Part 53 (1/2)

But the only people he wanted to see again were Sai Thomas and Yukiko.

He gasped as he walked onto the street. The Clinic was temperature- controlled; even in four days, he had forgotten what Abanat's heat was like. He fumbled Rhani's letter from his pocket and read the address again. Forty-seven Cabell Street. He stopped in front of a pressure map. He found Cabell Street: it was two blocks long, in the southwest quadrant of the city, equidistant from the Clinic and Landingport East. He wondered why she had chosen to live in so unfas.h.i.+onable a district. The homes were very different from those in the western section of Abanat -- maybe that was why. A vendor swerved toward him; Zed saw Raeka, on his left side, glide toward the unsuspecting man. He waved her away. ”Chobi seeds,” he said.

The vendor tossed them to him underhand. ”You're welcome, Commander,” he called as Zed dug for his credit disc.

Forty-seven Cabell Street was a corner house. It was all on one story, and so surrounded by vines that he could barely see the configuration of the roof. As he knocked on the front door he saw Barbara and Raeka vanish into the garden. The door opened; a thin, brown man with no tattoo nodded to him and stepped back to let him enter. ”Welcome, Commander.”

”Thank you,” Zed said. He gazed at the house's interior. He had stepped not into a hall but into a room. Soft green light filled it; sunlight, s.h.i.+ning through leaf-covered windows. The rug on the floor was woven straw. Some of the interior walls were latticelike, not solid, and through them he could see the shadowy figures of other people. ”Rhani?” he said.

”Zed-ka.” He turned. One of the latticed walls had grown a door. She stood framed in it, wearing Yago blue. Her hair was braided and the braids fastened to her head with a silver comb. ”Thank you, Cole,” she said, and the dark man effaced himself. Zed's pulse was suddenly beating hard and fast. He wanted to run away. Memory moved in him, and behind it lay an agony that he did not want to remember, did not dare remember.... He held out his reconstructed hands, and she gripped them. She said, ”You told me to give your skeleton to Yianni Kyneth, Zed-ka, but I couldn't. It's in your room.” His room was opposite hers and looked directly into the garden. She brought him to it, kissed his cheek, and left him there. The skeleton was there: he rubbed its bald head as he pa.s.sed it, feeling hardness but no other sensation through the deadening layers of gel and glove. Sitting on the bed, he flexed his arms. The muscles did not seem weak. He pushed against the wall with both hands.

They trembled. He needed to exercise, he thought, to rebuild the strength which had been seared from the old muscle tissue by ... by ... Warned by his racing pulse, he slammed his fist against the wall. He would _not_ remember. Pain like a cold wind shot through his punished hand and arm.

A terrible, gelatinous darkness seemed to hover just outside his field of vision, poised to descend. He clamped his lips and waited for the throbbing to stop. When it ceased, he extended the hand and, curving the fingers, willed a fist. The claws slid out. He marveled at the interior sheathing that Ja had devised to keep the edges from ripping open his fingertips.

He would get another pair of gloves -- silver, he thought, with blue trim. He would have to have them made. He relaxed his hand; the claws retracted, he did not even have to look at them. A noise made him start; he glanced outside to see Raeka prowling through the shrubbery. Rhani called him; he went to the hall and looked through the lattices to find her. A woman in dark clothing directed him to one of the solid-walled rooms, calling it ”the library.”

Zed found it. It had shelves for booktapes, but the shelves were bare. In one corner stood an empty, old-fas.h.i.+oned viewer on a metal stand. Rhani stood beside it, reading a letter. She gave it to him. He scanned it briefly, and saw that it was in fact one letter repeated four times. It was from Family Yago, to the Federation. The first sheet had the initials ”FD” in the margin. The second and third sheets had comments down the sides. The fourth sheet had a page of comments attached to it, signed ”C. Wu.”

Rhani said, ”Christina wants me to cite legal references. Theo's changes are trivial. Imre sends his love and agreement. Ferris had the sense just to sign his name.”

”How much money are you asking for, Rhani-ka?”

She grinned. ”Sixteen million credits. That's what it would cost Family Yago to replace the Net.”

”I see,” he said. ”And with that money -- ”

”We will build a dorazine plant.”

”What will the other sector worlds do for prison transport, without a s.h.i.+p?”

She shrugged. ”They'll do what they did before the Net was built. Each of the worlds will be responsible for s.h.i.+pping its own prisoners to Chabad. Family Yago will supply the dorazine and the technicians necessary to staff the s.h.i.+ps.”

She held out another piece of paper. It was a contract, stating Family Yago's intention to pay Narcosis Enterprises the sum of fifteen million credits.

”Narcosis Enterprises?” he said.

”That's the trust Christina set up for the money which will be paid to The Pharmacy.”

He nodded. He did not care, not really. All that had become unimportant, though it would always matter to him because it mattered to her. Rhani was watching him. He said, ”It's a tremendous achievement, Rhani-ka. Worthy of Isobel.”

