A Special was charged with murdering another Special. It was a situation that had no precedent. But Jordan Warrick could murder a dozen infants in Novgorod Plaza at noonday, and they could neither ask him why nor remand him to probe nor give him as much as the adjustment a public vandal would get.
Jordan glared at him from the chair Security had tied him to. "You know damn well I didn't do it."
"What will you do? Ask for a probe to prove it? We can't do a thing to you. Youknow that. You knew it when you did it."
"I didn't do it. Dammit, you haven't even got an autopsy yet."
"Whatever she died of, the cold was enough. The pipe didn't just break, Jordan, you know it and you know why it broke. Save us all the trouble. What did you do? Score the pipe and fill the lab tank is my guess. Fill the lab tank to capacity, then stop the main valve and turn the backflow pump to max. That'd blow the line at its weakest point, wherever someone damaged it."
"So you know how to do it. You seem to know the plumbing a hell of a lot better than I do. I do my work with a computer, Gerry, a keyboard.I'm sure I never cared where the pipes run in Wing One lab. I don't understand the cryogenics systems and I never cared to learn. There's one other thing wrong with your theory. I haven't got access there."
"Justin does. His azi had."
"Oh, you're really reaching. Grant's in hospital, remember?"
"We've questioned your son. We're starting to question the azi. Yours and his."
Jordan's face settled into stony calm. "You won't turn up a damn thing, because there isn't anything to turn up. You're going to have charges up to your eyeballs, Giraud. You had better plan on it."
"No, I won't. Because I know your motive."
"Whatmotive?"
Giraud punched a button on the office recorder, on a pre-loaded clip.
"He passed the mess to you, Gerry. So did Denys. We're not talking about a damn records problem. We're talking about a scared kid, Gerry."
"Another week—"
"The hell with another week. You can start by giving me a security clearance over there, and get Petros to return my calls."
"Your son is over there right now. He's got absolute clearance, God knows why. He'll take care of him." Pause. "Look, Jordie, they say about another week. Two at most."
"Justin's got clearance."
End tape.
"What in hell has that got to do with anything?"
"That's when you went down to see Ari. Isn't it? Straight down there, right after that conversation."
"Damn right. You couldn't get off your ass."
"No. 'Justin's got clearance,' you said. That surprised you. A, Justin hadn't told you something he should have told you. B, Ari never gave away her advantages. C, you know Ari's habits. Right then, you guessed something you'd picked up on all along, right when you got onto the deal your son cut for Grant."
"Sheer fantasy."
"Your son tried to blackmail Ari. It was really quite a scheme. You thought he'd held Ari off. You let him run with it. But when Ari hauled Grant home, Ari had all the cards. Didn't she? Allof them. Your son went to Ari for help, not to you. And your son got a favor out of her you couldn't get for all your threats. I wonder how."
"You have a hell of an imagination. I never suspected it of you."
"You confronted Ari, Ari either told you or you already knew—what your boy'd been doing for his tuition. And you killed her. You jammed a valve and turned a pump on, nogreat amount of time involved. Everyone in Wing One knew about that door. It was supposed to be an accident, but then you had to improvise."
Jordan said nothing for a moment. Then: "It doesn't work."
"Why not?"
"Let me tell you who else knew I was going down there. You knew. I left. Ari and I talked and I left. Check the Scriber."
"She didn't run one. You know that damn Translate. There isn't any spoken record. And she didn't leave us any notes. She didn't have time. You knocked her out, fixed the pipe, slammed the door, raised the pressure. By the time the alarm went off, you were back upstairs."
"I didn't do it. I don't say I'm shedding any tears. But I didn't do it. And Justin was over in hospital, you say so right on that tape you've got. You edit it and I'll make a liar out of you."
"Now you're reaching. Because if you go to trial, Jordie, I've got other tapes that belong in evidence. I'm going to run one for you."
"You don't have to."
"Ah. Then you guess what they are. But I want you to watch, Jordie. I'll run them all if you like. And you can tell me what you think."
"You don't have to."
"Ari said—you'd had your own passage with her . . . some years ago."
Jordan drew in a long breath. The mask was down. "You listen to me," he said on that breath. "You listen to me real well, slime, because you thinkyou're handling this. If Ari's dead, and I'm gone, Reseune's got two wings in complete disorder. Reseune's got agreements it can't keep. Reseune's going to have real trouble meeting its contracts and all its political bedfellows are going to scramble for their pants. Fast. You're forgetting: if a Special dies, there's got to be an inquiry. And what they find out is going to be real interesting, notjust for us lucky souls inside Reseune. When this hits the news-services, you're going to see department heads and corporation presidents running like bugs with the lights on. You're right. You can't question me. Ican't testify by anything but my given word. You know what I'll tell them. I'll tell them you used tape on me. And they can't tell without a psychprobe. Which the law won't even let me volunteer for. You put me in front of a mike. You just go ahead and do that. That's the kind of coverage I've been waiting for. Best damn coverage I could get. Ari and her friend Lao could black me out. But you know the way it is—some stories are too big to silence. Murdering the head of Reseune is one of them. I'm damn sorry I didn't think of it."
"That's true. That's all very true."
"Right now you're thinking about killing me. Doit. You think oneSpecial dead is hard to explain."
"But there's something so damned final about old news. A little scandal. A lot of silence after that."
"But youwouldn't be on Council. Damned sure you wouldn't. We can do murder in the streets but we can't cover it up. No political power. No dark spots for the bugs to snuggle in. Public contempt. You want to watch Reseune lose everything it's got—"
"Old news. Murder-suicide. You couldn't stand the notoriety that would come with a trial. You thought you could shut it up. You didn't know there were tapes. You didn't know Ari recorded her little parties. And people will be shocked. But only for a while. People have always liked scandal around the rich and famous. It's all lost in the glitter. Who knows, maybe your boy will take to the life. Or come to some tragic end. Drug overdose. Tape-tripping. A waste. But the one thing you know he won't get is a post at Reseune. Or anywhere else our influence reaches. Not mentioning the other boy. The azi. It's probably a mistake to put him under interrogation. He's so fragile right now. But we have to get to the facts."
Jordan did not so much as move for a long while.
"There's also, of course," Giraud said, "Paul."