In Death 18 - Divided in Death

damn lab, Roarke.”
    “I’ve something a little more sensitive, a little more specific.”
    “Go ahead.” Reva threw out her arms. “I’ve got nothing to hide.”
    “Computer, open Panel A.”
    Acknowledged.
    A section of the wall opened. Inside was a small room, hardly bigger than a closet. It held what looked like a high-end drying tube, with clear, rounded sides and a door with no apparent lock. There were no visible controls.
    “Something I’ve been working on, on my own,” Roarke said when Reva lifted her eyebrows. “An individual security scanner, higher intensity than what’s on the market currently. It’ll also read vital signs, which will come in handy for evaluating a subject’s state of mind during scan.”
    “Is it safe?” Caro had risen, walked over quietly. “I’m sorry, but if it hasn’t been approved, there may be some risk.”
    “I’ve used it myself,” he assured her. “It’s quite safe. It’ll feel warm on the skin as it scans,” he told Reva. “Not uncomfortably so, but you’ll notice the change in temperature as it moves from area to area.”
    “Let’s just get it done. I’ve got the Truth Testing scheduled today. I’d like a little time between scans and probes if it’s all the same to you.”
    “Computer, open scanner.”
    Acknowledged.
    A door opened on the tube with a little puff of air. At Roarke’s gesture, Reva stepped inside, turned to face the room.
    “Begin process on Ewing, Reva, full body, full power on my command. It needs to read and record your height,” he said. “Your weight, your body mass, and so on.”
    “Fine.”
    “When the door closes, the process should only take a few moments. There’ll be an audio and video readout, if you don’t object.”
    “Just do it.”
    “Computer, begin.”
    The door of the tube closed. The lights inside it turned to a cool blue. Eve listened as Reva’s body statistics were noted. A horizontal red beam rose up from the floor of the tube, slowly traveling up the body, down again. Her various injuries were listed, and the evaluation of healing.
    “Excellent.” Reva’s voice sounded hollow through the tube, but she was beginning to grin. Eve could see that most of the temper had drowned in professional fascination. “And thorough. You’re going to need to get this on the market.”
    “A few more tweaks,” Roarke said.
    Then came a series of red and blue beams, crisscrossing her body, pulsing as they scanned her, section by section from feet to head.
    Electronic device located, subdermal, sector two.
    “What the hell is it talking about?” Her tone a quick jerk of panic, Reva pressed her hands against the tube. “Where’s section two? This is bullshit.”
    Roarke noted the increase in her pulse rate, her blood pressure.
    “Let it finish out, Reva.”
    “Hurry up. Just hurry up. I want to get out of here.”
    “It’s all right, Reva.” Caro spoke softly. “Only a little more, and it’ll be done. Everything’s going to be all right.”
    “Nothing’s all right. Nothing’s going to be all right again.”
    No secondary device detected. Single electronic device, operable, subdermal, section two. Request command to mark location.
    “Do so,” Roarke ordered.
    There was a quick hum, a flash. Reva slapped a hand at the back of her neck, as though she’d been stung by a bee.
    Eval and scan complete.
    “Save and display all data. Release seal, end program.”
    The lights in the tube winked off, and the door opened.
    “Inside me? Under my skin.” She held her hand cupped over the back of her neck. “How could I not know? I swear to God, I swear I didn’t know.”
    “I never thought you did. Sit down now.”
    “An internal. It would require a procedure. I haven’t had a procedure. It can’t be there.”
    “It is there.” Roarke drew her to a chair, stepped back when Caro sat beside her, took her hand. “Planted there without your knowledge, without your acquiescence.”
    “I’d have had to have been unconscious. I haven’t been unconscious.”
    “You’ve been asleep, haven’t you?” Eve broke in. “Somebody’s asleep, it’s not hard to give them a little bump with a pressure syringe and take them under. Or to slip something into food or drink so they’d sleep through an implant.”
    “I sleep at home, in my own damn bed. The only person who’d be able to pull off something like that would’ve been . . . Blair,” she finished on a shaky breath. “But that’s crazy. He