Mary Rosenblum (25 page)

“You want me to tell her Laif’s gonna send Security after her?”

“Yes,” Dane said bitterly. “He didn’t listen to me.” He scowled as the empty holofield remained just that

… fog.

“I overrode her mail filter with an emergency code.” Koi sounded puzzled. “Her hotel majordomo should have waked her up by now.”

“Damn.” Dane clenched his fist. “Laif guessed I’d warn her.” He let his breath out in a sigh. Born in the sub rosa street culture in downside New York Metro, Laif had learned trust late in life … and it was a veneer he shed quickly under stress. “Damn,” he repeated softly. He was not doing well, right now, not making good guesses.

AHNI SAT UPRIGHT IN BED. WAKING FROM A NIGHTMARE about Tania.

Are you all right?The room voice queried her in a feminine, motherly tone.
Would you like me to call
someone? Would you care for a calming tea? I have several in stock
.

“Green tea.” Tania had kissed her, then bitten her throat with vampire fangs. “Has Li Zhen replied to my message?”

No.

Ahni swung her legs over the side of the bed. The mug of tea already steamed on the refreshment bar.

She crossed the room naked to get it, caught a trace of Dane’s scent on her skin as she lifted the cup to her lip. How was Tania involved in this? Ahni reemembered her sense of triumph after Ahni had left her father’s banquet room. Perhaps she should have stayed another day, connfronted them both. She had let her emotions drive her up here. With a jerk of her shoulders, Ahni stalked over to the built-in wardrobe, pulling open a drawer for clean clothes. A glint of gold caught her eye. Xai’s medallion. She had kept it with her, tossed it into the drawer with her underwear. She pulled it out now, inspectting it. Why had Tania taken it? And how had she gotten access to Xai’s private rooms? She and Xai had always competed, teased each other with barbed words.

A tiny imperfection caught her eye … a dark speck revealed by the angle of the light above the wardrobe, it gleamed with an odd matte sheen. Ahni peered at it. A data dot. Someone had glued it to the back of the medallion. Probably a homily recited by some famous poet or scholar urging the young recipient to greater honors. She started to drop the medallion into the drawer, hesitated. She had been at that ceremony and had no memory of anyone saying anything about a holo as part of the award.

Frowning, she dressed quickly. Dane would have equipment to read it. Secure equipment.

You have visitors, the Room announced.

“Who?”

Security. Apologetically.
I have to let them in
.

Which meant they had a warrant. Ahni slipped the medallion into her pocket as the door opened and two uniformed young women with narrow, wary eyes slid into the room, looking everywhere all at once.

The first one in the door carried a small stun pistol openly in her hand. It didn’t quite point at Ahni.

“Ahni Huang?” The smaller of the two women, with a native’s lithe build took a half step forward.

“Yes.” She drew herself up. “You waked me.”

“We have a warrant for your arrest.”

“For what?” Ahni didn’t move.

“Questioning.” The other security guard spoke up. “That’s all.”

And she stepped back, urging Ahni toward the door with a twist of her shoulders.

Ahni decided to play this game out. “Fine, whatever. I hope you have a good reason for this.” She didn’t make it too much of a threat because the woman with the stun gun looked hopeful.

A small cart waited outside, emblazoned with the NYUp logo and painted the same blue as the Security uniforms. Her doorman was on duty and he pointedly did not look as she marched past him, flanked by her escort. Ahni climbed in beside the taller woman, wondering just how often they took guests in for questioning with weapons.

They navigated the tourist corridors and it struck Ahni that they seemed quite empty for this time of morning. “Where is everybody?”

The woman did the one-shoulder shrug.

“What’s it like to be so rich you don’t have to wear a chip?” asked the one with the stun gun.

Ahni shrugged and settled herself to wait. They passed through a plaza lined with expensive shops. The small tables set amidst the garden boxes planted to real flowers and blooming trees were deserted. They turned suddenly into a narrow side corridor, then into another. A door slid open at their approach and the cart whipped inside. If this was town hall, she thought, it wasn’t too impressive. The cramped space barely gave them room to exit the vehicle. The driver had relaxed, but the other one still waited for an excuse. Ahni didn’t give her one as she followed the driver to a small door that opened for them, closed behind them. The guards ushered her down a corridor with the right-angle corners of the tourist level and into a small, featureless room less than two meters square. It was cold inside, not quite refrigerator cold, but chilly, containing no furniture at all, just walls colored an off green that made her feel slightly queasy.

