The Automatic Detective (35 page)

I considered the change. The Pilgrims, once content to manipulate Empire City from the shadows, had taken their first steps out of the dark. They were still hiding, and maybe I couldn't blame them for it. Empire might be ready for the aliens walking its streets, but if it wasn't, then showing themselves would be a disaster. Better to play it safe, I supposed.

"Good news is that the Pilgrims have agreed to allow us to create a counteragent to the mutagen. Sort of a good faith gesture. We're doing it slowly, so it's not traumatic to Holt, but soon the Big Brains will have enough to neutralize any threat, should the need arise."

"What about Carter Centre, the Dissenter lab, the giant pudding mutant that nearly ate half the Nucleus?"

"Just another industrial accident," said Sanchez. "Happens every day."

I wondered if people wanted to know the truth. If it even mattered. Probably not.

"Got a couple of things for you here." He dug in his pockets, removed a piece of paper and a data tube. "The Learned Council can't officially acknowledge your service to the city, but as a token of gratitude they wanted to give you this." He
unfolded the paper. "Your certificate of citizenship. Welcome to the club."

"Thanks." I scanned it. It was only a piece of paper, but I guess I'd earned it. Maybe I'd get it framed.

He held up the data tube. "This was prepared by the Pilgrims. Say it's for your opticals only. Tells you where you came from. Turns out Professor Megalith isn't really that bright. Only a Pilgrim science tech who can pass for human. Stole a few designs and parts here and there, tried to use them for his own ends." He set it on the table. "Don't know much more than that, but the details are all in there."

Sanchez removed a cigarette and stuck it in his mouth without lighting it. "Well, guess that about covers everything. Any questions?"

"Yeah. Why am I functional? Seems like some could consider me a security risk, what with what I've recorded."

"Don't ask me, Mack. Like I said, need to know. Nobody's enlightened me on that. Maybe it's because you did good. World doesn't always give good guys the shaft."

"Not always," I said. "But usually."

"I can see your cynicism index wasn't wiped clean. So you ready for your party?"

I took a second to drop the data tube in my coat pocket. "Yeah, I'm ready."

The party was a small affair, eight biologicals and Humbolt. I didn't have all the names and half the names I did have were attached to the wrong faces, but it all got sorted out eventually. There was cake and punch for the biologicals, and everyone was eager to say hello. There was a lot of small talk and hugs and handshakes. Mostly, I kept quiet and let everyone tell me how much they'd missed me.

Somehow, I'd made friends. Hadn't planned on it. Just sort of happened. I guess that's how making friends worked.

Even Doctor Mujahid showed up. She and Jung hit it off right away. They sat on Lucia's couch, talking and laughing. I'd never heard the doc laugh before, but Jung could be one charming gorilla.

Sanchez introduced me to his wife. I hadn't even known he was married. She was a norm, and a tall one at that, six feet in heels. Sanchez barely came up to her waist.

"Alfie says such wonderful things about you," she said.

"Is that so?"

"Oh, yes," she replied. "Says you're a stand-up guy. Make a hell of a cop."

"Actually, what I said was that he was a stand-up guy, but a pain in the ass. And he'd make a good cop if he wasn't such an exhaust port." Sanchez snorted. "Come on, Rosa. Let's get some punch."

She shook her head. "Oh, he's so easily embarrassed. If you'll excuse us, Mack."

"No problem. Talk to you later, Alfie."

Sanchez grumbled, dragging his wife away.

Somebody tugged on my pants. I turned to scan April. "Hey, kid. How you doing?"

She tried to smile but wiped a tear away.

I knelt down. "What's wrong?"

She hugged me. "I killed my daddy," she said quietly, choking on the words.

"It wasn't your fault."

"But I knew they'd kill him. I knew it when they took us away. But I let them take us away because I knew I had to. I had to."

She sniffled. She wasn't quite crying, but she was close. She hugged me tighter.

"I knew that everybody would die. And I knew you had to stop it. And the only way to get you to stop it was to let them take us. To let them kill my daddy."

