Crystal Heat tst-3

by Jo Clayton

  When the counting was finished and the plaques in canvas bags, Keyket stuffed his down the front of his shirt and went out, flashing a grin at Worm as he went.

  When Worm came to get his bag, Tank cleared his throat. “Grinder was real happy with Keyket’s report. He wants you over for dinner tomorrow, Worm. Which means you mind your manners and dress nice. He’ll send a jit to pick you up at six hour sharp, outside Harron’s Greenshop down to north end of Star Street, that’s right next to the ring road. If he likes you, he’ll probably give you a place. It’s a good deal, and he won’t be happy if you give him any shuffle about it. You know and I know, we don’t want Grinder not happy.”

  Worm stood holding the sack. “Yah,” he said after a moment. “Maybe it won’t happen. Say it does, I’ll be real enthused.”

  Tank blew out the breath he’d been holding and the hard line of his shoulders eased off. “Good. One last thing. If you stay the night, could be one of the women living in the house will come by. Grinder likes to keep them happy after he’s moved on, so you don’t need to worry about that. Just make sure she goes away feeling good. And keep your mouth shut after. You hear?”

  “No lie?”

  “No lie. He’s a generous man to folk who don’t cross him.”

  “Gotcha. Urn, there a laundry around? Been washing my own, but…” He shrugged.

  “Transy Herm’s over by The Rainy Season. Tell ’er how come, and she’ll jump you up the line.”

  “Thanks.”

  When he got back to his room, Worm swept it for ears, but found none. Apparently Grinder wasn’t that interested in him yet. He was exhausted and needed to sleep, but he stripped his jacket first, setting the tabs and tictacs in their slots in the decoder, plugging in the sensacube to download its more general data set.

  5

  Nervous and unhappy, Worm followed the humming serviteur into the dining room and nearly lost what calm he had left when he saw Lylunda Elang sitting next to the empty chair that was waiting for him.

  He relaxed when she nodded absently at him, smiled, then went back to talking to the woman on her other side.

  7. Hunting Cover

  1

  The Hegger Combine was a small dominion at the tip of the Ular Spur, four star systems with a fifth at the center, all of them within three days split travel from each other, the Combine itself on a major trade route. The inhabited worlds of these systems were prosperous, peaceful and controlled, with access to the surface severely restricted. An outsider had to have a sponsor and wear a locator tag at all times.

  Shadith left her ship in the tie-down at the transfer station in orbit about the Hub World Ghysto; all commerce in the combine funneled through this place and the station was immense, almost as large-if not as massive-as the world it floated above. Having to be vetted like this was annoying and ate up time, but an untagged ship approaching any of the systems in the Combine would be blown to dust the minute it showed on a screen.

  Digby’s Shriek got her through Check-In without trouble; she rented a guide rod and slip plate and went skimming along the thruways, hunting for Adelaris Supply Systems.

  2

  The polished, pale young man gave her a good view of his perfect teeth as he rose from his desklet and smiled at her. “How may I help you, Desp’?”

  Irritated by the eyes watching her, while the suspicion and control that was tangible enough to smell made her feel that her skin had shrunk until it didn’t fit over her bones any more, Shadith decided she was tired of all this. She put on her most formal face and said with icy precision, “I need to speak to Adelaar aici Arash. Would you arrange the call, please?”

  “May I ask why? I don’t mean to be intrusive, but I’ll have to give a reason to the Prossiggal.”

  “You may not mean to intrude, but you do. Tell your Prossiggal this: Shadith whom aici Arash met on Telffer and University wishes to speak to her concerning a matter which is to be kept private between them and which does not concern any others but the two of us. If that proves insufficient, then so be it.”

  “May I see your identification?”

  “That is not necessary.”

  He let his smile fade. “If you were a friend, you would have the private number. I think I must insist.”

  “That I’m here without objection from the Combine is sufficient. Anything more is unseemly curiosity on your part. Make the call.”

