Clockwork Heart (13 page)

By nine she'd finished her deliveries. In theory she was supposed to head back up to the dispatch office to pick up another bag, but instead she flew to the metal wares markets in Secundus and landed on Cascade Street, locking her wings upright.

Pins' shop was easy to find, but its door had been sealed shut with black wax and a lictor's printed ‘no trespassing' order.

She stared, feeling a chill that had nothing to do with the autumn morning. Then she turned.

A heavyset man across the street was wiping the soot off his window and watching her in its reflection. He nodded when he saw her looking at him. He had the same black circle castemark as her father, marking him as a famulate craftsman.

“If you've a message to deliver, you'll have to take it to the lictors,” he called out.

“Is that Pins' shop?” She crossed the street.

“Yup. Her daughter found her dead this morning, didn't she? Came in to open up and started screaming.” The man leaned against his doorframe. “I sent my boy off to the lictors as soon as I figured out what was going on. Murdered, that's what they say.”

Taya folded her arms over her chest.

“When?”

“Last night. Guess I would've been the last one to have seen her, then.” He sounded proud of the fact. “She waved good night when I locked up around six, she did. Must've been working late. I waved back and went inside. She was killed sometime after that.”

She hated to ask, but she had to know.

“How did she die?”

“Strangled. With something thin, that's what the lictors said. I overheard 'em when I was giving my statement, didn't I?”

Taya thought of the men who'd mentioned Pins' name the night before. They'd been strong, rough-looking types. She didn't have any trouble imagining one of them strangling a woman.

But that would mean that Cristof was involved in murder. Maybe not directly, but…

Had he come to his cousin's party to give himself an alibi?

“So, if you've any message for her, you've got to take it to the lictor's station on Teague,” the craftsman pointed out again.

“All right. Thank you.” Taya turned and began walking toward Teague Street, her shoulders hunched.

Now she didn't just have a suspicion. Now she had a chain of coincidence. Cristof had gotten something from Pins, Taya had overheard Pins' name, and Pins had been murdered. To stop her from talking to Taya?

She rubbed her gloved hands over her cheeks. She should go straight to the lictors to tell them what she'd heard. Lieutenant Amcathra would listen to her.

But if she talked to Amcathra, he'd go to Cristof for answers, and the ripples from that inquiry would inevitably reach Alister. Taya grimaced. If his brother were a murderer, Alister was going to be affected one way or the other. But if she told him first, he'd have a chance to control the damage to his family name.

Besides
, she rationalized,
he's a decatur. He outranks the lictors.

She found an open side street, spread her wings, and began to run.

“Come in!”

Taya opened the door. Alister sat at the table in the center of the room, his repaired clock and a stack of books shoved to one side as he pored over a stack of papers. His exalted's mask was propped against a leg of the table.

He smiled when he saw her.

“As I predicted, my swan has become a hawk again. Good morning, Taya. Have you come to me with a pair of wings, so we can go skydancing together?”

“I have news,” she said, ignoring his teasing. “Pins was murdered last night.”

He stopped, his smile fading. Taya took another step inside, then remembered herself and bowed, palm on forehead. They weren't at a party anymore. This was business.

“You went to visit her? After I told you she was dangerous?”

“I know you didn't want me to, but I had to know how she was involved.” Taya looked up at him. “She's dead. Somebody killed her last night.”

Alister gestured her to a seat.

“Tell me everything you know.”

Taya filled him in on the neighboring shopkeeper's gossip. Alister shook his head, his green eyes dark with concern. When he looked like that, serious instead of dazzling, she saw a closer resemblance between him and his brother. Both of them were intense, focused people. The difference was that Alister used his intensity to charm, while his brother used it to repel.

“So,” she finished, “I decided to tell you. You said the Council had been keeping its eyes on her.”

“Yes. We suspected her of being in alliance with the Torn Cards. You are familiar with the Cards' ideology, aren't you?”

