"I can freeze it on ReGEN's stock prices," Archangel offered.
Skater nodded.
She worked with the remote control and locked in the information about ReGEN.
The price was holding steady at 113 nuyen a share, with trading primarily sporadic. McKensie's buyers, the ones Ariadne had identified, were quietly snatching up every stock they could. There'd been a report that even with the deflated interest in the stock, more certificates might be placed on sale before the close of day. Skater intended to make it happen.
Five minutes passed in silence as they waited to see what would happen. Then ten. At twelve minutes, the stock prices and the number of units moving started to go up. Four minutes more and units were moving across the board like they were jet-propelled, the going price jumping to 729 nuyen.
The financial channel broke for a special report, going on location to Wall Street. An excited female elf in a conservative black business suit talked over a dull roar of noise. Behind her, a cluster of people were standing and yelling in front of a huge video tote board that showed current stock prices as well as rotating advertisements from a battalion of corporations. "ReGEN, a little-known stock offered by NuGene out of their branch operation in Seattle, bottomed out yesterday after a small showing over the last few days. But now renewed activity has breathed life back into it. Saeder-Krupp announced only minutes ago that they're interested in purchasing the stock at above-market prices. Needless to say, fierce trading has begun." She went on about Lofwyr's economic prowess and a bit of the corporation's history, and mentioned that the dragon's activities rarely became public knowledge until long after he'd accomplished his aims. No one knew where the present tip on Lofwyr's interest had come from, but it had been confirmed.
When Skater turned off the trid, ReGEN had climbed to 1,024 nuyen a share. It wouldn't last for long, but it would be enough to make any future purchases by McKenzie extremely costly.
He glanced at Ariadne, who was sitting in a chair apart from the group. "It's showtime," he told her.
She nodded.
"Remember, let me do the talking. No signals, no words. You do anything to tip your husband off, and I figure out a new way to get McKenzie, and the two of you can go hang."
"I understand," the woman said.
"Ready?" Skater asked Archangel.
She sat next to her deck, ready to jack in. "Make your call. I'll be along."
Skater punched in the LTG number for Tavis Silverstaff's private line, then moved over to the window and peered out. The anxiety he'd been feeling for the last few hours as they'd put everything into play was thrumming inside him. Seattle lay spread out before him, alluring in the daylight, gleaming and shiny for the most part. Only the shadows betrayed the rot and decay that infected it.
The screen flickered to life and Silverstaff himself answered the call. He looked tired and drawn.
Skater had deliberately left the return vid portion of the call off. "I have your wife," he said, not wanting to waste words.”
"I want to speak with her."
Skater glanced at Archangel sitting slumped at her deck; she was obviously hard at work. Duran stood beside Ariadne with his arms crossed, a big pistol showing on his belt. The ork nodded.
Crossing the room, Skater punched on the vid display so that Ariadne Silverstaff was visible to her husband. "One question." the elf said, "and that's all. Or I terminate the transmission."
Silverstaff's voice was hoarse with worry, but he wasn't about to walk into a trap. "On what day did you accept my proposal of marriage?"
Ariadne didn't hesiiate, but fresh tears filled her eyes. Her own voice cracked when she replied. "June. June tenth."
Skater switched off the vid. "Convinced?"
"Yes. What do you want?"
"For starters, I want you to sell another seven thousand shares of ReGEN stock to Saeder-Krupp," Skater said. "You'll find the offer registered in your office by the time I end this call. It's a fair price. You're being offered the market price before the bottom dropped out yesterday."
Silverstaff answered almost at once, even though he had to know that selling that much more stock was going to seriously cripple his chances of maintaining control of the company. "Done. You're working for the dragon, then?"
"Indirectly," Skater said. "I've cut a deal with him. Mainly I'm working for myself."
"You said this is the first thing,'" Silverstaff reminded.
"I'm not going to ask you to turn over that stock transfer contract until I can put your wife back in your hands."
"When?" Silverstaff asked.
"Tonight," Skater answered. "Midnight." He stared across the intervening chasm of buildings and saw the monorail gliding by in a silvery streak four stories above the streets.
"Where?"
"I'll be in touch and let you know." Skater punched off the power, then looked over at Archangel.
She stayed slumped for a few seconds more before coming back to the physical world. Reaching up, she plucked the jack from its slot in her temple. "He was being monitored," she said.
"McKenzie?" Skater asked.
"I couldn't be certain," she answered. "I had to work to trace the bug. I figured if McKenzie did have a way of keeping tabs on everything that's going on at ReGEN, he'd have a dump file. Some stepped-up smoke and mirrors utilities got me into the ReGEN system so I could locate the file, but I had to do some heavy-duty sleazing to track the source down. The number picking up the bug is an import business called the Hidalgo Republic Trading Company."
Skaler nodded. "Did they trace us?"
She shook her head. "No way. With all the relocate programs I had layered against your call, a decker would have taken hours to get through."
"McKenzie or someone else may recognize my voice if audio was made of the call," Skater said. 'That would work in our favor, actually. But they still won't know where we are." He went over to the telecom again, punching in the number for one of Kestrel's message dumps.
The fixer was back in touch in less than two minutes.
"Hidalgo Republic Trading Company," Skater said. "I need to know who owns it."
"I'll get back to you," Kestrel promised, breaking the connection with a click.
Quickly and efficiently, the team started making their preparations. Everyone knew the waiting was over and the countdown had begun.
Three hours later. Skater stood in the doorway of the room where Emma lay sleeping, quietly watching the child. Her features were so much like Larisa's it hurt. Her hair was black, like his, and so fine he could see through it, but her doe-shaped eyes were Larisa's. She slept on her back, one pink-fingered hand knuckled up to her mouth. Her pointed ears looked longer than most elves' and were plastered against her head, running toward the crown. Elvis had fed and changed her only minutes ago, then dressed her in the yellow sleeper she wore now.
She looked so small, so frail and vulnerable on the big bed.
And Jack Skater was more afraid of her than anything he'd ever faced.
"Is she sleeping?"
He glanced over his shoulder at Archangel. "Yeah."
Archangel joined him in the doorway. "She's a pretty child. Jack."
"I thought I was just prejudiced."
Archangel smiled. "No."
"What are you going to do with her?"
'Tonight?" Skater asked. "Elvis has arranged for some troll chummers to take care of her. They'll stay here. No one has a fix on this doss yet. If we make it through the meet with Silverstaff and McKenzie, we should be okay."
"I knew about that," Archangel said. "I meant what are you going to do with her once this is all over?"