Part 26 (2/2)

Dana returned the grin. ”All right,” he said. As he ascended the stairs, he decided that he would have to stop thinking of Amri as a child. That little shove had not been a child's reaction. Maybe, he thought, maybe Amri's artless look is just an act. Or no -- not an act -- a persona, a mood put on to hide what she was really thinking and feeling. We all wear one, he thought grimly. We must, or the contradictions between what we were and what we are -- between free being and slave -- would rip us apart.

Suddenly, three steps from Rhani's door, he was shaken with such rage that he had to lean against the wall. d.a.m.n this place, d.a.m.n Sardonyx Sector, and d.a.m.n and double d.a.m.n the people of this planet, who had stabilized and made functional a social system based on degradation and drugs. The realization that he had helped to make it work contributed to his horror. He found himself thinking of Michel A-Rae with sympathy. Let him bring it down! he thought. I don't care what they put in its place: a room with bars is more merciful than this. At least, inside a room with bars, you would not constantly have to see what you had lost.

”Dana?” called Rhani.

”Coming,” Dana said. He straightened, breathing evenly, consciously relaxing the tension that shuddered through his flesh. Finally, he slid the door aside, hoping that none of his feelings -- his true feelings -- were showing on his face.

Rhani sat on the bed, surrounded by printouts. ”Amri's making punch,”

Dana said.

”Thank you.” She looked up, pus.h.i.+ng her hair away from her face with her wrist. ”Come look at this.”

He sat on the bed beside her. She laid the printout in his lap. ”What am I looking at?” he asked.

”A summary of the information on Loras U-Ellen. Personal data, family data, economic interests.”

”Uh.” He scanned it. ”How can he be forty-seven and ninety-three?”

”The old one is his father. This is him.” She pointed to the paragraph.

”Unmarried, three times liaisoned, father of seven children, three of whom live with him...”

”I see it.” Dana read the paragraph quickly. ”What the h.e.l.l is a _pinoth_?” he asked.

”It's an Enchantean flute,” Rhani said. ”He plays in an amateur orchestra.” ”Really?” Dana wondered what music they'd played, and if they had ever heard of Vittorio Stratta. ”He's independently wealthy?”

”He's officer of a corporation,” Rhani said. She leaned over the page; a strand of her hair tickled his throat. ”Please note what corporation it is.” She pointed to the relevant line. ”Pharmaceuticals, Inc. They manufacture pentathine, a legal dorazine subst.i.tute.”

Amri leaned through the doorway. ”Rhani-ka, I have your punch,” she said.

Rhani glanced up. ”Thank you, Amri. Put it down.”

Amri laid the tray on the footstool, poured some punch into a gla.s.s, and brought it to Rhani.

”Thank you,” Rhani said. ”That's all.” Amri left. ”What the h.e.l.l is a corporate officer doing, sneaking around the back alleys of Abanat, pretending to be a drug dealer?”

Dana shrugged. ”I don't know. I don't know anything about corporations, Rhani-ka.”

She gazed at him, startled.

”We don't have them on Pellin,” he said. ”All the industries and products belong to everybody. It's been that way from the time the colony was founded.”

”Oh,” she said. She rubbed her chin. ”Well, it's most uncharacteristic behavior, take it from me.” She was frowning as she studied the printout. ”Sweet mother, they're a huge family! I wonder how they keep it all straight.”

Dana half smiled. For a moment, his mind leaped back to his own big family. On Pellin, every family had an unofficial recorder, some member of the clan with a capacity for retention and a real historical sense. His Aunt Kobe could recite the lineage of everyone in the clan for three generations. There were so many of them that when they traveled to the northern mountains for _shamshama_, the yearly traditional reunion, it took three huge wagons to carry them all ... Soon there would be one more. His sister, Anwako, was pregnant for the second time; that had been four, no, six, months ago. She had probably already had the baby. The baby's father had blue eyes, her last letter had said, and the rest were taking bets as to whether the baby's eyes would be black, like those of most of the Ikoro clan, or blue....

”Well?” Rhani said.

She had asked him something. ”I'm sorry,” Dana said. ”I was thinking about something else. Would you say that again, Rhani-ka?”

She gazed at him impatiently. ”I asked you what you thought was the best way for me to contact Loras U-Ellen.”

”Send him a letter,” Dana said.

He meant it flippantly. But Rhani's hard gaze told him that he had made a mistake. ”I beg your pardon,” she said. ”This must be very boring to you. You may go.”

Dana swallowed, and rose. He had not meant to offend her. Sweet mother, he thought, I don't understand this woman sometimes....”Rhani-ka, I'm sorry,” he said. ”I was trying to be funny. It was out of place. I'd like to help.” And as he said it, an idea lurched out of the back of his mind and roared at him. ”You said -- ” his throat was abruptly tight, and he coughed to clear it -- ”you said he is on Chabad, pretending to be a drug dealer?”

”Yes,” she said. ”More exactly, he appears to have bribed my regular dealer, Sherrix Esbah, to leave the planet, and has taken her place. But he is _not_ dealing dorazine.”

”How did you find _that_ out?” he asked.

”Jo Leiakanawa, the Net navigator. Remember when Zed left the estate for Abanat, a few days after you came? I had written several times to Sherrix, and still not heard from her. Jo had spoken to the dealers about Family Yago business before. Zed asked her to investigate Sherrix' silence for me.”

”You could do that again,” he said. Her shoulders hunched. ”Zed would have to do it,” she said. ”Talk to Jo, I mean. And he -- ” She took a deep breath. ”I don't know what is happening to him.”

Nothing good, I hope, Dana thought. Trying to sound casual, he said, ”You know, I could do it, Rhani.”

She did not misunderstand him. ”Find Loras U-Ellen for me.” She leaned back on the bed, studying him.

He sweated beneath that amber gaze. There were moments when she was very like her brother. ”He must be in the Hyper district,” he said. ”I could go down there, talk to people.”

”They would talk to you?”

”I think so.” He touched his left arm with his right. ”I would have to hide this, of course. And I'd need some money, a credit disc -- ”

”Your medallion?” she said.

Do you have it? he wanted to shout. But, warned by her tone, he shook his head. ”No. That's not necessary.”

Leaning back on the bed as she was, the outline of Rhani's body showed clearly through her pants and s.h.i.+rt. He could not help looking at her and finding her lovely. For a moment, he became aware of the gulf between them, not of age or even, so much, of wealth, but of experience. Each had knowledge the other could not even dream of. And, under her penetrating, meticulous gaze, he saw himself mirrored -- and felt himself wanting.

Quietly she said, ”Dana, you do know, don't you, what my brother did when Binkie tried to escape from the estate.”

His mouth drying as if scoured by wind, he nodded.

”Good. I -- I would not want it to happen to you.”

He caught his breath. ”Wouldn't you stop it?” he asked.

She sat upright, shoulders hunching. ”I would try. I'm not sure I could.”

She gazed at him, and said, not flinching, ”I cannot always control him, you know.”

”Why do you let...” he started, and stopped, afraid that he would indeed overstep bounds.

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