A Coming of Age

by Timothy Zahn

  “Right here.”

  “Escort Martel back to his cell, if you would, and then see if Dr. Jarvis can come up here for a few minutes.”

  Martel stood up. “Good-bye, Detective. I’ll see you in court.”

  Tirrell nodded silently and waited until they had left. Then, sinking back into his chair, he propped his elbows up on the desk and rubbed his eyes vigorously. It wouldn’t be nearly as easy as he’d made it sound, of course—he would have to talk fast and loud to convince the various court officials that setting aside one set of charges in exchange for a flat-out guilty plea on the other set was a fair compromise for all concerned. But he should be able to pull it off. The crucial question now was how Jarvis would react to the deal he was trying to work out. Tirrell had been battling Martel’s kind long enough to know how they thought, but the scientist was still in many ways an enigma to him. Too late, now, he wished he’d gone to get Jarvis personally instead of sending Tonio; tired though he was, the exercise might have awakened his brain a bit.

  The office door swung open, and he looked up as Jarvis stepped into the room. “You wanted to see me?”

  “Yes.” Tirrell waved him to the chair Martel had just vacated. “Tonio, I want you to hear this, too,” he added as the preteen started to leave. Without comment Tonio moved into the room and closed the door behind him, hovering with his back to it.

  “First of all, Doctor,” Tirrell began, “I’d like to know exactly what you’ve told the other police.”

  Jarvis eyed him for a moment before answering. “I’ve just said that Omega—or Martel, I guess his real name is—suddenly burst into my cabin, took me prisoner, and blew the place up. I’ve agreed to give more details when I’ve pulled myself together.”

  “In other words, you’ve been stalling. Good. Did you mention Colin to them at all? Or the fact that Lisa, Tonio, and I were there when Martel grabbed you?”

  Jarvis shook his head. “No to both questions. I assumed you would want to talk with me before my story got set in concrete, so I tried to be as vague as possible.”

  “I see.” Tirrell leaned back slightly in his chair. “All right. Let’s start by finishing the conversation we were having at your cabin when Martel arrived. As I recall, you were about to try and convince me that Tigrin society needed your discovery to become stable.”

  Jarvis glanced up at Tonio. “I doubt if I have to spell out the more obvious potential problems to you, Detective. Depriving kids of literacy and book knowledge would hamper any attempted power grab they might try, but the physical strength is certainly on their side. They would succeed … at least temporarily.”

  “Only if everyone went along,” Tonio said, a bit hotly. “A lot of us wouldn’t, you know.”

  “That’s one reason a revolt would ultimately fail,” Jarvis acknowledged. “But the threat will always be there, sitting in the backs of people’s minds, and the response will always be to keep as tight a rein as possible on the kids. That sort of permanent strain isn’t good for anyone.”

  Tirrell thought of the official overreaction to Lisa’s attempts to learn how to read. “Possibly,” he said. “But that’s not sufficient reason to risk another Lost Generation’s worth of chaos.”

  “Isn’t it?” Jarvis shrugged. “Then maybe you’d like to consider the trauma of taking five-year-olds from their parents and sticking them in hives among strangers. Or the way the emotional shock of Transition combines with the physical aspects of puberty itself to make teen suicide rates the highest on the planet. Or maybe—” his face seemed to harden—“you don’t mind the way those triple-damned fagins siphon some of the brightest kids away from hives and twist their minds to hell and gone. Every one of those problems would disappear if adults as well as kids had teekay.”

  Tirrell felt his stomach muscles tighten as, knowingly or otherwise, Jarvis hit the detective’s own deepest sore spot. “You don’t like fagins, I gather?”

  For a moment Jarvis stared at him, his eyes curiously flat. “No, I don’t. I take it you don’t know why exactly Colin was abandoned in Ridge Harbor in the first place.”

  Tirrell shook his head. “Why don’t you tell us?”

  “It was because a fagin in your town got the bright idea of starting with brand-new babies instead of snatching kids from homes or hives,” the scientist said bitterly. “Miribel was supposed to deliver Colin to him when she left the hospital.”

