Mark Tiedemann - Chimera

"That's impressive," she said.

"And as expensive as it looks. Sit down." He leaned over the desk then and started entering commands. His fingers danced deftly.

"AI?" she asked.

"Yes…" He inserted the disk Ariel had given him into a reader slot. A flatscreen extruded on one corner of the desk. Coren studied it. "The DNA is a close match…what are these other things? Proteins?"

"Derec hasn't finished his analysis yet. Proteins, yes, but there are a few puzzles-for instance, a high concentration of myralar. "

"What's that?"

"A polymer, synthetic. A distant analog of nylon. It's used in robotics for joints, pivots, dry lubricant. Apparently the robot you found grabbed someone. We found the blood samples mixed with these other materials in its fingers. "

Coren frowned at the screen. His fingers worked. "Not Nyom, but…"

"Very close."

Coren 's glance flicked over her, a hint of irritation. "I didn't think robots could hurt anyone. "

"Not intentionally, no."

"So where did the blood come from?"

Ariel shook her head. "We'll have to wait for Derec's excavation before we know that. "

"You're so sure it couldn't have been the robot."

"Not that robot."

"And you don't believe in my second robot."

"I didn't say that. "

Coren grunted. His eyes closed for several seconds. Ariel began to think he had just fallen asleep when he straightened abruptly in his chair. He winced as he stood.

"I'm sorry, " he said, "would you like something to drink?"

"You're hurt."

Coren nodded. "I was rolled in Petrabor."

"When was this?"

"The last time I saw Nyom, when she left. " He walked stiffly toward another door. "I think I could stand a drink, if you don't mind. "

"You didn't say anything about being attacked."

He shrugged and went through the door. Ariel heard the faint sound of liquid on glass, then a deep groan. Silence stretched. Ariel went to the door and looked in.

Coren sat on a long divan, a drink perched on his right thigh, eyes shut. An open bottle sat on the low table before him. She lifted it to her nose and sniffed. Bourbon. She found a row of glasses on a shelf above a small liquor cabinet. She poured three fingers and studied the room.

Shelves, a pair of closet doors, another chair, a set of drawers. It reminded her of the monk's hole Derec had kept on the premises at Phylaxis.

Last year…ages ago…

A box lay open on top of the table. Ariel stared down at a collection of images of a young woman, almost gaunt, but with a bright smile and large eyes. She looked vaguely familiar.

Looms, she realized.

Coren cleared his throat. Ariel looked to see him watching her, a worried frown creasing his forehead. She picked up the top image.

"Nyom?"

He nodded.

Ariel dropped the picture. "This isn't a case file."

"Nyom wasn't a case."

"You're not doing this for Rega?"

"Partly. Mostly I'm doing it for myself."

"It's personal, then."

"Very."

Ariel pulled the chair close to the table and sat down across from him. "What's that like?"

Coren pulled himself straighter and set the glass on the table. "I don't think this is relevant."

"Maybe not to the universe at large, " Ariel said with mock gravity. "But I'm interested."

"It's not very interesting. I resigned from Special Service almost six-no, seven years ago now. I tried running my own private security company for a year or so, but my best clients were always police agencies who needed a little extra expertise." He smiled grimly. "We private cops tend to be a little less constrained by legality than regular police. Anyway, it wasn't turning out the way I wanted it to. I'd quit because I didn't like the compromises I had to make on behalf of official policy and now I found myself compromising everything else to pay the rent. I started looking for a staff position in the private sector. Rega hired me about five years ago. I met Nyom seventeen months later."

"You remember it that clearly?"

"A very memorable sequence of events."

Ariel raised her glass to her mouth and said with mild sarcasm, "I suppose it was love at first sight." She took a sip.

"Don't smirk. It happens." He shook his head. "The thing is, I didn't know that till later. I thought it was just lust. Both of us. I thought she was doing it to irritate Rega, but he never knew. Nyom was nonconformist to a fault, but she didn't flaunt it. She wasn't looking for attention. Whatever else Rega might have done, he instilled a sense of purpose in her. She wanted her life to mean something." He shook his head. "That sounds superficial, doesn't it? The ultimate clichй. "

"No. Not if it's real."

"Oh, it was real. That's how she ended up running baleys. "

"Now that sounds like something aimed at her father."

"It's easy to think that, too. They didn't really get along. The truth is, Nyom knew things were wrong, that the way everything is put together is all messed up, but she didn't know how or why. She didn't know what would make it right. If anything could. So she moved from one cause to another, trying to find the formula for fixing the world. Rega just chose something that felt right and stuck with it. Nyom wasn't confident enough with her judgment to think she knew which one. Mostly, she ended up trying to help people do what they wanted when official policy got in their way. "

"If it's a law, it's necessarily oppressive?"

"Something like that. Baley running was a natural for her."

"Is that what ended it between you?" Ariel asked.

Coren nodded. "Irreconcilable ideologies."

"You don't think anything is wrong?"

"No, no, not at all. I just can't see the use in tearing down everything you have until you can make it work."

"Very conservative. "

"That's me."

"What will you do if you find that Nyom's view was right?"

"I have no idea." He leaned back. "Rega Looms has never lied to me before. "

"You're referring to the possible existence of Nyom's brother?"

Coren nodded. "It doesn't make sense. Rega only had one child."

"That you know of. "

"That I know of. Nyom never said anything either. " He shook his head. "I hate being lied to. "

"Maybe Rega just neglected to mention it. Has he always told you everything?"

Coren looked uncomfortable. "That would be a very dangerous omission on his part."

"Granted. But it's those things that can hurt us most that we never reveal, even when we should."

"Is that experience talking or a Spacer proverb?"

Ariel considered responding to the barb, but decided against it. "Assuming he lied about that, why? Did the child die?"

"There would be no reason to hide that. Even assuming Rega to be a callous opportunist-which he isn't-having a child die in infancy could only be a subject for sympathy. Why would a dead child be something to hide?"

"It might depend on how it died. "

Coren shook his head. "No, if Rega has hidden it, then the child didn't die." His eyes narrowed. "Why are you interested in this?"

"My government-"

"Uh-uh. You. There's a difference between following orders and pursuing a goal. You 're interested for your own reasons. Why?"

Ariel considered telling him about the note on her comm-We're not finished with you-but balked, unwilling even now to admit how much it frightened her.

"Maybe later," she said. "It's not important right now."

"We never reveal the things that can hurt us most?"

"Drop it," she said curtly.

Coren raised his hands in mock surrender. "Later, then. But I think you're going to have to tell me sometime."

"Then sometime I'll tell you."

"Preferably before it's too late to do you any good."

"May I ask another personal question?"

Coren made a gesture to continue.