“No, that doesn’t serve my purpose. I’m after something simpler. The Council will be holding a convention next week to discuss the implementation of western aid schemes. I’d like you to announce it.”
Magda’s expression was pure disbelief.
“The Council?”
“That’s what I said.”
“Since when have you been interested in the Council?”
“Since today, Magda.”
“And why would you be interested in aid schemes?”
“I don’t see why that would concern you. The request is simple enough, is it not?”
“You’d give me access to Jannike Ko’s twenty-second in exchange for a little article on aid schemes?”
“A big article, Magda. A headline article. I’ll be invoking the Ibatoka Clause — you can say that too.”
Magda laughed. “The what?”
“Why don’t you look it up?” Adelaide suggested.
“If I don’t know what it is it’s not headline material,” Magda shot back. “You coming to my office asking for help, now that’s headline material.”
“Come on Magda. You know you love the Council. Miserable old octopuses, promoting unprecedented aid schemes. You’re telling me you can’t make something juicy out of that? Spin it whichever way you like, I don’t care.”
Magda scraped the ring against her front teeth.
“Jannike Ko only turns twenty-two once,” Adelaide mused.
“Well, I suppose we could run with a riot containment theme. There have been… flickers. A profile of one of the Home Guard might of interest.”
“No Home Guard. How about a neglect and sob story piece?”
“Yes, thank you, I don’t need you to tell me how to do my job.”
“Do excuse me. I’ve been the subject of your job for so long, sometimes I feel I know it as well as you do.”
Both women sat back, assessing one another.
“What guarantee do I have that you’ll keep your word?”
“I don’t give guarantees,” said Adelaide.
“I could turn this whole industry against you.”
Adelaide pretended to give this a second’s thought.
“I doubt that. On the other hand, I could get you fired in the time it takes to do this.” She snapped her fingers. “Still a Rechnov, Magda. Now. Do we or do we not have a deal?”
Magda gnawed on the ring.
“Make sure you check the morning feed.”
“Good.” Adelaide stood up. “I’ll see myself out, shall I?”
The knock at the door was insistent. She went to answer it, muttering to herself about people who couldn’t wait. Axel stood grinning in the corridor. He strolled into the apartment, a half-smoked cigarillo dangling from his lips.
“Is that the time?” he said. The cigarillo waggled comically in his mouth. “Must have been gone longer than I thought.”
“Months, actually,” she said. “Where were you, the western quarter or what?”
“Oh, this and that. Baiting Linus. Annoying Dmitri with my expenses. Why, A, did you miss me?”
She woke with a jolt and found herself on the futon, fully dressed. For a minute she thought it was raining again, but it was just the noise of Vikram’s fingers on the activation strip of her Neptune.
“Evening,” he said.
“Did I sleep?”
“Yes. You got about halfway through telling me about going to the Daily Flotsam. Linus called, by the way.”
She rubbed her eyes. They were prickly with sleep.
Hell’s tide! She was beginning to wake up. Last night this man had wanted to kill her. Today she was falling asleep in the same room.
But she wasn’t scared any more. She sensed that a line had been crossed.
“What did Linus want?”
“To let you know he’d had a message from some woman called Linn asking about a conference.”
She smiled at that. “Good. We’re going to force their hand.”
And why are you trying to help him, Adelaide?
“There’s some fresh coral tea if you want.”
“What’s the time?”
“Twenty-one thirty.”
“Shit. Said I’d meet Jannike for dinner. You coming?”
“I’ve got a presentation to write.”
“It’s your call.”
Vikram hadn’t woken her for Linus’s message. She could not decide if that was a good thing or not. She perched on the futon to pull on her boots, sneaking surreptitious glances at his thin angular figure, tensed over the Neptune. Her laces were tangled and it took her a few minutes to work out the knots.
There was no time for tea so she took a shot of voqua, aware that Vikram’s eyes were on her, nervous in a way she could not pin down. If those eyes held a different light, they might draw her right in.
Better pull yourself together, girlie. You might not be as strong as you think you are.
The lift came almost immediately when she called it, from the floor above. The man inside held the door for her.
“Good evening, Miss Rechnov.”
She noticed a funny motif on the collar of his shirt; a white winged insect. One of the facility crowd. What the hell did they do up there, anyway? Was it really astronomy, or some kind of dubious experimentation? She felt the voqua burn down her gullet and wondered if the man could see it, like a red streak down her neck.
“Evening,” she acknowledged.
“Please, give my regards to the Architect.”
She nodded. The lift plummeted. It was a good thing Vikram wasn’t coming. He was too unpredictable. She would have to babysit him all night and besides, Tyr was going to be out. She was conscious of an overwhelming desire to have Tyr’s arms around her while he told her that all would be well, that everything would work out, as he had the day after Axel evicted her from the penthouse. She felt as though she was carrying the weight of a colossal secret, and yet the truth was she knew nothing at all.
24 ¦ VIKRAM
Vikram stretched his arms above his head, relishing the solitude and the peace. A week had passed while he worked in the Red Rooms, preparing for his presentation and watching Adelaide’s magical filmreels. Adelaide had just left, slamming the door of her apartment shut with a small implosion. It was not an aggressive sound; she always slammed doors. Vikram had got used to her. On this day of the Council address, though, he was glad of these last few minutes alone to prepare for the debate ahead.
He lifted his gaze from the Neptune to the window-wall. The sleek silver towers stretched away like sentinels. If it weren’t for the year of storms, the entire city would have looked like this, and Vikram might not have been here at all. The sight stirred up a rare well of nostalgia within him. He examined the feeling, turned it over, tested its value toward today’s proceedings. Once more he read through the notes he had made.
Adelaide had been surprisingly, even shockingly useful. She knew all the intricacies of the Council. The more they talked, the more he realized that as an ally she would stretch far beyond this initial appeal.
There had been times when working with the girl was actually fun. They ran ideas past one another, tentatively at first, but grew increasingly frank in their discussions. Together they had pored over legal documents. They looked at records of previous appeals to the Council, from the Western Repatriation Movement’s first address, to the threats issued by an emerging NWO. Adelaide was quick to spot the inconsistencies in a piece of legislation. With her caustic commentary, she made him laugh more than once, and if she wasn’t expected at some soirée or other, they could quite easily sit arguing late into the night. Her energy reminded him of Eirik, although he could never tell her that.