Adaptive Consequences Page 12

  Dr Wei gave a half shrug, half nod. He was unapologetically still staring at Jun, as he finally turned and walked to his office.

  Inside, a kinder, more subtle glow of lights beckoned. Markov was leant back in Dr Wei’s office chair, his face pale and drawn like a mound of ash. Jun took the chair next to him, opposite the door. For once, Dr Wei wasn’t behind his desk; he had relaxed himself into a chair in the back corner of his office, nestled amongst the potted chrysanthemums and orchids. It had seemed incongruous to his nature for Dr. Wei to have plants – their bright dynamism couldn’t thrive surely around someone like him. But as he played with a piece of liquorice root in one hand and gently inspected a bronzed chrysanthemum globe with the other, Jun wondered whether she had been wrong.

  Polzin shuffled inside. Dragging a chair in front of the door, he completed the cardinal points for their human-compass. Jun hadn’t expected Markov and Dr Wei to attend the meeting; their presence set the tone.

  Polzin talked about the incident being a shock, but Jun wasn’t listening. Her eyes had drawn to a monitor tucked away behind Polzin; the screen was angled so she couldn’t quite see it.

  ‘I wouldn’t presume it was a shock, Major Polzin…’ Dr Wei chomped, the root making it difficult for him to speak. ‘Zaye was a complicated character-’

  ‘Dr Xie,’ Polzin interrupted, ‘you were one of the last people to see Subject Zaye alive before her suicide-’

  Odgerel’s data showed her biochemistry wasn’t consistent with someone likely to take their own life. Fragments of their last conversation percolated in Jun’s mind. ‘You’re sure she died by suicide?’

  ‘Oh yes, Dr Xie. ‘Quite sure.’

  ‘Did she leave a note?’

  Polzin looked at her curiously and chuckled. ‘You Neuroscientists,’ he said and looked to Markov. ‘You all like to be in charge.’

  Dr Wei pulled the root out from his mouth, an elastic thread of spit stretched from it like a frog’s tongue. He went to speak, but Polzin interrupted him again.

  ‘The deceased didn’t leave a note, no.’ He paused as if daring Dr Wei to interrupt. ‘Odgerel Zaye was found suspended from the air-filtration pipes in the lab by orange, purple, yellow and green scarves, which were plaited together to act as a ligature.’ Polzin glanced down at his phone. ‘Dr Markov confirmed they belonged to the deceased, and that she brought these to decorate her room – they surrounded her desk. She was found dead at 20.40pm.’

  ‘Who found the body?’

  Polzin nodded in Markov’s direction.

  Jun looked at Markov, quickfire as if cocking a gun. How had Markov found her; he was supposed to have been at home ill? She tried to piece it together. She had left Odgerel at lunchtime after Markov called to say he was too sick to make his observation. Delun and Jiazhen were scheduled to monitor Zaye till Jun and the rest of the team came back the following morning for their conference. At some point before then, Jun had planned to confront Dr Wei and Markov about Odgerel’s revelation.

  ‘I’d asked Delun to analyse my data so there would be less for you to do,’ Markov said, massaging his temple. ‘I thought with Jiazhen monitoring Zaye, I could try and make some time back.’

  She shook her head. This story made no sense. She had offered to complete Markov’s evaluation, and had done so. Why had he been trying to finish it, unless, it was something to do with his and Dr Wei’s clandestine work?

  ‘In a series of unique and unfortunate events, Jiazhen powered down in the afternoon – at around 14.30pm – his warning indicators didn’t go off and alert us. We’ll need to check why, of course, but in that time, Subject Zaye was able to do what she did.’

  Jun stared at him in disbelief. ‘I said I’d do your evaluation.’ Her eyes darted to Polzin. ‘He called in sick, did you know that?’

  Polzin nodded silently.

  ‘This is why we have a policy for two tech Ai-ssistants monitoring at any time,’ Jun’s head reeled.

  ‘Dr Xie, before you start throwing policy around, there’s a matter we wanted to discuss with you,’ Dr Wei stood up and walked over to the monitor behind Polzin, and brought it to the middle of their compass.

  Jun knew what he was going to say – the CC recordings.

  Polzin put a hand up stopping Dr Wei in his tracks. ‘One minute,’ he said quietly. He looked at Jun with a mixture of pity and intrigue.

