Part 35 (1/2)

But they had gotten Justin and Grant home uncontaminated, at least in the sense of poison and deepteach drugs. Justin and Grant were, by now, sleeping it off, sera herself had managed to get some late sleep, after a two in the morning call to Yanni, and by now Rafael and their outward apparatus, within ReseuneSec, were instructed to haul in information and sort it: security a.s.signments, who was in what hall, in the restaurants in question, everything, not to mention who had access to Thieu, and who had come and gone in Patil's condominium complex.

It was, to all appearances, death by catastrophic heart failure, in Thieu's caseautopsy had yet to determine more specifics. It was even possible it was natural death, a body which had ceased to renew itself, arteries and veins and cardiac tissue losing their prolonged youthful character, in the sort of fairly rapid decline that attended rejuv failure. It didn't take much to tip a fragile body off the edge. Somebody might have applied that pressure.

The force, however, that had torn a sealed window out of its mount and sent Sandur Patil ten stories to the roof of an adjacent cooling towerthat was a plainly hostile action, on the shockwave of a grenade hand-launcher. Sniffers, applied within the hour in the corridor and lifts, had turned up molecular evidence that had yet to match up with anyone in files, which meant the perpetrator had either confounded the scene with a puffer, available, some sophisticated ones quite expensively so, in Novgorod's CIT underworld. That, or whoever had so spectacularly done in Patil was a novice with a hitherto clean record, and thus not on file. They could run the sniffer data and get an ID of everybody who'd been near that apartment & but on the grounds of the heavy firepower involved, beyond most novices, Florian personally bet on a puffer in use, specifically designed to foil a sniffer and confuse the scene. That was going to take the chemists time to sort out. The launcher, howeverthat wasn't a short-range weapon. It wasn't the sort of thing a professional took to a quiet a.s.sa.s.sination. Whoever had done this was making a statement.

In the meanwhiletheir whole staff lost sleep.

”No shortage of Paxer talent to produce a bogus card,” Wes said. ”Somebody could have done it off any letter she sent with her letterhead.”

”ReseuneSec calls it clean,” Catlin said. ”Electronically speaking clean, nanistically clean. No microprint in the typeface, so it was a private printer, but definitely with Planys microtags. That indicates only that the paper was produced to be used in Planys. Not that it was. The printer site could be anywhere.”

”And the card was planted eight weeks before two of the princ.i.p.als die,” Marco said. ”The card was planted on the day the Council voted on a black budget for Eversnow. It could be coincidence: it could be connected, but somebody had all the pieces readythe file, the card stock, the access to Jordan Warrick.”

”News reports,” Florian said, ”still say publicly only that there's new construction for Fargone. Patil's name wasn't publicly connected with either the real facts or the published cover. But she wasn't at all reticent about the fact that she was taking an appointment with Reseune at Far-gone: they didn't forbid her to talk about it, and she talked to colleagues. The University was making adjustments in her teaching schedule for September. It's possible she wasn't totally discreet. All it takes is one slip.”

”Defense was still managing her,” Wes said, ”even if she was publicly switching to Reseune payroll. She remained under Defense rules.”

”Seems so,” Florian said. ”If they'd wanted her silenced, they could have done that with a phone call. So they didn't object at all to the farewell parties, or she didn't listen. Maybe it leaked to the Paxersmaybe through office staff, someone she confided in.”

”Defense is in elections,” Wes said. ”Jacques is in office, Spurlin and Khalid are running. There are two strong factions in Defense. Only Jacques has the say, Spurlin is generally with Jacques; KhalidKhalid is a problem. What his feelings are on the Eversnow project, we have no idea.”

”Somebody certainly silenced Patil for good,” Catlin said. ”That's one. And also a.s.sured she won't take that appointment, which Yanni offered her, which at least half of Defense wanted, which Citizens, Information, and Trade all wanted, and which Reseune was funding. She was evidently the most universally acceptable candidate. Her death doesn't need a card from Planys to threaten Yanni's interests. One who might, on the surface, have motive, is sera herself: it slows a program she doesn't favor. But that's nowhere in question, and we know she didn't.”

”Suppose someone inside Reseune opposes Yanni, or Eversnow, or the agreement Yanni made,” Florian said. ”They could pose a danger. Someone violently opposes Yanni's program.”

”A problem,” Marco said, ”an outsider, can come into Reseune Towns.h.i.+p on a barge out of Novgorod, with a load of fertilizer. Can live there, if he's good at blending in. There's a lot of people in town that don't need a keycard to survive.”

Wes said: ”I don't think sera is in imminent danger. Taking out Yanni or Hicks would be a safer move, to stop Eversnow & unless they have extraordinary penetration. Sera's become too hard a target.”

”And the elder Warrick said he knew about Eversnow,” Catlin said. ”If that's true, where did he get his information?”

”I remain worried about sera's safety,” Marco said. ”Certain people might like to have her gone, and Warrick to blame. Again. Even if supporting Jordan Warrick against Reseune Admin is part of the Paxer cause. It's good coverto support the innocence of the man they've framed.”

”Or maybe,” Wes said, ”they want confusion. Patil's double-crossed them, in their view. They kill her. And they set up something to stir up trouble and make Warrick an issue againby getting him arrested for his connection to her a.s.sa.s.sination. But that requires that card be found in his possession, and it wasn't & because he wouldn't have it: he'd given it to Justin. He's smart; he saw the chance of something aimed at him. He didn't want to be tagged with it. He got rid of it as fast as he could, in a way that has ReseuneSec and sera's staff quarreling over it.”

