"That smells."
"Oh, you've heard of it?"
"Not before now. But at a glance, there's a physical, financial, and cultural distance that doesn't explain itself." Mark's lips curved slightly. "And then there's you, popping up in the middle of it. Always a tip-off."
"Mm," said Miles. "Well, the WhiteChrys part is a train that has left its station, and can run on rails to its appointed end. So far. This NewEgypt involvement is a side-issue that grew complicated." His jaw set. "I'm trying not to leave undue collateral damage upon a local kid who befriended me, at some cost to himself. Good intentions, Mark. My path is paved with them."
"So glad I don't have any of those." Mark's glance grew uncomfortably shrewd. "It's not your planet, you know. You can't fix it."
"No, but…?well, no. But."
"Well, try not to leave too much rubble in your wake. I can use this place."
"So you said." Miles hesitated. "Life extension, you say. Does this one look better that the last two Durona developments you were so excited about? That, excuse the expression, died on the lab benches?"
"Maybe. The one human trial looks hopeful so far. Lily Durona, if you were wondering."
It was Miles's turn to raise his brows. "All right, I'm officially impressed, if Lily was willing to try it on herself."
Mark's smile went a little flat. "Lily," he said, "ran out of time to wait."
Miles drummed his fingers on his trouser seam. "Has it been tried on an older male, yet? Speaking of running out of time."
Miles and his clone-brother exchanged very similar looks.
Mark said, "Do you think he could even be persuaded to try it?"
"Mm, not by me, perhaps. Our mother might give it a go. Betan, you know, anything for science."
"That's one more reason I'm anxious to move these human trials along."
"You might actually be more successful at persuading him if it were still billed as dodgy. Hit those old Vor service-to-the-Imperium reflexes, and all."
"That's so strange."
Miles shrugged. "That's the Count-our-father." He added, "So, if your deal goes through, would you and Kareen be spending much time on Kibou?"
Mark shook his head. "Once it's set up and running, I figure to turn it over to Raven to develop. Past time he was promoted. So far, this is not the knock-out competition to the clone-brain transplant business I was hoping for, but it's early days yet." Mark smiled slowly. "On the other hand, if it proved sufficiently profitable, maybe I could hire my own space mercs and attack the Jacksonian cloning lords directly."
Miles grimaced. "Do you remember the last time you tried that?"
"Vividly. Don't you?"
"Patchily," said Miles dryly.
Mark winced.
"In the event, though I've no doubt Admiral Quinn could do the job, I would beg you to hire a different outfit." Just in case this wasn't quite a joke. With Mark, on this subject, it could be hard to tell. "What are you two doing next? Do you have a hotel?"
"No, we came straight from the shuttleport. Next, we've made arrangements to meet Fuwa here."
"Isn't that after local business hours?"
Mark shrugged. "I'm on system ship-time."
"Can I sit in?"
"Sit in, yes. Mix in, no."
"Mm," said Miles, but Jin, Roic and Kareen returned before he could take exception to this. Jin was bouncing with pleasure, but he paused to stare in the usual amazement at Miles and his clone-brother standing toe-to-toe. Miles still wished Mark hadn't picked weight gain as a way to differentiate himself, but Mark's grim glee at his progenitor-brother's discomfort with the choice was probably just a bonus, from his own point of view. Complicated man, Mark.
"I want to show my sphinx to Mom and Mina!" said Jin.
"You mustn't take it into her booth," said Raven, coming alert.
"I know that," said Jin. "But I can hold it up to the glass. Can Roic-san help me cart everything?"
Roic glanced at the empty office and cast Miles a tiny head-shake, bodyguard-conscious again. Vorlynkin caught it, and said smoothly, "I'll give you a hand, Jin."
Raven added prudently, "I'll come along."
"Actually," said Miles, "I think Leiber's still up there; we'll both come."
Tenbury returned then, to continue the interrupted tour; with no more than an eyebrow-twitch from Mark and a farewell smile from Kareen, the three went off toward another exit. Miles followed Vorlynkin, who carried the sphinx-carrier in Jin's train. Plaintive cries of "Aowt! Hum!" drifted back through the stale shadows of the underground garage.
Out. Home. You and me both, Sphinx.
?
His mother's reaction to the sphinx was disappointing, Jin thought, but not surprising. Familiar, in fact, and comforting thereby.
"Jin, no!" she said, holding her hand to her lips. "Where would you keep it?"
Nefertiti squirmed in a disgruntled fashion under Jin's arm as he hoisted her up on his hip for his mother to see, and attempted to flap her wings, but practice handling the fiercer Gyre left Jin undismayed. "I'll take good care of her! Don't I always? She came with a file of instructions, too, so nothing can go wrong."
His mother rubbed her forehead, in her bed beyond the glass wall. "That's not the point, this time, Jin love."
Mina, who had been lurking on the foot of the bed all day, sat up, interested. "She's huge! Bigger than Lucky and Gyre put together. She sort of looks like Lucky and Gyre put together, really. Oh, say yes, Mommy!" She wriggled down and exited the booth on a slight puff of positive air pressure.
"Did Tenbury get the intercom working?" Jin asked, realizing a bit belatedly that something new had been added. "When did he come by?"
"No, it was Consul Vorlynkin," said Mina, bending to stare into the sphinx's slow blink. "She has a funny face…"
"Oh, how?"
"I found the on-switch," said Vorlynkin, leaning one shoulder against the glass wall and watching all this in some bemusement.
Raven-sensei bent to capture Mina's mask and pop it into the sterilizer box for re-use.
Nefertiti flexed her claws and growled, and Jin set her down on her four paws, where she flapped her wings with a burring noise for all the world like one of the chickens.
"Does she fly?" asked Mina, holding out a hand for the sphinx to sniff.
"I don't think so," said Jin. "Her wings are almost the same size as Gyre's, but she's way heavier."
"These custom genetic constructs are usually made to be decorative, not functional," advised Raven-sensei. "Depending on what the buyer orders, of course."
Mina frowned. "That seems mean, to give her wings she can't fly with."
Jin crouched on his heels and scratched the creature's shoulder blades, between the wings, which folded tamely again as she stretched into the caress. She could not lick her fur like a cat, nor preen her feathers like a bird, so Jin would have a lot of interesting grooming to do, according to the care instructions in the file. "I wonder, do they lay eggs, or have live babies? One at a time, or a litter like kittens? I wonder if there are any male ones, left over?" And if he could find one, somehow…?
"There may not have been any males made," mused Raven-sensei. "I believe sphinxes were traditionally female. But these proprietary constructs normally aren't given the ability to reproduce. You'd likely have to clone her, and hand-raise the babies."
Jin's imagination took fire. Home cloning of small animals wasn't that hard, if you could get the right equipment, from a pet supply place or hobbyist who was upgrading or quitting. Hardly something to be found in an alley scavenge, but there ought to be used stuff for cheap somewhere…?