Mary Rosenblum (21 page)

“Noah finally remembered to tell me. We need to talk, Ahni.”

“Where?” she said. “My hotel room is on this level.”

”Up at the axle. That’s safer.”

“I’m carrying a hotel chip. That’s why I didn’t come up there.”

“Not a problem.” He smiled faintly. “I can deal with that.”

“How’s Koi?”

“He misses you.” Dane searched her face. ”Why did you come back up here, Ahni?”

”To stop whatever my brother is doing.” She held his pewter gaze.

Dane’s eyes softened. “I’m glad you came back.” He leaned forward suddenly and kissed her lightly on the mouth. She caught her breath, mouth opening, heat flushing through her, tasting him, the corridor, the riot, fading in an instant.

Reluctantly, he pushed her away. “I’ll see you at the axle,” he said, his voice husky. Then he stepped into the corridor and vanished into the thinning crowd.

Dizzy, Ahni searched for any hint of Xai, found nothing but the crackling static of a lot of upset people.

Her blood pulsed with the aftermath of that kiss as she plotted her way to the nearest elevator. As she entered the main corridor, she found a cordon of Security keeping people back, their emotional signature jagged.

Two members trotted a lightweight gurney down the corridor. A sheet covered the body on it.

THE ELEVATOR RIDE UP SEEMED TO TAKE FOREVER. ONLY a scattered handful of men and women got on and off the elevator as it rose. They didn’t look at her at all, their focus inward, or fixed on eyelid screens. The Con, she guessed. Buzzing. The last one exited as they reached the final “open” level.

From here on up you had to have access.

This time, she didn’t have to override the security.

The warning chimed, she donned the straps, and felt weight vanish from the universe. The door finally irised open and that familiar green wash of light flooded her. Almost before the door had completely opened, Koi shot through it, handed off into a pern backward somersault from the wall beside her, killed his momentum in a rebound off the ceiling and ended up perfectly still and upside down facing her, eye to eye, his grin so wide it threatened to split his face.

”You have lovely molars,” Ahni said, peering into his mouth and trying vainly to hide a smile. “Nice to see you, too, Koi.”

“I knew you’d come back, no matter what Dane said.” He shivered and drifted sideways, ushering her out the elevator door. Then, with a whoop, he kicked off from the side of the elevator and arrowed away, looping and rolling, deflecting his momentum with the merest stretch of a limb or touch to one of the tubes. The scrum players had seemed incredibly skillful, but now she realized that they weren’t a whole lot more skilled in microG than she was. Not compared to Koi.

His family joined him suddenly, perhaps a half dozen slender shapes, echoing his rolls, twists, and loops.

One of them shot down to spill her momentum precisely and without flourish, ending up eye to eye with Ahni.

“Hi,” Ahni said, regarding those strange milky eyes. Good adaptation for the light, she thought. “Do you talk?”

The girl, her face flower-delicate and feminine in spite of her hairless skull smiled at her.

And greeted her.

Ahni blinked, because that’s what it was … a welcome, a hello, glad to meet you. Only … no words.

None. Nothing that could be called a “word” by any stretch of the imagination. But a greeting, none the less. “You do talk,” Ahni said, her mind whirling. “Where’s Dane?” Thought of Dane, his dark hair, strong face.

The girl smiled again, turned and pushed off. Ahni followed, noticing how she matched her speed to Ahni’s. Koi zoomed past.

“Hey!” He somersaulted, twisted, looped around her, angry with a child’s “you ignored me” pique, arrowed straight at the girl.

She rolled instantly. Made a quick grabbing gesture that must have connected although Ahni couldn’t quite make it out. With a yelp, Koi shot off on a tangent, caught himself on a tube.

Ahni laughed, couldn’t help herself. “You are so
good
all of you.” She clutched her knees, somersaulting slowly, her stomach for once cooperative. “You make me feel like a dodo on precivilization Earth. I’m stuck.” She waved her arms, fingertips brushing the leaves on adjacent tubes, not moving at all. “I need a tow.”

Both Koi and the girl arrowed in, stalled neatly in front of her, offered simultaneous hands. “So you understand English?” Ahni asked, her eyes on the girl’s milky one.

Assent. Surprise?

“Sure.” Koi’s gaze tickled Ahni. “Dane uses words, so we do, too. I just say ‘em out loud is all.”

