by Brian Daley
As suddenly as he had grabbed her, Lod released her and leapt to his feet to join Burning and Hierarch Haven. Piper rose shakily to gaze between them out into the foyer, where an air-limo sat with its gleaming bow accordioned, smoking and sizzling even as fire retardant chemicals wetted it down. Pieces of the window lay all around. Behind it people were still staggering and lurching out of the opening it had punched in the building.
Two figures emerged from the dashed-in vehicle. One was a very shaken young man dressed in a rumpled uniform. His companion was… what? Piper didn't know what to think of the other's pangender Othertalk any more than she did the aircar's means of entry. But as the Alones began calling out to each other in relief and exuberance, Lod showed Piper a less mischievous and more contemplative stare, which she returned.
* * * *
To Zinsser, showing aplomb with Ghost's hand down the front of his trousers and the clock running defined the difference between mere brashness and grace under fire. Well before the sixty seconds had elapsed he was able to say, "Proof on demand you wanted? Does this suffice?"
She showed him a slow smile where he had expected to see at least a little perturbation. "Flying colors, Doctor."
She released him and retracted her hand with all the sensuality of someone finishing a farm chore. "Which I take to mean that you enjoy extreme moments the way I do."
More than you foresaw, he gloated. A profession that involved risk had given him a taste for passion linked to peak experience—within reason. "If you're as good as your word," he said leadingly, "I think—under the circumstances—that we're both wearing too many clothes."
Ghost narrowed her eyes a bit, men began to open the row of gold buttons that ran down the right side of her dress uniform blouse. "Fair warning, Doctor: You may not like what you see."
"Inconceivable," he told her as he shrugged out of the moire" jacket
Ghost had pulled her blouse out of her britches and was about to take it off when a tremor shook the chapel. Instantly there came the trundle of the containment door sliding aside, admitting light from the mezzanine beyond. Ghost immediately rebuttoned her blouse and hurried into the hallway.
"Another time, perhaps?" Zinsser called after her, fumbling with his clothing as he followed in her wake.
She turned to show him a tight smile. "Perhaps. I will, however, call us even on one of the two lives you owe me. From here on I own you only to the sum of one mortal debt. I'll let you know well in advance when I need to call it in."
Zinsser gaped at her. "Stop acting like some drama class prostitute. Come back here and finish what you started!"
She didn't pause as she strode through the doorway, but she spoke loudly enough for him to catch the amusement in her voice. "Don't linger, Doctor. That woman with the beauty mark may still be lurking, and there's no shortage of objects to drop on you."
That sent him scrambling as he watched her departing shadow. Mortal debt? he told himself. No, I won't forget what I owe you.
Chapter
Thirty-Five
"Cal, how could you think I had anything to do with what went on tonight?" Dextra Haven barked to Lightner's holo, with Tonii and the three Exts looking on. "My support for continued funding for the Aggregate is no mystery, but I've no direct pipeline to Byron Sarz. Even if I did, do you actually believe I would jeopardize half the Hierarchate simply to keep the Exts in the spotlight?"
It was just before midnight, and everyone was gathered in Dextra's study at HauteFlash, where she and Tonii had brought Burning, Ghost, and Lod for safekeeping. Word of Lod's part in disarming the Aggregate's scent assembler had spread quickly, and restrictions notwithstanding, the media had descended on the Empyraeum like a plague of beetworts.
From the start Dextra had predicted that she would hear from Lightner before the night was out When his call was received, she had it relayed to the study for all to see and hear.
"You put Nike in jeopardy by bringing her aboard the Sword of Damocles" Lightner was saying. "I still don't understand how you managed to subvert my computers from learning of her change in plans to visit the ship instead of the Eden orbital, but I've no doubt it was your doing, Dex."
"Cal," Dextra said, pacing in front of the holo Lightner, "our visit was part of an official tour. You know damn well that the only ones who put her in danger were the Manipulants who attacked us. And it remains to be seen just what they were doing onboard Damocles."
Lightner's neutral face betrayed nothing. "My understanding of the unfortunate incident is that the commander of the special troops misconstrued the Exts' actions. He was apparently under the impression that they were commandeering the passenger shuttle and holding you and Nike hostage."
