Andrea Cort 03: War of the Marionettes

by Castro, Adam-Troy

  I sure have to credit the late mr. Schiff with inspiring dedication in his employees Fox turned to him and answered in a voice drained of emotion mr. Schiff deserved to die It was as if we’d broken through a brittle veneer and caught a glimpse of a place darker than any I’d ever imagined dark enough to explain a woman wanting to sever the fragile link between her personality and her soul it wasn’t the first time I’d spotted something uncomfortably familiar about this woman I’d once banished myself to such a cruel internal exile and escaped only because the Porrinyard s had seen something about me worth saving Ocean beat me to the next question what didn’t he tell us he gave truthful answers to every question you asked I met Oceans eyes he’d caught the odd awkward formulation less answer than deft sidestep Fox had just let me know that I’d missed something something glossed over in a meeting I’d endured with simmering resentment I thought about it for a moment and came up with what seemed like the only possible line of inquiry he didn’t lie about his own business the ships he built they were every bit as harmless as he said yes but he also called himself a facilitator for others was he ever party to anything criminal that won’t help you find Marin Ocean emitted the special kind of cough the Porrinyard s reserved for those occasions when I’m with other people and forget to be human Andrea I winced all right how long will it be before we get wherever work going a little under 20 minutes

  Parkville Ania said to Ocean how’s your other half still enduring I rubbed the bridge of my nose alright then we have time counselor why don’t you start catching me up fox murmured a command one that caused the space between us to Brighton become a riot of colours and then coalesce into a holographic portrait of a smiling girl aged approximately 13 years Homme SAP

  mercantile Maren Schiff had inherited her father’s unfortunate combination of protruding chin with rounded tip as well as a nose even worse than his so long and hawk-like that it might have driven many teenaged girls into either surgery or self-pity but nature had also provided her with compensations that turned those flaws into elements of unexpected exotic beauty among them the hint of an olive complexion high cheekbones that contributed to the leonine angles of her jaw glossy black hair and eyes that burned like green fire the image caught her with head turned slightly downward but her eyes focused straight ahead creating a playful peekaboo that might have suggested shyness but immediately contradicted that impression by rendering it unknowing pretense I hadn’t known Derek Schiff well enough to guess about the Justice of his fate but I found myself unwilling to believe that he’d ever mistreated his daughter Oshin said that’s the look of a girl who knows she was loved yes Pavel Ania said her voice wistful getting that from human parents must have been interesting I’d bit my lip what was she like smart Fox said inquisitive a gifted musician who sometimes indulged because of that give me an example adjusting to longer answers seemed to cost Fox some effort when she was very young she developed an academic interest in an obscure and expensive verse teeny flute called the Nemo anomie it was not the kind of device human beings can master as we don’t breathe the same way Burstein ‘i do and cannot make full use of the instruments range but her father saw to it that one entered the family collection as expected she had the basics down within a few weeks and became the talented amateur it was considered remarkable that she’d coaxed music from it at all just how expensive was that Nemo II know me expensive enough for only a wealthy and indulgent father to buy i studied the hollow some more yes motion was right that was the look of a girl whose father would and could buy her an emo anomie a girl who knew herself gifted enough to make it more than just another toy purchased on a whim and then left to gather dust too bad it told me nothing I’m not calling the picture useless but there’s no guarantee that it reflects the way she looks now it would not Fox said it has been established that the surgery’s the dance pilgrims obtained before their arrival on flan always include extensive alterations to their facial features they are never recognizable as the people they once wore this was true the famous hollows of Isadora’s performance had been seen on uncounted human worlds and many alien ones she had become a cult heroine but though the number of people who claimed to have known her real name and the world of her birth had numbered in the tens of thousands no case had ever been more persuasive than any other our main challenge if this came down to a search was not going to be spotting dance pilgrims who could have been Maren because any one of them could be married even the males the hollow was useful only in that it personalized Maren making her less an abstraction and more a human being who could not be abandoned to her fate she possessed unconventional beauty she played

  your musical instruments she knew how to smile and these few things made her a person to us what else have you got I have part of the goodbye message Maren sent before reaching Vaughn part of the version I intend to show you omit certain personal and proprietary information that can have no bearing on her location this could be interesting pretty much every investigation I’ve ever been involved with the very people who brought me in also thought they were qualified to tell me what I did or did not need to know sometimes it’s nothing more than the self-serving arrogance of powerful figures who believe their own secrets sacrosanct while those of others are dragged into the light but just as often it’s the deliberate concealment of evidence the truth is defined by the hole that’s left behind I don’t much appreciate being shown an edited version it’s all I have Fox said a stone wall in more ways than one I almost told her to go to hell the with health portions might very well be as unimportant as she claimed to believe but she was not the one who should have been deciding that still I needed her as much as she needed me so I grimaced play it she murmured something beneath her breath and showed me Maren Schiff

