Mary Rosenblum (32 page)

“Don’t know.” The Administrator gave her a cold look. “I had no warrant out for you. What the hell can you do?”

“Li Zhen is going to look for me there. He’s the only lever we have and Koi, he needs to see you again.

He needs to talk to you.”

Koi flinched.

“He’s not going to hurt you. Or your family.” She reached out to touch Ren’s dark head lightly. “This is his son, Koi. He doesn’t understand yet, and he needs to understand.”

Koi looked down at the boy, who smiled up at him, his arm tight around Koi’s waist. Looked back at Ahni, still scared, lifted one shoulder. Reluctantly. She touched him lightly.

“What is Zhen up to?” Laif grumbled. “He takes care of his own yard and doesn’t mix with the neighbors.”

”We’re on the same side.”

“I hope you’re as right as you think you ary.” Laif clearly doubted that. “And how does this brother of yours fit in here, anyway?”

“I don’t know. What happened to that data dot that I gave Dane?” She eyed Laif. “Was there anything on it?”

“Gods, I forgot about that.” The Administrator shivered, drifting with his arms wrapped around himself.

“A kid named Noah has it. I sent him up to the hub when the CSF boarded. I don’t know what the hell happened to him or the dot.”

“I can find Noah.” Hopefully. Surely the CSF had no reason to arrest him. “Kyros?” She looked at him.

The miner … smuggler … shrugged. “Might as well try someething.” He gave Koi a grim smile. “You and your family would do real well out in the Belt. We just need ships for you is all. That can be arranged. Let’s go.” He jerked his head at Ahni.

”You are coming back, right?” Laif’s face looked strained.

“Maybe.”

Laif shrugged and closed his eyes.

Kyros relented. “There’s a link. It’s with the water and food.”

He jerked his chin toward one of the hammocks. “Don’t use it unless you have to. I’ll be back. I don’t plan on getting dead.” He turned and pushed off toward the dock.

“What was this?” Ahni asked as she pushed into the ship on his heels.

“They called ‘em lighthouses. Ask Dane why, I don’t know my Earth hystory. Early rock jock hangout, maybe. Way back when. Primitive. Rock jocks live good, now.” The ship shivered as it left the dock.

“You really think Li Zhen is going to do anything but take you apart slowly for stealing his kid?”

“I hope so.” She made it light.

She had expected Kyros to take her to a new dock, but when the ship hull opened for them, she found herself on the hub dock they had left from.

“I know the CSF can’t see this one,” Kyros said, in reply to her questioning look. “The private elevator is close, so you got a good chance of getting down to skin without getting netted. Have a story ready.”

He wasn’t coming with her. Ahni wondered briefly if he would stick around or just take off for the Belt and forget that he knew anybody down on the platforms. No, she decided. Dane had considered him a friend. “I’ll need to bring Li Zhen to the lighthouse.”

“Yeah. Right.” Anchored to a handhold, Kyros extended his hand. “Palm it.”

She hesitated only an instant, laid her palm against his. Yeah, he was hardwired, too, and their hardware talked. She felt the tingle in her flesh as his system overrode her interface. That shocked her. She’d dismissed Kyros, she realized, as a peasant who only knew ice and rocks. Turned out his software was a hair better than hers.

She laughed out loud as the link surfaced in her personal interrface. ”You paid a lot for that upgrade,”

she said.

”Yep.” He lifted one shoulder, turned back to his ship, hesitated, then looked over his shoulder. “Luck,”

he said.

“Thank you.” She pushed off then, arrowing through the thick green light and the brush of leaves/fruit/seed to the small private elevator that Dane had used. Took it down to the level where Noah sold his grilled lunches.

The corridors hummed with tension. The marines had landed Ahni thought sourly and wished she could read exact thought and not just emotion. Knots of natives clotted the corridor space, their anger burning like scalding currents from a deepwater volcanic vent. She could almost smell the sulfur. The park was thick with bodies and the sour/sulfur stink of rage. No sign of Noah, but he could be right next to her and how would she know it? She pushed her way through the crowd, feeling as if the currents of rage coupled with the marginal gravity might bounce her right to the ceiling at any minute.

