‘So you agree with our DNA scan identification of this body? Arno Jons y Perres?’
‘Yeah.’ Hi was surprised to find that he still had a voice. ‘Yeah, I’m afraid I do. How soon can I - well - can I take him away?’
‘That’s for the investigating officer to decide, I’m afraid. Not long, though, a day or two.’
‘Okay. My factor will be in touch.’
Nodding, the coroner slid the drawer shut. Nju threw his head back and howled, one long high note that echoed down the enormous room.
* * *
In the small grey room where he met with Riva, Vi-Kata sat cross-legged on the floor and waited as Riva always made him wait. Kata focused his concentration on the
li-iyi
in his lap - a braided silver rope, coiled in a complex pattern so that all of the hundreds of knots were visible. With one claw he touched each knot and murmured the Moment that it represented. That he did this and not a grandmother of his line meant sacrilege, but who else survived to perform the prayer? No-one but his coward of a brother and him.
‘Vi-Kata.’
He opened his eyes to see Riva, or rather her revenant, sitting on a little stool in the corner of the room.
‘Forgive my intrusion into your meditation.’
‘I’m the one who should beg forgiveness.’ He rested his hands on the coil to let his ancestors hear his shame. ‘The girl’s still alive.’
‘I do not want the girl to trouble your soul. Let us concern ourselves with your victory. I’ve heard that the meddling cyber-master is dead.’
‘He is.’ Kata’s crest lifted and rustled. ‘I caught him on the streets at fifteen of the ones and took him to a place I’d prepared nearby. He didn’t die till just past the fours. At the end he screamed, begging for death to set him free of his long dying.’
‘You what?’ For a moment the revenant froze and seemed to thin. ‘Could anyone hear him?’
‘Of course not. I’d chosen this place because it was soundproof. Let me tell you how I made the first cut. He could still see, then, though in a while I blinded him, so he’d have to face death in the utter dark of his own blood. I-’
‘Enough!’ The revenant flickered back to full life. ‘Let me make sure I understand you. There were three hours when someone might have found you, three hours when he was still alive.’
‘Well, yes, but we were well-hidden. I -’
‘I don’t want to hear excuses. This must never happen again. Do you understand me? It’s too dangerous.’
Kata got up and stood, wrapping the
li-iyi
around his waist.
‘Do you understand me, Kata?’ Riva looked up at him with narrow eyes.
‘I understand, and I obey, as I’ve always obeyed you.’
‘Good. There’s too much at risk for you to amuse yourself by playing with your kills.’
Kata’s head snapped up. Riva sat on her stool and stroked her coils of knotted silk as calmly as a grandmother sitting in the hot sun of the home planet. Didn’t she realize what she’d just said to him? Obviously not, and what an interesting thing that was! From far away, through the floor, he felt as much as heard the low throbbing sound change, as if a massive gear had ground.
‘Have you been receiving your payments?’ Riva said.
‘I have, and thank you for your generosity. The Protectors have been looking for me, by the by, but they’re clumsy fools. I’ll stay hidden, safe enough. I’m ready for whatever job you have next.’
‘Good, good. You know, of course, about this UJU movement among the humans.’
Vi-Kata pantomimed spitting on the floor.
‘Just so,’ Riva said, nodding. ‘Most Leps here on Palace refuse to take it seriously. The Protectors will keep those bigots in line, they say. This is a civilized world, we’ll be safe - I hear that constantly, and it sickens me. We must defend ourselves against this growing threat. What if UJU sends armed gangs into our sects and our streets? Will we be safe then?’
‘Not in the least, no. Do you think that could happen?’
‘I have very good information that UJU is considering just such a move, very good indeed. We must organize against them. We must convince our people that we need to organize against them and now, before it becomes too late.’
‘Very true, but I’m not much of a public speaker.’
The revenant laughed, a low rumble of Lep laughter.
‘I didn’t bring you here for talk, no. I have other agents for that. Tell me something, Kata. Does rain ever fall from a clear sky?’
‘No.’
‘Do people hate without a cause?’
‘No.’
‘And have you ever drunk the pale yellow wine of Ri?’
‘I have, many times.’
‘Can you make this wine without crushing the ma’ill-ik fruit?’
‘Of course not. What-’
The grandmother revenant held up one clawed hand for silence.
