Part 14 (1/2)

”Rani, you had family die, yes?” Geraint asked. They were in the hallway, out of earshot of the others.

She shrugged, as if to say, what's it to you?

”When I was a kid, my best friend died. I was an only child, and at the time I had no other friends, really. He was a n.o.bleman's son, too. When he was twelve, he transformed. It happened while we were out fis.h.i.+ng, him starting to scream and me thinking he was having a fit. I ran for help and when I got back with his father, he was beginning to change his form. I'd only seen pictures of orks, but I knew what was happening to him. We were out on the edge of the Dragon Lands, that's in Wales, west beyond London, Rani.” He could see that she had no idea where the h.e.l.l Wales was.

”A long way off. When we got him back to his father's castle, his home, he was almost fully changed. Less than six hours. I gather that's pretty fast, yes?” She nodded, remembering how long her own agonies had been.

”But he was okay, right? He was weak, and only barely conscious, but he was alive. They sent me home in a car and told me not to tell anyone what I'd seen. I never saw Daffyd again. They told me he was dead, but I always knew they'd killed him. Can't have orks in the family if you're a n.o.ble, you see.

”I didn't tell anyone. Well, I told my father and he told me to keep quiet about it or I'd be disinherited. Daffyd's family murdered him because of his change. For a long, long time I felt guilty for not telling anyone. Maybe the only reason I have everything I've got now is because I didn't speak up and tell the truth. Maybe, if we can help each other now, it will make up a little for what I didn't do back then. So, Rani, it's only money. What does that matter?”

She was defenseless against his brutal honesty. Somehow she knew that not even those other people in there, the elf mage and the smart American woman, they didn't know about what he'd just told her, and maybe never would. She was an Indian ork, lowest of the low, but here was a member of the British n.o.bility almost begging her to be part of a forgiveness. She felt very strange indeed, thrilled but overawed.

”The car will be here. And here's my number,” Geraint said, pus.h.i.+ng a card into her hand. ”Come back Wednesday evening. After seven, yes?”

She nodded urgently.

”Get them to bring you. I'll pay for it. They'll bring you. You can do that?”

Rani nodded again. She didn't know what she was getting into, but she knew she wanted to come back here again.

He closed the door behind her. Through the security camera he watched her walk down the hall. Serrin came up behind him, putting a hand on the n.o.bleman's shoulder as he turned from the doorway.

”One thing, Geraint. I want to know who's responsible for sending me on a wild goose chase, nearly getting killed myself. Rani's got family to avenge. Fran's had a real bad time and I think those nightmares may start again. But what about you? Why are you investing all this money and effort?”

Geraint sighed and gave a wan smile. He might have said, because it's real, and I'm tired of n.o.bles I despise, business deals marinated in cynicism, and too much easy living. But one confession was enough for one day. He decided to be facetious instead.

”Oh well, it's something to pa.s.s the time, I suppose.” Evading Serrin's questioning expression he walked off to talk decking with Francesca.

Serrin booked the suborbita! to New Jersey's Newark International. All he could get for the next day was a standby at six-fifteen, unless he was prepared to pay for Deluxe Ripoff Cla.s.s. At least he had the long-duration residence permit, allowing him a few precious days in Manhattan each year. What the h.e.l.l, he had a week left on it and Christmas was only a month away. Looking at the huddled pair eagerly discussing the technicalities of decking, he realized that for the first time in a while he had people in his life for whom he might actually want to buy Christmas presents.

24.

The neon half-blinded the mage. It was two-thirty in Newark International, and all he wanted to do was get through Customs and Immigration and park himself in one of the coffin hotels around the airport complex. He needed to catch up on the sleep that rising at five in London had cost him.

”It's a kind of permanent temporary pa.s.s,” he explained to the suspicious, gun-toting official who looked like he was missing his sleep as much as Serrin was. It didn't make him any too helpful. When tht anted to be, New York's finest could wield the old quadruplicate red-tape routine as well as any Brit. The guy had already scanned the pa.s.s twice and come up with approvals on the security checks, yet he still glared at the pa.s.s as if it were a rabid dog. Entry into Manhattan required one of at least a dozen different kinds of pa.s.ses and permits. Serrin's was the kind the guard was least familiar with.

”Allows me twenty days' stay every year; there's a week left on it. Hey, I'm only going to be here two days.” Serrin was beginning to lose his patience, though he knew he shouldn't. With an effort he calmed himself and was rewarded by finally being waved on his way. Having caught sight of a couple of Hispanics in the queue, the official suddenly seemed more eager to hara.s.s them than to detain the elf any longer. Serrin trudged wearily off into the monstrous concrete complex beyond.

As planned he went straight to bed to catch up on his sleep, but awoke feeling slightly worse, if anything. He had slept too long, nearly twelve hours altogether, albeit interrupted by the flight. His head felt thick and he s.h.i.+vered in the cold morning air. He was a bit light-headed from hunger, but Serrin didn't think he could face real food.

Well, he thought, I'm in Manhattan now. I don't have to eat real food if I don't want to. I can live off garbage like everyone else.

Getting through the access points and more checks with his pa.s.s, he then took a bus into the city, where he decided to stay at the opulent Hyatt. After the second shave of the day and a steaming hot shower, he began to feel more alive. While dressing he surveyed the contents of his suitcase, feeling some distaste at how tacky and ridiculous were the souvenirs he'd bought in the Heathrow shops. Smiling to himself, he picked up the druid doll dressed in a white robe with the blue insignia and carrying a gilt sickle. The only druid he'd ever seen didn't look much like this. She was for real.