  At Tirrell’s right, Tonio growled something. “Just like that?” the detective asked. “Just walk out the front door and hand the baby over?”

  “Why not?” Jarvis’s eyes were blazing, but Tirrell could tell the anger wasn’t directed at him. “No one in Barona knew she was even pregnant. The birth would be recorded in Ridge Harbor, and in thirty-two days it would go into the sealed records and no one would ever find out what happened. The fagin would have someone raise the baby, and when his teekay appeared he’d have a working kid who wouldn’t be missed by anyone and wouldn’t have any records he could be traced by.”

  “Why didn’t you tell the police?” Tonio burst out.

  Jarvis looked at the preteen, shook his head. “It would have gotten Miribel in trouble, too. Even if she’d been using me from the start—and I don’t believe she was—I still cared a great deal for her. I couldn’t turn her in to face criminal charges.”

  “So what went wrong?” Tirrell asked, though he now thought he knew.

  “I did the next best thing: I phoned in an anonymous tip about the fagin,” Jarvis said. “The police caught him redhanded, with two of his kids right there with him.”

  “Nash Gorman,” Tirrell nodded. “I’ve always wondered who phoned us that tip. So when you told Miribel her prospective market had vanished, she just took off and left Colin to fend for himself?”

  “It wasn’t quite that heartless,” Jarvis sighed. “She was afraid for her own safety, too. Gorman had blackmailed her into doing this for him; the details aren’t important. I’ve often wondered what happened to her after she left the hospital. I hope she’s still alive … but I don’t really think she is.”

  It was Tirrell who broke the long silence that followed. “So what more would you have to do with Colin?” he asked.

  Jarvis frowned. “You mean to complete my experiment? Not much. An injection every two months, dropping off to twice a year when he reaches seven. Keeping records of his B and M profile would be useful, too, though only for future reference. As a matter of fact, I would, have returned him to Ridge Harbor within a week or so if all of this hadn’t happened.”

  Tirrell was conscious of Tonio’s astonished gaze on him. “All right,” he told the scientist. “He’s going back to Ridge Harbor a little ahead of schedule, but if you can continue the work without getting caught, you can do so. That’s completely unofficial, of course.”

  “What?” Tonio was incredulous.

  “There are a few conditions,” the detective continued as if the boy hadn’t spoken. “First, I’ll tell you right now that if any harm comes to Colin because of your drugs, I’ll have you arrested and prosecuted, so you’d better make damn sure you know what you’re doing at all times. Second, you’ll need to coordinate your story with Martel’s so that Colin doesn’t show up in your cabin at all. Martel’s going to take the blame for Colin’s kidnapping, though we’re not going to try him on that charge.”

  “Awfully charitable of him,” Jarvis commented. “What did you have to promise him in exchange?”

  “We’re setting aside all attempted murder and illegal gold operation charges. In return he’s also promised to keep his mouth shut about you and your work.”

  Jarvis made a sound that was half laugh, half snort. “You don’t seriously believe that, do you?”

  “Oh, he will. Not for altruistic reasons, of course, but because he’s still hoping to steal your process and it’s in his own best interest to keep anyone else from knowing about it.”

  “How’s he going to steal anything from a prison-work program?�
�� Tonio scoffed.

  “He can’t; but even if he’s convicted for both Dr. Jarvis’s kidnapping and on the faginism charges still outstanding in Ridge Harbor, he can probably work off all the service points in seven years or so. Colin would only be twelve, with at least a couple of years to go before the method was proved one way or the other; plenty of time to try and grab the formula before its existence became public knowledge.”

  “So I’ve got just about seven years to live?” Jarvis suggested, not entirely humorously.

  “Possibly,” Tirrell nodded. “You’ll be in danger; but the option is to announce your discovery now.”

  “Thanks. I’ll take my chances with Martel. I’m sure I’ll be able to take some precautions against him.”

  “True—and one of those precautions is to make sure he can’t corner the information market with one blow.” Tirrell leaned forward. “Specifically, Doctor, you’re going to tell Tonio and me—right now—exactly what it is you’ve stumbled on. That’s the condition for my silence on all of this. If something should happen to you I want to at least be able to point researchers in the right direction.”

