The Prefect (36 page)

‘Sorry, sir,' said the younger of the two guards, ‘but no one's allowed to speak to Prefect Aumonier at the moment.'

‘Why don't you let me be the judge of that?'

‘Not without authorisation from the supreme prefect, sir.'

Dreyfus looked at the kid as if he was being asked to answer a deceptively simple riddle. ‘She is the supreme prefect.'

The young guard looked embarrassed. ‘Not presently, sir. Prefect Baudry is now acting supreme.'

‘On what grounds was Prefect Aumonier removed from her position?' Dreyfus asked disbelievingly.

‘I'm authorised to tell you that the decision was taken on the basis of medical fitness, sir. I thought you'd been informed, but—'

‘I hadn't.' He was trying to keep his fury in check, not wanting to take out his anger on this kid the way he had abused Thyssen earlier. ‘But I still want to talk to Prefect Aumonier.'

‘Prefect Aumonier is in no fit state to talk to anyone,' said a gruff male voice behind Dreyfus. He pushed himself around to see Gaffney floating towards him along the same corridor he'd just traversed. ‘I'm sorry, Field, but that's just the way it is.'

‘Let me talk to Jane.'

Gaffney shook his head, looking genuinely regretful. ‘I hardly need impress on you how precarious her situation is. The last thing she needs right now is someone upsetting her unnecessarily.'

‘Jane isn't going to be the one who's upset if I don't get to see her.'

‘Easy, Field. I know you've had a tough time today. But don't use it as an excuse to lash out at your superiors.'

‘Did you have any part in removing Jane?'

‘She wasn't removed“. She was relieved of the burden of command at a time when it would have been an intolerable imposition for her to have continued.'

In his peripheral vision, Dreyfus saw that the two guards were looking straight ahead with resolutely neutral expressions, pretending that they were not party to this high-level scuffle. Neither man had summoned the senior prefect. Gaffney must have been lurking nearby, Dreyfus thought: waiting until he tried to visit Aumonier.

‘What's your angle here?' Dreyfus asked. ‘Lillian Baudry's a good prefect when it comes to the details, but she doesn't have Jane's grasp of the big picture. You're counting on her making a mistake, aren't you?'

‘Why on Earth would I want Lillian to fail?'

‘Because with Jane out of the picture, you're one step closer to becoming supreme prefect.'

‘I think you've said more than enough. If you had the slightest idea how ludicrous you sound, you'd stop now.'

‘Where's Baudry?'

‘In the tactical room, no doubt. In case it's escaped your attention, a crisis has been brewing while you've been pursuing your own interests.'

Dreyfus spoke into his bracelet. ‘Get me Baudry.'

She answered immediately. ‘Prefect Dreyfus. I was hoping to hear from you before too long.'

‘Let me talk to Jane.'

‘I'm afraid that wouldn't be wise. But would you mind coming up to tactical immediately? There's something we need to discuss.'

Gaffney looked on with a faint smile. ‘I was on my way there before I ran into you. Why don't we go there together?'

Baudry, Crissel and Clearmountain were in attendance when Dreyfus and Gaffney arrived in the tactical room. The seniors were peering at the Solid Orrery from different angles. Dreyfus noticed that four habitats had been pulled out of the swirl of the ten thousand and enlarged until their structures were visible.

Crissel indicated a vacant position. ‘Take a seat, Field Prefect Dreyfus. We were hoping you could explain something to us.'

Dreyfus remained standing. ‘I understand you were part of the lynch mob that removed Jane from power while I was outside.'

‘If you insist on characterising events in those terms, then yes, I was party to that decision. Do you have a problem with it?'

‘Have a guess.'

Crissel stared at him equably, refusing to take the bait. ‘Perhaps you haven't been paying attention, but there have been worrying changes in the state of the scarab, likely harbingers of something medically catastrophic.'

‘I've been paying plenty of attention.'

‘Then you'll know that Demikhov is deeply concerned about Jane's future prognosis. All that thing on her neck is waiting for is a trigger. When her stress hormones float above some arbitrary level, it's going to snip her spine in two, or blow her to pieces.'

