They were probably terrified.
“Hurry,” I said.
Chapter Nineteen
The clean-up wasn’t really all that bad; the suddenshut-down had set off alarms all over American City, and emergencyservices had been on the way before we were out of the tunnel. Noone died, despite the power outage; the worst injury was aconcussion where a masseuse had tripped over a box in the dark andhit her head on the table. Ordinarily the table would have beensoft enough to avoid serious injury, but without power the flexionfields had vanished and the internal mechanisms had locked inplace, creating hard spots.
Ukiba became Grandfather Nakada’spersonal fortress; he refused to let anyone aboard except himself,me, and Captain Perkins. Even Singh was no longer welcome. I waspretty sure he didn’t want anyone to find Yoshio-kun.
It had been the old man’s upload that tookcharge when the power went out, using the link that had been set upso it could keep Shinichiro distracted; it had lit up the ship toserve as a sort of beacon, and had sent orders to the floaters toassume formation and await further instructions. We didn’t tellanyone that; when outside floaters and rescue workers startedarriving they were directed to ignore the ship and attend to thecompound buildings.
The city immediately offered to run temporarylines in to restore power, but Grandfather Nakada rejected theoffer. He also refused to say how the outage came about, but he didtell the authorities that it was his problem, on his property, andhe would take care of it.
We had the ship, but the rest of thehousehold would have to find temporary quarters elsewhere-the oldman said power wouldn’t be restored for days. He watched as thecompound’s inhabitants and guests were brought out of the lightlessbuildings one by one, into the glare of the big emergency lightsthe city had sent and set up on all sides. They were guided out byfloaters, and by rescue workers carrying small lights and coms. Theold man acknowledged each refugee and directed each of them tosafety, pointing some to a line of waiting cabs, sending others tothe medical station the city had set up, and leaving a few to theirown devices.
He let Singh go off to help with the rescues,but he kept me close at his side, and I stood there, feelinguseless, as the buildings were emptied of humanity and the skyoverhead faded to black. Eta Cass B rose in the east balefully red,changing the color of the shadows, and I was still keptwaiting.
I would have been happy to help get peopleout, or clean up damage, but Grandfather Nakada wouldn’t allow it,and I was fairly sure it was because he didn’t trust me to keep mymouth shut about his family secrets.
And then came the moment the old man had beenwaiting for-an old woman emerged from one of the family residences,a young man from the city holding one arm, a floater watching herclosely from above and behind her head. She was unsteady on herfeet, her expression a mix of terror and confusion.
“Kumiko,” the old man called. “Come here,daughter.”
She looked up and saw him, and trembledvisibly. She stopped in her tracks.
“Turn on your gun,” Yoshio told me quietly.Then he called to the man helping her, “Bring her here,please.”
I powered up the HG-2, but I wasn’t happyabout it. I’d never shot a human being. I’d threatened a few when Iwas angry enough, but I had never pulled the trigger, and I hadnever pointed a gun at one when I wasn’t awash with adrenalin.
I give the rescue worker credit; he askedKumiko if she wanted to come before he brought her over. Sheobviously didn’t want to, but she knew she couldn’t avoidit, and told him that she would speak to her father.
When she was a meter away he settled her ontoan equipment locker, and told the rescue worker to leave.
“You’re sure it’s okay?” he said, looking ather.
“He’s my father,” Kumiko said. “I’ll befine.”
The man gave Grandfather Nakada an unhappylook, then turned and headed back to see if he could find anyoneelse.
When he was safely out of unaugmentedearshot, the old man said, “I am disappointed in you,daughter.”
“I don’t understand, Father,” she said, eyesdowncast.
The old man gestured to me, and I raised mygun, aiming it in her general direction. I didn’t lock it on,verbally or otherwise.
“If you are going to conspire against me,”Yoshio told her, “you should commit to it, and not abandon yourpartner after a single failed assassination attempt.”
I watched, weapon ready, as she thought thatover, and considered various responses. I give her credit; shenever looked at the gun. Then she said, “I didn’t expect him to getas close as he did, Father; you were always smarter thanShinichiro. I agreed to help him to see what would develop. I couldsee commercial possibilities in his scheme to use dreamers toprovide new bodies for uploads. Killing you for control of thefamily-that was stupid, and I should have told him as much. Iassumed you would survive, and that we could then use the householdsecurity staff to find a scapegoat-Shinichiro’s control of thehousehold systems should have made that easy. I didn’t expect youto go outside, to hire this person, and send her to Nightside Cityto investigate Seventh Heaven.”
Grandfather Nakada considered that, andnodded thoughtfully. “You might be telling the truth,” he said.
She didn’t bother to insist on her story;they knew each other better than that. She glanced back at theresidence behind her. “What happened?” she asked.
“I used drastic measures to remove Shinichirofrom control,” Yoshio said. “I could not tell where he hadpenetrated and where he had not, so I shut down everything.”
“You did it? Not Shinichiro?”
“I did it.”
“Is Shinichiro…” She hesitated. The wordthat had obviously scrolled up first was “dead,” but she knew herbrother was long dead. “Did you erase him?” she asked.
“No.”
“Are you going to?”
“No.”
Startled, I turned, and swung the gun around.“It tried to kill you,” I said.
“Nonetheless, it is all that remains of myson,” the old man replied calmly, ignoring the HG-2 that was nowpointed directly at his belly.
“What are you going to do?” Kumikoasked.
“Shinichiro had proposed to make uploads ofthe dreamers, and run them in their own fantasy worlds,” Yoshiosaid. “I think it would be fitting to allow my son’s memory to testthe feasibility of this idea. It should not be impossible forSeventh Heaven’s programmers to create a fantasy version ofPrometheus in which I died in the service tunnel beneath myresidence, and my son was restored to human form.”
Neither of us knew what to say to that; aftera few seconds of awkward silence, Grandfather Nakada addedwistfully, “I will be able to visit with him in his dream-world,playing the role of my own upload. I think it would be pleasant tospeak with my son in this fashion.”
I needed several seconds to absorb this. “Thedreamers know their dreams aren’t real,” I eventually pointed out.“Do you think Shinichiro won’t figure it out?”
“I honestly don’t know, Mis’ Hsing,” the oldman said. “I don’t believe anyone has ever sold an upload the dreambefore.” He waved a hand. “If he does realize the truth, I cansimply have him rebooted.”
Kumiko shuddered at that. Then she asked,“And me?”
Yoshio smiled. “I think, daughter, that Ihave not paid you enough attention of late. I hope we will be veryclose in the future.”
Kumiko hung her head and said nothing, but Iwas not satisfied. “That’s all? No memory wipe or anything?” Iasked.
“That’s all. I do not tamper with the mindsof members of my own family.”