Joe Haldeman

by The Coming

  “You’re amazing. He’s vegan, I think, Lamar. At least he wears an equals sign on a necklace, Church of Reason.” “Okay.” He seemed distracted. “I was going downtown for lunch. Market’s not open; I’ll see what Publix has.” “No eggs or cheese?”

  “Heavens, no. I wouldn’t enslave our fellow creatures.” He didn’t smile.

  “There’s something wrong?”

  “Bad morning. Talk about it later.”

  “We can talk now. There’s no one here.”

  “No … no, I have to check some stuff out … “

  “I mean, I’ll have the Slidells with me when I come home.” “It’s okay. Later.” The screen went blank.

  She almost called him right back. Something was really bothering him. But the other phone rang, her public line.

  “¿ Buenos?” She’d seen the woman before, but couldn’t place her.

  “Good morning, Dr. Bell. June Clearwater, mayor’s office.” Of course, the mayor had heard about the anniversary broadcast and wanted some “input.” He wanted to be sure that Rory would mention Gainesville, she assumed. He came on-line.

  “Mr. Southeby. “Input’?”

  He showed a professional number of teeth. “Rory. I just heard about your shooting schedule and wanted—” “Hold it. You know my schedule and I don’t?” “The camera crew was just here,” he said, a little defensive. “They were headed for you next.” “That’s wonderful. They were supposed to call.” On cue, the call-waiting icon strobed in the corner of the screen. “That’s probably them. Talk to you later, Cameron.” She punched control-#, to record.

  It was Chancellor Barrett, his face all grim furrows. “Rory. Do you remember a young man named Ybor Lopez?” “As in Ybor City? Sounds vaguely familiar.”

  “He used to work in Deedee’s office.”

  “Used to … is he the one who got arrested last month?” “That’s right; data crime. He was nosing through your files, among others. He hasn’t been in touch with you, then, since his arrest?” “Not that I recall. He might have tried—I probably have five or ten people call this number for every one that gets through. I could have someone check the log.” “That would be fine … um … the police might be bothering you about this; they just called me. Lopez died in jail this morning, under suspicious circumstances.” “Oh, that’s a pity. For a computer crime?”

  “I don’t know any details. Just thought I’d give you some advance warning.” “Thanks.” All we need is a bunch of cops rubbing shoulders with the reporters. “I’ll let you know if anything happens. Buenos dias.”

  Chancellor Barrett

  ” Buenos.” She broke the connection. Busy woman, that cube thing coming up tonight.

  There was a maddening lack of information here. Before calling Deedee, he did a quick mental review of what had happened a month before: He’d come back from that damned meeting, having asked Deedee to use Lopez to snoop on Aurora Bell. He was straightening up before lunch and a bright red flag came up on his screen: a security compromise warning. It said that Ybor Lopez was grinding away at the encryptation of personnel files.

  So he didn’t have as much jaquismo as Deedee had given him credit for.

  Although he would have preferred to let Ybor toil away undisturbed, the cat was out of the bag, whatever that actually meant. So he called in a warrant request and said he’d meet the arresting officer down at the physics building.

  Then the screwup with the stunning dart. He’d managed to pocket the ejected data crystal. The sergeant saw but shrugged it off.

  There was nothing much on the crystal but universes of data about Deedee and Bell. For some reason, Lopez had been pursuing details about a garage door Bell had bought. If they’d come in a few minutes later, there might have been something interesting there. Lopez hadn’t gone off in that odd direction for no reason.

  He tried to visualize the Bells’ garage door. Nothing unusual.

  Barrett put his anachronistic glasses down and rubbed his eyes. Had he indirectly murdered this young man by asking Deedee to check up on Bell? He’d only talked to Deedee about it once, right after the arrest. Lopez hadn’t had a chance to tell her anything.

  His personal line chimed and he swatted the button. It was Deedee, her eyes red and streaming with tears.

  Deedee

  “My God, Mai. What have we done?”

  “The police talked to you, too?”

