The Elder’s age and status made him unwilling to attempt the usual approximation of interlingue most Blurdslang spoke. Instead he held a voice cube in one of his manipulators, the fingerlets wriggling like a nest of worms over the surface sensors, producing words in a sweetly musical voice that seemed to amuse him; when the cube spoke, his horny lips flexed and shifted in the silent dance of Blurdslang laughter. “You will make your copies here, and we will review them before they leave our hands. It is only because of Digby’s reputation for magisterial silence that we have bowed to Sunflower’s pressure and allowed this. We ask that you destroy the flakes once you have no more use for them.” He paused and waved a tentacle tip at Autumn Rose.
“It will be done.”
“Good. The room is prepared, access to the hours in question has been arranged, there is a supply of blank flakes in a recorder. Any questions?”
“The reviewing of the flakes can be accomplished in the room assigned?”
“Ah. That was not envisaged, but certainly can be arranged while the two of you are viewing the originals.”
“Then we need to get started.”
4. Eureka?
“I think this is the one.” Shadith tapped a sensor and an image bloomed on the forescreen-a Caan smuggler and a slight androgenous figure whose species was as problematic as its sex.
They’d moved to the ship Digby’d provided and were working in a shielded cabin, having run the flakes from the day’s work through a WatchDog to strip away any little surprises OverSec might have coded into them. It was a tedious job, checking names and putative worlds of origin of the seven hundred ninety-one entities who had left Marrat’s Market within or shortly after the theft window, ten hours in all. A surprising number in so short a time, but this was a busy place.
“Why.?”
“One. Because the little one is a fair match in size and build to the cleaner.” She brought up the image of the cleaner from the flake Prehanet had provided. “As you see. Two. I don’t recognize the species. What with one thing and another I’ve come across quite a good percentage of the star-hopping kinds, Cousin and nonCousin, at least those in reasonable reach of the Market. To get into that building you need a specialized ghost; Kikun’s the only one I know who’d come close to that description. Certainly none of those others. Three. The registry of the Caan’s ship. Mavet-Shi. That’s one of Sabato’s Mask Companies. You know the Caan and what they think of arms dealers. Just how happy would he be,” she waggled a finger at the screen, “running on Sabato’s lead? The gadget would be hard to sell without specs and provenance, but high-grade ananiles would go anywhere for top prices. What odds our Caan’s looking to buy himself loose?”
“Hm. I’ve heard of Sabato. How did you discover his connection with Mavet-Shi? I doubt even Digby knows that.”
“Ran across him on Avosing. Selling armaments for the Ajin’s rebellion. I had a very odd and informative acquaintance who told me more than I wanted to know about a lot of things.”
“I see.”
Shadith wrinkled her nose. “Of course, the thief could be hunkered down somewhere in the Market, waiting for the noise to fade, and all this logic is angel counting.”
“I doubt it. A world he could get lost on. Marrat’s is too limited and too controlled.” Autumn Rose examined the two images. “Make one last check. Set search parameters for height, weight, and body profile. Scrap the rest. Seems to me I remember a few that might be almost as good a match.”
The ship’s kephalos found two. One was a rather ambiguous figure in the crew of a Clove’ Matriarch, the second a Cousin arriving in a small, battered merchanter, who claimed Spotchalls as world-of-origin and proclaimed himself a jewel trader.
“Hm. Given that Prehanet’s security is as effective as he thinks, given that your reasoning holds about the cleaner, given that size is the determining factor, your first choice is by far the most likely. Matriarchs are so deep into control that clone must have about as much free will as an industrial ‘bot. The other… we can drone his specs to Digby with the report. He just might be smarter than he looks. Hm.” Rose rubbed at the faint creases at the edge of her eye. “There’s something familiar about your pet. Something I’ve seen recently… in passing, I think, not interesting enough to command attention… doesn’t matter, if I’ve seen it, Digby will have it. Let’s get out of here before the local paranoia takes hold and makes life strange.”
7
Blood is silent in darkness, but screams for justice when it sees the sun.
Chapter 3
Thann huddled in the corner where a section of house wall still stood while the sniper in the hills sprayed pellets along the street; xe could feel Isaho getting farther and farther away, picture her scurrying like a mayomayo pup along the ruined streets. At least she was still alive.
Silence.
Thann crept from xe’s corner and started on. Xe’d been careless before, too focused on Isaho and frightened for her to remember line-of-sight; the pellet burn across xe’s shoulder was painful reminder that kept xe from forgetting pain. Bent over, black braid falling past xe’s ears to tickle xe’s chin, xe quickened xe’s pace to an awkward trot, scuttling from shadow to shadow along the battered street.
Shots ahead. A squeal and a blast of pain and fear from Isaho.
Mouth working soundlessly in xe’s distress, Thann straightened and raced toward xe’s daughter.
Xe saw her finally, a small figure with a dangling arm, trotting by an open space as pellets rattled round her. Xe held xe’s breath until Isaho was swallowed by a wall’s shadow, then plunged across the gap and pinned her to the bricks with xe’s body.
Isaho started struggling, whimpering, “nanny, Anyameami, Linojin,.I have to go to Linojin. Mam and Baba and Keleen, they’re waiting for me.”
By the time Thann quieted her, the sniper had stopped shooting and the big guns were silent. It was near sundown, the shadows were long and thick, the wind rising, whipping grit and debris against them, against the walls, scouring clown the streets between the hulks still standing.
“Thanny, I’ve got to go to Linojin. Nobody listens. I’ve got to go.”
Thann patted her. +When you’re healed, Shashi. I promise you, we’ll go together.+ Wincing at the pain in xe’s shoulder, xe slipped xe’s arms under xe’s daughter and grunted back onto xe’s feet. Xe lumbered across the open space, then began working xe’s way back to the shelter they were sharing with Cousin Mikil.
Her shoulders rounded, her face weary, nothing in her eyes but fatigue, Mikil watched while Thann bandaged the pellet wound on Isaho’s arm. She turned her head at a weak whistle from the other room, but she didn’t move.
Thann cupped xe’s hand across Isaho’s brow, sighed.
“Fever?”
Thann got to xe’s feet. +A little,+ xe signed. +The wound is clean now, and she’s strong; I doubt there’ll be trouble.+
“What about you?”
+It’s just a burn, barely broke the skin.+
Mikil rubbed at her eyes, then reached out, touched Thames ann. “I don’t…”
Thann lifted a hand, stopped her. +I know,+ xe signed. +As soon as my baby’s well, we’ll find another place.+
Mikil started to speak, then shifted to signing after another glance over her shoulder. +It’s Ankalan who’s fussing. He says you’re not his clan, so why should he have to give you room and feed you. When he hears about this… he told me if that femlit runs off once more and makes fusses for us, she goes. And our anya…+ She quivered her hand in a “what-can-I-do” gesture. +Seeing you reminds xe too painfully of what xe has lost.+
+I know, Mika. These are hard times and they make for hard choices.+
Thann bent over Isaho, bathed her face and arms, got her to drink some bitter halaba tea, tucked her in again, and sat beside her trying to decide what they should do.. More and more even the clan-bond was being broken. The people in Khokuhl were turning into scavenger gangs picking over the dead city, chancing death each time they left their holes to forage. How long before they were feeding on each other?