Barry Longyear - Enemy Papers

"You are blind, Joanne Nicole; and there is still a war, and a problem to be solved."

She heard Tora Soam’s footsteps approach her, then a hand took her arm.

"Come with me. You have rendered your apartment unfit for habitation: I will have it cleaned and the furnishings replaced." They entered the corridor and turned to the right.

"Joanne Nicole, to follow this talma it was necessary to enable you to see both as a human and as a Drac. Perhaps Sin Vidak’s unfortunate timing has destroyed this. Perhaps not. As long as it works, an accidental trigger to your thoughts serves as well as one that is planned. But all of the sides to this war are rulebound."

"That much I saw."

"Excellent. Can you see whether we are bound by our own rules, or by the rules of an outside agent?"

Nicole shook her head. "No. But the answer is on Amadeen. Of course, you knew that."

"Yes. We knew the answer is there. We also knew that we did not know what questions to ask to get that answer. Our negotiators are attempting to open again the talks with the humans. Will you go with us to Amadeen?"

"Answer me this, first: Vencha Eban at the Chirn Kovah…"

"Fanda also played that part."

Images, vocal gestures, came together in her mind. The disrespectful words; the hesitations before saying the word "parent."

"Tora Soam is not… itself these days."

"Fanda is an excellent actor, Tora Soam."

"I will pass along your compliment."

Nicole stopped and faced the Drac. "When does all of this testing end?"

"I do not understand."

"You are another actor. And this is yet another play. When does this testing end?"

The Drac was silent for a moment, then answered in a different, higher voice. "I think it already has."

Joanne Nicole sat in the back of a car, Baadek driving her to what it said was the Talman Kovah-

What I assume to be the back of a car; what I assume to be driving; by a creature I assume to be Baadek-

"Driver, who are you?"

"You do not recognize me, Joanne Nicole? I am Baadek."

"Who are you?"

The Drac chuckled. "My name is Hida Mu."

"Another actor?"

"I belong to the same company as Fanda."

Nicole rubbed her eyes, the motion of the car moving her-

What I assume to be a car; what I assume to be driving-

There were Shizumaat’s words, and she remembered them: "Instead believe this: question everything, accept the wholeness of no truth nor the absolute rightness of any path."

Her hand reached out and felt for the doorlatch. When she found the recessed handle, she pushed on it, the door opened, and she began to step out of the compartment.

A curse came from the driver’s seat, the sound of hissing brakes, as Nicole’s right foot was whipped out from under her, flinging her against the open door. A strong hand grabbed her left arm as the vehicle slewed to a stop.

The driver relaxed its grip on her, and Nicole relaxed her grip on the door, sinking down upon the road’s pavement. "You are insane! Poorzhab!" A door opened and Nicole could hear boots running around the vehicle, then the Drac squatted next to her. "Are you hurt? The Ovjetah will have my feet in a fire for this-oh, look at your knee!"

"I cannot look at much of anything, Drac." She gingerly reached out and touched her right knee. "It’s only scraped. Don’t have a hemorrhage over it."

"Why? Joanne Nicole, why did you do this to me?"

"It was necessary to test the truth by trying to make it lie: Isn’t that what you kizlodes have been teaching me? Trust nothing?"

"Ahhh! You do not test the sharpness of a knife by plunging the blade into your skull, do you?" Hands reached under her armpits and lifted her back into the car. After her legs had been lifted in and her door slammed shut, Nicole half-heard a string of muttered curses as the Drac driver moved around the vehicle and slammed its own door. Nicole presumed that the subsequent rapid clicks of metal against metal were the doors being locked. "Now, I beg you, just sit until we arrive at the kovah!"

The vehicle jerked into motion. "Drac?"

After a steaming silence, the Drac answered. "What?"

"How do I test that it is the Talman Kovah, Drac?"

"That… that is not my problem, human! Not my problem!"

Nicole rested her head against the back of the seat as the evidence from her most recent experiment throbbed in her knee.

Trust in mere words was in thin supply.

She was left, seated in a couch. After the Drac driver had left, Nicole stood up and felt her way around the room. It was a relatively small greeting room; two couches, two doors on opposite ends, the walls and floor covered in smooth tiles. She returned to the couch.

There was the sound of a door opening, then soft, unfamiliar footsteps entering the room. The sounds of the footsteps ceased.

"Welcome, Joanne Nicole, to the Talman Kovah. My name is Ovjetah Tora Soam."

The voice was different-different from the one she had heard in the Chirn Kovah-different from the one she had heard at the Tora estate- always supposing that I had been at the Tora estate.

The one calling itself Tora Soam continued: "I see questions upon your face. I am inclined to answer a few. What would you ask?"

"The Tora Soam I know is different."

"Does that surprise you?"

"No… No. I am developing a high surprise threshold."

"Excellent."

"But this game… it is grotesque!"

"It is for a purpose. You would not be here unless you understood that purpose." There was a silence; then the sound of the Drac-if it was a Drac-seating itself in the opposite couch.

"Drac, at times, I think I know the purpose; at other times, I don’t know."

"Do you have questions?"

Do I have questions? Hell, yes, I have questions! Will I get a straight answer to any of them?

"Drac, the one called Tora Kia."

"Yes?"

"Is Tora Kia-the one I met-is that your first child?"

"Yes."

"Were my experiences with Tora Kia genuine?"

The new one called Tora Soam laughed. "A fine word: genuine. Yes. I suppose they were; if anything can be considered genuine. Kia was not happy with my game. Its experiences upon Amadeen clouded Kia’s sense of talma. I understand that Mitra Quim played my part with true conviction."

"Was Kia’s part staged?"

Another laugh. "Partly, but not the part that you mean. I can only speculate about the frustratedness of your, emmmm, love affair."

Nicole felt her face tum red. "How did you know about that meeting?"

"Kia told me. My child is sufficiently versed in talma to know that it might have destroyed my plans with its exercise in self pity. As it turns out, however, no damage was done. Your meeting with Sin Vidak may be another matter, however. We can only see."

"Drac-"

"My proper address is Ovjetah, or Tora Soam, "

"I’ve been told that before, Drac."

"Emmmm."

"In fact, I have no evidence that you even are a Drac. Your Fanda-if that’s its name-played a fairly convincing human."

Nicole heard motion from the other couch, then three footsteps. A hand took hers. "Count the fingers, human."