“They're anti-Engine terrorists. They think programs are infringing on our freedoms.”

“Yes.” He looked down at the papers in front of him. “I have read the report on the wireferry accident. A torn copper punch card was found jammed in a weld. That's their sign.”

“Do you think they were after the decatur, or your cousin?”

“Caster, almost certainly. It was just an accident that Viera and Ariq were in the car instead of him.”

“But why would the Torn Cards hate him?”

Alister sighed.

“There is an important vote coming up soon. Caster was initially against it, but he changed his mind. And he has a great deal of influence over other decaturs. Perhaps the Torn Cards learned about it.”

“What kind of vote?”

“I don't know if I can tell you.”

Taya bit her lip, reminded again of the difference between their castes. Alister looked up at her, and his expression softened.

“I apologize. It's just that this has been a controversial topic. It's an experimental program, and we don't want the newspapers getting wind of it until we have had a chance to give it a trial run. That is, assuming it gets approved by Council.”

“Is it one of those thinking programs you were talking about?”

“Well … it does analyze behavioral patterns. I suppose I can tell you, Taya. You
are
an icarus and accustomed to dealing with secrets … but the Council doesn't want any information about this getting out until we are certain the program will work. Of course, if the Torn Cards already know about it…”

“You can trust me,” she asserted. “I'm an icarus.”

“I asked you not to get involved with Pins, but you went down to meet her, anyway.”

“That wasn't a secret. And besides, you didn't ask me. You warned me.”

His lips quirked up in a shadow of his usual smile.

“I should have known a hunting hawk would ignore danger.”

“So,” Taya said, “what's this vote about?”

The smile faded again as Alister leaned back in his chair. “I've written a program called Clockwork Heart. It's meant to help people determine whether or not someone's going to be a good match for them. Romantically, at first, although I think it has applications in business and politics, as well.”

“Romantically?” Taya wrinkled her nose. “You mean, it's going to tell us who we can marry?”

“No! No, I have no intention of taking away anybody's freedom of choice,” Alister said hastily. “But let's assume you've fallen in love with someone. You would both take a survey and we would run your response cards through Clockwork Heart. The program would compare your responses to one hundred key variables I've isolated from a multivariate analysis of a thousand successful marriages and a thousand unsuccessful ones. It would then build a series of statistical models according to the predictive parameters we've developed and calculate the likelihood of a stable marriage between the two of you under various hypothetical socioeconomic conditions. The greater the number of conditions under which your marriage is predicted to remain intact, the higher the confidence level would be that you're making the right choice.”

Taya blinked, a little overwhelmed by his explanation.

“Well, I can see why the Torn Cards might object. Why does the Council care about marriages?”

“Because stable marriages are integral to a stable society.” Alister stood and began to pace. “The Great Engine has made Ondinium the most civilized nation in the world. Every citizen is matched to a job well-suited to his personality and skills, and our factories are fast, safe, and efficient. We can calculate resource supply and demand and make reasonable predictions to avoid shortages and avoid excesses. Now, why shouldn't we apply the same successful formulae to personal relationships? I don't want to take the excitement out of romance, but I do want to prevent truly disastrous marriages, the marriages in which wives and babies are abandoned, or beaten … or killed. If Clockwork Heart can prevent even one abusive marriage, then all the time I've put into it will be worthwhile.”

Taya stared. She'd never seen Alister so passionate before. Maybe he wasn't all good looks and flirtation, after all.

“How will you know if it works?”

He took a deep breath.

“It won't be easy. So far we've only run simulations based on past cases. What we intend to do next, if the Council approves the experiment, is start a volunteer program. We will run the couples' cards and monitor their relationships for a year or two. Then we will compare the experiment's successes or failures to those of a control group; couples that are not provided with any advice from the Engine.”

“What if the Engine tells you that a marriage won't work out, but that's really the person the Lady meant you to be with?”

Alister laughed, relaxing.

