Echoes of an Alien Sky (24 page)

"Sure. I hope it's not bad news. Take care. Over. Out."

Kyal looked across at the group clustered around the screen. Somebody emitted an exclamation of awe and horror. The screen showed a fireball mushrooming into a turbulent cloud, while a voice off-screen that was supposed to be Terran shrieked and babbled inanely. "What this?" he called across to Yorim.

"They've just fusion-bombed a slave city." That was what Venusians called the Terran metropolises with their concrete towers of work cubicles, optimized for maximum short-term financial returns. "They had them in parking orbits, ready to be targeted anywhere. Want to come and watch?"

Kyal screwed up his nose distastefully. "No, I think I'll go back to some quiet in the dorm and just read." As he stood up, his mind went back again to the electronics he'd looked at with Bryskek. "You know, I can't wait to see if we can restore some of the Terran music."

Lorili was not looking forward to meeting Tyarla. She expected to be a confrontation, and confrontation was not her style. Such experiences tended to be draining, unsettling, and seldom productive. Clearance had come through late in the afternoon from Sherven's office for her transfer up to
Explorer 6
, but by that time Elundi and Iwon had already set things up for that evening. Having made a commitment, Lorili would honor it, naturally; but after that, she just wanted to be away from it all to get on with her work and be free to think about the future.

At the end of the day, she walked with Iwon to the Central District, where he had arranged to meet Elundi, and the three of them proceeded to Tyarla's apartment, which was not very far from Lorili's in another of the outer residential sectors. Tyarla received them wearing a glittery green trouser suit with the flared sleeves and legs that were the current fashion on Venus, her hair worn high in a silver slide. The interior was a colorful riot of purple, lilac, yellow, and black, splashed across compositions of angular mural designs and hanging drapes, with metallic furnishings and ceramic ornaments. Tyarla herself remained cool and aloof, evidently relishing the experience as little as Lorili did. She let them find their own seats around the room and didn't offer anything by way of drinks or refreshment. Elundi introduced his two companions and then began:

"I'm sorry to bring this up again if you're having enough to deal with already, Tyala. As I said on the phone earlier, yes, it's to do with these things you've said concerning Gaster Lornod." He sighed, as if to convey that this wasn't easy for him either. "Look, I've been following Lornod's arguments for a long time. I think he makes some good points. And when I get interested in a subject I do a lot of research into the background. So I know a lot about the man, his character, and where he's coming from." Elundi shook his head appealingly. "What you're saying just doesn't fit. I've talked to a number of people who know him personally, and they say the same thing."

Tyarla raised her chin defiantly; but at the same time her eyes betrayed insecurity. "He's a politician. They're all alike. Of course there's a nicely groomed public image. I can't help it if your friends were taken in by it. I only know what
I
heard and saw."

"Why should you care?" Iwon put in. "Even if it's true, why bother? Why get yourself mixed up in this?"

"I think the people should know," Tyarla shot back.

Elundi was shaking his head. "One of my contacts talked to you—Karteen Bissel. She says you weren't even able to describe Lornod accurately."

"So—I'm not very good at putting descriptions into words. Is that supposed to be a crime?"

Lorili could see this kind line going on indefinitely without result. But Elundi abandoned the circuitous route and came directly to the issue. "I mentioned Jenyn on the phone earlier—"

"And I said it's got nothing to do with Jenyn." Tyarla looked at the other two, as if for support. "Why is he bringing Jenyn into it?"

"I work with Jenyn, as you know," Elundi said. "I don't pretend to know him that well, because he's only been back in Rhombus from the Americas for a short time. But he was the one who introduced us, and I think
you
do know him very well from when he was in Rhombus before."

Tyarla sniffed haughtily. "I can't see what that's got anything to do with it, or that it's any of your business."

"You were pretty clearly making it everyone's business at the time," Elundi retorted. Even as he said it, the pained look in his eyes showed he knew that he shouldn't have.

"I don't have to listen to this." Tyarla started to rise.

