I'd tried. I'd tried honesty, tried telling her what was happening. If she didn't accept it, it wasn't my fault. I'd done my full duty to truth and justice. Sayuri Nakada deserved to be swindled if anyone ever did; I could almost sympathize with Orchid, seeing all that money in the hands of someone like her.
Of course, if she checked up later and cut Orchid and Lee and the rest off, or got them sent up for reconstruction, I wouldn't weep.
Right now, though, I had one more thing I realized I had to discuss with her, and maybe it was something I should have dealt with before I antagonized her. I had a client to take care of. Just because Paulie and Bobo weren't going to be making the rounds in the West End didn't mean nobody would.
"There's one other thing," I said, casually. "I probably should have mentioned it the first time, but you know how it is, things can slip your mind."
She just glared. Maybe she didn't know how it is, with all the implants she must have had keeping her up to date. Or maybe she just didn't want to admit she knew.
"There's a little matter of some people I know," I said. "Living out in the West End in some of the buildings you bought."
"Squatters," she said.
I nodded. "You could call them that," I agreed.
"Burakumin!" she spat. "Abid! A bunch of social gritware. They pay rent or they get out; I don't want them around when I start cleaning up out there."
I held up a hand. "Mis' Nakada," I said, "I think you're overreacting. They aren't such bad people."
I was lying; they were scum. But they were also paying clients.
"What are they to you?" she asked.
"Friends," I lied. "And I don't want them evicted."
"I do," she said, and she was pretty damn definite about it. I guessed right then that collecting rents hadn't been Orchid's idea at all, but hers. I doubted Orchid had known just how much trouble collecting that stupid rent would buy him, but at least he hadn't come up with it on his own.
"Mis' Nakada," I said, "I hope you'll reconsider."
"Why should I?" she demanded.
"Because if you don't, I'll put everything I know about the little plan you have the Ipsy working on on the public nets. That could cut into your profits pretty badly, having the word get out too soon."
"That's blackmail," she said.
I shrugged. "You could call it that, I suppose," I admitted. "I have a chunk of information; I can hand it out free, or I can sell you the dissemination rights. If you want to call that blackmail, suit yourself. Which do you want? Do I put it on the nets or not?"
"No!" she said, sharp and hard.
"Then we make a deal," I said. "We can put it in writing. I'm not looking for anything permanent, just a little time for my friends to get relocated. I'll agree not to release to the public or anyone except partners or immediate family any information I may have concerning your investment plans or dealings with nonprofit scientific organizations, and I'll bind all partners and immediate family to the same commitment. In exchange, you'll agree that you will not attempt to collect any rents on property in the West End for, shall we say, three years?"
"That's too long," she snapped.
"All right," I said. "Until you're ready to refurbish the buildings, or three years, whichever comes first. The day your repair crews arrive, the squatters will be out; how's that sound?"
"How do I know you won't make more demands?" she asked.
"That's in my end of the agreement," I said. "If I spread the word, or if I demand anything more, then I'm in breach of contract-and you and I both know what the penalties are for that in Nightside City. I'm not interested in a term of indenture, or in selling body parts."
She thought for a minute, then nodded. "All right," she said.
That little golden floater had all the necessary equipment for the contract, and in fifteen minutes we had shaken hands and left.
I don't know where she went. I went home to my office. I thanked Mishima's muscle and let them fend for themselves; I didn't see that I needed them anymore.
The case was over, as far as I could see. I sat at my desk and ran through the records, making notes, seeing if I'd missed anything. I didn't see that I had. My contract was to stop the new owner from evicting the squatters; I had Nakada's agreement recorded and sealed. Side issues had been to find out who was doing what, and why, and I had all that figured out. Orchid and Rigmus had tried to kill me, but I had it set so they wouldn't try again.
It looked smooth. I started clearing everything out of the com's active memory.
Then the com beeped and I touched keys, and Mishima's face appeared.
"Hello, Hsing," he said.
"Hello, Mishima," I replied.
"So how'd it go?" he asked.
"How did what go?" I said.
"Your little talk with Sayuri Nakada-how'd it go?"
I wasn't terribly happy to hear him ask that. I was beginning to have second or third thoughts about any sort of partnership with Mishima. I'd always worked alone, my own way and at my own speed; having a partner checking up on me did not carry a lot of appeal. It had seemed wonderful when I was lying in a hospital bed with new eyes and my new skin still baby-slick, feeling vulnerable, with no idea how I could face down Orchid and the others all by myself, but now I began to see drawbacks.
I still appreciated the loan of the muscle, not to mention the medical bills and the detail that Mishima had ventured out onto the dayside to rescue me, and I could see virtues in the arrangement, but I didn't like being called to account like that.
"It went all right," I said, trying to think how I could put my concerns.
"What did you get?" he asked.
"What do you mean, what did I get?" I said.
"I mean, what did you get from Nakada?" he said. "How much did she pay you to keep quiet?"
"She didn't pay me anything," I said. "She just agreed to leave the squatters alone."
He stared at me for a minute. "Listen, partner," he said. "I don't want to get this relationship off to a rough start. Let's just keep the bugs and glitches to a minimum. Let's not hold out on each other, okay?"
"Sure," I said. "I'm not holding out."
"Oh, get off it, Hsing," he said. "You went there with all the details of this scam, with everything you needed to prove to Sayuri Nakada's old man back on Prometheus that she's a complete idiot, and you came away without a buck? You expect me to believe that?"
It was my turn to sit back and stare for a minute.
"All right, Mishima," I said. "Suppose you tell me how you think it ran."
He gave me a look like I'd just offered to buy his firstborn child at an offensively low price.
"All right," he said. "I think you went in there and told Nakada that she was being taken, that Orchid and Rigmus and Lee were running a scam on her that had made her look like a complete fool. I think she probably suspected it all along-I mean, the whole thing is so obviously too good to be true. I think you mentioned that her greatgrandfather might be interested in knowing what she'd been doing with her money. I think you suggested that you might tell him, if the circumstances arose. I think she took the hint and asked what it would cost to be sure the circumstances never arose, and I think that the two of you dickered out a specific amount. Since she was a pro once, I suppose it wasn't all that much, but half of it's mine, Hsing. Now, how much was it?"
I shook my head. "You've got it wrong, Mishima. Right from the start."
"Then you tell me how it went," he demanded.
"You tell me something first," I said. "How'd you know it was all a scam?"
He paused, and I could see he was thinking back and realizing that I'd never told him that. He could say he figured it out for himself, but he was awfully damn sure that I knew it was a scam.
I guess he decided on the truth.
"I tapped into your com," he said.