The Credulity Nexus

by Graham Storrs

  Burleigh looked at the woman sadly and shook his head. “Another day in the wild, wild West,” he said cryptically.

  Chapter 30

  Peth kicked furiously at the wreckage that had once been her living room. “That was a stupid, dangerous risk!” she shouted.

  Newton Cordell looked at the damage around him, and then at his wife. “It was worth it. You saw how far they were prepared to go?”

  “I saw, all right! They're maniacs. Insane!”

  “The stakes are very high.” He held out a hand for his wife to steady herself, but she refused it. He smiled and walked across the room, showing no sign of infirmity or weakness. He shook his head in amazement. “I have to say, I didn't expect them to attack with missiles. This is an excellent sign.”

  Peth clearly did not believe there was anything excellent about the situation. “We only just made it to the panic room. Thirty seconds more and we'd have been in here.” She waved an arm at the rubble all around.

  “But we weren't!” Cordell snapped. “We're safe. And now the ghosts have got Drew back, and the plan is unfolding exactly as it should. Come on, there's a helicopter waiting to take us to New York. I want to be on hand to make statements to the media when the big news breaks.”

  Peth glared at him. “This damned stupid scheme of yours has put my life in danger twice now.”

  “It was a miscalculation. They're even more paranoid than I thought. Don't worry. It's all over now, bar the victory celebrations.”

  “It better be worth it,” she said. Her teeth were clenched and hands were trembling.

  Cordell looked at her with compassion at last. “I'm sorry, Peth. I really am. Come on, we'll do something nice in New York, just for you. A trip to Cartier, perhaps? A little party? We'll invite that actor you like so much, and she can fawn over you all evening again.”

  Peth pouted. “I'm going to sleep with her this time,” she said. Her tone had a hint of challenge in it.

  “Of course, my darling. After what you've been through, you deserve it.”

  “And a trip to Cartier.”

  “Anything.”

  She joined him, and together they picked their way through the wreckage towards the helipads.

  Much later, as they flew over the desert, heading north, she said, “They're all going to die, aren't they? You'll make sure of it?” Her face was set and hard.

  Cordell reached across and patted his wife's hand. “Don't worry. It won't be long now.”

  -oOo-

  The scramjet had been waiting for them on the runway at Guadalajara spaceport, fuelled and ready. Customs and air traffic control had been no problem at all. Rik assumed a great deal of money had changed hands.

  “Holy crap!” Freymann complained through gritted teeth, as the jet pushed them at high-G towards Mach fifteen.

  Rik turned his head slowly and carefully, to look at her in the padded seat next to him. Through the cabin windows beyond, he could see the slope of the horizon. His stomach tensed at the sight. His body was telling him they were blasting straight up into the sky, yet his eyes insisted they were on a shallow ascent.

  “Just wait 'till the rocket engine kicks in,” he said. “Then we really start accelerating.”

  “You're just trying to make me feel better.”

  “How's the head?” Freymann had a large bruise forming on her temple where the Barbie had struck her. Ever since the chopper picked them up, she had been quiet and a little dazed, her light olive skin pale and moist.

  “Not as bad as my stomach.”

  “It won't be long.”

  She closed her eyes and nodded, looking as though she might be sick.

  “You ever been in space before?” he asked, using his cogplus to call for the robot steward.

  With her eyes still closed, she nodded.

  The little machine rolled down the aisle on its rail, and Rik took a packet of Spacer's Friend lozenges from it. “You'd better suck one of these,” he told her. “It'll settle your stomach and you won't get space-sick.”

  “I think I was better off in Cordell's little prison.”

  “I think you've got a mild concussion.” At least, he hoped it was mild. “There's a medic on the ship. She'll fix you up.” He took her hand in his and she squeezed it.

  “Thank you,” she said. She kept her eyes closed but a small smile touched her lips.

  A surge of affection filled him. He felt the smile draw him towards her. “When this is over, I'm taking you somewhere nice. There's a Cajun place in Heinlein, on Level Three. I owe you at least a decent meal for all this.”