Iwon tried to be placating. "Let's not get heated. It won't help. . . . Look, Tyarla, this is for your own good as much as anything else. Really. If it is the way Elundi's saying, it will be far better to come clean about it now."

"I don't need you people to tell me what's good for me. I can take care of myself, thanks." Tyarla was on her feet, but as yet she was making no move to show them the door. A part of her, yet, was undecided.

Elundi came back in. "I might not have known Jenyn for a long time, but let me be frank about what I see," he said. "I see a person with problems—ambitions of power and grandeur, totally egotistical. The kind of person who won't think twice about using others to get what he wants, or destroying them through lies, deformation, or whatever it takes if they get in his way. He has no interest in truth, only results. He doesn't care how they come about, or who else might get hurt in the process. It was a quality that the Terrans somehow elevated to a virtue, and he admires it. But it's easy to mistake Terran disinformation and propaganda for being the way things really were. Most of the Terrans themselves couldn't see through it." Elundi made a gesture of finality. "But on Venus things work by different standards. Jenyn will come unstuck. It won't be the way he has promised. Why let yourself go down with him? . . . Yes, I know that having to retract now will be embarrassing. But that would be much better in the long run than where it will lead otherwise."

Tyarla hesitated and looked less sure of herself, sinking back slowly to perch on the arm of a low-backed padded chair with fluffy pink and purple cushions. But her pride wouldn't allow her to back down yet. "What promises are you talking about?" she returned. "Who told you he promised anything?"

"Oh, let's be real," Elundi said, sounding impatient. "There had to be some motivation. What else? It's written across the whole situation."

"I . . . don't know." Tyarla looked up obstinately. "I need to think about it."

It was time for a woman-to-woman input, Lorili decided. After all, that was why she had been brought along.

"There may not be time for that," she said quietly. It was the first time she had spoken. The words and her tone took Tyarla by surprise, causing her to look around sharply.

"Why not?"

"Don't you realize that you could be in danger?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I know Jenyn too. I've known him a lot longer than you have. I knew him back on Venus. I know his anger and his instability, and I don't think I'm under any delusions as to where it could possibly lead. Think about this. If something were to happen to you now, can you see how convenient it would be for Jenyn? He would be free from any risk of being exposed by the one person who would be in a position to do it. And with the situation we've now got, it wouldn't take much for some people to ask who stood to gain from making sure you never got a chance to prove the things you've been saying, and jumping to the wrong answer, would it?"

"Lornod!" The surprise in Iwon's voice made it clear that such an angle had never occurred to him before either.

Lorili nodded. "Especially if it were helped along by a little rumoring, and maybe some convenient 'facts' leaked in the right places."

"Rig the evidence to point to your opposition," Elundi said. "That was a favorite Terran trick. They did it all the time. Jenyn thinks it was brilliant."

Tyarla's gaze darted from one to another of them. "You don't know any of this," she accused. "None if it has happened. It's just speculation, that's all it is. You're making it up."

"It's the way Jenyn operates," Lorili said. "I told you, I've know him a lot longer than you have." She snorted scornfully. "I was young, naive, vain, and full of myself with all the things I thought I knew." She paused just long enough for the unvoiced words
just like you
to assert themselves. "Do you want me to tell you exactly what he promised? Because I can, you know, and I will. Or would it be too embarrassing to be told in front of Elundi and Iwon? So suffice it to say that what he actually delivered was enough to make me want to come this far to get away from."

Tyarla licked her lips dryly, searching for a way to put the question. "Are you saying that something 'happened' to somebody before . . . back there?"

"No, I'm not saying that," Lorili replied evenly. "But I know him enough to have seen how he works and what he's capable of. I wouldn't put it past him."

"Why wait to find out the hard way?" Elundi interjected.

"There's only one way to be sure of being safe," Lorili concluded. "Come clean and put the truth on record
before
anything can happen. Then the whole situation would be turned around: There would be no case for Lornod to have to answer to; Jenyn would have nothing left to try and cover up, because it would be in the open; and he would have nothing to gain if anything were to 'happen.' But he would have a lot to lose."

