‘Yes, and for the crippling of the Dee AI.’
Rico caught his breath. So that’s what had happened to poor old Caliostro! Hi glanced his way with one eyebrow raised.
‘Why keep it secret?’ Rico asked. ‘What happened to the AIs, I mean.’
‘Because the Lifegiver order holds a lot of power in the Pinch these days. They don’t like being reminded of past sins.’
‘It was the Lifegivers?’ Vida sounded shocked.
‘Yeah, sure was,’ Hi said. ‘Though the order’s certainly changed over the years. They were new at the time - one of the Schisms. Call it a beta version of the order. You can’t call them heretics because they won.’
* * *
To settle the last details for the contract ceremony, on the morrow morning, Wan and Leni came to breakfast in Vida’s suite. While a nervous Greenie laid plates of sliced fruit onto the table in the eatery, Samante read aloud the various lists that she and Leni had compiled earlier. Much to everyone’s surprise, Leni had been sincerely trying to rise to the occasion; he kept it up now, listening carefully, making notes on his tablet or occasionally asking an intelligent question. Wan slouched in his chair and stared out of the window. The cold grey light flooded his beautiful face and revealed the fine red lines of burst capillaries across his cheeks. Vida reached up and adjusted the polarization on the windows to soften the glare.
‘We’ve got a major decision to make today,’ Samante finished up. ‘You need to choose the friends who’ll stand with you as witnesses. They need to be asked right away so they’ll be available for rehearsals.’
‘Rehearsals?’ Wan spoke without looking away from the window. ‘You’re kidding.’
‘Hey, Wanito,’ Leni said. ‘This is going to be a big deal. You want things to go right, don’t you?’
‘I don’t want things to go at all.’
Leni winced with a quick glance Vida’s way. She slammed both hands flat on the table and leaned forward.
‘All right,’ Vida snapped. ‘Let’s call it off. Why don’t you just get Karlo on the comm and tell him right now that there’s not going to be any contract?’
Wan sloughed around in his chair to face her. Neither Leni nor Samante seemed to be breathing.
‘Ah shit,’ Wan said. ‘I forget that you’re not much happier about this than I am.’
‘No, I’m not. But if we both put some energy into it, we can make it work. We don’t even have to be together all that much.’
‘I suppose you’re thinking of me like one of your customers.’
‘Why shouldn’t I? You keep calling me a whore. So okay. You’re the John in this deal.’
Wan opened his mouth, considered, then laughed.
‘You know something, Vida?’ Wan said. ‘I think I’m starting to like you.’
Leni let out his breath in a long sigh. Samante picked up her lists and set them down again with a flurry of papers.
‘I’m starting to see what the old man means,’ Wan went on. ‘Everybody else on this nicking scab of a planet sucks up to us. Hey, Leni. If I call her a whore again, tell me to shut up or something.’
‘I will, yeah. You can count on it.’ Leni took another deep breath. ‘Now what about the witnesses? TeeKay and Motta?’
‘Whatever Vida wants.’ Wan shrugged. ‘Vida - no, my darling Vida - you got anything to drink in this place?’
‘Yeah, I do. I went shopping with TeeKay. There’s a liquor cabinet in the gather now. By the windows.’
Wan got up and slouched out, slamming the eatery door. Leni sloughed around in his chair to stare after him, mouthed a few foul words, then turned back to the table.
‘To hell with him,’ he announced. ‘I hope he drinks himself sick and stays out of the way. We’ve got to throw it into overdrive here. It’s Seventeen Gust today, and we’ve got the Cathedral reserved for Twenty-two.’
Leni had it right: Wan never returned, not for the planning or the breakfast. When the three of them finished, they went into the gather to find Wan sprawled in the middle of the green sofa, a glass in hand, while he stared rather vaguely at boat races on the vidscreen.
‘South Canal team all the way.’ Wan gestured at the screen. ‘Not a real good race.’ He glanced at Leni. ‘You guys done?’
‘Yeah. Can you walk?’
‘Ah shut up.’ Wan set the glass on the floor and hauled himself to his feet. ‘See you later, darling.’
All at once he grinned, walked over, and caught Vida by the shoulders. Before she could move away, he bent his head and kissed her, his mouth sloppy-warm and smelling of alcohol. Although Vida was expecting to feel revulsion, in actuality she felt nothing at all. The kiss was as meaningless as a lick from a dog.
‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘See you later.’
With a wave he followed Leni out, and Samante shut the door hard behind them.
‘Vida, can you really do this? Marry that slime?’
‘Why not? Oh, I know what you’re thinking.’
‘Well, I certainly couldn’t stand to sleep with him, no matter how good-looking he is.’
‘But I’ve been taught how to put your mind somewhere else while they’re doing it.’ Vida picked up the dirty glass and handed it to Greenie. ‘This goes in the washer, please.’
Greenie bustled out, carrying the glass carefully in both hands. Vida sat down on the sofa, and in a moment Samante joined her.
‘I’ve been thinking,’ Vida said. ‘If I’d stayed at The Close, I’d be having my first customer any day now. Do you know what the big deal about your very first customer is?’
‘No.’ Samante sounded oddly wary. ‘Do I want to?’
‘You cost more, a lot more, and you get half of the extra. The madam gets the other half, of course. You can take that money and invest it in something, or spend it, which is what a lot of girls and guys do. I’d already decided I didn’t want to just fritter mine away.’
‘Somehow I’d never thought of anyone in Pleasure investing in anything.’
‘Well, there are a lot of shops, restaurants, and stuff like that. Not every cull gets sent to one of the madams. And when you’re a whore, you dream of being able to buy into a business like that, so you don’t have to work the houses any more.’
Samante sat silently for a long while.
‘I see,’ she said at last. ‘And so that first money’s important.’
‘You bet. And anyway, the only customers who can afford all that extra cash are usually getting old and wrinkly and stuff. They’re not what you’d pick for fun.’
‘And so Wan’s no worse than that?’
‘He might be better, for all I know. Am I embarrassing you, Sammi? You look embarrassed.’
‘Well, a little. You look at these things in a really different way than anything I’m used to.’
‘You’ve got to, if you’re going to survive in Pleasure. I mean, no-one says it’s a wonderful life or anything. Why do you think they stick the culls with it?’
‘Well, that’s true. And it’s awful, actually.’
‘Yeah, it is. But no-one’s ever going to change it, I’ll bet. We’re like the Stinkers - too valuable the way we are.’
Vida found herself thinking of her first investment again that morning and of Aleen. Her virginity was going to buy her many things: political support to regain the L’Var seat on the Council, the return of the L’Var name and the L’Var fortune. Aleen had found her a splendid first customer, all in all. Not that Wan would care if he were the first or not; in fact, he probably wouldn’t even believe that he was. He’d made that clear enough. It seemed a real shame to waste something of such value on him.
‘Vida?’ Samante was standing in the doorway. ‘There’s a commcall from the Cyberguild. The tech said something about repairing your Map terminal?’
‘Oh yeah, that’s right. I’d nearly forgotten. Can you make him an appointment this afternoon?’
‘All right. Leni and I are meeting with the caterer soon, so should I put him on the schedule early or late?’
‘How long will you be gone?’
‘Probably all afternoon. After the caterer, there’s the florist.’
‘Then have him get here early, if he can make it. I’ll need the terminal if you’re going to be out. Are you going to be buying things?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why not take Jak with you to carry them? I’ll be perfectly safe as long as I stay in the tower.’
Samante disappeared back into her office. Vida leaned back on the sofa, tucked her hands behind her head, and considered an important question. What kind of clothes would Rico especially like to see her in, when she first answered the door?
* * *
In a swirl of morning mist Hi and Molos walked among the fern trees. The garden smelled of roses and mutant honeysuckle, espaliered along the garden wall. Even wrapped in several layers of jacket, the Lep shivered.
‘We can go in if you’d like,’ Hi said.
‘In a moment. I really do love this garden. It’s just that I’m feeling the damp these days, especially in my bad leg.’
‘I was surprised when you came back to Palace. On Souk you could have had Map access and better weather both.’
‘I came back to keep an eye on Karlo.’ Molos paused, contemplating a spray of bloodvine.
‘If he were a mindless bigot, he wouldn’t frighten me so much. As it is, he has good reason to hate my people. You can educate someone’s prejudices. You can’t talk the Kephalon plague out of existence.’
‘I’m afraid not, yeah. Can I be honest?’
‘By all means.’
‘I’ve never been able to reconcile that act with the Leps I know. I cannot imagine any of you doing such a thing.’
