“Not unless they intend to murder all theirclients.”
I felt a chill at that, and GrandfatherNakada must have read it on my face. “That isn’t a viable option,”he said. “While it’s true that their client base has littleconnection to the outside world, all deaths are reported to thecity authorities-by the tanks, not by the personnel-and anysuspicious increase in mortality would be noticed.”
“You’re assuming they don’t hack the tanks toprevent the death reports.”
“Mis’ Hsing, if the deaths aren’t reported,the trust fund won’t be released.”
“Could they bribe the city authorities toignore suspicions?”
“Of course they could, but corruption alwayscarries some risk, and the amount in the trust fund would notjustify that risk-it would barely cover the bribes. What’s more,some of the clients left family behind who would not be so easilysilenced.”
I had to admit that it didn’t sound like agood reason to buy the company. I wondered where those blackfloaters that had helped me get my father out fit in; did thebuyers want the clients to be removed? Would that free upthe trust fund?
But they couldn’t count on clients to havecrazy relatives. That wasn’t it.
From Yoshio’s list, that left the leases andthe contracts.
“Is space in Trap Under at a premium, maybe?”I asked. “Do people think it’ll be protected from the sun?”
“It will be protected from the sun,”the old man answered, “but no, it isn’t particularly valuable.There’s more than enough space available, and new tunnels can bebored cheaply enough. The city’s economy is based on a liveableexternal environment; if it has to move underground it won’t be anydifferent than any of the mining towns further out on the nightside, except that there’s nothing worth mining. The tourist tradewill disappear, and most of the miners will make do with their owncasinos and entertainments.”
That left the contracts.
The old man came to the same conclusion, andbefore I could ask a question he said, “The client contracts aremore of a liability than an asset. The money has already been paidin, and what’s left is the obligation to care for and entertain theclients.”
I knew he was right, but I thought there wassomething there we were missing. Those black floaters-hadthey deliberately been helping me get Dad out of there? They didn’tbelong to Seventh Heaven or the Ginza; they belonged to the NewYork, which meant the Nakadas, which probably meant whoever wasbacking Corporate Initiatives. The buyers had helped me kidnap oneof the clients-what did that mean?
Did they want Dad out of his tank? If so,why? What did a Nakada want with him?
Whatever it was, I had brought him straightto the Nakada family’s private compound.
“Where’s my father?” I asked.
“Medical services, I assume.”
“Could you check?”
If I had to describe Nakada’s expression Iwould call it “bemused.” He didn’t say anything; he turned to hisdesktop and pressed a thumb on a reader.
The seascape that had filled the displayvanished, and menus appeared. He gestured, then read theresults.
“He’s in medical services, undergoing anexamination.”
“Who has access to the exam results?”
The old man’s expression changed, so slightlyI wasn’t entirely sure at first I hadn’t imagined it. “That’s avery interesting question,” he replied. He reached up to the backof his neck, and I realized for the first time that he was jackedin, and the desktop was for my benefit, not his. He’d found myquestion interesting enough to drop the grit.
I wouldn’t have thought he’d want to ridewire after what happened to his dream enhancer, but apparently hewasn’t deterred as easily as I was. I assume he had massivesecurity on that line, the sort of watchdogs I had only ever seenfrom the outside.
“You’re right, Mis’ Hsing,” he said, though Ihadn’t said anything to be right about. “Someone’s hacked intomedical and taken a very sharp interest in your father’scondition.”
“Can you tell who?”
“I can limit the possibilities,” he said.“There are about a dozen.”
“Is Chantilly Rhee one of them?”
“Yes. So is Kumiko.”
“I’d guess some of the others are dead.”
His eyes had drifted off, upward and to theright, since I asked who had access, but now they snapped back andfocused directly on mine. “Oh?”
“I know there are at least eight uploads ofdead Nakadas running in this compound, and I’d be surprised if noneof them could get in there if they wanted to.”
“I am impressed, Mis’ Hsing. I am quite sureI did not mention my uploaded siblings and descendants to you.”
“I told you I’d started myinvestigation.”
“I will want to know more about thiseventually, but for now, let us keep our attention on more urgentmatters. You tell me that my daughter’s aide is involved in ascheme to purchase Seventh Heaven Neurosurgery, a company that is,by any rational standard, almost worthless. You seem convinced thisis linked to the attempt on my life. And I believe we have bothconcluded that what the buyers are actually after is not any of thecompany’s normal assets, but the people inside the dreamtanks.”
“I think they helped me get my father out ofthere,” I said. I didn’t bother telling him any details about theblack floaters; they weren’t relevant.
“You think they wanted him to serve as a testsample, so they could assess the condition of their intendedacquisitions. Helping you kidnap him was less likely to drawunwelcome attention than extracting one of the dreamersthemselves.”
The old man was still sharp. “Yes,” Isaid.
“It’s an interesting theory, Mis’ Hsing, butit’s based on very little evidence and a great deal of supposition.Further, there is one very basic question to which I do not see anobvious answer: What do they want with the dreamers?”
When I walked into the office I couldn’t haveanswered that question, but by this time I had figured it out.
“Bodies,” I said. “They want living bodiesthat their original owners aren’t using.”
Chapter Sixteen
For a moment Grandfather Nakada sat silently in hisbig chair, staring at me. Then he said, “You think one of myuploaded relatives wants to be human again?”
“At least one,” I said. “For all Iknow, all eight of them are conspiring in this.”
“I confess, Mis’ Hsing, I don’t even knowwhether it’s technically possible to download a mind from a networkinto a human body.”
“I don’t, either. And I wouldn’t be too surethey know. That doesn’t mean they won’t try it. If they buyup Seventh Heaven they’ll have plenty of bodies to experiment on,and if they wait until after sunrise there won’t be much of anyoneleft in Nightside City to notice or care.”
The old man considered that for a fewseconds, then said, “Very little evidence and a great deal ofsupposition, Mis’ Hsing. And it doesn’t explain the attempt on mylife, or the false reports of my death.”
“They wanted a copy of you,” I said. “To getthem into Seventh Heaven. They didn’t think you’d cooperate withthem in your present form, but if you died, and an upload of youwas booted up, they thought the upload would help them. In fact, itapparently has-when you survived the assassination attempt, theyrealized a false report of your death would release the ITEODfiles, and they could copy and activate the upload you had inthere.”
“They have a copy of me?” The old man lookedshocked. I hadn’t thought anything could shock someone who’d livedthrough the last two centuries, but it seemed I was wrong. Isuppose this was a bit more personal than all that history.
And while I hadn’t originally intended tobring this up, I wanted to see how he would react to another newsitem.
“So do I,” I said. “Aboard Ukiba.”
“Hsing, you…”
He stopped in mid-sentence, staring at me,speechless.
I felt a twinge of guilt about popping thatup on the old man. I didn’t want to kill off my client, after all,and at his age any sort of shock carried a risk. “I didn’t know whoit was,” I said. “If there’s a proper catalog in the ITEOD files, Imissed it.”