”That part makes sense,” Florian said. The rest of the world didn't know that sera herself had begun to move on Yanni, and that everything was bound to change soon; and if that leaked and became public, it was going to cause agitation in many quarters. It wasn't even to be mentioned to Wes and Marco, yet. ”We've got a safe copy of the code on the card. It didn't contain anything but Patil's academic vita & on the surface, no slink or ferret. Hicks' office has sent the card over to the experts. They're having their own go at it, just to see if there's a code in the apparent content. ReseuneSec has their report coming. I want our own done, with a copy of the a.n.a.lysis, directly to us.”

”I'll let you port it to that wing,” Catlin said to Florian. ”You talk to them.”

Florian smiled absently. The dedicated experts, azi, were odd beyond all reason, monofocused alphas who'd rather deal with code than eat or sleep or do most anything. A couple of sensible betas sat as directors over the lot, the human Supervisor, himself a specialist, being almost as eetee as the azi he supervised. ”Should have done before now, anyway.” He punched the recording on again.

”I was surprised it was a large plane,” Jordan Warrick said. Jordan Warrick said. ”I was surprised we weren't being sent to some even more remote h.e.l.lhole. I was surprised when we crossed the ocean. I was moderately surprised we ended up landing at Reseune. And I was surprised to learn Yanni was somewhat in charge despite the little darling. Life was just a chain of surprises that week. I still remain surprised we're alive. That could always change. We're here. One of Thieu's connections tried to get me involved with his pet pupil. I declined. She's dead. He's dead. I'm here, and I'll be here for the rest of time. I'm not involved, but n.o.body's going to believe it. What more can I do?” ”I was surprised we weren't being sent to some even more remote h.e.l.lhole. I was surprised when we crossed the ocean. I was moderately surprised we ended up landing at Reseune. And I was surprised to learn Yanni was somewhat in charge despite the little darling. Life was just a chain of surprises that week. I still remain surprised we're alive. That could always change. We're here. One of Thieu's connections tried to get me involved with his pet pupil. I declined. She's dead. He's dead. I'm here, and I'll be here for the rest of time. I'm not involved, but n.o.body's going to believe it. What more can I do?”

And Justin Warrick: ”Just don't antagonize Admin, for G.o.d's sake, Dad, just settle in, forget the d.a.m.n card, just answer any questions they ask” ”Just don't antagonize Admin, for G.o.d's sake, Dad, just settle in, forget the d.a.m.n card, just answer any questions they ask”

”The h.e.l.l!”

”Answer them, dammit! Leave it for Security. Live your life. Ask Yanni for a few cases, and get busy, high-level, low-level, it doesn't matter. I'll go to him &”

”But you haven't done it, have you? I seem to remember you were going to do that.”

”I've been a little busy. Never mind how. JustI will.”

”You really don't get the picture, do you? They won't let me write sets. They're paranoid. And, no, I'm not going to get any work.”

”Jordan, don't explode. She'd check them over. If she pa.s.sed them, ultimately, they'll be pa.s.sed.”

”That's not even worth a comment.”

”Because you're too f.u.c.king proud.”

”Because I'm not going to deal with her. I'm not going to her begging.”

”Then I will,” Justin said. Justin said. ”She'll get you through this. n.o.body's going to pin anything on you. No more frame-ups.” ”She'll get you through this. n.o.body's going to pin anything on you. No more frame-ups.”

”Forget it.” Rattle of ice in a gla.s.s, and a thump, a gla.s.s set down. Hard. Rattle of ice in a gla.s.s, and a thump, a gla.s.s set down. Hard. ”They'll do what they want to anyway.” ”They'll do what they want to anyway.”

”I'll find a way,” Justin said. Justin said.

”Stubbornness,” Jordan said, Jordan said, ”runs in the family.” ”runs in the family.”

”So Justin offered sera's help,” Catlin said. Catlin said.

It was curious, considering where Justin's loyalties lay. It was worth bringing to sera, who understood born-men infinitely better. ”Sera should definitely hear this,” Florian said.

Reaching to her own keyboard, Catlin said, ”I'll send the transcript to her queue. She may not like that part.”

Chapter v.

June 12, 2424 0602 H.

Sleep hadn't come early, but Ari was up and dressed before Joyesse had a chance to show up & she'd fallen asleep before she'd heard how things had gone, and trusted Catlin to wake her if they'd gone spectacularly badly.

There was a note in System from Catlin. And files for her. Interesting, Catlin's note said. There was a flag on a section of note, but she started skimming the file from the top, choosing rapid-audio over scriptshe wanted the nuances.

And it was interesting, right from the start. Jordan tended to be that.

” & So my own appeal couldn't get you through my door, but you don't mind bringing the little dears guards to burgle my apartment.”

A little odd to hear oneself snarled at in absentia. She had a pet name. How sweet.

”I was concerned for your safety.” That was Justin, a little further from the pickup, talking about Patil, and she slowed the audio down. That was Justin, a little further from the pickup, talking about Patil, and she slowed the audio down. ”She was talking about somebody inside, Dad. Who would that be?” ”She was talking about somebody inside, Dad. Who would that be?”

Then: ”How was Patil involved? Why were you carrying her card around? And why in h.e.l.l did you dump it on me?” ”How was Patil involved? Why were you carrying her card around? And why in h.e.l.l did you dump it on me?”