City on Fire (Metropolitan 2) (16 page)

She’s making a deliberate hedge. The triumvirate are traveling with a large entourage, and she doesn’t know how many of them might be conduits to the Silver Hand.

“Can you give me a date?” Drumbeth presses.

Aiah clenches her teeth. “I’d . . . rather not, sir. May I show you our ops room? It is just down the hall.”

Hilthi gives her an accusing look. He is another triumvir, the former journalist whose opposition to the Keremaths became a byword. A tall man with tilted, supercilious eyes, he jots in a notebook with a golden pen as he speaks.

“You are not prepared to arrest these criminals? The problem of stolen plasm is vast and requires immediate remedy.” He frowns at her. “Totalitarian governments always find their chief allies within the criminal classes. Though the last government is gone, their allies still remain, causing untold suffering among the population.”

It is as if Hilthi were caught between his old profession of journalist, interrogating guilty members of a wicked government, and his new occupation, a politician who makes speeches.

“
We can arrest a few now,” Aiah says. “Or
many
later. No official policy has yet been formulated concerning which of these options we consider desirable.” She casts a glance at Constantine. He has been in the back of the crowd, looming over the triumvirate with an imperturbable expression on his face, and till now content to let her do the talking.

“
I’m afraid that’s my fault, gentlemen,” he says. “I wanted better information on the dimension of the problem before taking action. The amnesty is still in place, after all, and we have
all
been on the job only a few weeks.”

Hilthi scowls and writes on his pad.

“
May I point out,” Gentri says, “that Public Security has a policy in place, and that our plasm squads arrest criminals almost daily? Was it not Mr. Hilthi”— he gives a slight bow to his superior— “who issued the directive about eliminating redundancy whenever possible?” He looks at Aiah. “I do not doubt the enthusiasm of these, ah,
amateurs
, but I very much doubt if they will give you anything like satisfactory results.”

Aiah feels Gentri’s sting lodge in her heart. It would hurt less, she knew, if she weren’t, in fact, such a complete novice at everything she’s done.

She looks at Gentri levelly. “Give us six months,” she says, “and we shall see whose record is better.”

“A bold challenge,” Gentri says, “but my personnel outnumbers yours by tens of thousands. You don’t have a chance.”

Aiah’s response is ready on her tongue—
in your pants,
perhaps, or
call the neighbors,
or some other expression from her old neighborhood— but though the words are ready, she manages to bottle them up at the last second. Perhaps Drumbeth senses her struggle, because he chooses this moment to speak.

“Perhaps,” he says, “we will observe an exhibition of the values of competition. Now shall we go on to the ops rooms?”

The ops rooms, one large and one small, are still a shambles: video monitors with their copper cables hanging, plasm connections with hardware yet to be installed, plastic flooring still in huge rolls in the corner. But Aiah finds herself growing enthusiastic as she explains what it will look like when it’s finished, how supervisors will use the monitors to coordinate the actions of mages and military police.

“This is all very well, and you speak with enthusiasm and charm,” says Parq, whose title is not only triumvir but Holy. “The material functions of the room— its mighty purpose and dread, impersonal power—are impressive indeed. But I sense a certain moral uncertainty at work here. Perhaps the young lady stands in need of guidance.” He approaches Aiah and takes her hand.

Aiah cannot conceive of a more perfect image of a spiritual leader— Parq is tall and dignified and handsome, with solemn brown eyes in a long, copper-skinned face. His curling gray beard is long and silky and perfumed, and his soft, satin baritone projects a perfect sincerity. He wears gray robes, beautifully ornamented with silver lace, and a soft mushroom-shaped hat.

If Aiah didn’t know he was a corrupt tyrant who had only been elevated to his position because he was willing to collaborate with the Keremaths, she might well have fallen under his spell.

At close range, Parq gazes into Aiah’s eyes with utter concern. “Wouldn’t your task be made easier,” he asks, “if you had a spiritual guide in your division, one to give you insight into the complex decisions with which you will be faced almost daily?”

