He looked away, staring at nothing, remembering the faces on the vidscreens of his ship, when the Fleet had made contact with Kephalon at last. Horrible, horrible faces, swollen and bloated, softening, bleeding, rotting off the skulls of living human beings who felt the agony of flesh that pulped like rotten fruit, who could smell the stench of their own death creeping up on them an inch at a time. They’d lifted rotting hands, too, into sensor range to show him. He could still hear their voices, screams from dying throats, rasped whispers and sobs.
‘Karlo!’ Vanna’s voice cut through memory. Her hands clutched his arm. ‘Karlo. Please. Don’t get lost in it. It’s over.’
He shook his head again and wished that he could weep, just once. He never had, not in the fourteen years since he’d blasted the Lep fleet into oblivion just beyond Palace’s orbit. He’d laughed, then, when he and his ships had chased the surviving vessels down and blown them to bits, laughed and laughed every time they found an escape pod or lifeboat and killed again, no matter who screamed for mercy. He’d saved Palace, but he’d done the killing for Kephalon’s sake.
‘Karlo!’
‘Yes, right. Sorry.’ He sighed, once and sharply. ‘About Tura’s datablocks. I know Interstellar wants them. Why?’
‘Not for the plague.’
‘I know that. I’ve never thought you were all fools and murderers. But you must have some reason for wanting them.’
‘You don’t need to know.’
‘The hell I don’t. The data on those blocks killed one whole world. It could kill another. Yeah, I know there’s supposed to be a cure now, and inoculations-’
‘Supposed to be? Of course there is.’
‘But still. It preys on me, Vanna. You weren’t there. You can’t know.’
‘No, that’s true.’ She rubbed his arm with long strokes, like soothing a dog. ‘I told you we’d wipe that off the moment we got them. Have I ever lied to you, Karlo, outright lied, face to face? Have I ever gone back on my sworn word?’
‘No, no, you haven’t. That’s true.’ i
‘Well, then. I give you my sworn word that Interstellar’s researchers will destroy every trace of plague data they can find and make no record of it, either.’ She leaned forward. ‘If you turned them over to Biotech, they wouldn’t do that. They’d want the data kept. Good citizens of the Pinch, just like you said.’
‘You really want these, don’t you?’
‘Damn right. Look, my love. Have you ever considered that there might be something in this for you? What did that plague do? Made its victims die by inches, speeded up necrosis and cellular changes beyond their bodies’ ability to self-repair. What if someone found out how to do the opposite? It might lead to a life-extension virus that you’re not immune to.’
Karlo swung round to look at her.
‘If the Lifegivers get their hands on that data,’ Vanna went on, ‘they’ll wipe the lot. The last thing they want is a life-extension process they don’t control. They must think that some of the data on those blocks could lead to a new process, too. That’s why you’ve got the only copies of those blocks, isn’t it? Why else would they have tried to destroy them? I know they succeeded in getting the Map storage wiped away.’
‘Oh yes. I had a stiff talk with the cardinal about that at the time.’ He paused, considering.
‘But there’s no guarantee that Interstellar has the tech it needs to decipher the research. You people don’t have labs and the right kind of people to run them. Or do you?’
Cradled between her hands her smile flashed, still a lovely smile, he thought.
‘Do you really think I’m going to tell you that?’ she said.
‘No.’ He had to smile in return. ‘Not in a thousand years. But back to our bargain, my love. You want the datablocks. We’ve established that now.’
‘You’re going to make me pay high for them, aren’t you?’
‘As high as I can, yeah. You’d be disappointed in me if I just gave in. Admit it.’
She started to laugh, then twitched with a shudder of her narrow shoulders.
‘I would have brought this up later,’ Karlo said. ‘But it’s something that has to be decided right away.’
‘It’s all right. I’m getting used to this tremor, damn it. There’s nothing they can do, nothing that’ll really cure it, so I’d better, I suppose. So, very well. You’ll give me my datablocks, then, if I do what?’
‘Well, actually, it’s more like if you don’t do something, a nonaction.’
‘Sounds good so far. And what is it I’m not supposed to do?’
‘Kill one of your old enemies or, I should say, just don’t bother to have this sapient removed. A simple act of mercy. You’ve got so many grudges, my love. Surely you can spend one of them to buy Interstellar the blocks.’
Vanna turned sour in an uncontrollable flutter of eyelids.
