‘I don’t pretend anything. I’m just not Cahuella. Not any more. Cahuella died the day he stole Tanner’s memories. What’s left is… someone else. Someone who didn’t exist before.’
An eyebrow raised above one of the enucleated sockets. ‘A better man?’
‘Gitta asked me a question once. How long would you have to live; how much good would you need to do, to compensate for one act of pure evil you’d committed as a younger man? It struck me as an odd question at the time, but I understand now. She knew, I think. She knew exactly who Cahuella was; exactly what he’d done. Well, I don’t know the answer to that question, even now. But I think I’m going to find out.’
Reivich seemed unimpressed. ‘Is that the entirety of your unfinished business with Tanner?’
‘No,’ I said. ‘The woman with him. Amelia. She’s a Mendicant, no matter what disguise she’s travelling under. I believe Tanner will kill her the instant she ceases to be of use to him.’
‘You came to save her, putting yourself in danger? How gallant.’
‘Gallantry doesn’t come into it. It’s… human goodness.’ The words sounded completely alien to me, but I wasn’t ashamed of speaking them. ‘Maybe this place could use a little more of it, don’t you think?’
‘You’d kill him — the man whose memories you carry? Isn’t that a little close to suicide?’
‘I’ll worry about the ethical problems when I’ve cleaned the blood up.’
‘I admire your clarity of mind,’ Reivich said. ‘It makes what’s about to happen all the more interesting.’
I tensed. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘I told you Tanner was here, didn’t I? I meant here; literally here. I’ve had him entertained at my pleasure until you arrived.’
A rectangle of deeper shadow interrupted the gloom behind Reivich. From out of it stepped a man who looked very much like myself.
FORTY-TWO
Once again I felt the spasm of need; the soldier’s instinct to reach for an instrument of death. But there was nothing to hand, and in any case, for all my bravado, I knew that the one thing that I would not be able to do would be to kill Tanner Mirabel in cold blood. It would be too much like shooting myself.
Sister Amelia of the Ice Mendicants came behind him, emerging from the darkness into the chamber’s glade of golden light. She was no longer dressed as a Mendicant — her clothes were functionally dowdy — but she was unmistakable. She wore a symbolic snowflake pendant around her neck.
Tanner stepped forward until he towered over Reivich’s seat. Dressed in a dark greatcoat which almost reached the floor, he was taller than I had been expecting — an inch or so above me — and deported himself differently: a swagger which was just one element of a bodily choreography we barely shared, for all our physical similarity. We did not exactly look like twins, but we could have been brothers, or the same man seen in different illumination, where the changed aspects of shadows subtly differentiated our characters. There was a cruel set to Tanner’s face which I thought I had never seen in my own, but maybe I had just not looked in the mirror at the right times.
Amelia was the first to speak. ‘What’s going on? I don’t understand. ’
‘Good question,’ Tanner said, placing a gloved hand on the high, scrolled back of Reivich’s chair. ‘Very good question indeed.’ Then he peered over the back of the chair until he was looking down into the sightless face of the man he had come to kill. ‘Any time you feel like answering that, you go ahead and do it, handsome. ’
‘You realise who I am, then?’ Reivich said.
‘Yeah. You went for the quick and dirty, obviously. Let me guess. Extensive neural, cellular and genetic trauma. The goons here probably buffered you with medichines, but that would have been like trying to shore up a collapsing building with drinking straws. I’d say — judging by the look of things — you’ve probably only got a few hours left, maybe not even that. Am I right?’
‘Unerringly so,’ Reivich said. ‘I hope that gives you some consolation. ’
‘Consolation for what?’ Tanner was fingering Reivich’s head now, tracing it as one might trace the texture of an antique globe.
‘You arrived too late to kill me.’
‘I could make amends.’
‘Very good. But what use would it be? You could crush this body of mine and I’d thank you for it with my dying breath. Everything that I am — everything I ever knew or felt — is preserved for eternity.’
Tanner stepped back. His tone was businesslike now. ‘The scan was successful?’
‘Entirely. I’m running even as we speak, somewhere in Refuge’s vast distributed architecture of processors. Backup copies of me have already been transmitted to five other habitats even I can’t name. You could detonate a nuclear weapon in Refuge and it wouldn’t make a blind bit of difference.’
It was obvious now that the version of Reivich I had spoken to only an hour earlier had been the scanned copy. The two were playing a game together; co-conspirators. Reivich was right. Nothing that Tanner could do now would have any meaning. And maybe that did not matter to Tanner, since in drawing me here, he’d already achieved his primary aim.
‘You’d die,’ Tanner said. ‘You expect me to believe that doesn’t matter to you?’
‘I don’t know what you believe. Frankly, Tanner, it’s of no real interest to me either way.’
‘Who are you?’ Amelia said, incomprehension flooding her face. I realised that even until now, he’d maintained her trust, concealing the true nature of his mission. ‘Why are you talking about killing?’
‘Because it’s what we do,’ I said. ‘We’ve both lied to you. The difference is I never had any plans to kill you.’
Tanner reached for her. But he was not quite fast enough; too keen to linger around Reivich. Amelia padded across the floor’s chevrons, bewilderment on her face. ‘Please tell me what’s going on!’
‘No time,’ I said. ‘You just have to trust us. I lied to you and I’m sorry — but I wasn’t myself when I did it.’
Chanterelle said, ‘You’d better believe him. He risked his life to come here, and it was mainly to save you.’
‘She’s telling the truth,’ Zebra said.
I looked into Tanner’s eyes. He was still stationed behind Reivich’s chair. The three servitors stood inert, as if oblivious to all that was happening around them.
‘There’s just one of you, Tanner,’ I said. ‘I think your number’s finally up.’ I turned to the others. ‘We can take him, if you let me lead. I’ve got his memories. I’ll anticipate every move he makes.’
Quirrenbach and Zebra flanked me, Chanterelle slightly to my rear, while Amelia retreated further behind us.
‘Be careful,’ I whispered. ‘He might have smuggled a weapon into Refuge, even if we didn’t.’
I took two steps closer to Reivich’s throne.
Something moved under the quilt. His other hand, unseen until now, emerged from darkness, clutching a tiny jewelled gun. He levelled it with impressive speed, all frailty gone in the instant of aiming, and squeezed off three shots. The projectiles slammed past me, leaving silver smears on my retina.
Quirrenbach, Zebra and Chanterelle dropped to the floor.