  Seizing the gift Polzin had given her, Jun tried to hold back the tremble in her voice. ‘How did you find her?’

  Markov lowered his head; his eyes refused to meet hers. ‘Delun had sent me some interim results. I wanted to discuss them with him, so I came back just before 20.30pm and went straight to my office to talk it over. After that, I went to check in on Zaye – just to say hello – but she wasn’t in her living quarters. I knew something was wrong. I checked the lab, and there she was, hanging…’ his head fell between his shoulder blades. ‘I tried to resuscitate her, but it was too late. I’m only glad I’m the one that found her and not you.’

  None of this felt right. There was no reason for Markov to be at the lab or for Delun to complete Markov’s data if there wasn’t something else going on. ‘Is the body with the coroner? I’d like to see it,’ Jun said.

  ‘Out of the question!’ Dr Wei shouted, whipping the liquorice root against his thigh.

  Jun forced herself from the chair as if pushing through a crowd. ‘I won’t believe it till I see her!’

  ‘Unfortunately, looking at the body isn’t possible,’ Polzin said. ‘But I see no harm in you viewing the lab.’

  Polzin stood up, a tower enough to match Markov, and opened the office door an inch before Dr Wei’s hands got to it. ‘After you,’ he said beaming at Jun.

  In the middle of the lab, in place of their patient bench, was a sharp-blue tubed curtain hanging, quarantining the area. An azure lightning bolt, it dominated the room, and contaminated the usual sterile-white panorama.

  Polzin commanded himself into the room and strode towards a young Enforcement Officer, who guarded the curtain. They exchanged a few inaudible words, before looking intently at the Officer’s Interface. Dr Wei sauntered into the lab, with his arms braced across his chest. He leaned against the wall near the door, staring down Polzin, like a hostile teenager. Markov, usually never far from Dr Wei’s side, instead hovered around Jun.

  The sorrow rolled heavy across Jun’s chest. She spoke to Polzin but kept her eyes on the curtain. ‘Is that where they found her?’

  Polzin grunted in agreement.

  Before he could say anything else, Jun’s hands were on the curtain and flicked its blue lips apart. Polzin protested, but it was too late. A patchwork noose of her colourful silks swished back and forth, like the final act of a magic show. The magician had disappeared.

  She looked up to the ceiling. The scarves were tethered to a pipe, which streamed conditioned air into the lab. Despite Odgerel’s slightness, the pressure of it had choked the pipe too; it had buckled in the middle.

  The noose lightly lullabied itself back and forth, with an eeriness of a children’s empty swing. Odgerel had a young family, everything to live for. Jun’s voice began in a whisper then raised to a shout, ‘There were no predictors to this. No signs from her health chips. No change in her biochemistry relevant to suicides…’

  The blue lips kissed in front of her. Markov had pulled the curtains together. ‘This was a bad idea,’ he said eying Polzin. Then facing Jun, ‘The woman I observed? Her personality and responses completely fit suicidal predispositions. Moody, aggressive and an altered state of perception.’

  ‘I revert to her neurochemistry rather than your non-qualified, subjective psychological assessment.’ Jun stalked over to the monitors and tried to bring up Odgerel’s health chip data, but Markov grabbed her hands.

  Jun snatched them away from him and shot him a warning look.

  ‘Her brain behaved a-typically, there’s no blueprint for comparison. The health chips can only do their job when they match
the algorithms and patterns they’re programmed,’ Markov shouted, then rubbed his forehead and sighed. ‘I feel guilty too… I wondered if there’s something we missed, but this was unique and beyond our control.’

  Dr Wei paced towards the monitor. ‘Back to the reason we’re here if we’ve had enough frivolity,’ he said.

  Markov swept his fingers across the screen, and the illum wall jumped to life. A CC recording of Odgerel showed Jun walking to the corner of the lab, disappearing out of view, as she had earlier that afternoon. Jun saw herself, padding across the illum wall, ignorant to what Odgerel would soon tell her. Markov paused the recording just before she stepped out of the frame.

  ‘When piecing together the events of the day, we looked at the CC recordings,’ Polzin said and gestured to the illum wall. ‘After this, there was no further documentation of the day.’

  Jun shook her head, that wasn’t right. She had gone back into the observation room and turned the feeds back on; she was sure of it. ‘I switched them off for a moment, but I turned them back on again.’