‘If our people refuse to arm themselves,’ she said, ‘until after the human UJU scum have armed themselves, the streets will run with Lep blood. We must give the Lep cause to hate those who hate them.’
‘Huh! The Peronida’s laws should have done that already.’
‘Yes, indeed, and I don’t understand why they haven’t. I think it’s because the laws have only affected the few, not the many. Yes, there are no more Leps in the Cyberguild. There were five hundred and six to begin with. No Lep may receive a security clearance above a certain level, and so nine Leps lost their high-level passes. There are twenty other laws, but they all share one thing. With one exception they only affect the few, not the many.’
‘The exception is the Tech Sect regulations, then?’
‘Exactly. No Lep may own property in Tech Sect nor live there without a special clearance. Thousands upon thousands of Leps were forced to sell their homes at below value and move elsewhere. There isn’t a Lep on planet who hasn’t been affected or had a friend affected. And of all the regulations that’s the one that still makes our people mutter and curse. We need other regulations to fire their blood, other chains so they may feel their weight.’
‘But there’s not going to be any. The war’s been over for a long time. There are a few humans who have a sense of decency. They’ve put Peronida on a leash.’
‘Then we need to let him off again. What if something stirred up the old hatreds? What if the human citizens of Palace began clamouring for Lep blood?’
Kata raised his crest and shook it.
‘Riva! You’re saying we need an outrage done.’
‘Yes. Peronida’s iron fist will slap us all down then. Once our people are furious, once they are frightened, then those of my grandsons who have tongues of gold will be listened to at last.’
There it was again. Where
had
she learned Gen, anyway? Aloud, Kata said, ‘I understand, yes. I’ve met good men, here and there, while I’ve been living in the dark places of Palace, but except for young Sar Elen they lack passion. They lack hate.’
‘Just so. Can you give them hate?’
‘Oh yes.’ Kata’s crest rose. ‘I can do it. But it’s going to need a lot of thought.’
‘Return to me tomorrow, at the twenty-twos, say, with ideas.’
‘All right. I’m going to need help to carry out our plans. I suggest Sar Elen.’
‘I agree.’ She reached out one long hand and pointed. ‘Your door is open.’
Sure enough, a black portal had appeared on the far wall. When Kata turned back to her, the revenant had disappeared. That morning Kata walked the foggy streets for hours. Since the
Protectors were sweeping through Pleasure Sect, he risked taking a wiretrain to Service, where a good many of the displaced Leps lived. Although he saw plenty of Protectors there as well, he could keep moving and keep ahead of them; in walled Pleasure it was too easy to run a fugitive into a dead-end. Only once did he have to show his false papers, and they passed the quick archive check, all that this particular pair could muster with their portable unit. As he walked, Kata thought of Riva and her flare of anger. Amuse yourself by playing with your kills! Why didn’t she recognize the ritual, the death of the slow cuts that custom assigned to any enemy of long-standing? Why had she refused to listen to the proper recounting of the ritual? He was beginning to suspect that Riva had been born and raised on Palace in one of the decadent enclaves that aped human ways. Perhaps she wasn’t even female, but had chosen that persona as a further disguise. Surely a real grandmother would know about the slow cuts.
But why, if she’d been raised on Palace, was her Gen so stilted? Whoever Riva really was, she’d never been properly educated in true Lep ways. That much was clear. Kata realized that he’d have to keep his plans for the L’Var girl strictly secret. He’d been hoping that Riva would eventually relent, knowing how much Vida’s death would mean to him, how shaming it would be for him to leave her alive. But a person who could dismiss the death of the slow cuts? No. Every now and then as he walked he passed vidscreens, flickering silver widi news, or public posting screens, where cheap adverts scrolled by announcing used goods for sale, the grand openings of shops, public health warnings, that sort of thing. Finally, as he turned down an alleyway, one poster caught his eye. On Eighteen Gust, just eight days away, UJU was going to hold a public rally with speakers, musical entertainment, and free literature. How many humans would they draw? Thousands, probably, all packed together in an open-air amphitheatre. Kata stood in front of the poster for a long time, his crest waving in delight.
