Mark Tiedemann - Chimera

"And why did you conclude he's a Solarian national?"

"A couple of things. A background check on his name came up with an old Solarian family, for one, but there are no birth records or citizenship papers for him. The family itself has only two remaining members and, like most Solarians, they're recluses. The other thing is that all his Auroran documentation originated here."

"How did you manage to learn that?"

"I'm very good at my job. The third detail is precedent. We've done this before with defectors who may be subject to extradition under the Fifty Worlds Mutual Accords. Did I guess wrong?"

"No. But-"

"I'm not finished. I did another search then, one I wouldn't have thought to do. We've been so busy tracking down who used to own Nova Levis we never thought to find out who worked there. Five researchers were senior staff they ran the research protocols. It was their lab. Four of them are dead."

Setaris regarded her quietly. "And the fifth?"

"Was a Solarian. He vanished. Interestingly enough, the document trail for Rotij Polifos begins shortly before Nova Levis was closed down. The Solarian presumably returned to Solaria, but I could find no evidence that he ever got there. A couple years later, Polifos assumes directorship of the positronics lab on Kopernik. "

Setaris nodded. "As you say, you're very good at what you do. Though this isn't exactly your job."

"It has become my job," Ariel said.

"Point taken. Anything else?"

Ariel felt herself get angry then. Setaris was being "diplomatic" and neutral, superficially uninvolved-"professional," she would say. Ariel decided to thoroughly ruin her day. "Did you know about the cyborgs?"

Setaris's face lost all expression for a moment. Her skin paled then. "You're joking."

"I wish I were. "

Setaris's face flexed with comprehension, brow furrowing deeply, mouth opening and closing wordlessly, eyes scanning the surface of the desk as if for something lost. It took less than a minute for her to regain composure. When she did, though, all the casual annoyance and alloyed humor were gone, replaced by pragmatic professionalism.

"Tell me what you know," she said.

"What I know isn't much. What I saw…Coren Lanra claimed he saw a robot with masking capabilities. What I saw tonight could only be a cyborg. It's entirely probable that it's what he saw as well. The blood sample Derec took from the collapsed robot's hand is more than likely a close relative of Nyom Looms. The material mixed with the sample-myralar-suggests robotics, but until tonight it made no sense to me. "

She blew out a breath. "Nova Levis is still technically owned by Solaria. It was renamed after a Settler colony leased it from them, but the original title never transferred. There is also an old research lab-here on Earth-called Nova Levis, among which I found Gale Chassik listed as an original shareholder. Plus Rega Looms and Alda Mikels. Tonight I met a retired policeman who was investigating kidnappings twenty-some years ago who says that, among other things, a number of infants were taken from orphanages here and transported offworld. He suspected a slave trade. But several of these infants were hopelessly handicapped…UPDs, he called them. Nova Levis was one of the labs he'd investigated, but he claims that it was clear of any culpability."

Setaris shook her head. "What did the lab do? And what does all this have to do with cyborgs?"

"I don't know. Nova Levis the lab was involved in prosthetics research, though. "

"Why did it fail? Prosthetics is a fairly lucrative field on Earth. "

"I don't know that, either, " Ariel replied. "What I want to know is if this blockade around Nova Levis has anything to do with it. With cyborgs. I want to know if you knew. "

"Why would I have known?"

"Because you gave me some pathetic reasons to start this investigation. "

Setaris raised an eyebrow. "Assuming I did, why wouldn't I tell you?"

"Oh, some sort of attempt at objectification. Maybe, though, you knew but had no proof. You wanted me to verify your suspicions."

"Rather shabby use of my people, wouldn't you think?"

"It wouldn't have been the first time."

Setaris narrowed her eyes. "When this is over, Ariel, I will sit you down and give you a lesson in the realities of the diplomat's life. You've been able to function largely unaffected by them since you've been here. In the meantime-"

"In the meantime," Ariel interjected, "I need Derec out of jail, and I want a little cooperation from the TBI. I don't think diplomacy will solve this particular problem."

Setaris frowned, and gestured toward the guest chairs. "Sit down, Ariel. Shut your mouth while I tell you what the situation actually is. Then, if you want to make demands, I'll listen."

Coren leaned against the wall and gently kneaded his neck and shoulder. The pain was growing worse; on top of his lack of sleep, he wondered if he could manage what he intended to do. He pulled his comm out and stared at the keypad, trying to think. He still lacked necessary information.

He tapped in Kelvy Torans' code. He almost gave up just as she finally answered.

"Kelvy, it's Coren."

"Please tell me you're near my apartment," she said brightly.

"Actually, no. I'm sorry to bother you so late-"

"I wasn't sleeping, anyway. Something it sounds like you should be doing. Are you all right?"

"Just tired. Long hours. I'm never letting Rega run for office again."

She laughed. "In that case, I suppose you're calling to see if I have that information you wanted."

"Do you?"

"As a matter of fact…hold on a moment…"

Coren listened to indistinct noises for a few seconds. Then:

"Okay, we have lots of good stuff," Kelvy said. "Once I started looking into this, I found all kinds of things I can use, so I suppose I owe you part of my commission. Captras Biomed: bought by the Hunter Group. It wasn't exactly a voluntary sale; Myler Towne and his faction actually tried to block it. He nearly lost the chairmanship over it. Now, Hunter bought it through one of its subsidiaries-Kysler Diversified-who also bought that research lab you mentioned, Nova Levis. One very interesting detail I found was that Towne's mother was on the original shareholders board of Nova Levis; she's since deceased. What makes a lot of this interesting is in the dispersal of the company assets. A good portion of the research documentation went to Captras Biomed, which was a small start-up back then, and later was bought out by Imbitek. It was Alda Mikels' first acquisition upon becoming a board member of Imbitek."

"Mikels was an original shareholder of Nova Levis."

"Very good. Indeed he was. As was Rega Looms. In fact, there was a bidding war over Captras between Looms and Mikels."

"Why would Rega have wanted it?"

"You'd have to ask him. Very uncharacteristic of him." Coren mentally added it to the list of things he intended to ask Rega. "All right, so Myler Towne got rid of Captras, but he didn't want Hunter to have it. Why not?"

"Alda Mikels is-was-a board member of Kysler Diversified."

"Is there any other connection between Kysler and Imbitek?"

"Kysler once made an offer to acquire controlling ownership of Imbitek, but it failed."

"And when did Mikels buy into Kysler?"

"About two years after that attempt."

"So Mikels bought the company that bought Nova Levis's research material, and now is trying to reacquire that material through a competitor to his own company."

"My guess? This is insurance, in case Mikels can't defeat Towne in a shareholder vote."

"Was Captras that lucrative?"

"As a percentage of Imbitek?" Kelvy replied. "It performed a few points better than most Imbitek holdings, but not spectacularly so. However, the Hunter Group owns a number of other biomed companies on Settler colonies. Recently, they consolidated some of them under Kysler management. Add what Captras could bring to the fold, you have a very large and progressive biotech industry with established markets on several worlds. What all those companies lacked till now was a licensed vendor on Earth. Captras gives them that."