Palace (42 page)

Vida’s image appeared, grinning at him. Uncombed and wild, her hair tumbled round her face, streaked with the remains of make-up. She was wearing a crumpled green shirt.

‘I just got in from an awful party,’ Vida said. ‘So I thought I’d wake you up.’

‘Well, you didn’t. I was already awake.’ He sat down in his desk chair in front of the station.

‘A party; huh?’

‘Yeah. Are you working? I can power off.’

‘No, no, I was just - well, hell, I was just thinking about you.’

‘Yeah?’

‘Yeah.’

When she smiled, he felt as if the entire world had turned soft and warm around him. On her side of the comm link Vida seemed to be studying his image; all at once her grin turned wicked.

‘You really should have zipped those pants up,’ she said.

Rico swore, grabbed a shirt from the floor, and dumped it over his lap. Vida laughed, but there was no meanness in it, not even any teasing, really, just a good-humoured joke. He found himself wanting her more than he’d ever thought it possible to want a woman.

‘Uh well, hey,’ he said. ‘I don’t suppose I could take you out to breakfast? Since we’re both uh well awake and all?’ Her smiled faded fast.

‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘The damn gridjockeys follow me everywhere.’

‘Ah come on, they’re not going to be prowling the halls at this time in the morning.’

‘But I’ll bet they’re up in the Mercado. Eating, probably; keeping their strength up so they can chase me around some more.’

‘Hey, I know! What about the Kaft Museum?’

‘Oh yeah, I’m sure that’s going to be open! Rico, the time’s only just hit the fives.’

‘Doesn’t matter. Have you been there? It’s got this entrance or porch thing, and no-one’s going to see us if we’re inside it.’

‘What? You’re crazy.’

‘Oh yeah? Meet me there and I’ll show you.’

She hesitated, then grinned, a slow spread of mischief.

‘Okay, I will. It’s on Floor Ten, right?’

‘Right. Fifteen minutes.’

Rico rushed around, found a reasonably clean shirt, put it on, went to tuck it in and remembered how Vida had looked at him. Blushing, cursing, he banged around the room and finally got himself dressed and into the suite’s gather, where Nju, unfortunately, sat at Jevon’s reception desk, his feet up while he watched the early news.

‘You are dressed. Where are you going? I have no appointment for this time listed on your itinerary.’

From bitter past experience, Rico knew that Nju could smell a lie a week away.

‘I’m going to meet a girl. I’d like to go alone.’

‘Ah.’ Nju held up his transmit ring and switched the screen from the news to a plan of the East Tower. ‘Where?’

‘I don’t want to tell you that.’

‘Why not? I’d never betray a plot, unless it was against your uncle.’

Rico realized that he was hearing the Garang idea of a joke. ‘Oh okay, the Kaft Museum.’

The Museum appeared on the plans as a glowing dot.

‘I’m sorry,’ the vidscreen said. ‘This institution is not open to the public at this hour.’

‘I know that,’ Rico snapped. ‘I’m just going to meet her in front of it. Nju, I don’t want to be late.’

‘Very well.’ The Garang sighed, doubtless at the folly of human men. ‘When is your estimated return time?’

‘Uncle Hi will want me at the briefing at the top of the sevens.’

‘I know. That’s why I asked. Be back by then.’

‘Don’t you worry. And thanks.’

Once he reached Floor Ten, Rico realized that even this early, a lot of sapients were up and busy on the public floors of East Tower. Service workers shepherded flocks of cleaning bots; security guards prowled; here and there important-looking humans with bodyguards and factors hurried to some meeting or other. Still Rico managed to slip along, stopping to peer into windows or occasionally pretending to check the fastening on his boots, without anyone speaking to him. When he turned down the corridor that housed the museum, he saw no-one there ahead of him.

The current facade of the museum was in fact an installation of its own: an elaborate set of tall steel baffles constructed in long strips and curves. In a programmed pattern, floating power spheres in spectrum calories wandered through the curved grey sheets. Rico thought it was the ugliest piece of art he’d ever seen, but it had its uses. As he walked up, he heard a girl’s voice giggling, just softly, from in among the baffles.

‘Vida?’

‘Over here, yeah. Okay, you win. This is really weird.’

She was sitting on one of the museum’s actual steps in among the work of art’s many pieces. Since he’d last seen her, she’d washed the ruined cosmetics off her face, and her red hair hung down in waves over the huge collar of the green shirt. Faintly she smelled of exotic liquors and perfume. When he wrinkled his nose, she caught the gesture.