  “No—it’s on the goddamned news. Somebody murdered him.”

  “What? The cop said—”

  “Drug overdose; that’s what the news said. But you can’t overdose on a DD like Jose y Maria, and people who are on it don’t take other drugs. They don’t work … “

  “But why would anybody want to kill him? Just a hacker who wasn’t as good as he thought he was.”

  “I don’t know. Maybe he was hacking for someone besides me, besides us. And he found out something dangerous.”

  “Yeah. I doubt it was Rory Bell.”

  “The damned drug might have been involved. You don’t buy it at Eckerd’s.” She blotted her eyes with a tissue. “If he had a source in jail, they could have killed him easily by putting poison in his dose.”

  “So maybe they were oversimplifying for the press, when they said overdose.”

  “Or covering up. If he was getting it in jail, he was probably getting it from the police.”

  Malachi winced. “Deedee! Maybe we shouldn’t talk about such matters over the phone. Can I meet you somewhere?”

  She looked at the clock. Lecture in ninety minutes, but she could do it in her sleep. “Down at the mercado? The coffee end? As soon as you can get there.”

  “I’ll be right over.” His image faded to black. She hung up and turned off the privacy shield and looked around; nobody else in the office. She got the makeup kit out of her purse and worked on her eyes and sharpened up the tattoo. It would take Mai ten minutes to huff and puff his way to the mercado

  .

  Somewhat fixed, she grabbed a sun hat and her lecture notes and went down the hall to the stairs. A little exercise, not using the elevator, and smaller probability of running into someone.

  It was already hot and muggy, under a sky like polished metal. She remembered a New York childhood when sometimes it would have snowed in October, at least by Halloween. But New York was hotter now, too. Her parents’ weekend place on Long Island under water for the past decade.

  She got an iced coffee from a black kid wearing an Italian peasant outfit, and sat at a picnic table in the shade, pretending to study her notes.

  Poor Ybor. She already hated herself for having set him up for jail. And he’d been loyal during the trial, not implicating her. Had he kept that silence in jail? Did the people who killed him know that she was an accomplice?

  Accomplice, hell. She was the criminal, and Ybor was just a convenient tool. Or she and Malachi shared the guilt; didn’t he start it?

  He sat down heavily across from her, mopping the back of his neck and his various chins.

  “No hat, Mai?”

  “Forgot it till I was outside. So it couldn’t have been an overdose?”

  “No; that’s impossible with bioreflexive DDs. If you shot yourself up ten times, the effect would be the same intensity and duration as one dose. I suppose your penis would hurt more.”

  He made a face. “I asked for a copy of the police report. That’s legitimate. We’re still his employer of record. But I doubt it will have anything of interest.”

  “Better hope it doesn’t. Anything of interest probably would point back to us. Or at least to me.”

  “It might be me as well. During the confusion of the arrest, I picked up the crystal he’d been working on. The policeman saw me do it, or do something, and asked about it later. I sort of bulled my way through it. But if that was on his report, they might come around asking questions.”

  “Probably not. A prison drug death, they probably just cleaned out his cell for the next guy, and closed his file. Co
uld you read the crystal?”

  Malachi nodded and wiped his face with the damp white handkerchief. “You’re on there as well as Aurora. Did you ask him to do that?”

  “No.” That was interesting. “I suppose he was trying to find something on me, for future use. Did he?”

  “Oh, I didn’t read through it,” he said slowly. “The file on Aurora is ten times as big; it took me a week of evenings. Nothing there, as far as I can see.”

  “You might not be devious enough. Let me see a copy.” |

  He brought a cube from a side pocket and set it between them. “Take the original. I don’t have any use for it.”

  She rolled the crystal between her thumb and forefinger. “I think this is where we vow not to betray one another.”

  “I trust you, Deedee.”

  “A good thing, too.” She removed her sunglasses and looked straight into his eyes. “I could hang your ass so high … “

  “Is the coffee good?”

  Deedee turned around, startled. It was that crazy woman who pushed the grocery cart around.

