Part 22 (1/2)

HIGO's conclusions were at the same time inescapable and impossible.

Marina's expertise was an ability to read situations. A child of the welfare system she had learned earlier than she could remember, to know unerringly, who and what was bad news. She was also lucky. Stumbled over in her young teens by Penny, she confirmed for her an early suspicion that in rare circ.u.mstances some people could be good news. She was still working to trust the distance this would take her and so was, she knew, unreasonably suspicious of Penny's ultimate goals but not her interest in her. She knew in her head Penny was alright, more than alright, pretty d.a.m.n good - the best there was. Her loyalty, once gained was unshakeable, but her ability to trust was too fragile to be leaned upon firmly. This gave her a hard edge, which she deliberately beat, folded and honed like a samurai sword until it cut through the c.r.a.p of the world without blunting.

She was totally without fear. Others thought her ruthless, without feeling, inexorable - and so she was. She went where others more timid left her to go alone. She chased information firstly from curiosity and later learned that knowledge and information was the critical factor which gave control over her life and that of others.

She never considered her motives or inner drives. She had no need for introspection to delve into such things as cruelty or abandonment in childhood. For her, there was only one kind of person who mattered. Those like her grandmother, who's concern was coupled with action. Through her she learned the need sometimes to destroy in order to re-create. Abandoned by her mother, abused by the man who claimed to be her father, she was freed from him by her grandmother with one determined blow of a boning-knife - he defiled her no more. They so disposed of his remains he was never found nor was he missed by anyone.

This was care indeed, not available, after her grandmother's death, in countless children's homes and foster parents. She soon had more moves than she had had birthdays. One of Penny's sea captains found her a bedraggled, spitting, run-away kitten, stowed away on a JNO s.h.i.+p bound for Trinidad. 'Bring this young would be mariner to me at JNO,' she had said to the barely amused captain. Her first thought was to hand her back to the authorities, Marina divining her intent threw her so dark and venomous a glance, which she correctly understood as a challenge to her humanity and left her unable to refuse.

'You shall be Marina, my would be sailor, I have work for one of such ferocity.' So she stayed. Whatever her previous life, she was born again - Marina - no-name. She learned quickly and in five years, by nineteen was in control of Penny's developing security needs.

'I need people who can read faces and intentions, you can learn security techniques, its mainly your survival instincts I want.' Hiring Marina was one of Penny's best decisions. Marina gathered material on every employee, every customer, every rival, no one remotely connected with JNO escaped. Where she could, she got DNA records, you never knew who might be related to whom and you never knew when you wanted to check who might have left a trace of their presence in unexpected places. She kept finger-prints, voice-prints, school-records, college-records, job-applications, private correspondence, anything, everything. Until HIGO she had no easy way of cross-referencing and much of her knowledge was too diffuse until GAIANET was able to do the collecting and HIGO the interrogation.

After the disappearance of Alexander, she got HIGO to lay out certain names in two columns. Those with unusual and linked DNA patterns were Hep, Alexander, Thea, Ljeschi and unexpectedly - Barboncito. None of the other many thousands of records had similar patterns. They were different from other people, and were not DNA patterns of any kind she ever saw elsewhere - HIGO filed them as such. The surprise was Barboncito and she wondered if Alexander had known. The other list held Penny, Ric, Manny Kanuho, and the members of the advisory group - all perfectly normal, sharing no relations.h.i.+p at all. She had expected Manny and Barboncito to be related. This major surprise confirmed her suspicions that all was not as it seemed at Fourthworld. Barboncito the hacker, was related in some way to Hep, Thea, Alexander and the others.

His electronic foray into the terminals at Markham was not what he said, just curiosity and a test of skill. His companions.h.i.+p with Alexander was probably no accident and she had never believed they had fallen off some ledge. So where were they? Who was traitor to whom? What was Alexander's relations.h.i.+p to these others and how come he shared their DNA, while Thea had none of Penny's? Was it possible Thea was adopted?

The hacking had stopped for a long time but the 'worm-holes' were there nonetheless. Despite all her efforts, Barboncito and or his agents must have access to GAIANET and were active. But where was the information going and how was it being used? Why did they not take over if they could? If JNO as it seemed, was holding its own, why was it? When would they make their move? Would they? What was going on in JNO in parts she could not see where Thea, Alexander, Ljeschi and Lucina roamed? She had to know!

She had checked out Fourthworld on the day she left Alexander in the Canyon. Her people had infiltrated Kanuho's operation at many different points and reported all was well. They still reported that everything there was alright. Still there was no doubt GAIANET was compromised. When Penny and members of the Advisory Group manipulated resources, the effect was often less positive than it should have been. It was as if the opposition knew what they were going to do and had been busy minimising the effect. The only neutral variable was the climate. Everyone was losing against that. Something was going on and all her instincts said it had something to do with the supposed disappearance of Alexander. She decided her best starting point was to renew her efforts within Fourthworld.

She spoke to Ric about her thoughts on the hacking problem, she said nothing about her investigations into the top bra.s.s at JNO. He told her to talk to Penny and so she called her up and they spoke for a long time. After this Marina sought out Ric in the computer centre almost as soon as she finished speaking to Penny. Marina directed him outside for a stroll in the grounds.

'I don't want to risk being overheard. I trust the people here but you can't be too careful. I've spoken to Penny and I've got to get to Fourthworld in a hurry.'

Ric had his own inkling about their conversation and wondered how much Penny had given away about her relations.h.i.+p with Lucina and the others at Psathi. They had to trust in each other. Marina was Penny's creation and her creature. He trusted her tenacity and loyalty, but realised he had no knowledge of her as a person. He knew in general terms what she did, but relatively nothing about her background. He knew via HIGO she was investigating all of them and had not made up his mind about what he thought of it.

