Al Shei, this is Dobbs. Theodore Curran and a group of one hundred AIs are planning an attack on the IBN. They will randomize account data and monetary transactions passing through all points of the Solar system. You must alert the banks.
Al Shei grabbed for her pen.
“Wait!” cried Schyler behind her. “Al Shei, stop. We don’t know this is Dobbs. This could be an imposter. This could be anybody.”
Al Shei froze her hand over the board. He was right. It could be anybody. Any Fool who could get into the ship.
If you’re Dobbs, she wrote, what would Nasrudine say about Tully?
There was a pause for a single heart beat, then the board wrote, he would ask how long you are going to let Tully steal fodder and labor, especially when you know he’s doing it wrong.
“It’s her,” breathed Al Shei.
“Or somebody who got her to talk to them.”
Al Shei ignored him and kept her gaze on the memory board. “Dobbs, where is Curran?” she spoke as she wrote. “Where are you? Your people have taken my husband!”
I know. Curran’s based in Port Oberon business module 56. They’ve faked the computer records to hide it from the Landlords. There was a pause for three straining heartbeats. I saw Asil there. He’s gone, Al Shei. His mind is being wiped clean so a Fool can use his body. There’s nothing left of him inside.
I’m going to get the Guild. We will stop Curran.
There was nothing after that.
Schyler was at her shoulder. Al Shei could feel him. “Oh my God,” he whispered. “Oh sweet green God of Earth.”
He must have read the words she could no longer see. A red haze filled her vision. It seeped through her bones and filled her brain. He’s gone, Al Shei. As the haze sank deep into her blood, her vision cleared. Everything seemed to have taken on a knife-sharp edge. His mind is being wiped clean so a Fool can use his body. Her hands trembled to seize anything she could reach and swing it hard at Theodore Curran. She’d see him dead, dead at her feet, bleeding whatever blood he had inside his stolen body. She’d feel his bones break under her hands and hear him beg for his life. There’s nothing left of him inside. The red haze seared the inside of her veins. It was Asil’s blood inside her. That was what it was. His blood in her eyes and her heart. It was his pain that burned so fiercely.
I’m going to get the Guild. We will stop Curran.
“You won’t get the chance.” She switched the desk off and turned to Schyler. “I need you and Resit right here. Everyone else is to paid off and dismissed, do you understand?”
“No.” He seemed to be having trouble speaking. “No, I do not understand, Al Shei. Your husband… ”
His mind is being wiped clean so a Fool can use his body. There’s nothing left of him inside. “I saw it. Are you going to do what I asked or are you going to leave with the rest of the crew?”
“This could be a trap, Mother.”
“I don’t care.”
He reached out slowly to touch her and she struck his hand away. “If you dare to tell me what I should do in this moment,” her voice was soft, almost conversational, “I will throw you off this ship with my own hands.”
Schyler lowered his hand. “I would not dare tell you what to do, Mother,” he said. “I only ask you to think about what that is.” He spread his hands. “If you want me to dismiss our crew, I will dismiss them. I’ll do it now, since you ask, but, it would be better for you to get their help instead, and the help of the Landlords and the Management Union.”
He left her there. Al Shei watched the hatch cycle close.
“Not for this, it would not, my son,” she said to the empty cabin.
She lit up her desk and wrote out the protocols to by-pass Lipinski’s station and connect her desk to the main station network. This way, with only a small delay, she could order a fast-time line without his help.
There was a private call code for the bank network to be used in dire emergencies. Only the owners, the elected chairmen and a few immediate family members knew about it. Uncle Ahmet had given it to her the day she had left for her apprenticeship. It was the one time she had not been able to discern any ulterior motive in his manner. “If worse comes to its very worst and all but Allah seem to have left you alone, you may use this, daughter-of-my-sister.”
She had never forgotten it, even though she’d never even considered sending it out. Not even when the Pasadena was stranded, or when word came of Asil’s arrest did she think to use it.
She sent it out now. It required no credit deposit, and would reach Uncle Ahmet anywhere in Settled Space. He could have been in conference with the entire governing board of the Management Union, and he would be interrupted by this.
She tried not to think of Curran’s creatures watching the lines. She tried not to think how swiftly they could break the encryption. There was nothing she could do. If she waited six days, the whole Solar System could be dead. She had to trust they didn’t know what Dobbs had done yet.
It was five full minutes before Uncle Ahmet’s head and shoulders appeared on the view screen.
“Katmer, what’s happened?”
Remembering Schyler’s warning about traps, she asked, “What were the last words my mother said in your presence?”
Uncle Ahmet frowned deeply. “She said ‘may it go easily.’ She was bidding me good-bye as I went to address the Management Union assembly. She and your father were dead in a monorail accident that was never proved to be sabotage by the time I got back. Katmer, what is going on?”
“Uncle Ahmet, I am given to understand that you know of the secret mandate for the Fool’s Guild.” Her voice was completely calm. She might have been discussing a dinner menu. She might not have felt the burn inside her. She might not have known her husband was gone, wiped away to make room for an AI.
Uncle Ahmet frowned deeply and leaned forward. “Katmer, what has that to do with anything?”
“Everything, Uncle.” She folded her hands in front of her. “I have received new, and I believe sound, information about the Guild. The Guild members themselves are not really Human, Uncle Ahmet. They are bodies inhabited by the AIs that have become independently sapient and which were rescued by their own kind from Human attack. This organization has bred a faction, a breakaway guild, if you like, which plans to attack the Intersystem Bank Network and randomize the financial account data for the entire Solar System. I wished to inform you of this at once.”
For the first time in her life, Al Shei saw Uncle Ahmet shaken. The blood drained from his high-boned cheeks and his gaze faltered. The sight stabbed at her and almost made a crack in the calm that covered her.
“You are sure of what you say, Katmer? You believe it to be true?”
“Yes, Uncle,” she replied firmly. “I believe it to be true.”
His shoulders squared themselves and the firm control that characterized him returned to his face. “Then I shall alert my colleagues. You will be returning home by week’s end, Katmer?”
“Yes, Uncle. I will. Salam.” She closed the line down.
That isn’t a lie, you know, Uncle. She thought toward the screen. One way or another, I will be returning home by week’s end.
She knew exactly what to do. She saw it all laid out before her like it was a schematic on a memory board. All she had to do now was wait until the bystanders were out of the way.
All at once, the bathroom door slammed open.
“What are you doing!” Resit stormed into the cabin. “Have you lost your mind!”
Al Shei blinked heavily. “How much did Schyler tell you?” she asked.