‘Right,' Dreyfus said, as if he was seeing something clearly for the first time. 'And you think removing her from office is the key to lowering her stress levels?'

‘She's in the safest therapeutic regime we can devise. And when this is over, when the crisis is averted, we'll look into a strategy for returning Jane to at least some level of functional responsibility.'

‘Is that what you told her? Or did you lie and say she could have her old job back when things have blown over?'

‘We don't have time for this,' Gaffney purred, the first time he had spoken since their mutual arrival. He'd taken a seat next to Lillian Baudry. His hands rested on the table, the fingers of one caressing the clenched fist of the other. 'Take a look at the Solid Orrery, Field.'

‘I've seen it, thanks. It's very pretty.'

‘Take a better look. Those four habitats - ring any bells?'

‘I don't know.' Dreyfus smiled sarcastically. ‘What about you, Senior Prefect Gaffney?'

‘Let me spell it out for you. You're looking at New Seattle-Tacoma, Chevelure-Sambuke, Szlumper Oneill and House Aubusson. The four habitats Thalia Ng was scheduled to visit and upgrade.'

Dreyfus felt some of his certainty evaporate. ‘Go on.'

‘As of just over six hours ago, all four habitats have been unreachable. They've dropped off abstraction.' Gaffney scrutinised Dreyfus's reaction and nodded, as if to emphasize that matters were exactly as grave as they sounded. ‘All four habitats dropped off the net within sixty milliseconds of each other. That's comfortably inside the light-crossing time for the Glitter Band, implying a pre-planned, coordinated event.'

‘You've always vouched for Thalia Ng,' Crissel said. ‘Her promotion to field was fast-tracked on your recommendation. Beginning to look like a mistake now, isn't it?'

‘I still have total faith in her.'

‘Touching, undoubtedly, but the fact is she's visited four habitats and now they've all fallen silent. All she had to do was make a series of minor polling core upgrades. At the very least, doesn't that suggest procedural incompetence?'

‘Not from where I'm standing.'

‘What, then?' Crissel asked, fascinated.

‘I think it's possible...' But Dreyfus tailed off, feeling a sudden reluctance to state his theory openly. The seniors regarded him with stony-faced indifference. 'The deep-system cruiser that rescued us - is it still flight-ready?' he asked.

Baudry spoke now. ‘Why do you ask?'

‘Because the one way to settle this is to pay a visit to Aubusson. That's where Thalia was due last. If one of my deputies is in trouble, I'd like to know about it.'

‘You've done enough gallivanting around for now,' Gaffney said. ‘We're in a state of emergency, in case you hadn't noticed.'

Baudry coughed gently. ‘Let's deal with the other matter, shall we? And please - sit down.'

‘What matter would that be?' asked Dreyfus with exaggerated civility. But he took his seat as Baudry had requested.

‘You brought a Conjoiner into Panoply, in express contravention of protocol.'

Dreyfus shrugged. ‘Protocol can take a hike.'

‘She can read our goddamn machines, Tom.' Baudry looked to the others for support. ‘She's a walking surveillance system. Every operational secret in our core is hers for the taking, and you let her stroll into Panoply without even putting a Faraday cage around her skull.'

Dreyfus leaned closer. ‘Isn't it written down somewhere that we look after victims and go after criminals?'

Crissel looked exasperated. ‘We're not the law-enforcement agency you seem to think we are, Tom. We're here to ensure that the democratic apparatus functions smoothly. We're here to punish fraudulent voting. That's it.'

‘My personal remit extends further than that, but you're welcome to yours.'

‘Let's focus on the matter at hand - the Conjoiner woman,' Baudry said insistently. ‘She may already have done incalculable harm in the short time she's been inside Panoply. That can't be helped now. What we can do is make sure that she doesn't do any more damage.'

‘Do you want me to throw her into space, or will you do it?'

‘Let's be adult about this, shall we?' Crissel said. ‘If the Spi- if the Conjoiner woman is a witness, then naturally she must be protected. But not at the expense of our operational secrets. She must be moved to a maximum-security holding facility.'

‘You mean an interrogation bubble.'

Crissel looked pained. ‘Call it what you like. She'll be safer there. More importantly, so will we.'

