Varken Rise (9 page)

They couldn’t find a cab. A street vendor selling shell jewelry and wearable Geiger counters pointed out the direction to City Hall and assured them it was within walking distance. Brant bought a pretty pink necklace for Lilly as payment for the information.

City Hall was a long step away and the heavy foot traffic didn’t help, either. Kemp became breathless quickly, forcing them to slow even more and for Kemp to curse his new body.

Eventually City Hall came into view. It was one of the tallest buildings in the city.

The local gendarmes were controlling entry into the building, checking IDs and turning away more people than they let through the temporary rope line. The rope line itself was energized and everyone was staying a healthy meter or two away from it. That was keeping the pushing and shoving down to a minimum.

Catherine sighed. “I guess being me is going to be useful, for once.” They waited their turn in the lineup, which was moving quickly only because the gendarmes were turning away nearly everyone. When they reached the front of the line, Catherine held out her hand for scanning.

The gendarme frowned at the screen, then looked at her. “Reason for visit, Mr. Shahrazad?”

A few heads turned at the sound of her name. She was already drawing attention.

“I thought I could help. I have specialist knowledge.”

“Who is your appointment with?” He asked the question with a little tremor in his voice. It was a reaction she had seen before. The younger and less experienced authority wielders found her intimidating and her reputation for flouting authority an implied threat. This young one was clenched, ready for a fight.

“I don’t have an appointment,” she said lightly, with a bright smile. “I am sure the Governor will want to see me. Why don’t you ask?”

He considered that, then waved to one of his companions, who pulled out a dashboard and turned his back on everyone so he could speak with some privacy.

Everyone in the line behind them shifted impatiently on their feet. Some sighed.

The second gendarme nodded to the first, who broached the rope line for them. Catherine smiled at him again as they stepped through and moved into the building.

Inside the tall, open foyer there were very few people. It was a bright, airy place and almost silent.

A man was coming toward them, a smile on his face. “Mr. Shahrazad?” he asked. He did not hold out his hand. “The governor asked me to meet you at the door. He has a few questions to ask before I can escort you to his office suite.”

Catherine ran her gaze over him. There was something about his symmetrically perfect features that made her ask, “Are you a computer?”

The man’s smile broadened. “I am, indeed. I am the city’s primary AI. You can call me John.”

“Not even sentient,” Kemp murmured. “You’re not going to out-argue it.”

Catherine studied the hologram. It was a high quality one, completely indistinguishable from solid objects, except that if she tried to touch it, her hand would pass right through. Kemp was right. A Varkan could be reasoned with. An AI followed instructions to the letter.

“What are your instructions about me?” she asked curiously.

“That is a confidential matter, I’m afraid. If you will just follow me….” He half-turned, waving his hand in a polite “this way” gesture.

She stayed where she was. No one else stirred. “As I am one of the principals included in your orders,” Catherine replied, “then I am naturally enclosed inside that confidentiality envelope. You can tell me what your orders are.”

The AI stared at her with an expressionless face. If she had not spotted that it was a computer before now, that blank stare would have told her. “That is…correct,” he said slowly.

“And your orders are?”

“To move you out of the lobby, to somewhere where any media feeds cannot see you. Then stall.”

“For how long?”

“That was not specified. I would stall until given new orders.”

Catherine thought hard. This was not entirely unexpected.

“Why would the governor be afraid to speak to you?” Brant asked her softly.

The AI replied. “I believe Mr. Shahrazad’s association with the criminal Bedivere makes it undesirable for the Governor to be seen with her. There are currently fifteen world feeds and one hundred and sixty-seven interstellar feeds monitoring the Governor’s activities and this building.”

The AI was being cooperative because she was. It was a basic algorithm. If she had argued or become angry about being denied access, then it would have fallen back to the polite-but-stupid mode that was its response to conflict.

“Is there someone else we can speak to, instead?” she asked. “A chief of staff, or the coordinator of the emergency?”