At least she hadn’t been spotted as a downsider. Ahni reached the far side of the park. Turned back to try again. ·Why had she thought she’d find Noah blithely peddling his food to a normal crowd? Stupid.

She thought about the scrum field, but he wouldn’t be playing. She passed an artfully crafted carved-rock bench, heading for the elevators, thinking that getting out in one piece was an achievement at least. A young, skinny native was haranguing the crowd about th excesses of the CSF and Laif’s government as well. While a lot of folk weren’t paying attention to him, some were, and the crackle of their anger sparked through the crowd. Time to get out of here.

“Geeze.” Fingers dug into her arm. “Are you nuts?”

Noah. He smiled into her eyes, his face a few centimeters from hers, his expression that of a man who has just encountered a long lost good lay. Scared and furious.

”You want to die? What the hell are you doing down here?”

“Looking for you.” I love you, darling, she said with her body language, crooking her arms around him, pelvis tilted forwar head back, throat exposed. “Let’s go somewhere.”

“Damn good idea.” He hooked an arm through hers, his smile totally believable while his anger/fear/grief burned her like acid.

Didn’t say anything more as they strolled through the crowd, but he did a nice job, keeping up the fake of a man with his
chica
on his arm, worrying about her.

As they passed a public restroom, he did quick up-and-down to check the corridor, palmed them both in, then pulled a tiny black box from his pocket, stuck it on the door.

It would kill any security ear as well, she was willing to bet. Ahni glanced at it, then up at him. He knew about Dane, she felt his grief. Closed her eyes, opened them. ”Noah, what about the dot?” She couldn’t keep the urgency out of her voice. “Did you get it figgured out?”

He hated her for not speaking of Dane. But what was there to say, and what would it do besides to fog the moment?

”Yeah, I did.” He spat the words. ”What does it matter now?”

“It might matter a lot.” She drew a deep breath, because he had no intention of giving it to her. “Dane could end up a scapegoat. They’re going to blame somebody for this and they have him. Historically, that has been a damn good way to end up the public spectacle everybody wants.”

“He didn’t do it.” Noah’s eyes burned at her. “He didn’t make those people in the hub.”

He didn’t call them kids. Interesting. “That might not matter.” Ahni held his stare. “They might not bother to mention that before they execute him.” She said the words harshly, brutally, saw Noah flinch, even as she stilled her own reaction. Held out her hand.

He fished a small data disc from his pocket, slapped it into her palm. ”What are you going to do … for Dane? You’re a wildcard. You can do anything you want.”

She ignored that. “If there’s anything you can do to keep the situation from boiling over into violence, do it,” she snapped. “If CSF starts shooting, nobody is going to be able to fix things.” She met his glare, held his stare. “I think I have a lever, but it won’t work if CSF are killing you all. It
can’t start
, Noah. If it does … whether Dane gets out of this alive or not, everything that matters to him is lost.”

Noah looked away, his expression tortured. “He’s on there.” He jerked his head at the disk in her hands.

“The guy who does the agitating. There’s a couple of other people on it, too.”

Ahni tilted her head. Sensing guilt. ““What about the Con, Noah? That was a lot of the problem. Is it still being manipulated?”

He jerked as if she had stuck a blade into him. “Cleo,” he said softly. “She didn’t realize … what would happen. Didn’t think it through.”

Cleo. Ahni blinked. The scrum player. His lover.

“I … we got it straight.” He kept his back to her, his tone bleak.

“They got used … the ones who ·were doing it. They thought Dane was … you know … too careful.

And the guy who conned ‘em was real slick. I should have caught it.” This, bitterly. “But Cleo knows how I work. Too late.”

”Not too late.” She grabbed his arm. “Get everyone you can and work on keeping the lid on. Use the Con.”

“They shut it down.”

“Get it back up again. It worked to get everybody hot, cool ‘em off with it. I told you – I’ve got a lever.

If you give me time to use it–we have a chance to stop this.” No time to argue now, she headed for the door. Noah was looking at her with the first faint light of hope in his eyes. He jerked into motion, scooped the lock from the floor.

A1ull shoved through the door and into the corridor, the disk safely stowed in her singlesuit, headed for the elevator, felt Noah’s hand on her arm, his presence beside her. Convoy. But nobody bothered them, and at the elevator he turned away, vanishing into the crowded corridor before the doors closed.

