Paris Knox and the Order of Things

Chapter 4

"Lead the way."

The man nodded and began to lead us down the hallway in the same direction he'd come from.

"My name is Kennier Cho," he started. "I work here. I'm one of the officers that listen for any return signals, you know... from..."

Here, he trailed off and looked around nervously once again.

"I... well, you won't believe me unless I have proof," he said. "And this morning I–"

Cho opened his office door and fell silent.

"Oh," he said quietly.

I saw what he was talking about. The room had a desk against one wall, and a few machines on top that were probably once meant for receiving and recording transmissions, but everything that had a single switch or wire in it was smashed beyond repair. The random pieces of metal and wire littered the room, bearing a disturbing resemblance to my old workshop back on Mars.

"What happened here?" I asked.

"I don't know," Cho said anxiously. "It wasn't like this when I left to go look for you fifteen minutes ago."

I stepped into the room and picked up the broken shell of a recording device. I turned it over in my hands. Seemed to have been smashed with a hammer of some sort. The now exposed underside of wires were cut messily. And most importantly, the hard drive was missing.

"Maybe you should just leave," Cho said shakily.

I looked over at him. This man had some sort of information that someone didn't want him to have.

And he knew it.

"Cho, maybe–" I started.

"No," he said. "I'm sorry for interrupting your investigation, detective, sir, but I'm sure I'll be fine."

"You said it yourself, you're in danger," I said, getting slightly concerned.

"I... you would never believe me," Cho said. "No one would. Just leave, please. I'm sure, this will all blow over."

I slowly set down the smashed husk of the recorder. I wasn't going to push him.

"If you're sure," I said.

He nodded and offered a wan smile.

I probably should have pushed him.

Instead, I pulled Welsh down the hallway and took the stairs down to the front desk. The secretary was frowning bitterly at her keyboard as she typed something.

"Mrs. Roberts," I said as politely as I could muster.

The old hag in a cardigan stopped typing and frowned bitterly at me instead. "Oh. It's you again."

I smiled pleasantly. "Yes. As part of my investigation, I need to know what times everyone entered and left the building last night." I pulled out my notebook and looked to her expectantly.

The secretary grumbled something, and started typing again. Hopefully she was pulling up the times and not just going back to what she was doing before.