The AI gave her another bright smile. “I am afraid my orders were quite specific. The Governor does not want you to associate with anyone in the City. Your reputation is—”

“Thank you, yes, I understood that the first time,” Catherine said and forced a smile. As long as it thought she was happy, it would not clam up on them.

Lilly moved up behind her and spoke over her shoulder. “You’re not going to get anywhere here. Although I have an idea.” She hefted the reader in her hands, that she had been scanning while Catherine dealt with the AI. “If we could find a back door out of here so we can travel without drawing attention….”

Catherine nodded and looked at the AI. “I am sure the Governor would not want us to exit the building through the front door where everyone can see us. It will look as if we have successfully completed our business with the city.”

The AI’s face went blank again, as it processed that. “You are correct,” he said. “There is a side entrance that the Governor and senior staff have been using since the emergency began. I will show you to that exit.”

“Thank you,” Catherine told him. “You are very efficient and helpful.”

The AI beamed. It couldn’t feel pride. However, Bedivere had explained that positive feedback made circuits flow more quickly and smoothly…like an adrenaline rush, or a cortisol boost. It was a reinforcement loop that made an AI work toward being even more pleasant and cooperative, to experience more of it.

Catherine didn’t mind patting the AI on the back. It had done its job.

It unlocked the back door for them, a narrow sliding panel that moved aside to show a muddy alley and the backs of surrounding buildings. A single gendarme was patrolling the alley. He looked up as they stepped out, then went back to his patrol when he saw it was not the Governor or his staff.

“Where to, now?” Catherine asked Lilly, as the door closed behind them and sealed with a low hiss of air.

Lilly was studying the board again. “I’m looking for…there. There’s one. This way.”

“Wherever it is,” Catherine said, “don’t take us there directly. Put a few full loops into it, so I can check behind us.”

Lilly nodded and set off. Everyone followed her as she moved through alleys and between low buildings. Once, she backtracked, when the path was cut off by an undisclosed wall. That gave Catherine a chance to observe the route behind them without looking as though she was deliberately checking over her shoulder.

It was very quiet in the side-streets and alleys, away from the main road from the landing fields. No one appeared to be following them, although that didn’t mean they hadn’t picked up a feed or two from passing through the foyer of city hall. If there were really that many feeds monitoring the building, and she had no reason to doubt the AI, then each of them would be competing to find something unique to report. Her arrival in the building would have alerted the feed coordinators, which were mostly AIs, who would have her in their indexes as a person of interest.

No wonder the Governor thought she was as radioactive as his southern continent.

Kemp moved up next to her, his own device in his hand. “No feeds followed us and there are no bodies behind us.” He nodded ahead, in the direction Lilly was taking them. “People ahead. Not as many as there were on the route from the landing fields.”

“Thanks,” she murmured.

They turned into a street that was fused earth similar to the landing field route. This one was dry, even and clean. Catherine looked around cautiously, trying to keep her head down as she pulled the wide-brimmed hat out of her carryall, shook it into shape and put it on.

There were people walking up and down the footpaths, which were some sort of plastic resin of the same color as the road. These people had none of the harried look she had seen on the faces of almost everyone outside City Hall or at the hotel. These were locals, going about their business. They were dressed differently, with capes and light coats protecting them from the mild weather, and sturdy boots.

Lilly didn’t detour after that. She led them down the sidewalk, watching her screen, then lifted her head to spot her destination.

It was an old fashioned tea-house, with auto-tables and benches. It was half-full.

“Over in the corner,” Brant murmured and Lilly headed for the bench in the corner that had three sides bending around the table. It was the most private booth in the room.

They slid along the bench, threading themselves behind the table. Catherine wasn’t happy about being stuck behind an object that wouldn’t move out of the way if she needed to get out in a hurry. However, that was just old instinct talking. They were not in danger here. She was merely reacting to exposing her identity as she had been forced to do at City Hall. It made her jumpy.

The bench was another type of resin made to resemble wood, as was the table.

