Lord Mark held up his hands, palm out. “No affair of mine, then.” He didn’t sound surprised that his brother went around drugging and detaining people, but merely asked, “When is he thinking of removing them? I expect my deal to be moving rather quickly.”
“Don’t know.” Raven-sensei shrugged. “They’re his puzzle-pieces.” As the pounding continued, he added, “All the same, I’ll wait till Roic comes back to go in and settle them. They’re a nasty pair.”
Jin tilted his head and ventured nearer to the door. “Hey! That’s old Yani’s voice!”
“Who?” said Raven-sensei, and “Are you sure?” said Tenbury.
“Hey, Yani! Is that you in there?”
The pounding stopped. A quavery voice cried, “Jin? Is that you? Unlock the door and let me out!”
“Where are the two guys?” Jin yelled back.
“I heard someone thumping and carrying on and went to go look,” Yani returned, muffled. “What call they got to go locking people up around here?”
Raven-sensei threw up his hands and clenched his teeth. “Oh, my Lord Auditor will not love this.” He bent to the lock.
Lord Mark stood back, drawing a businesslike stunner from his black jacket. Miss Koudelka didn’t get behind him, but rather, circled to cover another angle, hitching her shoulders and flexing her hands and suddenly looking very athletic.
A tense pause, and the door fell open.
Yani stumbled out, swearing. He looked rumpled and wild, with a big bruise on his forehead and dried blood around his nose.
Raven-sensei peered within. “Crap. Gone!”
Chapter Seventeen
As Roic drove them into the underground garage, Miles flinched at the sight of the mob clustered around the open door of the office where they’d left their prisoners. His eye skipped to the empty space across the concrete where the captured NewEgypt van had been parked—and widened, when he spotted the sleek blond head bobbing above the dark ones. He didn’t even need to look down to know who he’d see standing level with her shoulder.
“What t’ hell?” said Roic, pulling to a halt. “What’s Miss Kareen doing here?”
“Trailing my brother, no doubt. What I want to know is what the hell Mark is doing here.”
They disembarked, and Miles shouldered swiftly through the gawkers to stare into the barren office. But even his best Auditorial glare couldn’t make Hans and Oki magically reappear. Not that he wanted them, exactly… He turned to sort out Tenbury and Raven, Mark and Kareen, Consul Vorlynkin, Jin jittering at his elbow pouring out the escape tale in a rapid high voice, and battered old Yani, looking something between irate and contrite. But no worse, thank God, and by his complaints still oblivious to his close encounter with one of Kibou-daini’s shadier death angels.
“How long ago did this happen?” Miles tried to cut to the essentials.
“Very soon after you left, at a guess,” said Raven ruefully. “I’m afraid I under-medicated. Sorry…”
Miles waved a hand, in understanding if not absolution. “So they’ve been gone at least two hours, maybe almost three. Plenty of time to get home. Or somewhere.”
A tactical tree began to sketch itself in his mind. If the pair had bugged out intending only to save themselves, they might be anywhere, but were unlikely to come back, and certainly not with reinforcements, the police and their own bosses being equally dangerous to them in such a flight. If they’d dutifully returned to NewEgypt… the possibilities grew more complex. I wonder if we passed them on the road? Too late… The two goons had gained a good look at Roic, might have glimpsed Raven, had not yet seen the memorable Miles, but Roic was pretty remarkable all on his own; and once he’d been identified, the trace back to Miles could be swift, if rather baffling from NewEgypt’s point of view.
And NewEgypt now knew the location of Suze’s facility, and they had to be pretty sure Leiber, their original target, had come here, though they couldn’t be sure if he was still here. Had NewEgypt figured out yet that their employee—former employee, by now, no doubt—had absconded with Sato’s cryo-corpse? And if so, would they imagine she’d been revived already, or would they still picture Leiber carting her about in a cryochamber like some especially awkward souvenir? Could they track back to whatever security vids they maintained from the day Miles and his strike force had liberated her unfortunate substitute Chen? And what would they make of it if they did? And… “Damn,” Miles muttered. “I have to talk to that idiot Leiber again.” If he was to second-guess their thinking, he wanted more details on those key NewEgypt execs. He sighed and raised his voice. “And hello, Mark. Why are you here? And so unexpectedly, too.”
