Mark Tiedemann - Mirage

Ariel disliked using Derec's robot. She made the call to Special Service-anonymously, routed through a comline far from the embassy-with misgivings. They were sending a robot to lie to humans. There was no other way to look at it and her absolutist soul chafed at the idea.

Hofton looked briefly surprised when she walked into the reception area, the crate with the contraband brain under her arm. He smiled and followed her into her office.

The door closed. "The keeper visits the zoo," he said. "I trust you've been well?"

Ariel looked at him. "It's been busy?" She placed the crate under her desk. She was not really sure why she had brought it, other than she did not feel comfortable leaving it in her apartment anymore.

"Moderately."

"I've been handling some of it from home," she said, sitting down behind her desk. It had only been a couple of days and yet it seemed much longer. "What have you got?"

"Setaris has called at least eight times a day. Most of her questions I've been able to handle, primarily to do with the migration of Aurorans off Earth."

"How many?"

"Nearly six hundred in the last two days."

Ariel stared at him. "I thought"

"It seems that the TBI interrogated a few of our key citizens. They decided to leave immediately after. Others, not unexpectedly, followed."

"Who in particular?"

"I have a list…" Hofton fussed briefly with Ariel's terminal. "There. And at the top-"

"Guviya Tralen. Damn!" She stabbed at her comline. "What business did the TBI have interrogating her?"

"Her complaint was quite specific. They wanted to know who she knew among 'her kind'-I quote-who would want to disrupt the conference."

"Get me a schedule of everything else I need to tend to, Hofton. This call is private."

"Of course."

Hofton retreated from the office and Ariel stared in rage at the screen until a secretary appeared.

"I want to speak to Jonis Taprin."

"I'm sorry-" the secretary began.

"This is Ariel Burgess from the Auroran Embassy. He will want to take this call. Trust me."

"One moment, Ms. Burgess."

TBI…? I thought Special Service had assumed complete authority? Well, never assume anything on Earth…

Nearly two minutes elapsed before Jonis appeared; even at that, Ariel was surprised. Under other circumstances, she would have been pleased.

"Ariel," he said, smiling broadly. "How very good to hear from you, I've been-"

"What the hell is going on, Jonis? The TBI is rousting Aurorans."

Jonis's face seemed to ripple, settling finally into a wary frown. "I'm not sure I understand…"

"Don't play politic with me, Jonis, you know damn well what I'm talking about. I've got a list of prominent Aurorans in front of me who've been interrogated over the last two days by TBI agents. Most of them are leaving, which was something I worked very hard to prevent not four days ago, if you'll recall, because they don't like being called conspirators."

"Ariel wait-"

"Guviya Tralen, Jonis! They asked Guviya Tralen who she knew who would want to see the conference stopped! She's a pain, she's obnoxious, I sometimes wish she had never come to Earth, but she's a fashion icon, not a killer!"

"Calm down, Ariel. TBI was just doing its job."

"What job is that? Safeguarding Terra from bloodthirsty Spacers?"

Jonis reddened. "That's not fair. We've lost one of our most important citizens. You can't expect-"

"I can expect a little more attention to who really killed our people when they were invited here and a little less Spacer-baiting. Especially from you."

"Me? I don't have any say over how the TBI conducts their investigations."

"No? Maybe. But you do have a responsibility not to feed public fears over positronics by suggesting a positronic robot intentionally killed humans."

"Those men were dead on arrival-"

"That's not true and you know it," Ariel shot back. "And even if it were, don't you think it would have been responsible to keep it to yourself and check with me first? After all, I know more about what positronics can do than you or your descendants ever will."

"How do you know it's not true?"

"It's a positronic robot. The Three Laws would forbid-"

"Three Laws, Three Laws, Three Laws!" Taprin glared at her. "It was built by people, Ariel, and as long as people hold to no law absolutely, their machines won't, either. I don't give a damn about your sacred Three Laws because I don't believe them. As for the TBI, they're doing their job and once they're finished, we'll all be better off for it."

"Who will be?"

He looked puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"Who will be better off? They keep insulting Aurorans and they'll start an exodus I won't be able to stop. Six hundred have already left or booked passage. They've undone everything I tried to do, Jonis."

"They have killers to find. "

"Among us? Those were Managins, Jonis. What would Aurorans have to do with Managins?"

"We have to trust that they know what they're doing," Taprin said.

"No, we don't. Your police agencies have already made more mistakes than I'd tolerate from a janitor."

"Such as?''

"Such as barring Derec Avery from doing his job," Ariel replied. "Special Service has no roboticists, they won't have a clue what to look for. Or does this come under the category of looking for killers among Spacers?"

"Why would you know about that?" Taprin asked after a moment, his voice now cautious.

"Jonis, it's me-Ariel. Calvin Institute. Anything to do with robots?"

He seemed to relax then, which Ariel found unsettling.

"I've already looked into that," Taprin said. "Mr. Avery called me, I've taken care of it."

"He's getting reinstated?"

"I can't discuss it, Ariel. Suffice it to say that Special Service clamped down on everything related to the killings, including that, and your Mr. Avery did not have the necessary security ratings. He was automatically barred."

"Does he know that?"

"He's been notified." He sighed. "Look, Ariel-it's been a lousy week and it isn't over yet. When I heard it was you, I thought that for two minutes I'd be able to talk to someone who didn't want a liter of my blood and a position statement. Where've you been, by the way? I've called a couple of times, but Hofton kept telling me you were unavailable."

"As you say, it's been a lousy week."

Taprin nodded. "Touchй. Look, what do you want me to do?"

"Talk to somebody, get them to stop. Or do you want to see the Spacer community leave en masse?"

"It might actually be safer for them. But I'll see what I can do." He gave a wan smile. "Maybe this Saturday? Dinner? I'm not sure what I'll be doing, but if you say yes, I'll make time."

''I'll have to see, Jonis. This situation was unexpected. I might not have any Saturdays for a while."

He was visibly disappointed, but he nodded. "I understand, believe me."

"While we're talking, what has been found out? And how did the TBI get involved? I was under the assumption Special Service was handling this exclusively."

"For the most part they are, but the TBI has its own mandate."

Ariel frowned. "Mmm."

"Well, as you said, the assassins were Managins, but so far there doesn't seem to be a clear connection between them and anyone else. Unlikely as it sounds, it may turn out to be that they did this on their own."

"You can't possibly believe that."

Taprin shrugged. "Special Service knows what they're doing. They've been keeping me fairly current, though I'd like it to be hourly rather than daily."

"What about the people who murdered my friend?"

He frowned thoughtfully. "Oh. I, uh-frankly, I haven't asked specifically. I assume it's part of the same investigation. I'll ask about it next time I get a report, all right?"