Lilly was busy with her board, so Brant leaned over and activated the table. The servery rose up through the middle, bearing four steaming cups.

“I guess there’s not a menu,” Kemp said. He reached for a cup and sniffed it experimentally. “Smells good,” he murmured and sipped. Then sipped again. “Tastes odd, but it’s nice.”

“A local caffeine,” Catherine guessed. She picked up one of the mugs and sipped. It was hot and she could taste the traces of caffeine on her tongue. “Coffee anywhere is good,” she decided and drank. “Why are we here, Lilly?”

“We’re waiting for someone,” Lilly said. She slipped her device into one of the big pockets on her coat. “She says she’ll be here in five standards.”

“Someone you know?” Brant asked.

“Yes.” She looked at Catherine. “She’s Aneesh, although I trust her.”

“She’s still with the College?” Brant asked.

“She was an Ailved. She raises children.”

“That’s probably the last remaining true profession left for the Aneesh,” Catherine said. “What’s her name?”

“Nichua. Nichua Riyante.”

Catherine turned her head, then looked down at her cup in confusion. She had been turning to seek out Bedivere, to check that he was already running searches on the name. She let out a long, deep breath, then looked at Kemp. “See if you can find anything on the name, please.”

He nodded and pulled out his own reader.

Catherine bent her gaze back to the mug of local coffee, her thoughts skittering. It wasn’t often she was reminded of the centuries she had moved through. Now, though, she was suddenly aware of the long tail of them behind her in the mists of history. She had known Bedivere for just over a hundred years and in that very, very short time, her life had grown around him, like a coral. Now she was noticing the empty space he had left behind.

Nichua was wearing a full cape and hood, which was not unusual among the pedestrians on the streets. She left her hood up until she reached the table and stood looking at them all, a worried expression on her thin, pinched face. “Who are these people?” she demanded of Lilly.

“I trust them with my life. You can, too,” Lilly told her.

Nichua was staring at Catherine and her lips parted. “I know you.” Then she glanced around the table once more, putting it together. “What have you got me into, Lilly?” she demanded. “I can’t be seen here with you, not with them. The College is trying to stay out of the disaster, yet she—” Her finger lifted from beneath the hem of the cape and pointed at Catherine. “She is the reason the abomination awoke in the first place and was permitted the freedom to bring this destruction down upon us.”

Lilly paled and Brant shifted closer to her.

“I always thought of you as a broad-minded person who knew how to think for herself,” Lilly replied evenly. “You don’t know the other side of the story. You can’t judge based on the feeds. You know they’re manipulated.”

Nichua swallowed, looking around the tea room as far as the edges of her hood would permit. “If I am seen here with you, the College will expel me. Then where will I go?”

“If you have backbone enough, you can go anywhere you want,” Catherine said gently. “There is life outside the College. Lilly is a perfect example.”

Nichua pressed her lips together, doubt gnawing at her.

Catherine shifted on the uncomfortable bench, time ticking down in her mind. “Will you tell us what you know about the disaster? Like you, we are trying to find the truth. We travelled here to learn for ourselves.”

“You want to exonerate your mate,” Nichua replied.

“Not if he is guilty,” Catherine replied. “Though I will not declare him guilty until I know what happened.”

“He killed a man.”

“That would be me,” Kemp said easily. He gave her a smile. “I know Bedivere. Not as well as these fine folk, but well enough to doubt most of what they are saying about him in the feeds. This disaster here on Barros does not fit with what I know of him. Will you explain to me what you know?” His smile grew warmer.

Nichua considered him, then she gave a small nod.

Everyone shuffled around on the bench to make room and she slid onto the end. She pushed her hood to the back of her head, not all the way off. “What do you want to know? I only know what I have heard inside the College.”

“Are you still with Jeremiah?” Lilly asked. “Does he still work in the laboratories? They would have been privy to more information than the public is getting.”

Nichua nodded slowly. “That is where I heard most of what I can tell you. They are saying that the attack was unprovoked. The computer—”