Mary Rosenblum (42 page)

“So you tell us.” Engoko bowed her head a hair less than the Chairman had bowed his. ”What facts do you wish to present to us?”

”You have a limited data set as regards the DNA origins of the female whose body was brought to the Council by the Council’s forces,” Zhen said in crisp, perfect English. “I wish to add to that data set.”

“Proceed.” Engoko inclined her head again.

Without another word, Chou Zhen bent and gently unfastened the carved ivory buttons of the boy’s silk jacket. He removed it, then unfastened the stiff, brocaded pants and the boy grabbed his hands and with a grin, hopped out of the heavy outfit. The crimson silk folded to the floor and for a moment, the boy swung lightly from Zhen’s hands, wearing nothing but a pair of underpants as the Chairman lowered him gently to the floor. He stood barefoot, smiling shyly, his dark eyes glazed with as if with frost. His limbs looked too long for his skinny torso and his long toes splayed across the floor.

Soft intakes of breath punctuated a rapt silence.

“This is my grandson, Ren Zhen.” Chou Zhen spoke quietly as he lifted the cap from Ren’s hairless scalp, but his voice filled the well of silence. “He was born to my son Li Zhen and Jin An, an administrator in our orbital colony. I have submitted a detailed analyysis of the DNA of both parents and the child for your examination. There has been no contamination of this child’s genetic material. This child has had no contact with the man on trial before you today.” He did not look at Dane.

Dane smiled at the boy. “I know someone who would play with you,” he said softly, thinking of Koi.

The boy looked at him and smiled, and Dane caught a fleeting image of Koi and one of his sisters somersaulting in a dark space. The images were a bit warped with a child’s perspective, but he reccognized Koi for sure. Felt the boy’s happy smile. The boy tottered over to him, his steps uneven, clambered into Dane’s lap. Dane felt Chou’s brief, intent scrutiny, ignored it. The boy’s curiosity cascaded through him. He probably didn’t speak English, Dane thought, so he envisioned the hub garden, the tubes of peppers and bok choi and spinach. Felt a happy burst of recognition, and then the boy showed him the scenes back, but with Koi and his family present. He had been in the garden. Dane itched to know just what had happened. Realized suddenly that the room had fallen absolutely silent.

He looked up, found them all staring at him. Felt curiosity edged with anger from Chou Zhen, more curiosity than disgust from the Committee members. Engoko’s expression was enigmatic. “Mr. Nilsson,”

she said, as Chou Zhen lifted his grandson from Dane’s lap. “Clearly we have acted without all the evidence. In the light of Chou Zhen’s information, we must review the situation and ask our scientific experts to review the new data.” She waited as Chou Zhen left the chamber with his grandson riding on his back. Then she cleared her throat. “We find you cleared of all current charges involving the adulteration of human DNA with material of nonhuman origin. We will return you to the New York Platform. Until this case is fully explored to our satisfaction, the Judiciary Committee requires that you wear a locator link that will allow us to recall you for further examination, should the need arise. But once we have completed our study of the new data, if we have found no reason to reexamine you, the locator will be removed and you will be free entirely of our scrutiny.”

“Thank you, Madam Chair.” Dane stood up. ”What about the people of the Platforms? The ones like Chou Zhen’s grandson?”

“What about them?” Engoko tilted her head, a sly twinkle in her eye. “They are the citizens of the newly sovereign platform of New York Up, are they not? They are not our concern unless they feature in a case brought before the World Council.” She looked around the table, her eye pausing thoughtfully on the sullen Gallic man. “If

there is no objection,” she said mildly, “I will declare this Committtee meeting adjourned.”

The Gallic man looked as if he wanted to object, but clenched his teeth and gave a tiny shake of his head.

“Committee is adjourned,” Engoko said and a silvery chime sounded in the chamber.

AHNI CLIMBED OUT OF THE SKIMMER ATTHE FAMILY DOCK, feeling as if she had been absent for weeks rather than a handful of days. The thick tropical heat, rich with scents of green and rot oppressed her in a way it never had before, smothering her in a blanket of memory. She made her way to her father’s apartments. He expected her. Plates of delicacies covered a low table in his elegant rooms.