* * *
Breakfast in a guest suite at Government House meant a parade of saccule waiters, bearing white linen and porcelain dishes, fruit juices and herbed drinks, protein blocks sliced and textured under rich green sauces, breads plain or stuffed with soy cheese, seed cakes and little pastries, twisted into knots and glazed to a high sheen. Vida and Samante sat opposite each other at the table by the window and looked out on the garden, green and rustling in the rising morning breeze. In the cold light Samante’s black hair, back in its business-like braids, shone with bluish highlights. ‘So you’ve been busy?’ Samante said.
‘You bet. When I got up this morning, I accessed the public databanks. You know what?
You can reach a lot more of them here than you could in Pleasure, an awful lot more.’
‘Well, yes, I should think so. You found the search utilities, then.’
‘Yeah.’ Vida smiled, thinking of Calios, who had discovered a good many interesting things.
‘I hadn’t realized how big the L’Var holdings were - are, really. It’s strange, but it’s the lawsuits that have kept them safe. They’d have been broken up a long time ago if it weren’t for all those suits against Vanna.’
‘I gather there are a lot of L’Var cousins. The ones who weren’t culpable or genotype matches, I mean.’
‘Oh yeah. I imagine they’re all going to hate me, because of the money. If Vanna’s forced to turn it over to anyone, it’s going to be me, now. But at least she’ll have to pay their legal fees. And it’s not like I’ll actually have it, not to spend it or something. It’ll end up tied up in trusts, and I’ll only get the interest in some kind of allowance. It should be plenty to let me have a proper suite and stuff like that, though. I figure that I’m supposed to put on a kind of a show with the way I live, like aristocrats do.’
Samante was listening with an odd expression on her face, a small pleasant smile undermined by a certain bewilderment in her eyes.
‘What’s wrong?’ Vida said. ‘Have I got it all backwards?’
‘Not at all. This is exactly what the cardinal told me yesterday, when he asked me to help you get settled. I’m just surprised that you’ve worked it out like this. Because you’re so young, I mean.’
‘Oh huh. Because I’m just a cheap cull from Pleasure, you mean.’
Samante winced and laid a half-eaten pastry down on her plate.
‘Se Vida, please. I do not think of you that way, not in the least.’
‘Well, okay, I’m sorry. But that’s what most people think, isn’t it? You saw the way they looked at me last night.’
‘Thanks to that little beast Anja.’
‘I’ll bet Vanna’s gloating, too.’
Samante glanced round and laid a finger over her lips.
‘Oh, right,’ Vida said. ‘I’m sorry. But I can’t see how she’d have any illusions about me. About the way I feel about her, I mean.’
‘She may think you’re stupid. If so, good. Let her underestimate you.’ Samante twisted in her chair and looked at the vidscreens, where a flowery landscape from some unnamed planet bloomed next to the inevitable tower graphs. ‘You don’t have the news on. We should be checking for your ratings.’
‘My ratings?’
‘Of course.’ Samante got up and pitched her voice to reach the screen’s sensors. ‘Search on terms: Vida and L’Var, Wan and Peronida.’
The screen dimmed, but only briefly. A new graph began building: a small tower of yellow completely overshadowed by a rise of blue. Samante laughed as she sat down.
‘Look at those!’ she crowed. ‘Vida, the public loved you last night! These are from your entrance into the reception hall. Look - now they’re tipping in the interview ratings, too. The big green stack favours you, and that small orange slice doesn’t.’
Vida stared, open-mouthed, as those towers faded and a new set appeared: Wan’s unimpressive ratings of the morning before compared to the much higher blue stack of this day’s.
‘That’s really something,’ Vida said. ‘Maybe it’ll make him like me better. I mean, if he can see how useful this is.’
‘Oh, that’s so sad! You thinking of your first marriage contract as, well, only useful.’
‘Samante!’ Vida turned back and grinned at her. ‘You’re a romantic at heart.’
‘Well, maybe so. But-’
‘But what? What else would I have had? You know what I was going to do for my living. At least there’s only one of him.’ Samante blushed scarlet.
‘I’m sorry,’ Vida said. ‘Maybe I am just a cheap whore from Pleasure.’
‘No, you’re not. Never think of yourself that way, please. After all, there are plenty of people who are going to do it for you.’ Samante paused for a sip of pale blue juice. ‘I don’t suppose you’ve had a chance to talk with Wan yet?’
‘No. I’ve got a commcall in to his factor. I found the comm codes when I was looking around. So I put a call in to Leni, but I haven’t heard back yet. From what Dukayn said last night, I probably won’t till later and he sobers up.’,