Nadja's kiss fell gently on his cheek. "Gordon brought up breakfast for us," she said. "I've already eaten, have some early business to deal with. Also, Carla is here; we can start the meeting as soon as you're ready."
Ryan's eyes snapped open. The meeting! Yes, he had much to tell them of Damien Knight. How could he have slept so long?
He sat up and swung his legs out of the big bed. The smell of real eggs and fresh bacon drifted in the air. The coffee aroma was pungent and strong.
Ryan's stomach rumbled. "We'll meet in a half-hour if that's okay. After I eat."
Nadja smiled. "In my study," she said. "I'll notify Jane." Then she was gone, leaving him in the room with the breakfast.
Ryan ate and showered, wishing he could take time to enjoy both activities. But he was anxious for this meeting. Anxious to hear what Carla and Nadja and Jane would have to say. He dressed quickly in comfortable pants and a loose cotton shirt and walked down to Nadja's study.
Gordon Wu met him outside. "I'll tell her you're here," he said, turning to the telecom.
"Is her study secure?" Ryan asked.
The man gave him a puzzled look. "Of course, sir," he said. "It is swept by the Secret Service once a day." Wu winked. "And after they leave, Miss Brooks' staff sweeps it again." He gestured for Ryan to enter.
"Thanks." Ryan stepped through the door and into Nadja's private workspace.
In front of her desk, which was still piled with papers and disks, Nadja had arranged three high-back leather chairs in a semi-circle around a huge tridscreen. Two of the chairs were occupied, and the trid screen showed a fourth chair, identical except for the fact that it existed only in the virtual reality of the Matrix.
Carla Brooks looked up to meet Ryan's gaze as he entered. Her white hair was cut close to her scalp, a dusting of platinum stubble over her deep black skin. She wore a sharp Zoe business suit and was carrying weapons underneath. "Hello, Quicksilver," she said. "It's good to see you back alive. I think Quentin Strapp has some more questions for you, and he'd be very upset if he had to ask them of a corpse."
Ryan laughed. "Good to see you too, Black Angel. After this meeting, I think we'll have something to tell Strapp that will make him very happy."
Jane looked out through the tridscreen, her blonde hair shining. Her puffed-out cartoon lips pouted as she spoke. "And just what is that?"
Ryan met her eyes as he walked over to take his chair with the three women. "I know who killed Dunkelzahn," he said.
Nobody said a word.
And in the silence, Ryan's magically enhanced hearing could actually pick out the individual heartbeats of two of the three people sitting around him. The only reason he couldn't pick out the third was because while the trid did Jane enough justice that Ryan could hear the minute squeak of red leather when it rubbed against red vinyl, Jane hadn't bothered programming in a pulse for herself.
It was Carla who finally broke the silence. "How?" It was a whisper.
Ryan leaned back in the comfortable chair. "Let me tell you a story," he said. "It starts way back before the Crash of'29… "
Ryan spilled the whole scenario to them. Everything Alice had told him about Damien Knight's hatred for Dunkelzahn. All about the Nanosecond Buyout and the hold Knight had over Kyle Haeffner.
Jane listened with anger evident on her face. That anger growing as Ryan unraveled the story.
Carla watched him in silence, a look of astonishment dawning on her dark features.
Nadja simply gazed at him and nodded. Ryan could see her sharp mind making various connections, could see all the implications of what he'd said fall into place. "Ryan, you of course realize the vast repercussions of your accusations. What surety do you have?"
Carla broke in. "Yes, even if your information is accurate, it's all circumstantial. You've established motive. We know he had the capability and the opportunity. But that doesn't mean he did it."
"Ryan," Nadja said, "do you have any specifics on how it was pulled off? How did he plant the bomb or the magic ritual or whatever it was that killed Dunkelzahn?"
Ryan gave her a pleading look. "None. Carla's right. All the evidence is circumstantial, but with someone of Damien Knight's power and influence, I doubt any direct evidence will ever present itself. He's too smart, too savvy to ever leave any discernible link that would point to him."
Carla straightened up. "The evidence is compelling, and it should be reported to Strapp and the Scott Commission immediately. But I don't want it getting to the press."
Jane's icon looked at her. "Tell Strapp? Tell the Scott Commission? And just what do you intend to say? Hey, Quentin, one of your primary suspects just told me that someone else did it. So how about we stop investigating Ryan, and start investigating Damien Knight, someone who has a rock-solid alibi? After they threw you off the Commission, they'd lock you up in an asylum."
Carla started to respond, but Nadja cut her off. "Jane's right. We all know Ryan, and we know enough to trust him completely, but that's not going to cut it with Strapp."
Ryan smiled at her. "My gut says this is the right direction to be looking in, but I doubt we can expect any sort of official backup on it."
Carla gave Jane a sharp glance. "So what do you suggest instead?"
Jane's icon looked up. Her huge, pouty lips were set in a firm line. "Covert hit."
The stunned look hit Carla again. "You out of your fragging mind? Assassinate Damien Knight? Even with the best team you could put together, I wouldn't attempt that in a thousand years. There's only one person I know who could…" She looked at Ryan and fell silent.
Ryan laughed, softly. "Yes, Carla, I could probably do it. But I think you're right. An ice job just doesn't feel right. At least not yet."
Jane shook her head. "People, think about it for a moment. I trust Quicksilver more than any other meat walking the planet. If he says Knight killed our beloved dragon, then I know he's right. But I also know that no Scott Commission, no government force is going to have the balls or the muscle to bring Knight to justice. He'll skate and leave someone else to take the fall. The only way to make him pay is to wipe every trace of him off the face of the earth."
There was a pause while everyone took in just what Jane had said.
"Which, of course, is why we can't take him down," Nadja said, her voice like a granite gavel coming down. Not to be denied.
Ryan turned to her. "I know that tone," he said. "Explain."
Nadja smiled. "On one hand, Jane is completely correct. However, two things are working against us here. One, even if we kill him, that won't solve our biggest problem. Both Ryan and I would still be under suspicion for murdering Dunkelzahn. Considering what we know about Strapp's line of reasoning, he might just believe that Ryan, Knight, and I were all working together, but had a falling out.
"Two, Ryan said it himself. All the evidence is circumstantial. Even he's not sure just how far to trust his informant. So if we ice Knight, and we're wrong, then the fallout will be heavy enough to bury us all. We need to be absolutely sure. If we knew for a fact that Knight was behind it, I would vote for geeking him, then digging hard into his actions prior to the assassination. With him dead, there would be no one to thwart our efforts. Still, I need more proof before I can agree to such drastic actions."
Carla leaned forward, passion flashing on her face. "You've all gone off the fragging deep end! This is a witch hunt. We have no concrete evidence that implicates anyone. I know what security measures were taken to protect Dunkelzahn. I've gone over and over possible weaknesses, the nature of the blast. And I'll do it again, but the real evidence is too slim to reach any kind of conclusion. You have no proof."