Heikki did as she was told, finding the familiar inset screen-and-keyboard without difficulty. Even as she keyed it on, Neilenn’s voice crackled in the intercom speaker.
“Dael? What’s the weather doing?”
“Channel five’s the metro-port now,” Dael said, to Heikki, ignoring the voice from the passenger compartment. Heikki nodded, and touched keys to tune the machine properly. The screen glowed and displayed a rough map of the city and the port and the roads between them; a moment later, a second image, this one the ghostly, multicolored reflection of the clouds overhead, was superimposed on the brighter map. Two sections of the clouds glowed brighter, yellow, and Dael spared them a few seconds study before he answered the intercom.
“Nothing yet, just potential.”
“Good,” Neilenn said. “Keep me informed.”
“Right,” Dael answered, but the intercom was already off. He glanced again at the console display, then forced his attention back to the road.
“I’ll watch,” Heikki said, and the other nodded, not taking his eyes from the road ahead. Heikki fixed her eyes on the shifting display, watching with some alarm as one of the two yellow spots grew brighter. The local weather station was monitoring the winds in the clouds above, highlighting areas that could produce the dangers—tornadoes, wind shear, devastating hail—for which Iadara was infamous. The pattern stayed steady, bright yellow but not yet shading into the red that would mean real danger, and began to drift off to the south, fading a little as it went. Heikki allowed herself a small sigh of relief, a sound that was drowned in a crack of thunder that seemed to come from directly overhead. She blinked, and the rain poured down.
“That’s that, then,” Dael said, raising his voice to be heard over the rush of water.
Heikki nodded—the rains usually signaled the passage of the storm’s most dangerous phase—and leaned back against the cushions. Outside the windscreen, the rain swept in almost solid sheets across the roadway. Dael slowed the ho-crawl, fighting to see between the blasts of wind-driven water. Lights flared on the control panel as the remotes kicked in and faint lines appeared, projected on the windscreen: a directional grid, and then the linear outline of the road ahead. The ho-crawl rocked sideways with the force of the wind, and Dael muttered something profane under his breath.
Then, almost as quickly as it had risen, the storm began to ease. The wind dropped, and the rain began to fall again, rather than being blown horizontally against the ho-crawl’s sides. The lightning faded, and the banks of clouds began to look less solidly threatening. By the time the ho-crawl drew up at the entrance to the corporate hostel, just outside the 5K Road that was the city’s legal limit, the rain had stopped altogether and weak sunshine was beginning to throw beams through the shredding clouds.
“Here we are, then,” Neilenn said, over the intercom, and Dael looked sideways at Heikki.
“I hope I’ll see you again, now that you’re here.”
Despite the polite words, his tone was less than enthusiastic, and Heikki could not hide a crooked, comprehending smile. It had been too long, they had both changed, had nothing really in common any more. Better not to have met, than to have met like this, when the only tie between them was their work for Lo-Moth. She said aloud, “Definitely, if we can find the time,” and was ashamed to see the fleeting relief in the other’s eyes. She looked away, and reached for the interlock, pushing herself up and out of the well in the same smooth movement.
Djuro and Nkosi were already out of the passenger compartment, and Djuro was checking the crates on the tow. He looked up at her approach, and nodded grudgingly. “Everything looks all right. The seals are tight.”
“Good,” Heikki said, though she’d expected no less, and looked at Neilenn.
“Your rooms are already reserved and confirmed as of this morning,” the little man answered. “There will be a corporate systems Accesscard waiting for you at the desk, as well as the information you requested from the central office. I have also been instructed to inform you that a local expense account has been set up for you, with a five thousand poa line of credit. Ser Mikelis asked me to make clear, however, that this was intended for incidental expenses rather than employment or equipment rental or anything of that nature. For the latter, you need only call the Bursar, and she’ll issue the order. Your projected expenses have already been placed in her accounts.”
“Thank you,” Heikki said, and saw Nkosi staring open-mouthed. She frowned at him, and he hurriedly adjusted his expression, but for once she couldn’t blame him. Lo-Moth was being unusually generous…. She put the thought aside, annoyed with herself for borrowing trouble, and turned her attention back to Neilenn.
“There’s just the question of where to store the equipment, then.”
“Kasib will see to that,” Neilenn said.
Heikki turned, to find herself face to face with a tall, unsmiling man in a high-collared, short-sleeved tunic and loosely woven trousers. The collar button was printed with Lo-Moth’s logo. The man touched his forehead politely, still unspeaking, and Neilenn said again, “Kasib will take it.”
Djuro said, “I’ll give you a hand.”
“Oh, that won’t be necessary,” Neilenn said, and in the same moment, Kasib said, “I can handle it.”
Djuro opened his mouth to protest, and Heikki said quietly, “I think he can manage, Sten.”
Djuro’s mouth closed abruptly. After a moment, he said, “Whatever you say, boss.” He was silent as they made their way into the suddenly cool lobby, and while Heikki collected room keys, information packet, and the promised disks from the desk clerk, who made a production of summoning a scout to lead them to the suite. She glanced warily at Djuro as she turned to the hovering scout, but the little man’s expression was remote to the point of mutiny. She suppressed her own annoyed response, and nodded to the scout.
“You can take us up, please.”
The scout led them through the expensively furnished lobby, and past a first bank of lifts to a second, more secluded row of cars. There was a card sensor in place of the usual panel of buttons, and the scout cleared his throat. “Dam’ Heikki—?”
Heikki handed him one of the cards she had received from the clerk; the scout passed it across the reader face and handed it back to her with a flourish. Heikki said nothing, and the scout looked away.
Lo-Moth had assigned them a comfortable suite of rooms near the top of the building, bedrooms, mini-kitchen, mainroom and workroom. Comfortable, but hardly luxurious, Heikki thought, scanning the working space, and could not help feeling a certain relief. Lo-Moth was finally behaving the way it should. She tipped the scout, and saw the door closed and locked behind him. Djuro still glared at her, but said nothing. Heikki smiled, crookedly, and rummaged in her carryall for the minisec she always carried. She keyed the general search, and then, when that triggered no alarms, tried the more specific common frequency search.
“No bugs,” Nkosi said, and grinned. “Not that I really expected any, in a place this expensive.”
Djuro muttered something inarticulate.