This Day All Gods Die Read Free Page A

data to catch the switch.
    Hell, Hashi, we aren't doing that here. It would take hours to clear anybody."
    Sadly, that was true. Indeed, the only reason GCES—
    or
    UMCPHQ—
    Security functioned at all was that the expertise needed to circumvent it was so specialized; and so closely guarded.
    "Are you performing this playback? I require evidence."
    "One of my techs is."
    "And—
    " Hashi prompted her.
    "We haven't found anything yet."
    "Have you encountered any patches, or other signs of tampering?"
    As Hashi had told Koina before the extraordinary session, the code-strings Lane had extracted from the credentials of Godsen's killer were current as well as correct. If that code engine had been patched or altered—
    lawfully or otherwise,
    by GCES Security, Anodyne Systems, or anyone else—
    the
    change would have been apparent. Such adjustments transformed source-code as much as mutagens transformed human RNA.
    But only older code required patching.
    Lane restrained impatience poorly. "Not yet."
    "Very well." He let that question go. "And the code engine itself—
    ?" he probed.
    "It's valid," she returned at once. "Current and correct.
    Which means exactly what you think it means.
    "But if you want confirmation," she continued without pausing, "the source-code strings we've picked up from the id of the kaze who killed Godsen are a perfect match."
    Hashi nodded to himself. "Confirmation is always welcome. However, this is hardly a surprise."
    "No," Lane acknowledged.
    He cast a worried glance at his chronometer, then asked,
    "Have you gleaned any other data?"
    "That's what I'm working on," she retorted. "The body."
    As she spoke, he heard a subtle shift in her tone; a change of intensity. So far the results she'd given him had been relatively routine, despite their importance: any of the techs in her department could have supplied them. But now she sounded more personally engaged; perhaps excited. At once he became convinced that she was on the track of something vital.
    "But I can tell you right now," she went on, "we aren't going to find a detonator.
    "The bomb has to be shielded in the body. Otherwise Security would catch it. And you know what that kind of shielding is like." Hashi did know. Angus Thermopyle's body was full of it. "It has to appear organic in order to pass scan.
    On top of that, it has to reflect back what scan expects to see.
    Unfortunately—
    for us—
    any shield contains the blast when the
    bomb goes off. Maybe only for a millisecond or two, but that's enough to throw some of the force back onto the bomb itself.
    And the detonator. On a molecular level, I'll be able to find all the pieces you want. But I won't be able to reconstruct the device those pieces came from.
    "So I'm concentrating on biochemistry."
    Her voice conveyed an almost subliminal frisson, like a distant electrostatic discharge. Despite the numbers ticking away on his chronometer, he listened harder.
    "His blood is a real witch's brew. Which is exactly what you would expect if he was in a state of drug-induced hypnosis. I haven't had time to identify even half the chemicals his body shouldn't have had in it." She paused to emphasize what followed. "But there's one detail that looks a little strange. Or a little stranger than the rest of it.''
    "Tell me," Hashi put in as if he thought he could hurry her; as if he didn't know that she was already moving as fast as she could without stumbling into disorganization.
    Instead of hurrying, she began to speak a bit more slowly, articulating each word with deliberate precision.
    "There's a coenzyme spike in his blood spectrum. I mean a major spike. Of course, it's a coenzyme. It's inert. And it isn't even remotely natural. But it combines with some natural human apoenzymes to produce an artificial holoenzyme, and that one is active. It bears some interesting resemblances to pseudo-amylase, which is one of the enzymes we use to produce shielding in cyborgs, but there are significant differences,