  Jarvis’s eyes flicked back and forth between the two of them. Finally, he nodded. “I suppose you’re right. Well, in a nutshell, I believe that Transition is the result of an interaction between the slowdown in brain growth and the spurt-and-decrease in the amount of lymphoid tissue, both of which occur approximately at puberty. What I’m trying to do is extend Colin’s general growth time—which will change his brain growth-rate curve—while leaving the lymphoid tissue curve untouched.”

  “What’ll that do to Colin?” Tirrell asked.

  “The extra growth time will increase his adult height a few percent, but since he’s small to begin with that shouldn’t be a problem. As far as any other problems are concerned, I’ve successfully decoupled the two curves in earthstock lab animals without any harm that I can detect. Is that sufficient?”

  Tirrell thought for a moment, then nodded. “I think so. Anything else you could say would probably be too technical for us to understand, and I don’t want any details lying around in writing.” The detective stood up. “Thank you, Doctor. I suggest you continue to decline making any public statement until you’ve had a good night’s rest. In the morning I’ll help you coordinate your story with Martel, but I’m just too tired now.”

  “Understandable.” Jarvis frowned and paused halfway to the door. “What about the kids that attacked my cabin? They saw Colin there.”

  “They’ve already been sent back to their hives for disciplinary action,” Tirrell assured him. “They won’t be called on to answer any questions as long as Martel pleads guilty to your kidnapping, and they aren’t likely to find out about any discrepancies in the official record. As to the Barona police, I’ll just have to be a good sport about suspecting you when you really weren’t involved at all with the kidnapping. If you can come up with an explanation of what your ‘secret project’ was that’ll satisfy Ms. Mbar and Dr. Somerset, I think we’ll have everyone covered pretty well.”

  “I suppose that’ll work,” Jarvis said, sounding a bit doubtful.

  “If you’ve got a better idea I’ll be happy to hear it … in about nine hours.”

  The scientist smiled. “Good night, Detective.”

  Tirrell waited a few seconds after they were gone and then followed, his legs feeling like lead as he clumped down the hall toward the sleeping room Kesner had had set up for them. Only one loose end remained to be tied up, and fortunately that could wait a few days. Tonio would be back up in a couple of minutes, as soon as he’d escorted Jarvis back to the policemen downstairs, and he could perhaps discuss it with the righthand for a few minutes …

  When Tonio arrived he found the detective facedown on one of the room’s two cots, snoring gently.

  Chapter 31

  LISA HAD BEEN EXPECTING the summons to Gavra’s office for two days, ever since her midnight return to the hive with the note the police had given her. Along with her other secret burdens, though, such anticipation was just one more bit of weight; and her dread was thus mixed with a certain amount of relief as she knocked on the Senior’s office door and teeked it open.

  Gavra was seated, as usual, behind her desk—but the unexpected sight of the room’s other two occupants temporarily buried all of Lisa’s fears beneath a mood of delight. “Tonio!” she blurted. “Stan! I was afraid that something had—I mean, that you’d been—I mean—”

  She stopped, embarrassed by her outburst, but the others merely smiled. “We’re all fine, Lisa,” Tirrell assured her. “I’m sorry—we should have gotten word to you sooner that we were all right. But we’ve been very busy.”

  “I told you she’d be worried,” Tonio murmured, grinning cheerfully.

  “Sit down, Lisa,” Gavra said, waving her to a chair next to Tonio’s. “I’m afraid we have some unpleasant business to attend to, and Detective Tirrell has asked that we allow him to act as official witness to it.”

  Lisa nodded and sat down, her happiness at finding Tonio and Tirrell alive abating as she realized what Gavra had in mind. “May I ask Detective Tirrell a question first?” she asked, determined to hold off the hammer as long as possible.

  Gavra nodded. “Go ahead.”

  Lisa turned to Tirrell. “Are Dr. Jarvis and Colin all right? And have you caught Weylin and the others yet?”

