“Maybe it’s just a fishing expedition,” Mercer said, but he didn’t believe it.
“Could be, but why in that particular pond? And let’s face it, Manassas is such a well-stocked pond, he just might hook something.”
No one spoke then. The idea that anyone would want to lift the Manassas Ventures rock and inspect what was crawling around beneath it had never occurred to Mercer. He’d been assured that Manassas was a dead end. But what if wasn’t? What if someone found a trail that led from Manassas to SIRG?
This had to be stopped. Now. Before it went any further.
He looked at Portero. “Your people can handle this, can’t they?”
“Wait a minute, wait a minute,” Voss said, holding up a hand before Portero could reply. “Before we start talking about stuff I don’t want to hear, why don’t you just buy her off?”
Portero stared at him. “Buy her off? You don’t know this woman. I spent days with her during the OPRR inspection and let me tell you, she is not for sale.”
Voss grinned. “Sure she is, son. I’ve waded through truckloads of bullshit in my day, but I’ve learned one thing always holds true: Everybody’s got a price tag. Some hide it better’n others, but you look hard enough, you’ll find it. Your folks’ve got pockets deep as a well to China. You have them tell her to name a price, and then you meet it. And that’ll be it. You’ll see.”
But Portero was shaking his head. “I don’t think there’s enough money in the world.”
Mercer was surprised by something in his tone. It sounded like admiration.
10
MANHATTAN
DECEMBER 8
Zero had called and asked Patrick to come over to the West Side garage. Romy was already there when Patrick arrived. With oversized sunglasses hiding her fading shiners, and a baseball cap covering her stitched-up scalp, she looked none the worse for wear.
Patrick asked her how she was doing, and of course she told him fine. She was always “fine.” She said she’d be even better when the stitches came out tomorrow.
Patrick rubbed his hands together. The old radiator running along the cinderblock wall only partially countered the afternoon chill. Neither Romy nor Zero seemed to feel it. Of course Zero, swathed head to toe as usual, would be the last to chill.
“We heard from the Manassas attorneys,” he told them. “They want a meeting. Soon. I set it up for next Thursday, my office.” He glanced at Romy. “Can you make it?”
“I’ll be there.”
“My only regret is that I couldn’t add my own charges to the suit.”
“On what grounds?”
“Loss of services and consortium.”
“You,” she said, pointing a finger at him, “are incorrigible.” She tried to look stern but he could see she was fighting a smile. She turned to Zero. “Did you have any luck with my photo?”
“Quite an interesting picture,” Zero said, handing Romy an eight-by-ten color print.
The dim light made it hard to see details. Patrick craned his head over Romy’s shoulder for a better look, but found himself gazing at the nape of her neck instead, focusing on the gentle wisps of fine dark hair trailing along the curve. He leaned closer, drinking her scent, barely resisting the urge to press his lips against the soft white skin…
“That’s him, all right,” Romy said. “Does he have a name?”
“Yes. It took me a while to trace him but—”
“Christ!” Patrick said. He pointed to a spot at the rear end of the ceiling. “Who’s that?”
He’d glanced up and caught a flicker of movement above and beyond Zero, at the point where a ladder embedded in the rear wall of the garage ran up to a square opening in the ceiling. He could swear he’d seen a pair of eyes peering out at them from within that darkness.
Zero didn’t turn to look. “Where?”
“There! In that opening! I saw someone!”
The opening was empty now, but he knew what he’d seen.
“I’m sure you did,” Zero told him. “But it was no one you need concern yourself with at the moment. Now—”
“Wait a minute, wait a minute,” Patrick said, walking over to the ladder. “If someone’s up there listening, I want to know who it is.”
“Someone’s up thereguarding ,” Romy said. “Please, Patrick. Let it go for now.”
He didn’t like letting it go, but short of climbing up there and entering that patch of night—something he had no inclination to do—Patrick didn’t see that he had much choice. He’d come to trust Zero, and if he said someone was guarding them, then Patrick would buy it.
“All right,” he said, turning back. “Where were we?”
Zero said, “The man in the photo looked Japanese so I scanned him into a computer and had it comb the databases of the Japanese government and major Japanese corporations.” He held up a printout of a full-face photo of someone who bore a passing resemblance to the man in Romy’s shot. “This came back with a sixty-three percent confidence match.”
“That’s him,” Romy said without hesitation.
“You’re sure? The computer wasn’t.”
“Don’t care. I saw him live and that’s him.”
“Fine,” Patrick said. “Now…who him?”
“Yoshi Hirai, Ph.D.,” Zero said. “Top recombinant man for Arata-jinruien Corporation.”
“Which is…?” Patrick had never heard of them.
“A division of Kaze Group and one of SimGen’s potential competitors. They want to raise their own sims but so far haven’t met with any success. They even started a dummy corporation to pirate the sim genome but were caught. They’ll do anything to cut into the sim market.”
“What was a creep like that doing at the fire?” Romy asked.
“Exactly what I’d like to know.”
Patrick said, “Could the SLA be Japanese? But why hijack sims when they can lease as many as they want? And why these globulin farm sims?”
“Never mind why,” Romy said. “How about where? Where are those sims? That’s my concern. I hope they don’t end up like their farmers, or get spirited off to Japan. We’ll never find them.”
11
RIVERSIDE PARK
Meerm so very sad. Live all alone in bush. Walk night, hide day. Find clothes, dirty, smelly, but warm. Wear three shirt and two pant. Steal blanket. Carry all night while search food.
Pain wake Meerm in bush home. Dark come now. Many people walk. Meerm know must stay hid till late. Meerm so hungry. Peek out bush. Ver near big round building made stone. See lady point, say, “Granztoom.”
Meerm not know what granztoom.
Meerm move along wall, stay dark spot. Climb to street. Put blanket over head and walk. Keep face down, look sidewalk. So fraid people hurt if see Meerm, but people walk fast, not look Meerm.
Meerm look for light-front place people eat. Can find food in dark behind. But see no place yet. Street dark. Hear noise behind. Meerm so scare, push against wall, turn. Building door open. Sim come out. Two sim, three sim, many sim. Meerm watch as more sim than count line up straight at curb.
Meerm see bus come and all sim go in. Meerm so cold, so hurt, so lone. Meerm drop blanket and go behind last sim. Climb step, sit empty seat. Bus dark and warm. Meerm curl up, close eye.
12
WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NY
Patrick’s breath steamed in the night air as he strolled across the rear lawn of Beacon Ridge toward the sim barrack. He’d been back only once since the night of the poisoning. He wasn’t sure exactly why he’d come tonight. Talking about sims with Romy and Zero this afternoon had made him think of Tome. He’d returned to Katonah to sign some papers dealing with his property—someone had made an offer on what was left of his home and he’d accepted—and gave in to an urge to see how the old sim was doing.
As he reached for the knob on the barrack door it opened and out stepped Holmes Carter. He jerked his portly frame to a halt, obviously startled.
“Sullivan?”
“Carter. Fancy meeting you here.”
Carter didn’t offer to shake hands, neither did Patrick. They’d reached a détente but that didn’t make them friends.