Mark Tiedemann - Mirage

"Avernus in Perihelion," came Ariel's voice over the intercom.

"Accepted," Bogard announced and opened the door.

Ariel stepped past the robot with a wary look, followed by a man Mia did not know. Only slightly taller than Ariel, he wore his pale hair short, and a black jacket over a dark blue one-piece.

"Hello, Bogard," he said, his expression openly surprised.

"Hello, Derec," the robot replied. "It is good to see you, again."

Derec gave Ariel a skeptical look. "Avernus in Perihelion?"

"Would anyone you know guess that as a password?" Ariel asked.

Derec shook his head. "No, I suppose not." He looked at Bogard again. "Don't take this wrong, Bogard, but I thought you were dead."

"No, sir," Bogard said. "Although your misapprehension is understandable."

"Welcome home, Ariel," R. Jennie said, accepting Ariel's jacket. "Welcome, sir."

Derec shrugged out of his jacket and handed it to R. Jennie. "Thank you." He stepped into the living room and looked at Mia with the same expression of amazement. "And you. You're-"

"Dead, yes," Mia said. "Officially, at least. Do I know you?"

"No. The last time I saw you was in the hospital. You were quite unconscious. The next time I saw that room, though…"

"Bogard performed its function admirably," Mia said.

Derec gave the robot another look, this time with an unmistakable expression of pride.

"Apparently," he said.

"Mia Daventri," Ariel said then, "this is Derec Avery, of the Phylaxis Group. Derec-my friend, Mia Daventri."

Derec came up to her and extended his hand. "I'm not sure I even want to know how you ended up here. But I'm very pleased to make your acquaintance."

Mia took his hand. Dry, warm. "I've heard interesting things about you, Mr. Avery."

"Derec, please." He glanced at Ariel. "From Ariel?"

"No."

"How do you feel?" Ariel asked.

"Better. A little pain block does wonders for my disposition."

"Good. We have work to do."

"'We'?" Mia asked.

Ariel smiled. "You wanted me to trust you, you have to trust me. I wouldn't bring just anyone in here now. Derec is the other positronic expert on Earth."

Derec grinned. "The other best one, that is." He looked at Ariel. "Who's the first one?"

Ariel aimed a finger at him. "Don't start."

Derec raised his hands in mock surrender. "Somebody should start, though. Why not Ms. Daventri?"

"Mia. Unless I'm mad at you, then it's Special Agent Daventri." She liked his smile, she decided. But it was obvious Ariel did not. "Start where? With what?"

"First, I suppose, how did you get out of that hospital alive?"

Mia sighed and started talking. "You saw two people?" Derec asked again.

"There might easily have been more. Bogard, how many intruders entered the hospital?"

"I registered five presences in the building," Bogard said. "One was the agent left as guard. One was the physician on duty sleeping in the doctor's lounge. Three intruders entered. Two conducted the assault on your room while the third remained at the entrance."

"How many were involved in the assault at Union Station?" Ariel asked. "Several got away."

"Bogard," Derec asked, "how many assailants did you count at Union Station?"

"A visual count of twenty-one."

"That seems right," Mia said.

Derec was frowning at the robot. "Why the qualification, Bogard?"

"I am not sure, Derec, but I have a firm count of the visual only. Infrared suggests eighteen, radar only nine. I cannot explain the discrepancy."

"We need recordings from the assault," Derec said.

Ariel crossed the room to her com. "We have two newsnet downloads."

"Only two?"

Ariel gave Derec a mock scowl. "To start." She worked at the com for a minute, then gestured to the subetheric. The broad space filled with the image of Union Station's gallery, filled with spectators awaiting the arrival.

"This is Seath Callon for GVS-"

"We don't need sound," Derec said. "I think(we've all heard enough. Just visual."

The voice-over died and they watched in silence the events unfold. The entrance of the Eliton party, the gathering on the platform, the arrival of the Spacer legations, the explosions. The recorder shifted abruptly, then, the operator apparently unsure where to concentrate attention. Finally, the image closed on the platform and the area immediately surrounding it as the black-clad figures crowded against the base, firing into the panicked delegates. Mia noticed that Derec A very watched Bogard as much as the vid.

"Looks like twenty-one to me," Ariel said.

"Back it up slowly," Mia said. "Bogard, track the assailants."

The robot moved closer to the screen.

The camera withdrew, the action flowing languidly in reverse until a point just before the explosions.

"Stop," Mia said. "Bogard?"

"There is a discrepancy," the robot said. "I counted twenty-one assailants at the edge of the platform. Twelve of them are absent from the crowd at this point."

"What-?" Ariel started. She glared at the robot.

"Wait," Derec said. "The vid I saw at the station from the RI surveillance, just prior to it going off-line, showed people in the crowd vanishing. Now you're telling us that several of these figures appeared during the initial attack? They weren't already present?"

"That is what I am seeing, Derec."

Ariel's skeptical look slowly changed to apprehension. "Mia, do you remember what you saw?"

"Not that well. Our first concern was the explosions. Then the gunfire."

"Bogard," Derec said, "we'll advance the scene now. Tell us when those missing figures first appear."

The scene once more ran its course, in slow motion. The crowd seemed to undulate under the sound of the blasts, like anemone waving in an ocean current.

"Stop," Bogard said.

Derec leaned forward, then grabbed the subetheric control. "Where?" he asked, handing the device to Bogard.

The robot narrowed the view to a patch of people about four meters from the base of the platform. It was a variegated collection of onlookers, mostly well-off, dressed fashionably in brightly-colored jackets over more muted single-pieces, hair streaked and coifed in pastels. Now, panicked, their faces were drawn into macabre parodies of themselves, eyes wide, mouths gaping, and their bodies crouched in preparation to run. But they were trapped in a larger crowd with no room.

In the very midst of the twenty or so spectators, three people stood dressed all in black. Even their heads were covered by pullovers. There was something not right about two of them, though, the two following a third who shoved a path through the crowd.

"They don't fit," Mia said. "Look at the people immediately around them, especially that man in bright red. Beside him is a woman in orange? They're standing right next to each other. In fact-Bogard, can you give us more mag? Thank you-in fact, they're holding hands."

"So?" Ariel asked.

"Their arms are joined right through that assailant's stomach," Mia pointed out. "Look at the other one… the shoulder is passing through that woman's breasts."

"Images," Derec said. "Projections. Bogard, follow those two, continue scan."

The scene began to move again. The two black-clad figures stepped quickly through-through, not around-the intervening people, following a leader, to emerge into the space now at the foot of the platform. Others joined them. They seemed to lean their elbows on the edge of the plat form, rifles in hand, and commence firing.

"Bogard, see if the other sudden appearances come grouped in twos or threes."

The robot advanced and backed up the images, shifting from one part of the crowd to the next, so quickly Mia had trouble following the scene. She had to close her eyes when vertigo threatened to make her nauseated.