wall as the door to the decontamination chamber closed. She kept her chin up. If she let her head droop, she might pass out.
    She closed her eyes anyway.
    The first step of decontamination is to see if you have picked up any viruses or contaminates inside. If you are infected, then this system will move to the second step and begin the decontamination procedure. Do you understand?
    Yes , she sent back, and didn’t add, Just like I understood the five hundred other times you asked, you damn machine .
    A light passed over her. It wasn’t as red as the light in the cell block, but it made her think of that light. She ran her tongue against her teeth. Would the stupid decontamination system pick up stench molecules? The odd smell? The scent of death?
    Had Frémont’s corpse contaminated her somehow, by shutting off the environmental system? Had whatever poisoned him done so in such a way that she would bring the poison with her? Would the system shut it down?
    Her stomach flipped again. Oh, hurry, she thought—or maybe she sent— I’m going to be sick .
    You have no signs of illness, the system told her. Unless you are speaking colloquially…?
    Yes, dammit, she sent. I have Oxygen Deprivation Syndrome. I’m going to puke.
    Signs of Oxygen Deprivation Syndrome include elevated heartbeat, and nausea. You do not show signs