Страница 95 из 170
If Patil called out that name in the face of an armed man and her imminent death, she’d tried to send Justin a message regarding someone she counted as a threat, or the source of threats. “They,” she’d said. A mysterious “they” had been watching her, scaring her, making her desperate enough to call Justin to try to get through to Jordan.
And why Jordan? Why not ask him to go to Ya
Jordan’s name had been popularly attached to the dissidents. They’d campaigned to get him released. Thieu had been in favor of terraforming and against the forces that had stopped it, namely the first Ari. Giraud, Ya
It wasn’t a sweet old man, was it?
Thieu would have wanted herdead, likely. Thieu had wanted the planet terraformed, all the ankyloderms and platytheres dead, everything in the oceans–all done; and the first Ari hadn’t. The first Ari had been a citizen of the planet, and Olga Emory hadn’t influenced her enough–the first Ari had changed her mind and begun to protect it.
Like Gehe
Had that had an emotional resonance for Ari One, herself? Take care of it? Defend it? Protect it?
It did with her. Shewasn’t for losing what Cyteen had grown up to have. She’d defend it. And that would put her on the outs with Dr. Raymond Thieu, who’d been sure Jordan Warrick would take his side and admire his work and his intentions.
Maybe that was over‑romanticizing it. Maybe that was giving too much credit to Jordan because, bastard that he was, he hadn’t liked the man’s insistence. Jordan wasn’t anybody’s follower, he was nobody’s disciple. Free‑thinker, yes, argumentative son of a bitch, definitely, but not the sort that would sit in the shadows with anybody and co
And Justin wanted the world as it was. He wanted to save the native fauna. Jordan wasn’t for destroying them so much as he was just for getting off the planet and going away and having all mankind living in space–living a lot like the Alliance folk, in steel worlds, in ships. Maybe with a forest at the heart of Pell, but that was not–not something that was going to be Jordan’s first project. He’d be trying to educate kids to be rational beings. That was what he used to do, before he became so angry.
He wasn’t Clavery, that was sure. But the two people they could reach who probably knew who that was…were both dead.
Clavery could be a nonperson or he could even be a hollow man sort of a nonperson, someone who’d never really existed, only who various people opted to be when they wanted to be somebody else. He could be a construct, a composite.
Even a foreigner. Somebody from Alliance. Somebody bent on mischief that could start the whole War again, and she didn’t think that was the case. If Patil had recognized him in her doorway, she’d known who she attached that name to, and she’d wanted it known to Justin and Jordan, as her last living act.
She couldn’t get through to Jordan, so she’d called Justin…
Couldn’t get through to Jordan.
But that was the one she’d wanted. Couldn’t get Thieu. So she wanted Jordan, as if he should know, or as if he should be warned.
Tell him about Anton Clavery? Thieu was dead, and that name was at issue, and Patil was terrified for her life? She’d gotten her message out. Not all of it. If she’d done a little less arguing with Justin and a little more saying what she had to say, the world would be safer.
It had been a collected, sensible gesture, in extremity. That at least was admirable. The first Ari would have done that, if she’d had time.
But, damn it, why had the woman had to feel her way with Justin and not just say it out loud?
Whoever hadn’t scrupled to kill two Specials was a person they urgently needed to find and deal with.
And which Specials were gone?
Both in nanistics. EverySpecial in nanistics. There were researchers and experts, but the brilliant people, the theorists, were gone.
A bad trade for the universe, she could think: whether she supported the project or not, they’d lost two geniuses in the same field.
It slowed Eversnow waydown. Therewas a problem for Ya
She ought to be happy about that, but she’d promised Ya
Maybe somebody thought they’d now gotten the better of Ya
Somebody might have second thoughts about that move if Ya
But then–maybe it was the project itself that had stirred this kind of opposition. Maybe it was nudging somebody else’s territory. And if someone thought getting rid of Patil and Thieu would stop Reseune from a project Reseune needed–
Well, Ya
BOOK THREE Section 2 Chapter viii
JUNE 14, 2424
1802H
Another di
Dear Ya
And he was.
He did look tired. She showed him right into the dining room, and Haze personally offered him a drink. “What are we eating?” he asked, sensibly, and Haze suggested an early start on the wine, a white, which Ya
The first sip went down with a deep sigh. Followed by a second. Ya
“We have a new cook,” she said. “I don’t know what he’s put together, but it should be good.”
“Thanks for the transcripts on the Patil case,” he said, straight to business.
“No problem,” she said, and signaled Haze, who was doing the serving tonight, with Florian entertaining Frank in the conference room, and Catlin on hold for her di
That started going down, too, as if Ya
“Ya
“I’ve got a lot of pieces trying to come unglued,” Ya
“Who’s Anton Clavery?”
“Not a pleasant di
“But this is our window to have this conversation, unless you want to stay for drinks, and I know you’re tired. Ya
“We don’t know. Clavery’s nobody. Literally, nobody.”
“Nonperson?”
“Something like.”
“Did he kill Patil?”
“Behind it, we’re pretty sure. Not the hand on the trigger, necessarily, but–”
“Why did he kill Patil?”
“Because…” Another bite went down, chased by the rest of the wine. “Because Patil was coming over to Science, or because certain people know about Eversnow, and shouldn’t, and that blew up before it ever got to public knowledge.”