A Fire in the Sun (14 page)

"Before you came to the city," Friedlander Bey repeated calmly, "where did you live?"

"Most recently in Paris, O Shaykh." Saad's voice was thin and strained.

The answer startled Papa. "Did your mother like living among the Franj?"

"I guess so."

Friedlander Bey was doing an admirable impersonation of a bored person. He picked up a silver letter opener and toyed with it. "Did you live well in Paris?"

"I guess so." Habib and Labib began to crush Saad's collarbones. He was encouraged to give more details. "We had a big apartment in the Rue de Paradis, O Shaykh. My mother likes to eat well and she likes giving parties. The months in Paris were pleasant. It surprised me when she told me we were coming here."

"And did you labor to earn money, so your mother could eat Franji food and wear Franji clothing?"

"I did no labor, O Shaykh."

Papa's eyes narrowed. "Where do you think the money came from to pay for these things?"

Saad hesitated. I could hear him moan as the Stones applied still more pressure. "She told me it came from her father," he cried.

"Her father?" said Friedlander Bey, dropping the letter opener and looking at Saad directly.

"She said from you, O Shaykh."

Papa grimaced and made a quick gesture with both hands. The Stones moved back, away from the youth. Saad slumped forward, his eyes tightly closed. His face was shiny with sweat.

"Let me tell you one thing, O clever one," said Papa. "And remember that I do not lie. I am not your mother's father, and I am not your grandfather. We share no blood. Now go."

Saad tried to stand, but collapsed back into the chair. His expression was grim and determined, and he glared at Friedlander Bey as if he were trying to memorize every detail of the old man's face. Papa had just called Umm Saad a liar, and I'm sure that at that moment the boy was entertaining some pitiful fantasy of revenge. At last he managed to stand up again, and he made his way shakily to the door. I intercepted him.

"Here," I said. I took out my pillcase and gave him two tabs of Sonneine. "You'll feel a lot better in a few minutes."

He took the tabs, looked me fiercely in the eye, and dropped the sunnies to the floor. Then he turned his back on me and left Friedlander Bey's office. I bent down and

reclaimed the Sonneine. To paraphrase a local proverb: a white tablet for a black day.

After the formal greetings, Papa invited me to be comfortable. I sat in the same chair from which Saad had just escaped. I have to admit that I suppressed a little shudder. "Why was the boy here, O Shaykh?" I asked.

"He was here at my invitation. He and his mother are once again my guests."

I must have missed something. 'Tour graciousness is legendary, O my uncle; but whey do you permit Umm Saad to intrude on your peace? I know she upsets you."

Papa leaned back in his chair and sighed. At that moment, he showed every year of his long life. "She came to me humbly. She begged my forgiveness. She brought me a gift." He gestured to a platter of dates stuffed with nutmeats and rolled in sugar. He smiled ruefully. "I don't know where she got her information, but someone told her that these are my favorite treat. Her tone was respectful, and she made a claim upon my hospitality that I could not dismiss." He spread his hands, as if that explained it all.

Friedlander Bey observed traditions of honor and generosity that have all but disappeared in this day and age. If he wanted to welcome a viper back into his home, I had nothing to say about it. "Then your instructions concerning her have changed, O Shaykh?" I asked.

His expression did not alter. He didn't even blink. "Oh no, that's not what I mean. Please kill her as soon as it's convenient for you, but there's no hurry, my son. I find I'm getting curious about what Umm Saad hopes to accomplish."

"I will conclude the matter soon," I said. He frowned. "Inshallah, "I added quickly. "Do you think she's working for someone else? An enemy?"

"Reda Abu Adil, of course," said Papa. He was very matter-of-fact about it, as if there wasn't the slightest cause for concern.

"Then it was you, after all, who ordered the investigation of Abu Adil."

He raised a plump hand in denial. "No," he insisted, "I had nothing to do with that. Speak to your Lieutenant Hajjar about it."

Lot of good that would do. "O Shaykh, may I ask you

another question? There's something I don't understand about your relationship to Abu Adil."

Suddenly he looked bored again. That put me on my guard. I gave a reflexive glance over my shoulders, half expecting to see the Stones That Speak moving in close behind me. "Your wealth comes from selling updated data files to governments and heads of state, doesn't it?"

