Guardians of Paradise (16 page)
Read Guardians of Paradise Online
Authors: Jaine Fenn
That information proved surprisingly hard to track down; the handful of companies involved in commissioning new vessels were reticent about making their doings public - hardly surprising, considering what lay at the heart of every shiftship.
He ended up inferring the data by looking at the detailed histories of various freetrader ships. When he extrapolated that to include other types of ship, the conclusion was inescapable: only one or two new shiftships a year were commissioned - barely enough to replace those going out of service or lost in accidents.
In the twenty-five years since the Sidhe had last visited Serenein, thirty-seven - no, thirty—
eight
—boys had been found with the unique talent they required. Assuming not all of these young minds survived the transition into transit-kernels, that gave an average of just over one per year.
eight
—boys had been found with the unique talent they required. Assuming not all of these young minds survived the transition into transit-kernels, that gave an average of just over one per year.
Serenein really was the only source for the minds that powered shiftships. If Jarek succeeded in his crusade to save that one world, he might ultimately bring about the end of human interstellar civilisation.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Finding out about hidden trouble on Kama Nui turned out to be easier said than done. Nual did most of the research using the public com services; Taro helped by scanning the newsnets. He also volunteered to listen out for rumours. It wasn’t his fault if the best place to pick up loose talk was in bars.
The
ngai
Mo had referred to were a cross between big businesses and large family troupes. They were mainly run by women, and their leaders met in the House of
Ariki
, Kama Nui’s equivalent of the Assembly back in Khesh. Though there was plenty of gossip about the inter-house rivalries, there was nothing firm to link them to the occasional unexplained unpleasant incidents - an executive poisoned by bad fish in a bar, an accountant robbed of his data but not his valuables, a kidnapping on a main street in the middle of the day with no apparent witnesses - and there wasn’t a whiff of the
ngai
being into anything more hi-tech than making sure visitors to their islands had a good time. Nual’s research suggested the tensions between the
ngai
s went in cycles, with incidents building to a head over a few years then dying off. Taro got the impression they were about to head into a hot phase.
ngai
Mo had referred to were a cross between big businesses and large family troupes. They were mainly run by women, and their leaders met in the House of
Ariki
, Kama Nui’s equivalent of the Assembly back in Khesh. Though there was plenty of gossip about the inter-house rivalries, there was nothing firm to link them to the occasional unexplained unpleasant incidents - an executive poisoned by bad fish in a bar, an accountant robbed of his data but not his valuables, a kidnapping on a main street in the middle of the day with no apparent witnesses - and there wasn’t a whiff of the
ngai
being into anything more hi-tech than making sure visitors to their islands had a good time. Nual’s research suggested the tensions between the
ngai
s went in cycles, with incidents building to a head over a few years then dying off. Taro got the impression they were about to head into a hot phase.
Despite concerns over their mission and the continuing tension with Nual, Taro started to enjoy life in Stonetown; it was a large and interesting city, but chill and friendly too. Life happened at its own pace, and you didn’t feel like you had to watch your back all the time.
Despite Mo’s assurance that most people at the hostel were on working holidays, a lot of them spent their days down at the harbour doing nothing in particular. Mo was happy for Taro to join them, and he taught him to fish - or rather, to laze in the shade on the dockside dangling a line in the water. The sea was clear enough to see the brightly coloured creatures scuttling along the seabed or gliding around in shoals, but nothing down there showed much interest in being caught. When the day got too hot, they all stripped off and jumped into the water. Taro joined them cautiously, claiming he wasn’t a good swimmer. He used his implants to keep himself afloat and copied the others’ actions, managing to avoid anyone spotting that he was using gravitics while he learned to swim. He reckoned that was good; he didn’t want any of them sussing that he was an Angel. It was way too hot to wear anything with sleeves, so he was glad of the peace-bonding job customs had done on his wrists. Right now his implants looked like faint matching scars and he wasn’t sure anyone had even noticed them - certainly no one commented on them.