She smiled. ”Loras U-Ellen will be coming here tomorrow for a celebratory drink.”

”Do you want me?”

She said, ”You won't like him, Zed-ka. He's a fop. But you're welcome to stay, if you like.” She took the contract from his hand. ”Have you met my staff yet?” she asked. ”The tall man is my new secretary. His name is Cole Arajian.

Our steward is Denya I-Chanu -- housekeeper's the word she prefers -- and Merril Lune is the cook. She makes excellent egg tarts.” He had to turn away from her. The darkness threatened to overtake him. He fought it off. ”No pilot?” he managed to say.

”No,” she said. She rubbed her chin. ”I wonder if Dana managed to get offplanet before the s.h.i.+ps were grounded.”

Zed did not want to think about Dana Ikoro. Dana was part of the darkness. ”Rhani-ka,” he said, ”is there a room in this house that I can equip as a gym?”

”A gym?” She frowned. ”You can have this room, Zed-ka. I'm putting a com- unit at the front of the house. Why a gym?”

”For my arms and hands,” he said.

”Oh.”

”By the way,” he said, ”I hope you haven't been disturbed by the people sneaking through the shrubbery.”

”No.” She smiled. ”I think it's rather sweet of them to be there at all.

They seem to believe that Michel A-Rae is out there, plotting terrible things.

Myself, I think Michel A-Rae is plotting how to get offplanet and save his own worthless skin.”

I want him, Zed thought. His fingers, within gel and gloves, began to curve. Every nerve in his body seemed to rouse and twitch. ”I want him,” he whispered, and was ashamed, because he had meant not to speak that need aloud in Rhani's presence.

She pointed to the paper he still held in his right hand. ”Look at it, Zed-ka,” she said quietly. ”Read clause seven.”

Zed read clause seven. It was two paragraphs of tightly plotted legal reasoning explaining precisely why, when Michel A-Rae and his cohorts were caught, they should be tried, not by a Federation court, but by the courts of Chabad.

*Chapter Twenty-Three*

Loras U-Ellen was ecstatic. He patted the pocket of his gown, into which he had put the agreement which said that Family Yago and Pharmaceuticals, Inc., would both pay Narcosis Enterprises the sum of fifteen million credits. ”Domna, I am delighted that we have concluded our business so fruitfully,” he said.

Rhani smiled. She had smiled so often in the last hour that she felt as if her cheeks were about to crack.

”Within a month, I'm sure, we should receive the first packet of information from The Pharmacy. And within three months -- ” he chortled, exhibiting perfect teeth -- ”we can be well on our way to the erection of a functioning dorazine plant.”

”I commend your enthusiasm,” Rhani said. She, too, was pleased with the agreement they had signed. Pharmaceuticals, Inc., would build the plant, but Family Yago would staff it, and ultimately would be able to buy Pharmaceuticals, Inc., out of its share of the profits. She wondered how much Pharmaceuticals, Inc., would seek to pad their accounts. It did not worry her unduly. She had great faith in Tak Rafael's accountants. She gazed at the litter of food and drink around them. She had spent three hours with U-Ellen, listening to him tell her about Enchanter, and then about Chabad and how different it was.

”All that remains to make my joy complete,” U-Ellen said, ”is for the Abanat Police to locate and arrest my stupid relative.”

”We all hope that,” Rhani said.

”I'm so glad,” U-Ellen said, ”that I let you coax me here today. I'm sorry that the commander is occupied. I had hoped to meet him.” He gazed at her with limpid eyes. What he really wanted, Rhani knew, was to question Zed about what had happened on the Net. Perhaps, she thought, I _should_ ask Zed to join us for a few minutes. U-Ellen would say something unforgivable, and Zed would strangle him. I wish I could do it myself. She rose from her chair. ”Citizen,” she said, ”it has been wonderful to visit with you, but surely it's time for you to prepare for your departure? I recall you said The Pharmacy was providing transport for you this evening. I regret that the s.h.i.+p traffic has not been released, so that you could make the trip in comfort, on Family Yago's private shuttle.”

”Oh, the day is young yet,” U-Ellen said. But he, too, stood. He was wearing a fantastic orange kaftan, all folds, with an extraordinary ta.s.seled hood. ”Oh, I wish you could see Enchanter, Domna. You would really appreciate the beauty of it after spending your life on this bleak world. You could visit the labs -- ” But I don't want to visit the labs, Rhani thought. The Enchanter labs produced Darien Riis. She paced to the door; U-Ellen followed her, still talking. Rhani opened the door; outside stood Sid Arioca, one of the larger members of their volunteer guard. He grinned at Rhani.

”Citizen, should you return to Chabad, make certain you visit me again,”

Rhani said, wis.h.i.+ng that before U-Ellen could visit Chabad again, ever, he and all his progeny would drop dead.

”I certainly will, Domna,” U-Ellen promised. He wafted onto the street.