Read In Death Collection: Books 30-32 for Free Online Page B

somebody in it with him?”
    â€œThe unit’s set for solo, but that’s part of the bad. No way to tell from the disc. No way to tell what the hell Fantastical is as the disc self-destructed when we bypassed the last fail-safe.”
    â€œShit.”
    â€œIt’s pretty toasted. We might be able to get something off it, given a miracle or two. They have to have a copy. No way this is the only one.”
    â€œI’ll get on that from here. I’m going to need a team to pick up the vic’s work equipment. Try not to blow it up.”
    â€œThat hurts, kid.”
    â€œWell, it might as well be a crap day for you, too,” Eve said and signed off before signaling Peabody. “I need you to come to the vic’s office, start a prelim search, and keep everybody else out. I’m on my way there.”
    â€œCopy that. I’ve got the salients on these two, and I’ll do runs on the three of them. Are we going to interview the rest of the place today?”
    â€œBetter now than later. We’ll keep it to whereabouts at the time of until we do more runs.”
    â€œThere’s over seventy of them, Dallas.”
    She sighed. “Contact Feeney again. He and McNab and Callendar can come down. They speak geek anyway.”
    â€œCopy that, too. McNab’s going to wet his pants when he sees this place.”
    â€œAnd won’t that be fun? You here, me there. Now.” Eve clicked off again.
    Eve took her time going back. She saw that Var was right—people knew something was up, something was off. Heads turned in her direction, whispers followed her. The place reeked of guilt and worry and just a hint of excitement.
    What’s going on, what did they do? Are we in trouble?
    She spotted Var coming back from the opposite direction, looking wrecked, and the whispers pumped up to murmurs.
    She let him go in ahead of her, then closed the door behind her.
    â€œWhat’s Fantastical?”
    The question was answered with shocked silence.

3
    â€œI’LL GET A WARRANT. EVE TRACKED HER GAZE from face to face, looking for the weak spot. “And the department e-team goes through every byte of every file. And I shut you down while they do. It could take weeks.”
    â€œBut you can’t, you can’t shut us down,” Benny protested. “We have more than seventy people on-site, and all the others online depending on us. And the distributors, the accounts. Everything that’s in development.”
    â€œYeah, that’s a shame. Murder trumps all.”
    â€œThey have bills, they have families,” Cill began.
    â€œAnd I’ve got the two parts of Bart.”
    â€œThat’s low,” Var mumbled. “That’s low.”
    â€œMurder usually is. Your choice.” She held up her ’link.
    â€œWe can get the lawyers on it.” Cill glanced at Benny, then Var. “But—”
    â€œMurder trumps all,” Eve repeated. “I’ll get my warrant, and I’ll get my answers. It’ll just take longer. Meanwhile, your friend’s in the morgue. But maybe a game means more to you than that.”
    â€œIt’s not just a game.” Passion rose in Benny’s voice. “It’s the ult for Bart, for us, for the company. The top of top secret—and we swore. We all swore an oath not to talk about it with anyone not directly assigned. And even then, it’s only need-to-know.”
    â€œI need to know. He was playing it when he was killed.”
    â€œBut ... but that’s not possible,” Cill began. “You said he was killed at home.”
    â€œThat’s right. With a disc copy of Fantastical in his holo-unit.”
    â€œThat’s wrong, that’s got to be wrong.” Paler now, Var shook his head. “He wouldn’t have taken a development copy off-site without telling us, not without logging it out. It breaks protocol.”
    â€œHe had it at home? He took it off-site,