“The bomb was straight-off-the-shelf stuff. Off the shelf with no way of tracking it, I must add.”
“No tracers!” Jack said, incredulous.
“Nobody tosses bombs around here, don’t you know? So they been saving money by not putting in tracers.”
“There ought to be a law,” Jack growled. “Oh, I forgot, there was one under the Society of Humanity. How fast we forget.”
“Apparently these folks forgot that law before we tossed the Society,” Penny said. “But Jack, someone was real smart about these bombs. If they’d left them in a trash can or a stray briefcase, Nelly would have sniffed them.”
Penny stopped her pacing. “Hold it, Mimzy, where is Nelly?”
“Nelly is not online.”
“Sal, can you raise Nelly?” Jack asked.
“I have tried, sir. Nelly is not responding.”
“Where is Nelly?” Penny said, and turned to the nursing station. “Do you have Kris Longknife’s personal effects?”
“Let me check. Her clothes are rather a mess, and we had the devil’s own time cutting her out of that body stocking she was wearing.”
“It’s spider-silk armor. It may explain why she’s alive,” Jack said.
The nurse raised an eyebrow but said no more as she rushed from her station to the doors into the inner sanctum.
She returned a few minutes later carrying a small lump in the palm of her hand. “Is this what you wanted?”
“Yes,” Penny said, taking Nelly from her. For someone who did so much and exuded so much personality, the physical reality of Nelly was tiny.
“Nelly,” Penny whispered.
No response.
“Is she turned off?” Jack asked.
“No,” Mimzy said. “Sal and I are both tracking a low hum. She is active, just not doing anything.”
“Explain yourself,” Jack said.
Sal took up the story. “Sir, Mother Nelly is active, at least at some state. However, she is not on net. She is not saying anything to anyone.”
“Is she damaged? Is something broken?” Penny asked.
“No, ma’am. Now that we have her in line of sight, we can verify that all critical areas of Mother Nelly are active and working. She can hear us. She can respond. She just chooses not to. Sir, I am worried about Mother Nelly.”
“We all are,” Jack said.
“I’ve never heard of a catatonic computer,” Penny said. “But then, I’ve never heard of any computer like Nelly.”
“None of us have,” Mimzy added.
“What are we going to do?” Sal asked.
“We’re going to hope and pray that Kris pulls through and that she can bring Nelly back from wherever she’s gone,” Jack said.
“Ma’am, the media is talking about us,” Mimzy said. “Would you like me to turn the monitor on?”
Penny really didn’t want to know anything about this place that was the source of so much grief, but it was better to know than not to know, and what she wanted to talk to Jack about could wait.
“Turn it on, Mimzy.”
The computer did.
“She saved my life,” a battered and bandaged Bobby DuVale mumbled from a hospital bed. “She saved my life.”
“The she is Princess Kris Longknife of Wardhaven,” the voiceover told Penny. “And Bobby DuVale of the DuVale family is very lucky she did. A bomb exploded in the foyer of the DuVale Building around lunchtime today, knocking Bobby and the princess to the ground, and if the princess had not landed on top of Bobby, his father, Mr. Louis DuVale, would likely be mourning his son rather than sitting by his bedside.” At this, the camera panned out to show the elder DuVale seated there.
“News 24 tried to get an interview with Princess Longknife.”
Now the camera showed glowering Marines, including Jack. Taken through the glass of a hospital door, the shot did them little justice.
“However, the princess’s security team, having blown it once today, was hard on the job protecting her from cameras and microphones.”
Jack considered his mistake in letting the newsies live and decided he would not make that mistake twice.
The monitor switched to show two young women in a newsroom. Behind them a banner proclaimed: news 24. news for The YOUNG.
“Do we know anything about the bombing?” the woman on the right asked the other.
“The Denver Police Bureau has analyzed the residue, Kate. It was made from materials readily available at any Mining Supply Depot, assuming you have a license for explosives. The folks at the Denver Mining Depot were quick to point out that none of their material had been misused in thirty-seven years and suspect that this has something to do with Princess Longknife. She does have a past history full of strange and dangerous happenings.”
“So I’ve heard,” Kate agreed. “Do the police have a motive, other than political assassination by someone from off planet, Nancy?”
“Yes, Kate. It seems Princess Longknife attended a hoedown last night out on the flats, and ran into a flatlander family that has a history with the Longknifes. Their great-grandpappy was hanged by her great-grandpappy, King Raymond of United Sentients.”
“Whatever for?”
“Well, Kate, the record is rather vague on the specific instance, but we do know that during the Iteeche War capital punishment was only applied in the cases of murder, rape, or cowardice in the face of the enemy.”
“And, Nancy, we all know that no cowboy would ever be guilty of those.”
“That, at least is what the family claims, which means the young princess walked right into a family blood feud. That is what the Denver Police are saying.”
“Do you have a different idea, Nancy?”
“Well, it’s easy to find who has been buying explosives, Kate. A check shows that no cowboy has bought any for the last month. In fact, Kate, no one from the flatlands has an explosive license to buy what blew up at DuVale Plaza today.”
“Didn’t the police check that out, Kate?”
“Nope. My check was the only one run in the last week, Nancy.”
“Why didn’t I think of that?” Jack growled, not taking his eyes from the screen.
“I did,” said Sal. “It was a negative report, so I didn’t bother you with it.”
“Bother me next time,” Jack muttered.
“Well, that sure doesn’t reflect well on the Denver Police. Do you have any leads you’d like to share with us, Kate?”
The camera zoomed in on Kate.
“As many of our viewers know, Bobby DuVale is a strong advocate for expansion. He and his gal from the flats make no bones about their hopes of moving out to Ft. Louis and starting a whole new dukedom. We here at News 24 have exclusive information that he’d just talked the princess into chartering the First Bank of Ft. Louis and backing it with a half billion Wardhaven dollars. If Bobby weren’t in the hospital, he’d be on News 24 announcing that Ft. Louis and its bank were open for business. Even as the bomb went off, they were talking with Mary Hogg, the new president of the First Bank of Ft. Louis, about recruiting immigrants and financing their start-ups. If viewers of News 24 are interested in finally getting out on their own, they can contact Mary at the number on the screen.”
A number appeared.
“So, Kate, do you think this had anything to do with the two of them being bombed?”
“Nancy, at this time, there’s no way to tell. However, if any old mossback thought they’d curry favor with Mr. Louis DuVale by harming his son, I’d suggest they head for the hills real fast.”
The camera now switched to the other woman. “We’ve gone a bit over on the news tonight, but, hey, youngsters, what about that news. Now, we begin our countdown of this week’s top ten with My Momma Didn’t Raise No Goat Herders’ latest smash hit. . . .”