YOU DO NOT NEED TO SLEEP WITH ME PLUGGED IN.
RIGHT, BUT I NEED YOU DURING THE DAY.
CAN I TEST AT NIGHT?
I REALLY WISH YOU WOULDN'T.
IF YOU SAY SO, KRIS, I WILL STOP TESTING UNTIL WE CAN DISCUSS THIS WITH TRU AND SAM.
THANK YOU, NELLY. Now all Kris had to worry about was whether or not the chip had already done something to her computer. What a wonderful start to the day.
Kris slipped out of bed, pulled on a sweatsuit, and tiptoed to Abby's room. The maid uniform was set neatly atop one of the trunks beside a brown raincoat and a shoulder purse. Today could be a quiet day of running errands. It might turn into a run for her life. Back in her room, Kris located the body stocking in the bottom of one bureau drawer and pulled it on carefully. She added the undies from that oh-so-long-ago walk through Katyville as well as the shoes. The brown uniform went on easily over that. She put on the beret and managed to merge its line out into Nelly's with no trouble. The raincoat covered everything; the purse held a makeup kit fit for a spy. Where are the nanos? Kris asked.
I PARKED THEM UNDER THE EPAULETS OF THE RAINCOAT.
VERY GOOD. I THINK I'M READY TO GO.
I AGREE.
Not sure how to take her computer's approval, Kris stepped from her room and closed the door. As she turned, the lights came up in the living room; Jack sat on the couch, legs crossed, face grim. Silent, he pointed her to a place on the couch.
Kris took the offered seat. For a long minute, the two of them eyed each other in wordless challenge.
''It's not safe down there,'' Jack finally whispered.
''I'll be careful.''
''There's a party tonight.''
''I'll be back in time.''
Jack mulled that for a while. ''I could call the guards.''
''And we'd know nothing more about this hand we're playing, or what deck Sandfire is stacking. We stay ignorant, we lose.''
''I could go.''
That stopped Kris for a moment. ''Only Nelly can control the nanos. You'd have to do a lot more talking than I will.''
''Then I go with you.''
''Jack, that just doubles the chance of failure. You answer the door here, and they'll assume I'm here. We both go…''
Jack scowled. ''You get yourself beat up, and they'll never let me work with you again.''
That one gave Kris pause. She'd never considered that they might punish Jack for what she did. Would they be punishing Jack or punishing her? She'd never let on just how much she liked having Jack around. She'd have to think about that, but not now.
''I'll be careful,'' she said, standing.
Jack reached for her hand. She pulled it back; he turned his hand over, showing a wad of bills. ''You'll need this.''
Kris pocketed the money and made her way to the door. Tom's room was closed, no way to see how Penny was doing. She opened the door only enough to slip out… and found herself facing a guard standing across from her. He frowned a question at her. Kris pulled her raincoat closed over her maid's uniform, stifled a yawn, and mumbled, ''Long night.''
The guard's frown deepened for a second, then his face went neutral, and Kris could almost hear him ordering himself to forget he'd ever seen a maid slipping out of this suite so early in the morning. Such was the privilege of people who lived in such suites. They could make common folks in brown maid uniforms vanish from other people's sight. Kris had a lot of thinking to do when this was over.
Pulling her beret farther down, Kris hurried for the freight elevator. That took her inward to a service area in what would have been a basement anywhere dirtside. A break and change room was on her right, the rear of the kitchen to her left, sending forth quite different aromas from those blown into the dining room. A new shift was coming on; Kris slipped by them, head down. There must have been enough staff turnover; no one remarked on her. She was quickly out the back door into a service corridor that stank of garbage and had just been hosed down. She followed this alleyway, gray-sided with color-coded pipes overhead, to a service slide way. It took her down to Stop One—Elevator Access. Kris paid cash for her ticket and found an out-of-the-way seat on the ferry's main deck.
''Money,'' she whispered to herself. She had her credit chit, but that would leave a golden trail right to her. How could she have forgotten something as basic as money? Easy, kid. You never lacked for it, she scowled to herself.
Halfway down, she stopped in the ladies' room to put on makeup. Powder darkened her skin. A pencil added worry lines to her forehead and mouth. Mascara made her eyes wider, and contacts made them brown. A puffy nose, mole on her right forehead and left cheek should throw off face analysis software if she remembered to suck in her full lips. Hunching her shoulders and stooping to shorten her height, Kris left the rest room, passed through the dining area, and climbed to the observation deck. As was usual on the Wardhaven ferry, this early among the working folks, it was pretty empty. Kris settled into a corner, opened an abandoned newspaper from yesterday, and tried to observe the five other people in view without being obvious.
She didn't have to worry; all five were stretched out on seats, dead to the world. After a moment, Kris stretched out, merging into their tiny herd. She followed when landing bells awoke them and sent them yawning for the exits. Beret down, coat held close, she slumped her way through the terminal and out onto Heidelburg's streets. NELLY, WE'LL NEED A CAB.
i SUSPECTED YOU WOULD WANT TRANSPORTATION TODAY. TURN RIGHT; A CAB WILL DRIVE BY SOON.
Kris followed Nelly's instructions. Half a minute after she began walking down Second Street, an orange cab drove past her and pulled over to the curb. Abu Kartum got out, leaned against his car, and began to whistle something that sounded vaguely Irish.
HERE'S OUR RIDE FOR THIS MORNING, Nelly said.
NELLY, I DON'T WANT THIS POOR MAN IN THIS MESS.
WE CAN ARGUE LATER WHEN WE ARE IN THE CAB. I SUGGEST YOU TELL HIM YOU NEED A RIDE HOME.
AUNTIE TRU IS DEFINITELY HEARING ABOUT THIS AS SOON AS WE GET BACK, Kris told her computer but kept a plaintive smile on her face. ''I need a ride home. I'm feeling kind of wobbly.''
''You spitting up blood?'' Abu said, edging away from her.
Damn, I forgot about the Ebola thing. ''No fever. I think it was something I ate,'' Kris said, rubbing her tummy.
That seemed to satisfy him. He opened the door for her. ''Where to?''
NELLY!
''Two nine six four,'' Kris repeated as Nelly fed her an address, ''Northwest 173rd Street.''
''You live a long way out to work on the beanstalk.''
''I usually take the, er… trolley,'' Kris said as Nelly provided the word for local mass transit.
''It'll be a bit of a drive. I'll try to cut you a deal. Slump down so a taxi cop doesn't get me,'' the man said as he put the cab in gear without touching the meter.
''Thank you,'' Kris said and tried to make herself smaller.
''I know you?'' the cabby said, glancing in a mirror that let him see his fare.
''I don't think so. I don't take the cab very often.''
''But you did last week.''
''I doubt it.''
''I don't forget hats. Not beanies with fancy pom-poms.''
''I just got it at a secondhand store.''
''Yeah, and I got my draft notice in yesterday's mail.''
''Draft notice?'' Kris hadn't heard about that. Then again, how long had it been since she'd asked Nelly for a news update?''
''Yeah, come any planetary emergency as announced by the government, I'm expected to report for weapons training. Me with six kids to feed, and I'm going to be out of my cab and learning how to shoot a gun. You know what they're going to pay me?''
''No.''
''Neither do I. Nothing on the news. Nothing in the letter they sent me. Nothing my eldest boy could find on the net. It's just here, and it's like no one knows anything about it.''
''I don't either.'' Nelly, search.
I AM SEARCHING. HE IS RIGHT; THERE IS NOTHING.