Cryoburn

"There may not have been any males made," mused Raven-sensei. "I believe sphinxes were traditionally female. But these proprietary constructs normally aren't given the ability to reproduce. You'd likely have to clone her, and hand-raise the babies."

Jin's imagination took fire. Home cloning of small animals wasn't that hard, if you could get the right equipment, from a pet supply place or hobbyist who was upgrading or quitting. Hardly something to be found in an alley scavenge, but there ought to be used stuff for cheap somewhere…?

"Hum!" said the sphinx, plaintively.

"She talks!" cried Mina, her face breaking into a delighted smile.

"They come with about a twenty-word vocabulary, according to the file," said Jin. "I don't know if you can teach them more, like a parrot."

"We can try…"

Beyond the glass, their mother made a noise of hopeless maternal protest, much like the halfway point of other such negotiations, so Jin took heart. But this time, she said, "Jin, we don't even have a home to take her to, right now. Oh, no, I just thought of that! What's happened to our apartment, and all my things? Nobody could have been paying rent for a year and a half, with no one living there. Oh-and my bank account-what happened to my money, after I was frozen? If I have no job, no money, no place for us to live-"

"Aunt Lorna has some of your clothes in boxes in the attic, I know," Mina piped up. "And she took my stuff and Jin's. She had to sell the big couch, and the kitchen table, and a couple of the other big things, because she didn't have room, though."

Consul Vorlynkin turned and spoke through the glass, earnestly. "These are all solvable problems, Madame Sato, but none of them need be solved today, or all at once. As part of the Lord Auditor's case-a protected witness, more or less-your immediate needs will be covered by our consulate."

"My committee, my friends-what's happened to them all, beyond the ones you say NewEgypt murdered or took away? What if they-" Her voice shrank to silence.

"Your first task must be your own physical recovery," Raven-sensei put in, with a look of concern at her sudden distress. "Your normal mental resilience will follow. In two to four weeks, not two to four days-you have to give yourself time."

"I've never had enough time." She pressed her hands to her temples. "And that appalling creature-!"

Vorlynkin cleared his throat. "I'm not sure the Lord Auditor was thinking it through, when he accepted the animal. Nevertheless, it may be kept in the consulate's back garden with the rest of Jin's creatures, for now. They're doing no harm at all, there. Livens the place up, really. The space was underutilized."

She sighed, folded her arms, half-laughed, quelling Jin's growing alarm. "I suppose it just looms so absurdly large because it's closest." But her eyes sought Jin and Mina, not the sphinx.

Since they weren't going back to the consulate tonight after all, Vorlynkin let Jin speak on his wristcom with Lieutenant Joha

Miles-san and Roic had taken Leiber-sensei off to another room to talk, right after they'd come in. They returned at length, toting, unexpectedly, a big stack of di

They all ended up having a sort of picnic in the recovery room; Raven-sensei even took in a box to Jin's mother, so that when he pulled back the curtains after his medical check, it was almost as if they were all eating a family meal together again. Jin thought she looked a bit better after she ate, sitting up less wearily, and with more color in her face. But then, Ayako's curry was always very good.

It was fu

With frequent references to the instruction file, Jin fed tidbits to Nefertiti, who apparently could eat some kinds of people food but not others, at least not without messy digestive consequences. Unfortunately, Ako came in just as the sphinx was having an accident in the darkest corner, which was Jin's fault really because he hadn't paid enough attention to her little mutters of Poo! Pee! during her restless explorations of the recovery room. Ako was very upset, and made Jin clean it up, which was fair, but then insisted the creature couldn't spend the night in here. Raven-sensei, at least, seemed undisturbed by biological messes, and stayed out of the debate. Jin finally promised to take Nefertiti back to his rooftop hideout for overnight, which satisfied Ako, but then Mina wanted to tag along and see the place.

Miles-san and Roic had gone off by then to meet with Lord Mark and Suze-san, so Consul Vorlynkin, after a glance through the glass at Jin's worried-looking mother, volunteered to go along and help lug the sphinx carrier, and make sure that all was well. Jin's mother smiled gratefully at him, so Jin supposed that was all right, too.

They were filing down the end stairs when they met Bhavya, one of Ako's friends, panting up.

"Jin! Have you seen Ako? Tanaka-san wants her on the second floor-an emergency cryoprep. Some poor old lady collapsed in the cafeteria, all in a heap, they say."

"She's up in the recovery room with my mom." Jin pointed back up the stairs. "Raven-sensei's there, too."

Bhavya nodded and ran on, waving thanks without looking back.

Vorlynkin wheeled to stare after her. "Should we go try to help?"

Jin shook his head. "Naw, this happens all the time. Well, not all the time, but every week or so. Tanaka-san knows what to do."

Vorlynkin looked doubtful, but followed Jin down to the tu

"The layout down here is very confusing," he remarked.

"Yah, the tu

Jin had no trouble finding his own familiar route, even when they passed out of range of the lit section, and Vorlynkin drew a small hand light from his jacket to illuminate the steps. Mina, who had walked on her own thus far, took a prudent grip on his wide coat sleeve in the deepening shadows. They trudged upward five flights to come out at last from the exchanger tower door onto Jin's roof. Vorlynkin wasn't wheezing too badly, for a grownup, despite carting the carrier.

Jin had lost track of time in the windowless recovery room, but it seemed to have grown very late. The air was damp and chill, lit by diffuse reflections from the street lights in the area that gave everything a fu