Palace (9 page)

When Se Hivel turned to the madam and raised an eyebrow, Aleen took his cue; she stood up and gestured at Vida.

‘Come into my office for a moment, Vida. I want to show you the legal certificates about your birth. Then I’ll seal off this room so you can wait here, while I do some hard thinking.’

‘Wait, Madam?’

‘Se Hivel is providing us with a bodyguard for you.’

‘A bodyguard? I don’t need - well, yeah, I guess I do.’

‘You learn fast,’ Se Hivel said.

‘Thank you, Se. And thank you for the bodyguard, too.’ As Vida followed Aleen into the dim fastness of her office, she found herself remembering the festival day behind her. For the first time in her life she hated her eidetic memory. Try as she might, she could not banish the image of Brother Lennos, smiling at her.

As soon as Aleen shut the door behind her, Arno walked out of the washroom. The flesh side of his face was grinning.

‘A L’Var,’ Arno said. ‘A real live L’Var! Famous genotype and all.’

‘Yeah, yeah, but don’t get carried away. A lot of what you hear about the L’Var genotype is just plain crap.’

‘Ah come on, Dad. Are you trying to tell me that they didn’t have mysterious secret powers?’

‘A race of cybersorcerers? No. I actually heard them called that once on the newsfeed.’

‘But their genes were engineered to do something. They were the original cybers, weren’t they?’

‘Sure were. That was a long time ago though. Who knows now?’ Hi shrugged. ‘It’s interesting, yeah. I’m not sure how significant she is.’

‘Significant enough for Riva to want to kill her.’

‘True.’ Hi mimicked Aleen’s crisp tone. ‘True, Se Arno. What do you think about the revenant?’

‘There are plenty of records of just that kind of rev. They set up Map access for citizens, helped people make comm connections, all the things a Maprunner does now. Nothing out of the ordinary.’

‘None of them has functioned since the Schism Wars. I checked while I was jacked in. Their access sockets were sabotaged.’

‘What? Why?’

‘One of the factions saw them as an insult to God the Creator. They looked like sapients, they spoke, they seemed to think like sapients - blasphemy, is what they called it.’

‘What a load.’ Arno shrugged. ‘So at least one survived, huh? We should look into this.’

‘I intend to as soon as I can. But what counts now is getting you hidden.’

‘I’d better be out of sight when Nju Tok gets here, that’s for sure.’

‘I wish to God that the Garang would lie! Just once in a while, just every now and then like now. But you might as well try to drain the damn swamps as get them to.’

‘Well, if I headed for the Spaceport with a Garang bodyguard, I might as well buy time on the screens and advertise. Or walk along shouting my name.’

They headed for the lift booth in silence, spoke no more on the way down to the third floor, a warren of tiny rooms for saccules and other servants. The room where Arno would hide stood down at the end of a hall and round a corner. A pallet on the floor with shabby blankets, a washstand - but Aleen had dug up a portable jack from somewhere and a box of what looked like odd spare parts. Hi slipped the blackbox out of his pocket: it was working just fine. Arno knelt down and began poking through the box of tri-stil and metal oddments.

‘You know, I think I can actually piece together some kind of access from this stuff,’ Arno said. ‘Amazing. I can get into the areas I need, anyway. I don’t want to just use Aleen’s listed Mapstation to get myself a false name and a ticket off planet.’

‘Yeah, don’t,’ Hi said. ‘And remember, give me a few days before you hit the street. Let’s let the Protectors earn their salaries.’

‘That’s true, but the longer I stay here, the more likely it is that he’ll find me.’

‘If he’s been arrested he won’t be finding anyone.’

‘Well, yeah, but-’

‘Look, patience has never been one of your virtues. We both know that. How about giving it a try this time?’

‘Sure, Dad. Don’t worry. Besides, maybe even if they don’t arrest him, they can keep him busy while I get off planet.’

‘Good thought. So it’s come to this, has it? I’m sorry, son, really sorry. I never thought I’d be sending you into exile.’

Arno shrugged and got up to glance round the shabby room. It was all an adventure to him, Hi supposed, whether tracking a rogue cybermaster on the Map or pretending to be a drug addict, living in the steamy corners of Pleasure Sect while all the time he was a secret agent for the Cyberguild - and now this, running for his life under an assumed name and a new identity. Hi sighed, remembering what it felt like to be young and believe yourself immortal.

‘Where are you going? Or should I even ask?’

‘Souk. I don’t want to say more than that, but they always need cybers on Souk.’

‘Good. Sell out the whole guild if you need to.’

Arno laughed, aiming a fake punch at his father’s shoulder.

