Part 25 (2/2)

'A being after my own heart.'

156.'Don't say that,' Forrester cautioned. 'There've been rumours about illegal organ-trafficking in the Undertown for years.'

They followed Dantalion out of the church proper and into a side room that was lined with velvet curtains. Dantalion plumped himself into a chair of alien design and gestured them towards a rough pew. Forrester noted Bernice's quick appraisal.

'Genuine,' Bernice said appreciatively. 'Like the rest of the church.'

'St James Garlikhythe,' Dantalion said. 'Such poetry in the names you humans give to your places of wors.h.i.+p. This building or rather, the sh.e.l.l of this building is over one and a half thousand Earth years in age. That's older than me!' He giggled, then, just as quickly, became serious again. 'And so to the sordid question of recompense.'

Forrester decided to forestall the hours of delicate negotiation that she could see looming on the horizon.

'We can pay whenever you ask,' she said.

Dantalion sighed.

'You will never make a good businesswoman,' he said. 'Just as you never made a good Adjudicator. Always too willing to hit when a hint might succeed.

But no matter. I do not require your money. There are more important things you can give me.'

'Such as?' Forrester was wary.

'Two things I require of you. Just two. Merely two.'

'Such as?'

Unruffled, he continued: 'Firstly, information. Two Adjudicators, one of them badly injured, both of them on the run, correct?'

She hesitated, wondering how much information she could afford to give him. How much did he already know?

'Correct,' she said reluctantly.

'And they were running from an attack in a flitterpark in the s.p.a.ceport Five Overcity, above our heads, yes? An attack carried out by robots of unusual design?'

'Word travels fast.'

'And they cannot ask for help from the Order of Adjudicators. Why is that, I ask myself?'

Forrester looked helplessly at Bernice, who just shrugged. Thanks a lot, Forrester thought.

'Let me help,' Dantalion continued. 'Could it be because they believe that the Order of Adjudicators is itself implicated?'

Forrester just nodded mutely.

'The Adjudication service. Always so aloof. So secretive. So proud of its impartiality.' Dantalion took a sip at an oddly shaped gla.s.s of cloudy liquid.

157.Forrester caught the sharp tang of juke. If he kept drinking that stuff, he would rot away from the inside, smiling all the time.

'And all this,' he continued, 'all this this . . . is because the two Adjudicators in question did not believe the ”official” verdict that an old human female called Annie Falvoriss killed an old Filth male named Waiting for Justice?' . . . is because the two Adjudicators in question did not believe the ”official” verdict that an old human female called Annie Falvoriss killed an old Filth male named Waiting for Justice?'

'You've got excellent sources.'

'Your warden Lubineki, I believe his name is in the s.p.a.ceport Five Undertown Lodge. An excellent man who commands my admiration in great quant.i.ties. And so inexpensive.'

Forrester felt a cold hand clutch at her guts. Was there a straight Adjudicator anywhere apart from her and Cwej?

'Waiting for Justice and Annie,' he mused. 'They were friends of mine. I don't make friends easily, you may be shocked to learn. Many people will not a.s.sociate with an ”alien”, and those enlightened ones who will don't particularly like juke-drinkers. But they were different. I liked them. We used to talk.'

He sipped at his drink again, and Forrester thought she could see something slos.h.i.+ng around inside the gla.s.s; something that kept moving when the drink stopped.

'Waiting for Justice didn't kill Annie,' he continued. 'Some kind of robot did. The same kind of robot that attacked you in the Overcity.'

'You saw it?' Forrester leaned forward.

'Somebody did. Somebody that owed Olias a favour, and I work for Olias.

Sometimes.'

'But why?' Forrester smashed her fist into her palm. 'Why was an underdweller killed by an a.s.sa.s.sination robot? It just doesn't make sense.'

'Another a.s.sa.s.sination robot attacked an alien of my acquaintance: a member of the Hith race, named Powerless Friendless. The robot babbled about secret missions. My acquaintance didn't know what it was talking about unsurprising, since I had wiped his mind of certain facts, some years ago. I spent a long while putting them back again today.'

'Putting them back?' Bernice raised an eyebrow. 'You make it sound so simple.'

'It is,' he said. 'Memories are often simple things to find. And hide.'

'Where is this alien now?' Forrester snapped.

'He left. He looked like a being with a mission. He had been tortured at some stage in the past, quite comprehensively tortured. He left here seeking vengeance for the sins that had been visited upon his body.' He sighed. 'I advised him not to, but he was insistent. I told him the memory viruses I inserted into his mind were delicate things. They were still uncovering memories when he left. Whatever he remembers is muddled, mixed up. He ought 158to allow it time to settle.' He looked up at Forrester with his good eye. 'As you should, later.'

'What's this about me?' Forrester's hand slipped un.o.btrusively onto the b.u.t.t of her blaster.

If he had noticed the threatening gesture, Dantalion was ignoring it. 'There we come onto the second thing I require from you in payment.'

'And that is?'

'Do you remember coming here three years ago?'

She thought back. Three years. Shortly after Martle had been Martle had died. Killed by the Falardi. There had been a raid . . .

'Yeah, we raided you for unlicensed gland removal from a Barrarian mating pair,' she said. 'Olias got you off the charge, as usual.'

'No,' he said, 'four weeks before that.'

She shook her head.

'No,' she said firmly, 'that was the first time I had seen you for almost a year.'

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