Two long and uneventful hours had passed, with Laith having decided to stay at the hospital and commandeering the small coffee table in Warda’s office. Utilizing the projector screen feature on his Slate, he had created a virtual corkboard complete with hastily-made flashcards and was looking at various pieces of information pertaining to the case at once. For all intents and purposes, this coffee table was now his workspace, and he tried very hard to go through all of the material he had so far. There were a lot of white strings – possible connections that hadn’t been uncovered yet – and not a lot of red strings, which he used to signify a solid connection. Solid connections required proof. Proof he didn’t have.

In fact, about the only solid connections he could prove were between Aster Lockwood’s Slate (not even Aster Lockwood himself) and the crime scene, the unidentified killer’s prints and the murder weapon lodged into Cassia Grove’s back, and the threatening X-letter and Cassia Grove. All of the others seemed to float on the board, not quite tied down to anything, the connections unclear. He’d used white lines to link them, but those only symbolized his own theories, and they didn’t clarify much.

Was Invidia the blackmailer? The assumption had been that they were, since Cassia referred to them via a pseudonym on her Slate. But it could have just as easily been a code name for a lover, if Captain Fox’s theory was correct. Laith’s gut told him it was the former, because everything he’d learned about Grove led him away from the idea that she would have been able to maintain a long-term romantic relationship outside of her own marriage. And, if Invidia was the blackmailer, what was it that they knew about Grove that would have given them leverage over the woman? How did it connect to Aster Lockwood – the one in the photograph and the one lying in the hospital bed now?

Aster Lockwood’s Slate had gotten Laith’s Rinvestigator shot at that day in the Ruins. What was the connection between the Ruins, the Slate, and the gunman? There had to be something, but the white lines meant just that: there was some potential connection, but it was unclear what it was. And then there was the suspicious issue of the farms. How did that play into everything?

His Slate alerted him of an incoming call, and the name on the screen read Audra Haize. He turned off the projector and answered the call. “Ms. Haize?” he asked by way of greeting. He was surprised she was calling him. “Good afternoon.”

“Detective! Hi!” came the chirpy reply. “I hope I’m not calling at a bad time.”

“Not at all,” Laith said politely. It wasn’t as though he was any closer to solving the case, anyway, he reminded himself, and Aster Lockwood was still out cold. “Is there something I can help you with?”

“It’s more like the other way around,” Haize said, and he could hear the tell-tale singing of birds in the background, telling him that she was likely sitting outside in order to speak with him. “I got to thinking after our conversation last night, and I did a little digging.”

“I didn’t ask you to do that,” Laith said with a frown. “Such actions could get you into a lot of trouble at your workplace. If Mr. Antrum finds out you’ve been snooping around...”

“He won’t,” Haize assured him quickly. “I was very careful. Besides, I think I found something very important. Something that you’ll want to know about. It’s related to what we were talking about last night, and I figure it’s better to tell you instead of keeping it to myself, now that I know.”

“Oh?” he asked, his curiosity piqued. “What did you find?”

“You remember that hypothetical security measure we spoke about yesterday?” she asked.

“The hidden log? Yes, I remember.”

“Well, let’s just say that I… hypothetically managed to get a look at it,” she confessed, a guilty lilt to her voice. “Or, I guess, not so hypothetically.”

Laith guessed that that was against PATET HQ policy, but he decided to let it slide, more interested in learning what she knew. “And did you see anything useful?” he prodded patiently.

“Well, it’s actually a little bit confusing,” she admitted, and her voice took on a hushed tone. “The logs show that there were recently a range of changes made to a variety of different systems in PATET, including the Heliopolis Internal Identification Registry and some strange meddling in the Heliopolis Monitoring and Surveillance System, among others. Seems a bit fishy, since some of this stuff includes completely erasing information manually. Plus, I got a bit curious and tried to figure out what it was this person was trying to do with the Monitoring and Surveillance System, and by taking into account locations and cameras that were being accessed, I think it looks like they were trying to erase something or someone moving through the city. That was just the impression I got,” she added, sounding very pleased with herself.

“I see,” Laith said, making a few notes on his Slate. It recorded all of his conversations, anyway – a handy tool for a Detective – but he wanted to have important highlights ready for him to access without having to listen to the entire conversation again. “And who exactly was this person?”

“According to the logs, it was Mr. Berch who made these changes within the past week or so.”

“Who’s this Berch?” He had to stop himself from asking her to send him a copy of these logs for his own records – it wouldn’t have been legally acquired, and such evidence could put his entire case in jeopardy.

“Mr. Berch is Mr. Antrum’s boss’s boss,” she explained quickly. “He’s the one we send all of our finished work to, and he and his team then carry out integration with the PATET system.”

“You did mention that Specialists higher up in the chain would be the most likely culprits,” Laith reminded her. “What’s so confusing about that?”

“Oh, I stand by what I said. Absolutely. With the permissions and access they have, this kind of thing can only be done by Specialists in higher positions. But that’s not the issue here,” she said. “The issue is the fact that Mr. Berch has been on leave for over a week now. He couldn’t have possibly made these changes because he hasn’t been here. Which means we have another problem, I think.”

Laith was starting to see the picture. “You think someone was able to use his account to gain access to the systems while he was away,” he guessed. “Is that even possible?”