  “Do you always ask girls out when they're concussed?”

  “It's the only way I can get a date.”

  “Ask me again when I don't look so crap.”

  “You look beautiful,” he said. Partly it was a lie, but it was also the truth.

  She opened her eyes at last and looked straight at him. Her smile was gone. “No, I look crap. I look like I just fought a killer robot and lost. I look like a poor, sad, wounded animal that needs looking after. And it's making you feel all protective and manly again. Well, that's fine, and – Christ knows – I could do with some pampering. But I'm not playing that game with you, Rik.

  “I like you. I mean, what's not to like? Apart from the killer robots and everything. But if you think I'm going to be your little girl while you play Daddy, you couldn't be more wrong, Mister.”

  She took her hand away, not roughly, and closed her eyes again. Rik was open-mouthed with astonishment, then full of indignation. “I was just trying to be nice,” he said. “I don't see what's so bad about wanting to show my gratitude.”

  “Yeah, yeah.”

  Rik's indignation boiled into anger, but he kept his mouth shut, turned away and glowered at the seat in front of him. The trouble was, she was right. He had been hitting on her, and when he thought about it, it really did seem like an odd time to pick. But it was a crazy situation. They'd been thrown together in the middle of all this madness. They'd fought together. They'd formed a connection. Sure, his timing was a bit off, and it looked like exactly what she'd accused him of back at Cordell's place, but what other chance did he have? When else was he supposed to ask her out?

  He sat there feeling sorry for himself, feeling misunderstood and hurt. His thoughts prowled like caged animals inside his skull, pausing here and there to sniff the bones of his life with Maria, or to stare at the empty places his mother and sister once inhabited. By the time the rocket engine cut in, his mood had grown dark and brooding. He was glad of the increased acceleration that pressed him deeper into his seat. It gave him something to push back against.

  -oOo-

  “Is he dead?” Maria asked, goggling at the lieutenant. Burleigh was lying on his living room floor, no longer moving.

  The woman she had known as Kirsty Winters snorted. “I wish!”

  Kirsty pushed Maria towards the door. “Come on – we have to get clear of this place. If I'd known there might be wet work, I'd have brought something bigger than this damned pea-shooter.” She waved the little dart gun, then slipped it into her jacket pocket. “He'll only be out for a couple of hours. Like these guys.”

  They passed a man and a woman in the entrance hall. Maria recognised them as the police officers who had accompanied Burleigh back to his home. Both were unconscious.

  Kirsty stopped in the doorway and snapped, “Bring your luggage.” Maria clicked the remote and her bag followed her out.

  “This is crazy,” Maria said, stumbling from the house in the treacherous low gravity.

  “Tell me about it,” Kirsty agreed.

  She led Maria into the street. They were in what looked liked a big trailer park inside a high-roofed cave; Heinlein's idea of a respectable suburb. The roof of the cave was almost too dark to make out. The space between the trailers was lit by painfully bright lights on metal poles. At various points in the distant cave walls, illuminated tunnel mouths opened onto ramps and bridges. Maria reme
mbered documentaries about how Heinlein was built inside a labyrinth of lava tubes and magma chambers. She had always imagined it would feel like being buried alive on an alien world, and that's exactly how it did feel.

  A few trailers down from Burleigh's was one of the ubiquitous robot taxi pods, waiting for them.

  “Get in.”

  Maria looked around for help, but there was no-one in sight. If she ran now, would she make it to safety before the woman drew her gun? But the idea of running was ridiculous. She could barely walk without falling over.

  The pod carried them beyond the rows of prefabricated dwellings, across the broad floor of the cave and up a ramp into one of the tunnels. Soon this opened into a much broader tunnel with huts and ramshackle buildings on either side. These gave way to smarter buildings, yet even the best were flimsy things that seemed to be made of dark grey plasterboard sheets. There were people in the streets now, and shop-fronts and signage. They took another ramp, down this time, and then another, deeper into the lunar city.