  For a moment she thought he was going to summon security and have her removed; then he brought up the privacy shield, tapped on the corn, and began talking. After the first few words, his neatly brushed eyebrows rose and a few faint wrinkles appeared in his marble brow.

  Shadith waited, impatience like burrs in her blood. A moment later he rose gracefully to his feet and stepped away from the desk. “Aici Arash wishes to speak to you, Desp’ Shadith.” He waited until she was seated, then stepped outside the door so it would be obvious he wasn’t listening.

  “So it is you. Well, what is it?”

  “I need to talk to you. Face-to-face. You know where I’m working now?”

  “Yes. It has to do with that?”

  “Indirectly.”

  “Not Aslan?”

  “Didn’t your pretty assistant tell you there was no one else involved? Spla!”

  Adelaar chuckled. “He is very decorative, isn’t he. And intelligent’in his limited way which is quite suitable for the job he’s got.” Her pale blue eye went distant.

  Thinking it over Shadith told herself. Asking herself what price she can extract for her cooperation. She might owe me her life, but that’s debased currency in these realms. I should have known that.

  “His name’s Brad,” Adelaar said. “Call him back and I’ll have him set things up. You have your own ship?”

  “Company ship, company registery.”

  “Give him the Shriek string, he’ll need that for the tag. You’ll have a three-day ’split from Ghysto. I’ll be waiting for your call-down then.”

  3

  When the shuttle from Droom’s transfer station landed at the Visitor’s Field, a girl was waiting for her in the small holding room, a lanky, odd-looking almost child.

  “My name’s Talit. The Patron sent me to give you the pass and bring you to Adelaris.”

  “Patron?”

  Talit blushed. “It’s what we call her, the other girls and me. Adelaar.” She said the name in a rush as if it were too precious to be in her mouth at all. “If you’ll hold out your arm, Desp’ Shadith, I’ll set the pass bracelet for you. Once that’s done, you won’t have to fool with those idiot clerks. Do you have luggage? I’ll take care of that, too.”

  “There’s nothing to take care of since I’m not going to be here long. You and the other girls?”

  “There. Is that comfortable? Good. If you’ll just follow me, Desp’ Shadith. We can cut through here and reach the jit line without much walking.” Talit opened a door half-concealed by an excessively clean plant that looked as if its leaves were washed every day.

  They emerged from the building into a brilliant morning. Droom’s sun was a greenish-yellow disk about two-thirds of the way to zenith. As Talit programmed the jit’s destination module, Shadith looked around. The autumn day was brisk and cool, with the occasional brown leaf breaking loose and blowing free across aggressively neat yards and sidewalks. Mop the leaves and sweep the grass! I’d go crazy fast if I had to live here. She leaned back in the seat, brushing hair out of her face. No sign of a Star Street. Well, there wouldn’t be with the visitor restrictions in the Combine. The road was a neat black line between the trees and the warehouse walls beyond them, with the jitrail gleaming down the center. There weren’t many people around, a few in the distance walking away from the Landing Field’s Admin Center and an old man with a leash draped over his arm, standing under a tree a short distance off while a small beast in a figure eight harness chased after leaves. Not a beast she’d seen before. It looked like a rat crossed with a monkey. What people keep for
pets, spla ah!

  She glanced a last time at the rat-monkey, smiled as it leaped at a tree and went scurrying up, while the bird it was after perched calmly on a denuded branch. “With a smile on its beak,” she said aloud.

  “Desp’ Shadith?”

  “Never mind. I’m just a little tired, that’s all.” She settled onto the back seat and watched with amusement as Talit got her legs tangled when she tried to get in. “How long will this take?”

