“Now I see Ga Noh’s true face,” she said.
“Such as it is.”
“What is this?” She gestured at his little black porkpie hat with its gray pinstripes. “Is Ga Noh a cowman?”
“A...oh, a cowboy? No, this isn’t a cowboy hat. I wouldn’t be caught dead in a cowboy hat.”
She reached across to him. He typically wore the hat tipped back on his head but she drew its brim down lower. “Gangboy hat?”
“Gangster hat? Okay; gangster I can handle.” She hadn’t touched his body, but just her adjusting his hat sent an electric charge through him. He recognized it as flirtation. “How about your hat?” He flicked it with a finger. “Is Thi a cowgirl?”
“Yes. I need new job now. Maybe new job, cowgirl.”
She had been drinking tea – maybe a number of cups – while waiting for him, but now that he’d arrived she ordered them both a bowl of tah soup, a Ha Jiin staple, using her native tongue. As she did this, Stake took the opportunity to study her appearance. If she were to stand he knew she would only come to about his shoulder, and she wore a sleeveless yellow tunic and matching yellow pants, as comfortable looking as much-laundered pajamas. Her straight black hair was parted in the center, not falling to her waist as he recalled it but still down to her breasts, hanging in front as if to hide their shy smallness. The sleek hair shone a metallic red where the light shimmered on it. Her face had shed a little baby fat, but she had let her eyebrows fill out naturally, no longer plucking them into a finer shape, and he felt this gave her a more youthful look to compensate. He would put her in her mid-twenties if he didn’t know she was thirty-four. Her lips seemed fuller, softer, less tight and hard than he remembered them, but at least the black mole under one corner of her mouth was unchanged. It was her. Thi Gonh. Right in front of him. He could touch her if he only dared.
Her flesh was robin’s egg blue. Her eyes – large and almond-shaped indoors, but narrower in the sun or when she smiled – were intensely black but in certain light flashed laser red. They looked black now, however, like black holes in space from which no light, or no private investigator from another dimension, might escape. Now he remembered why he had fallen in love with her. It was embarrassingly simple, and it seemed shallow, but he found her incredibly beautiful.
He looked down at her hands, the little hands that had been so expert with a sniper rifle, but not so much to study them as to avoid stealing her features again. He didn’t want to alarm the waitress as she set their soup in front of them, and also it just seemed too intimate an act for anyone but them to witness. His past imitation of her had occurred behind the closed door of the room in the captured monastery where she had been held prisoner; where the men under his command couldn’t see what took place between them, much as they could guess it. They had resented him for it. Traitor, some of them had deemed him. Being manipulated by a prisoner who just wanted to save her own pretty skin.
But what did she have to gain from him now, then?
“Smells good,” Stake said, inhaling the steam off the soup that Ha Jiin and Jin Haa alike never tired of for breakfast, lunch or supper.
“Mm.” She watched him expectantly. Expecting what? His first taste of the soup, transformation of his mannequin-plain features, or his reason for wanting to see her?
“Like I say, I’m so sorry to hear that your farm was ruined by this damn city coming in. I wouldn’t blame this whole town for wanting to tear an Earth man like me limb from limb.”
Thi finally looked less than cheerful. “My people very angry your people now. I not blame to your people, Ga Noh, but angry for Earth company that make Blue City happen. I have farm almost ten year!”
“I know; Thi; it’s a tragedy for a lot of people. It must be very hard for you, after a decade of work. I can imagine your husband is furious.” Probing her about him.
“My people talking maybe not let Jin Haa and Earth people come to Ha Jiin land again. And maybe we not going to Jin Haa land again.”
“Hm. So they might want to enforce the border.”
“Yes. People want money for farm and house and town bury by Blue City. Want money from Earth company. If Blue City can not be blow up and everything take away, people say they want to own land of Blue City where farm was before. Understand?”
“Yes; your displaced people would like to own that part of Bluetown that covers their property. Though what they could do with it, I don’t know. This is tough, tough material, and it might be hard to tear up or dissolve even the portion that covers your land, let alone blow up or tear down the whole city.”
