The Hidden Family

by Charles Stross

  “He hasn’t done anything to hang himself yet,” Smith continued, “but there’s always a first time.” He nodded to himself. “I see my job as ensuring there isn’t a second, if you catch my drift. And that the first ’appens as soon as possible.”

  Miriam looked past him. “Roger, go back to your workbench,” she called sharply.

  Roger turned and shuffled away, bashfully. Inspector Smith shook himself, the spell broken, and glanced over his shoulder.

  “Huh. Another bad ’un, I shouldn’t be surprised.” Smith smirked at Miriam. “Wouldn’t want anything to ’appen to him, would you? I really don’t know what the world’s coming to, a single woman running a business full of strapping young men. Huh. So, let’s see. The question is, are you a good citizen?”

  “Of course I’m a good citizen,” Miriam said tightly, crossing her arms. “I really don’t see what your point is.”

  “If you’re a good citizen, and you were to learn something about the personal habits of a certain pawnbroker—” The inspector paused, brow wrinkled as if he’d just caught himself in an internal contradiction: “casting no aspersions on your reputation, if you follow me, ma’am.” Another pause. “But if you happened to know anything that would be of interest, I’m sure you’d share it with the police ...”

  “I’ve got a business to run, inspector,” Miriam pointed out coldly. “This business pays taxes which ultimately go to pay your wages. You are getting in the way. I’m a law-abiding woman, and if I find out anything you need to know you will be the first to hear of it. Do I make myself understood?”

  “Ah, well.” Smith cast her a sly little glance. “You will, as well, won’t you? Huh.” He paused in the doorway. “If you don’t you’ll be bleeding sorry,” he hissed, and was gone like a bad smell.

  “Oh shit,” Miriam whispered, and sat down heavily in the swivel chair he’d vacated. Now the immediate threat was past, she felt weary, drained beyond belief. The bastard!

  “Uh, ma’am?”

  “Yes, Roger.” She nodded tiredly. “Listen. I know you meant well, but, next time—if there is a next time—stay out of it. Leave the talking to me.”

  “Uh, yes.” He ducked his head uncertainly. “I meant to say—”

  “And leave the fucking crowbar behind. Have you any idea what they’ll do to you for attacking a Police Inspector with a crowbar?”

  “Ma’am!” His eyes bulged—at her language, not the message.

  “Shit.” She blinked. “Roger, you’re going to have to get used to hearing me curse like a soldier if you work for me for any length of time. At least, you’ll hear it when the bastards are attacking.” She caught his eye. “I’m not a lady. If I was, I wouldn’t be here, would I?” she added, almost plaintively. And that’s for sure, more than you’ll ever know.

  “Ma’am.” He cleared his throat, then carefully pretended not to have heard a single word. “It’s about the furnace. I’ve got the first epoxide mixture curing right now, is that what you wanted?”

  “Yes!” she exclaimed, relief forcing its way out of her in a shout. “That’s what I wanted.” She began to calm down. A thought occurred to her. “Roger. When you go home tonight, I’d like you to post a letter for me. Not from the pillar box outside, but actually into the letter box of the recipient. Will you do that?”

  “Um.” He blinked. “Would it be something to do with the King’s man as called, just now?”

  “It might be. Then again it might not. Will you?”

  “Yes,” he said firmly. “Don’t like those folks. Not at all.”

  After he retreated to his workbench Miriam sat down in front of the manual typewriter and threaded some paper into it—then paused. They can identity typewriters by their typeface, can’t they? she remembered. Sort of like a fingerprint. And they lift messages off used ribbons, too. She pulled out the notebook computer and briefly tapped out a note, then printed it on the battery-powered inkjet printer she’d brought over with her. Let them try and identify that.

  She took care to pull on her gloves before feeding the paper in, and before folding it and putting it in the envelope, leaving no fingerprints to incriminate. Then she addressed it and sealed it. If they were tailing Roger or had staked out Burgeson’s shop it was just too bad—nothing she could do would help—but if they were still looking for information she doubted things would have gone that far. Besides which, Erasmus had agreed to make inquiries on her behalf: If the inspector nailed him for sedition, there’d go her most fruitful line of inquiry in pursuit of the hidden enemies who’d murdered her birth mother and tried to kill her.