The door slid closed behind her, leaving her alone.

A cell? Ahni looked around, her breath fogging in the cold air. A small ventilation grill near the ceiling hissed with a rising and falling sibilance that Ahni found annoying. She had never heard a whisper from any ventilation system anywhere on the platform. Combine it with the temperature that had already raised goose bumps on her arms, the ugly color that definitely affected her stomach, and you had a deliberately unpleasant environment. And she smelled vomit. Nice touch, she thought and sat down with her back against the wall opposite the ventilation grill, as far from its trickle of cold air as she could get. She was obviously not here as an honored guest. The floor was cold, too, as was the wall. She shifted to a squat, arms clasped around her knees, grateful now to the hours spent in her granddmother’s garden, squatting beside the raised beds with her, weeding. Grandmother did not tolerate a sloppy western sit.

No one had searched her for weapons. Ahni looked around the room. That meant they had scanned her thoroughly at some point in her journey. Probably here, she decided. They’d know by now what she was made of right down to the bone marrow. She was starting to shiver. Ahni blinked into Pause, electing to constrict external blood vessels, reducing heat loss, conserving her core temperrature. She shut down the shivering response, too. That would cost her some warmth, but would make whatever confrontation was about to happen a bit more even. It was hard to negotiate well when your teeth were chattering. Finally, she shut down her pain response, felt the creeping chill fade, and dropped into waking sleep, slowing her heart rate, reducing metabolic function to minimum.

The door whispered open and two people burst into the room.

Ahni blinked out of Pause as a man with a medical insignia on his sleeve caught her by her chin. “I’m fine.” She brushed his hand aside … forcefully … and stood up. “Hands off.”

He didn’t answer, had whipped out a handheld bio-scanner was staring fixedly at the readout. “Damn.”

His eyebrows rose. “I’ve read about people like you, but it’s impressive to see it in the flesh.” He looked up from the display, his mixed-latino face crinkling into a smile. “How far can you shut down?”

“Pretty far.” She returned his smile, noticing the platform’s Addministrator behind him. He was angry and getting angrier, so she smiled even more sweetly at the medic. “I can make someone believe I’m dead if they don’t happen to have a scanner or a high E rating.”

“Wow.” The man was shaking his head. “That’s really cool. I’ve only seen that in the teaching vids. I’d love to see you do that sometime.”

“Out, Seguro!” The Administrator glared from her to the medic. ”Nice trick,” he said as the man left regretfully. “I should have read up on your kind more.”

“Yes, you should have.” She kept her voice and manner sweet because it was irritating him enormously.

“Before I contact my fammily’s legal staff, would you care to explain this illegal detention? And the physical conditions?”

“This isn’t an upscale hotel. Sorry about that, but the rest of us live a little differently.”

Oh, so it was going to be like that. She tilted her head, taking her time, studying the Administrator’s dark face, lightfiber tattoo, and earring, smiling at his building fury. ”Not many people with a 32°C body temperature are comfortable in a 10°C environment,” she said at last.

He shrugged and clearly came to some decision. “I don’t have time for games and I’m already in a corner so threats about lawyers and lawsuits aren’t going to get you anywhere. I want your brother and I want him right now, and I’m going to do anything it takes to get him.”

“And when you find him, you can tell me where he is,” Ahni said. He was very stressed, and it occurred to her that she had played the wrong tile, here. “I don’t know what my brother is up to, or why he’s causing trouble up here. I am looking for him for personal reasons.” She met the Administrator’s eyes.

The sharp edge of his desperation chilled her more than the temperature.

“You can help me find your brother and I am going to do whatever it takes to get your cooperation.” He bared his teeth at her. “The stakes are a lot bigger than you know. And don’t think your Elite physical games are going to help you out here. 1 can shoot you full of enough drugs to override anything you can do with your expensive nanoware. Think about it. I’ll give you fifteen minutes. That’s all the time I have.”

He turned on his heel and left.

