Part 4 (1/2)

”Why don't you mention it to the council?” Flint asked. ”Or are you supposed to deal directly with the governor-general?”

”I don't know,” DeRicci said. ”There's going to be a meeting tomorrow.”

”So tell them.” Flint finished his greens and set the plate aside.

”I'm afraid to,” DeRicci said. ”I'm afraid any objection I make will become an idea, and if I turn the job down, someone will remember the objection as a suggestion, and suddenly it'll all become policy, whether I like it or not.”

”It sounds like you have no choice,” Flint said. ”You have to take this position.”

”If only I could show them that this bombing was an isolated incident. Maybe they'll abandon the entire idea.”

”The bombing may have been isolated and the marathon attack was isolated, but they came back-to-back,” Flint said. ”You were involved with both. They feel related.”

She knew that. She felt trapped, leaning against the velvet couch, the beautiful table in front of her.

”I used to want the respect,” she said. ”Now I have it, and I hate it. It's forcing me into positions that I don't want to hold, places I don't want to go.”

Flint templed his fingers, his eyebrows raised. He studied the double doors as if willing them to remain closed.

”But I'm really torn,” DeRicci said. 'They're going to create the position, but they've given me the chance to create the rules. I'd be a fool to balk at that.”

Flint took a sip of his coffee, then ran his finger along the cup's rim. ”No one would ever call you a fool, Noelle.”

”People used to,” she said.

He smiled at her. ”And they were wrong.”

6.

Aisha Costard was shaking. If someone had told her two weeks ago that she would visit the Moon before she returned to Earth, she would have laughed. At that time, she had thought her Mars case something simple-an adventure really, instead of a disaster that had already changed her life.

She stood on the curb, waiting for Port Rentals to bring her an aircar. To other people, she probably looked like a typical traveler, clothes wrinkled from days on a shuttle, a bag over her shoulder. The clerk inside the rental office hadn't given her a second glance, merely took Costard's hand, pressed it against the identification box, and then touched a separate screen, confirming that Costard was who she said she was.

No mention made of the limited warrant, no comment on the fact that her travel visa came from Mars instead of her home planet of Earth, no discussion of the alert that had tinted Costard's file orange.

Apparently, Armstrong's customs had cleared all that. Or maybe they had simply modified it, giving whomever looked up Costard's ident.i.ty specific instructions.

Costard had been too afraid to ask, especially after the last few days.

The Disty had given Costard clearance so that she could settle the major contamination case. But they had warned her that they would come for her if she tried to run. They would hunt her down, even if she disappeared.

She was working for them at the moment, even though they wouldn't come into the same room with her, even though they considered her as contaminated as the bones she'd been studying.

But the Disty did concede that she was making progress. Her work on the skeleton had brought the contamination area down from three square blocks to two, because she could prove that the skeleton had been at that site only as long as the building, which was about thirty years.

The area still reeked of death as far as the Disty were concerned, but it wasn't as bad as it had been. And if Costard could find the dead woman's family, then maybe the contamination would disappear for good.

A man stopped beside her. He wore a long brown coat and thigh-high boots. His hair fell against his shoulders. On one arm he wore a corporate patch. He didn't give her a second glance.

She resisted the urge to move away from him. She didn't want him to look at her. Ever since she had gone to Sahara Dome, she had felt like the ground could s.h.i.+ft under her at any moment.

She made herself take a deep breath of the recycled air. Dome air always had a metallic taste to it, no matter how fresh the engineers tried to make it. At least here the dome's ceiling was visible, and the buildings towered above her. Real streets, with no rabbit warrens, no need for her to crouch every time she went from one location to another.

Armstrong Dome was big enough, and the roof of the dome high enough, that aircars were practical here. That, at least, was enough like Earth to rea.s.sure her.

”How long you been waiting?” the man next to her asked.

Costard started. She glanced at him sideways, then realized the movement probably looked furtive. She made herself smile at him. ”A while.”

”They're always backed up here,” he said. ”I don't know why I schedule everything so tight.”

”You're not local?” she asked, then realized it was a dumb question. Why would a man from the city need to rent a car at the port?

”I'm from the Outlying Colonies,” he said, ”but I do way too much business in this solar system. Seems like I'm in Armstrong half of my year.”

She swallowed, trying to imagine that kind of travel and failing. ”The literature says Armstrong is human controlled, right?”

He gave her a surprised look. ”That's a strange question.”

She shrugged. ”I-had some trouble on Mars. I didn't realize the Disty had so much power.”

”People rarely do.” He rocked back on his heels, checked over his shoulder as if he were looking for his car, and then looked forward again. ”You here on business?”

”Yes.”

”I can show you around, if you like.”

Months ago, she would have taken him up on the offer. She might have still if this had been Tokyo or London. But she was in another d.a.m.n Dome, and she wasn't sure how to behave.

”I'm not going to be here long enough for that,” she said. ”But thanks.”

He nodded, as if he had expected the answer. ”You're from Earth, right?”

She almost blurted, How do you know? How do you know? but caught herself just in time. ”Why?” but caught herself just in time. ”Why?”

”People from Earth rarely research their destinations. You live outside of the home world, you learn pretty fast that you have to know exactly what you're walking into.”

She felt her face heat. ”You never answered my question.”

”About Armstrong? It's about as human as a domed colony can get. Maybe it'll get more human real soon now. I don't know.”

”What do you mean?” she asked.

”New security laws coming in,” he said. ”Armstrong's been attacked twice in the last two years. The city's become paranoid.”