‘You could get a couple of points of up ratings from it, too,’ Karlo went on. ‘There’s nothing like public compassion to bring up a rating. We can’t risk another vote of confidence before we get the Fleet appropriations pushed through.’
‘Who is it?’
‘I’m not going to tell you yet. I can’t risk your going after this person. Come on - you’ve got to admit that’s fair.’
‘I suppose I do.’ She lowered her hands from her face and considered him so steadily that he knew he’d enraged her.
Adrenaline always helped control the spasming.
‘We can let the matter lie till after your treatment,’ he said.
‘No. If it’s someone I hate that much I want this settled so I can relax.’ She made an attempt to smile, but the tattoos were standing out sharply against pale skin. ‘Damn you anyway.’
‘You’ve never even met this sapient.’
Vanna started to speak, then paused, reaching up a trembling hand to push a red wisp of hair back from one cheek. Her dark blue eyes considered him, probing his face for some clue.
‘Then why,’ she said at last, ‘are you so worried about me killing it? We’ll say "it", all right?
so you don’t give anything away.’
‘All right.’ He smiled and leaned a little closer. ‘Well, you do have an old reason to want it dead, and probably a couple of other sapients along with it, the ones who’ve been hiding it from you.’
Although he thought that he was giving her a clue, she looked so honestly puzzled that he remembered his remark to the cardinal. Perhaps she could no longer keep all her grudges straight, either. And perhaps she was thinking something similar? She looked away, abruptly sad.
‘Well, I wonder if it even matters,’ she said. ‘Tell me something, Karlo. Do I hate it for something that happened a long time ago?’
‘Yeah, I’d say it was.’
‘Damn. I really want that data. I suppose I’m going to be furious with you when I find out the truth.’
‘Not as furious about this as you would be about some other things.’ He decided to keep the matter of the L’Var property to himself, if she didn’t raise it. ‘I’m not talking about Jolo Ernmen, for instance.’
‘Good. You know damn well I’d give up half of everything I own to see that fat bastard dead.’ The rage was back, dancing in her eyes. ‘He’ll pay for that one of these days, making fun of me on the vids, pretending to spasm, mocking my voice, and then claiming he was just a comic. Art, he said. Parody. One of these days! And I’ll get that goddamn judge with him, slapping down my suit.’
‘Hush.’ Karlo grabbed her wrist. ‘Don’t upset yourself.’
‘Oh shut up!’ Vanna pulled her hand free. ‘But you’re right. This person, this it - it can’t be as bad as that. You’ll swear about the datablocks? You’ll give them to me?’
‘I’ll swear it on the Eye of God.’
Vanna considered. Ever since the spasming had started, she’d been growing more concerned with God and his Eye. ‘What about you?’ Karlo said.
‘I’ll swear it on the Holy Eye as well. Your it and its little helpers are safe from me.’ She raised her hands and pressed her thumbs and forefingers together to form the Eye. ‘Its life is in your hands, not mine, and so are theirs.’
‘Very good.’ He made the same gesture. ‘And you’ll have your datablocks today. I’ll fetch them for you after your treatment. Dukayn’s been hiding them.’
‘Of course. I could guess that much.’ She leaned over and kissed him on the mouth.
‘Promises. True promises.’ Smiling a little, she rose. ‘Well, come on, Karlo. Who is this it?’
Karlo got up, using his height and standing over her.
‘A child,’ he said. ‘A girl of about seventeen, still a child. Her name’s Vida.’
‘All right. I’ve never heard that name before, no. Why do you think I’ll hate her?’
Karlo took a deep breath.
‘Because she’s a L’Var. The last of them.’
Vanna went still, dead-still. The tattoos bulged out, royal blue against dead-white skin.
‘You bastard,’ she hissed. ‘You slimy, filthy bastard!’
‘Oh for God’s sake! She was an infant during the war, barely two years old when it ended. What harm could she have done -’
‘That’s not the point.’ Her voice stayed steady. ‘It isn’t her! Yes, of course, she’s just a child. How could I have anything against her? It’s the people who hid her from me. Oh, you’re very smart, Karlo my love, including them in my promise. Very, very smart.’
‘One of them’s Cardinal Roha.’
That brought her round. She tossed her head in a ripple of red and blue.
‘There’s not much I could do about that officious little bigot anyway.’
‘Exactly. And the people who actually hid the girl are nobodies, complete nobodies. They were just doing Roha a favour, or taking his orders is more like it.’