“I am afraid maybe new war is coming if Blue City not stop soon. New war by Ha Jiin and Jin Haa and Earth Colonies again.”
“I hope to God things don’t go that far. I hope something can be done about this quickly.”
“This time if war, Ga Noh and I not fight each other, okay?” A little smile with her joke.
“Okay. Next war, you and I won’t get involved in the fighting. I promise never to take you prisoner again.”
“Ga Noh take care of me before. Protect me from your soldiers.”
“And by the way, Thi, thank you for last year. Coming to Oasis, and following me around like that. That was pretty sneaky of you. You took down two of those bad guys who were trying to hurt me. You killed ‘em real dead.”
Thi showed a small, mysterious smile and her eyes were almost chilling. “I not know what Ga Noh talk about.”
He chuckled. “If you say so. But thanks. I wish you could’ve stayed then, and seen me after I got out of the hospital.”
“Okay now? I was worried, very worried.”
“Oh, I’m fine now. I’m just sorry you had to lie to your husband about why you needed to go to Oasis. You told him it was business? Did he ever find out the real reason?”
“He was angry, know I am maybe lie to him. He understand, I think, about Ga Noh and I in war – fuck in bed together. Understand Ga Noh live on Oasis. He almost beat to me.”
“Wait, wait, please don’t say it like that. And you’re saying he almost beat you? Oh Christ, Thi. I’m sorry.”
“Nothing! No worry about me, okay?”
“Are you happy these days, Thi? I know you had a hard time after my people released you. Your people put you on trial for sparing the lives of the men you had in your gun sights. You were condemned for that, and all.”
“No, no.” She made a brushing motion. “I am okay now, okay. They make a joke – call me Earth Lover.”
“I know, I heard that. And what about your husband, Thi? Are you, you know, happy with him?”
Her smile turned evasive, and was like a shrug. She looked into her soup. “We work hard together, work same-same many husband and wife.”
“But is he good to you? You say he almost beat you.”
“He is not smile a lot. Smile to men friends. Every day drink with men friends. Laugh to friends, not laugh to me. Many men are same-same.”
“That doesn’t make it okay. Is he gentle to you, at least? Affectionate?”
“He not kiss to me here.” She touched her lips with her finger. “Never one time. And in bed we very hurry up.” She slapped her palms together twice, and grinned shyly. “Sometime his milk come out before his baby go inside my baby!”
“What a waste of your baby,” Stake remarked. Being a man, he couldn’t help but feel immensely gratified by knowing this. But then he felt guilty for being smug. Should his ego be stroked by Thi having spent ten years with an unaffectionate husband?
Thi giggled. “Funny, hear Ga Noh talk about my baby!”
“Thi!” a voice called. They both turned sharply to see a woman approaching. She was as short as Thi but heavier, with a broad face and narrower eyes, and no hair on her head. As she came closer Stake saw her blue dome was scarred and textured like the globe of some planet. It was a condition he’d seen other Sinanese women afflicted with in the past, brought about by parasites. Despite this, the woman was grinning as she stepped up o
nto the restaurant’s platform. “Thi, Chonh said he saw an Earth man walking in the town. Chonh is my older son,” she explained to Stake. “Are you my cousin’s friend?”
“Ah, yes,” Stake said. “So you’re her cousin. She told me you and your husband had taken her in. That was very kind of you.”
“Well, my father lives in Vein Rhi, too, but he didn’t have the room. My name is Nhot, by the way.” She extended her hand for him to shake; hardly a Ha Jiin custom. Touching a woman in any way was considered rude, and could have dangerous consequences.
“I’m Jeremy Stake.” As he shook her hand, he glanced at Thi and saw that her face had gone blank, unsmiling. She flicked her gaze at him and he tried to read it.
“Sorry to disturb you at your lunch, but my son was very excited and saw you coming down this way, so I thought I would investigate.”
“Your English is excellent, Nhot.”
“Why thank you!” Her cheeks were bunched round with that big grin. “I’ve been working through my computer the past few years; I’m lucky that I don’t have to leave home to do my job. Sometimes I deal with your people on the net, so I’ve studied English quite a bit. I’ve helped my cousin with a few words, too, since she also has an interest in English. I’ve told her she should take the same net course I did.”
