“Pity you couldn’t have taken him alive,” Cruz said, when Jay had finished the story and Rand had added events from his perspective. “I hate to let someone kill a dozen people in my care without asking him who paid for it.”
“I was dead,” Jay said, “and then Rand gave me a split-second advantage. I didn’t think about it. I grabbed his gun hand and made him shoot himself under the chin. I’d do it again.”
“Oh, I wasn’t criticizing! Do it again, if there’s a next time.”
Eva snorted at that. If Jay had not gotten lucky, Cruz would have had more dead—and perhaps a dead uip or two as well—and would have been looking for work tomorrow.
“I wish he was still alive too,” Jay said. “So I could kill him again. Nika’s… Nika was special.” Suddenly he shook his head with great violence. “Jesus! Did that really happen?” He giggled.
“You’ve got everything you need for now, right, Chief?” Eva said.
Cruz frowned, but nodded. “I may want to hypno him tomorrow.”
“Gotta wait for it to seep into long-term storage for hypno to do any good,” she agreed. “Jeeves—”
“Yes, madam?” He shimmered into existence, urbane and unflappable.
“Take Mr. Sasaki home. My place, not his. Bunk him down in my bed and make me a doss in Guest Room Two.”
“Very good, madam. If you would be good enough to follow me, sir…”
“Half a mo.” She motioned Jay close and murmured in his ear. “Want Jacques to join you?”
He blinked at her and struggled with the question. Jacques’s job description read, “hedonic technician”—but Eva happened to know that he was more artist than technician, a natural healer and comforter. “No,” Jay said, and then, “I don’t think so,” and then he blushed slightly and said, “Uh… yes. Please.”
She nodded. “Tell Jeeves. Run along now.”
Once he was gone, she turned back to Cruz. “How did you know who the assassin was?”
“Eh?”
“You said, ‘I know which.’ How did you know?”
“Oh. Savannavong only joined the force a month ago. I wouldn’t have used him on this job, for that reason—but Hanh came down sick this afternoon and I was stretched thin.”
“Savannavong was real good at making people come down sick,” Rand said bitterly. “Hanh got lucky.”
“So did you two,” Cruz said. “You both reacted like trained cops. Either of you ever in service?”
“I did two years with NYPD. Draftee. But that was over twenty years ago, and I never drew my weapon in the line of duty. Jay’s never had any kind of combat training, to my knowledge. We just kept making mistakes until the bastard was dead.”
“You’d better get home,” Eva said. “Your wife still doesn’t know the details.”
“Chief?”
“Go ahead.”
Rand threw her a grateful glance and made his escape.
People were coming and going from the tech hole now, bringing in forensic equipment and taking out corpses. But they gave the glowering Chief Cruz a wide berth; for the moment Eva was effectively alone with her. “Does your thumb hurt, Chief?” Eva asked suddenly.
“Eh? Yes it does—why? How did you know?”
“Because I figure you for an honest cop. The moment that alarm sounded, an honest cop in your shoes would have pushed a button and flooded the whole damn theater and backstage area with sleepy gas.”
“I did! Some son of a bitch had—”
“I know. It didn’t work, so you kept pushing; that’s why your thumb hurts.”
Cruz nodded slowly. “I see.” She thought some more. “Well, it wouldn’t have helped anyway; the bastard obviously had nose filters in.”
Eva nodded. “Like you do. But you didn’t know that at the time. An honest cop couldn’t have.”
“But why disable the sleepy gas if he had filters?”
“So he’d have maximum confusion to escape in after he made his kill? Squawking civilians in all directions.”
“God dammit, Eva—”
“Relax, Rani—I’m on your side. I know this whole episode makes you look like a horse’s ass, but I can’t think of anything you could’ve done better. And I’ll tell Kate Tokugawa that, if you like. But if I were you, I’d have Dr. O’Regan document that thumb sprain.”
She left Cruz and went to the reception, curious to see how the ultimately rich responded to a brush with death. Six cronkites ambushed her just outside the door, looking like children who needed to urinate; the first in line named a figure. “No comment,” she said. He named a second figure, and when she refused that too, a bidding war developed. She brushed through them grandly and entered the hall. Guards prevented them from following; frustrated, they all jaunted off to file what little they already had.
The party had that slightly forced gaiety which screams of fear just past. But the uips themselves seemed the calmest people in the room—except for Reb, of course. In fact, the only person who still showed any overt signs of fear was Evelyn Martin, grinning and sweating and talking even faster than usual. He spotted her, detached himself and came over.
“Hi, Eva,” he said loudly. “So glad you could make it.” Sotto voce he added, “Anything else gone wrong out there? Any more assassins come to squeeze my ulcers? Fresh stiffs? Other major felonies? Chief Cruz find out the assassin is a High Council member or anything like that?”
“Good news,” she said. “No news.” Louder, she added. “Awful to see you, Evelyn. You’re looking uglier than usual tonight.”
He beamed. “Thank you, dear—-have you met our honored guests? Chen Ling Ho, for instance?”
“Get a grip, Evelyn. I introduced you to Ling. Why don’t you go take a trank?”
“I’m at system max now,” he said.
“Take stimulants, then. Your voice will rise above the audible range and you won’t be so conspicuous.” She drifted away, and joined her escort, Dr. Chen. He was chatting with Reb and Victoria Hathaway. Chen introduced her to Hathaway—who regarded her aged features with barely concealed horror.
“Hello, dear,” Eva said. “It’s nice to see you again.”
“We’ve met?” Hathaway said, disbelieving but polite.
“I knew your grandmother. You peed on my lap once.”
Hathaway gave the only possible reply: dead silence.
Chen intervened. “Eva, have they determined yet who was the assassin’s intended target?”
She shrugged. “For all Cruz can tell at this point, he was a good guy, come to take out Evelyn Martin on behalf of all mankind.”
That got a laugh; even Hathaway almost smiled. “I assume the man’s background is being checked?”
Eva shrugged again. “Sure. But it’s a waste of time. The background check you have to go through to get hired for Shimizu security can’t be improved on. Serious money went into this.” She made sure her gaze was not resting on either Chen or Hathaway. “I will bet cash the person who hired it done is in this room.”
Hathaway flinched, but Chen only nodded. “The probability is high,” he agreed.
“Was it you, Chen?” Hathaway asked bluntly.
Again Chen looked as if he were remembering what it felt like to smile. “Twelve dead, none of them the right one? I’m offended, Victoria. Can you truly believe me so inartistic?”
“Oh, but you can believe it of me, right?”
“Since you ask, yes. Now we are both offended. Shall we seek another topic of conversation?”
Eva had a mischievous thought. “Unless you’d like me to narrow the list of suspects for you,” she said.
“How?” Chen and Hathaway and Reb all asked simultaneously.