‘Most likely, yeah. Damn you anyway!’
‘Damn me all you want. There’s the little matter of your solemn promise.’
‘Oh I know, I know. But these datablocks had better be worth it, Karlo. And this child had better watch her step around me. What are you doing with her, anyway? Why bring her out of hiding like this?’
‘Because she’s going to marry Wan, and the le-Yonestillas and their precious Anja can swallow their dirt-cheap contract offer, one clause at a time.’
Vanna stared for a long long moment, then began to laugh, a pleasant sort of chuckle.
‘Every now and then I remember why I married you,’ she said at last. ‘I’ve got to get to the clinic. We’ll talk more later.’
She swept out, slamming the door behind her. Karlo smiled and let out a long sigh of relief. Later, of course, she’d remember the confiscated property, but he had a gut feeling that the worst was over.
* * *
A dark and vertical place, Tech Sect - the lowering grey sky of Palace turned it to a kingdom of black giants. Sunrise brought a weak dance of maroon-coloured light to wash the buildings with reflections that seemed to come from the flames of a dying fire. Clustered in little parks, glass towers and plastostone shafts rose from the straggly turquoise-blue boostergrass and unpruned fern trees, dripping long sprays of purple and black flowers. Even the dwells for lower-class techs and their families stood high in long pink blocks, all soot-streaked. The headquarters of the Cyberguild, a huge grey cube of a building topped with a gold dome, occupied one entire side of the sect’s main plaza. Crews of saccules, roped to the pinnacle, worked round the clock to keep that dome shining. Slinging his rucksack over one shoulder, Rico got off the transect wiretrain at the Eldo Canal stop. He could see the dome at some distance, with the saccules little moving dots upon its surface. He felt good, that morning, and in no hurry to get to the guild as he strolled along the southern bank of the Eldo. Autobarges chugged by, laden high with nets full of fruit and produce from South Hort Sect. Saccules swarmed over the mossy decks and worked at some mysterious job as the robotically controlled barges followed their programmed paths up the canal. Rico could hear the saccules singing as they passed, their booms carrying across the water like the beat of giant drums. The plaza already bustled. Pedestrians in the midnight blue of Cyber or the green of Biotech Guild rushed across the grey tiles and dodged the robocabs that kept pulling up to one entrance or another. Hanging from the gold double helix that arched over the headquarters of Biotech, a clock flashed the time and rang six long notes.
Since he could tap his uncle’s credit line with the crypchip embedded in his jack, Rico bought a sweet roll from a vendor out on the Plaza and walked slowly, eating in big bites. His footsteps crunched. Green spores, blown in from the swamps, blanketed the stones and piled up in wind-drifts against every wall and obstruction. The crews from Service Sect would be bringing the clean-up bots in as soon as the wind slacked. On the far side of the plaza, a pair of Protectors had stopped a Lep man for some reason - to ask for papers. They let him go, then stopped another Lep, a woman this time. Apparently they were doing a sweep, looking for someone Lep. Rico shrugged; none of his business.
With a chatter and a chirr of bright green wings, a flock of flying lizards settled round his feet. He tossed them the last crumbs of the roll and watched for a moment as they snapped and fought. He couldn’t help but think of his fellow apprentices. When he laughed out loud, the jadewings flew with a burst of colour like bubbleflares at festival. The Guildhall swarmed with apprentices coming in early, like him no doubt angling for points with their masters or the teaching journeymen. As he walked up the steps, Rico made a point of nodding to or smiling at everyone he recognized; they in turn made a show of smiling at him. The apprentices learned early to save their battles for the Map. In the echoing confusion of the marble foyer, sapients rushed by, some in the midnight blue robes of guild-masters, others in business clothes or coveralls with read-out sleeves - Hirrel as well as human, though the Hirrel wore long skirts of midnight blue that left their torsos and the all-important breathing slits uncovered. He saw not a single Lep. After the war of fourteen years ago, Leps were officially barred from the Cyberguild, even loyal Palace citizens. Every year Hi tried to get the ruling reversed; every year he was defeated.
In front of the lift tubes, Rico saw Pukosu, a gawky young woman with brown eyes that would have been beautiful if they’d ever showed anything but suspicion. The brightest star among the apprentices, now that Arno had gone, she headed the line waiting for promotion to full journeyman. Rumour said she’d get assigned to the Alpha project, too, the century-old effort to write a new AI.