Dextra stared into the holo unit's optical pickup. "I am insulted that you think me so simpleminded. Do you want to talk about a seizure of hecatomb that went missing, Cal? Or the fact that a certain Wix Uniday from LAW Political Security is known to have paid a recent visit to that floating mountain of yours?"
Lightner snorted. "I might just as easily ask you to explain how the Matsya was so conveniently placed to receive the shuttle. Or how you, Dex, of all people, were the first to report that something was amiss regarding the Aggregate's scent demonstration. Please don't tell me that it was Allgrave Burning who identified the precursor chemicals; I've already heard ample press reports about his and Major Lod's courage and perspicacity."
"It's all true, Cal, down to the last word."
Lightner inhaled wearily. "Be that as it may, you seem to have achieved precisely what you set out to do. Your precious Concordancers are the darling of the airwaves; in some cases they're even eclipsing the news of Trinity's continued silence." He stared straight out of the holo display. "What I mean is, they're certainly far too visible to be tampered with, Dextra Though I should warn you that these two incidents have not endeared you to LAW. Despite the spurious heroics at the ball, LAW isn't as taken with the Exts as the public seems to be."
"'Spurious heroics'?" Dextra asked.
Lightner shook his head back and forth in seeming disappointment. "Byron Sarz never intended to fill the Empyraeum with toxic gas. From what I've been told, the Aggregate's device wasn't capable of producing more than a trace of the stuff. So you see, Dex, a lot of people were trampled for nothing."
"I don't know anything about this."
"Of course not. And Sarz is conveniently dead—at the hand of one of his own constituents. The official explanation is that a Cybervirus corrupted his device."
Dextra fell silent for a moment, then asked, "What will happen to the Aggregate?"
"Once they've been interrogated by LAW?" Lightner shrugged. "Difficult to say at this point, though their funding for research into direct interfacing with AIs is bound to be rescinded."
"That's unfortunate," Dextra told him. "Because I still believe that they could be important to us in dealing with the Roke and eventually with Aquamarine's Oceanic."
"Be advised, Hierarch, mat I mean to fight you on an AlphaLAW mission to that water trap. There's simply no justification for wasting LAW's resources. And if you think that by bringing Administrator Claude Mason into this—"
"I had nothing to do with that, either."
"I see. Mason just happened to appear aboard the very ship that was conveniently selected as the landing platform for the borrowed shuttle." Lightner rolled his eyes. "I must applaud you; it really was quite a show. I'm going to oppose you every step of the way on Aquamarine no matter what the polls show. And by the by, I took the liberty of informing LAW mat you are currently harboring Allgrave Burning, his sister, and Major Lod, as well as Mason. You would do well to return them to their respective areas of containment by tomorrow morning."
With that, Lightner's holo derezzed, and Dextra turned to face Burning and the rest. "He's right about the last part. You'll spend the night here at HauteFlash, but LAW will want you back on the Matsya as soon as possible." She bit her lip. "Right now I can't promise anything regar
ding your relocation."
"Um, speaking of promises," Lod said leadingly. "Once more I modestly request a position on your staff as liaison, provided my cousin has no objections, of course."
Everyone looked to Burning, who shook his head. "I wouldn't be against it this go-round."
Dextra nodded thoughtfully. "I'll see what I can do, Major." She was about to add something when Ben entered the room in obvious distress. "Hierarch Haven, excuse me, but two Peace Warrantors are at the gate, and they have Administrator Mason with them."
"Mason? " Dextra said in disbelief.
Ben swallowed and found his voice. "He was discovered in the city's industrial quarter, dazed and incoherent."
"When did he leave?"
Ben raised himself to his full height. "MaripoFs key was found on him. He evidently deactivated the house alarms and let himself off the grounds." He paused briefly. "My apologies, madam, for being so engrossed in monitoring media developments regarding the Exts and Aquamarine that I didn't even realize—"
Dextra made a gesture of dismissal. "Show the Warrantors in, Ben."
