Part 37 (1/2)

”I'd like you to pull up the record for Hanan Daviee,” he said. ”He came in the same time as my aide Mr. Ronyon.”

”Yes, we all saw it on the news,” the nurse murmured, pressing keys on her board. ”Terrible situation... here it is. He suffered severe damage to his exobraces, with feedback damage to his own neural system. He's currently stable, but weak.”

”Prognosis?”

The corners of her mouth tightened as she scanned the listing. ”He'll need to have some reconstructive work done on his spinal cord,” she said. ”How much he'll be able to recover will depend on how much work they can do.”

”What are the limiting factors?” Pirbazari asked from Forsythe's side.

Her mouth tightened a bit more. ”To put it cra.s.sly, money,” she told him. ”The work involved is complex and expensive. Very simply, the more he can afford, the more of a recovery he can make.”

”I thought Gabriel paid for work-related health problems,” Pirbazari said.

”Some of them, yes,” the nurse said. ”The entire hospital stay will be taken care of, for instance. But his long-term neural problems are congenital, not work-related, and they aren't covered.”

”Thank you,” Forsythe said, taking Pirbazari's arm and turning away. ”Interesting,” he commented as they headed down the corridor again. ”Maybe you were at least partially right, Zar. The tiger may not change his stripes, but he may occasionally roll over and purr.”

Pirbazari shook his head. ”You've lost me.”

Forsythe nodded back toward the nurses' station. ”Our friend Mr. Daviee needs large amounts of money for an operation. Our other friend, Chandris Lalasha, is a lady whose profession is to separate people from large amounts of money. Coincidence?”

Pirbazari frowned. ”Are you suggesting the Daviees hired her to get money for them?”

”Or else she's taken them on as a charity case,” Forsythe said. ”Either way, she still bears watching.”

”All right,” Pirbazari said, not sounding entirely convinced. ”You want me to put the police onto her?”

Forsythe pursed his lips. ”Not yet,” he said slowly. ”She may have ways of keeping tabs on what the police are up to. Let's just watch her ourselves for a couple of days.”

”Both of us?”

”Yes,” Forsythe said. ”I've got an inside connection with these people; you're an outsider none of them know. Between us, we should have them pretty well covered.”

”You're going to stay here yourself, then?” Pirbazari asked. ”There's a lot of work waiting for you on Uhuru.”

”There's enough I can do here,” Forsythe said. ”Try to catch up on my reading, for one thing. I'll send Slavis back-he can sit in on any meetings and take notes for me.”

”He can't cast votes for you.”

”There's nothing important coming up for at least two weeks,” Forsythe said firmly. ”At any rate, Ronyon's not going to be able to travel for another day or two at the earliest, and I'm not leaving without him.”

He glanced into a deserted lounge alcove as they pa.s.sed it, looking at the darkness outside the far windows. ”Besides,” he added quietly, ”whatever Lalasha and Kosta are up to, they didn't cause what happened at Angelma.s.s. Something strange is going on out there. I'm not leaving until I find out what.”

CHAPTER 29.

The equipment list came up, scrolling down the screen; and beside Kosta, Gyasi gave a low whistle. ”Holy scud, Jereko,” he said. ”It's going to take all that?”

”Looks like it,” Kosta conceded, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach as he ran his eye down the list. A couple of the items there he could probably sneak out for a few days without anyone noticing. But not all of them. Not a chance.

”What's that, your equipment list?” Chandris asked, swiveling around from the terminal she'd been working on.

”That's it,” Gyasi confirmed. ”And it might explain why no one's ever seen an anti-angel before. Half this stuff didn't even exist the last time anyone went out hunting for one.”

”And it might as well not exist now for all the good it's going to do us,” Kosta added sourly. ”We're never going to be able to collect all this.”

”Anyone ever tell you you give up too easily?” Chandris chided, coming over and standing over him, leaning forward to peer at the display. ”The big question is whether we can fit it all aboard the Gazelle.””Is the Gazelle going to be able to fly any time soon?” Kosta countered.”The damage a.s.sessment's mostly done,” she said. ”The refit's going to take some serious work, but it's nothing a good maintenance crew can't handle.””Sure, but how long will it take?””That one is a problem,” Chandris said reluctantly. ”Maintenance hasn't even got it scheduled yet; but from the size of their current work list my guess is they won't get to it for at least a month.

Maybe more.”

Kosta s.h.i.+vered. ”We can't afford to wait that long,” he said. ”Someone else is bound to get killed before then.”

”Then our other option is to contract it out,” Chandris said. ”Get a private firm in to do the work.”

”Can you do that?” Gyasi asked. ”I thought Gabriel handled all hunters.h.i.+p maintenance.”

”Officially, it does,” Chandris said. ”As a practical matter, no one's going to complain if we do it

ourselves and save them the expense.””And how high is that expense likely to be?” Kosta asked.Chandris's mouth twitched. ”High enough,” she said.”How high?””You let me worry about that.” She waggled a finger at his equipment list. ”You worry about how you're going to smuggle all this stuff out of here and aboard the Gazelle.”Kosta frowned up at her, a sudden suspicion twisting his stomach. The High Senator's angel...She caught the look and sent back one of her own. ”I said let me worry about it,” she repeated, her tone warning him to drop it.

Gyasi cleared his throat. ”I think I'll go to the lab and see what equipment Dr. Qhahenlo's got on hand,” he said. Getting up from his chair, he escaped from the room.

”You can't steal Forsythe's angel,” Kosta growled, swiveling around so that he could face Chandris

better.

”Why not?” Chandris retorted. ”Is one angel worth more than however many people Angelma.s.s will kill in the next two months?”

”Of course not,” Kosta ground out. ”But if you get caught, the whole thing blows up and they die anyway.” He hesitated. ”And then you'll be in trouble, too.”

Her lip twisted sardonically. ”I didn't think you cared.”

Kosta's first impulse was to turn away from her, to back off the way he always did. But for once, and to his own mild surprise, he stood his ground. ”Of course I care,” he said quietly. ”I also care about Hanan and Ornina. They've put themselves on the line for both of us. We can't let them down.”