Marlowe and the Spacewoman (21 page)

“Yeah, yeah, very interesting.”  Marlowe tried really hard not to roll his eyes.  “Can you search for the pictures now?”

“What are the search terms?”

“Search terms?”

“Key words.”

“Try Nina Minari, Odyssey I, 55 Cancri, heck, even International Space Station and murder,” said Nina.  “That incident made the news too.”

“OK, hang on.”  Huggy Bear pecked away at the keyboard.  A couple of minutes passed, with nothing but a small timepiece suspended on his display.  Then the screen flickered.  “Hey, I’ve got something.  This what you’re looking for?”

Marlowe walked behind Huggy Bear, the desiccated raw sewage crunching with each step.  On the screen, he saw pictures of Nina standing next to various individuals, some of them the same people who appeared on her disk.  Pictures of her floating in zero gee, pictures of her standing with others at a press conference.  By far the largest number of pictures, however, were of her in the nude.  

“Fakes,” declared Nina from behind her blush.  “If you were female and even remotely famous, people cut and paste your head onto a nude body and put them online.”

“These are pretty good fakes,” said Huggy Bear, his nose touching his screen as he inspected one.

“OK, they’re mostly fake.  I needed money in college.  I’m not proud of it, but I did pose for some pictures which weren’t published until after I became well known.  They’re hardly relevant to this case though, right Marlowe?”

“Well, if the real ones can be be verified, they actually would help.  Better save ‘em, Huggy Bear.  All of them, just to be safe.”

“Not a problem,” said Huggy Bear.

“Marlowe.”  Nina’s tone didn’t bode well.  “We’re not using those pictures for my defense.  Under any circumstances.  Do you understand?”

Marlowe studied the current image Huggy Bear had up and sighed.  Even the fakes looked…very nice.  “OK, no nude pictures.”  Huggy Bear started to delete the ones he’d downloaded, but Marlowe gave him a slight kick to stop him.  Maybe not for use in her defense, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t keep copies.  Huggy Bear’s stock with Marlowe went up considerably when he noticed that the hacker was continuing to download more images in the background.  He was a bastard, but he was shaping up to be Marlowe’s kind of bastard.

Some of the more straight-laced pictures had articles associated with them.  Huggy Bear dutifully downloaded those as well.

“How do we transfer those to my PDI,” asked Marlowe.

Huggy Bear smiled.  “That’s another beauty I cooked up.  I’ve got a little interface here that plugs into this old laptop and can do a wide-beam dispersion transfer to any PDI within ten meters.  Hang on.”

He started poking around in his backpack, pulling out a thin card that he slid into the side of the computer.  “What do you want?”

“All of it,” replied Marlowe.  “Except for the nude pictures, of course.”  He winked at Huggy Bear, who nodded imperceptibly.

 Marlowe perused the articles as they transferred over, a process that turned out to be incredibly time-consuming.  Articles about the Odyssey I mission to 55 Cancri, bios of all the crew members, and an interesting story about Nina’s pivotal role in solving a murder, the first murder in space, aboard the international space station.  Another article about the Odyssey I crew implied that the juice Nina had gained in helping with the murder case had enabled her to get a berth on the 55 Cancri mission.  Despite his inclination to believe her early on, Marlowe still felt a bit stunned to have it confirmed that he had been walking and talking with a real, bona fide, over one hundred years old spacewoman.  

“Do you think these images and the ones on the disk will be enough to clear me?”

“Maybe.  I don’t think we have much else to go on at this point.  House, you getting all of this?”

“Yes.  Most interesting.  Oh, by the way, Gomer has an urgent message for you.”

“What is it?  Did the Governor call?”

“He won’t say.  He’s put together an encrypted package for you.  Transferring now.”

A download bar flicked across Marlowe’s right field of view for a half second.  A fairly small file.  He double-blinked it open, and a light blue rectangle filled his field of vision.  It flickered and morphed into Gomer’s cage, with Gomer sitting on the top of the open door.

“Hey Marlowe, just a reminder.  Buy more cat food on the way home!”

The video message faded.  Marlowe frowned.  “House, in the future, review all messages from Gomer to determine if they need to be sent out right away or not.”

