TUAN TI F O stood there for some time, staring at the door, the wicker basket resting lightly in his hand. Then, hearing a movement behind him, he turned. The boy had crawled out from beneath the blanket and knelt looking across at Tuan Ti Fo, his eyes wide with fear.
"It was a friend," the old man said reassuringly. "But it seems best not to take any chances, neh?"
He set the basket down on the low table by the oven, then turned back, looking at the boy.
"But we must leave here now. I cannot stall her forever, and soon she will grow suspicious, if she hasn't already. She is not a bad woman—quite the contrary—but curiosity can be a destructive thing."
He eyed the boy a moment longer, not certain how much he understood, then gave a small shrug.
"I have lived in this world a long time, child. I have been many things in my time. I have worked in their factories and on their plantations. I have served in their officialdom and lived among the criminal element down beneath the Net. I know their world. Know it for the madhouse it is. Even so, sometimes the way ahead is uncertain. So it is now. We must leave here. That much is clear. But where should we go?"
"The Clay," the boy answered him, staring back at him with a strange intensity. "Take me down to the Clay. That's where I belong. Where I came from."
"The Clay. . ." he whispered, then nodded, understanding. As in the dream he had had. "Spiders," he said and saw the boy nod his head slowly. Yes, spiders. Tiny, beautiful spiders, infused with an inner light, spinning their vast webs across the endless darkness. He had seen them, their strong yet delicate webs anchored to the Clay. And there—how clearly he remembered it suddenly—there, watching them climb into the dark, was the boy, smiling beatifically, his big dark eyes filled with wonder.
Tuan Ti Fo shivered, awed by the power of the vision.
"What's your name, boy? What did they call you in the Clay?"
The boy looked away, as if the memory disturbed him, then looked back, his eyes searching Tuan Ti Fo's.
"Lagasek," he said finally. "Lagasek, they called me. Starer."
Tuan Ti Fo caught his breath. "And Gweder?"
The boy frowned and looked down, as if he were having trouble recollecting the word. "Gweder? Gweder means mirror. Why? What have I been saying? I..." He shuddered and looked about him. "Something happened, didn't it? Something . . ." He shook his head. "I feel funny. My voice, it's . . . different." He stared down at his hands. "And my body, it's . . ."
He looked back at Tuan Ti Fo, puzzled. "It feels like I've been asleep for a long, long time. Trapped in a huge, deep well of sleep. I was working in the Casting Shop. I remember now. Chan Shui was away. And then. . ." His face creased into a fierce frown of concentration, then he let it go, shaking his head. "I don't understand. T'ai Cho was going to . . ."
"T'ai Cho? Who's T'ai Cho?"
The boy looked up again. "Why, T'ai Cho's my friend. My tutor at the Project. He . . ."
The frown came back. Again the boy looked down at his hands, staring at his arms and legs as if they didn't belong to him.
"What's the matter, Lagasek? What's wrong?"
"Laga. . ." The boy stared at him, then shook his head again. "No. It's Kim. My name is Kim. Lagasek was down there."
"In the Clay?"
"Yes, and. . ." he shook his head, "I feel. . . strange. My body... It doesn't feel like it's mine. It's as if. . ."
He stopped, staring up at the old man, his face filled with an intent curiosity.
"What did I say? Those words. You must have heard me say them. So what else did I say?"
Tuan Ti Fo met his eyes, remembering the savagery of the face within his face— the face of Gweder, the mirror—then shook his head.
"You said nothing, Kim. Nothing at all. But come. We must pack now and be away from here. Before they find us."
Kim stood there a moment longer, staring up at the old man. Then, letting his eyes fall, he nodded.
"Shih Karr! Please . . . stop a moment!"
Karr turned, prepared for trouble, then relaxed, seeing who it was. "Ah, it's you, Marie Enge. How did you find me?"
She drew one hand back through her hair, then smiled uncertainly. "As I said, I know everyone in these levels. And you . . ." She looked him up and down admiringly. "Well, who could overlook a man like you, Shih Karr?"
He laughed. "That's true. But what can I do for you, Marie Enge?"
She seemed to study him a moment before she spoke. "The thing you were talking of. . ."
He was immediately alert. "The boy," he said quietly, leaning toward her. "You know where he is?"
Again she hesitated, but this time he preempted her.
"Look. Come inside a moment. I've got a private room. We can talk more easily there, if you wish."
She nodded and let herself be led to his room on the second level of the travelers' hostel. As such places went it was a clean, respectably furnished room, but it was a "transient" all the same, and looking at him, she could not help but think he looked out of place there. She had seen at once, back in the Dragon Cloud, how his brutish exterior concealed a cultured manner.
He offered her the only chair, then set himself down on the edge of the bed, facing her. "Well? What do you know?"
She looked away momentarily, thinking of Tuan Ti Fo. Was she doing the right thing in coming to see Karr? Or was this all a mistake? She looked back. "I've heard something. Nothing definite, but. . ."
She saw how Karr narrowed his eyes. Saw him look down, then look back at her, some small change having taken place in his face. "Can I trust you, Marie Enge?"
The strange openness of his deeply blue eyes took her by surprise. Some quality that had previously been hidden now shone through them. She stared back at him, matching his openness with her own.
"I'm honest, if that's what you mean, Shih Karr. And I can keep a secret if I'm asked. That is, if it's someone I trust."
He lifted his chin slightly. "Ah... I understand. You're thinking, can I trust Shih Karr? Well, let's see what we can do about that. First I'll take a chance on you. And then, if you still want to help me, maybe you'll trust me, neh?" She studied him a moment, then nodded.
"Good. Then first things first. My name is Karr, but I'm not Shih Karr." He fished into his tunic pocket and took out his ID, handing it across to her. "As you can see, I'm a Major in the T'ang's Security forces, and my friend Chen, whom you met earlier, is a Captain. The boy we're looking for is not my nephew but we still need to find him. Alive and unharmed."
She looked up from the ID card, then handed it across. "Why do you need to find him? I don't understand. If he's just a boy . . ."
Karr slipped the card back, took out something else—a flat, matte-black case— and handed that to her.
"That's a hologram of the boy. You can keep that. I've got others. But that'll help you check he's the one we're looking for."
She rested the case on her knee, then pressed her palm on it briefly, the warmth of her flesh activating it. She studied the image a while, then killed it, looking back at Karr.
"He's a strange-looking boy. Why are you interested in him?" "Because he's the only survivor of a terrorist raid on one of the T'ang's installations. A very important scientific installation. The whole place was destroyed and all Kim's fellow workers killed." "Kim?"
"That's his name. But as I was saying—"
She reached out and touched his arm, stopping him. "I don't follow you. You said 'his fellow workers.' But he's just a boy. What would he be doing on a scientific installation?"
Karr looked down at her hand, then sat back slightly. "Don't underestimate him, Marie Enge. He may be just a boy, but he's also something of a genius. Or was, before the attack. And he might be the only surviving link we have to the Project. That's if he's still alive. And if we can get to him before the terrorists find out that he escaped."