". . but it's been busy anyway," Rov was saying. "Unusual number of visitors for this time of year." Enda looked at him, then briefly past him, with mild interest. "You mean you have a tourist season?" "Not as such," said Rov. "Government pretty strictly controls the number of people who come in here. They're concerned about the riglia taking it wrong. You wouldn't have been affected. Infotraders aren't regulated, but a few ships came in over the past week. One was a tourist — another was a trader, bringing in entertainment solids."
"Oh really," Gabriel said, crossing another business possibility off an ever-decreasing mental list. "Gabriel," Enda said then, "something occurs to me. I want to talk to Helm about plans for this afternoon. Do you want to come back to the ship with me? It won't take long." "Sure," Gabriel said. "Marielle, Rov. . see you later?"
"This evening, maybe," Marielle said. "Here's my husband coming. Rov, talk to you later." Gabriel and Enda went out. "Gabriel," Enda said quietly to him as they made their way up the street toward the port entrance, "did you see where I was looking?"
He shook his head. "It was behind me. I didn't want to stare. I thought you were looking at what I'd been looking at."
"Perhaps. There was a woman sitting away at the back of the room, having chai or some such. I have seen her before."
He gave her a look. "Where?"
"In the port offices at Diamond Point. She was going in as I was coming out."
"Interesting," Gabriel said, "because I saw someone here whomI saw back on Grith. Not at the back of the room. Over on the left side."
"What a small universe it's becoming," Enda said. "Listen, Gabriel, we have more important business. After that talk with the owner of the provisioner's this morning, I would definitely bring in a load of foodstuffs when we come again. They have little here except pre-packs and staples of the most elementary kind. You would get very tired of starch noodles if you lived here long. I think we would get good results if we brought in some of the simpler dried and preserved fish and fungus packs, vegetable dumplings and so forth—"
Gabriel went along with this, and they were well into the virtues of a major dried soup brand native to Aegis, and discussing where in the ship they would stow it by the time they got up intoSunshine's lift. When they finally got inside, Gabriel laughed. "You are incredible!" "In what regard?"
"Your ability to talk about anything but what's on your mind."
Enda gave him a dry look. "I assure you, I am thinking about the soup as well. Wait a moment" She stepped over to the Grid access panel and touched it for local network access. "Helm?" "Wondered when you were going to call."
"I did not want to wake you untimely. Would you and Delde Sota come over? There are some things I want to check in our mutual inventory before lunch."
"Lunch," said Helm, immediately interested. "Be right over".
Enda turned away. "We may want an excuse to come back that does not involve data, if we are unable to pick up an outward data load or another Terivine-bound load from Grith. I am more interested in your sighting. Whom exactly did you see?"
"Like you, someone from Diamond Point," Gabriel said. "She was parked over in bond a couple of slots down fromLongshot. Little brunette woman, maybe about fifty kilos, short, with pale eyes." "Not dark ones?" Enda said.
"No. The eyes got my attention first. She was dressed as if she was from Austrin-Ontis — you know, those layered rigs with pockets all over them — not that that proves anything one way or the other. She was exchanging docs with a port official — I'm not sure whether she was coming or going at the time. She had a little all-purpose ship, a Westhame or something similar. Light haulage, possibly converted from a live-in ship." He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to see the vessel in memory. "Fairly new. I remember thinking a fair bit of money would have been tied up in that."
"Indeed. Now both of these people are here. What would you say the odds are of this being an accident, Gabriel?"
"Hard to say. 'What a small universe it's becoming.'.
"Enda reached up and thumped Gabriel on top of his head. "I will take the imitation as flattery, poor though it be. Now we face another question: which of these is the spy you have been expecting?" "Both of them?" Gabriel said.
Enda gave him a thoughtful look. "Well, why not? We know that the Concord has evinced interest in your movements… if only through your friend Lorand Kharls." Gabriel snorted at the word "friend." "Yes," Enda continued, "well, we know he has some interest in using you as a—'stalking horse,' your phrase was? Though from what you told me of your conversation with him, he was not forthcoming about what he was stalking." Enda pulled down one of the chairs and sat in it. "He could not come into this part of space without attracting considerable attention. So he has sent someone to keep an eye on you." "Seems likely. The question is, who's the other one?" They looked at each other. "VoidCorp," Gabriel said.
"You would not have many friends in that camp," Enda said. "Nor would I. Nor Helm, not after Thalaassa. Even Delde Sota might have crossed paths with them. She was cautious enough about the possibility that they were monitoring her medical facility back on Iphus." She sighed. "Now all we must do is discover which of these people is working for which side."
"And do what then?" Gabriel could imagine what Helm would suggest. "Besides feed them disinformation."
"All we can," Enda said, "keeping the information as mutually contradictory as possible. Indeed, it might be wise to find some way to split away from Helm and Delde Sota, so we can see which operative follows who where." She smiled, a wicked look.
"I don't know if Helm's going to be wild about letting us go off on our own," Gabriel said. "If we have no load to take back to Grith, that might change," said Enda. "Meanwhile we must let Helm and Delde Sota know about this. We should go into town again, seeing and being seen. If we see our spies, we should make common cause with them as fellow visitors. Buy them a drink and hear their lies so that we may more carefully shape our own."
The lift chimed. Enda moved to the lift column and touched the "allow" panel.
"What would you know about lies?" Gabriel said. "A nice respectable fraal like you…"
"Only that, in life as in marketing, they have their place," Enda said. "Though you must be willing to pay the price afterwards."
The four of them went to lunch at the community center but didn't see the two people they wanted to see.
Instead, they had to console themselves with another meal of astonishing quality. Gabriel was amazed, for in his marine days he had eaten on much richer and well-visited planets, but rarely as well as he was doing here.
"It's not just the vegetables," he said to Delde Sota as they fought over the last few spoonfuls of something brown but ineluctably delicious. "Oraan is a genius."
Gabriel managed to come up with a second spoon to get the last of whatever was in the bowl, but Delde Sota's braid came up and took it neatly out of his hand and held it out of reach. The braid had brushed Gabriel's hand in passing.
Now, amid Enda and Helm's laughter, Delde Sota said quietly, "Query: adjusted electrolyte balance recently?"
Gabriel, confused, looked at her. She ate the last spoonful of sauce and put the spoon down. "Analysis: body electrolytes are out of kilter," she said. "Just stress. ."
Delde Sota shook her head. "Negation: not the kind of shifts that are stress-related. Diet changes?" "Not until we got here. I've rarely eaten so many things that I didn't know what they were. Not even on a marine transport".
Delde Sota looked wry as she said, "Intention: to run full enzyme/endocrine series on you. Premature gray in family history?"