  Talit brushed limp brown hair out of her eyes, stabbed her thumb at the activator, and turned to face Shadow as the jit started smoothly off. “The Patron thought about sending a flier, but she said it’s a nice morning and you’d enjoy the ride. Um, I’m getting things backward again, sorry. A little over twenty minutes. And you asked me about me and the others and I forgot to answer, sorry. Um. We’re the Patron’s apprentices. She does that, you know… of course, you didn’t or you wouldn’t ask. She has lines out all over the place. Foundling homes call her when they have a girl who’s good at her maths and likes to make things but they can’t find a place for. We’re apprentices, like I said, then we take jobs in the company and the ones who’re really really good, she sends to University for a while.” She blinked as the bird Shadith had been watching gave a loud caw and went swooping past above the jit. “It’s ever so much better with the Patron than the home. It wasn’t a bad place, but you get lost in the crowd there unless you’re really pretty or can do something special. The Patron makes us feel special. Because she chose us, you see.” She gave her quick little smile, then turned away with practiced tact to give her passenger time to pull herself together before she had to lace Adelaar.

  Shadith was surprised at what Talit had told her, then ruefully ashamed of that surprise. It was a side of Adelaar she didn’t know existed, but it made sense when she thought about it. Adelaar might have pride in and a fierce love for her daughter, but Aslan had gone a different road and there was no chance she’d come home to take over the business that her mother had struggled so hard to build. These young apprentices were an interesting way Adelaar had found to look for someone to share her interests and have the drive to take over Adelads when she was past it. And maybe she missed Aslan more than she wanted to admit. Loneliness. I feel it sometimes, but there’s nothing I can do about it. My people are dead. Even if I got pregnant, it’d be this body’s child, not mine. No Weavers of Shayalin left anywhere in the universe.

  4

  After Talit left her, Shadith looked about the room and found another surprise, not anything she’d expected from what she knew of Adelaar. It was not an office but a comfortable parlor; it might have been a place where people lived rather than worked. Padded chairs, a scatter of small elbow tables whose thick tops suggested that access ports might be concealed beneath the polished wood, a fireplace with a fire crackling merrily behind glass doors.

  Shadith grimaced and settled herself in the chair Talit had waved at. She felt out of place, out of step. An office would have been more comfortable for her. She missed Autumn Rose. It would have been good to have that steely intellect to act as front and deflect attention from her.

  She heard the click of a door and looked around. Adelaar walked briskly into the room, her best business face on. She settled herself in another chair and tapped the top of a table which opened, displaying a terminal. She ran a sequence on the sensor squares, moved the table to one side, and nodded to Shadith. “Privacy shield up, recorder going. So what is this about?”

  “To do a job for one of Digby’s clients, I need to get into Marrat’s Market. Digby has reasons for not wanting his connection with this client even hinted at. They know me there, they know I work for Digby, so slip and slide isn’t going to work. You know Marrat’s?”

  “Yes.”

  Shadith waited a moment, but Adelaar said nothing more. “Right. Well, if I show up there without a reason, I get escorted to the tie-down, put in my ship, and told not to come back. Would you be willing to let me use Adelaris as cover?”

  “You could have made a splitcom call. Why come here?”

  “Comcalls are not always as private as one thinks. One of Digby’s selling points is discretion.”

  “And if I asked you who these clients are?”

  “Do you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Turn the recorder off. Thank you. The ICliu Berej. A Taalav array has been removed from Pillory.”

  “Then we can expect Taalav crystals on the Gray Market soon. Or is it already?”

  “Soon would be more accurate, I believe. In three or four years. Maybe. If the array survives and produces.”

  “Hm.” Adelaar let her head fall against the chair’s cushioned back and closed her eyes.

  In the silence that followed, the fire crackled behind the glass doors and Shadith’s breathing got louder and more uneven as she waited for the answer.

  “Aslan says you’re an extraordinary musician.”

  Adelaar turned her head, reached over to the table and ran another pattern on the touch squares. “If I remember correctly, you like shara tea and lemon wafers? Good. It seems odd you’ve left University to unravel knots for Digby.”

  “I haven’t the necessary passion to chase bookings and bend my life to serve my art. Too much of a solitary, I suspect. Perhaps in another fifty or sixty years I’ll change my mind. There’s no hurry.”

