The screen lit up with a flash of blue. Al Shei straightened up and tried to marshal her strength. The scene in front of her was the Bala House comm room again, with Asil at the main boards.
“I’m glad you’re here, Beloved.” He was not smiling. His forehead was a mass of perplexed wrinkles. “I’ve got some — confusing developments.”
“You too, hmm?” Al Shei rested her chin in her hand. “Mine is that the packet Amory Dane gave us turned out to be carrying code for a rogue AI. What’s yours?”
Asil stiffened in shock.
Beyond further shame and worry, Al Shei described what had happened on The Farther Kingdom and afterwards, including Dobbs part in catching and confining the AI, as well as rescuing the Pasadena when it was lost.
As she spoke, Al Shei saw Asil’s hands tightening around the edge of his board. “Name of God, Katmer, are you all right?”
She nodded. “I think so, Asil. As much as I can be. I am just so sick of this mess.” She tugged at her tunic sleeve. “It should be getting simpler, but it just keeps getting more and more complicated.”
Asil sighed and rubbed his face. “My news isn’t going to help clear it out any, Katmer. Amory Dane is dead.”
Now it was Al Shei’s turn to freeze. “It gets better,” said Asil, his voice heavy with irony. “He died in the can explosion an hour before whoever pirated his name met with Resit to give you that packet.”
“Merciful Allah!” Al Shei raised hands and eyes to heaven. “Uysal said Dane’s movements were conflicted, but this is insane!”
“I had thought of that,” Asil told her seriously. “But there’s too much going on for it to be that simple. I also thought about going to Tully and squeezing the life out of him for getting you into this, but I’m not sure he’d tell me the truth even under those circumstances.”
Al Shei drummed her fingers against the edge of the desk. “It’s possible that Tully doesn’t even know the truth at this point, or that he doesn’t know all of it.”
“It’s possible. All right. What do we know? There were definitely two separate illegal packets aboard Pasadena, the virus and the AI.”
“Yes. And the virus was brought on board by Tully and the AI was brought on board by Pirate Dane.” Al Shei felt her mind begin to clear and quicken. “Who must have known at least something bout Tully’s movements, because he asked Resit whether Tully had anything to do with a raid on the Toric secured sector.”
“Could Pirate Dane have thought you were as cracked as Tully?”
“No,” Al Shei shook her head. “Resit assured him our crews and jobs are totally separate.”
“Could he have known the virus was still on board?”
Al Shei considered it. “Possibly. Say, Pirate Dane was watching Tully, and eavesdropped on a meeting between Doctor Dane and Tully in which Tully assured Doctor Dane he’d be able to get the virus off Pasadena, no problem, because Schyler would bend the transfer rules for him.”
Asil was silent for a moment. “Could Tully have arranged the can explosion to cover up his illegal maneuvers?”
“Could Pirate Dane have done it?” countered Al Shei.
“That’s a better guess. He could have done it to get Doctor Dane out of the way so he could step into his place with you.” He paused. “If he already knew about Tully’s movements, why would he confirm them with Resit?”
Al Shei’s heart fluttered. “Could he have wanted to make double sure the virus would not be moved, that it would still be in the system with the AI. Could that be what did it? Pirate Dane wanted to make sure both components, the AI and the virus were in the system?”
“What for?”
“To create a rogue AI. Dobbs said the Fools were suspect that somebody did this deliberately. I assumed the AI was rogue when it was put on board, but what if it wasn’t? What if Pirate Dane was using Pasadena as an incubator?”
“Why pick Pasadena?”
“Because we’re AI rated, but we don’t carry an AI. If we did, it would have found the quiescent virus.” Wouldn’t Yerusha just love to be in on this conversation.
Asil tapped his chin. “We’re forgetting something. How would the virus have gotten from those junked binary stacks to the system?”
Realization blossomed inside Al Shei. “What if what Tully was paid to put the virus into the Pasadena system? What if he was never after the junked stacks at all? What if he was having second thoughts and wanted to get the virus out of the system?”
“Then why not tell Schyler?”
“Because something this big, Schyler would tell me, and I’d tell Ruqaiyya.”
“And perhaps Pirate Dane and Doctor Dane were working together and Pirate Dane double-crossed Doctor Dane?”
“It could be.”
“Oh. Merciful. Allah.” The color drained from Asil’s cheeks.
Al Shei swallowed hard. She’d said it, but the implications were still filtering into her soul. “Asil, we can’t keep this quiet anymore. We have to use the family name and get a hearing from the Management Union security section at Geneva, right now.”
Asil held up both hands. “We need to be very careful about slinging accusations at this point, Katmer. You are on the run from The Farther Kingdom, don’t forget, and Pasadena Corporation is the cause of what happened there. These are not petty regulation violations. If we don’t have hard proof of this astoundingly far-fetched explanation for what happened at The Gate, a good lawyer will slice our speculations to ribbons, and then do the same to us, family name or no family name.”
Al Shei ground her teeth together in frustration. “You’re right. So. What do we need to confirm? Sabotage on the Port Oberon can.”
“The real flight path for Tully’s last run.”
“Pirate Dane’s activities before and after The AI got loose on The Farther Kingdom.”
“Pirate Dane’s existence and identity,” added Asil ruefully.
Al Shei watched him thoughtfully for a long moment. “My Husband, please keep these inquiries extremely quiet,” she said softly. “This Pirate Dane murdered a whole can full of people. I don’t think he’d stick at harming one more.”
Asil nodded soberly. “Believe me, Katmer, I’d already thought of that. As soon as I’ve confirmed that the Port Oberon can was blown out on purpose, I’ll be telling this whole story to Uncle Ahmet. He has enough connections to keep any inquiries well and truly sealed.”
Al Shei blew out a sigh. Uncle Ahmet. If only it didn’t have to be him, but there was no getting around it. He was the head of the family, and they needed family help. “This is going to be extremely hard on Ruqaiyya. Will you look after her for me, Beloved?”
“I will,” he promised. He pressed his palm against the screen. “Take care, Katmer. Come home.”
“I will.” She touched her fingertips to his palm. “I will.”
She cut the connection and lowered her hand. At that moment, she thought about how they had just spoken over a completely unscrambled channel, and about how someone like Pirate Dane was certainly capable of setting an illegal watch on comm lines opened from Pasadena. Suddenly, a wave of thankfulness washed over her for the fact that Asil was at home, surrounded by her powerful, prominent banking family.
“Intercom to Resit,” she said without shifting her gaze away from the blank screen and her mind from that particular though. “Cousin, can I see you? We have a new problem.”
Who are you? She sent the thought through the hull and out into the vacuum, toward wherever Pirate Dane lay waiting. Who in the name of God are you?
The Pasadena’s airlock cycled open and Dobbs saw Cohen waiting for her. She started. Cohen was almost always on-line. There were special life-support systems for Fools like him.