  “Everyone’s fine,” the detective assured her. “Colin’s a bit confused by all the fuss—apparently Jarvis convinced him he was on a vacation of sorts—but he’s back in Ridge Harbor and doing fine. We picked up Weylin and all the others Martel had been using when they got tired of flying around the forest and returned to the temple site. Weylin’s going to lose a lot of points for his attack on that policeman, and of course he’s lost his righthand position. The others were just sent back to their hives with warnings. They’ll probably lose some points for being out after lights-out, but nothing worse is likely to happen to them. When a fagin’s involved, kids are usually treated more as victims than as criminals.”

  Gavra cleared her throat. “Unfortunately, Lisa, your case is considerably more serious,” she said, looking unhappy. “Along with several smaller infractions of hive rules, you have deliberately violated my prohibition against telling anyone of your reading ability.” She hesitated, and her eyes were moist. “I’m sorry, but I have no choice but to cancel all of your points.”

  Lisa swallowed painfully, feeling her breakfast churn in her stomach. She’d known this was coming, but it still hit her like a punch in the gut. All her points gone—no possibility of any schooling past Basic—maybe not even that much. Her future effectively ruined … and all while just trying to help people. But I did save our lives, she told herself, thinking back to the cabin. Somehow, at the moment, it didn’t feel like a fair trade.

  “That seems a bit extreme,” Tirrell said. “After all, she was a great deal of help to us.”

  Gavra shook her head tiredly. “I tried, Detective, I really did. But I have no choice. My own superior, the officials at Lee Intro—I’ve even talked to the mayor’s office to try to win her at least a reduction. No one’s interested in sticking his neck out to even help me fight it. The point loss has already been recorded at the city building—I don’t know how they found out—and there’s absolutely nothing I can do.” She looked at him hopefully, “Unless you can intercede … ?”

  Tirrell shook his head. “I don’t have even temporary authority in Barona anymore,” he said. “We’re on our way back to Ridge Harbor right now. Tell me, how many points did Lisa have?”

  Gavra frowned, and even through her misery Lisa heard something odd in the detective’s voice. She looked at him, wondering, but his expression was perfectly calm. It wasn’t until she noticed Tonio doing his best to stifle a grin that it began to dawn on her that perhaps their disinterest wasn’t what it seemed.

  “It was something just over forty-six hundred,” Gavra told him, still frowning
. “Forty-six forty, I believe.”

  “That’s a lot of points,” Tirrell commented, drawing a folded piece of paper and a pen from an inside coat pocket. “Tonio’s got more than that, but he’s got several months of righthand duty under his belt.” Unfolding the paper, he laid it on the edge of Gavra’s desk and wrote briefly on it. “As a matter of fact, I was the one who blew the whistle on Lisa. You see, she can only have her points taken away once and I wanted to make sure it was done before I brought this by.” He offered Gavra the paper.

  The Senior was looking thoroughly confused. “What is it?” she asked, taking it cautiously.

  “Didn’t you know?” Tirrell’s straight face was gone, replaced by a satisfied, almost wicked smile. “Ridge Harbor’s had a ten-thousand-bill reward posted for Yerik Martel’s capture for nearly four years. With a half-dozen different relationships between bills and hive points in existence, I was able to get official permission to use my own judgment.”

  Gavra blinked hard, her eyes still moist but all the tension gone from her face. “Lisa … Detective Tirrell has authorized the addition of forty-seven hundred points to your hive record.”

  Lisa’s throat felt dry. Forty-seven hundred points! Everything she’d lost, and a few extra. “I … thank you,” she managed. “I … I don’t know what to say.”

  “You don’t need to say anything,” Tirrell told her. “You’ve done a great deal for us, Lisa, though the world will never know it. A few hundred hive points is no more than you’ve earned.”

  A warm glow seemed to fill Lisa’s body … but she nevertheless caught the extra meaning behind the words. “I understand,” she nodded, and meant it. No one would ever learn about what had happened that weekend from her.

  “Good.” Tirrell stood up. “Well, I’d like to stay longer, but we’re supposed to be back in Ridge Harbor by noon, so we’d better be going. Perhaps you can come visit sometime soon, Lisa; just drop in at the police station and someone there’ll find us.”