Jack McDevitt - The Devil's Eye

The young man who'd died that night visiting the Keltons was Jaris Cole. All these years later, his mother still carried the pain in her eyes. "You don't get past something like that," she told me. "It's the one thing in my life that I'd change if I could. And the only thing that really mattered." She was an ordinary-looking woman, quiet, introverted, with a resigned smile. Her husband had died a few years after the incident, and there'd been no other children. "At the time," she said, "Jaris was about to marry Marinda. The mayor's daughter. She was a pretty little thing. Would have made a perfect-" She stopped, bit her lip, and waved it away. "The date was set." We were seated in an overlook, protected from the weather, watching the forest absorb a light rain. Alex had stayed away, assuming she'd be more open with me. "You'd have liked her, Chase." "I'm sure I would." "Not at all like her mother." "You didn't like Jennifer?" "Jennifer was all right, I suppose. Not the kind of woman you could get close to, though. But as the wedding date approached, we got to working together, planning things. It was a good time." "I'm sure it was." "We actually became friends." The wind blew some rain in on us, but she didn't seem to mind. "One day we met in the Sunlight Diner, over near the park. You could see it from here if the trees didn't get in the way. We wanted to talk about the details of the ceremony. There'd been a problem about that. The Keltons weren't very religious. The mayor pretended to be, because people wouldn't have voted for him if they knew what he really thought. But Jennifer was the decision-maker in the family, and she was dead

set against a religious ceremony. I'd asked Jaris about that, and he said it was okay, they'd get somebody to bless the marriage later. "Tank wasn't happy with it. My husband. But we decided we'd just let it go. We didn't want to create a problem. So I was going to tell her we'd thought about it and agreed it was okay to go with a civil ceremony. I saved it for last. We finished eating and came here, right where we're sitting now. And I had just raised the subject, when she held up both hands asking me not to go any further. Her face crinkled up like she was about to start crying. She had to take a minute to get her voice under control. Then she said don't worry about it, she really didn't give a damn, do the religious ceremony if we wanted. It would be okay." "Did she say why she'd changed her mind?" "No. Just that it didn't matter." "You didn't ask her why?" "Chase, I quit while I was ahead." Her brow furrowed. There was something else, and I waited for her to tell me. Finally, it came: "What she really said, as best I can remember, was: 'Goddam Calient .' Then, 'Elda, it just doesn't matter anymore.'" " Calient . What's that?" "It's an island." "Where?" "I don't know. On the other side of the world somewhere." "Elda," I said, "I can imagine how difficult this must be for you." "No. That's all right." She managed a smile. "It helps to talk about it." "Just one more question: You've told this story to other people?" "Yes." "To Vicki Greene?" "Yes," she said. "I did. Do you know Vicki Greene?"

That night, I relayed everything to Alex. Then, while I got a sandwich out of the kitchen, he consulted the AI. When I sat down with him again a few minutes later he wanted to know whether Elda had specified that Calient meant the island. "She said she really didn't know what Jennifer was referring to. That she assumed she meant the island. But she doesn't think she asked." "It's a tourist spot," said Alex. "One of the Golden Isles." "You checked?" "It gets tens of thousands of visitors every year." "Okay." "There are a lot of other Calient s around. There is a substantial number of people with that name living within a thousand kilometers of Mancuso. There's a physicist, a mathematician, two dentists, lots of persons of leisure, retired people, screwups, you name it." He shrugged. "We could hunt forever and not come up with the correct reference. "There was also, thirty years ago, a touring musical with the name. And a Calient hotel chain, and a novel titled Mission to Calient ." "Did you read it?" "Are you serious?" "Sure." "It's about a survey group to a planet that, as far as I can tell, is purely fictional. The mission, however, disappears, and a team is sent to find out what happened." "And-? "I didn't get any further. If you can find the time, you might take a look at it tonight. But I don't think it's going to help us. Despite the missing mission." "Okay."

"There's an aircraft design called the Calient . The thing isn't manufactured anymore. But it was at the time the houses were blown up." "There's more?" "There's a Calient that makes the run between Salud Afar and Rimway. It's named for a crewman who fought off a bunch of lunatics who tried to take over a ship. They were going to crash it into Marinopolis in an effort to kill Cleev. That was forty years ago." "You think that might be it?" "Hard to see how." He checked his notebook. "And in geographical sites, aside from the island group, there was also at one time, before the rise of the Bandahrs, a Calient state. There is currently a Calient mountain range and a Calient River. All on another continent, by the way. Calient s helped lead governments and revolutions, two made literary reputations for themselves, one wrote a symphony, sixteen (that I've been able to find) founded or led major corporations, several became well-known entertainers, one accidentally burned down a house with six people in it, three became judges with prominent reputations. One was a serial killer. Another gave his life to rescue a stranger during a flood. "There was another starship with the name, by the way, but it goes way back. It was a second-millennium warship. There was also a Calient mission. That was a long time ago, too. More than seven centuries. It was sent out by the"-he checked the notebook-"Beila Ti civilization. That's the one the Cleevs overthrew." He shook his head. "Did you know there's another star out in the general direction of Callistra?" "I didn't know. Does it matter?" "It's Seepah. A class-G dwarf. It's a long way from here. Over a thousand light-years. When Callistra's directly overhead, Seepah would be about halfway down the western sky." "I've never noticed it." "It isn't visible to the naked eye." "And that's where the Calient mission went?" "Yes." "And they found what-?" "Not much. Eight worlds, one in an early bio state. Single-celled stuff only. They left a series of hyperlight monitors in orbit. One or two at each world." "Okay. Why do we care?" "After about a half century, one shut down." "A half century? You'd expect that." "Right. Thirty or so years later, two more shut down." "Really?" "Simultaneously." "That doesn't seem likely. Unless-Maybe there was a solar flare." Alex shrugged. "Don't know." "What did they find out when they went back to take a look?" "They didn't." "They didn't go back?" "No." "Why not?" "By the time it happened, Beila Ti didn't exist anymore. It had been taken over by the Bandahr. The Cleevs apparently weren't very interested in astronomy." "Well," I said, "I can't see how it connects with anything." "A simultaneous shutdown seems odd." "I'll grant that. Is this place anywhere close to 447, the asteroid with the monument?" "No. It's a couple of thousand light-years away." "Okay. I think we should dismiss it and stick to the problem at hand." "It is suggestive, Chase." "Of what?"

He changed the subject: "Actually there are other Calient s. A number of schools have the name, some parks, at least one zoo, and two social clubs. There was even, at the time the monitors shut down, a comedian." "Have you tried asking the AI to sort through it?" "We need Jacob," he said. "This one's okay, but he has a hard time if I can't give him exact parameters. But the answer is yes . Nobody, and nothing, as far as the AI can see, has a direct connection with any of the Keltons, with Edward Demery, or with the prospective groom. Well, that's not entirely true. One of them was a service technician who worked on the power at the groom's home three years before he met Jennifer's daughter." We sat looking at each other. "Maybe it's time for us to go home," I said. "We've made a reasonable effort." Those brown eyes brightened. "I'm surprised that you'd give up so easily, Chase." "So easily? We've come a zillion light-years. We've traveled all over the world. Talked to half the people on the planet. Lost a skimmer. Damn near got eaten. And I know you don't believe me, but I ran into a ghost. I say we take the hint." We had the HV on, sound down. A journalist was seated at a desk marked GLOBAL NEWS. He looked excited. Alex increased the volume.