“Very well.  I apologize if it wasn’t as urgent as Gomer led me to believe.”

“Not your fault, House, not your fault.”

“You got what you need?” asked Huggy Bear.

Marlowe flashed through the images again, real quick, to make sure he was satisfied.  “Yeah, we’re good.  Let’s get out of this stink hole.”

Huggy Bear made a big deal of carefully folding up his computer, returning it to his backpack, and grunting the backpack onto his back.  Nina bounced up and down on her toes, excited and hopeful about what they’d just accomplished.  Marlowe, eager to get out of the filthy tank and home to a shower (though using liquid soap this time), led the way out.  They had just left the sewage tank and reentered the corridor when the explosions started.  Three short, staccato blasts that shook the passage violently.  They were coming from the entrance.

“Oh God, they’re disappearing us!” screamed Huggy Bear, his teeth flashing as his mouth flapped open and shut.  

The lights flickered, and another series of sharp blasts reverberated through the underground passageway.  Then the lights went completely out.  Huggy Bear panicked, crashing into Nina and sending her sprawling before bounding down the other end of the corridor.

“Marlowe, I can’t see.  How’s your low light implant?”

“No dice.  I need some light for them to work.  It’s pitch black.”

Another set of three blasts rocked them.

“What’s going on?”

“Sounds like bumble bombs.  Three short blasts is the typical signature.”  Marlowe fished out the box of light beads and pulled a couple out.  He squeezed both and handed one to Nina.  “Don’t lose that.  I’m gonna run out of these things at this rate.  Anyway, bumble bombs are small, size of a thimble, and you roll them discreetly at your target.  They bounce a few times, then burst.  Nasty devices.  Usually used to disable cars or blow out windshields and the like – you drop them out the window and let them bounce onto a car behind you.”

“They’re sealing us in.”

“Most likely.  But I don’t understand why they’re using such small ordinance.  There’s some stuff out there that would cave in this entire underground complex with one blast.”

Nina started after Huggy Bear, holding her light bead in front of her.  “Come on, he’s our best bet for finding another exit.”

Marlowe followed.  “Hang on, I’ll see if there’s a floor plan.  House, can you search the City Records server for floor plans to this plant, please?”

There was a moment’s silence, and then another moment of silence.

“House?”

Nothing.

Nina had reached the tank with the Internet drop and stuck her head inside.  “He’s not in here.”

“I can’t reach House.”

“I think we have more important concerns here.”

“No, you don’t understand.  Something is seriously wrong.”  Marlowe started shaking.  

“We’re about to be buried alive, and now you decide to complain about technical difficulties?”

“House, can you hear me?  Can you hear me at all?  Please answer, House.”

“I’m sure it’s just a minor glitch.  We’ll get out of here and fix it in no time.”

“Minor glitch?”  Marlowe’s voice had gone up a few octaves, sliding from baritone to screech.  “Minor glitch??  Don’t you get it?  I’m cut off from House!  Nothing!  Not a peep is coming through!”

Having no tolerance for hysterics, Nina grabbed Marlowe by the shoulders, rattled him vigorously, and when that didn’t bring the focus back to his eyes, slapped him hard against his face.  “Marlowe!  Get a grip!  We’re about to be buried alive!”

Marlowe calmed down, becoming quite still.  Not because of the rattling Nina had given him, and not directly because of the slap.  He went numb with fear when something after the slap DIDN’T happen.

“At least the explosions stopped.”

“Nina, slap me again.”

“Excuse me?  This is hardly the time-”

“Slap me again!  As hard as you can!”

“Fine.”  Nina obliged him, striking Marlowe a mighty blow.  His head snapped to the side, and after the initial sharp sting had subsided, an achy rush of heat spread across his cheek.  Nina had outdone herself; Marlowe could tell this would leave a bruise.  And that’s what terrified him.

“Hey, don’t you have some sort of infrared implant?  Maybe we can see Huggy Bear’s footprints.”

