Palace (8 page)

And I was tipped to a coded echo hidden in gigs of scratch stuff in some garbage base on the outskirts of the Map. I never would have found it without the tip.’

Hi held up one hand for silence, then turned to Aleen.

‘Do you want to hear this stuff?’ he said. ‘Knowing it could be dangerous.’

‘Life can be dangerous. Especially around you.’

‘Yeah, so it seems. I guess I should apologize.’ Aleen let her eyes meet his, just briefly, but he was sure that he’d caught her smiling. He turned back to his son. ‘Get to the point, Arno.’

‘It was an audio dump of a revenant hiring an assassin.’

‘Oh yeah? All right, that’s a point.’

‘It gets better. This assassin is Vi-Kata. Yeah, that’s right, the Outcast himself. Somehow he got on planet.’

‘Past the autogates? That’s hard to believe.’

‘Yeah. But he’s here now with a couple of contracts.’

‘A happy little addition to the festivities, huh? Did you send the tip and the record to the Protectors’ hot drop on their access on the Map?’

‘Sure did. Marked it urgent, too. But well, that’s not quite enough, I think.’

‘Yeah? What’s it to us?’

‘Dad, the contract came from our old friend Riva.’

Hi opened his mouth, then closed it, considering for a moment.

‘Interesting,’ Hi said.

‘Yeah. I thought so. Especially, since I’m one of the targets.’ Aleen caught her breath, but the two men merely looked at each other for a long, cold moment.

‘Bad news,’ Hi said at last. ‘Who did the tip come from?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘You don’t know? How can you not know? There had to be a route mark.’

‘There was, yeah, but from a place that doesn’t exist, at least not any more. When I went to look for it, the routing led me up against the Caliostro firewall. Right at the bombed-out area. That AI’s been a mess for how long?’

‘A thousand years,’ Hi answered. ‘At least. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any daemons and rogue agents still operating in there.’

‘You’re the only person I know who could get any use out of wrecked circuits like those.’

‘Yeah? Sounds like there are two of us.’

Hi paused, thinking. He’d been meaning to squeeze some time out of his impossible schedule to look over poor old Caliostro and see if anything could be salvaged from those particular ruins. Maybe he’d better find the time right away. He looked at Aleen and found her reading something off the cybereye he’d given her.

‘I’ll need details,’ he said to Arno.

‘Sure. You can see why I wanted to tell you in person, though. Can’t leave this kind of data lying around the Map uncoded. Rico has a meta, by the way, that’ll get you to the dump.’

‘Rico? By the bloody damn weeping Eye! Why did you -’

‘One, because no-one would figure I’d give it to him. Two, because I didn’t know if I’d live to reach The Close, and if I didn’t, this way you would have data to start hunting with. And three, because he’s a good Mapwalker, Dad, real good. Look.’ Arno leaned forward earnestly.

‘Rico’s going to be better than me some day, he really is. I could see it from the first time I helped him jack into the Map. Everyone’s always underestimated him.’ He paused for a twisted grin. ‘Because of me.’

‘Well, I can see that. You threw a lot of shade around for other people to stand in. Okay. I’ll take your word for it. He’s just so damn young.’

‘And naive,’ Aleen muttered.

‘I should have known you’d be listening,’ Hi said, grinning. ‘Arno, who’s the other contract on? Anyone we know?’

‘No, that’s the weirdest part of the whole thing. Kata was hired to kill me and an unMarked girl named Vida.’

‘What?’ Hi said.

Aleen had gone very still, leaning forward on her chair.

‘Yeah. Just some unMarked girl.’ Arno spread his hands. ‘Can’t figure it. But if Riva went to the trouble to hire the Outcast to kill her, she must be one hell of an important clue. That’s why I took the risk of leaving my hole. I was trying to get to The Close to see Aleen, so she could get you over here, so I could check with you about this. Didn’t know you’d be here already, so I -’

‘Shut up a minute, kid.’ Hi had never seen Aleen pale before. ‘What’s going on? You know this girl?’

‘Oh yes.’ Aleen’s voice was perfectly steady. ‘She’s my ward.’

Hi frankly stared, his mouth half-open.

‘Well, hey,’ Arno said. ‘Then you’d know if there was some reason she’s important.’

‘Oh yes. There’s a very good reason.’ Aleen rose smoothly, calmly, smiled at them both.

‘Excuse me. I’ll just get her up here.’

‘Wait a minute,’ Hi snapped. ‘I don’t want her seeing Arno.’

‘I can hide in the washroom, Dad. I want to hear this.’

Hi considered – safe enough, really.

‘Just keep the door shut.’