  “I see why you and Aslan are friends. It’s a way of thinking I can’t understand.” Adelaar went silent again as a serviteur hummed in to lay out the tea service and the platter of wafers. When it was gone, she closed the privacy shield and leaned forward to pour the tea. “I’ll do a deal, Shadow. In return for the use of Adelaris’ name, you work on a small problem for me. A bit of serendipity here. Some connections of mine tell me that my problem at the moment is actually in residence at Marrat’s.”

  “Mh?”

  “I’d like discretion on this. Embarrassing, possibly damaging to Adelaris’ reputation. A scamjack managed to jump the line to Hegger Minitools and got downside here on Droom. Among his other activities he romanced one of my older apprentices, a girl named Mirik. A young Fulladerin from Saber Minor.” She sighed. “They think because they’ve had a hard beginning they’re street smart enough not to be fooled. It’s an illusion. He got away with a rather nice variation for the programming of guard ’buts that my development staff had not quite tamed enough to bring to market. The silly child ran with him. No doubt she’s had a rude awakening by now. I believe he left quite a string of shattered hearts and careers behind him, male and female both. A versatile man, as it were. I was rather annoyed when I discovered all this. Hm. The sources that told me he’s at Marrat’s also mentioned that Mink is still with him. The program variation is gone; I’m not worried about that, we’ve cut our losses. If I ever get my hands on him, he’s going to be walking around minus some essential parts, but I’m not asking you to do anything about him either. Well, one thing, flake him if he’s still there and collect as much information about him as you can without spooking him. If he’s gone by the time you reach the Market, no problem. It’s the girl I’m really interested in. I want to know if she was a dupe or in on the scam from the beginning.”

  “If she’s a dupe and he’s dropped her, what do you want me to do?”

  “If she’s clean, and unless I’m very much mistaken, she is, I want her back. Remind me before you leave to give you a credit flake in case you need to buy her out of something. She’s a bright child with a remarkable questing mind, but little experience. Talk to her. Tell her she’s got a place here if she comes and claims it. Tell her she’s had a useful lesson, but she shouldn’t let it ruin her life.” Adelaar set her cup down, smiling at something she alone saw. “She’ll find some other way to mess up, I know that. You’ve never seen such a klutz. She can trash a room just walking through it. Nearly burned the dorm down when she came up with an answer to a problem we’d been having on a program and let a tea kettle melt to slag. If she was fooled, she
’ll be miserable now. She gets that way. Could be close to suicide. Hm. Probably best if she doesn’t come back here till things have quieted down a bit. The authorities might make difficulties for her and us. Tell her I’ll finance a stay on University for a year, then she can come back clean. My word on it. She knows what that means.”

  “How much of this do I tell OverSec when they ask?”

  “That I’ve sent you to search for the girl and provide return fare if she wants to come back. It’s not the kind of thing Digby usually does, but since you’re Aslan’s friend, you can say you’re just doing a favor for her mother.”

  “It’s a deal, then.” Shadith got to her feet. “If you’d call a flier, I’d like to get back to the Field as soon as possible. Thanks.”

  Adelaar stood, smiled. “And thanks to you, Shadow. Useful information to know that the price of Taalav crystals might slide in a few years. Should I wish you good hunting or not? I wonder. Wait here a moment till I grave that flake for you.”

  5

  Travel times being what they were, when Shadith slid into the tie-down at Marrat’s, it was almost a year standard since the last time she’d visited the Market, but the Directors hadn’t forgotten her and were decidedly not happy to see her back there. About thirty seconds after the tug ’bots drifted the ship up to the hitch and locked it down, her shortrange corn chimed, a Blurdslang face appeared and she was ordered to report to the OverSec complex immediately.

  She sat in a small glassed-in alcove, the people passing by glancing incuriously at her, none of them coming in.

  She sat.

  And sat.

  And waited.

  This was deliberate. The Directors wouldn’t want to get Digby annoyed at them, but they didn’t like at all having one of his ops show up without his informing them that she was coming. And they were showing their displeasure.