Mark tilted his head in un-apology, smirking a bit.
Miles eyed Raven. “I thought we’d had an understanding about such surprises.”
Looking faintly guilty, Raven shrugged and mumbled, “Earlier ship.”
Miles abandoned the unfruitful point. “Hi, Kareen.”
She glinted back at him, reassuring in a way. Sort of. “Hi, Miles. How’s it going?”
“Not as well as I thought, evidently.” He peered one last time into the drab little office—still empty—and turned away. Tenbury, bless him, was soothing Yani and ushering him off to visit Medtech Tanaka.
A penetrating yowl rose from the back of the consulate van. “Aowt! Aowt!”
Vorlynkin’s brows rose. “Have you kidnapped someone else?” His tone seemed more resigned than disapproving. Miles thought of those tales about water wearing away stone; the consul’s edges were growing more rounded, at least.
“Not this time. Jin, Armsman Roic has a present for you. Live cargo.”
“Really?” Jin was instantly diverted; Miles jerked his head at Roic, who led the boy out of earshot to meet his new pet. Good with kids, Wing’s secretary had promised.
And you trust those people, why? Kareen, curious, followed Roic.
Miles lowered his voice to Vorlynkin and Raven. “Raven, how soon could Madame Sato be moved out of medical isolation?”
“To the consulate?” said Vorlynkin.
Miles nodded. “If secrecy, which was our first defense, has failed, then the consulate would be a better location for fending off legal attacks. Granted it hasn’t much advantage for illegal, physical attacks. I have some help on the way for that, but they’re not here yet.”
Raven’s lips pressed together in medical reluctance. “Tomorrow? Not that her bio-isolation isn’t compromised already, with those kids in and out. Little vectors that they are.”
“Well, load her up with every immune system booster in your arsenal—”
“I already have.”
Miles made a thumbs-up gesture. “Then plan to decamp as early as possible tomorrow. In fact, Vorlynkin, if you could stay here tonight, and be ready to move her and her kids out at a moment’s notice, that might be, um, prudent.” He added reluctantly, “Leiber, too.”
“Do you think NewEgypt will react that quickly?” asked Vorlynkin.
“I truly do not know. My impression of all these cryocorp chiefs so far is that they’d rather hunker down behind a wall of lawyers than, say, hire mercs, but this crew has already shown it can move fast at need. And, despite the lethal screw-ups, their actions eighteen months ago must have seemed successful at the time. I wish them a distraught and sleepless night figuring it all out, anyway.”
Vorlynkin frowned, taking this in.
Miles turned to his clone-brother. “And you?”
“Kareen and I jumped over from Escobar to look into a real estate deal Raven spotted,” said Mark, unperturbed by the foregoing. “The short version is, Madame Suze’s set-up could be the perfect venue for large-scale human trials of the Durona Group’s latest life-extension treatment. If so, I mean to buy the place from the unhappy current owner-of-record, this fellow Fuwa—lock, stock, and liabilities.” Mark jerked a thumb downward to indicate the frozen sleepers stacked in the hidden corridors below. “I’d take it as a personal favor, Lord Auditor B
rother, if you don’t mess up my Deal.”
Miles’s lips twitched. “Happily, Vor views on nepotism remain culturally generous, even in what our late grandfather would have called this degenerate age. But don’t mess up my case.”
“Haven’t the least interest in your case, thanks. Which is what, by the way?”
“Raven didn’t apprise you?”
“No, he’s been virtuously closed-mouthed.”
Well, no one could say that a Durona didn’t earn his or her pay. “It all started with an attempt by a Kibou cryonics company called WhiteChrys to expand onto Komarr.”
“That smells.”
“Oh, you’ve heard of it?”
“Not before now. But at a glance, there’s a physical, financial, and cultural distance that doesn’t explain itself.” Mark’s lips curved slightly. “And then there’s you, popping up in the middle of it. Always a tip-off.”
