Mark Tiedemann - Chimera

"The entire Solarian government?" Coren asked dubiously.

"No, just factions. And he was right about the independence of those colonies. We lease the worlds, Settlers come in, after a time the colony charters its own government, and independence is a fact. There's never been a reason before for any kind of intervention. No precedent. I haven't checked yet, but maybe there's some old agreement that keeps Earth from demanding Solaria exercise rights of ownership. Or it could be that the fact has been lost in the name change. Even if there isn't, it may be that one department simply didn't know what the other was doing. 'Oh, that business of the deed? I thought you had taken care of that. Well, it isn't my responsibility:" She smiled at Coren's laugh. "Contrary to what you Terrans believe, we Spacers are not of one mind. On any subject."

"That's not something I ever believed."

She leaned forward. "Rega Looms had to have a reason to invest in a biotech lab. Did he have any other investments like that?"

"Not that I know. I'll check, but I don't think so."

"So if it was just the one investment, the one lab, it seems logical he'd have a good reason."

"I suppose. But-"

"Probably a personal reason?"

"Where are you going with this?"

"Did he have any other children besides Nyom?"

Coren hesitated. A few days earlier he would have stated emphatically not, but now, after hearing the remarks of both Looms and Wenithal, he was less certain.

Instead of answering, he said, "There's something else. My errand to Baltimor District. The reason I was late. The shipping container Nyom used was routed out of Petrabor. Shipping schedules had been rearranged to accommodate it. "

"Petrabor…"

"The reschedule came out of the ITE offices in Baltimor. I looked up an acquaintance from my Service days, a man named Brun Damik, who was in charge of the inspector's department of ITE, figuring that if anyone would know how to get in touch with the people who run the whole baley operation, he would. He led me to a retired cop named Wenithal. I found Rega's name in his old case logs, part of the same investigation that involved Nova Levis. According to the public record, no charges were filed against Nova Levis, but the attention from the investigation must've been enough to sink it. It was bought by the Kysler Group and dismantled. Tonight, when I went back to ask Damik about his connection to Wenithal, I found police there. He'd been murdered. Tortured and murdered. "

Ariel winced. "What was the case?"

"A kidnapping. It turned out to involve several orphanages and a couple of biotech labs, extending back several more years. Infants were being taken from orphanages, funneled through the labs, and shipped offplanet. A slave trade, of sorts."

"What did the labs have to do with it?"

''I don't know yet. But I found this-" he handed her the certificate he had taken from Damik's apartment "-hidden in Damik's office."

Ariel opened the sheet and studied it. "He was an orphan?"

"Interesting, isn't it? I never knew. We worked together and I never knew." He folded the document and put it back in his pocket. "Ree Wenithal sponsored him."

"Should you have known?"

Coren shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. You don't expect the people you work with to hide that kind of thing from you after you admit to them that you're an orphan. "

"You?"

"Seth Canobil Hospice and Social Rehabilitation Center. Lifelong resident. I graduated from there before entering the Academy."

Ariel seemed to think about that for a time. "All right, so you were both orphans. This police officer, Wenithal, was investigating a kidnapping. Children were stolen from orphanages and eventually sent offworld. To Nova Levis?"

"Maybe. " He stared out the window for a time. "What is it we're supposed to be stopping Nova Levis from doing with this blockade?"

"You're insisting you have the right to on-ground inspection. You're looking for pirates."

"'You'? I thought Aurora was backing Earth on this one."

Ariel shrugged. "You notice we haven't sent any ships."

"Point taken. "

"Where was Nyom Looms taking her baleys?"

"Nova Levis."

Ariel nodded. "I think we should have a talk to this police officer. "

"I agree. But I'm not sure what good he is. His information is a couple of decades old. "

"If Spacers are involved, that's meaningless. They can be very patient. "

"'They'?"

She shrugged. "Sometimes I don't feel very much like one of them." She frowned. "But this might be the very same case your Mr. Wenithal was investigating. It may be that whatever was going on then has just come back home. If it ever really stopped. Why did he resign?"

"I don't know." Coren sighed. "There's something else."

"Always. "

Coren laughed. "No, I mean another coincidence. I did a background on the warehouse where Nyom connected to her killers. I tried to find the dockworker who met them-a man named Yuri Pocivil. I did a trace and found out he was a Settler immigrant. From a colony called Cassus Thole."

Ariel stared at him. "The same as?"

"I don't know. Interesting coincidence, don't you think? The fact is, he came to Earth six years ago-from Cassus Thole. Along v nth a good number more who all work for the same company. Six years ago. Long after Cassus Thole supposedly became Nova Levis. So either there are two colonies with the same name-"

"Or there's a problem inside ITE. Your acquaintance, Brun Damik-do you think…?"

"It's something I intend to check into now."

"I think we need to find out what else this Hunter Group owns as well. Maybe we should ask Mr. Wenithal what corporations came up in his investigation."

"Settlers, Spacers, and Terran companies. Rather unusual circumstances that could bring them all together."

"In my experience, profit explains such anomalies nicely."

"But profit from what?" Coren asked.

"Kidnapping from orphanages."

"But-"

Ariel pointed. "That disk I gave you has a full screening of a blood sample taken from the finger joints of the robot Nyom Looms had with her."

"Blood."

She nodded. "We typed it, scanned it, and ran a match. It seems Nyom Looms had a brother."

The cab let them out in front of Lanra's building. Ariel followed him up the stairs to his office. The building showed considerable age-the stairs worn where countless feet had pressed upon them, dust accrued in corners, an uncovered access to conduit and wiring long unrepaired-but it seemed moderately well maintained. Cleaner than she might have expected in this old neighborhood, which lay on the outskirts of the Infant District, just off the Southwest Corridor of D.C.

A light glowed above Lanra's fourth floor office door, illuminating a nameplate-COREN LANRA, I.S.I.

"Do you have any neighbors here?" Ariel asked.

"An industrial cleaning firm," Coren said, gesturing toward the other lighted door down the hall. "The floor below is empty. Three businesses on the one below that. Two below that."

"And above?"

"Storage. Past tenants left stuff, paid to have it stored. Or not, but management kept it all anyway. "

He let them in.

"It's a more prosperous district than that," he continued, "but there are only so many lawyers to fill available office space." He shrugged. "A lot of tenants have left in the last year. I don't know why."

"Trends are merciless."

He nodded distractedly. "Especially on real estate. Wait here a moment." He pushed through the inner door, to a private office. Ariel heard a brief verbal exchange and wondered if he had a secretary. The thought annoyed her for some reason. "All right, come in," Coren called.

When she stepped through the door she found Coren seated behind a broad desk, its surface illuminated by a touch-sensitive grid. He had taken off his jacket and was absently rubbing his left shoulder. Ariel studied the desk.