“I don’t like arms dealers.”
“Nor do I, sweet assassin. It’s not a profession I’d have chosen if I had any choice in the matter. How’d you like to put holes in that Fence?”
“What do you think? And why trap me?”
A weary sigh. “Because I want out from under. I want to buy my contract. To do that I need a thief who can pass through security like a ghost. You.”
“I see.” Yseyl found that she believed him, primarily because she could think of no other reason for what he’d done. “Vumah vumay, I’ll listen.”
“Follow the lights.”
Yseyl stepped from twilight into brightness. The furman sat in a large armchair facing the door sphincter, a heavy weapon on his lap. She leaned against the wall, crossed her arms, fixed her eyes on him. “So. Explain.”
“Heard about the others you got to the past three years. I knew two of that nine, and they weren’t gullible or fools. Three more I knew by reputation. You were sliding through wards that would stop anything up to a battle beam, anything more tangible than a ghost. I mean, you offed old Vervin, he’s snakier than Holdam viper in a snit. Well, maybe this is wasting time, but I wanted you to know why I came up with this idea.” He shifted the weapon as she changed her stance.
She forced herself to relax. “You mean you’ll promise to ferry anyone I bring you across the Fence and over to Sigoxol?”
“Would you believe me? Hah, don’t bother answering. Even I wouldn’t believe me. No smuggler’s going to chance taking passengers past the Fence, so chuff that out of your head. It’s something else I’m offering.”
“I’m waiting.”
He lifted his lip, showing his tearing fangs; it might have been a smile, but she didn’t think so. “Plenty of time, sweet assassin, before we get where we’re going. Hm, you might reach out and grab hold of that loop beside you, in about half a breath…”
Craziness. Like the time she’d smoked khu with Crazy Delelan. Chaos criscross, floating floors and gloating doors, melting and pouring, terror’s musk, puffball dust…
Then the floor was solid under her feet, the wall cold and firm behind her back.
“What…”
“Shifting to ‘split. Upsetting when you’re not used to it.”
“Where…?”
“That’s part of the tale, Ghost. Yes. That’s what I’ll call you. Ghost.” He set the weapon aside, waved his hand at the other chair. “Sit down and relax.”
Hand closed on the loop, Yseyl bent a knee experimentally, leaned out from the wall. The vertigo was gone, her legs seemed prepared to hold her, and the floor had stopped melting. She took a, step, then another. A third step brought her to the empty chair. She swung it around and settled herself in it, facing the furman. “So why have you stopped being nervous?”
“Haven’t, but I dnn’t think you’re stupid. Kill me,” he reached around, tapped a sensor. The expanse of black glass across the front of the room went an iridescent gray with loops and swirls of pale color shifting in ways that woke nausea in her upper stomachs. “And that’s where you’ll spend the rest of your life.”
“Hell?”
“Who knows.” He leaned back in his chair, crossed his legs, and dropped his hands on the armrests. “I can tell you how to put holes in the Fence. Big enough to pass a boat through and slick enough that no warning gets to the Ptaks. You want to hear it?”
“What’ll it cost me?”
“There’s a… mm… drug… a group of drugs, actually… that can extend the number of a person’s days approximately tenfold. Very very expensive. Very very desirable, hm?”
“So?”
“I want you to steal some for me.”
16
The Knot is the heart of all things hidden. Never cut what you can untie.
Chapter 2
“I have been instructed to cooperate with you, but you’ll have to tell me what you want to know. I can’t have outsiders wandering at will through my files.”
Sunflower Lab’s chief security exec, by name Rez Prehanet, was a man who’d used all the resources of Dr. Denton’s Meat Chop to carve himself into his own idea of perfection. You can see his taste on his skin, Shadith thought, Brrr. Digby said trust him only as far as his own interests run and never be sure you know what they are; he’s not the idiot he looks. Hunh! Dig, I look at him and I want to giggle.
The office was brushed steel and leather with accents in rare woods, all carefully sealed in preservative so nothing could mar their perfection. No way to smell the wood, the leather, to feel their textures-they might as well have been holoas. What a waste of trees and skin.
Autumn Rose’s smile had something of the same artificiality. “Oh, you may be assured, Exec. We will only request what we actually need.”
Shadith slouched in her pulochair, her passive receptors open, trying to wring as much information as she could from the blunted emotions behind the exec’s facade. She’d looked at the chair before she sat, caught a flare of interest from the man and stopped immediately. Psi detecs. Suspenders on his sox, hunh! No doubt he’s got ticky little spytecs tasting every twitch we make. Which is interesting considering how someone strolled in and got away with a big piece of the lab’s assets.
The pulochair shifted shape and inclination as Autumn Rose leaned forward. “The reports we’ve seen are summaries only. This is not adequate. We’ll need to know your security arrangements in the lab building.” She straightened, relaxed slightly. “Don’t get your back hair up, Exec. I know you’ve changed just about everything, you’re no fool. I am not asking for flitter detail. Just an overview.”
A mildly amused look on his perfect face, he glanced at the readouts on his desk, then at her. “Nor are you a fool, given Digby’s rep. It would not be all that difficult to extrapolate the whole from even a limited amount of detail.”
“Ah. Digby’s rep. You must know he considers all client-gained data as strictly confidential. His integrity is… well, I wouldn’t say unquestioned, there are those who would question a god if they could catch him… say rather it has been tested over the years and never found wanting.” Rose crossed long slim legs and rested her hands on her knees.
Not coincidentally minimizing her contact with the chair, Shadith thought, she suspects them, too. Must have done before she even got here. Spla! I wish she’d talk to me. It’d help a whole lot i f I knew something about what she plans before she does it.
This wasn’t going to be an easy collaboration. She and Autumn Rose just didn’t like each’other. Two primas trying to work in harness? I suppose that’s some of it. Oy! that means I’m a prima. She smiled at the thought, felt a surge of interest/annoyance, looked up and saw the exec staring at her.
His eyes shifted, and he went back to watching Autumn Rose without a change in expression.
“If we’re obstructed in the job we were hired to do, we will so inform the Directors and withdraw. The retainer deposited will be claimed as recompense for our effort and irritation.” Autumn Rose let a smile soften the predatory angles of her face. “However, at the moment all this is hypothetical. There are several points that need clarification-points that don’t impinge upon your security except peripherally. You said individuals returning to ships in the Tie-Down were discreetly checked by the OverSec of Marrat’s Market and pronounced clean, but you gave no details. We would like a listing of all ships out of the Tie-Down during the theft window and just after, along with a list and image of every life-form on them. Also, as much data as you have about those life-forms. It would be better if we could have a listing of all ships for the three weeks centering about the event, but the Market being what it is, the OverSec would probably howl and deny, citing confidentiality of customers. We understand that. If possible, we would like to view the original flakes and make our own extracts. You could arrange that?”
Shadith watched him relax. Interesting. Digby was right. Rose is perfect for this part of the business. She’s used to handling these types, he said, she knows the body language and can talk the talk. As for you, Shadow, every time his eyes pass by you, his nerves are going to twinge. You look like you should be sucking your thumb and hauling dolls about. Now now, I admit that you’ve put on a little age and may I say it sits well on you, but you’re not the standard model, are you?