Aiah restrains the impulse to yank her hand back from his satin grip. “I’m sure that’s not for me to say, sir,” she says.

Parq presses on, taking a soft step nearer Aiah so that she can feel the warmth of his breath on her cheek. She suppresses the urge to claw his face to ribbons. “You would find such guidance to be of use, I’m certain,” he says, his soft voice like that of a suitor whispering into the ear of his beloved. “You are a stranger here, and so is Minister Constantine, and a wise advisor familiar with the local conditions would be worth everything to you ...”

“That’s a decision that will have to be made at a higher level than mine, I’m afraid,” Aiah says, and slides her hand from his grasp.

“Perhaps,” Constantine says, secret amusement glittering in his eyes, “you gentlemen would care to observe a few of our mages conducting a surveillance ...”

GRADE B EARTHQUAKE IN DOLIMARQ

75,000 DEAD

TRIUMVIRATE EXPRESSES SYMPATHY FOR VICTIMS

“A delicate escape from Parq,” Constantine says, “but nicely done. I could tell that you wanted to strike him, and on behalf of the Ministry of Resources I would like to commend you on your restraint.”

The tour over, Constantine and Aiah take refuge in his office.

Weariness and relief beat down on Aiah’s shoulders. She can’t tell if she’s done well or ill, but she is thankful that she will not have to deal with any more triumvirs today. She collapses into a chair, feels leather and hydraulics receive her.

“I wish I felt I could have spoken to them more frankly,” she says. “I would like to tell them I’d make a hundred arrests the very day the amnesty ends.”

He looks at her, fingers thoughtfully touching his chin. Behind him, visible through the huge oval window, plasm adverts glow in air. “Can you make a hundred arrests? Will you?”

“
You said you wanted them
destroyed
. I can’t do
that
, I suppose, but I’ll do what I can. If, of course, you’ll give me the soldiers to do it. And warrants.”

“Naturally I shall. Geymard’s troops will get bored if they do nothing but guard the Palace.”

She glances up at him. “I have learned something from you and Geymard and Drumbeth," she says. “A tactic I wish to employ.”

“Yes?”

“
Decapitation is best.
I want to slice the head of the Silver Hand clean off in one stroke.”

“There are more Handmen than there were Keremaths,” Constantine observes. “And more heads.”

“With their leaders gone, I hope the rest will fight over the spoils. And perhaps even inform on each other, to weaken their rivals.”

Constantine nods. “A policy that promises well. Though you should not count on them to inform— it is the one thing, the one guild rule, that is ruthlessly enforced.”

“I would like to publicize a telephone number that informants can call. With rewards, perhaps. But that means hiring more clerical staff and coming up with reward money.”

Constantine gives this notion a moment’s thought. “Wait until after your first arrests. If they are successful, I will have more leverage with the triumvirate.”

“If you think that’s best.”

Constantine looks down at his ebony-and-gilt desk. He opens a drawer, reaches inside, takes out Aiah’s copy of the
Proceedings
, and pushes it across the desk toward her.

“I have ordered the entire set from the Jaspeeri Plasm Authority,” he says, and his grin broadens. “I wonder what they will make of it? Double-express delivery, and addressed to me personally, a man to whom the Authority police would very much like to speak.”

She takes the heavy book from his desk and holds it in her lap. “I imagine they will take your money and send the books.”

“I imagine they will.” His head cocks to one side, and he regards her from beneath half-closed eyes. “How well did you know this Rohder?”

“Not well, though I worked for him at one point. Catching plasm thieves, because the Authority had given him no other job.” She smiles. “And because he needed a hobby.”

“Would he come to work for us, do you think?”

“I will call him, if you like.”

“An interview first. At his convenience. I will send an aerocar for him.”

“He has almost three hundred years’ seniority at the Authority. It’s a lot to give up.”

“Well.” Constantine shrugs. “We’ll see how badly he needs a hobby.”

Aiah smiles. “I will make the call.”

There is a knock on the doorframe, and Sorya walks in. She wears a silk dress the color of apricots and a belt of linked gold geomantic foci low on her hips, and carries a file folder.