“Mm,” said Miles. “Well, the WhiteChrys part is a train that has left its station, and can run on rails to its appointed end. So far. This NewEgypt involvement is a side-issue that grew complicated.” His jaw set. “I’m trying not to leave undue collateral damage upon a local kid who befriended me, at some cost to himself. Good intentions, Mark. My path is paved with them.”
“So glad I don’t have any of those.” Mark’s glance grew uncomfortably shrewd. “It’s not your planet, you know. You can’t fix it.”
“No, but… well, no. But.”
“Well, try not to leave too much rubble in your wake. I can use this place.”
“So you said.” Miles hesitated. “Life extension, you say. Does this one look better that the last two Durona developments you were so excited about? That, excuse the expression, died on the lab benches?”
“Maybe. The one human trial looks hopeful so far. Lily Durona, if you were wondering.”
It was Miles’s turn to raise his brows. “All right, I’m officially impressed, if Lily was willing to try it on herself.”
Mark’s smile went a little flat. “Lily,” he said, “ran out of time to wait.”
Miles drummed his fingers on his trouser seam. “Has it been tried on an older male, yet? Speaking of running out of time.”
Miles and his clone-brother exchanged very similar looks.
Mark said, “Do you think he could even be persuaded to try it?”
“Mm, not by me, perhaps. Our mother might give it a go. Betan, you know, anything for science.”
“That’s one more reason I’m anxious to move these human trials along.”
“You might actually be more successful at persuading him if it were still billed as dodgy. Hit those old Vor service-to-the-Imperium reflexes, and all.”
“That’s so strange.”
Miles shrugged. “That’s the Count-our-father.” He added, “So, if your deal goes through, would you and Kareen be spending much time on Kibou?”
Mark shook his head. “Once it’s set up and running, I figure to turn it over to Raven to develop. Past time he was promoted. So far, this is not the knock-out competition to the clone-brain transplant business I was hoping for, but it’s early days yet.” Mark smiled slowly. “On the other hand, if it proved sufficiently profitable, maybe I could hire my own space mercs and attack the Jacksonian cloning lords directly.”
Miles grimaced. “Do you remember the last time you tried that?”
“Vividly. Don’t you?”
“Patchily,” said Miles dryly.
Mark winced.
“In the event, though I’ve no doubt Admiral Quinn could do the job, I would beg you to hire a different outfit.” Just in case this wasn’t quite a joke. With Mark, on this subject, it could be hard to tell. “What are you two doing next? Do you have a hotel?”
“No, we came straight from the shuttleport. Next, we’ve made arrangements to meet Fuwa here.”
“Isn’t that after local business hours?”
Mark shrugged. “I’m on system ship-time.”
“Can I sit in?”
“Sit in, yes. Mix in, no.”
“Mm,” said Miles, but Jin, Roic and Kareen returned before he could take exception to this. Jin was bouncing with pleasure, but he paused to stare in the usual amazement at Miles and his clone-brother standing toe-to-toe. Miles still wished Mark hadn’t picked weight gain as a way to differentiate himself, but Mark’s grim glee at his progenitor-brother’s discomfort with the choice was probably just a bonus, from his own point of view. Complicated man, Mark.
“I want to show my sphinx to Mom and Mina!” said Jin.
“You mustn’t take it into her booth,” said Raven, coming alert.
“I know that,” said Jin. “But I can hold it up to the glass. Can Roic-san help me cart everything?”
Roic glanced at the empty office and cast Miles a tiny head-shake, bodyguard-conscious again. Vorlynkin caught it, and said smoothly, “I’ll give you a hand, Jin.”
Raven added prudently, “I’ll come along.”
“Actually,” said Miles, “I think Leiber’s still up there; we’ll both come.”
Tenbury returned then, to continue the interrupted tour; with no more than an eyebrow-twitch from Mark and a farewell smile from Kareen, the three went off toward another exit. Miles followed Vorlynkin, who carried the sphinx-carrier in Jin’s train. Plaintive cries of “Aowt! Hum!” drifted back through the stale shadows of the underground garage.
Out. Home. You and me both, Sphinx.