‘Sorry,’ Vida said. ‘One of my fiance’s darling friends spilled his drink, and it got all over my shirt.’

‘Wan’s friends are kind of famous around here.’

‘So I’m learning, yeah. Some of them are okay, though. Well, Dan and TeeKay, maybe.’

‘Who?’

‘Dan of Motta and Tina Karin Rommoff, his girlfriend.’

‘Huh. Running around with the aristocrats. Guess you won’t have time for lowly techs like me.’

‘Don’t be stupid, Rico. Or are you joking?’

‘Just joking. Hey, I know who really runs this planet, and it’s not the Upper Council.’

They shared a companionable smile’, and he found himself inching toward her, settling in with his hip touching hers, warm and close beside him. She looked abruptly away.

‘Oh, I need to tell you - my bodyguard’s here, too. He’s just over there, on the other side of the facade. I hope you don’t mind, but I’m kind of scared to go anywhere without him. It’s the gridjockeys.’

‘I can see that, yeah.’ Rico had to admit to himself that he was more than a little disappointed. Still, what had he expected? That she’d fall right into his arms? ‘Can I ask you how you got my call number? It’s supposed to be private.’

‘Really?’ Vida gave him a sly grin. ‘My search utility brought it right up.’

‘Oh come on! I don’t believe that. You’d need a special search and retrieve to get into the comm banks. A ferret is what they’re called.’

‘Well, maybe it is kind of special. I have a meta.’

‘A meta?’ Rico frowned. ‘But you don’t have that kind of access to the Map, or the training. And a ferret is one of the hardest metas ... someone must have made it for you. Who else do you know in the Cyberguild?’

‘No-one. Well, your uncle, but I mean-’

‘Yeah, Hi would never give you a ferret. Hey, you know, you never answered my question about Arno. My cousin.’

‘Didn’t I? Oh. No, I didn’t know him. Why? He didn’t give me the ferret, if that’s what you mean.’ Suddenly her voice edged with ice. ‘Or did you think he’d been to The Close? A customer, maybe?’

‘No, no, nothing like that. Vida, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to insult you. I never thought that.’

She shrugged and looked away. When he risked touching her arm, she pulled it away.

‘I’m sorry,’ Rico said again.

‘Oh, it’s not even you! I just feel so caught, you know? Everyone’s kissing up to me now, but you can practically hear them thinking, the little whore from Pleasure Sect, the little cull.’

‘I never think of you that way. Never.’

‘Really?’ She studied his face for a long silent moment. ‘Well, thank you.’ She sighed and looked away again. ‘I’m not Vida any more, the girl who’s going to be Marked. But I sure don’t feel like a L’Var either. I’ve watched vids of my father, but I never knew him. And my mother well, all I know about her is her name.’

‘Aren’t there police records?’

‘Oh, they wouldn’t show me. I asked, and they read me off a ton of laws and told me to forget about ever asking again. So I went to Sister Romero. She’s handling my marriage contract, you know, and I figured she’d have the police files. She did, but she told me the records were incomplete. She thinks someone’s destroyed part of them. So now I’ll never know.’

‘Oh yeah? Once something’s been on the Map, you’d have to be a master of the guild to really wipe it away. You can deny access, scramble it, or move it, but it’s still going to be there.’

‘So?’

Rico merely grinned. In a moment she caught his meaning.

‘You couldn’t find those records, could you?’ Vida said. ‘Or wait, that’s horrible of me. I never should have asked you. You could get into real trouble, hacking into police files.’

‘Not if they don’t catch me.’

‘This is really selfish of me, but I’m not going to say no.’

They laughed together, and this time when he let his hand touch hers, she let it rest there.

‘Well, tell you what,’ she said. ‘If you look for those records for me, I’ll show you my ferret.’

‘Okay. That’s a bargain. I’ll have to get a little time alone on the Map, without Uncle Hi hanging around, I mean, but it should be pretty easy to find the files and then track down what happened to the missing data.’

‘That would be really great. You can’t imagine how loath this is, wondering what your own mother’s like, wondering where she is. For all I know, she’s dead.’

‘But you don’t know, and so you’ll always wonder till you do know.’

‘Exactly. You really do know how I feel, don’t you?’

‘Well, I can guess. I lost my own father.’