  “Where are you taking me?”

  “Shut the fuck up.”

  Maria studied her captor. Kirsty seemed to be seething with anger about something. She had the dart gun in her lap, and Maria was sure the woman would have shot her by now, if it wasn't for the fact she would have to carry her to wherever they were going. It was comforting to know that Kirsty wanted to keep her alive, but not very much.

  They stopped at a cheap hotel, and Kirsty led them through cramped corridors to a tiny room with one narrow bed and no chair. It occurred to Maria that she could switch her cogplus back on and call for help. After all, it was presumably the people she was running from who had her now. But the cogplus gave her a ‘no signal’ message when she tried it.

  “I'm jamming it,” Kirsty said, somehow aware of the failed attempt. “How stupid do you think I am?”

  “Oh, I don't know,” Maria snapped back. “Stupid enough to drug three cops and kidnap someone who's wanted by every law enforcement agency in the Solar System.”

  Kirsty looked for a moment as if she might hit her. “Empty your pockets, smartass. Put it all on the bed.”

  Maria did as she was told, but didn't surrender the package. Kirsty looked at the collection of coins, tissues and breath mints, and shook her head.

  “Turn around.”

  Maria turned and felt the muzzle of the dart gun pressing into her back. Kirsty patted her down the right side, then changed hands and patted her down the left. Her hand stopped at the package.

  “OK, whatever that is, I want it on the bed too.”

  Maria took out the metal box and placed it carefully on the bed.

  “What is it?” Kirsty asked.

  “I don't know,” Maria told her honestly. “It's dangerous. A lot of people have died for it.”

  “Get over there.”

  Kirsty made Maria lie face down beside the bed. The room was so small Maria could still have touched Kirsty with her foot, but that's about all she could have done before being shot. She strained to watch her captor, as the older woman gingerly lifted the box and slid back the catches.

  “It's all right,” Maria said. “It's not booby-trapped or anything.”

  Kirsty ignored her and lifted the lid millimetre by millimetre, peering intently into the widening crack before lifting it all the way. She stared at the contents for a long time and then closed the lid and fastened it again.

  “What the hell is this?” she demanded, brandishing the box. “Little bottles with biohazard signs on them? This is why I've been watching you?”

  “I suppose.”

  “You suppose, do you? Well what do you suppose this bloody stuff is, then?”

  Maria shook her head. “I don't know, I told you. I don't know. It came in the mail. I didn't know what to do with it. Then they killed David...” She trailed off, thinking. “Was it you? Did you kill my boyfriend?”

  Kirsty shook her head in irritation. “My employers had it done, maybe. How the hell would I know? I got paid to stick close to you. Now I've got this.” She waved the box again. “And you.”

  Maria started to get up, thinking it would be all right now, but Kirsty told her to stay where she was.

  “I need to think this through,” the older woman said. “Like, this could be poison or germ warfare or something.” She sounded accusing, as if Maria had set her up.

  Maria wished with all her heart that Rik was there to sort this out. And why not? she thought. If she could get to Rik, he'd have no problem handling some crazy old woman with a little gun. “Rik would know,” she said.

  “What? Who?”

  “Rik, my ex-husband. It's something to do with him. He started all this.”

  “Did he steal it, or what?”

  “I don't know. You'd have to ask him.”

  “Ask him?”

  “He lives here in Heinlein. I was on my way to see him. That's why I came here.” Of course, the big policeman had said Rik wasn't there, but Rik might have slipped past him. “He was working for someone. It was something to do with that stuff. He'd probably know someone who'd pay you a lot to get that back.”

  “I'm already being paid a lot.” Kirsty's tone was gruff, but Maria thought she heard some uncertainty in it.

  “No, I mean a lot,” Maria said. Rik would probably be furious about all this, but that was his problem. It was his fault she was in this mess, and it was his responsibility to get her out of it.

  Kirsty looked hard at the box again. She seemed to be considering her options.

  Chapter 31

  “Oh man, I want one of these.”