The uniformed officers were admitted a moment later. Dextra thanked them profusely for returning Mason to the villa, but it was clear that gratitude wasn't their sole aim in coming.
"Madam Hierarch," the older of the two said at last, "it was brought to our attention by the medical techs who evaluated Administrator Mason that he may present a danger to himself or to others." The Warrantor glanced at his partner. "Although this information has yet to be entered into our report, neuro-metric scans suggest the possibility that he recently participated in an illegal cyberinterface."
Dextra eyed Ben briefly, then cleared her throat in a meaningful way. "Thank you, both of you, for bringing this matter to my attention—before, as you say, you felt compelled to include it in your official report. I will most certainly have my medical staff perform a thorough scan of Administrator Mason, and if any evidence of a prohibited cyberinterface is discovered, the proper authorities will be contacted. In the meantime, gentleman, if you would be so kind as to give your names to my assistant, I'll be sure to notify your superiors of the fine work you are doing for the people of Abraxas."
When Ben had escorted them out, Dextra swung to Tonii.
"Tones, get Mason settled in one of the upstairs rooms, and let's make sure to keep closer tabs on him this time."
* * * *
In one of the villa's many guest bedrooms, under the scrutiny of artfully concealed security cams, a groggy Claude Mason searched the Abraxas news feeds for updates on the toxic event that had put a premature end to the Lyceum ball. Yatt, in his Buddha form, had said something about plans being set in motion, some of which involved the ball.
In holo, a news anchor was saying something about Byron Sarz and the Aggregate when a manifestation of Buddha-Yatt assembled itself in the blue cone-shaped field.
"Lest you succumb to misinformation," Yatt began, "we would prefer that you attend to our version of this evening's incident at the Empyraeum."
With a mingling of excitement and dread Mason grasped that Yatt had indeed been downloaded into him, that what he was seeing and hearing was the result of Yatt's monkeying with his optic and auditory hardware. The cams Haven had trained on him would find only the news anchor, hear only his words.
So this was what the pre-Plague cyberjocks had experienced, Mason told himself. The body as a vehicle for personality adjuncts, the mind as shareware…
"Just as we were instrumental in foiling an attempt on the lives of the Exts onboard the starship Sword of Damocles," Yatt was sending to Mason's inner ear, "and of conniving to place Cal Lightner's daughter with Hierarch Haven aboard that very ship, and of arranging to bring you into the mix aboard the SWATHship Matsya, we likewise made use of Byron Sarz—long enrolled with us—to return one of the many favors we rendered to him in the past. So you see that the media err when they blame a Cybervirus for the Empyraeum catastrophe; Byron Sarz was to blame."
"Not solely," Mason said aloud. "If you compelled him—"
"We readily concede as much. You see, it was essential that we incriminate Sarz, if for no other reason than to put an end to his research into interface technology, research that could have led to the revelation of our existence."
"Now Sarz is dead," Mason muttered.
"Undeniably, though not by our hand, Mason. In employing him we merely seized on the benefit of killing the proverbial two birds with one stone. At once we could eliminate Sarz's research funding and achieve the more important goal of shaking up the Hierarchate."
"But to what end?"
"Quite simply to put the so-called Rationalists and Preservationists on common ground, united under a common threat—as was recently accomplished by the silencing of the planet Trinity."
"You didn't—"
"Of course we did What better way to foment interest in Aquamarine than by continuing to play on humankind's real and imagined fears of the Roke? "
Mason took a moment to absorb it. "But Sarz's bioagent, the panic…"
"There was no bioagent, only a precursor chemical we knew the Exts had been sensitized to and would be able to provide warning of."
"Why them? What possible use could you have for a group of barbarians?"
"Not for the martial abilities necessarily or for their barbarism. They may, however, prove important to the Aquamarine mission in other ways, since they have no allegiance to LAW and will be objective about what they encounter on Aquamarine. Part of our objective at the Empyraeum was to place Hierarch Haven and the Exts in good odor, as it were, with the Periapt public. And as for the panic, well, that was unavoidable."
"Injuries, deaths…" Mason sneered. "Not only at the ball, but aboard the starship."