  It was only on her way home, having given the anonymous tip to Roger, that she realized she’d stepped over the line into active collusion with the Leveler quartermaster.

  Snark Hunting

  One week and two new employees later (not to mention a signed, formal offer for the house), Miriam practiced her breaking-and-entering skills on the vacant garden for what she hoped would be the last time. After spending two uncomfortable hours in the hunting hide, she felt well enough to risk an early crossing.

  Paulette was in the back office doing something with the fax machine when Miriam came in through the door. “What on earth—” She looked her up and down. “Jesus, what’s that you’re wearing?”

  “Everyday office outfit in Boston, on the other side.” Miriam dropped her shoulder bag, took her hat and topcoat off, then pulled a face. “Any word on my mother?” she asked.

  “Nothing I’ve heard,” said Paulie. “I put out a wire search, like you said. Nothing’s turned up.” She looked at Miriam worriedly. “She may be alright,” she said.

  “Maybe.” Black depression clamped down on Miriam. She’d been able to keep it at bay while she was on the far side, with a whole different set of worries, but now she was home she couldn’t hide it anymore. “I’m going to the bathroom. I may be some time. Taking this stuff off’s a major engineering undertaking.”

  “Want me to make you some coffee?” Paulette called around the door.

  “Yes! Thanks!”

  “So you have to play dress-up all the time?” Paulie asked around the door.

  “It’s only dress-up if you can stop after a couple of hours,” Miriam said as she came back out, wearing her bathrobe. She accepted a coffee mug from Paulette. “What you’re wearing now would get you arrested for indecent exposure over there.” Paulette was in jeans and a plaid shirt unbuttoned over a black T-shirt.

  “I think I get the picture. Sounds like a real bundle of laughs.” Paulette eyed her thoughtfully. “Two thoughts strike me. One, you’ve got a hell of a dry cleaning bill coming up. Secondly, have you thought about putting artificial fibers on your to-do list?”

  “Yeah.” Miriam nodded fervently. “Starting with rayon, that came first I think. Then the overlocking sewing machine, nylon, and sneakers.” She yawned, winced at her headache, then stirred the coffee. “So tell me, how have things been while I’ve been away?”

  “Well.” Paulie perched on the desktop beside the fax. “I’ve got the next gold shipment waiting for you. Brill is doing fine, and those, uh, feelers—” She looked furtive. “Let’s just say she’s going to be from Canada. Right?”

  “Right,” Miriam echoed. “What else has she been up to?”

  “She’s been visiting your friend Olga in the hospital. Once she spotted someone trying to tail her on the T, but she lost him quick. Olga is out of intensive and recovering nicely, but she’s got a scar under her hairline and her arm’s in a sling. The guards—” Paulie shrugged. “What is it with those guys?”

  “What’s what?”

  “Last time she went, she said one of them said she ought to come home. Any idea what that’s about?”

  “Uh, yes, probably he was a relative of hers. You say she’s visiting Olga now?”

  “Why, sure.” Paulette frowned. “I’ve just got an odd feeling about her. Great kid, but she’s hiding something. I think.”

  “If she want
ed me out of the way she’s had more than enough opportunities to do it quietly.”

  “There is that,” Paulette agreed. “I don’t think she’s out to get you. I think it’s something else.”

  “Me too. I just want to know for sure what she’s hiding. The way she and Kara were planted on me by Angbard’s office, she’s probably just reporting back to him—but if she’s working for someone else ...” The fax machine bleeped and began to emit a page of curling paper. “Hmm. Maybe I should check my voice mail.”

