Mark Tiedemann - Mirage

Mia's breath sounded explosively loud in her own ears.

"Bogard…" she breathed, relieved. "Your domicile has been compromised," Bogard explained.

"Listening devices as well as full visual surveillance, including a tap on your com line. I detected only two personnel: the one in the transport, the other waiting in the lobby. I did not procure sufficient data for recognition, per your instructions."

"Good, good… you did good, Bogard."

Mia tapped at her portable datum and watched the diagnostic examine itself for intrusions. It came up clean. Perhaps later she could get a more complete diagnostic, just in case, but for now she had to trust her own safeguards.

Time for the next decision. Now that she knew she was under surveillance, she also knew she could not report to One. Someone on the inside could intercept her before she got to him. She was a competent, even talented, agent, but she was relatively new on the job and had no illusions about the limits of her experience. She needed a place to recover completely and think clearly.

But where?

She opened her list of names and started scrolling. Most of the people she knew well worked for the Service. Going to one of them was a fifty-fifty chance that they were involved or would become targets themselves. She winced inwardly at the solid recognition that she could trust none of her former colleagues. Who did that leave? Relatives? No. Her parents were dead, most of her brothers and sisters had emigrated to a Settler colony, except Toj, but he lived in Europe now. Besides, it would be unfair to make them targets, especially since they were known to the Service and were probably being watched in case she did contact them. Her best friend from university had broken off their friendship when Mia had signed for Special Service. The rest of her friends… well, none were close enough to ask this kind of favor from. If they were, she could not see that it would help. They did not know what it entailed. She would be putting them in danger.

This was frustrating. Paranoia occluded every possible action.

Mia stopped scrolling and stared at the name that now appeared on the screen. Gradually, she felt herself begin to hope.

"Bogard, help me get dressed. I know where we're going."

Ariel listened to the quiet music, eyes closed, and wished for sleep. The day had stretched till it felt like two had been compressed into one.

The delicate sound of ice in liquid clattering against a glass brought her attention back to the present. Jonis Taprin smiled tensely at her as he sat down in the chair opposite her own, his back to her wall-length window. Beyond, D. C. 's roof sprawled in the night, marked by guide towers and isolated pools of light outlining the expanse of shell beneath which millions of people worked, ate, slept, lived their entire lives without ever seeing the stars except on a screen in a classroom or library. A few enclaves erupted from the surface to boldly challenge the open sky, homes of the unaffected rich and offworld visitors who found constant enclosure beneath tons of metal intolerable.

Ariel absently rubbed the sole of her left foot with the toes of her right. "Why is it, after hours and hours of sitting in front of a com, my feet hurt?"

"I'd rub them for you," Jonis said, "but Jennie might think I'm hurting you."

Ariel lifted the glass Jonis had set beside her, ignoring the remark. Jonis no more worried that Ariel's personal robot would object than she did, but he liked Ariel to invite him to touch her, a game she occasionally appreciated but one that he overdid. "Thanks," she said, "I think I've earned this." She sipped. "Sorry I haven't had time to talk. It's been chaotic."

"Same here. More so, maybe. Clar's death has left a vacuum large enough to swallow the sun. I appreciate you let ting me hide out for a few hours. This may be the last reprieve I get for the foreseeable future."

"If your office is half as insane as mine…" She let the remark fade unfinished. Jonis had been on the verge of some sort of breakdown since he had arrived. Oddly, he seemed guilty about something-perhaps survivor's shame. Besides being his vice senator, Jonis Taprin had been Eliton 's friend.

Jonis glanced over his shoulder at the view. "I'm getting better. Maybe by the time you agree to cohabit, I might even be used to it."

Ariel felt herself tense at the remark, but covered her reaction by rubbing her eyes.

"Want to talk about it?" When she gave him a sharp look, he raised a hand defensively. "Your day, I mean."

"Oh, it's…" Ariel sighed. "Have you ever tried to calm down someone who is terrified for no good reason?"

"Just today, as a matter of fact. I think I'm about to be doing a lot of that."

"I've been in contact with, oh, thirty-five or forty people since the incident, all Aurorans, all important people, all ready to book passage on the next ship back to Aurora. All I had to do was convince them to stay."

"Did you?"

"Most of them. A few can't be consoled or mollified or threatened. They're leaving."

"What about Guviya Tralen? Isn't she the key to the rest?"

"You might say that," Ariel agreed. "The rest follow her example. If she buys on the Terran Exchange, Aurorans the world over buy. If she sells, they sell."

"If she runs home…?"

"Exactly. I'd rather negotiate with a Managin sometimes. She said, 'My good Ariel, this planet is a sick place. There's no fixing it. Too much time, too much history, too much ingrowth. We're wasting resources on trying to come to terms with them. Our ancestors were right to leave and the Settlers are right, much as it pains me to admit that anything born on this world can be right. ' "

Jonis raised his eyebrows. "Hmm. Well, her analysis is sound. I'm not sure I'd agree that we're sick."

Ariel waved a hand. "Talk. She wanted me to offer her something."

"And did you?"

"I offered her a blot on her reputation if she ran. Sometimes that's more important to a Spacer-at least to an Auroran-than comfort, security, and happiness."

"So she's staying?"

"At least until the investigation is done. If arrests are made, then I think I can pressure her to stay on."

"You're wonderful, Ariel. If your fellow Aurorans leave now everything Clar and Humadros worked for would fall apart. The treaty is still there, even if the architects are not, and there's no reason to think we can't still get it ratified."

"Has there been any progress?"

"In the investigation?" Jonis shook his head. "No, I'm afraid not. Of course, it's a little soon."

"I thought you had prisoners?"

"I haven't heard anything from any interrogation." He sighed tiredly. "I'm not looking forward to the next few days, either. I have to contact the families of Clar's security team and tell them all their children are dead."

Ariel saw the anguish on his face. Jonis was very much the politician in public-controlled, reserved, emotional when necessary. In many ways he was the perfect successor to Clar Eliton. She wondered sometimes that he had never run against Eliton in a general election, contenting himself to be Vice Senator Taprin, but he worked very effectively behind the scenes while Eliton presented the more visible public face. In the months she had known him, Ariel had found him to be as much an idealist as Eliton, but coupled with a practicality Eliton had seemed to lack. Now he would step into the senatorial position and she looked forward to seeing what he would make of it.

"A waste," she said. "Did you know them?"

"Not well, but then Special Service doesn't encourage intimacy on the part of their operatives."

For a moment Ariel considered inviting him to spend the night. But she had a lot on her mind and wanted to sleep and knew if he stayed that neither of them would.