His mother’s reaction to the sphinx was disappointing, Jin thought, but not surprising. Familiar, in fact, and comforting thereby.
“Jin, no!” she said, holding her hand to her lips. “Where would you keep it?”
Nefertiti squirmed in a disgruntled fashion under Jin’s arm as he hoisted her up on his hip for his mother to see, and attempted to flap her wings, but practice handling the fiercer Gyre left Jin undismayed. “I’ll take good care of her! Don’t I always? She came with a file of instructions, too, so nothing can go wrong.”
His mother rubbed her forehead, in her bed beyond the glass wall. “That’s not the point, this time, Jin love.”
Mina, who had been lurking on the foot of the bed all day, sat up, interested. “She’s huge! Bigger than Lucky and Gyre put together. She sort of looks like Lucky and Gyre put together, really. Oh, say yes, Mommy!” She wriggled down and exited the booth on a slight puff of positive air pressure.
“Did Tenbury get the intercom working?” Jin asked, realizing a bit belatedly that something new had been added. “When did he come by?”
“No, it was Consul Vorlynkin,” said Mina, bending to stare into the sphinx’s slow blink. “She has a funny face…”
“Oh, how?”
“I found the on-switch,” said Vorlynkin, leaning one shoulder against the glass wall and watching all this in some bemusement.
Raven-sensei bent to capture Mina’s mask and pop it into the sterilizer box for re-use.
Nefertiti flexed her claws and growled, and Jin set her down on her four paws, where she flapped her wings with a burring noise for all the world like one of the chickens.
“Does she fly?” asked Mina, holding out a hand for the sphinx to sniff.
“I don’t think so,” said Jin. “Her wings are almost the same size as Gyre’s, but she’s way heavier.”
“These custom genetic constructs are usually made to be decorative, not functional,” advised Raven-sensei. “Depending on what the buyer orders, of course.”
Mina frowned. “That seems mean, to give her wings she can’t fly with.”
Jin crouched on his heels and scratched the creature’s shoulder blades, between the wings, which folded tamely again as she stretched into the caress. She could not lick her fur like a cat, nor preen her feathers like a bird, so Jin would have a lot of interesting grooming to do, according to the care instructions in the file. “I wonder, do they lay eggs, or have live babies? One at a time, or a litter like kittens? I wonder if there are any male ones, left over?” And if he could
find one, somehow…
“There may not have been any males made,” mused Raven-sensei. “I believe sphinxes were traditionally female. But these proprietary constructs normally aren’t given the ability to reproduce. You’d likely have to clone her, and hand-raise the babies.”
Jin’s imagination took fire. Home cloning of small animals wasn’t that hard, if you could get the right equipment, from a pet supply place or hobbyist who was upgrading or quitting. Hardly something to be found in an alley scavenge, but there ought to be used stuff for cheap somewhere…
“Hum!” said the sphinx, plaintively.
“She talks!” cried Mina, her face breaking into a delighted smile.
“They come with about a twenty-word vocabulary, according to the file,” said Jin. “I don’t know if you can teach them more, like a parrot.”
“We can try…”
Beyond the glass, their mother made a noise of hopeless maternal protest, much like the halfway point of other such negotiations, so Jin took heart. But this time, she said, “Jin, we don’t even have a home to take her to, right now. Oh, no, I just thought of that! What’s happened to our apartment, and all my things? Nobody could have been paying rent for a year and a half, with no one living there. Oh—and my bank account—what happened to my money, after I was frozen? If I have no job, no money, no place for us to live—”
“Aunt Lorna has some of your clothes in boxes in the attic, I know,” Mina piped up. “And she took my stuff and Jin’s. She had to sell the big couch, and the kitchen table, and a couple of the other big things, because she didn’t have room, though.”
Consul Vorlynkin turned and spoke through the glass, earnestly. “These are all solvable problems, Madame Sato, but none of them need be solved today, or all at once. As part of the Lord Auditor’s case—a protected witness, more or less—your immediate needs will be covered by our consulate.”
“My committee, my friends—what’s happened to them all, beyond the ones you say NewEgypt murdered or took away? What if they—” Her voice shrank to silence.
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