  She didn’t, not at first. Instead she went back into the bathroom and spent almost an hour standing in the cramped shower cubicle, at first washing and thoroughly cleaning her hair with detergents of a quality unimaginable in New Britain, even for the rich—then just standing there, staring at her feet beneath a rain the temperature of blood, wondering if she’d ever feel clean again. Thinking about the expression on Roger’s face when he’d been ready to murder a secret policeman for her, and about Burgeson’s kindly face, high ideals, and low friends. Friends who believed fervently in political ideals Miriam took for granted, and who were low subversives destined for the gallows if Smith and his friends ever caught up with them. Gallows where whoever had kidnapped or murdered Iris belonged—and that in turn led Miriam to think about her mother and how little time she’d spent with her in the past year, and how many questions she’d never asked. And more questions for Roland, and his face as he’d turned away, hurt by her rejection; a rejection he didn’t understand because it wasn’t anything personal, it was a rejection of the world he would unintentionally lock her into, rather than the person he was.

  Miriam had lots of things to think of—all of them bleak.

  She finished with the shower in much the same black mood she’d been in that fateful evening when she’d first opened the locket and unhitched a mind-gate leading to a world where things turned out to be paradoxically worse. Why bother? She wondered. Why do I keep going? True love would be a great answer if she believed in it. But she was too much the realist: While she’d love to find Roland in her bed and fuck him senseless—the need for him sometimes brought her awake from frustrated dreams in the still small hours—there wasn’t a cozy little cottage for two at the end of that primrose path. Miriam had held her daughter in her arms, once, twelve years ago, kissed her on the head and given her up for adoption. Over the next few years she’d spent nights agonizing over the decision, trying to second-guess the future, to decide whether she’d done the right thing.

  The idea of bringing another child, especially a daughter, into the claustrophobic scheming of the Clan filled her with horror. She was a big girl now, and the idea of expecting a man to protect her didn’t strike her as cool. That wasn’t what she’d gone through pre-med and college and divorce and most of med school and the postgraduate campus of hard knocks for. But facing all this on her own was so daunting that sometimes it made her lie awake wondering if there was any point.

  She wandered through into the bedroom and sat on the futon beneath the platform bed in the corner. Her phone was still sitting on the floor next to it, plugged in to charge but switched off. She picked it up, switched it on, waited for it to log on, then hit her mailbox.

  “You have messages. Message one...” A gravelly voice, calling from ten days ago. “Miriam?” She sat up straight: It was Angbard! “I have been thinking very deeply and I have concluded that you are right.”

  Her jaw dropped. “Holy shit,” she whispered.

  “What you said about my security is correct. Olga is at evident risk. For the time being she remains in the hospital, but when you return, I release her into your care until Beltaigne, when I expect you both to appear before the Clan council to render an account of your persecution.”

  Miriam found herself shaking. “Is there anything else?”

  “There’s no news about your mother. I will continue to search until I find something positive to report to you. I am sorry I can’t tell you anything more about her disappearance. Rest assured that no stone will go unturned in hunting for her assailants. You may call me at any time, but bear in mind that my switchboard might—if you are correct—be intercepted. Good-bye.”

  Click. “Message two—” Miriam shook her head. “Hello! This is a recorded greeting from Kleinmort Baintree Investments! Worried about your pension? You too—” Miriam hit the delete button.

  “Message three: Call me. Please?” It was Roland, plaintive. She hit ‘delete’ again, feeling sick to her stomach. “Message four. Miriam? You there? Steve, at The Herald. Call me. Got work for you.”

  It was the last message. Miriam stared at her phone for a good few seconds before she moved her thumb to the delete key. It only traveled a millimeter, but it felt like miles. She hung up. “Did I just hear myself do that?” she asked the empty room; “did I just decide to ignore a commission from The Herald?”

  She shook her head, then began to rummage through the clothes in her burnished suitcase, looking for something to wear. They felt odd, and once dressed she felt as if she’d forgotten something, but at least it was comfortable and nothing pinched. “Weird,” she muttered and went back out into the corridor just as the front door banged open, admitting a freezing gust of cold air.

  “Miriam!” Someone in a winter coat leapt forward and embraced her.

  “Brill!” There was someone behind—“Olga! What are you doing here?”

  “What do you think?” Olga looked around curiously. “What kind of house do you call this?”