His back was to the wall. He meant his threats. Ahni looked after him, cold bothering her again. The temperature was dropping. A little more coercion. For the first time, a bleak fear began to seep in around the edges of her calm. What had happened?

Ahni squatted, conserving heat, dropping into a low metabolic state, her awareness focused on the door.

In spite of her physical addjustments she was shivering continuously by the time it opened again.

“Damn!”

She didn’t need the sound of his voice to recognize Dane, and the flare of his anger was almost enough to warm her. As she blinked to full awareness, he dropped to his knees beside her on the floor, his hands hot as fire on her throat and face, which only made the shivering intensify.

“Sometimes Laif has the brains of a lizard. Maybe less.” Dane pulled her against him. “Ahni, are you all right?”

“I-I am. Actually.” Her teeth were chattering now and she struggled to control the shudders that racked her. “I can stand up. I’m just cold is all.” The temperature in the room was increasing rapidly. Felt like Taiwan. She drew a deep breath of humid, bloodwarm air, but had to drop into Pause again to finally get the spasm under control. He had his arms around her, steadying her, and she luxuriated in the heat of his flesh.

“Damn, it’s my fault. I should have realized he wasn’t going to believe me. I know Laif. He just forges ahead when he thinks he’s on the right path. And then I had a couple of fires to put out, and I couldn’t get up here. I’m sorry, Ahni.”

“I’m okay.” She looked up at him, steady on her feet now, so glad for the warmth. “Dane, what happened?”

“Council intervention. CSF are on their way up here.”

Ahni bit her lip, thinking of all that meant. “How soon do they arrive? And … what’s going to happen when they do?”

“A lot, I’m afraid,” Dane said heavily.

“How much time?” She closed her eyes, still holding the shivering at bay, trying to think.

“About eighteen hours.” Dane’s arm tightened around her. “They’re coming up at emergency speed. Let’s get you out of here. “

“Laif’s going to let me go?”

“Oh, yeah. He damn well is.” This last he addressed to the video eye overhead. The door opened silently and she exited gratefully, still leaning on Dane.

The Administrator stood there and he didn’t look pleased at all. “So since we’re all on the same side now, want to tell us where your brother is?”

“Same answer as last time.” Ahni gave him a level stare.

“Knock it off, Laif.” Dane’s temper was simmering again. “Now we have less time to find him.” He turned his back on the Administrator. “Ahni, any word from Li Zhen?”

“Not at the time Security picked me up.” She stared at Laif, acccessed her link. “Nothing there now. I’ll have to try and drop in on him. Wait.” She groped in her pocket, a bit surprised at its metallic warmth when she still felt so cold. “This belongs to my brother. There’s a data dot on it–probably a copy of the award, but I didn’t have time to look at it–” She gave the Administrator a brief, cold stare. “Before I ended up here.”

“Where’s the reader, Laif?” Dane held out his hand and Ahni dropped the medallion into it.

Dane pried the dot up with a fingernail, dropped it onto a scandisk and sealed it down.

Without a word, the Administrator took it and dropped it into a scanner. Almost immediately, the machine emitted a silvery chime.
Encrypted data
, a silvery voice murmured.
I’m afraid you do not have
access. If you are an authorized reader, please enter your perrsonal bio-ID.

“So much for an award,” Ahni murmured, her pulse quickening. Ah, older brother, she thought. Did you make a mistake here? At last?

“Who do you have who’s good with encryption?” The Administrator glared at Dane.

“Noah.” Dane nodded. “I’ll send him up here. While Noah’s working on that, Laif, we’re going to go visit Li Zhen.”

“I need you here.” The Administrator’s face darkened.

“That’s our only option right now.”

He stayed close beside here when they left and took her hand in the alley, his grip tight. “I thought you were on opposite sides,” she said as they reached the end of the alley way and turned right, toward the main tourist promenade.

“Officially.” He gave her a sideways look, a crooked smile. “We share the same goals.”

They reached the tourist promenade, turned toward her hotel. The wide corridor was fairly crowded.

Dinner time, Ahni realized, and her stomach immediately cramped with hunger. She hadn’t eaten since the evening before. Caught the wafting fragrance of grilling fish and managed not to drool. “Dane, I have to eat someething or I’m going to fall down.”