“Oh.” Ahni seized his wrist, native style, so that he could propel her back into motion, concentrated briefly on straightening out her trajectory. “Can anybody else in your family … speak out loud?”

“We all can. Why?” Genuine puzzlement.

Why indeed? “Most of the people on the orbital probably aren’t … as good at hearing you as Dane and I are,” Ahni said.

Koi’s shrug was something Ahni felt rather than saw.
So what?

What was it like to share … what? Images, feelings, sensations, needs? You really wouldn’t need words, Ahni thought. “So how did you learn to talk in words?”

For a few moments, Koi drifted silently beside her. “I guess my mother died … right after I was born.

Dane raised me,” he said at last. “He talks out loud.”

They really were his children, Ahni thought. The girl swooped off and as Ahni looked after her, it occurred to Ahni that the planted tubes looked familiar. Sure enough, there in the middle distance, the tubes curved to create the small sphere where Dane lived.

He emerged as she drifted close, pushing off to richochet off of the nearest tube, spinning back toward the spherical globe of grafted tubes, offering her a hand as he drifted by. She caught his wrist, native style, earned a silent chuckle, and let him tow her deftly to the bower.

“She’s better than she was last time,” Koi announced, flanking her.

”Noah taught me to play scrum.”

“I’ll forgive him for being an idiot and not telling me you were here.” Dane shook his head, smiling. “He said he met you on the Climber.” He ushered her into the familiar orchid-clad space. “Ahni –” His smile vanished. “Are you sure you did the right thing, coming back here? Your brother tried to kill you.”

“I know.” She caught one of the hammocks, hooked her leg through and caught the squeeze Dane sailed her way. “I think I’m under Li Zhen’s protection. Dane, what’s going on up here? Everyone is so angry.”

Dane frowned. “I’m pretty sure your brother and Li Zhen are trying to start a secessionist rebellion up here.”

“Ghosts!” Koi made a rude sound that set him drifting slowly. “All through the Con. Dane says it’s making people crazy.”

“Noah said something about that.” Ahni eyed Dane unhappily. ”The World Conncil will just send CSF

troops up here.” And what would happen to you and Koi’s family then? She wondered. “Can you stop them?”

“So far.” Dane’s attention prodded her, dark with worry. “I wish I knew what their ultimate goal is. Do you?”

“Li Zhen is more your ally than you both realize, I think. He is,” she answered his skepticism. “I saw the same look in his eyes when he talked about the future up here. His father is very powerful and I doubt he’ll share that power with Li Zhen. I think … Li Zhen sees this unrest as a way to force secession on the Conncil and to gain personal power up here. China swings a lot of leverage in the Council.” She shook her head. “I don’t think they have enough votes to pass independence, but that has to be his goal. How this unrest comes in, I can’t quite see.” She sailed her empty squeeze across the space in frustration. “And I can’t figure out what Xai gets out of this. Li Zhen will want to run the show up here and Xai has never taken orders well.” She sighed. “There’s a piece missing here, Dane. And I can’t see its shape.”

”You’ve seen a lot.” Dane caught the squeeze, tucked it into a net. “Thanks. That insight about Li Zhen helps. I haven’t been quite sure about his interest in secession. It opens some possibilities.” A smile glimmered in his eyes. “Do you think you can get me a meeting with the Chairman? Before things blow up?”

“I can try,” Ahni said slowly. Li Zhen would never meet with a low level gene splicer. “Who are you really, Dane?”

“Head of NOW.”

“The secessionist movement? I wondered, but when I reesearched it, I couldn’t find your name associated with it.” A handful of her puzzle pieces clicked into place. “You run this platform from behind the scenes don’t you?”

“Well, not entirely on my own.” Dane’s amusement warmed her. “Let’s say I get things done for people.

And they are grateful.”

Ahni thought of the silk manufacturer’s complaints about lost talent. Nodded. “I’ll see what I can do about Li Zhen,” she said. “I suspect he already knows who you are.”

“Probably.” That amusement surfaced in Dane’s eyes. “A lot of people do. I want to talk to him. We might be able to work together – if you’re right about his goals. As to your brother,” Dane said softly,

“Ahni, we need to stop him.”

“He was at the riot today,” she said in a low voice. “Someone died. I saw the body on my way up here.”