  ‘So you admit it!’ Dr Wei pointed at her, the witch in the hunt.

  There was no point lying, there had been enough lies already, and if she had any hope of convincing Polzin, she had to tell the truth.

  ‘As Dr Wei instructed, I had to notify Odg- Subject Zaye about the extension of the study.’

  Polzin circled her, nodding.

  ‘Why did you need to switch off the equipment?’ Dr Wei spat.

  Jun walked over to the illum wall and stood by the smudge of herself, bigger than her flesh-and-blood form. ‘I wanted her to understand the importance of her staying here. Be honest about the impact if she left – which is what she wanted to do – but we came to an understanding, pending agreement on our side to her terms. I was to talk to you both today…’ Jun said, eyeing Markov and Dr Wei.

  Dr Wei stalked over to her, his voice rising with each step. ‘This failure to follow procedure makes us, you, libel for disciplinary action. I know you’ve gone outside of protocol before with Zaye,’ he was now face-to-face with her. ‘Now look at the consequences!’ he said, pointing wildly at the curtain. ‘Cognitive regulation, Dr Xie. Look what you,’ he said, pelleting every word on her face, ‘triggered.’

  It wasn’t like that. Jun and Odgerel had an agreement. She’d switched the cameras and recording equipment back on. Odgerel trusted her; it was Markov and Dr Wei that she didn’t.

  ‘I warned you,’ Markov wrung his hands together. ‘It’s just like Esposito.’

  ‘Dr Xie, Polzin said gently, ‘obviously, there are some potential implications to your discussion. I want to be clear you’re not in trouble from a legal perspective. Clinically, however,’ he looked at Dr Wei.

  Jun wondered what kind of tag-team they were operating here. She didn’t know what good it would do, but she was determined to have it out. ‘You want to know what we talked about?’ She pointed at the illum wall. ‘Zaye would only agree to an extension of the study under the condition that both Dr Wei and Dr Markov would not be part of it.’

  Markov eyeballed Dr Wei, but neither said a word.

  Jun’s heart was beating so loudly in her chest; she felt sure everyone could hear it. ‘Zaye said that whenever she went into the lab or a facility room with you,’ Jun said to Markov, ‘she took her panic button with her. Why would she feel the need to do that?’

  Markov shook his head at Polzin. ‘I have no idea, other than manipulative tactics. I’ll co-operate in any way you like, Major. ‘I’d especially recommend reading my notes where I’ve collated Zaye’s divisive activities.’

  Markov was smart. He’d been singing that tune from the start and had dangled treasonous Esposito as his cock-sure example.

  ‘We should be supporting one another right now. Regardless of Zaye’s lies, this has been a shock to us all,’ Markov said, walking over to Jun and tried to put his hands on her shoulders.

  Jun pushed him away, repulsed.

  ‘Dr Markov makes an excellent point here – you need to be supportive of one another,’ Polzin said. ‘It’s in all of our interests that we work together on this.’ Did Jun hear a hint of desperation in his voice? The UA winning the Policing and Security contract was, after all, only a relatively recent acquisition.

  ‘You have the full cooperation and backing of my team, but you need to present a united front and have a consistent narrative. A warring department is not going to help anyone.’ Polzin sounded less like a Major, and more like a lawyer.

  Dr Wei and Markov stood side-by-side, their eyes scrutinising Jun.

  ‘I think we’re finished here, Dr Xie.’ Polzin said to Jun.

  Jun closed her eyes. Each lid snapped tightly under the weight of everything. She wasn’t close to being finished at all.

  * * *

  As she pushed through each set of swing-doors, Jun rebounded backwards. With the last pair, she had to summon every bit of strength to get through, and the buzzing in her ear was worse than before, its drill relentless.

  Polzin had insisted he escort her to her Intuimoto, but Jun wasn’t ready to leave. She needed time to digest what had happened, so she had asked Polzin if she could take a last look at Odgerel’s living quarters. A final goodbye. There had to be something else, some sign of what happened.

  As they left the lab, Jun learned Odgerel’s body wasn’t with the coroner at all, but in the lab’s cryopreserve. Any pretence of procedure being upheld had been dismissed. The protocol, which Dr Wei so fiercely wielded as a weapon, had now become his shield.

