Page 43 of Light Leech

“Kalacia Vice,” Ralia said. “Still no recognition, BB?”

“Never heard of her.”

“Alright, let’s see what else we can find. She’s wiped herself from plenty of public records, but she didn’t pay a professional. I can still see her traces around. Used to work for Libricore as an intelligence coordinator. Lots of neuronet work but was let go after a series of odd behavior which she defends with a ‘voluntary resignation to pursue personal academic interests.’ No record of family contacts or acquaintances. Definitely fits the bill for a loner neurocrawler.”

“Can you access her search history and net activity?” Naoma asked.

Ralia shook her head. “She at least knew how to cover that up, though it’s pretty basic stuff. But that doesn’t mean it’s untraceable. She expressed a particular interest in one Devóne Eclaine.”

“Makes sense why she called you Boyband,” I said.

“No,” said Naoma. “That was Veren.”

I nodded. “You’re right. Males sense seeing… you know, what they became.”

“Can I talk?” Ralia said.

“Zeg, what’s your problem?” Boyband grumbled.

“I wasn’t hungry a minute ago, but the need to feed is starting to hit me.”

“Eat her teeth when you’re done then.”

She winked at him. “If you insist. Alright, alright, back to work. Parkie was able to uncover a plethora of her encrypted searches, but they lack clarity, as do her messages with outside parties. What I can tell is that Sanna and her have contradictory histories, so I’m sure Shanna was an actual person, not a construct for the sake of her machinations. She met with Shanna a few times as an applicant for teaching history and was offered a job at Water Hills, which she then declined.”

“Why?” Boyband asked.

“The application was under another name. Looks like she had the qualifications–fabricated or not–but had no intentions of staying. She must’ve used that to read Sanna’s personality for this whole show. Give me a sec.”

She looked up on a call. “Parkie babe, one more thing. I’ll buy you a double premium pack. You plug? Pulse. Separate this false identity from the real Sanna and see if you can find anything on her elsewhere… really, that fast? Were you expecting me to call? Of course you were, you sick shac. Hiding anything else? No? You sure? Pulse. Chat later.”

“What was that about?” Boyband asked.

“Sanna is being held in a private therapeutic center.”

“Private my ass,“ Boyband scoffed.

“Exactly. We bypassed the screen Kalacia set up and the real Sanna is set for release in two days with a diagnosis of fix-induced amnesia. Zeggin’ neurocrawler set up everything for a perfect escape to make it look like she was never there.”

“Should we tell the school?” Naoma asked.

“Zeg ’em,” Boyband said. He looked at me. “David after this?”

I nodded. “Denji, where is he, by the way?”

Denji furrowed his brow and glanced at Ralia. “Your friend made me lock him away.”

Ralia laughed. “You can’t expect me to let that freak waddle around bothering me to kill it all day. Now can we focus again, please?”

“Fine,” Boyband said. “But does it at least say what she wanted with me?”

“I don’t know. Could be you, Petya, even Naoma. Probably Naoma if one of those assassins went for her. Signing up for an official visit puts you all on the map. Who is to say she wouldn’t have struck you somewhere else?”

“Did she bring Veren along?”

Ralia scowled. “Not sure. I can’t find anything about her.”

I laughed at Boyband. “You think she just lucked out finding that freak in there?”