Thi spoke to her cousin in their own language, her voice darker and tighter now, faster and more sure, but Nhot chided her, “Thi, it’s rude not to talk in English in front of your friend.” She turned back to Stake and said, “My cousin says you’re here to investigate the spread of the Blue City.”
“No, not exactly. Three life-forms apparently cloned from Earth people were found in the city by a Ha Jiin security patrol. I’m looking into that, as an aide to the Colonial Forces.”
“Oh yes, I see. We heard about that. So strange!”
“So did you grow up together, you two cousins?”
“Oh yes, though she’s a few years older than me. A lot prettier than me, too, I know. I’ve heard everyone say it for years! Anyway, my father is her father’s younger brother. My father was a captain in the war, did she ever tell you that?”
“No, I didn’t realize.”
“It’s ironic. My father was an officer with many successes to his credit, but even after her trial for treason my cousin is still the one who is better remembered, for being the Earth Killer. I suppose it is her and not my father who will become a part of history. Who can guess these things?”
“My friend go back to Di Noon now,” Thi spoke up. “Soon it is dark.” She pointed upwards.
Nhot ignored her. “You were the soldier who caught my cousin during the war, right? The one who protected her from the other soldiers?”
“Yes. But you know, the war’s over now, so it’s great that we can all get together and share a meal this way.”
“Yes, it’s wonderful that my cousin and you can be such close friends. Have you met her husband yet?”
Stake’s smile was strained. “No. Not yet.”
“I see. He would be interested in meeting you, I’m sure.”
“Well, it’s been very interesting meeting you, Nhot, but I’m afraid your cousin is right; it will be evening soon and I’d better get back before it gets dark.” He rose, and made an apologetic expression for Thi. “I don’t have any of your money on me for the soup.”
She waved away his concern. “My gift, Ga Noh.”
“Ga Noh!” Nhot exclaimed. “That’s right – we all heard about that! You can change your face like a chameleon! Is this your own face that we’re seeing?”
“Yes. It happens involuntarily, a lot of times, so I’m trying not to look at either of you too long. Nothing personal.”
“Oh, you wouldn’t want to look like this.” She patted her hairless scalp. “I’m sure you don’t mind looking at my cousin, though. She’s a very attractive woman.”
“There are many beautiful Ha Jiin and Jin Haa women, yes. Your men are too lucky.”
“Well, I don’t think my husband is one of the lucky ones, but he still married me so I guess the lucky one is me. Are you married, Mr. Stake?”
“No, never. Maybe someday. Anyway, again, nice to meet you.” He extended his hand to Thi this time. He wanted to make their goodbye look formal, but he also wanted to touch her flesh. Touching it in front of this other woman suddenly seemed like a satisfying thumbing of the nose. “It was nice to see you again, Thi. It was much better this time, now that the war is behind us.” But it hadn’t really been better, at least not for him. That made him feel guilty, too. Had it been better when she was a prisoner, threatened with rape and execution from the men under Stake’s command?
“Thank you, Ga Noh,” Thi said. Her smile hadn’t returned. “Take care, take care yourself.”
Stake turned from the women, stepped off the platform and strode down the street. He hadn’t given Nhot a look after Thi, because he hadn’t wanted her face to be the last of the two he saw before he left. And he hadn’t given Thi a further look because their little bubble of intimacy had been stolen from them, and the looks they exchanged could not be honest. He resented Nhot for that, and he resented her for the vitriol he had so clearly perceived behind her grinning mask.
He was bitter as he walked out of Vein Rhi, unsatisfied, confused, so he didn’t raise his head to smile at the excited children who yapped around him like dogs. Maybe one of them was the son Nhot had mentioned. He reached the Harbinger, and was soon pointing it back the way he had come.
It was while he was in the air above Bluetown again, with Sinan’s double blue-white suns lowering toward some gentle forested hills on the horizon, that Ami Pattaya called him. He put her through to the larger screen set into the helicar’s console.