She rode the elevator to skin level. Three CSF stood in the elevator plaza, stun guns at their belts, watching the elevators with narrow, cold eyes. Two unselected Latino-types, one unselect Vietnamese.

The Vietnamese woman stepped forward, glanced at a small handheld reader. Her eyebrows rose and she gave a tiny shrug … stepped aside with a nod.

Ahni headed to her hotel. CSF blue filled the corridors. A slender African-euro mix approached, blue and white light fiber woven into his braided hair. “Ma’am, this level is safety-curfewed,” he said with a heavy West Indian accent. ”You need to return to your hotel.” He radiated annoyance. “You did not hear the announcements? We will provide transport to the Elevator for you.”

“I’m on my way to my hotel right now.” She smiled timidly for him. The last thing she needed right now was to end up in protective custody somewhere. “I’m sorry. I was visiting an old friend and I didn’t hear the announcements.” She put on dumb blonde tone and body language. “Thank you for being here. I feel very safe now. “

He grunted noncommittally at that, but she caught a whiff of belief in her story. Still, he walked with her, keeping an eye on her, which was all right. She didn’t need to go anywhere else anyway. Li Zhen would come to her.

At the hotel, the doorman had been replaced by a CSF, a young female Private, who exchanged quick hand-sign with her convoy. The African-asian man nodded to her, gave Ahni a brief courtesy bow. ”You must remain in your room, ma’am. Until we can escort you to the Elevator.”

“I understand.” She watched another exchange between the pair. Probably instructions about making sure she stayed put. His belief in her story only went so far. She marched straight to her room, her attention focused on the CSF behind her, hoping that they didn’t decide after all that she would be better off somewhere else. It wasn’t until she stepped through the doorway that she realized the room hadn’t greeted her. An instant too late, she started to leap back, but a hard hand caught her arm, spun her in the direction of her automatic reaction, then flipped her neatly onto the floor. She hit the carpeting hard, shoulder tucked automatically to roll, but the edge of a hand chopped across her neck. She went down again, red light flashing in her vision this time, going limp to let her attacker yank her to her feet, then pivoting to use his triumph and certainty to throw him across her.

He was ready for that, deflected the force at the last second and locked up her arm, slamming her back against the wall.

Li Zhen.

She recognized him through the haze of adrenaline and pain response just as the wall slammed the breath from her body. For an instant he pressed close, his forearm across her throat, cutting off her breath, his body pressed against hers, fury burning in his eyes. Then he yanked her away, twisting her past him and down. She didn’t try to fight him, broke her fall as she hit the floor, gasped as he landed on her back, twisting her wrists behind her, binding them. He dragged her to her feet, flung her backward onto the bed and straddled her hips, breathing hard, rage burning in his face, his thighs quivering against her hips.

Almost gently, he took her chin in one hand, twisting her head up and back, while his other thumb stroked lightly, delicately across her face.

Laid his palm against her temple.

She sucked in a strangled breath as pain sheeted white across her vision, blurring out the room, the hardware in his palm battering her nervous system. Retreated into the center of her being to wait while it peaked … faded. Stared up into his face as her vision returned.

“You took him.” The words came out as the gentlest breath. “I want him back. Now.” He pressed his palm against her face again.

She breathed slowly, focusing on that muscle response, the rush of air into and out of the alveoli, until the white-out avalanche of pain passed through her, over her. Her muscles trembled with reaction as it left her. “I … came here to wait for you.” She managed to get the words out nearly coherently. ”To take you to him.”

“You will do that.”

Once more the pain avalanche crashed through her and she let it obliterate her. This time, as it receded, the trembling made her teeth chatter. Her eyes focused finally, and she stared up into his face, into eyes like black ice, read her death in them.

Good.

For a moment, he merely stared down at her, his lips tight, his face carved from stone. “Do not play games with me.” The threat made Ahni shiver inside. He reached out with one finger, traced the line of her cheek and jaw, down the curve of her neck, then rolled off her abruptly, with quick grace. Hauled her to her feet.

Her legs barely supported her, but she forced herself to stand straight as he released her hands. “We need a ship,” she said, her voice only slightly unsteady. “He’s not on the platform.”