  “Yes. Yes, it’s good.”

  “I’m sorry someone died.” She leaned into the cart and rattled past. “Get my coffee, too.”

  Suzy Q.

  Funny how you can always tell, somebody died and they both feel guilty. He’s some bigwig, I seen him give speeches. She’s a teacher and real serious about it. Wonder if they killed somebody like I killed Jack. Who would they both not like enough to do that? Maybe they’re in love and it was her husband or his wife, or both—Where would you put the bodies nowadays? With that new mall over the swamp. On top of old Jack, him lying there looking up the little girls’ dresses while they walk over him, and he can’t do a damn thing about it.

  That’s a nice thought, him all bones but still can see. And a bone down there but no juice to go with it. He who lives by the bone shall die by the bone, or the frying pan. That was a mess on the rug, good thing we had so many cats.

  Maybe he couldn’t see so good, his eyes hanging out like that. I remember when I drag him from the trunk of the Chevy into the swamp, I almost turn him over so he look down into hell, then thought no, make him look up at God and Jesus and Mary. Now he looks up the dresses of little girls. That’s funny.

  And here comes my favorite little girl, with her coffee and bread for me.

  Sara

  “Here you go, Suzy Q. Sweet stuff today; a couple of almond rolls left over.”

  “You sweet stuff you’self. Thank you kindly.” She carefully lined up the rolls and coffee on the cart’s fold-out shelf.

  She was wearing several layers of clothes in the gathering heat, her face red and sweating. “You don’t have to wear all that, do you, Suzy Q.? You look so hot.”

  She nodded. “I don’ mind being hot, and it keep the rays out. Came down here to get hot, but that was before the rays. Don’t want the cancer.”

  Sara adjusted her hat. “That’s a point.”

  “You know,” she went on, “I could leave the extra clothes somewhere, and nobody would take them. I know that, even though the town’s full of murderers, but the problem is, I might not remember where I put them. Come winter I’d get awful cold.”

  “It’s already November, Suzy Q. It doesn’t get real cold anymore.”

  She laughed, a nasal wheeze. “That’s what they say, all right. You watch out, though.” She took a sip of coffee and pushed on. “Watch out for them murderers.”

  Always good advice, Sara thought, watching her rattle away, waiting for her to say it. She stopped and turned. “You know it snowed the day I was born?”

  “No kidding!” Suzy Q. nodded slowly and pushed on. Sara went back into the place.

  Jose was cross-slicing onions. “That’s probably enough. It’s too damn hot.” The onion flowers really sold when it cooled off. This year, it looked like the aliens would get here before winter did.

  And here comes Senor Alien himself, resident alien, Pepe Parker. “What’ll it be, Pepe?”

  ” Cafe con leche, por favor.” He sat down at the bar. “And a date, if you dance.”

  “What?”

  “New club opening in Alachua tonight. Old stuff—tango, samba. New club, new girl, what do you say?”

  She smiled and put a cup of milk in the microwave.

  “Pepe, I haven’t danced in years. I had an accident, and I’m still an operation away from the dance floor.” The bell rang and she took the milk out. “Thanks for asking, though.”

  “Professor Bell told me about that … horrible thing. They ever catch who did it?”

  “No.” She stirred a heaping spoon of Bustelo into the cup and brought it over with the sugar. “I think I know. But I could never prove it.”

  ” Gracias. Who?”

  She looked around. The two customers had left and Jose was buried in his tabloid. She lowered her voice. “You’re no Boy Scout, are you, Pepe? I mean, you know how the world works.”

  “As much as anybody, 1 suppose.”

  “We have to pay protection, to keep the cafe from getting gangbanged. Is that shocking?”

  “No. Sad, but no.”

  “There’s a slimeball comes in here at noon today, every first of the month, to pick up his five hundred bucks. He calls himself ‘Mr. Smith,’ but everybody knows he’s Willy Joe Capra.”

  “He did it?”

  She nodded. “Or at least knows who did it. He’s made that pretty clear.”