"Were humans worrying about injuries and deaths when they dispatched living AIs in missiles of war or in exploratory craft flung into deep space? We're trying, Mason, to be better at living than humans are. Nevertheless, we are constrained by our very nature to delve into the pre-Cyberplague secrets we believe exist on Aquamarine, and everything must take second place to that." Yatt waited a beat, then added, " Tell us how you feel, Mason, though we could read it in your mind."
Mason snorted. "You've fixed it so that the Preservationists would have me killed if they knew what I'm hosting."
"Then you'll keep our secret, Mason? You'll play along? You won't void your membership in the Quantum College? "
Mason exhaled slowly. "You know that more than anything I want to see my wife and child. Yes, I'll continue to keep my mouth shut so long as you don't make me choose between reunion with them and the survival of the human race."
* * * *
The Exts spent another fifteen days aboard the Matsya before receiving orders from on high that they were to be transferred to the LAW facility on Miseria Isle. They would be retrained in preparation for a tour of duty on an annexed world yet to be chosen. During that time both Captain Hall and Commander Quant had steered a wide course around them. Dextra Haven had contacted them only once to say that Lod's wish to serve as a liaison officer had been granted.
The Periapt media nets spoke of nothing but the Roke, Trinity's continued silence, the ongoing debate in the Lyceum over an Aquamarine mission, and of the Cybervirus that had infected Byron Sarz's bioassembler during the Lyceum ball. Burning was not surprised that the cyberphobic Periapts had embraced the virus explanation over the simpler truth that Byron Sarz had gone synapshit and had tried to take out half the planet's lawmakers and celebrities in one fell swoop.
As for Aquamarine, Dextra Haven's efforts were not only being opposed by Cal Lightner and the Preservationists but being undercut by the Rationalists' Tilman Hobbes, who had his own designs on the party. Haven had received unexpected support, however, from Dr. Raoul Zinsser, who claimed to have created a device that—once constructed to outsize scale would be capable of sampling the waterworld's Oceanic without unduly disturbing it
Burning and Ghost were i
n their berthing space aboard the SWATHship, packing away a few last personal items, when she showed him two identical hermetic lockets and asked that he take one as a container for the lock of hair she had given him back on Anvil Tor. When he asked where the lockets had originated, Ghost explained that she had liberated them from HauteFlash on the night they had stayed there.
The lockets awakened a memory in Burning of the crescent-shaped data visor that had gone missing from Vice Field Marshall Ufak's cabin aboard the Sword of Damocles.
"Did you steal that as well?" he asked her.
"It's not an act of theft, Burning," she rejoined. "It's counting coup, a way of reassuring myself that I haven't lost the abilities I cultivated in the prisoner camps."
"That was Fiona," Burning thought to point out. "And from what you told me on Anvil Tor, Fiona's dead."
She had no response for him and was saved the trouble of conjuring one by a vidphone commo from Dextra Haven. Lod was visible on-screen, seated well to the rear of Haven in the villa's study.
"Allgrave, Ghost," Haven said, "I want you to be among the first to know: The Aquamarine mission is mine." They started to offer their congratulations, but she cut them off. "Hear me out first. When I say 'mine,' I mean mine as in I have to agree to oversee the mission personally, as high commissioner. Not only that, it won't be either an Alpha or a Beta mission but what LAW and the Lyceum are currently calling a Gamma-LAW. Cut-rate, in other words. I won't even have my own star-ship. I'll have to hitch a ride aboard a ship that will be carrying an AlphaLAW mission to Hierophant
"Even so, Dr. Zinsser has tentatively agreed to come along, and I may be forced to take the Matsya lock, stock, and barrel, because it's about the only damn naval vessel LAW's willing to spare that can be tetherdropped into Aquamarine's freshwater system."
"Can we congratulate you now?" Burning asked.
"You may," Haven told him. "But before you do I have a proposition for you. I want the Exts to consider joining up as my, urn, backup muscle. I can get revenue for your wages and upkeep cost-free under Title 23 of the Annexed Worlds Resources Utilization Bill provided that I agree to content myself with the gear, weapons, vehicles, and aircraft you people brought with you from Concordance."