Nual generally stayed back at the hostel in the evenings, while Taro combined his rumour-gathering with drinking, dancing and flirting. He liked to dance, and soon picked up the local method of strutting your stuff, a combination of fast footwork, sexy hip and hand movements, and some frankly gappy face-pulling. After Mo went off with a hot native girl one night Taro wondered whether he should take up one of the offers that’d come his way. Though this culture wasn’t into sleeping with your own sex, that still left half the population. But while his body kept distracting him, his head and heart said
no
. To go with someone now would only make things worse with Nual.
no
. To go with someone now would only make things worse with Nual.
It did occur to him, during their second week, that his credit was going down fast and he might not have the choice soon. Nual had registered them with one of the agencies providing casual workers out on the resort islands, but there was competition for even the shittier jobs and it could be up to a month before anything came up for the two of them together. She said they should avoid being split up if possible, and he didn’t argue. He’d seen plenty of people practising his old trade; Mo had told him it was all legit and well-regulated, with no pimps to fuck you over. But leaving aside the practical problem that he was underage here, he just didn’t feel comfortable selling himself to strangers any more. Though he was still finding his place in the world, one thing he did know: he wasn’t anyone’s whore.
On the tenth day a girl called Kise arrived at the hostel. Mo made his customary attempt to get into her pants; she turned him down politely but firmly. Commiserating with Taro the next evening Mo said, ‘I don’t reckon she’s after fun at all.’
‘What else would anyone come here for?’ asked Taro innocently.
‘Career progression. And I don’t mean waiting tables or cleaning bungalows. She’s a qualified geneticist, you know, with a special interest in anagathics. Told me all about it by way of a put-down. ’
Taro made a mental note to ask Nual what anagathics was, then said, ‘But she’s still entitled to a holiday, right?’
‘No, I know that sort. Some of my father’s people are like that; not born into privilege but determined to work themselves to the top.’
‘So,’ said Taro, ‘you’re saying she’s here to get recruited by one of the
ngai
, to do this smoky stuff that’s meant to be going on out of sight?’
ngai
, to do this smoky stuff that’s meant to be going on out of sight?’
‘That’s exactly what I’m saying.’
‘So, which
ngai
does anagathics then?’
ngai
does anagathics then?’
‘No idea. I think she only told me about it to put me off.’
‘But you think she might know?’
‘Why else go to the effort and expense of coming here? She must reckon she’s got a chance of getting in with these people.’
Anagathics was the science of extending life, Nual said—a tricky area, given a lot of the religious worlds had laws against it, and those treatments that were around were expensive and risky. It definitely qualified as the kind of thing that would be carried out on the quiet.
Taro chatted to Kise when Mo wasn’t around and found that he’d been right: she was polite enough, but not particularly friendly. But he and Nual had more than one way to find out what they needed to know.
The next day was the Salvatine holyday, and a lot of the hostel’s residents went to church. Taro was still getting his head around religion. He’d grown up with a vague but pervasive view that his City watched over its residents, only to find this was both literally true and ultimately false, and as a result he no longer felt inclined to believe in a higher power. Apparently a lot of people did though, and followed some variation of Salvationism, the belief in a mysterious creator God who saw all from a distance, and a Son who sacrificed himself so humans could get back in with their divine Father. The Salvatine religion came in a number of flavours. On Kama Nui, it involved the worship of the Lord of the Sea, and their version of the Manifest Son was a character called Tongaroa. Mo followed the Mithrai sect, but that was no problem as there were churches and temples to all the major Salvatine sects here for the tourist market.
Given her specialist area, Taro wasn’t surprised to find Kise didn’t attend church. They found her sitting alone in the common room, reading. Nual went over to her while Taro hung around in the kitchen area, keeping an eye out to make sure they weren’t disturbed. The two women had a short conversation that looked harmless enough from where Taro was lurking, after which Kise put down her reader and fell asleep.
Nual got up and left; Taro followed her out to the men’s dormitory, which was empty.
‘Her family are small-time corporate,’ Nual reported quietly, ‘but they live on a theocracy, and their company is never going to be involved in the kind of cutting-edge work she’s interested in. She knows that Kama Nui has a hidden hi-tech culture, though she doesn’t know all the details. She’s been putting forward a tame version of her résumé - she’s also a qualified geriatrics nurse, and a lot of rich people retire here - with a hidden embedded file that a smart recruiter will spot, decrypt and open.’