‘Thanks, Dad. A parting gift, huh? Look, you’d better get out of here. Remember what I said about Rico, okay? He’s the only cybe we’ve got who can do what I can do.’

‘His mother would kill me if I sent him underground.’

‘Don’t, then. Going underground didn’t do me a damn bit of good, did it? Why waste your time? They’ll only be looking for it again. Hide him in plain sight, and Riva will look somewhere else for your agent.’

‘Yeah. Yeah, that’s true.’ Hi hesitated, glancing at a tiny window. Outside, the festival noise swept down the street like a river. ‘Well, look. I’ll get back here tomorrow. You can give me the details on what you found then. Okay?’

‘Okay. I’m not going anywhere tonight, that’s for sure.’

Hi opened the door and stepped out, but he stood for a moment with his hand on the edge of it and looked back.

‘Hey, Dad?’ Arno said, still grinning. ‘Wish me luck,’

‘Luck,’ Hi whispered. ‘Lots of it.’

Hi closed the door behind him and strode off, heading for the lift booth. How could he do this? How could he let his own son go off into exile, let him run the risks he’d run already? It was for the sake of the Map, he reminded himself. At the moment he could trust no-one but his own son. The Map was what he’d sworn to protect at any and all costs, the Map that kept Palace - hell, that kept the entire Pinch - up and running. Without the Map all the technology and knowledge that made the citizens of the Pinch civilized would disappear like a display from a dying screen. Since the colonial days, they’d lost too much knowledge already, thanks to wars and other disasters. They couldn’t afford to lose any more. And now some rogue cyber, someone who had to be a master at his craft, was subverting the Map, just a detail here and there. So far. Hi had no idea of what this dangerous idiot hoped to accomplish. Finding out what was part of his job; searching him out and stopping him cold was the rest. Tangled up with the hunt was another problem: Riva, who’d been using the Map illegally for years now despite the guild’s efforts to catch and identify her. This time she’s gone too far, Hi thought. I can bring in all kinds of police agencies now, if she’s using guided revs to hire murderers.

The lift booth delivered him straight to the kitchen, where two Stinkers scrubbed pans while a cleaning bot scrubbed walls. Hi found himself wondering if the Colonizers had needed slaves with flesh and blood hands to clean up after them. He doubted it. As he stepped into the hall, he could hear laughter and music from the gardens of the Pause. All these people depended on the Cyber-guild - they depended on him - to keep their lives safe and decent. He did his best to remember that always. At the entrance to the Pause he glanced out and saw Rico, sitting on the grass with Lera. Lying on the grass in front of him was an enormous plate of food, which Rico was eating his way through while she chattered at him. Rico looked a little shell-shocked, but he’d recover. Grinning, Hi walked on.

‘Se Hivel!’ Tia came trotting down the hall. ‘Se Hivel, wait!’ Hi stopped, still smiling a little, and let the panting Tia catch up to him.

‘There’s two Garang at the front door,’ she said. ‘They insist you summoned them.’

‘I sure did. Thanks.’

Out on the gravelled walk Nju Tok, dressed in the midnight blue uniform of the Cyberguild’s employees, stood waiting, his arms crossed over his chest while he scowled at the elaborate architecture of The Close. With him, also scowling, stood a taller, thinner version of Nju, but this Garang was wearing a nondescript green pullover and a pair of grey trousers. In the artificial light their golden fur gleamed like metal.

‘Jak.’ Nju jerked a thumb at his brother.

‘Pleased to meet you, Jak.’ Hi shook hands briefly. ‘We’ll have to get you a uniform. The Cyberguild will be paying for this temporary job.’

‘Se Hivel!’ Nju interrupted before his brother could speak. ‘Have you repented of your earlier foolishness?’

‘Yes, Nju. I’ve repented mightily.’

‘Good. The next time you come here to waste your time upon unmanly activities, will I accompany you?’

‘Yeah, you sure will.’

‘Good. Then let us enter and see the child of whom you told me.’

They found Vida up in Aleen’s public bedroom. Curled up in the formfit, she was watching the news on a vidscreen that had appeared among the icy wastes of Tableau. The two Garang nodded in her direction, then stood staring at holo images from the day’s Centre Council meeting while Vida sat up straight and stared at them. She looked remarkably self-possessed, Hi decided, for what she’d just been through. The girl had guts, but then, all the L’Vars had, when there still had been L’Vars. ‘Where’s Aleen?’

‘In her office making a closed comm link. She said she wanted to call Cardinal Roha.’

‘Roha?
The
Cardinal Roha?’