Marlowe swallowed, a difficult act considering how dry his mouth had become.  He’d never had a dry mouth before.  He lost Nina’s words to the torrent of rushing air roaring through his ears.  A surge of terror swept over him, its undertow pulling him down and tumbling him end over end through the black, empty void.  He spun around, the light bead flying from his convulsing hand, and plowed into the side of the corridor.  Blood began to dribble out of his left nostril.  He sank to the floor and touched the bleeding nostril with his shaking hand.

“Marlowe, are you all right?  What are you doing?”

“My PDI is dead.  That’s why I can’t reach House.  That’s why the nano probes didn’t release sedatives when I panicked about not reaching House, and why they didn’t stop the pain and repair the damage when you slapped me.  And that’s why all my optical, audible, and sensory implants no longer work – they’re all controlled by the PDI!”

“Maybe the batteries are dead?”  

“It’s dead.  No nano probes.”  His voice was soft now, distant.  He held his shaking, blood-covered hand up between them.  “I could bleed to death from this.”

Nina crouched down next to Marlowe, barely able to mute the strain of keeping her voice calm.  “Don’t be absurd.  Humans have survived without PDIs for thousands of years, and suffered nose bleeds and other minor injuries for just as long.  Your body can form platelets all by itself.  Granted, it might take longer, but it’s an age-old, proven design.”

Marlowe stared at the oscillating tips of his wet, crimson fingers.  “Oh Governor, this hurts.  No pain blockers, no medical status display, no nano probes.”  His breathing became sharp labored gasps, his voice wheezy.  “Nothing.  Hell, I can’t even see properly.”

“That’s because it’s dark.”

“You just don’t get it!” snapped Marlowe, taking a wide swing in the air.  “I’m all alone!  All alone in the dark!”  He had to move; when he kept still, he could feel the sticky hold of the Truth-Be-Told table against his skin, the cold metal underneath him.  Obedere’s eyes flashing above him.  “Oh Governor, not again.”

Real concern showed on Nina’s face, but Marlowe was beyond caring.  He babbled softly to himself, a faraway look in his eyes.  Nina slapped him again.  “Marlowe, stay with me.”

Marlowe responded to the slap by taking a swing at Nina.  He caught her off guard, and actually managed to connect with her shoulder.  She grunted, then grabbed his arm and twisted it.  With her free hand she slapped him across the face again.  And again.

At first he just whimpered.  Nina persisted, her strikes making a sharp clap that echoed down the corridor.  Marlowe cried out.  A couple of more blows and Marlowe invoked an actual word.  “Ow!”  Another set of smacks, and he raised his hand, no longer shaking, and shouted out, “Stop!  Enough.”  His eyes had stopped rolling and now looked directly at Nina.  He took several deep breaths.

“Sorry, I’m not used to this…silence.  Brings back bad memories.”

“Are you OK?”

“Yes, just a little out of sorts.  The last time this happened to me….  Obedere must have gotten a virus through, one House didn’t detect.  No more backups.  If I die, my backup mind won’t be able to transfer over.  I can’t do an emergency backup right now to preserve my memory of today’s events.  If I die and the body isn’t recovered within an hour, it can’t be restored.  That’s too long to be down.”

“Welcome to my world, Marlowe.  We can find a fix to your implant problem, but only if we survive the immediate threat.”

Marlowe’s panic had subsided, but his assessment of their chances remained the same.  They were going to die.  Permanently.  Nina’s breath was warm on his face.  An idea occurred to him, and he thought, why not?  He had nothing to lose at this point, and she’d done the same earlier.  So he leaned forward and kissed Nina.  Or tried to, anway.  It was dark, and he missed, landing his lips on her nose.  Bad enough if he’d been going for a closed mouth kiss.  But he hadn’t been.  Her nose tasted salty.

“What are you doing,” asked Nina as she pulled back.  

Marlowe braced himself for another slap.  It never came.  

“Jesus, Marlowe, you really know how to romance a girl.  Is that how people kiss these days?”

“No, sorry, I just-”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it.  I kissed you when I thought I was about to die, and now you’re returning the favor.  You get this one for free, but next time you try to kiss me, you’ll pay for it.  And trust me, you can’t afford the asking price.”  And then she was kissing him again, gently, her lips warm on his for just a few seconds and then gone.   “Better?”