Asimov's SF, April-May 2009

by Dell Magazine Authors

  Then he closed his hand into a fist and pulled it away from the Spires. Navi nodded, to encourage him to continue.

  “The Denonites lived in a small community,” he said. “It's a jewel. They sent their own undesirables away, let them run the conquered cities. Nothing in the texts talks about slaves or massive troops moving back toward Denon's Secret. There is no mention of a place to keep prisoners or a place to ritually humiliate the losers of any war. So I spent the last few years asking myself this: If they didn't want the traditional spoils, what did they want?”

  She was going to be here all day while he explained how he came to his conclusions. God, she hated academics.

  “Then I discovered a mention of the caverns,” he said.

  Suddenly he had her attention.

  “Caverns honeycomb that mountain. I think that's how the Denonites survived their many sieges. They weren't in the city when it got attacked. They were below it or beside it or maybe not even in it, if the caverns led to places outside the mountain.”

  Her breath caught. Marvelous. The caverns would give her a way into the city, a way that could avoid the Spires entirely.

  “Do you have proof of this?” she asked.

  “Not exact proof,” he said.

  And she felt her heart sink.

  “But,” he added, “the texts mention the networks a lot, and then they mention the honeycombs. Only one of those references is in connection with caverns, but that's enough. Because if you look at the Spires, what could they be but a giant map?”

  She frowned, and looked at the Spires. They seemed like artwork to her—a way of marking the city long before anyone arrived at it. A monument, something that a culture built because it could.

  “A map?” she asked, letting the disbelief into her voice.

  “Surround it, not with air, but with dirt,” he said. “Then what does it look like?”

  She had to squint to imagine that. Then she shook her head.

  “It's a network of caves,” he said, “with exit points.”

  She wanted him to be right. She needed him to be right. But she didn't believe he was right. Everything he told her was too disjointed.

  “But how does that tie to a museum?” she asked.

  “It is the museum,” he said.

  He shoved his hand back into the middle of the hologram.

  “This part,” he said. “This maze-like network in the center, would be the best place to store artifacts stolen from other cultures. And if the caves look like the Spires, then they're white. Anything with color would jump off the walls, and stand out, even in a large space. Imagine it. It would be the best museum in the sector. Better even than that thing the Scholars are proposing, because everything in this place would be ancient, and from cultures long gone.”

  That was the problem. She could imagine it. The wealth would be beyond measure.

  Immediately her mind turned to the task at hand. “They would need more than fifteen people and some tech to guard this place.”

  “If they know what they have which I don't think they do,” he said. “They stumbled onto the city. They weren't looking at my work. It was an accident.”

  “You think they have, no idea how far these things extend.”

  He nodded. “And, since scans from above are limited by law, they have no way to find out.”

  She turned to the Spires, squinting, trying to see what he saw.

  A map.

  Navi smiled. If Zeigler was right, he had just given her a way in.

  * * * *

  5

  They activated their tents on a flat part of the mountainside half a kilometer above the city.

  From this vantage, they could see the city itself—all parts of it—and they would remember that they were here to guard it. Meklos still hadn't figured out how he was going to deploy his people and his equipment. He needed better maps for that. He also needed to know what exactly he'd been hired to protect.

  If it was a single building, then he'd send his people there in shifts as well as keep a few stationed near the Spires. If it was the entire city, he might need reinforcements.

  This area was vast, something he hadn't realized when he'd taken the job. It wasn't vast in area so much as in sprawl. And it would be difficult to guard against a motivated invader, someone who wanted inside, someone to whom the rules about the Spires of Denon meant nothing. He had one other problem as well. No one had warned him about how bright it was here. Even with proper equipment, the whiteness of the Spires, combined with the white shale on the mountainside and the white buildings below, created a kind of bleary-eyed exhaustion that he hadn't experienced outside snow countries. If he kept his people on shift too long or if they were stationed in the wrong spot, they might experience a kind of snow blindness. And he hadn't checked the planet's cycle in relation to its sun. He had no idea if they would move closer while he was stationed here. If so, the sun would grow brighter, and so would the light.

  Even if he sent for better equipment, he still would have to station his people at their posts for half a normal shift. Which meant he would be understaffed.

  He wished he'd been able to inspect the site before he'd arrived, as is he had asked to do. But Scholars Exploration, which had hired him, had said the site was too remote to justify the expense.

  Then they had tripled his fee.

  He'd noted the contradiction, and he understood the reason for it. They didn't want anyone who wasn't on their payroll near the site. And that had piqued his curiosity. This whole job had—partly because of the Spires themselves.

  * * * *

  6

  Gabrielle stepped backward, toward the open doorway, and stuck her hands in her back pockets. The temple's main floor extended away from her, fading away into darkness.

  Except for the front entrance, which had no door—and hadn't been designed for one—the temple had sealable doors and no windows. Perfect for storage.

  It was the largest building in the ancient city, a giant rectangle that stood in the exact center. All the main roads (the ones that the archeologists could clearly define as roads) led to this spot.