‘Se Hivel,’ Nju said. ‘There can only be one such personage.’

‘Yeah, I know, I know. Did she say anything else, Vida?’

‘No, Se Hivel. There’s a lot of stuff I just don’t understand.’

‘Yeah, I’ll bet.’ Cardinal Roha? Why would a madam be calling the highest-ranking prelate on the planet? Why, for God’s sake, would he be taking her call? ‘Well, she’ll tell us what she wants us to know and not one thing more.’

‘Exactly right.’ Aleen walked out of the holo of the garden. ‘So. This is Nju Tok’s brother?’

Both Garang swirled round and bowed to her, a gesture she acknowledged with a nod. When she flicked her hand in Vida’s direction, the girl rose and mimicked her nod.

‘So,’ Nju said. ‘This is Se Vida?’

‘Yeah, it sure is,’ Hi said. ‘Jak, her life is very important to a lot of people.’

Jak stood between Hi and Vida, glancing this way and that in confusion, until Nju spoke a few words in their language. Then he smiled, if you could call the thin twitch of a Garang mouth a smile, and knelt at Hi’s feet. Hi put his right hand on Jak’s softly-furred head.

‘There shall be a contract between us,’ Hi said. ‘The guild pledges your wages and support for as long as Se Vida needs you.’

‘And I in turn pledge my life. Should an enemy get past me and harm this girl, and I still live, then I will live only a short while longer.’

‘I witness,’ Nju said. ‘Madama Aleen?’

‘I witness as well.’ Aleen turned to Vida. ‘You must never leave your room without Jak. Do you understand me?’

‘Yes, Madam. I do.’

Vida stood looking at her temporary guard with an expression Hi couldn’t read bewilderment, certainly, at the events of this day, but some tougher feeling as well lay in her eyes. As he studied her, the red hair of course, but also the shape of her finely modelled jaw, her wide-set green eyes, and her small, tightly set ears, he wondered why he hadn’t realized a long time ago that she was a L’Var. That genotype had been one of the best-maintained in the Pinch, and it seemed to breed true in all aspects. He hadn’t realized it because it had never crossed his mind that such a thing was possible, he supposed. From now on, he’d better keep reminding himself that in this dangerous game he and the rogue cybermaster were playing, nothing was too improbable to be true.

By the time Uncle Hi came to fetch him from the Pause, Rico was lying on the grass, half-asleep and yawning, with his head in Lera’s naked lap. He had never felt so good in his life, he decided, as he felt right then. Not even the sight of a scowling Nju Tok could ruin his mood. How the Garang Japat could think that sex was something unmanly lay beyond his reckoning. He sat up, gave Lera a last kiss, then got to his feet and stretched.

‘Hail, Nju!’ he said. ‘So you caught up with us, huh?’

‘Your uncle caught up with his senses, Se Rico. Shall we leave this place of foolishness?’

‘Sure,’ Hi said. ‘I hope we’ll be able to get a cab back to the hotel. It’s not a short walk for these old bones.’

‘If Se Hivel is weary, then I shall carry him.’

‘No, no, no, not that weary. Besjdes, I need you to keep your eyes open. We may have an enemy in Pleasure.’

Nju smiled and ‘flexed his long fingers. Steel claws slid from hidden implant sheaths, ready. For a long while the three of them stood at the gates of The Close with one of the uniformed guards, while the other hovered on the kerb outside, flicking the switch on his hand-held call box. In ordinary times a robocab would have made its way to them in minutes, but not tonight, not during festival. Rico took the chance to walk down to the end of the wall and look up - sure enough, someone had already scrubbed away the racist graffiti. UJU. What did the acronym mean, anyway? No-one knew.

Rico walked back and stood watching the flow of celebrating sapients clogging the streets, humans, Leps, the occasional Hirrel, most of them laughing in whatever way their race had of showing mirth, some singing or dancing down the street to music only they could hear. Every once in a while, though, Rico saw a sapient, usually human, taking out a mean drunk on a saccule servant with their hands or a vinyl strap while the Stinker cowered and squealed. Rico would have liked to have intervened, but he knew from glowing up on Palace that such compassion would only mean a worse beating for the saccule later. Once a cab finally arrived, the ride seemed interminable, since the unit had to practically inch its way through the mobbed streets. By the time they reached the hotel Rico drowsed. Yawning, rubbing his eyes, he followed his uncle blindly into the vast echoing lobby, all inlaid tile and marble, dimly lit here so close to dawn. Over a vast floral display a vidscreen hung, glowing with a collage of images from the festival. Hi hiked up his robes and began searching his trouser pockets for their lift booth keycard.