‘Good for her,’ said Taro, trying not to think about Nual going into the girl’s mind. ‘Can’t see how that helps us, though.’
‘It narrows our search: she’s only applying to three of the five big
ngai
, because the other two aren’t biotech specialists. Whoever is taking these boys and turning them into transit-kernels would have to be with one of those three.’
ngai
, because the other two aren’t biotech specialists. Whoever is taking these boys and turning them into transit-kernels would have to be with one of those three.’
‘I guess so.’ Taro thought that was the end of the conversation and turned to leave.
Nual said quietly, ‘I’m sorry.’
He moved back and looked at her. She was backlit in the harsh light from the window and he couldn’t make out her expression, but he felt a slight lessening of her shields, like a willingness to let him in a little. He tried not to react. She was the one in the wrong and he wasn’t going to let her just melt his pain away. ‘For what?’ he said stonily, though he knew full well.
‘I’m sorry for hurting you, Taro. That was never my intention. ’
‘So why’d you do it?’
‘Because there was no other way to find out what we needed to know.’
After so long avoiding the subject Taro found himself suddenly furious. ‘Don’t give me that shit! Why didn’t you just make him
think
you were fucking him? You can do that sort of thing, can’t you?’ The killing’d had to be done for real of course, but as far as Taro was concerned the pilot’s death was no great loss, even if the way it’d happened still made him feel sick.
think
you were fucking him? You can do that sort of thing, can’t you?’ The killing’d had to be done for real of course, but as far as Taro was concerned the pilot’s death was no great loss, even if the way it’d happened still made him feel sick.
‘Even if I had had sufficient knowledge to create a convincing illusion of sex - which I did not - the pilot knew the ways of the Sidhe well. He would have realised he was being deceived.’
Damn her and her logic. ‘All right, so I s’pose that’s all true.’ Taro decided to take a different tack. ‘But ever since you’ve been acting like nothing happened.’
‘I thought - incorrectly, I now know - that given the pain my actions have caused you, it would be better if I did not draw attention to them.’ He thought she was looking directly at him now, though her eyes were in shadow. ‘Would you prefer that I had lied to you and said I had not had sex with him? I could have easily made you believe that.’
‘I know you could! That’s not—’ He wouldn’t let her honesty deflect his anger. ‘I have to know one thing,’ he said slowly. ‘If you had the chance to go back, would you do it again, just the same?’
‘We can never go back, Taro. And I have told you: I regret the pain I’ve caused you.’
‘Meaning you
would
do it again!’
would
do it again!’
‘If I had to, but—’
‘You didn’t
have to
this time! You—’
have to
this time! You—’
Taro stopped at the sound of a slamming door and voices in the corridor outside. He clenched and unclenched his fists, then turned and walked out of the dormitory, out of the hostel into the searing midday heat, and he kept walking and didn’t stop until the anger had drained away. He ended up at the harbour, where he stood for some time, staring at the sea.
The next time they spoke, Nual was polite, distant, careful, just like she’d been before. He found himself remembering a comment she’d made when they first met, how most people would call her a monster. Well, she’d said she wouldn’t sleep with him for fear of hurting him, and he hadn’t wanted to believe her. Turned out she’d been right. Maybe she
was
a monster: if he could just make himself believe that, then perhaps the pain might go away.
was
a monster: if he could just make himself believe that, then perhaps the pain might go away.
The day after the aborted row, Mo burst into the kitchen. ‘I’ve got a job! It hasn’t gone to the agencies yet, but I know a man who knows a man. This is a big one, a wedding out at one of the top-notch resorts, some big dynastic thing between Tawhira-
ngai
and Ruanuku-
ngai
. It’s gonna be hard work, but there’s a chance to stay on for free afterwards. Are you two up for it?’
ngai
and Ruanuku-
ngai
. It’s gonna be hard work, but there’s a chance to stay on for free afterwards. Are you two up for it?’
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