"That is greatly oversimplified, my nephew."

"And Abu Adil pursues the same business. Yet you told me you do not compete."

"Many years before you were born, before even your mother was born, Abu Adil and I came to an agreement." Papa opened a plain clothbound copy of the holy Qur'an and glanced at the page. "We avoided competition because someday it could result in violence and harm to ourselves or those we love. On that long-ago day we divided the world, from Morocco far in the west to Indonesia far in the east, wherever the beautiful call of the muezzin awakens the faithful from sleep."

"Like Pope Alexander drawing the Line of Demarcation for Spain and Portugal," I said.

Papa looked displeased. "Since that time, Reda Abu Adil and I have had few dealings of any sort, although we live in the same city. He and I are at peace."

Yeah, you right. For some reason, he wasn't going to give me any direct help. "O Shaykh," I said, "it's time for me to go. I pray to Allah for your health and prosperity." I came forward and kissed him on the cheek.

"You will make me lonely for your presence," he replied. "Go in safety."

I left Friedlander Bey's office. In the hallway, Kmuzu tried to take my briefcase from me. "It is unseemly for you to carry this, when I am here to serve you," he said.

"You want to go through it and look for drugs," I said with some irritation. "Well, there aren't any in there. I got them in my pocket, and you'll have to wrestle me to the ground first."

"You are being absurd, yaa Sidi," he said.

"I don't think so. Anyway, I'm not ready to leave for the office yet."

"It is already late."

"Goddamn it, I know that! I just want to have a few words with Umm Saad, now that she's living under this roof again. Is she in the same suite?"

"Yes. This way, yaa Sidi."

Umm Saad, like my mother, stayed in the other wing of the mansion. While I followed Kmuzu through the carpeted halls, I opened my briefcase and took out Saied's moddy, the tough, ruthless personality. I chipped it in. The effect was remarkable. It was the opposite of the Half-Hajj's dumbing-down module, which had narrowed and blurred my senses. This one, which Saied always called Rex, seemed to focus my attention. I was filled with purpose; but more than that, I was determined to drive straight toward my goal, and I'd crush anything that tried to obstruct me.

Kmuzu knocked lightly on Umm Saad's door. There was a long pause, and I heard no one stirring inside. "Get out of the way," I said to Kmuzu. My voice was a mean growl. I stepped up to the door and rapped on it sharply. "You want to let me in?" I called. "Or you want me to let myself in?"

That got a response. The boy swung the door open and stared at me. "My mother isn't—"

"Out of the way, kid," I said. I pushed him aside.

Umm Saad was sitting at a table, watching the news on a small holoset. She looked up at me. "Welcome, O Shaykh," she said. She wasn't happy.

"Yeah, right," I said. I sat in a chair across the table from her. I reached across and tapped the holoset off. "How long you known my mother?" I asked. Another shot in the dark.

Umm Saad looked perplexed. "Your mother?"

"Goes by Angel Monroe sometimes. She's staying down the hall from you."

Umm Saad shook her head slowly. "I've only seen her once or twice. I've never spoken to her."

"You must've known her before you came to this house." I just wanted to see how big this conspiracy was.

"Sorry," she said. She gave me a wide-eyed, innocent smile that looked as out of place on her as it would have on a desert scorpion.

Okay, sometimes a shot in the dark doesn't get you anywhere. "And Abu Adil?"

"Who's that?" Her expression was all angelic and virtuous.

I started to get angry. "I just want some straight answers, lady. What I got to do, bust up your kid?"

Her face got very serious. She was doing "sincere" now. "I'm sorry, I really don't know any of those people. Am I supposed to? Did Friedlander Bey tell you that?"

I assumed she was lying about Abu Adil. I didn't know if she'd been lying about my mother. At least I could check that out later. If I could believe my mother.

I felt a heavy hand on my shoulder. "Yaa Sidi?" said Kmuzu. He sounded afraid that I might rip Umm Saad's head off and hand it to her.

"All right," I said, still feeling wonderfully malignant. I stood up and glared down at the woman. "You want to stay in this house, you're gonna have to learn to be more cooperative. I'm gonna talk to you again later. Think up some better answers."

"I'll be looking forward to it," said Umm Saad. She batted her heavy fake eyelashes at me. It made me want to punch her face in.

