Charles Sheffield - Starfire

The alternatives were equally unappealing. Oliver Guest, serial killer of young girls, might seek to do what he had done before: remove them from the world as they came to puberty, and begin with new clones. Except that was now unthinkable; the misery and degradation of their sometime existence was no longer a justification for such an action.

The other option was to allow the girls to age naturally, and thus inevitably to lose them when they became full adults. It occurred to me, as never before, that this was the plight of every parent. I pondered, I agonized, and I discovered no acceptable answer. Seth’s call, when it finally came, was doubly welcome.

It was also surprising. The RV link was on, but I could see Seth’s face against the background of the one-room apartment that he had rented for use on Sky City.

“Oh, yeah,” he said at my question. “I keep the earpiece in all the time, but I don’t wear the RV jacket at night ’cause it’s too hot. It’s hung on the wall over there, an’ you’re gettin’ its picture.”

It was, in fact, a rather superior picture. The suit was in a fixed position, which removed the need for image motion compensation and restoration.

“I was expecting your call much earlier,” I said. “Have you been experiencing difficulties?”

I was surprised by the strength of his reaction. I was looking forward to revealing to him my own discovery, and had asked my question more to extend the moment than in anticipation of a positive answer.

He glared at me. His eyes were bloodshot and dark-rimmed. “Difficulties? You gotta be kidding. Don’t you know what’s goin’ on up here?”

“I assume that you are seeking evidence and possible assistance on Sky City.”

“Well, you’re wrong. Both counts. This place is a madhouse. They’re gettin 1ready to move the whole shebang out to the end of the shield. Nobody knows if the stresses will make the city fall apart. An’ it’s worse than that. Listen.”

It was clear from his manner that I was going to do so, whether I elected to or not. He spoke of the harassment and continuing suspicion he had encountered when he tried to wander the corridors and chambers of Sky City alone. He spoke of his increasing conviction that he needed help. I made sympathetic noises, waiting to reveal my own discovery.

Then he told me of his meeting with and solicitation of assistance from another Argos Group employee. All my sympathy vanished.

“You did what ?” I said. “That is pure insanity.”

“I guess you know that when you see it.”

“We agreed that everything between us would be held totally secret!”

“We did. It will.” Seth remained calm. “Hold your water, Doc. Your name and your role in this were never mentioned. All I asked Maddy Wheatstone to do was roll round Sky City with me for a while, so I could go places in peace. She has no idea what the RV jacket does. Even if you spoke to me, she’d never know it. The earpiece don’t make enough noise for anybody but me to hear.”

“That attitude is naive beyond belief. The woman could learn too much in a dozen ways.”

“Name one.”

“I will name three. First, suppose that you at my request suddenly follow a person, or undertake a different course of action from the one you have been engaged in.”

“I’ll tell her why I’m doin’ it.”

“Suppose you do not know the reason? Are you claiming to be privy to my innermost thoughts?”

“Not for a pension. You tryin’ to give me the creeps? I’ll find a reason to give her.”

“Very well. Consider this situation. Both of you work for the Argos Group, and from what you say she is highly placed within it. Suppose that she goes to her superior and asks who else is involved in what you are doing.”

“She’ll strike out. Gordy Rolfe don’t work like that. Nobody in the Argos Group knows I came to you, an’ no one will. The only person who knows I’m on this job is the man who assigned it to me, an’ Gordy’ll let you have fifteen feet of his small intestine before he’ll give up information.”

If Seth was typical of the Argos Group, I readily accepted what he said regarding the paucity of information transfer. But I was not yet satisfied. “This woman, Maddy Wheatstone, will surely not assist you for no reason. There must be a quid pro quo. Suppose that she insists on knowing more of what you are doing, as a condition for her cooperation.”

“I told her I was looking for the murderer, an’ that was enough. She wants me to help her keep an eye on a guy called John Hyslop, a big-shot engineer on Sky City. And no, she didn’t tell me why she’s watching him. She’s as tight as Gordy Rolfe.” Seth lay back on his bed, so the RV jacket no longer provided me with a view of his face. “Anyway.” His voice was weary. “If you had let me finish before you blew off, you’d have seen why none of this matters worth a damn. I met John Hyslop, an’ I’m spendin’ a helluva lot of time diggin’ into the data bases, lookin’ for clues an’ findin’ diddly-squat. An’ Maddy Wheatstone an’ me are traipsin’ round Sky City like a couple of mad tourists. But the places where the kids were killed have been picked over fine. I’m tellin’you, chances of us comin’ across anythin’ like a lead to the murderer are flat-out zero.”

My moment had come. “That,” I said softly, “is no longer necessary.”

“Say what?” He raised his head.

“You no longer need to seek evidence on Sky City. I know the name, occupation, motive, and present location of the murderer.”

I exaggerated a little. My knowledge of the killer’s present location was in truth a little imprecise.

Seth was on his feet again. “I don’t believe it. Tell me everything.”

I did, slowly, carefully, and completely. It took many minutes, but there was no danger that Seth’s attention might wander. At the end I said, “Well? Are you persuaded?”

“Yeah. You got it.” He was silent for a while, then repeated, “You got it. You don’t even need to send the data you pulled in today. I believe you. But you know the problem?”

“Of course. A court of law is a curiously irrational place. It disdains a mosaic of collateral evidence that any rational person regards as conclusive, and asks for proof. The knife in the murderer’s hand, the foot still on the victim’s windpipe. Proof.”

“Which we need and don’t have.”

“Precisely.”

“And until we got it we got nothin’.”

That was hardly fair. I forbore to point out to him that if we now had nothing, an hour ago he had had considerably less than nothing.

“So we still have problems,” he went on. “You feel sure there’ll be no more killings?”

“What would be the point? There is no need for them. And our murderer is supremely logical.”

“Logical, and a monster. What do we do?”

“We think. Or, more precisely, I think. For the moment, I suggest that you remain on Sky City.”

“Great. I stay up here while this crapheap flies off to nowhere or comes apart tryin’.”

“Remain there for the time being. Continue to cultivate Maddy Wheatstone and, if you can, the engineer, John Hyslop.”

He stared at me shrewdly. “You’re holdin’ out on me. You got somethin’ more.”

“No.” I shook my head, even though there was no way that he could see me. “I have nothing close to an answer. If and when I do, you will hear from me instantly. I have no more desire than you to prolong this enterprise.”

“Mmm. An’ I thought you were gettin’ fond of me.” Seth paused for a moment, then added, “Good one, Doc. You did some fancy thinkin’ after all, just when I was ready to write you off. Do it one more time, and let’s nail the bastard.”