‘Neither can we.’ Molos let his crest rise. ‘Neither, I gather, could many people on Ri. The biological warfare project was top secret, of course. There was immense public outrage when the news broke, which is the reason that the government was so obliging about turning over the scientific team as war criminals. Ri is not a democracy, not by any stretch of the imagination, but its warlords know that they won’t stay in power without some sort of consent.’
They left the walled garden and stood at the top of the long turquoise lawn that sloped down to the river, a murky gash through the landscape. On the other side an answering lawn sloped up to the grounds of another white walled compound. Molos shaded his eyes with one hand and considered the view while he talked.
‘Karlo was dead serious about deporting all the Leps on planet to Tableau,’ Molos said. ‘The logistics of such a thing! Good God, there are nine million of us! I knew then he was no longer rational on the subject.’
‘I’d say so, yeah. The newsgrids did a cost analysis of that proposal. Most people gave up on the idea right then. And of course Vanna Makeesa weighed in to change his mind. I’ve got to give her credit for that.’
‘Vanna can’t push the life-extension forever. What will happen when she’s gone?’
‘That’s a good point. I’m hoping that Vida will have some influence over the Peronidas by then.’
‘So am I. Fervently.’
They turned and began walking around the edge of the compound’s grounds. Neither of them was in any hurry to commit a capital crime, Hi supposed, no matter how irrational the law that made their proposed actions a hanging offence.
‘Have you ever figured out why Riva wanted Vida killed?’ Molos said.
‘No. Any ideas?’
‘None.’ Molos sighed and looked up at the house, looming white and severe above them.
‘I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about how to search for Riva. I want to start at the beginning, with the crash of the Spaceport autogates. Well, provided I can get on the Map.’
‘Oh, you can. I’ve tested this access out, and it’ll work. It’s a family secret, something we call the Chameleon Gate. We’ll move you over from your bank access point.’ Hi smiled, briefly.
‘Now’s the time for both of us to back down if we’re going to.’ They looked at each other.
‘A peaceful retirement never appealed to me,’ Molos said.
‘I’m not ready for retirement yet, but there’s a hell of a lot at stake here. I’ll risk it.’
‘Very well. Let us savour the last few minutes that we are honest men rather than criminals
- and then get to work.’
* * *
On the big vidscreen in the gather of their suite, Karlo brought up the schematic of the Pinch, then tipped in the Fleet’s positions. Tiny red stars bloomed among the white. Vanna leaned forward on the sofa and considered the display with her shaking hands tucked between her thighs.
‘I see what you mean,’ she said. ‘Tableau really is vulnerable.’
Karlo nodded, then telescoped on Tableau’s small yellow star until its sector filled the screen. The planetary system hung near the end of a solitary microshunt - isolated by Pinch standards, although its night sky showed a neighbourhood crowded with stars.
‘We’ve got a Kephalon unit at the other end of the microshunt,’ Karlo said. ‘And then a couple of ships and a support base at Tableau. Their commander wants to retire, and I don’t blame her. She’s been through a lot.’
‘If you reorganize the squadrons to give him a few more ships, it would be a good posting for Pero. He’d be out of the way, and maybe he could do something about his mother.’
‘I doubt that. He’s not a miracle worker. But I think I can present this to the Military Guild councils as a necessary move. I’d like to appoint him military governor of the planet, if that’s possible. There’s nothing like an exalted title to soothe egos, and besides, he’d be a damn good governor.’
‘There’s no doubt in my mind.’ Vanna leaned back, still studying the screen. ‘It’s too bad he’s so ugly. We could maybe get him citizenship, but he’d still never get elected to anything.’
Karlo started to snarl, then thought better of it.
‘Well, we’ve had this conversation before.’ Vanna had noticed. ‘And yeah, I agree. It’s stupid and superficial and everything you say, but that’s just the way things are on Palace. Everyone’s pretty. Everyone’s been tweaked to be pretty. And someone who isn’t-’ She shrugged. ‘That’s just the way it works.’
‘Yeah, I know. Do you think we can pull together enough civilian support to get him the governorship?’
‘Probably. In the end. It depends on how much you want to bargain away. I say wait a few months. The Interlocking Councils will be having their session, then, and the memory of the Appropriations Bill will have faded. Centre Council members get real huffy if they feel that all their time’s taken up with Fleet affairs.’