Winced at Dane’s reaction. Drew a deep breath. “I came up here to help you stop him. However we do it.”

Dane reached for her hand, drifting toward her. “Thank. you,” he said softly. “I’m sorry.” He turned to activate a holofield.

Instantly an image formed, a handsome woman with a square serious face, and blonde hair speaking rapidly, unsmiling. “One of the Euro media links,” Dane said absently. The image faded into a man with a long mohawk threaded with green fiberlight threads, his mouth moving rapidly, then into a woman with a perfect face and athlete’s body. “North American Alliance media group,” Dane said.

” … killed in a violent riot on the tourist level of the New York Up orbital platform,” the woman said, her voice charged with excitement. “Turkish nationals, the newlywed pair were honeymooning on the platform, when the incident took place. According to bystanders, a pair of orbital residents assaulted the young woman and when her husband tried to intervene, they stabbed him. He died at the scene and the resuscitation team arrived too late to reverse the death.” Her wide eyes and arched eyebrows underlined the shock in her voice. “This is the worst outbreak of violence to date on the platform. Travel and tour agencies everywhere are cautioning vacationers that a low gravity outing may not be the best choice for the family right now, although Ralph Gearheart, Toronto native and spokesman for the Alliance refuses to admit that the situation has reached emergency status on the platform.” The image shimmered and resolved to a long faced man with the air of well-tended middle age, smiling wearily yet earnestly into the video eye.

“There is no cause for serious alarm or a change in travel planes.” He spoke in a reassuring voice. ”This is a small incident that has been blown up out of proportion by the media. We are in touch with the Administrator of New York Up and extra security measures have been implemented in order to assure that this sort of tragedy never occurs again.”

The spokesman’s face faded to be replaced by a succession of images; the crowded corridor outside the restaurant, angry faces, a couple marked with blood, the gurney crew in an island of space, that sheeted body in full view.

“The camera eye sure made it look like a war. How fortunate that the vid-jockey just happened to be there at the right time,” Dane said dryly. He sighed and snapped his fingers, banishing the vidcast. “I wonder if Laif knows he’s being consulted?”

The tone in which Dane used the Administrator’s name spoke volumes. Ahni raised an eyebrow thoughtfully. “That’s not the way it happened. I saw it.”

“How did it happen?” Dane pulled himself closer.

“Some guy bumped into the man’s wife and grabbed her breast, and when her husband started to get angry, he said something that really set him off. The husband threw a punch and the agitator played victim.” Almi shrugged. “Then everybody started to get into it. At least a couple of people were part of the set-up. I don’t know how many people noticed the upsider touch the woman. It was pretty quiet until her husband started swinging.”

“Sounds like our pro.” Dane looked at Koi, who touched an icon in the holofield.

A narrow face shimmered to life in the glowing fog, mixedEuro genes with a fanatic’s eyes. “That’s him.”

Ahni nodded. “He’s the man who started the whole thing. I don’t know what he said to the husband but he sure got a reaction.”

“He’s very talented.” Dane scowled at the image. “I would really like to get an ID on him, but it’s like searching for a small moon in the center of the Milky Way. If we knew who he was, we could find a way to lever him out of here.”

Koi was getting restless. He somersaulted off the wall and slipped out of the bower.

“Dane, what are they?” Ahni looked after him. “A mutation?”

“No.” Dane crossed his arms behind his head, frowning. “That was my assumption, although the entire can is shielded and we’re smack in the center up here. “But I’ve scanned DNA from most of the members of tlle population. There are no more mutations on the alleles than the ordinary platform-born resident. What do you know about lateral transference?”

Ahni blinked briefly into Pause, summoned the word. “A dramatic shift in genetic expression causing an altered phenotype in single generation.” She opened her eyes. “Only references I can find were to low level organisms, though. No mammalian species at all.”

“What happens when you do that?” Dane was looking at her seriously. “You feel as if you’re asleep.”

Ha, a first. He hadn’t admitted to his high Erating before now. “It’s new technology,” she said. “New this generation, because you have to implant the original nanoware in the early stages of fetal development.

It’s like I have … an onboard AI. It uses cellular structures for storage, wireless technology. All nano stuff.” She shrugged. “Some of the more useful nanoware to come out of all the hype. So Koi and his family–just evolved? Is that what you’r saying?”