Part 7 (1/2)
He twitched his ears genially. ”Your recreation had already been disturbed once.”
I avoided the subject. ”What happened?”
”There was an explosion in the down-axis docking hub.”
”Serious?”
”Yes. The initiating explosive appears to have been thermite but the main blast and fire were caused by a volatile aerosol inside a trans.h.i.+p container. Damage was extensive.”
I envisioned the havoc that a two-thousand-cubic-meter sealed vapor bomb would wreak and marvelled at the kzin's capacity for understatement. We were lucky the whole down-axis hub hadn't been blown into s.p.a.ce.
”What action have you taken?”
”The area has been sealed and the crime scene team is going over it.”
”Findings?”
”A human corpse has been found that appears to have been inside the transport container. The container itself was modified to support life.”
”Support life? What do you mean?”
”We have found the remains of an oxygen recycler, food supplies and other items that indicate the container was designed to carry sentients in vacuum for extended periods.”
I swore. The Isolationists had been moving people back and forth to Wunderland with perfect impunity, right under our noses. Finagle only knew how many. We'd missed a trick. Reception parties would be waiting for the thirty-six containers on Jocelyn Merral's list when they arrived at their destinations but I hadn't thought about intercepting them in transit. It hadn't even occurred to me that some might still be within my grasp on Tiamat.
”What about the guards and the security monitors. How come they didn't pick this up in progress?”
”The Port was running its normal night s.h.i.+ft. The monitors didn't pick up anything out of the ordinary.”
”So the perpetrator must have had access.”
”Hrrrrr . . . Either that or a tampered ident.”
”Granted. So once again we have someone operating in the down-axis hub. Someone who didn't flee on theVoidtrekker .”
He raised a ma.s.sive paw. ”It would be foolish to a.s.sume that only one Isolationist cell was operating on Tiamat. I would presume we have flushed only those with a direct connection to 19J2.”
”What other information do we have?”
”Little enough. Damage was extensive. We can a.s.sume that they were willing to kill this individual rather than risk his capture.”
”Have they ID'd the body?”
”The coroner's report has not yet been released.”
If I never spoke to Dr. Morrow again it would be too soon. I was tired of sifting through the details of dead lives. I screened his office and asked him what the delay was. He was having trouble determining if the body had been dead before the explosion or not. I told him to make the ID priority one. He asked me to wait and I watched his pleasant pastel hold patterns. Hunter grew impatient and left to pursue his own work. Fifteen minutes later Morrow was back on with the results.
I thanked him and screened the file. K8DH3N37-Klein, Maximillian H. Graphic designer, unmarried, thirty-four standard years old, fifth generation Swarm Belter. No previous arrests. He'd lived his whole life on Tiamat and worked for Canexco, a large s.h.i.+pping company. A bell rang in the back of my head.
Miranda Holtzman's fatal cargo container had been s.h.i.+pped down to Wunderland aboard theCanexco Wayfarer . Perhaps there was a connection? I called up Max's employee file. He worked in corporate communications-nothing to do with the handling of trans.h.i.+p boxes but his company ident did include access to both hubs.
But what was a graphic designer doing in the container bays of the down-axis hub, with or without access? Was he involved or just caught in the wrong place at the wrong time? On a hunch I screened the composite holo created from Machine Technician's description. It was a rough match, not good but not bad considering the sketchiness of the source. Was he the one who'd sold Miranda's skin? Insufficient data. What was a graphic designer anyway? Presumably some sort of visual artist.
It occurred to me that I'd never seen a file listing ”Artist” or ”Musician” or ”Gardener” as a profession on Tiamat. This airless rock was made fit for life with advanced technology and maintained by technologists.
It exists solely to provide Alpha Centauri system with products of the very highest sophistication-products whose manufacture demands zero gravity or unlimited high vacuum or gigawatts of solar power. There's little room for someone not directly involved in survival-physical, economic or, since the kzinti came, military.
Of course the best engineers saw their work as art, even as the best artists refined their skills to a science. Maybe in this totally technical atmosphere, it wasn't surprising that people saw things through a technological lens. Idly, I punched up the work roster for the parks on the 1G level. Maybe I'd find at least a gardener.
The roster was full of eco-engineers and environmental control technicians.
I blanked the screen. It was a meaningless exercise. A rose was a rose, whether it was tended by gardeners or botanical techs. I had a feeling the difference was important, but it was too subtle to put my finger on. What's in a name? Maybe nothing. What does it mean when a society insists on calling an artist a graphic designer?
My mind was wandering. It was early morning and already I needed a break. I gave up trying to work and let my thoughts drift to Suze. She was beautiful, intelligent, sensuous, exciting, graceful, uninhibited, warm. Adjectives did her poor service. If I'd been able to find the words, I might have written a poem.
Instead I called up her file again. When the computer screened it, I blew up the ID holo and dumped it to the printer.
Dossier holos never do anyone justice but her radiance came through the bad image. She was wearing her characteristic high-energy smile. Her hair was longer when the holo was taken, a burnished auburn river flowing down over her shoulders. Her eyes were a dancing, sunny brown-lending just a hint of devilishness to her look.
I froze, cold horror seeping along my spine. Unnoticed facts clicked into place and my thoughts locked into a paralyzed frenzy of revelation and denial. I sat and stared for a long time. Then I commed her apt.
”Hi, what's up?”
I could hardly meet her gaze. I strove to keep my voice animated. ”Care for brunch?”
”Sure, whenwhere?”
”Meet me at the office and we'll figure it out. Fifteen minutes?”
”Give me thirty and you've got a deal.”
”See you then.” She smiled her dazzling smile.
I rang off and waited as the minutes dragged by. I had the shakes under control by the time she arrived; even so I still couldn't bring myself to meet her gaze. Instead I tossed her the holoprint. She took it and stared at it uncomprehending for a moment. Then her face hardened. She dropped the holo and looked up. This time I forced myself to look her in the eyes. They were ice blue. Miranda Holtzman's eyes were ice blue.
Her voice was as cold as her gaze. ”Now what?”
”You tell me.”
”Name a price, you'll get it. I'll just walk away.”
”In counterfeit?”
”In cash. Or credits if you like. You name it, you'll get it.”
I didn't answer her directly. Instead I asked a question. ”Why?”
She turned my words around. ”You tell me.”