The Credulity Nexus (27 page)

-oOo-

“
So, tell me about the mysterious Mr.
Drew.”

Maria eyed the
big policeman nervously. “Why can't I see a lawyer?” she asked.

Lieutenant
Lincoln Eugene Burleigh beamed reassuringly. “You are in no need of
one, I assure you, madam. I just want to ask you a few questions
about your ex-husband.”

“
Am I under arrest?” She looked around at
the room she was in. It was sparsely furnished, but not
uncomfortable. It looked more like someone's living room than a
police interview room.

“
You are a guest in my home, Ms. Dunlop.”
The man made an expansive gesture that included a sofa and a couple
of armchairs, a few picture frames on the walls which rotated
through a small collection of Twentieth Century cowboy film
posters, and a set of shelves without much on them.

“
Why?” Maria asked. She tried not to move
in her chair. In the lunar gravity, it felt as if she might bounce
herself right out of it at any moment.

Burleigh
smiled and put down the two cups of coffee he had fetched from the
little kitchen. He settled himself into one of the armchairs.
“That, if I may say so, is an excellent question. The thing is,
Maria – may I call you Maria? The thing is, if I hadn't brought you
here, we'd have had to go to the UNPF office for our chat. And if
we'd done that, those two gentlemen from the CIA would have started
asking questions.”

Maria's
general sense of alarm ratcheted itself up a notch. “Why is the CIA
interested in me?”

Burleigh
shrugged. “Who knows? But probably for the same reason I'm
interested in you, Maria; because of your ex-husband, the famous
Rik Sylver 1 Drew.”

Maria felt
despair wash over her. The UN cops and now the CIA, too. Did they
know she had the package? No-one had asked her about it. No-one had
tried to search her. If only she had-

Then the
policeman's words struck her.

“
One? Sylver 1 Drew?”

Burleigh was
watching her every reaction with minute interest. “Yes, unless it's
just plain Rik Sylver again. I'm afraid both his wives were killed
in a gunfight several days ago.” His face suddenly hardened. “The
people who shot them were also looking for your ex-husband. As were
the people who shot Blake Bonomi and his wife.”

“
Blake? And Brie? They're...?”

“
Mr Bonomi is in intensive care. His wife
was only slightly wounded, and is in FBI protective
custody.”

“
Oh my God.” Along with her former
boyfriend, that made three people dead and two wounded. What on
Earth was going on?

“
I have orders to arrest Rik and hand him
over to the CIA, Maria. Before I do that, I want to know what is
going on and why he has become such a dangerous man to
know.”

“
I–” She thought about telling him about
the package. There was something reassuring about the big cop. He
seemed like a good man, someone she could probably trust. Yet she
daren't do anything that might upset Rik's plans, whatever they
might be, even though he seemed to be in as much trouble as one man
could stir up.

“
I don't know anything,” she said,
instantly regretting it. Only people who knew something said they
didn't know anything. She blushed, certain the big man could see
right through her. “I came here to look for Rik. When I saw them
kill David, I just panicked and ran. I've been running for days
now.”

“
David was the man you lived with, yes? And
who did you see kill him?”

Maria shook
her head. What was she saying? “I didn't see anyone. I just saw
flashes at the window, like gunshots.”

“
And yet you didn't go to the police. You
just took off and came here.” Maria said nothing, so Burleigh went
on. “That would explain it, I suppose.”

“
Explain what?”

“
It would explain why, when I found your
name as a known associate of Mr. Drew's, you were already flagged
as a person of interest. You are wanted for questioning by the
FBI.” He let Maria absorb that for a moment. “Do you think there's
a single police agency this side of Saturn that isn't looking for
you or your ex?”

Her need to
get out of there was like a physical itch. She squirmed under it.
“Are you going to turn me over?”

“
Are you going to stop fooling around and
start answering my questions?”

“
Look, I don't know what any of this is
about. I really don't.” It wasn't quite a lie. “All I know is that
Rik was on Earth. He came to see me – something he hasn't done for
nearly two years. He seemed upset. The next thing I know, he's gone
missing, and somebody has murdered my boyfriend.”

“
You think Rik did it?”

“
What?” The idea was so preposterous it
hadn't even occurred to her. “No! Rik wouldn't hurt
anybody.”

The big
policeman nodded. “Yet your neighbour says she saw someone fitting
Rik’s description throw your boyfriend to the ground and nearly
break his arm.”

Maria's temper was finally kicking in.
“Did the nosy cow also say that David was getting heavy with Rik,
and he was only defending himself? And did she say where
she
was when armed men arrived at
my house, broke in, killed David and then waited to kill
me?”

Burleigh
smiled. “Nope. The good lady must have been taking a nap.”

A silence
fell.

“
So you're looking for Rik too?” the
Lieutenant asked.

“
I wanted to find out what was going on.”
It sounded feeble, so she threw in a bit of truth. “I wanted to get
this sorted – whatever it is – so I could get my life back. So I
could go home without anybody trying to shoot me.”

“
Well, he's not here.” His tone was
regretful, but his eyes were still watching every nuance of Maria's
expression. Maria supposed she must have looked as surprised as she
felt.

“
But he has to be here!”

“
Really? Why's that?”

“
Just... Because I need him, that's why.
Someone tried to kill me. People I know are dead. I'm
scared.”

And she was,
no doubt about it.

“
Why would Rik be in the company of a
British spy, Maria?”

“
A what?”

“
An MI6 field agent called Fariba Freymann.
They entered the US together a few days ago under false identities.
A short time later, they were involved in a firefight with FBI
agents at the Cedars-Sinai hospital in LA, possibly in the company
of an unidentified upload and two hired guns. Three FBI agents
dead, four wounded. The gunmen, by the way, are known felons with
ties to the Chicago Mob. Both are now deceased. After that, Rik and
the upload appear to have left the country together, present
whereabouts unknown.”