  She called it a temple, but there was no evidence that the Denonites had been particularly religious. It was just that in previous ancient societies, buildings with this general shape and focus always ended up being the center of the religion. Yusef believed it was some kind of government building, but he couldn't suggest what kind.

  The main floor was one long open space. There wasn't even an altar or a place with a platform so that someone could stand above a crowd and make speeches.

  The walls were plain white, like the exterior walls, but the floor was a marvel. It was an inlaid replica of the Spires of Denon. As the careful cleaning commenced, she realized that the floor's design wasn't white against blue as she had initially thought. The Spires went from a warm reddish color to lighter shades of rose, finally becoming a faint white. Only near the top, where the Spires supposedly touched the sun, did the drawing itself become a spectacular white.

  She had initially planned on covering the floor, but she wasn't sure whether or not it would ruin the artwork. Her specialists thought that even a raised floor could scratch the image below.

  So she had to be careful. On the areas where there was no artwork, she had installed the raised floor. She would put up half walls around those areas. She needed them for the final cleaning, sorting and classification. Then the artifact, whatever it was, would get moved to the correct part of the floor until it could go to its assigned destination. The problem, of course, would be the larger items. She wasn't even sure where to store them, let alone how to work with them. And if she had to remove any of them from the city...

  She shook her head. She had already commandeered a couple of buildings near the temple, but none were as sturdy. One of the post-docs suggested leaving the larger artifacts where she'd found them, which sounded well and good, until they tried to deal with the artifacts in the flooded part of t
he caverns.

  Not that she knew for certain there were artifacts in that part of the caverns. Even though the guards had shown up, the special cave divers she'd sent for were delayed on another job.

  Someone touched her arm, and she jumped.

  She turned. Yusef stood next to her, his eyes twinkling.

  She had been so deep in thought, she hadn't even heard him approach.

  “What?” she asked.

  “The guards you hired,” he said, “they want to talk to you.”

  She suppressed a sigh. The last thing she wanted to do was talk to a group of guards.

  She hadn't given them much thought. She had asked the Scholars to hire some security guards and to make sure they weren't thugs. She didn't want careless people blundering their way through the delicate parts of the city.

  If she had been able to afford it, she would have hired them herself. But she'd had her hands full with hiring the cave divers. She didn't want the Scholars to know she had even found caves, until she knew exactly what those caves were and what treasures they contained.

  She sighed. She didn't want to deal with the guards, but she was clearly going to have to.

  “Where are they?” she asked.

  “He,” said a voice behind her. “And he's right here.”

  She turned. The man who stood behind her wasn't as large as she'd expected a guard to be. He was not much taller than she was, and his muscles looked real, not the enhanced kind that made a man seem like he had inserted cotton under his skin. The guard's hair was a little too long, and his dark eyes were wary.

  “I'm Meklos Verr,” he said. “I'm in charge of the security team.”

  She didn't have to ask where the rest of the team was. That was obvious. She had seen the automated tents blossom on the inside of the crater. They weren't too far from her initial base camp.

  “Gabrielle Reese,” she said. “I'm in charge of this mess.”

  He glanced at the entrance behind him. “It's much less of a mess than I expected.”

  “We've had years on the upper layer of the city, but there's so much more work to be done.”

  He nodded, then looked at Yusef. The look held dismissal, and just a little contempt. She put her hand on Yusef's arm. If she hadn't, he would have left without Meklos saying a word. That was power. Amazing that such a slight man in such an unimportant position had it.

  “I need to talk with you about the security arrangements,” Meklos said.

  She nodded, but didn't let go of Yusef's arm.

  “I think the fewer who are privy to them the better.” Meklos's tone made it sound like what he had just said was the opening salvo in a conversation, not a cue to dismiss Yusef.

  She had to give it a second of consideration. Normally, she would include Yusef in any conversation. But Yusef seemed to make the guard uncomfortable. It was just easier to do what the guard wanted. Then they could be done with this conversation.

  She let go of Yusef's arm. “It's all right. I'll join everyone for lunch in about an hour.”

  Yusef flushed. He gave Meklos a furtive glance, frowned, then scurried off.

  Gabrielle had never seen Yusef move like that.

  “You scared him,” she said in wonder.

  Meklos's eyes moved slightly. She had a feeling she had surprised him.

  “Very good,” he said. “Most people wouldn't have noticed.”

  “It was pretty obvious,” she said. “I've never seen him react like that.”

  “Hm,” Meklos said. It wasn't an answer. It wasn't even really a word. It was, however, a dismissal, as if her opinion didn't count for much.

  “Are you going to do that all the time?” she asked.

  “Scare your people?” he asked.

  She nodded.

  He shrugged. “Depends on if it's part of my job.”

  “Your job is to guard the dig,” she said.

  “That's what it said on the hire.” He shifted his weight slightly, without moving his feet. “But I'm not sure what that means. Or who I'm guarding it from.”