  The coroner was apparently satisfied for the lab’s wider departmental teams to conduct the autopsy, so ‘that the body remains in the best possible state for studies to be continued.’ Polzin concurred. This was no investigation; this was a sideshow.

  Preventing the body from further physiological and neurological deterioration, was as practical, as it was offensive. The thought of inflicting further study on Odgerel’s body left Jun cold. A woman died, and they’d dusted her down and bagged her up as quickly as they could.

  Walking into Odgerel’s living quarters, Jun’s chest panged. She hadn’t made good on her promise at all. Whatever happened, she’d been too late.

  ‘Are you after something in particular?’ Polzin asked.

  Jun shook her head. A few tears escaped, but she smeared them away. ‘Context reassures me, Major. At least, it did…’

  The room was as austere as always. The scarves had been the only imprint of her, and now they no longer framed the desk, it was as lifeless as it was before. But her imprint would reverberate beyond the scarves. Odgerel’s family – her poor daughter – how did you even begin to explain it to them?

  Only a few hours ago, Odgerel had been here. Jun had thought in the absence of Markov and the evening testing, she would be in peace, but instead, she must have been afraid. Jun walked to the desk and thumbed the Jade plant she had brought to welcome her on the first day. She scanned the desk. The Interface was left in its usual place, but there was no sign of the personal alarm. She opened the drawers, but there was nothing. As she paced to the bed, she was aware of Polzin’s eyes following her. She lifted the solitary pillow, fanned the sheet. Nothing.

  ‘What is it?’ Polzin asked walking over to her, inspecting the vacant bed himself.

  ‘Zaye’s personal alarm. Was it on her body?’

  He shook his head.

  ‘It’s not here,’ Jun said and pointed around the room. ‘So where is it?’ If Odgerel always had it when she was with Dr Markov, she’d have kept it accessible. If it wasn’t here, where was it and why?

  Polzin swept his eyes around the room. ‘I’ll get my team on it. Don’t worry yourself. I suggest getting some rest, Dr Xie. You’ve had a shock. Stay at home for the next few days. The world won’t stop turning. We’ll be in touch.’

  She was exhausted, but how could she possibly stay at home? There were too many things pointing in the same direction, and the investigation was not leaning
in Odgerel’s favour. She wondered how ‘on it’ Polzin’s team would be, given his fit-for-court speech earlier.

  Jun turned to leave. Whatever last hand she could play, she’d need to do it quickly. She walked out of Odgerel’s quarters and was about to walk past the observation room, but instinct told her to go inside. The corridor was empty; through the one-way glass, she saw Polzin was still in the living quarters. She darted into the observation room and carefully shut the door.

  Inside there was the usual monitoring and recording equipment. Jun’s heart drummed in her chest as she swiped the monitor and brought up Odgerel’s health chip information from earlier that day. Markov had stopped her looking at it in the lab. Now was her chance.

  She scanned the information quickly, trying to take it all in. She worked backwards. Hypoxia and anoxia – so far, so indicative of asphyxia – high levels of glutamate, NMDA and AMPA. Was that blood pressure of 170/101 mmHg? Increased respiratory rate, and ventricular ectopy, which all made sense…but then a prolonged period of stability and a controlled state of unconscious. That was uncommon. And then, there was the time. The last results were recorded at 15.42pm, a good five hours earlier than Polzin said. Jun looked again at the monitor and saw Mepivacaine had been in Odgerel’s system, and her muscles went into paralysis at 14.44pm.

  Jun’s heart throbbed. She looked up to the one-way glass. Polzin was no longer there. Where had he gone? She didn’t have time to think about him now. Her breath caught in her throat as she looked back to the screen. Mepivacaine? Why was there an anaesthetic in Odgerel’s system?

  ‘Dr Xie?’

  Jun’s body went cold.

  She turned around to see his face, shrivelled and hostile.

  ‘Is everything to your satisfaction?’

  ‘With what, Dr Wei?’ The final hand she played might indeed be her last.

  ‘With Zaye’s readings?’ he said, his eyes surveyed her face.

  Only now did she realise what a fool she’d been. All the collusions, the conversations with the Counsel, everything she had been isolated from. She’d felt something wasn’t right from the start, and repeatedly let them get away with it. What had Dr Wei and Markov done?