‘She'll be moved when Mercier says she's well enough,' Dreyfus said.

‘Is she breathing?' When Dreyfus said nothing, Crissel looked satisfied. ‘Then she's well enough to be moved. She isn't going to die on us, Tom. She's a survival machine. The human equivalent of a scorpion.'

‘Or a spider,' Dreyfus said.

There was a gentle tap on the main doors. Crissel's eyes flashed angrily to the widening gap. A low-ranking operative - a girl barely out of her teens, with a pageboy haircut - entered the room timidly. ‘Pardon, Seniors, but I was asked to bring this to your attention.'

‘It'd better be good,' Crissel said.

‘CTC contacted us, sirs. They say they're picking up reports about House Aubusson and the Chevelure-Sambuke Hourglass.'

‘They're off the network. Yes. We know.'

‘It's more than that, sir.' The girl placed the compad on the table, next to Gaffney. He picked it up by one corner, inhaling slowly as he digested its message. Without a word he slid it to Crissel. He glanced at it, glanced again, then passed the compad to Baudry. She read it, her lips moving slowly as she did so, as if she needed the sound of her own voice to lend the report a degree of reality.

Then she slid the compad over to Dreyfus.

‘He doesn't have authority,' Crissel said.

‘His deputy's inside Aubusson. He needs to see this.'

Dreyfus took the compad and read it for himself. His Pangolin boost was fading and it took more than the usual effort to read the words. At first he was convinced that he had made a mistake, despite the fears he was, already nursing.

But there had been no error.

Two separate but similar incidents had occurred, within a few minutes of each other. One ship had been on final approach for docking at the Chevelure-Sambuke Hourglass when it was fired on by the habitat with what appeared to be normal anti-collision defences. The ship had sustained a near-fatal hull breach, too large to be patched by the intervention of quickmatter repair systems. The ship had abandoned its docking approach and put out an emergency distress signal, to which CTC had responded by redirecting two nearby vessels. The crew of the damaged ship had all survived, albeit with decompression injuries.

The second ship, on an approach to House Aubusson, had been less fortunate. The anti-collision defences had gored it open in an instant, spilling air and life into space. Its crew had died with merciful speed, but the ship itself had retained enough sentience to put out its own distress signal. CTC had again directed passing traffic to offer assistance, but this time there was nothing that could be done to save the victims.

All this had happened within the last eighteen minutes.

‘I think we can safely rule out coincidence,' Dreyfus said, placing the compad back on the table.

‘What are we dealing with?' Baudry asked with rigid composure. ‘A systemic defence-system malfunction triggered by the loss of abstraction? Could that be the answer?'

‘Everything I know about defence systems says that they can't malfunction in this way,' Crissel said.

‘Yet it rather looks as if someone doesn't want anyone coming or going from those habitats,' Gaffney observed, reading the CTC report again.

‘And the other two?' Baudry asked. ‘What about those?'

‘They're isolationist,' Dreyfus said. ‘New Seattle-Tacoma is a haven for people who want their brains plugged into abstraction and don't care what happens to their physical bodies. Szlumper Oneill is a Voluntary Tyranny gone sour. Either way, neither's going to see much in- or outgoing traffic on a given day.'

‘He's right,' Crissel said, favouring Dreyfus with a conciliatory nod. He turned to the still-waiting operative. ‘You're still in contact with CTC?' Without waiting for an answer or conferring with the other seniors, he continued, ‘Have them identify four unmanned cargo drones currently passing near the four habitats. Then put them on normal docking trajectories, just as if they were on scheduled approaches. If these were malfunctions, then someone inside may have had time to disable the anti-collision systems by now. If they weren't, we'll have confirmation that we're not dealing with one-off incidents.'

‘There'll be hell to pay,' Gaffney said, shaking his head. ‘Whatever those cargo drones are hauling, someone owns it.'

‘Then I hope they have good insurance,' Crissel replied tersely. ‘CTC has the right to requisition any civilian traffic moving inside the Glitter Band, manned or otherwise. Just because that clause hasn't been invoked in a century or so doesn't mean it isn't still valid.'