‘Dad, I could have figured that out, okay?’

Aleen walked over and reached into the Belie jungle to pull out a comm unit. She punched a code, waited, then nodded at its tiny screen, that vague gesture of a person whose call has been answered.

‘Tia? Where’s Vida?’ A pause. ‘Well, tell her to wash her hands and come up here. No, not my office. My public room.’ Another pause. ‘She what? Why didn’t you tell me - well, of course

- yeah, that’s true - fine, fine, just get her up here now.’ She powered out and stood for a moment, cradling the unit in both hands, before she spoke. ‘Someone tried to kill Vida today. Fancy that.’

‘What?’

‘During the festival. A Lep chased her, she said, a Lep in a Lifegiver’s robes.’

‘Vi-Kata’s idea of a joke. Lifegiver, life taker. Really funny.’ Hi got up and walked over to her. Much to his surprise she turned and leaned into his arms. He could feel her shaking - an even bigger surprise. Even though she stood taller than he, at that moment she seemed small to him, small and soft.

‘But why?’ Arno said, rising. ‘I mean, who is this kid?’

Aleen twisted free of Hi’s embrace and gave Arno a look that made him step back.

‘You’ll find out later,’ she snapped. ‘Vida deserves to hear it, too.’

‘Sure, hey, calm down.’ Hi was half expecting her to turn on him for that soothing tone of voice, but she merely took a deep breath, as if following orders. ‘If the girl’s in danger, let’s get her some protection. Hand me that comm, will you? I need to call my bodyguard.’

* * *

By the middle of the evening, the kitchen stood piled high with pans and spattered with grease. Honking and hissing, Sugar wandered outside for a well-deserved breath of moist air, while Vida programmed the cleaning bot. Two little saccule scullery workers stood watching, sucking the webs between their fingers.

‘There, all done,’ Vida said. ‘You can push the red button now.’

They stared up at her hopelessly. No matter how many times Vida explained about the on switch, they simply could not retain the information. She pressed the red button for them, and the bot whirred to life. Squealing with delight, the scullies followed as it slid toward the nearest pile of garbage. Vida straightened up and found Tia standing in the doorway.

‘Aleen wants to see you. Now.’

‘Oh God. How loath! She’s not even going to wait till morning to yell at me.’

‘I’m afraid not. Vida, be careful. Watch what you say. I’ve never heard Aleen sound so ... so ...’

‘She’s furious, I’ll bet.’

‘Well, yes, but that’s not what I meant. Something’s really wrong.’

Vida felt as if her stomach had dropped a long cold way. She pulled off her apron, tossed it on the floor for the saccules to pick up, and bolted from the kitchen. All the way up in the lift booth, she could feel herself shaking. At the door to the public bedroom, she laid her palm on the announce panel so the door could tell Aleen she’d arrived.

‘Come in, Vida,’ Aleen’s voice sounded from the speaker. ‘The Eye of God has finally found you.’

When Vida walked in and found Se Hivel there, sitting in a grey datachair, she was so startled she could barely speak.

‘Vida, sit down.’ Aleen pointed at an armless formfit chair that she must have dragged in from her office. ‘You may trust Se Hivel. He’s trying to help us.’

When Vida sat, Aleen hesitated, then took her usual overstuffed chair, a little behind Se Hivel.

‘First, tell me about the Lep.’ Aleen sounded neutral, indifferent even. ‘The one who chased you.’

Vida thought she’d seen all of Aleen’s moods, but this was a new one. While Vida talked, telling Aleen about her run through the longtube and the roof park, the Madam sat perfectly still. Se Hivel, however, leaned forward, nodding now and again at some detail.

‘And so I hid in the tower.’ Vida hesitated; she should tell Aleen everything, but the revenant had saved her life, after all, and it had been afraid of something, too. ‘I thought I was a goner, but some men, humans, got into the garden. They were drunk, I think, and yelling and stuff. So the Lep ran away.’

‘You’re sure about that scaling on his wrist?’

‘Yeah. I looked really carefully.’

‘Well, we all know about your memory. Green and red spirals with a blue counter stroke?’

She glanced at Se Hivel. ‘That’s a very minor line that died out some years ago. Obviously a false design. The Lep must have dyed his scales. Clever.’

‘Why was he chasing me, Madam?’

Aleen ignored the question and read from her flashing cybereye. ‘This all happened at the Carillon roof park at, what, mid-fifteens?’

‘Yes, Madam.’

‘There’s a report of a malfunction in the caretaking system. The gardener, a saccule named Blue, found signs of vandalism and made a report at sixteens-ten. More than an hour later.’