‘Oh! I didn’t know that. I’m sorry.’

‘He was in an accident, a dumb stupid accident, and the med techs couldn’t bring him back. I don’t want to talk about it.’

‘All right. But I’d be glad to listen.’

Vida was looking at him solemnly, so lovely, so kind, that he leaned forward, hesitated, saw her smile, and bent his head to reach for a kiss. From above them came the sharp and ominous sound of a Garang Japat clearing his throat. Rico let go her hand fast and looked up to find Nju’s brother Jak standing on the step above, his arms folded across his chest.

‘Se Vida,’Jak said. ‘You have been up all night. You lack necessary sleep. Doubdess this is clouding your better judgment.’

‘Well, maybe so.’ Vida scrambled to her feet. ‘Jak, I don’t want anyone to know that I met Rico here.’

‘Of course, Se Vida.’ Jak turned golden eyes Rico’s way.

Rico got up, feeling a little sick at how indiscreet they’d been.

‘If anyone asks where Se Vida was at this hour,’ Jak went on, ‘we will say that she lost a scarf, and I suspected you of finding it.’

Rico could only stare. If the Garang would lie for Vida, he must have bonded himself to her in the blood-ritual. You heard about Garang doing so from time to time, but it was an ancient thing and rare.

‘A scarf,’ Rico said at last. ‘Okay, what colour?’

‘Green will do,’ Jak said. ‘You had best hurry, Se Rico. My brother will be worrying over your return, no doubt.’

‘Yeah, he sure will.’ Rico hesitated, glancing at Vida. ‘I’d like to see you again.’

‘Of course.’ She grinned at him. ‘We’ve got a bargain.’

* * *

Vida’s new suite had a Map terminal - every living space in East Tower did - set into an alcove off her bedroom. To those who weren’t coded for it, the alcove stood hidden behind a solid-seeming section of wall, but if the retinal scanner recognized certain segments of your DNA, you could walk right through. When she wanted to evoke Calios, Vida used an extra curtain screen utility as well to insure that Samante, who was coded for the station, would know she was handling private business.

As soon as she returned from the Kaft Museum, Vida called the revenant up. With his usual smile he appeared on the obsidian pillar.

‘Good morning, Veelivar.’

‘Good morning, Calios. Did anyone access my comm while I was gone?’

‘No, Veelivar. However, someone tried to access me just a few minutes ago. The tracer came from a known call number, the one belonging to Rico Hernanes y Jons.’

‘Hah! I’m not surprised. Was he successful?’

‘No, he was not. I have isolated myself from the internal systems of Government House with a membrane.’

‘A membrane? What’s that?’

‘A technical term, Veelivar. A membrane allows the agent instituting it, me in this case, to pass freely out. No other agents, routines, or utilities may pass in.’

‘Good. I don’t want Rico learning anything about you till I’m ready to tell him.’

‘I have been operating on your earlier instructions, given from your station in The Close, in which you said that you wanted no-one to access your data or my executing files. I have installed membranes between this station and the Caliostro AI as well as between this station and the public areas of the Map. I have found your school, medical, and other such records and wrapped them in membranes as well. Finally, I have searched out and destroyed all the data-gathering devices implanted in this suite.’

‘What? You mean snoops and bugs?’

‘Those are the vernacular terms, yes. I sent a large surge of electric current through them. The vernacular term for the result is "fried".’

‘That’s great. Well, if there’s no mail, I should just go to bed.’ She paused, struck by a sudden thought. ‘Calios, do you remember the first time I accessed you?’

‘When you established my meta. Yes.’

‘You called me Veelivar.’

‘This is true.’

‘But I didn’t even know then that I’m a L’Var.’

‘True.’

‘But you knew I was?’

‘I did.’

‘How did you know?’

‘I do not understand your question.’

‘How did you know that I was a L’Var and that my first name begins with V?’

‘I do not understand your question.’

‘What? This is weird. You shone a light in my eyes. Why?’

‘To ascertain your deen type.’

‘After you ascertained the type, you called me Veelivar.’

‘Yes.’

‘What told you to call me that? No, wait, that’s not clear. From where did you get the name, Veelivar?’

‘From ascertaining your deen type.’

‘I know that. But there must have been something more.’

‘I do not understand your question.’

‘Was there a list of names of people who have that deen type?’

‘Yes.’

‘Where was the list?’

‘I do nor understand the word, where, in this context.’