  She frowned. She hadn't expected to have to talk to him. She had expected him and his team to get to work the moment they arrived. Clearly the Scholars hadn't explained this job to them. Of course, how hard could a guard job be?

  She mentally shrugged. People in Meklos's line of work were, by definition, not that bright. She's have to tell him what to do.

  “All right,” she said. “You need to protect us from anyone who wants to see the city. At the moment, anyone can view the Spires—from a safe distance. We—”

  “Which is?” he asked.

  He had derailed her train of thought. “Excuse me?”

  “What's the safe distance?”

  She frowned at him. “You were told the distances when you arrived. The protected area begins at the base of the mountain. No one can climb it and no one can come near the Spires. They're fragile.”

  “They don't look fragile,” he said. “Up close they look amazingly sturdy.”

  “They're fragile,” she repeated. He was irritating her. She didn't like her statements questioned.

  He opened his hands in a conciliatory gesture. “All right,” he said. “They're fragile.”

  She crossed her arms.

  “Go on,” he said.

  She had lost her place. He had asked what the rules for protection were. She sighed deeply, then nodded once.

  “No one comes up the mountainside without our permission. No one gets into the city without our permission.”

  “Okay,” he said. “Got that. What else?”

  “Soon we'll be taking some items from the city to another site for cleaning, grading, and inspection. We're going to need protection for those operations.”

  “Another site,” he said. “On Amnthra?”

  Her cheeks had grown warm. “Where that site is doesn't matter right now.”

  “Oh, but it does,” he said. “Because if we're making a land trip, we'll need the right equipment. It'll probably take longer. If we're using some kind of jumper to get across the planet, then we'll need to know weight limits. We may need an extra jumper or two so that we have the correct amount of personnel and equipment going with the items. Honestly, the more I know, the better job I'll do.”

  She didn't want him to know. She didn't want him in the middle of her work.

  She would tell him details like that when the time came. Maybe by then, she would know how to control him. “We'll make the plans for item removal later,” she said. “It's not something we need to think about now.”

  “Well,” he said. “We might want to, because if we require help or additional equipment—”

  “I said, we don't need to think about it now.”

  He stared at her for a moment. His entire expression had gone flat. “All right.”

  “We're done now,” she snapped.

  He shook his head just once. “I'm sorry, Ms. Reese—Dr. Reese? Gabrielle?”

  “Dr. Reese,” she said, even though everyone on her team called her Gabrielle.

  “Dr. Reese,” he said. “I still have a lot of questions.”

  “I don't have time for them,” she said.

  “Then who do I talk to? Because we're not starting work until these questions are answered.”

  She bit her lower lip so hard she could taste blood, something she hadn't done in a long time. “I think you've forgotten, Meklos, that you work for me.”

  “Actually, no, I don't, Dr. Reese.” His voice was calm. That galled her. While she was furious at him, he didn't seem to have any emotions concerning her at all. “If you check the agreement—”

  “I didn't see the agreement. That's between you and Scholars.”

  “It's about you and how our operations run,” he said. “Once security understands its job, we take precedence. If we tell you the area needs to be evacuated immediately, you evacuate immediately. If we tell you that we have proof someone is a threat, that someone—no matter how valuable they ap
pear—will leave the premises. If you would like a copy of the agreement, I can have it sent directly to you. I'm not sure exactly where you'd like it—”

  “I'll get a copy from the Scholars.” Her cheeks were hot now, and had to be bright red. There was no way to hide how angry he had made her.

  “Good,” he said. “You'll see that I'm right. So, in the spirit of cooperation, let me ask a few more questions.”

  She sighed heavily so that he understood what an inconvenience this all was.

  “I need to know how much access we get to the site.” He waited as if he expected an answer to that immediately.

  “What do you mean, access?”

  “Are we allowed in the dig sites? Can we get off the paths near the Spires without damaging something important?”

  She waved a hand. She had no idea, and she wasn't about to tell him that. So she said, “Just list your questions. I'll answer the ones I can right now, and I'll send you to the right people for the others.”

  “All right.” His back straightened, as if she had finally upset him. “I need to know whether we protect from the air as well as the ground. I need to know if we pay attention to ships in orbit. I need to know if we monitor communications—”

  “My god,” she said. “It'll take half my life to direct you people. I just wanted some guards.”

  He ignored that and continued as if she hadn't spoken. “I need to know who you think wants to get onto this site, and if those people have theft or sabotage in mind. I need to know if anyone's life has been threatened.”

  “Sabotage?” she asked, feeling cold. “You think someone might come in here and ruin this?”

  “I don't think anything, Dr. Reese. I need to know what your concerns are. Most importantly, I need to know which members of your staff and crew we can trust, which ones we need to monitor, and which ones we need to watch zealously.”

  She felt a little woozy. She must have been holding her breath.

  “This is not what I expected when I told Scholars to hire you,” she said.

  “What did you expect?” he asked.