"There, there, kid." I rubbed her back gently. "You did what you had to."

Hollow words, I knew. Especially to a little girl burdened with the power to see the future. I got it now. That was why she hadn't asked for my help. Why she'd slipped me a note she'd known I wouldn't scan right away. She'd seen the future, a future where Empire burned in its own technotopic madness, and known no one would believe her. Not her mother or the cops or me. She'd set it up, as best she could, so that I'd end up in the middle of an alien conspiracy. She'd done so knowing it would get her father killed.

That was a tough choice for a little girl to make, but she'd made it. Now she had to figure out how to live with it, and that was even tougher.

"What happened to Gavin . . . your father, it shouldn't have happened. But it's not your fault. You didn't hurt him. Some very bad people did."

"But my daddy . . ." She pulled away and wiped her snotty upper lip with her sleeve. "I knew—"

"Shhhh. Come on." I picked her up and walked over to the balcony. "See that city? See all those lights. Every one of those lights is a person, somebody you helped. Can you count them all?"

She shook her head.

"That's a lot of people, isn't it?"

She nodded.

"A lot of families. A lot of fathers, I bet."

"Umm hmmm."

"And your brother. What about him? You helped him, too, right?"

"Yeah."

"And your mom. And me. You helped me, too."

"I did?" She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "How?"

"You showed me that I can help people, too."

She smiled, very slightly.

"You did the right thing, kid. It's not always easy to do the right thing. In fact, it hardly ever is. Most grown-ups can't make themselves do it when it comes right down to it. Your father would be proud of you for being such a big girl."

I scanned Lucia at the balcony entrance. She was smiling, too, and her eyes were teary.

I wanted to wipe the tear from April's cheek but wasn't confident enough in my fine motor control to try it yet.

"Do you really think my daddy would be proud of me?"

"Yeah, kid. I know he would be. Because your mom and your brother and me, we're all so proud of you. Lucia, too."

"That's right, sweetie." Lucia came over and took April from me. She gave April a tight hug. The kind of hug I wished I could give her without risking crushing her. Then set her down and hugged her again. "Now why don't you get yourself a piece of cake?"

April wrapped one of her tiny hands around my thumb. "Mack, I love you."

"I love you, too, kid."

She glanced to Lucia. "Are you Mack's girlfriend? You're pretty."

"Smart, too," I said.

Lucia leaned over and gave April a pat on the bottom. "Scoot, kiddo."

April went off to join her mom and brother in the apartment. She still hadn't gotten back the bounce in her step or the light in her eyes. But she was young, and kids were resilient. She wrapped Holt in an embrace. He hugged her back.

Julie looked across the apartment, and she was crying a bit, too. Seemed to be a lot of that going around tonight. She mouthed the words, "Thank you." I nodded to her.

"You've got a way with children, Mack," said Lucia.

"Yeah. I'd make a wonderful nanny auto."

Lucia leaned on the balcony railing. I stood beside her. We enjoyed the view for twenty-five seconds.

"So are you my girlfriend?" I asked.

"I don't know. Am I?"

She laughed but didn't fill me in.

I pulled the data tube from my pocket. The one with all the answers. They weren't questions I cared about. Never really had been. I crushed the tube with one squeeze, and let the flecks of circuitry and plastic float away on the wind.

"What was that?" she asked.

"Nothing important."

"So, Mack, you've saved the day, become a citizen." She put her delicate hand in my oversized palm. "What's next?"

"I'm thinking of opening a detective agency. Even got a partner lined up." I glanced at Jung, still in rapt conversation with my shrink. I hoped he wasn't telling her any stories.

"I've got an old office you can use," she said.

"Terrific. You'll have to show it to me sometime."

She laughed again, and I got the impression there was a joke I wasn't getting.

"Seriously, Lucia. I don't know if it's something I should remember. Are you my girlfriend?"

She didn't answer, and I decided it didn't really matter. I'd sort it out sooner or later on my own.

Lucia moved closer and put her arm around me. Together, we watched the twinkling lights of the hazy, gray city.