Instead, I turned and stalked out of the apartment. Kmuzu hurried behind me. "You can take the personality module out now, yaa Sidi," he said nervously.

"Hell, I like it. Think I'll leave it in." Actually I did enjoy the feeling it gave me. There seemed to be a constant flood of angry hormones in my blood. I could see why Saied wore it all the time. Still, it wasn't the right one to wear around the station house, and Shaknahyi'd promised to annihilate any moddy I wore in his presence. I reached up reluctantly and popped it out.

I could feel the difference immediately. My body was still quivering from the leftover adrenalin, but I calmed down pretty quick. I returned the moddy to my briefcase, then grinned at Kmuzu. "I was pretty tough, huh?" I said.

Kmuzu didn't say a word, but his look let me know just how low his opinion was.

We went outside, and I waited while Kmuzu brought the car around. When Kmuzu let me out at the station house, I told him to go back home and keep Angel Monroe out of trouble. "And pay attention around Umm Saad and the boy too," I said. "Friedlander Bey is sure she's somehow connected to Reda Abu Adil, but she's playing it very cagey. Maybe you can learn something."

"I will be your eyes and ears, yaa Sidi," he said.

As usual, the crowd of hungry young boys was loitering outside the copshop. They'd all begun waving and screaming when they saw my Westphalian sedan pull up to the curb. "O Master!" they cried. "O Compassionate!"

I reached for a handful of coins as I usually did, but then I remembered the Lamb Lady I'd helped the week before. I took out my wallet and dropped a five-kiam bill on each of the kids. "God open upon you," I said. I was a little embarrassed to see that Kmuzu was watching me closely.

The boys were astonished. One of the older kids took my arm and steered me away from the rest. He was about fifteen years old, and already there was a dark shadow of beard on his narrow face. "My sister would be interested to meet such a generous man," he said.

"I'm just not interested in meeting your sister."

He grinned at me. Three of his yellow teeth had been broken off in some fight or accident. "I have a brother as well," he said. I winced and went past him into the building. Behind me, the boys were yelling my praises. I was real popular with them, at least until tomorrow, when I'd have to buy their respect all over again.

Shaknahyi was waiting for me by the elevator. "Where you at?" he said. It seemed that no matter how early I got to work, Shaknahyi got there earlier.

"Aw right," I said. Actually, I was still tired and I felt mildly nauseated. I could chip in a couple of daddies that would take care of all that, but Shaknahyi had me intimidated. Around him I functioned with just my natural talents and hoped they were still enough.

It wasn't that long ago that I prided myself on having an unwired brain as smart and quick as any moddy in the city. Now I was putting all my confidence in the electronics. I'd become afraid of what might happen if I had to face a crisis without them.

"One of these days, we're gonna have to catch Abu Adil when he's not chipped in," said Shaknahyi. "We don't want to make him suspicious, but he's got some tough questions to answer."

"What questions?"

Shaknahyi shrugged. "You'll hear 'em next time we pass by there." For some reason, he wasn't confiding in me any more than Papa had.

Sergeant Catavina found us in the corridor. I didn't know much about him except he was Hajjar's right-hand man, and that meant he had to be bent one way or another. He was a short man who lugged around too much weight by about seventy pounds. He had wavy black hair parted by a moddy plug, always with at least one daddy chipped in because he didn't understand five words in Arabic. It was a total mystery to me why Catavina had come to the city. "Been lookin' for you two," he said. His voice was shrill, even filtered through the Arabic-language daddy.

"What is it?" I asked.

Catavina's predatory brown eyes flicked between me and Shaknahyi. "Just got a tip on a possible homicide." He handed Shaknahyi a slip of paper with an address on it. "Go take a look."

"In the Budayeen," said Shaknahyi.

"Yeah," said the sergeant.

"Whoever called this in, anybody recognize the voice?"

"Why should anybody recognize the voice?" asked Catavina.

Shaknahyi shrugged. "We got two or three leads like this in the last couple of months, that's all."

Catavina looked at me. "He's one of these conspiracy guys. Sees 'em everywhere." The sergeant walked away, shaking his head.

Shaknahyi glanced at the address again and jammed the slip of paper into a shirt pocket. "Back of the Budayeen, spitting distance from the graveyard," he said.