There was nothing more to be added. Silence fell while Tyarla shifted her eyes from one to another of them. "Look, if it helps, none of us feels anything against you personally," Elundi said, more to relieve the strain.

"Why do you care?" Tyarla asked finally. She was still stalling.

Elundi pondered, then threw up his hand and made a face. "I guess I'm not like Jenyn. I believe truth and principle
do
matter. If you have to sacrifice them to get the results you want, then the results aren't worth it." Perhaps feeling that he was being a bit pompous, he added in an easier tone, "I suppose I'd never have made a Terran."

They waited. "I'm not admitting to anything, but I'll think about it," Tyarla said. "Give me until tomorrow. I'll talk to you again then." Her tone was final.

Elundi, Lorili, and Iwon looked at each other. They all read from the others' faces an agreement that there was nothing further to be done for now. Elundi rose, and the other two followed.

"Thanks for hearing us out," he said to Tyarla. "We'll leave it with you, then." For a moment Lorili feared he was going to spoil things with a final sermon, but he played it right, left it at that, and moved toward the door. Tyarla went ahead and held it open for them.

"Thanks for caring," she said almost in a whisper as Lorili, who was last in line, was about to step through. Lorili looked at her, hesitated, and grasped her hand briefly before Tyarla closed the door.

Outside, they stood looking at each other, each waiting for the others to find something appropriate. Finally Elundi hazarded, "Drink somewhere?"

"Good idea," Iwon agreed.

"Magic Carpet?" Lorili suggested.

Iwon looked dubious. "Too crowded. I'm not in the mood."

"I agree," Elundi said."How about the Caspian? It should be quiet there at this time."

The nods said the verdict was unanimous. They turned to head back the way they had come, toward the Central District. As they moved away, a figure that had been approaching from the opposite direction and stopped when they came out of Tyarla's door, emerged from the shadows of a stand of rhododendrons.

Derlen had told Tyarla that she would stop by later in the evening, but then found herself at a loose end and decided to make it earlier. Also, she was itching to learn the latest on this business that Tyarla had gotten herself involved in. But it seemed there were things going on that Derlen wasn't a part of. Maybe Tyarla would tell her about it now. But when Derlen went up to the door and rang after waiting a few minutes for the visitors' to be well gone, Tyarla seemed distracted and not all that pleased to see her.

"Yes, I know I said we'd go out somewhere," she told Derlen, "but something unexpected has come up. Can we make it another time?"

"Well, I guess so," Derlen said. She felt put out and didn't try to disguise it. If something like this were likely to happen, Tyarla could have called her and said so. She waited, but Tyarla didn't invite her in. "What kind of thing has come up?" she inquired.

"Oh, I can't go into it now. Could we just leave things for tonight? I need to be on my own to figure some things out. I'll give you a call, okay?"

No apology. No mention of whatever it was Elundi apparently already important enough in Tyarla's life to be involved in. Derlen hadn't been aware of any further dealings between Elundi and Tyarla since the night he had been with Jenyn in the Magic Carpet. As Derlen walked away, she remembered that Elundi had asked her not long ago for Tyarla's call code. He'd said it was because a friend had asked him if he knew any accountants who might be able to help with something or other. She was feeling angry and jealous. Something significant was going on, and Derlen was being left out.

Filaeyus Sherven, Honored Doctor of Science & Philosophy, sat at the desk in his spacious office of shelves and display screens, staring out through the glass wall at parts of
Explorer 6's
external structures silhouetted against the starfield. Many years ago now, when he was a student in Ulange, he had lodged for a while in the house of a widowed master carpenter, who was renting out a couple of the spare rooms. Sherven remembered a day when he had watched the carpenter taking out a piece from the mounting battens of a cabinet that he was building in a corner of the dining room. "Why are you taking that out?" the young Sherven had asked him.

"Oh, I must be getting careless. I cut the joint a bit slack."

"But it will be on the wall, at the back of everything. It won't show. Who would ever know?"

"
I
would know," the old man had told him.