Aleen paused, raising one eyebrow, the one over her flesh eye. Vida said nothing, merely clasped her hands between her knees and waited. Se Hivel leaned forward.

‘Vida, come on,’ he said, and his voice was gentle. ‘Tell us what really happened, okay?’

Vida looked down at the floor. In her mind she could see the Lep’s sleeve falling back and the barrel of a weapon.

‘Vida,’ Se Hivel went on. ‘That Lep was trying to kill you. How can we keep you safe if we don’t know everything?’

‘True, Se.’ Vida looked up. ‘All right. There weren’t any men. There was a revenant. In the control slab for the bells. His name is Calios. He reprogrammed the Lep’s finder. So the Lep would think I’d got out, I mean, and gone somewhere else.’

‘And how did you call this rev up, Vida?’ Se Hivel asked. ‘Come on, you can tell me. I’m Cyberguild, aren’t I?’

‘I don’t know how. There weren’t any icons. I touched the slab; well, I ran my hand over it, so I must have touched a lot of controls. And he appeared. He shone a light into my eyes and started talking about deens, whatever that is.’

Se Hivel laughed, a short sharp bark, then turned to Aleen.

‘Bright red hair,’ he said, conversationally. ‘And access revenants from the old technology do her favours after they’ve typed her DNA.’

Aleen nodded, glancing back and forth between Se Hivel and Vida.

‘You’ve guessed, haven’t you, Hi?’

‘Have I?’ He grinned at her. ‘You tell me. A lot of people have red hair. Well, not a lot, but people from all kinds of families.’

‘Madam?’ Vida could stand it no longer. ‘Please? What does he mean?’

‘I don’t mean to tease you,’ Aleen said. ‘Vida, what did I tell you about your parents?’

‘That my mother was a woman over in Service Sect, and she had an illegal pregnancy. After the Protectors arrested her, the courts gave me to you to raise as an Unauthorized.’

‘True. What did I tell you about your father?’

‘Nothing, Madam.’

‘True.’ Aleen glanced away, as if she were thinking. ‘He was Orin L’Var.’

Se Hivel made a little cackling noise.

‘Thought so,’ he said. ‘But how do you know?’

‘None of your business.’ Aleen gave him a look that would have silenced the First Citizen himself. ‘I have my sources.’ She turned back to Vida. ‘You’re a L’Var, all right, the last of them. The last person alive of an entire family.’

‘But I can’t be!’ Vida clenched her hands in her lap. ‘They were traitors!’ She turned to Se Hivel. ‘I can’t be.’

‘Yeah, kid? Well, I’ll tell you something. There’s a lot of people on Palace who have their doubts about that traitor business.’ He smiled briefly. ‘I wouldn’t lose sleep about it, if I were you.’

Vida could only stare at Aleen as if she were begging for help. Aleen ignored her. Se Hivel held up his left hand and let the sleeve of his robe slide back. Vida nearly yelped - his whole left arm shone with metal, gleaming circuits and jack studs, embedded into the flesh and bone. He rested his arm on the arm of the datachair, wiggled it a bit until one of the jacks clicked in, then glanced away. Half of his mind seemed gone somewhere far away even as the other half looked out across the room. All at once he smiled, but it was a bitter twist of his mouth. ‘What have you found?’ Aleen said.

‘A murder during the festival. The Protectors found a young monk dead in an alley. His robes were stolen. Nothing else. Brother Lennos was his name.’

Vida yelped and crammed a hand over her mouth. Se Hivel freed himself from the datachair and pulled his sleeve down over the cyberarm.

‘Out with it,’ Aleen snapped at Vida.

‘I talked with him. He gave me an Eye and blessed me.’

‘Too bad he couldn’t bless himself,’ Se Hivel said. ‘Kata must have been right behind the girl, Aleen. She’s damn lucky.’

‘It wasn’t just luck. The revenant helped me.’

‘That’s true. And very interesting.’

‘You won’t hurt him, will you?’

‘Vida!’ Se Hivel laughed, but gently. ‘You can’t hurt a revenant. They’re not real.’ Vida felt herself blush.

‘But they can look like it, yeah, and be very convincing,’ Se Hivel went on. ‘Don’t be embarrassed. Why did you think I’d hurt him?’

Vida hesitated, torn, but Se Hivel was right. Calios was only a visual embodiment of data coupled with an audio through-put and sensor capacity, just as her textbooks said, not a young man with jet-dark skin and a charming smile.

‘He said someone was chasing him. That’s why.’

‘Did he? Did he use the words tracking program or tracker?’

‘Yeah, he did.’