Her father was waiting for her. Ahni accepted an eggshell cup of pale, clear tea from him, complimented him on the tea and the age of the pot and sipped it. The flowery fragrance brought the scent of home to her nostrils. They grew tea on the platforms but it would not taste like this. Every tea tasted of its growing place.

“I am impressed with your competence in the matter of the World Council vote. I have studied the small points of leverage you used to persuade uncertain voters.” He nodded. “You used a minimum amount of force to divert a mountain.”

Ahni bowed her head.

“I am pleased with my choice of heir. I am old. It is time to perrmit my successor to take over the family’s business.”

“Ah, but you will live forever, Father.” Ahni raised her eyebrows. “I have looked at the results from the private research that you so generously fund.”

“They are not certain,” her father said smoothly. “But you are well informed. Those discoveries are closely guarded. You are very good.” He smiled and selected a small, plump dumpling. “I value the sharp tool.”

Ah, she thought. Father, you overlooked the heir you wanted. You married her, and hung a sharp sword on the wall to rust. It cut you and poisoned your blood.

“I am sorry,” she said gently. “I have another path to walk. I have committed myself to the orbital platforms.”

“A child’s adventure.” He waved her words away. “Our family’s path lies down here. Not in some castle in the clouds that has no future. Your duty is to your family.”

Ahni swallowed a sigh. You never looked beyond the world you created, she thought. You did not choose to see reality. That made you a ready tool for my mother’s hand. “I am sorry, Honored Father.”

She bowed, deeply. “I have chosen my path. I can walk alongside Huang family or I can walk it alone, but I cannot stay here and do as you ask.” She pulled a data sphere from her tunic, handed it to him with a formal bow. “This is my final gift to you.”

“What is it?” he snapped.

“The gift of clear sight.” She stood and left his chamber and he did not call her back.

She crossed the courtyard to her mother’s apartments. Her mother sat on the embroidered cushions before her low table, a pot of tea steaming gently on it. Ahni wondered suddenly what had happened to the priceless Qin teapot Li Zhen had given her. She had left it in the hotel room on NYUp. Her mother inclined her head without speaking and Ahni sat down across from her.

“The Council votes went as you wished them to.” Her mother stressed the word “wished.” She offered Ahni a cup with both hands. “Your talents have been wasted for too long.”

Ahni turned her head aside, refusing the tea. Her mother set it down on the table, lifted her own cup thoughtfully. “Why are you still angry, daughter? You come here with the taste of power in your mouth.

Tell me that you are not hungry for more?” She smiled slyly.

“Tell me first how you became pregnant by Chou Zhen.”

“Ah.” For a moment her mother hesitated, the cup at her lips. ”We were young.” She sipped her tea.

”There was never the slight possibility that I could leave your father and marry him. It was … an afternoon whim.”

“Does he know? Chou Zhen?”

“That you are his? Of course not.” Her mother’s eyes flashed.

“Did you think he would shrug you off? No.” She shook her head. “He believes what The Huang believes. That an egg slipped into my womb after Xai had been implanted. My doctor knew, of course, but he had reasons of his own to keep this secret for me. And he died soon after.” She smiled.

“How did you plan to use me?” Ahni asked softly.

“If you know this much, I have no doubt that you can surmise my intentions,” Her mother said coldly.

“You would make him proud. Did you inform him?”

“No.” Ahni met her gaze. “Although Li Zhen knows. I do not know what he will choose to do with that knowledge.”

“What is your price?” Her mother smiled gently. “I assume a price lies beneath this conversation.”

“Oh, there is more yet to discuss.” Ahni held her mother’s gaze. “I had an agent acquire details of the Gaiists and their involvement with world politics. Enough to make their purposes clear.”

“I told you … a ready tool.” Her mother waved her hand dissmissively. “Perhaps they do lust for world power, but what has that to do with me?” She smiled. “I am no member.”

“Oh yes, you are.” Ahni smiled gently. “A very talented synthesist uncovered your tracks. You were good but he is better. And your son was not the naive tool you believed. His private blackmail file confirms it. The proof will be enough to convict you of conspiracy to commit terrorism before the World Council. It will be more than enough for Wen Huang … along with my DNA scan.”

Her mother rose to her feet, pale. “I offered you the planet.”

“Is that what you offered Xai?”

“Yes,” her mother said simply. “But that was a lie. He was never more than a tool. Like the Gaiists.”

