Mark Tiedemann - Chimera

Coren turned all this over in his mind. It sounded just a bit glib, rehearsed, but that did not make it less true. To be sure, Ree Wenithal had been living with this for a long time. In his place, Coren believed he might have it well worked out by now.

But Coren found it unconvincing. It did not explain Wenithal's connection to Brun Damik, or why Damik would go to Wenithal after Coren confronted him.

"Where was Nova Levis?" he asked.

"Hmm? Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, one of the undine enclaves. Um…Teluk Tolo, Indones Sector."

"Maybe it would be worthwhile to take another look at it," Coren said.

"It's gone. There's nothing there anymore, just a shell. It was all sold off. I think it was converted to a processing plant for raw materials or something."

"You won't mind if we try, will you?"

Wenithal sneered. "Don't be sarcastic. I'm doing you a favor telling you any of this."

"Of course," Coren said. "You're such a model citizen. If I had more time I'd be more polite about it."

"Mr. Wenithal, " Ariel cut in, frowning at Coren, "you're expecting trouble. Have you been followed?"

"Not that I know of, but they killed Brun. I'm next, logically. What would you think?"

"I think you should move somewhere safer."

"And where might that be?"

"The Auroran embassy. I don't think you can be gotten to there."

"You think?"

"I don't know what exactly we're up against. Do you want me to lie and guarantee your safety?"

"We wouldn't want you to do that. " Wenithal shook his head. "I've never run from a fight. Besides, it might look odd."

"You'd look very odd crushed to death," Coren said.

"Crushed?"

"Judging from the victims we've seen, it looks like crushing is the favored method."

Wenithal considered that and shuddered. "I've never been to the Auroran embassy." He shrugged. "If it would put your minds at ease…"

"I could always leave you here with Jeta," Coren said then.

Wenithal frowned at him.

"How long have you known her?" Coren asked.

"I don't-"

"Stop it. She didn't follow me here. She came to see you."

Wenithal laughed. "Why would a data troll want to see me?"

"I can't think of a single reason. But she's not a data troll. You were waiting for someone to show up tonight, someone you thought might kill you. So far, we've shown up, and Jeta Fromm has shown up. " Coren held up his hands. "Is there a mistake in my logic?"

"You're guessing," Wenithal said.

"So, do you stay here, or do we go to the Auroran Embassy?"

Wenithal sighed. "All of us?"

"I'm not letting Jeta-or whatever her name is-get away from us."

"If she's not Jeta," Ariel said, "then who-?"

"I'm guessing a woman named Tresha," Coren said. "You've done business with her before, Mr. Wenithal. but I imagine you've never done any with her partner-Gamelin. "

Wenithal stared at Coren now with undisguised resentment. "Like I said, I've never been to the Auroran Embassy before. "

"If I'm right, getting there might be an interesting problem," Coren said.

Ariel smiled at him. "Leave that part to me."

Coren turned away, muttering under his breath, "I knew you were going to say that…"

The morgue was a bit cooler, though Derec wondered how much of that was simply psychosomatic illusion. He stood to one side, near the big entrance, while Sipha Palen and her chief forensic specialist, Baxin, went through the logs.

"Fifty-one," Baxin said finally. He looked at Palen. "There were fifty-two when we brought them in here."

"So a corpse got up when you weren't looking and walked out?" Palen's voice made everyone cringe.

Baxin shook his head, less intimidated than bewildered.

"Not only that," Palen went on, "but it cleaned up its container and put it back in storage!" She wheeled around at the pair of security men nearby. "Didn't anybody pay attention to the monitors? Nobody saw a thing out of the ordinary?"

Derec leaned back against the wall. The TBI agents stood nearby, looking slightly embarrassed on Palen's behalf. But Derec could see the impatience in their faces.

Palen stopped herself before she continued her rant. With sudden and surprising calm, she said, "I want the monitor records gone over. I want to know when the dead got up and walked out."

Her two officers, with evident relief, left quickly. Palen came up to the TBI agents.

"I'm disinclined to turn anything over to you," she said, "but under the circumstances, maybe we can share resources. Avery here has been working on recovering the memory from that robot. If he succeeds, we'll all know what happened. If you remove it now, all his work will be lost and you'll be starting from scratch. "

"That's not-" one of the agents began.

Halwor raised his hand and cut her off. "As you say, Chief Palen, 'under the circumstances.' " He looked at Derec. "How soon, Mr. Avery?"

"We were less than an hour away from the first recoveries when you showed up. "

"Then, let's go see what you have." Rana was waiting for them when they arrived in the lab. She frowned upon seeing the TBI agents trailing behind Derec and Palen. She came forward, stopping right in front of Derec.

"Boss, we have a problem," she said.

"Yes, I know. There's a discrepancy in the bodycount."

"Yes, there is. The robot is gone."

It seemed to take a long time for the information to register. Derec stared at Rana. "What?"

"The DW-12…left."

Derec pushed past her and entered the workstation. The pallet was empty, the cables all neatly removed and retracted into the diagnostic link.

"When-?"

"What happened, Avery?" Harwol asked. "What did you do with the robot?"

"Nothing. Obviously, I've been with you. Rana?"

Rana looked embarrassed. "I had some personal business to attend. When I came back, the unit was gone. "

"Thales?" Derec asked.

"Yes, Derec?"

"Where's the DW-12?"

"At this precise moment, I do not know."

"Did someone remove it?" Harwol demanded.

"No," Thales said. "However, I have everything requested from it. I have organized the recovered memories and prepared them in a linear scroll for viewing."

Derec, uncertain and nervous, sat down at the console. "The excavation is complete, then?"

"I have a complete document of the robot's memory, Derec. "

The TBI agents looked uneasy.

"Um…any preferred mode of replay?"

"All options available, Derec."

"Flatscreen and full auditory will be fine, Thales. " Derec turned to the gathered audience. "If you'll all spread out along the blind, please, we can put this on a few screens and you can all see."

"I want an explanation, Avery," Harwol said. "That robot is evidence-"

"Maybe we should pay attention to the main question, " Palen said, "of what happened to those people."

Harwol frowned, unmollifled, but he nodded curtly. "Very well."

While they arranged themselves, Derec made sure the link was feeding to Ariel through Thales. He glanced back to see that everyone was ready.

"Okay, Thales," he said, "let's see what you have."

Four screens above the console cleared simultaneously. A few seconds later, a single view filled them all. The group of baleys gathered around the two people facing each other in their midst. The woman-Nyom Looms-looked angry, impatient. The man, dressed in dockworker's dull yellow togs, faced her stoically, arms folded, waiting for her to finish.

("Is there audio?" one of the TBI agents asked. "Thales," Derec prompted. "Incomplete. I am working on filling gaps.")

Nyom Looms raised one hand, finger aimed at the dockworker, and almost jabbed him. He dropped his arms and said something.

("Pocivil," Palen mused. "What's that?" Harwol asked. "Nothing," Palen said.)