“Hey, shy guy,” she said. “Question: did you find my ID badge in your room after I left?”
“Your ID badge? No, I didn’t. Why?”
“I left in a hurry and I think I forgot it there. It probably fell off my lab coat.”
“If I see it I’ll let you know.”
He had no specific use for her badge yet, but he collected such things when they came within grasp, just as he collected faces in his wrist comp. They were like tools added to a tool box, disguises in an actor’s makeup kit. He thought that maybe it wouldn’t have been such a bad idea to bring hair acceleration gel, though he knew he would feel embarrassed to even briefly have long hair down to his ass, just as he knew his ass would never be as cute as that of the science chief.
But right now, it wasn’t Ami’s body – however intriguing and succulent – that he was remembering.
EIGHT: OUTRANKED
Colonel Dominic Gale was younger than what Stake would have imagined, muscular perhaps but still too lean for his six-foot-four height, with his skull fully shaved but wearing a strip of goatee from his lower lip to his chin. Though they often made good soldiers, Stake had never personally liked any man who tried to make his head look like a helmet or bullet. The beard looked like a patch of pubic hair he had torn off with his teeth. What did Ami Pattaya see in this man, except maybe the glittering Christmas decorations of his rank scattered across the blue camouflage of his uniform?
“Nice to meet you, colonel,” Stake said pleasantly as he approached the room’s oversized conference table of black Sinan wood.
“Park yourself, Mr. Stake,” Gale growled. Stake couldn’t place his accent, but then accents blended over time into new configurations. The closet thing he might call it was Australian. “You too, Henderson,” he said to the captain, who had entered the room ahead of Stake.
“Mr. Bright,” Henderson greeted one of the other men at the table, who wore an expensive five-piece suit. His hair was so immaculately cut and his face so perfect, probably through the aid of cosmetic surgery, that he looked even more android-like than Stake did in his “factory settings.” Henderson swivelled in his chair to introduce this man and Stake to each other. “Jeremy, this is David Bright, owner of the Bright Horizons developmen
t company. Mr. Bright, this is Jeremy Stake, the freelancer I brought in to help us ID the clones that were discovered in Simulacra.”
“Which is the reason I’ve brought you in here, if you’ve finished with the tea party chatter,” Gale said, taking his place at the head of the table. “Now, I’ve been too busy giving hand-jobs to every screaming Jin Haa and Ha Jiin political and religious leader on this momfuck planet to spend the time meeting about this sooner, but I wanted to make it clear to everybody here that I’m not a happy soldier right now. I’m not at all happy, Henderson, that you brought in an outsider to look into these clones. You should have asked me first instead of doing this behind my back. How do you think it makes the CF look if we have to hire a blasting private dick to help us identify MIA remains?”
“I thought you had already made it clear you weren’t happy about this,” Henderson said calmly.
“So I’m making it clear again! I wanted to include your gumshoe friend, since you two are so damn close!”
“Gumshoe,” Stake murmured, trying not to smile. Gale jerked his head his way, maybe having overheard him. Stake took off his porkpie hat belatedly and set it by his elbow.
“Dom,” Henderson said, “look, you know I was brought in to help you tackle this Bluetown mess, and I’m just trying to use some imagination here. What’s wrong with expanding our resources? Jeremy was a corporal in the Blue War; he has experience here. And I’m thinking maybe the Ha Jiin will be less intimidated talking to a civilian than to a Colonial Forcer.”
“Oh, you’re crafty, Rick, but make up your mind; is this guy a civilian or a soldier? You can’t have it both ways. All right, look, Stake...this shit storm with the clones has leaked to the media somehow,” he threw Henderson a suspicious look that almost could have set the man aflame, “and now it’s in the public eye. So I’m going to let you stay here, just to show that the Colonial Forces uphold their commitment to locating and returning the remains of Blue War MIAs. People are keen on the living clone being returned to its family, like it’s a little lost puppy or something instead of the anomaly it is. Beats me how civilians cloning themselves can be illegal, but everyone in our dimension wants to adopt this thing.”
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