"Brun headed the ITE customs office in Baltimor, " Coren said. "But…"
"Ghost connections," Wenithal said. "Implications, suggestions, hints-nothing solid. Except that Brun is dead." He stared down at his coffee, eyes narrowed.
"Nyom had nothing to do with any of them," Coren said.
"But her father did," Ariel said. "Maybe Nyom's mystery brother did, too."
"Oh, definitely," Wenithal said.
Coren looked at him. "When I told you Nyom had died, you said something about 'both of them now: What did you mean?"
Wenithal scowled. "You heard that?"
"I cheat a lot," Coren said. "You're not denying it. What did you mean?"
"Rega Looms did have a child before Nyom. A son. A very sick son. A UPD."
"I've heard that abbreviation before," Ariel said, "but I've never been clear on what it means."
"Untreatable Physiological Dysfunction," Coren said.
"I know what it stands for. But what's untreatable? Even if Terran medicine can't deal with something, we have some agreements covering humanitarian aid. Spacer medicine is-"
"Unable to deal with these," Wenithal said. "I'm not clear myself on what they are, but some of them are horrible. Most are just chronically debilitating illnesses; a good portion of them are transmissible. The only recourse is quarantine. Looms' first child contracted one when he was barely a year old."
"So it was institutionalized?"
"Had to be. The law. And it died shortly thereafter. I imagine it crushed him. It would me."
"How did you come to know about it?" Coren asked.
"Rega Looms was one of the principle investors in Nova Levis," Wenithal explained. "A research firm established to take advantage of some of the first influxes of Spacer med tech. Everyone thought it would take off on the market, but it didn't do well the first couple of years. Then, suddenly, it had almost unlimited cash flow."
"Black market?" Ariel asked.
"Worse. It turned out to be the main channel for all those missing babies. We shut it down."
"That's not what the record says," Coren pointed out. "Nova Levis was cleared and operated long after your investigation. "
"The record often disagrees with reality," Wenithal said. "The truth was that too many important people had invested in it and too many of them had embarrassing connections with it. Very simple: We turned off the pipeline, told the public it was clear, and then put it on the market. We disassembled it without harming any of the major shareholders."
"That must have been an impressive list of shareholders, " Ariel said.
"Oh, it was! You'd be shocked."
"Looms divested early, though," Coren said. "Quite some time before it closed."
"I think he did it out of extreme disappointment. They couldn't cure his child, so he wanted nothing to do with it. I can't imagine how he must feel right now."
"Why did you retire after all that?" Coren asked.
"Because I wasn't finished and they weren't going to let me finish. I traced the kidnappings to Nova Levis, but they were going somewhere. I thought it had to be offworld. To save those prominent citizens' reputations, I was not allowed to follow the leads. I was feted, medaled, and promoted-and basically told to drop it. It ate at me till I couldn't stand it anymore. I presented an ultimatum: either I'm allowed to pursue the case or I quit." He raised his hands, palms up, and let them fall.
"You didn't try to look into it yourself?"
"Not very aggressively. I was already known to those involved. I knew I wouldn't be very effective." Wenithal shook his head. "No, this was the only way: wait for someone new, with no attachments to the old case. We couldn't go looking for anyone because that might set off alarms in all the wrong places. "
Coren turned all this over in his mind. It sounded just a bit glib, rehearsed, but that did not make it less true. To be sure, Ree Wenithal had been living with this for a long time. In his place, Coren believed he might have it well worked out by now.
But Coren found it unconvincing. It did not explain Wenithal's connection to Brun Damik, or why Damik would go to Wenithal after Coren confronted him.
"Where was Nova Levis?" he asked.
"Hmm? Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, one of the undine enclaves. Um…Teluk Tolo, Indones Sector."
"Maybe it would be worthwhile to take another look at it," Coren said.
"It's gone. There's nothing there anymore, just a shell. It was all sold off. I think it was converted to a processing plant for raw materials or something."
"You won't mind if we try, will you?"
Wenithal sneered. "Don't be sarcastic. I'm doing you a favor telling you any of this."
"Of course," Coren said. "You're such a model citizen. If I had more time I'd be more polite about it."
"Mr. Wenithal, " Ariel cut in, frowning at Coren, "you're expecting trouble. Have you been followed?"
"Not that I know of, but they killed Brun. I'm next, logically. What would you think?"
"I think you should move somewhere safer."
"And where might that be?"
"The Auroran embassy. I don't think you can be gotten to there."
"You think?"
"I don't know what exactly we're up against. Do you want me to lie and guarantee your safety?"
"We wouldn't want you to do that. " Wenithal shook his head. "I've never run from a fight. Besides, it might look odd."
"You'd look very odd crushed to death," Coren said.
"Crushed?"
"Judging from the victims we've seen, it looks like crushing is the favored method."
Wenithal considered that and shuddered. "I've never been to the Auroran embassy." He shrugged. "If it would put your minds at ease…"
"I could always leave you here with Jeta," Coren said then.
Wenithal frowned at him.
"How long have you known her?" Coren asked.
"I don't-"
"Stop it. She didn't follow me here. She came to see you."
Wenithal laughed. "Why would a data troll want to see me?"
"I can't think of a single reason. But she's not a data troll. You were waiting for someone to show up tonight, someone you thought might kill you. So far, we've shown up, and Jeta Fromm has shown up. " Coren held up his hands. "Is there a mistake in my logic?"
"You're guessing," Wenithal said.
"So, do you stay here, or do we go to the Auroran Embassy?"
Wenithal sighed. "All of us?"
"I'm not letting Jeta-or whatever her name is-get away from us."
"If she's not Jeta," Ariel said, "then who-?"
"I'm guessing a woman named Tresha," Coren said. "You've done business with her before, Mr. Wenithal. but I imagine you've never done any with her partner-Gamelin. "
Wenithal stared at Coren now with undisguised resentment. "Like I said, I've never been to the Auroran Embassy before. "
"If I'm right, getting there might be an interesting problem," Coren said.
Ariel smiled at him. "Leave that part to me."
Coren turned away, muttering under his breath, "I knew you were going to say that…"
Twenty
The morgue was a bit cooler, though Derec wondered how much of that was simply psychosomatic illusion. He stood to one side, near the big entrance, while Sipha Palen and her chief forensic specialist, Baxin, went through the logs.
"Fifty-one," Baxin said finally. He looked at Palen. "There were fifty-two when we brought them in here."
"So a corpse got up when you weren't looking and walked out?" Palen's voice made everyone cringe.
Baxin shook his head, less intimidated than bewildered.
"Not only that," Palen went on, "but it cleaned up its container and put it back in storage!" She wheeled around at the pair of security men nearby. "Didn't anybody pay attention to the monitors? Nobody saw a thing out of the ordinary?"
Derec leaned back against the wall. The TBI agents stood nearby, looking slightly embarrassed on Palen's behalf. But Derec could see the impatience in their faces.
Palen stopped herself before she continued her rant. With sudden and surprising calm, she said, "I want the monitor records gone over. I want to know when the dead got up and walked out."