'Thank you.
'Are those wings?
'Heat radiators.
'Oh.
'Jesaral, enough, Dushiku chided.
'Sorry.
'I'd like to speak to Oscar, please, Troblum said.
Their attitude changed immediately. Dushiku chopped off his gaiafield emissions as his face hardened. While Jesaral pouted and allowed a wave of upset and worry to spill out of his mind.
'Oscar is not here, Dushiku said stiffly.
'Have I said something wrong?
'No, Jesaral said, his handsome face frowned in misery. 'It's just that Oscar isn't very popular round here right now. He left us in a hurry a few days ago. Apparently we don't mean nearly as much to him as he does to us. That's always good to know, isn't it? Poor old Anja is still crying her eyes out.
Dushiku's arm went round the younger man's shoulder, squeezing in comfort. 'It's okay, he'll be back.
'Who cares? Jesaral said with sudden contempt.
'Do you know when he'll be back? Troblum asked.
'No. Dushiku gave him a sharp look. 'Do you know him?
'We have a mutual friend. It is rather important I contact him.
'His u-shadow is blocking our calls, Jesaral said. 'But don't let that put you off, you might have better luck.
'I'll try that, thank you.
'Really? Dushiku said. 'Why didn't you do that originally instead of coming here?
'I, er… Troblum's social program reported that Dushiku was becoming irate and curious, and he should say something soothing. It didn't say what. 'It's complicated. Where's he gone?
'Ask her, Jesaral said with a effusive glower.
'Who?
'That Paula Myo character. She was the last of his old friends to turn up here unannounced. I didn't know there were so many of you.
Troblum stood perfectly still, staring at the now-wary men. That's a big coincidence. Very big. Why would Paula visit Oscar? And what is he doing now? Could they be working together? I didn't see him at Florae's villa.
'Do you know her? Dushiku asked.
'I know of her. I have to go now. Troblum turned, and made for the airlock ramp.
'Hey!
'Sorry to have bothered you.
'What the hell did you want from him?
'Nothing. Nothing at all.
'Who in Ozzie's universe are you people?
With the ramp under his feet, Troblum felt a lot safer. I U was already ordering the smartcore to power up the drive.
'Give him back to us, Jesaral yelled. 'I want Oscar back. I want my Oscar. You bastard.
The airlock closed. Mellanie's Redemption lifted immediately, accelerating hard, only just keeping subsonic. Troblum knew that was ridiculous, Oscar's lovers didn't present the remotest threat. Yet he wanted to get away from them fast. The stealth effect shrouded the fuselage in a refractive smear as they reached the cloud level. Troblum checked, but there were no sensors probing the sky hunting for him.
'Well they were terrifying, Tricia said contemptuously. She and Catriona were snuggled up together on the cabin's long couch.
'Worse than the Cat.
'You were lucky to get out of there alive.
'Shut up, Troblum snapped.
Both girls pouted, then turned to each other, pawing and stroking like kittens. Troblum ignored them and slumped into a big chair. He was still shocked by the revelation. Paula Myo had visited Oscar! It was the last thing he'd expected. He let out a small grunt of admiration. That was it. Of course, those two working together would be the last thing anyone would expect. So what's he doing for her?
The starship reached four hundred kilometres altitude. Troblum told it to go ftl, and fly ten light years clear from Orakum.
Oscar's Unisphere code hung in his storage cluster. Immensely tempting. But since Sholapur he simply didn't trust the unisphere. Knowing Oscar and Paula were in contact surely gave him some kind of advantage. He just couldn't think what.
Catriona raised her head, and gave him an affectionate look. 'So where are we going?
'Nowhere, he said, coming to a decision. 'I'm going to assemble the ultradrive. After that I'll do what I can to warn Paula and ANA. At least if it all goes wrong then, I can run.
Paula hadn't visited Paris for decades. The city had reduced considerably since its heyday of the First Commonwealth era. ANA had been as ruthless here as it had everywhere on Earth, pruning away buildings it considered irrelevant. Residual national nostalgia didn't carry much weight in its hard-nosed analysis. However, the truly historic remained. The Eiffel Tower, of course. Arc de Triomphe. Notre Dame. The Palais de la Concorde. Most of the original buildings along the Seine.
She teleported in from Sky Pier station above Bordeaux, materializing outside the ancient five-storey building where she'd spent so many centuries working before the days of ANA and Higher culture. Beside the door, the original brass sign still gleamed against the dull stonework.
INTERSOLAR COMMONWEALTH
SERIOUS CRIMES DIRECTORATE
Paula gave it a melancholy smile, and walked into the marbled entrance hall. So many memories haunted this place. Embedded in the structure, they sprang to life everywhere she looked. Images and sounds stronger than the gaiafield could ever produce, and far more meaningful. All those colleagues she'd worked with over the centuries, the cases they'd solved, the battles against innumerable chiefs and political appointees and lawyers. They all echoed round her, welcoming her back.
An ANAdroid was waiting for her at the lift door, a human simulacrum with featureless gold-brown skin. It wore a simple blue and green suit uniform identical to all its kind. There were tens of thousands of them in the city, performing the maintenance and support functions which the antique buildings and their priceless contents needed. Stabilizer generators alone couldn't preserve the city's fabric, not when it was still in use by nearly eighty thousand humans.
'Welcome back, Investigator Myo, it said as the lift doors opened. The voice was as genderless as the body.
'Thank you. Paula put her hand on the security pad, allowing the management system to confirm her DNA. Her u-shadow then had to go through a further lengthy authorization procedure before the lift would descend. They passed through at least two force fields on their way down to the vault. There was also an exotic energy scrambler field around the three sub-levels, preventing anyone from teleporting in, or opening a wormhole inside.
The lift opened into a long hall. It reminded Paula of the ANA reception facilities, where thousands of recently downloaded bodies waited to see if their minds would adapt to the expansion and freedom inside ANA itself. Only here, instead of the glowing violet spheres, the floor supported long rows of dark sarcophagi.
'This way, the ANAdroid said, and gestured politely.
Paula accompanied it, their footsteps echoing round the vault. 'How many are stored here? she asked.
'We currently provide suspension for eighteen hundred and forty-three people.
She wondered how many she was responsible for entombing down here. A good percentage, I'll guess.
'Most still have several hundred years to serve on their sentence, the ANAdroid said. 'Some exceptional cases will remain down here a great deal longer. A few are even scheduled to remain for longer than the city has already existed.
'Yes, Paula said as they stopped beside one of the bulky suspension cases. And this is one of them. 'I'd like to see her, please.
'You may use a field scan. It will not interfere with the suspension systems, they are quite robust.
'Open it.
'As you wish.
The suspension case's malmetal lid flowed apart. Paula looked down at the body inside. The Cat lay there, her body webbed with the silver threads used to provide long-term suspension, ensuring her cells remained intact throughout the sluggish centuries as she lay poised on the cusp between life and death. 'All hail Schrodinger, Paula muttered. Her field scan swept through the Cat, confirming the small scars and burn patches that she'd acquired in that last ferocious firefight which resulted in her capture. The hospital had healed her for the trial. At the time, several senior members of the Directorate, and indeed the President's office itself, had questioned why Paula had allowed her to survive. Political types to whom the rule of law was an irksome guideline to be bent or broken with impunity at every convenience.