Aiah’s nerves cry an alarm, but Sorya ignores her. She walks past Aiah’s chair with her languid panther stride, drops the folder on Constantine’s desk, then pulls out a chair and sits uninvited.

“The interrogations have gone well,” she says. “I have uncovered a few dozen foreign accounts where these Keremath men, these little losers, have been keeping their millions.”

Constantine gazes at Sorya with a hooded expression, lips turned up in a smile. A cruel little predatory glimmer dwells in his eyes, a twin to the gleam Aiah can see in Sorya’s glance.

“
The question is how to retrieve this money,” Sorya says, and draws her legs up into the chair, coiling herself in the soft leather as if it were Constantine’s lap. “We can go through the courts, and, on convincing them that these Keremath men are guilty of theft, and that the money was corruptly gained, we may in the end retrieve it,
or
...” She smiles. "Or we may mount an operation. I have their chops. An agent with the right passwords and the right chop can gain the money in a half-shift’s work.”

“I will review the files.”

“In my judgment a few of these sums are worth the risk. I have already had my people in the banks here in Caraqui, torn out deposit boxes with crowbars, and found bonds and jewels enough to run the Force of the Interior for a week.”

“Ah.” He deliberately examines a dangling jewel about her neck. Rubies and brilliants, glittering Shieldlight from amid a nested serpent design.

“
That
is very fine,” Constantine remarks, “and new, I believe.”

Sorya gives her lilting laugh. “A souvenir only,” she says. “I will return it to the state when I tire of it. But I think I will wear it to Justice Gathmark’s reception this sleep shift, and let him wonder where he has seen it before, and around whose pretty neck, and wonder as well what has happened to that old crony of his, for whom he did so many favors.”

They laugh at this conceit. A leaden weight sits on Aiah’s heart as she watches these companions at their clever play.

She pushes her chair back and stands.

“I’ll leave you to your work, Minister,” she says.

Sorya laughs again and looks at Aiah from beneath a soft wave of her blonde-streaked hair. “I was sorry to miss the tour last shift," she says. “I hear good things of your department.”

And I hear nothing good of yours.
Aiah burns to say it, but instead says “Thank you,” and makes her way out.

She hears Sorya’s laugh again as she closes the door behind her, and she remembers Constantine’s words:
A personal power base in your department may not be a bad thing.

Indeed, she concludes, not a bad thing at all.

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Another plasm house confirmed.

Another tip from the half-worlds proven accurate.

Aiah throws the switch and feels the transphysical world fade, sees the smaller of the two operations rooms come back into focus. The room is a shambles, gear piled everywhere and cables taped to the floor, with only a few plasm stations operational. Even though it’s early first shift, every station is being used by mages on surveillance. Aiah’s own shift ended at 24:00, but she stayed for another hour in order to make notes on a conversation the Handmen were having concerning a hijacking they’d pulled off in Barchab. The Barchabi police would probably be interested to know the names of the Barchabi accomplices.

It takes half an hour for Aiah to write her notes into a form suitable for transcription, next shift, by one of the department’s clerical aides; and then she tucks the file under her arm and makes her way out of the room.

The secure room is down a short hall. She’ll put the file there till work shift, then head to her apartment to take a shower and get some sleep. If, that is, the blazing plasm she’s been feeding into her nerves over the last hours will permit her even to close her eyes...

Aiah nods to the guard and says hello to the clerk, a little goggle-eyed embryo woman, who’s on duty and bent over her desk, keeping the index up to date. Aiah gives her the file number so that she can log it in. Then she steps to the door of the secure room itself, puts her hand on the cool bronze bar, and prepares to punch the day’s code into the twelve-key pad. No, the next day’s code, because it’s after change of shift....

She looks up and feels her heart turn over. Constantine is in the secure room, sitting at a metal desk, head bent as he copies something from a file. There is a cold light in his lowered eyes, and his upper lip is curled, as if in distaste for the task he has set himself.

Constantine, normally so aware of his surroundings, hasn’t even glanced up at her approach.