“Mere mortals can't defy the Lady of the Forge. If a marriage is meant to be, it'll be, regardless of Clockwork Heart's computational robustness. People can always choose to ignore the program's findings, if they prefer.”

“Do you really think it'll work?”

“Yes.” He met her eyes, his chin jutting forward with determination. “I do. I've written the best program I can, I've tested it every way I can think of, and I believe it will make a difference. It still needs development, but if the Council gives me a chance, in our own lifetime we could see broken hearts and bad marriages become all but nonexistent.”

Taya nodded, although she couldn't help harboring reservations. How could a machine possibly predict the vagaries of the human heart?

“Anyway,” Alister said, leaning against the table, “you understand why it's causing so much debate. Clockwork Heart is a complicated, time-consuming program to run, and it's going to take a long time before the city sees any benefits from it. A number of decaturs aren't convinced it's important enough to pursue. Caster felt that way at first, but I showed him the data I've collected on the long-term economic impact of broken marriages and abandoned children, and he finally changed his mind. The simple fact is, strong marriages lead to strong societies. Caster agreed to approve the experiment and review our data after a year.”

“So you think the Torn Cards found out he'd changed his mind?”

“It's possible. They wouldn't like this program. They don't like anything about the Great Engine.” Alister sounded scornful. “If they thought Caster was slipping from their agenda, they might try to kill him to keep the other decaturs from following his lead.”

“But how would they know that he decided to change his vote? Or about this vote at all?”

“That's a good question. I don't know how many people he has talked to about this.”

“He'd only tell another decatur, right?”

“Any of his clerks might know, or a guard may have overheard him talking about the vote. If he discussed it with Viera, his house servants might know. Mind you, I'm not trying to blame terrorism on the lower castes, but it wouldn't make any sense for another exalted to betray Council business to the Torn Cards. We were born into this caste to protect Ondinium, not destroy it. And destroying the Great Engine is tantamount to destroying the city.”

“But what if…” Taya faltered.

“What if?” he urged.

“Last night, at the party, I heard some men talking, and they mentioned Pins. They were talking to an exalted.”

Alister fixed his gaze on her.

“Who?”

“I didn't want to say anything, because I didn't know if something bad was going on.” She felt miserable. “But now that Pins is dead… maybe one of the men I saw killed her. I don't know. I could be wrong. But I have to report my suspicions, don't I?”

“Yes. I think you do. Tell me, Taya, and I promise I will conduct a quiet investigation and keep your name out of it. Nothing will come back to haunt you if you've made a mistake.”

“I hope I'm wrong. Really, I do.” She took a deep breath and steeled herself. “Because they were talking to your brother.”

“Cris?”

“He sounded like he was in charge.” She didn't want to mention the night the refinery had blown up or the wireferry map she'd found in Cristof's shop. She'd had her suspicions then, but Cristof had explained everything. But now … Pins was dead. She'd witnessed Cristof receiving the package and heard him mention Pins' name. This was something she
couldn't
keep to herself.

She described exactly what she'd seen and heard at the dance.

“I'm sorry,” she finished, feeling terrible. “Maybe it's just coincidence.”

Alister stood still, his handsome face as blank as the ivory mask on the floor.

“I didn't think it would be my brother.”

“I don't know if it was! It might be a coincidence. He's probably got a good explanation for everything.”

“I knew he was angry when he left, but I didn't think he would do anything this rash. Clock repair made sense. But to spend years pretending to be something he isn't…”

“You think he's involved, then?”

Alister seemed to shake himself. “No. No. I don't think he is. I need to talk to him. He's family, Taya. Our parents are dead, and we're all we have left. It must be a misunderstanding. Or perhaps he doesn't realize what's he's gotten himself into. Cris can become so focused on his work that he doesn't always notice what other people are doing around him. He could be an innocent dupe. And if he's not innocent…” Alister looked away, gazing at the clock on his table. “Then I'll tell the lictors. And, Taya—”