“Did you send him into Tania’s bed?”

“I suggested it to Tania.” Her mother lifted her chin. “You will not do this. You are not a fool, to walk away from what I offer.”

“I have ethics, Mother,” Ahni said softly. “That makes me unfit to walk your path.”

With a sudden, savage gesture, her mother flung her tea cup across the room, and as Ahni’s eyes followed its shattering, she sprang.

Ahni froze, the razor edge of a dagger’s blade against her throat. “Killing me will not save you, Mother,”

she whispered. “He already has the data. He is reading it now. A skimmer is waiting at the dock, if you want to run. I will not stop you.” A white-hot thread of pain crossed her throat as her mother’s hand trembled. Ahni closed her eyes as hot wetness crawled down her throat and between her breasts.

Suddenly her mother laughed and stepped back. “You are so prepared to die. Like a Buddhist monk You are weak.”

“You are evil,” Ahni breathed

Her mother spat on the table between them. She smiled, blood red lips stretching over her even teeth.

“Live with my blood on your heart.” She plunged the dagger into her throat.

Ahni stumbled backward as blood splattered her face, spraying crimson dots across the pale wall as her mother’s body spasmed and fell, her heels beating briefly on the tiles. Ahni covered her face with her hands, her mother’s blood and her own, sticky on her skin. Finally the tears came.

And tore her apart.

PLEASE REMAIN SEATED UNTIL DOCKING IS COMPLETED, the cool androgynous voice murmured. All through the cylindrical cabin of the shuttle, seat-webs clicked and retracted. Business passengers plus a few tourists smoothed wrinkles from their singlesuits and pulled bags from the storage bins beneath their seats. Ahni shouldered her own carryall and let the stream of passengers carry her into the Arrival Hall. It wasn’t nearly as busy as it had been on her last trip up here, but she spotted tourists among the business travelers.
Good,
she thought. They were coming back up here more quickly than she would have guessed. The native woman at the Customs and Immigration desk scanned her new travel visa and smiled at her, eyes widening. “Wow,” she said. “How cool to really meet you.”

“Thanks.” Ahni returned the smile, thinking that her arrival would be all over the Con as soon as the woman went on break.
So much for arriving anonymously,
she thought.

She reclaimed her bag and headed for the main corridor, but beefore she had gone more than ten meters from the Arrival Hall, a cart zoomed up. Laif leaped from it and scooped her into a bear hug that lifted her from the ground. “About time you came back up here.” He grinned as he set her down, his emerald flashing. “My first act as official Mayor of the independent territory of New York Up was to send you the very first immigration visa we issued. I told you I’d do that. So what the hell took you so long?”

“I had a … family tragedy to deal with, Laif.” She closed her eyes briefly. “I had to get a lot settled …

before I could come up here.”

“I’m sorry.” He peered at her. “Rough, huh?”

“Yes. It was rough.” She summoned a smile for him. “So are you enjoying being Mayor?”

“Hey, I get more complaints … This independence thing has headaches not even Dane saw coming.”

He handed her into the cart, tossed her bag into the back seat. Looked at her sideways. “You want a lift to the elevator, I bet?”

“Of course.” She smiled at him. “Where else? Are things working?” She studied him as the cart zipped along the corridor. “Is it going to turn out like you and Dane planned?”

“Yeah, I think so.” He sighed. “Lots of growing pains and we were a little off on some of our estimations, but we brought down the first few rocks, let a lot of downside celebrities come up and see just to sooth the jitters downside, and that’s going to tip the balance on supply up here. Tourism is coming back faster than we thought. Koi and his folk.” He shook his head. Laughed. “Can you believe it? We got to watch out for the religious nutcases–they figure they’re either devils or angels–but the rest just come to look, you know? I think Koi’s family kind of likes it, now that they’re used to it. We can really start building, once we get things stabilized and get our trade balance established. We’ve already got residency applications piling up.” He pulled up at the elevator.

“I’l let Dane fill you in on all the important details.” He leaned across the seat to hug her once more. “I’m glad you’re back,” he said. “Dane’s been missing you. I may not have much of an E ratting, but even I can see that.” He laughed and handed down her bag. “Get up there before the Con finds out you’re here. If you want any privacy.”