'I want to know two things,' he said, first, what exactly did Penny and you discuss?'

'And the second thing?'

'I'll answer that after you answer the first.'

'Why are we sparring like this?' Marina asked abruptly.

'Alright, Marina I'll be as direct as I can. You're Penny's person, JNO is her creation and you are its guardian. I know I'm just an operative...'

'A crucial one and b.l.o.o.d.y good.' Marina grinned, 'Probably, well yes a crucial one as you say, though without Hep I'm not so sure I wouldn't be well out of my depth. Anyway, an operative in the end - but I'm no machine any more than Penny - or you for that matter. So I need to know what motivates you beyond doing your job. I'm concerned about Penny and her involvement with the Psathi people. We've both experienced Hep and Lucina directly and we've never talked about it. We both do our job and report. We've both of us left the responsibility for making final decisions with Penny. We've allowed her to face them alone...'

'There's Alexander, you're forgetting him,' she interrupted again and stared him directly in the eye. She could tell, he knew something.

'I won't discuss him with you until I know what you talked about with Penny.

'Okay, okay, I'll come clean. I talked about what's going down here. That most people know nothing about, some people know something about and a handful of people know everything about. I asked her what you know, what she knows, and most of all I wanted to know what Alexander, Thea Hep and especially what Lucina and Zarian knows. I told her I've looked at all of you. Okay, I'll tell you where I'm up to. Starting with you. Basically I think you're okay. You're in love with Penny, but you won't do anything about it while she's got the world on her shoulders. I think you should, although it's none of my business. You're working on a fast and more efficient form of inter-personal communications with Hep which links into SYDCOM and Lynne Farrell's thing with Colwyn. I know you're nearly ready for early trials and that the Advisory Group want it like yesterday. I'm right?'

'Yes, of course, you wouldn't be doing your job otherwise.'

'Thank you, you're not bothered I'm clued up about you?'

Ric smiled dourly. 'I'm not so sure about the personal stuff, but it's your job to know about all of us and as long as you're getting it right.'

'That's what Penny said.'

'You mean she knows?'

'Of course, but my guess is you knew and merely wanted it confirmed.'

Ric did not speak.

'So that's you. Penny, well I don't have to say anything about her; without her we're nothing. It's the others, and that's where I've drawn a complete blank apart from the DNA samples.'

'DNA samples?'

'You don't know about 'Them?”

'I want to know what you know.'

'Okay, okay. I thought you would have checked out what I was doing with HIGO.'

Ric said coolly, 'I don't have time to spend checking up on you. I know I'm alright and I trust Penny to trust you're kosher. Funny isn't it, we spend so much time on methods of communication that we don't have time to communicate with each other properly. So what's all this about DNA?

'You really didn't check out what I was doing - thanks for the trust.' He's a straight guy, she thought, he'll be good for Penny if we all get out of this okay, and she told him the facts.

'So you see Ric, the great surprise is that Barboncito and Alexander are related. Thea and Alexander are too as you'd expect, and they are all related to Hep and the others but Penny is no relation to Thea, despite her being her daughter and Alexander's twin, while Alexander shares DNA with his sister. So there's no way Thea can be her child. Alexander is, but he shares DNA with his twin, a congenitally complete stranger to her mother.

'You spoke of this to Penny?'

'Yes. Is that the second question you had?'

' Yes. What did you speak about?'

'I asked her point blank why Thea had no DNA patterns from her but how it was Thea and Alexander were both related to the others. She went quiet for a long time, so long I had to ask if she was still there.

'And?'

Ric was astounded at her directness. With Penny It was a subject he had always treated like walking on eggs.

'I thought I'd overreached myself and she wasn't going to answer me. Before she replied I went on and told her about Barboncito and the concerns here about the 'worm-holes'. I think it was the practical consequences of this that brought her back to reality. I couldn't help thinking she was under considerable strain. She simply said she knew it was true and had no explanation but that she had given birth to the twins physically and that was all she could tell me. Once it was spoken, she seemed to recover - I thought she felt a bit relieved at not being alone with the knowledge. That's why I said what I said about you and her. She's terribly isolated in herself, needs your help Ric. Anyway, she said she was surprised about Barboncito and that Alexander needed warning. She supposed Thea would do it. I wasn't all that astounded at the inference that Alexander is still alive. I never believed the stories, Kanuho was too evasive about it. You knew didn't you?'

'Lucina told me.'

'I thought so, she threw her spell on you all in the Group, but missed me out. So you all knew about 'Them.'

'Only Penny and I knew for certain that 'They' exist,' replied Ric. 'The Group sense it but have no real knowledge. Now there are three of us and 'Them' as well of course.'

'It starts to explain all my doubts,' said Marina. 'Ever since I began recording DNA patterns it showed up, I've probably known longer than anyone, but until now it was none of my business. My job is to keep tabs and report back as and when.'

'Why didn't you simply ask Hep or Lucina?' Ric offered, 'I did think about it. But it seems clear they are not going to let us into the secret. If Penny hasn't got answers and, more to the point can't get them, there must be a reason which we'll have to search for because it won't get answered simply by asking. Anyway you're all far too busy with the here and now to spend time on it. I decided it will have to be me. I have a responsibility to Alexander now that we know he's alive. We sent him after the hacker and I stupidly a.s.sumed we had sorted the problem out and it wasn't my business to interfere with his business with the Navajo. But now I know this is the root of the problem. I've been making more enquiries about Fourthworld.'

'Doubtless,' Ric smiled.