He jump-started his body with a pot of coffee as thick and syrupy as he could get it in the hotel coffee shop, stuffed down a couple of bagels, and then did what he always did when he first hit Manhattan. He had some people to see, maybe a contact or two to check, but something else always came first.

Grand Central wasn't far from the Hyatt, one of the reasons he'd decided to stay there. Serrin had been barely three feet tall the first time he'd sat amazed by the sheer scale of the station, its endless s.p.a.ces and swirling ma.s.ses of people. Something of that awe remained, always ready to strike a chord in his emotions whenever he was there. He sat down with a magazine and another cup of coffee and just took in the scene.

There were suits, kids, fresh-faced youngsters from out of town come to find out how long their wide-eyed looks would last before the poison of the city destroyed their dreams, a sprinkling of metahumans and Hispanics mostly doomed to suffer indifference or outright hatred, a couple of guys who were obviously racing to find out which they could destroy first, their bodies with steroids or their minds with essence-the usual panoply of folks.

It's been cleaned up, though, Serrin thought. Security didn't take long to pounce on any wino or other wretched soul with terminal despair who might still think he could drift in here. Those for whom it all had become too much, who would burst into tears, begging any stranger, ”Got a cigarette, oh, any d.a.m.ned brand,” just to have something to say. Just to get a glance, a touch of a hand, a chance word or two in reply.

Serrin hated Manhattan. Its soul was deader than any city he'd ever known. It swept away its poor and hopeless, its disabled, handicapped, troubled people, its blacks and Hispanics and Puerto Ricans into decayed sumps of suburbs-if they were lucky. What about the street shamans? he wondered. How could any totem breathe life into a soul when the very essence of a place was dead?

”A dollar for your thoughts.” Looking over his shoulder at the woman who sat down beside him, he suddenly broke into a broad, beaming smile.

”Barbara! What are you doing here?”

”I could ask you the same! I'm just finis.h.i.+ng college.”

”Hey, that's great!” He was genuinely delighted.

”And how is delightful Lafayette? And Judy?”

They had met in Serrin's birthplace, not long after he'd been shot up bad in the Renraku business. For some reason, he'd decided to use a little of the money they'd paid him to spend a few weeks in the place of his birth. Not that he had any roots there; his parents had traveled too widely and too often for that. It was just to see what the city was like.

”Oh, I moved from there not long after you went to j.a.pan. Figured I couldn't stick around much longer. I met a good man in Syracuse, he looked after us real well. John and I were together five years, but after he got sick with cancer, I drifted around awhile before ending up here. Put myself through college. And Judy's doing real well. She sells some of her stuff in the Village. She's a really bright kid.”

He was glad. Trying to get by as an unmarried mother with a half-caste child in Louisiana hadn't exactly been a bed of roses for her. The child had been clever, sensitive, vulnerable, and he had feared for her. Serrin hadn't been in much shape, physically or emotionally, to do much about it himself, but it was good to know Barbara had picked up the pieces.

He studied her as she sipped her coffee. Pa.s.sing through her thirties had been good for her; she wasn't so painfully thin, the lines around her eyes and mouth looked like they came from laughter and smiles. At least, in fair measure. Her hands were the same as ever, great knuckled fingers more like a man's, well-suited to sculpting the pots, ceramics, and oil burners, all the little things she made.

”What about you?” She wanted his news, but he hardly knew where to begin.

”Well, I'm only in town a couple of days, but I always like to come here whenever I am,” Serrin replied, gesturing around at the huge station. ”Just like to sit and watch it all. Watch the world go by. I guess I've been doing that a lot, one way or another. Hey, I got something for Judy!” He reached into his pocket and brought out the little toy. He pressed the small control panel in its back and placed it on the ground.

It was a Beefeater, a toy soldier with black pants and a red jacket and the impossibly large, furry black hat of a real Tower of London guard. The toy jerked into life and began to march, high-stepping it along the floor while holding its ceremonial rifle over one shoulder, swinging the other arm along to the marching rhythm. After a dozen steps it swiveled in a perfect U-turn and marched all the way back again. Barbara burst into delighted laughter.

”Oh, that's priceless!” She picked up the hand-sized doll, giggling with pleasure. ”Thank you. Jude'll love it.”

”It has an optional feature. You can get it to sing G.o.d Save the King while it marches if you like. I guess Judy's too old for this stuff now, but it's genuine Olde England.” He chuckled.

She grinned, clasped the toy and hugged him. ”Got time for some conversation during your stay?”

”You betcha. Hey, you want to show me Judy's stuff?”

Most of the day had gone by the time they finally said their goodbyes, Serrin taking Barbara's number and promising to call. Judy had remembered him. She was fifteen now, painting cards and murals and even getting a commission for a couple of posters. She had her mind set on compgraphics and Matrix sculpting. She still had the same gifts and sensitivity Serrin remembered, but now she was worldly for a kid of fifteen. Somehow that disappointed him. It was as if Manhattan was already beginning to take her over. He hoped she would hang on to what she'd started out with. The disappointment made the goodbyes less difficult, though.

Thus it was after dark when he started making the calls from his hotel room. It was a long shot, and he had called Seattle, Philly, DeeCee, and half of California Free State by the time he roused Kerman.