  CHAPTER 9

  The Condemned

  Skyee had ridden skimmers she’d ridden horses and wind fish in more adventurous times she’d even piloted a mag board from orbit into the gravity well of a moon unencumbered by enough of an atmosphere to make the ride bumpy she had never known a ride as smooth and yet as paradoxically exhilarating as herve lani gave her and she enjoyed it as much as any person with her wounds could enjoy anything she had never known a ride as smooth and yet as paradoxically exile rating as Herve Loni gave her and she enjoyed it as much as any person with her wounds could enjoy anything she was downright fascinated by the way that spinning Villani seemed to be able to protect her from a rough ride despite changes in the terrain it traveled even when obliged to barrel up ridges or hop gullies the wind itself was fierce but as far as the ride went it was a long time before she felt so much as a single jarring misstep had the Porrinyards been willing to risk missing anything of importance she might have been able to close her eyes and allow herself to pass out that’s how come it was so easy to notice the difference when the character of the journey abruptly changed Skyefirst felt it through the whips that cradled her a sudden deep tremor like a sound transmitted through skin it went away and came back and then went away and came back again the rhythm too regular to be anything but deliberate she was just beginning to get a handle on it when it went away from more than a minute only to come back more powerful than ever each tremor now easy to identify as a number of different vibrations repeated in sequence it was her flaw knee trying to tell her something with all its whips occupied by protecting her or running it couldn’t waggle any in the air to communicate in the usual fashion of its kind but it could pass along another kind of waveform through physical contact she had probably just missed entire volumes of explanation possibly even the answer for everything useless to her when there was no way for her to understand it another burst stronger almost painful this time downright urgent she shifted position in her harness of nested whips and looked around struggling to see what Herve lonny wanted her to see the group was now racing across the plain in a v-formation a single determined leader at the

  forefront a protective made up of another couple of dozen all told accompanied them at a cantered angle they’re s
pinning whips reduced to gray blurs the formation put each individual at the forefront of its own advance and thus spared at the unpleasant necessity of having to run headlong into thick clouds of dust billowing in the wake of those who went before but their passage must have been visible for kilometres in every direction and easy to track for anybody at all interested in following them considering this for the first time the Skye had a sinking feeling about what that likely meant and craned her neck to look back at the now dusty landscape behind them where the dust was now a billowing monster could it be was that movement behind those brown clouds Oh shoes yes it was yes that was a patch of black a thicket of whips and big shiny heads revealed by a random clear patch of air before fresh dust kicked up by her group obscured the sight in new clouds it was impossible to tell much but the group back there looked like it might have been at least as large as her own maybe larger maybe much larger Skye was not just here she was also Ocean in the stolen skimmer overlooking a chain of towering volcanic pillars that pocketful Ania had just called the human teeth as much as she was here feeling death’s rancid breath grow warm on the back of her neck she was also there pretending all was well with his response that function is such a necessary element of any individual organism survival that the body’s making up the Union’s biological support system have always been permitted enough individuality to feel their own adrenaline surges so Skye felt the thump in her chest and the fresh sheen of sweat on her skin even as part of her remained elsewhere far from any immediate danger dying was not the faith the Porrinyards feared right now they were afraid of something far worse they were afraid of half of them dying the Villani carrying pathar see drew close enough for the wounded dance pilgrim to shout at her they want me to tell you what’s happening Skye shouted back we’re being chased aren’t we you got it that group back there came to finish off the job their friends started they’ve been chasing us for 20 kilometers already in there gaining Skye felt a lurch the ride grew rougher as the Villani carrying the wounded humans sped up the attention they could pay - guaranteeing a smooth ride for their charges went down this might turn unpleasant indeed when they reached the low hills on the horizon downright catastrophic if their pursuers succeeded in catching up but another thought occurred to her one that gave Skye reason for hope you know what this means don’t you that were totally fucked know that you still matter how the hell do you get that