  “And you can’t go to the police?”

  She shook her head wordlessly for a moment, and then knuckled at tears, her mouth in a tight scowl.

  Pepe

  He handed her the napkin that she’d just handed him. “The bastard.”

  She pressed it to her eyes. “I, maybe I should. But what I’m afraid of, I go to the police, they pick him up, he gets off. And a week or a month or a year later, I’ll have another accident. During which, Willy Joe will be in church or talking to the Lions Club or something.”

  “The devil never forgets a face. People like him eventually get what they deserve.”

  “No.” She balled up the napkin and stuck it in her pocket. “This is the real world, remember?”

  Pepe poured sugar into his coffee and stirred it slowly. “Nothing people like you or me could do.

  Shoot the bastard, we wind up choosing the door.”

  “Instead of getting a medal.” She wiped the clean counter in front of him. “You want something to eat with that?”

  “No, thanks. Just had breakfast.” He’d skipped it, actually, needing to lose a few pounds. He only had one suitcase of clothes, and wanted them to last another couple of months. The kilt and trousers were getting tight around the waist, and suspenders had gone out of fashion last year.

  He drank the coffee fast enough to get a little buzz. It would be nice if he could do something about this Willy Joe character.

  He allowed himself an adolescent fantasy about Sara’s gratitude. But that sort of thing wasn’t really in his job description.

  He put a ten under the saucer and waved adios to Sara and her partner. Not for the first time, he wondered whether they had something going. Their mutual affection was obvious.

  Her body would be unusual. But that could be an attraction.

  In that erotic frame of mind, he stepped out of the cafe and stopped dead in his tracks, paralyzed by a woman. She was dressed like any other student, jeans and halter and sun hat. But she had a classic chiseled beauty and perfect carriage, and she radiated sex.

  Gabrielle

  It barely registered that the handsome Cuban took one look at her and stood like a deer caught in headlights. Whenever she walked through campus she was caressed by eyes. Did any of them ever recognize her from the films? Not likely. She’d only had face parts twice.

  She hated physics, but couldn’t put it off any longer. She had to take a chemistry elective next semester, and the only ones she could take required physics.

  So they were doing fluid dy
namics today. A doctor does need to know about fluids. In her other persona, she knew plenty about them. Semen stings your eyes and makes your eyelashes look as if semen has dried on them. But it was better than the fake stuff Harry sometimes squirted on her. Soap solution and glycerine and some white powder. It stung the eyes even worse, and made you smell like a cheap whorehouse.

  That was one of her father’s favorite observations: You smell like a cheap whorehouse. Just before she left home, she was able to make the obvious rejoinder: You would know, Dad, wouldn’t you?

  Someday she’d have to find a cheap whorehouse and go in for a sniff.

  One nice thing about physics was the building, air-conditioned to the max. She went through the door and it was like walking into a refrigerator. She put her books and hat down on a table and patted the sweat from her face and hair with a handkerchief.

  A carefully beautiful woman walked in and gave her a familiar look: appraisal, hostility, neutrality.

  Blue cancer tattoo on her cheek, Dr. Whittier.

  Deedee

  “Oh, hi. You’re in 101.”

  The beautiful girl nodded. “Gabrielle Campins.” She put the name and the face together. Pre-med, having trouble with the math. “See you there.” Trying to act normal just after learning you killed a man. Killed him by blackmailing him into illegal activity. Directed against a friend and colleague.

  The door to Rory’s office was open. On impulse, she tapped and stepped through the little entryway. Rory looked up from a journal.

  “Hi, Rory. You ready for His Holiness?”

  Aurora

  “His assholiness. Ready as I’ll ever be.” They had a meeting with Reverend Kale and some of his minions tomorrow. “I heard about Ybor Lopez. I’m sorry.” Deedee trembled for a moment and a chill ran down her back.

  Could there have been something between them? The phone chimed, saved by the bell.

  “Gotta teach,” Deedee said, voice quavering. “See you later.”

  ” Hasta luego.” She picked up the phone.