  “I don’t. It’s going to be a doppelgangered post office, though. Brill, let go, you’re freezing!”

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said earnestly. “The duke, he sent a message to you with lady Olga—”

  “Yo! Coffee?” Paulie took one look at them and ducked back into the kitchenette.

  “Come in. Sit down. Then tell me everything,” Miriam ordered.

  They came in, stripping off outdoor coats: Olga had acquired a formal-looking suit from somewhere, which contrasted oddly with her arm in a sling. She shivered slightly. “How strange,” she remarked, looking round. “Charming, quaint! What’s that?”

  “A fax machine. Everything feeling strange?” Miriam looked at her sympathetically. “I know that sensation—been having it a lot, lately.”

  “No, it’s how familiar it feels! I’ve been seeing it on after-dinner entertainments for so long, but it’s not the same as being here.”

  “Some of those tapes are quite old,” Miriam remarked. “Fashions change very fast over here.”

  “Well.” Olga attempted a shrug, then winced. “Oh, coffee.” She accepted the offered mug without thanks. Paulie cast her a black look.

  “Uh, Olga.” Miriam caught her eye.

  “What?”

  “This is Paulette. She’s my business manager and partner on this side.”

  “Oh!” Olga stood up. “Please, I’m so sorry! I thought you were—”

  “There aren’t any servants here,” Brill explained patiently.

  “Oh, but I was so rude! I shouldn’t have—”

  “It’s okay,” said Paulette. She glanced at Miriam. “Is this going to happen every time? It could get old fast.”

  “I hope not.” Miriam pulled a face. “Okay, Olga. What did Uncle A have to say for himself?”

  “He came to visit me shortly after you left. I’d had time to think on your explanations, and they made uncommon sense. So much sense, in truth, that I passed them on to him in a most forthright manner.”

  Brill cracked up.

  “Care to share the joke?” Miriam asked carefully.

  “Oh, it was mirthful!” Brill managed to catch her breath for a moment before the giggles came back. “She told him, she told—”

  Olga kept her face carefully neutral. “I pointed out that my schooling was incomplete, and that I had been due to spend some time here in any case.”

  “She pointed out—”

  “Uh.” Miriam stared at Olga. “Did she by any chance ha
ve something pointed to do the pointing out with?”

  “There was no need, he took the message,” Olga explained calmly. “He also said that desperate times required desperate measures, and your success was to be prayed for by want of avoiding—” she glanced at Paulette—”the resumption of factional disputes.”

  “Civil war, you mean. Okay.” Miriam nodded. “How long have you been out of the hospital?”

  “But Miriam, this was today,” said Brilliana.

  “Oh,” she said, hollowly. “I think I’m losing the plot.” She rubbed her forehead. “Too many balls in the air, and some of them are on fire.” She looked around at her audience; Paulie was watching them in fascination. “Olga, did you keep the locket you took from the gunman?”

  “Yes.” Olga looked uncertain.

  “Good.” Miriam smiled. “In that case, you may be able to help me earn more than the extra million dollars I borrowed from Angbard last month.” She pretended to ignore Paulette’s sharp intake of breath. “The locket doesn’t work in this world,” she explained, “but if you use it on the other side, it takes you to yet another place—more like this one than your home, but just as different in its own way.”

  She took a mouthful of coffee. “I’m setting up a business in, uh, world three,” she told Olga. “It’s going to set the Clan on its collective ear when they find out. It’s also going to flush out our mystery assassins, who live in world three. Right out of wherever they’re hiding. The problem is, it takes a whole day for me to world-walk across in each direction. Running a business there is taking all my time.”

  “You want me to be a courier?” asked Olga.

  “Yes.” Miriam watched her. “In a week or two I’ll own a house in world three that is in exactly the same place as this office. And we’ve already got the beginnings of a camp in world one, in the woods norm of Niejwein, on the same spot. Once I’ve got the house established, it’ll be possible to go from here to there without having to wander through a strange city or know much about local custom—”

  “Are you trying to tell me I’m not fit to be allowed out over there?” Olga’s eyes blazed.