There was a small hesitation on the other end of the line, and Audra Haize sucked in a deep breath. “I guess it is, yeah,” she said quietly. “But… if that is the case, how will you know who did what?”

“Well, if your logs can’t tell me, and you don’t have any other security measures...” He trailed off, trying to consider his options. He could potentially cross-reference the time stamps on the changes recorded in the logs with the days that certain employees were at PATET HQ. Would someone be able to access Berch’s account without needing to access his station? If they needed access to his computer, then it would be much easier to try and find surveillance footage or simply figure out who wasn’t doing anything at the time that those changes were being made, since they would have had to physically step away from their workstation. But if they didn’t need access… Well, his options would be very limited.

He made a note to call and inquire about this matter while he waited for Aster Lockwood to wake up. He didn’t want Audra Haize getting more involved than she already had, and if the murder of Cassia Grove and disappearance of Aster Lockwood had anything at all to do with this – which he very much suspected would be the case – then Haize would be potentially getting herself into a dangerous situation by snooping around.

“Listen, I have to go now,” he lied, glancing around Warda’s office. “I’ll think about what you’ve said. Thank you for your assistance. But I really should stress, Ms. Haize, that you don’t do anything like this again unless you are specifically requested to do so.”

“Sure,” she said, and it sounded like a lie. “I’m glad I could help. Let me know if you need any more help with… whatever it is you’re looking into.”

“Thank you,” Laith replied. “Have a good day.”

“Oh – one more thing!” she added hastily before he ended the call. He waited patiently, and she asked, “Do I get paid or something for this information?”

☀️ ☀️ ☀️

Laith just about managed to catch Captain Olivia Fox at her office before she left, and then very easily managed to convince her to stay and listen to what he’d learned today. She’d known, of course, that Aster Lockwood had been found, and that he was at the hospital, but she listened very intently as he explained everything he’d learned from Audra Haize about PATET and how easily it could be manipulated and altered by Specialists with the right position in the PATET HQ hierarchy. The more he spoke, the more concerned she became.

“It can’t be that easy,” she said after a moment of silence. “PATET runs everything. It can’t be that easy to just… do whatever you want with it.”

“Well, apparently, it is,” Laith said, rubbing his eyes tiredly. “I don’t know if this is related to the case, but consider this: If someone had an insider at PATET HQ who could change information up for them at will and manipulate the system to that person’s advantage… Well, it’s not too far-fetched to imagine that this would be something many people – probably wealthy and powerful people – would want to take advantage of.”

“In all this time, Heliopolis hasn’t had a single issue related to the manipulation of PATET,” she said, shaking her head.

“That we know of,” Laith added with a frown. “How would we know, if it’s that easy to get someone to make PATET look the other way or erase information from a database that someone doesn’t want there? We would be none the wiser. PATET would be none the wiser. As intelligent as it is, it’s still only artificial. Made by humans. Beholden to human commands. Reliant on human maintenance. And it is possible, you know. People can be tempted easily. Money. Material gain. Whatever the reason, the PATET Specialists are only human, and humans can be led astray.”

Captain Fox rubbed her temples, trying to consider the magnitude of what he had just told her. “How does nobody else see an issue in this? Why has nobody else brought this potential city-wide security risk to attention? It’s such a large oversight.”

Laith shrugged. “You said yourself – PATET works. Nobody will complain as long as they don’t see any issues arising from the way that they’re running the system. But imagine what could potentially be happening in the background, and what could have been happening all this time, right under our noses. Audra Haize just so happened to look at the log of her own initiative and saw that some rogue Specialist was doing something they shouldn’t have been doing. But why wasn’t it flagged before? I’m assuming the logs aren’t actually referred to or checked unless something happens and they want to know who or what was responsible. If she hadn’t taken a look, this Berch person – or whoever was using his account – could have gotten away with it without being noticed at all. Doesn’t that bother you?”

He needn’t have asked. It was clear that Captain Fox understood all too well the gravity of the situation. “If you give me official permission to check into PATET HQ, I could learn more. We could have Haize working for us more officially – and we could find out how many times something like what she’s uncovered has happened in the past. I can investigate and--”

“No.” Captain Fox’s reply was definitive. “No, you have the murder to solve. I can’t have you distracted by this. Besides, it’s not your job. Something like this doesn’t fit under the Homicide Division’s jurisdiction.” She stood and began to pace, hands clasped tightly behind her back. “I’ll get a team on this – a few subtle detectives who can look into things without riling anyone up. The last thing we need is to get the public asking questions and panicking. If they lose faith in PATET, it’ll be a nightmare.”

Laith set his jaw, unhappy with her decision. To be fair, however, she was right. This wasn’t something he should be investigating. But the murder case had led him to question PATET, and he knew that whatever was happening in PATET HQ was somehow linked to his investigation. He leaned against the wall of her office and crossed his arms. “I’ll stay out of it for now,” he agreed, “but if they find anything with relation to Aster Lockwood or Cassia Grove, I need to know as soon as possible. I still think this is related to the case, one way or another.”

“I’ll let them know to contact you if anything is found,” Fox said with a curt nod. “In the meantime, just focus on Cassia Grove. Her killer still hasn’t been caught, and PATET manipulations aside, we have to find this person, one way or another.”