  The Phenomenon of Man glided out of the coal-black sky, balancing on its retros like a giant Frisbee. The trip from Guadalajara Spaceport to Heinlein had taken less than a day, and Rik was feeling impressed as he watched the city slide over the horizon and grow beneath him.

  “Yeah? Dream on, partner.”

  He glanced at the upload beside him. As usual, he hadn't heard her approach, although this time he'd seen her dark outline reflected in the viewscreen.

  “Shouldn't you be strapped in?” he asked, but he knew she didn't need to be. The stresses of manoeuvring into a lunar landing were the kind Rivers could shrug off. Rik himself was in an acceleration couch, the protective webbing securely holding him in place.

  “Is your girlfriend still in the med ward?”

  Rivers had a knack if finding the right buttons to press. She'd taken to calling Fariba Freymann Rik's girlfriend, and every time she said it, Rik felt the urge to hit her in her plastic teeth. The fact was, he had begun to realise he liked Freymann a lot. And the more he acknowledged his feelings, the less he liked the way Freymann kept pointing out his alleged emotional problems every time he tried to get close. Somehow, he supposed, Rivers had picked up on this and was now taunting him with it.

  “She's fine,” he said, keeping his tone light. “The medic just wanted her to rest because of the concussion.”

  “So fragile.” Rivers smiled her black smile.

  They watched the landing manoeuvres in silence for a while.

  “This is your last chance, you know.”

  Rik did not reply. He knew immediately what she meant. He was surprised he'd got this far.

  “If we don't turn up the package soon, I have instructions to...” She sighed.

  “And you think that threatening me will make me try harder?”

  She shook her head. “I'm just letting you know. I'm not...”

  He turned to look at her, frowning.

  She looked back, suddenly earnest. “I'm not this person. The one you think I am. You know? I'm a thief. I sneak into places and steal stuff, but I do it clinically, scientifically. No-one gets hurt except the insurance companies. I take a pride in it. I'm good. Do you see what I'm saying?”

  Rik didn't answer.

  “I need this deal with Celestina to work out. I need this body. I'll do anything to keep it, so I can get back to my old life. I want to be out of that
woman's clutches.”

  “I don't think it works like that, kid.” He felt sorry for her, but not much. She'd made her choices, and they'd all been wrong ones.

  A flicker of irritation crossed her features. “I just wanted to say that, well, you're OK. All right? I haven't got anything against you. If I ever have to – you know – it won't be personal.”

  “That's such a comfort. It makes me feel all warm inside.”

  “Well, fuck you. I was just trying to tell you something.”

  “Yeah? Well, stuff it. If you ever get the word from that psycho bitch to come after me, you'd better tell her to stuff it too. 'Cause, if you tried it, it'd be the last thing you ever did.”

  For a moment, she stood and snarled at him. For a moment, he thought he could see hurt in her onyx eyes. Then she turned on her heel and walked away.

  He watched her go without regret. There wasn't a cold-hearted killer in the whole system who didn't labour under the delusion that they were good, decent people inside. He'd put enough of them away in his time not to let their maudlin self-justifications confuse him any more. What people did, he had learned, was all that mattered in the end. What they said was just so much froth on the surface.

  Through the viewscreen he could see low concrete buildings rising around the ship as it dropped onto its landing pad. On the surface, Heinlein wasn't much to look at: mostly unpressurised storage bunkers and equipment sheds. A forest of antennae grew in the regolith all around – radio masts and dishes, lasers and microwave horns. It all looked scruffy and ramshackle. Away to the south, the tethers for Alltheway Station erupted from the ground like spears, aimed at the distant stars. Nothing moved nearby except a couple of big-wheeled trucks.

  The Moon was hard and rough. Most of the people who lived there huddled underground, away from the searing heat and the bitter cold, away from the radiation that blasted the surface and the merciless vacuum that reached all the way down from space itself. Rik saw the cruel, inhuman face of the world he'd arrived at, and it still felt like he was coming home.