said, her gaze steady.
“Good,” Jilly said defiantly.
“I think so,” Elspeth agreed.
Jilly let her mouth relax into smile, and Elspeth gave her a small one in return. Jilly felt an overwhelming rush of gratitude, of sheer emotion, because it seemed as if her allies had just doubled. And because she realised that Elspeth, apparently so prim and conservative —if you ignored the vodka—was an ally worth having.
She turned hastily to her desk and woke the laptop, which was still open on her desk where she’d left it.
Exodus: Where do you think I am? A man has to sleep after beating up the Nazis.
Her heart seemed to explode. He was back.
****
“But that isn’t possible,” Sera argued. She glanced around Elspeth, Jilly, Jack, and Blair, all sitting, lounging, slouching, and sprawling around the large table in her office. “Is it?”
“That I can talk to the spirit of Genesis Adam in a VR game? No,” Jilly agreed. For some reason, her heart sank at the disbelief of her friend. She so needed this to be real, for reasons she didn’t even want to think about. “But it happens all the same.”
Unexpectedly, Jack said, “I don’t see why it should be more impossible than any of the other crap around here. Only three months ago, Sera, you told me there were no such things as vampires, although you’d been talking to dead people all your life. And now…” He waved one expressive hand at Blair, who stood up to give an ironic bow before sprawling back into the chair that looked far too small for him. He was wearing biker’s leathers, which was how he got around in the hours of daylight, and even Jilly had to admit he looked good in them: big and sexy and dangerous.
Sera frowned from Jack to Blair.
Elspeth said, “What other explanations are there? We can discount the possibility that Jilly’s lying. So either she’s mistaken—which I doubt; someone’s tricking her—possible but unlikely in the circumstances; or it’s just as she says.”
“Also,” Jack added, “why shouldn’t a spirit enter a computer program? Is it really so very different to writing on a blackboard or hurling things around a house, or even just standing at the end of someone’s bed?”
Sera nodded slowly. “So… I don’t know everything…but I do know you, Jilly. Can we all enter this program?”
Jilly shrugged. “I don’t see why not. I’ll ask him. The other thing is, I think there was some kind of cover-up. I think he was killed in that house, the night of the break-in, which was probably the night Killearn was killed. I think the paper trail to Australia was planted to remove suspicion. I don’t even think there was any drink or drugs or rehab. Roxy said he was never very interested in these things before, and she sent me a load of names, friends and colleagues of Adam who never saw him stoned or even very pissed after his student days.”
“And the newspaper reports?”
“Hearsay. Unattributed sources. Even the pictures like this one…” Jilly laid the flattened laptop on the table to show the picture of the wasted-looking Adam in the dark Edinburgh street. “Look at the box of shopping he’s carrying. I enhanced it.” She zoomed in on the box of groceries. “Bread, something wrapped that might be prepackaged meat, frozen veg, eggs, butter, coffee, milk, loads of juice. No alcohol, not so much as a can of beer. He went to the corner shop, not some opium den!”
“He could have been on his way home from the opium den,” Jack pointed out reasonably. “With the munchies.”
Jilly blinked at him. “Sometimes you surprise me. And it’s a fair point. Have another glance at the picture. Okay, he looks rough. He needs to change his clothes and shave and sleep for twenty-four hours. But come on, guys, don’t you know any geeks? Or students who pull all-nighters to get their work in on time? Or game players who’re too into the game to go to bed?”
“Hmm,” Sera said thoughtfully, pulling the tablet closer to her. Jack nodded as if allowing Jilly the point.
She pushed it home. “Everyone who knew Adam says that when he was in the middle of developing something big, he’d disappear for weeks on end. No one saw him. He shut himself in his office and worked day and night, only paused very erratically for sleep when his brain shut down. He forgot to eat sometimes for a whole day. This was one focused nerd, with a revolutionary idea