Maria's head
was spinning. This was all way too much for her to handle on her
own. FBI agents dead, gangsters and zombies... She felt the slight
weight of the package in her pocket as if it was a house brick.

She stood up,
too quickly. Her feet left the ground, and for a moment she was
off-balance and flailing. But Burleigh was there to steady her and
save her from falling. She gave him a quick smile of thanks and
took a deep breath. Then she reached into her pocket for the metal
box.

“
I think I might know what this is all
about,” she said. “At least, what's at the root of it.”

A voice from
the doorway made her jump. “You can tell me all about it later,
honey.”

“
Kirsty?”

The woman
didn't seem quite as old as she had before. What had looked like
fragility and infirmity now looked like a wiry slenderness. The
biggest change in Maria's erstwhile travelling companion, however,
was not her improved posture, nor the change of hairstyle and
clothing. It was the small-calibre dart gun she held in her right
hand. The one that was pointing at Lieutenant Burleigh's chest.

Burleigh
looked at the woman sadly and shook his head. “Another day in the
wild, wild West,” he said cryptically.

Peth kicked
furiously at the wreckage that had once been her living room. “That
was a stupid, dangerous risk!” she shouted.

Newton Cordell
looked at the damage around him, and then at his wife. “It was
worth it. You saw how far they were prepared to go?”

“
I saw, all right! They're maniacs.
Insane!”

“
The stakes are very high.” He held out a
hand for his wife to steady herself, but she refused it. He smiled
and walked across the room, showing no sign of infirmity or
weakness. He shook his head in amazement. “I have to say, I didn't
expect them to attack with missiles. This is an excellent
sign.”

Peth clearly
did not believe there was anything excellent about the situation.
“We only just made it to the panic room. Thirty seconds more and
we'd have been in here.” She waved an arm at the rubble all
around.

“
But we weren't!” Cordell snapped. “We're
safe. And now the ghosts have got Drew back, and the plan is
unfolding exactly as it should. Come on, there's a helicopter
waiting to take us to New York. I want to be on hand to make
statements to the media when the big news breaks.”

Peth glared at
him. “This damned stupid scheme of yours has put my life in danger
twice now.”

“
It was a miscalculation. They're even more
paranoid than I thought. Don't worry. It's all over now, bar the
victory celebrations.”

“
It better be worth it,” she said. Her
teeth were clenched and hands were trembling.

Cordell looked
at her with compassion at last. “I'm sorry, Peth. I really am. Come
on, we'll do something nice in New York, just for you. A trip to
Cartier, perhaps? A little party? We'll invite that actor you like
so much, and she can fawn over you all evening again.”

Peth pouted.
“I'm going to sleep with her this time,” she said. Her tone had a
hint of challenge in it.

“
Of course, my darling. After what you've
been through, you deserve it.”

“
And a trip to Cartier.”

“
Anything.”

She joined
him, and together they picked their way through the wreckage
towards the helipads.

Much later, as
they flew over the desert, heading north, she said, “They're all
going to die, aren't they? You'll make sure of it?” Her face was
set and hard.

Cordell
reached across and patted his wife's hand. “Don't worry. It won't
be long now.”

-oOo-

The scramjet
had been waiting for them on the runway at Guadalajara spaceport,
fuelled and ready. Customs and air traffic control had been no
problem at all. Rik assumed a great deal of money had changed
hands.

“
Holy crap!” Freymann complained through
gritted teeth, as the jet pushed them at high-G towards Mach
fifteen.

Rik turned his
head slowly and carefully, to look at her in the padded seat next
to him. Through the cabin windows beyond, he could see the slope of
the horizon. His stomach tensed at the sight. His body was telling
him they were blasting straight up into the sky, yet his eyes
insisted they were on a shallow ascent.

“
Just wait 'till the rocket engine kicks
in,” he said. “Then we really start accelerating.”

“
You're just trying to make me feel
better.”

“
How's the head?” Freymann had a large
bruise forming on her temple where the Barbie had struck her. Ever
since the chopper picked them up, she had been quiet and a little
dazed, her light olive skin pale and moist.

“
Not as bad as my stomach.”

“
It won't be long.”

She closed her
eyes and nodded, looking as though she might be sick.

“
You ever been in space before?” he asked,
using his cogplus to call for the robot steward.

With her eyes
still closed, she nodded.

The little
machine rolled down the aisle on its rail, and Rik took a packet of
Spacer's Friend lozenges from it. “You'd better suck one of these,”
he told her. “It'll settle your stomach and you won't get
space-sick.”

“
I think I was better off in Cordell's
little prison.”

“
I think you've got a mild concussion.” At
least, he hoped it was mild. “There's a medic on the ship. She'll
fix you up.” He took her hand in his and she squeezed
it.

“
Thank you,” she said. She kept her eyes
closed but a small smile touched her lips.

A surge of
affection filled him. He felt the smile draw him towards her. “When
this is over, I'm taking you somewhere nice. There's a Cajun place
in Heinlein, on Level Three. I owe you at least a decent meal for
all this.”

“
Do you always ask girls out when they're
concussed?”

“
It's the only way I can get a
date.”

“
Ask me again when I don't look so
crap.”

“
You look beautiful,” he said. Partly it
was a lie, but it was also the truth.

She opened her
eyes at last and looked straight at him. Her smile was gone. “No, I
look crap. I look like I just fought a killer robot and lost. I
look like a poor, sad, wounded animal that needs looking after. And
it's making you feel all protective and manly again. Well, that's
fine, and – Christ knows – I could do with some pampering. But I'm
not playing that game with you, Rik.