Gary Gibson - The Thousand Emperors

‘Nothing went wrong with them.’

Luc frowned. ‘I don’t understand. Cheng said that someone must have compromised—’

She regarded him with wide, angry eyes. ‘Unfortunately, Bailey Cripps was quite correct in his assessment when he said there was nothing whatsoever wrong with Vanaheim’s security systems. I spent the last few days taking them apart in order to come to that conclusion.’

‘But in that case—’

‘Whoever did this, Mr Gabion, wants to make me appear to be the guilty party.’

‘You think someone’s trying to frame you?’

She nodded.

‘That could make your case very difficult.’

‘That goes without saying. Who exactly do you need to talk to?’

‘Everyone.’ He shrugged. ‘Anyone. Councillors, certainly.’

She sighed. ‘I thought you might say something like that. But it could prove difficult.’

‘Why?’

‘Because you’re not a Councillor yourself. None of them have to talk to you, unless Father Cheng tells them otherwise.’

‘But Cheng agreed to your running this investigation, didn’t he? Surely they have to obey him.’

‘You’d think so, but to be frank, it took a lot of persuasion to get Father Cheng to agree to letting you come to Vanaheim. None of them really care about Vasili, they only care whether their neck’s next on the block. And what Cheng wants most of all is for all of this to go away before the Reunification ceremonies begin.’

Luc reached out, putting one hand on the side of the flier’s open hatch. ‘I’d like to take another look at Vasili’s body.’

She frowned. ‘You’ve already seen it.’

‘That was more of a quick glance. Plus, I need to interrogate Vasili’s home security system. And take a second look around that island.’

She nodded tiredly and gestured to the flier. ‘I’ll see what I can do. In the meantime . . .’

Luc nodded and climbed on board.

‘One last thing,’ he said, turning to look down at her. ‘Were you aware that Bailey Cripps came to visit me at my home before I was even brought to Vanaheim?’

Her eyes widened in shock. ‘What?’

‘He had,’ said Luc, ‘concerns about my loyalties.’

‘What did he say?’

‘He said I was just as much a suspect, though he didn’t specify what I was a suspect of .’

De Almeida stared off to one side, her nostrils flaring in the same way they had on Vasili’s island. Then she turned back to him. ‘Thank you for sharing that with me, Mr Gabion.’

‘I think,’ he said, ‘that you need my help just as much as I need yours.’

Fire flashed in her eyes. ‘And how do you figure that?’

‘You brought me into this because you thought I was good at my job. In that case, I can tell you I’m pretty sure the rest of the Council, or at least those I met today, are getting ready to hang you out to dry.’ He felt the conviction of his own words as he spoke. ‘That’s assuming you’re telling me the truth, and you really didn’t kill Vasili. But even if you didn’t, the odds are stacked against you. I didn’t get the sense you were well liked by any of those others I met – quite the opposite, in fact.’

‘You’re speaking out of turn, Mr Gabion,’ she said, her voice low and dangerous.

‘I told you I need to be able to speak candidly. I can’t be afraid of speaking to you, and those are the facts as I see them.’

‘Any other nuggets of wisdom you’d care to share with me?’

‘I think your bringing me to Vanaheim was a move of desperation on your part. You thought if I could work out who really killed Vasili, it would keep the rest of them from turning you into a scapegoat.’

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment. ‘I may have underestimated you, Mr Gabion. I see that now.’

‘As for Cripps, my best guess is he came to me because he thought I was in league with you in some way. You told me you’d all left Vasili’s body where it was for a couple of days; time enough for you to wonder when they were going to start accusing you of his murder and look for ways to prove yourself innocent. That’s why you approached Cheng, seeking his permission to bring me here. And it’s obvious Cripps thinks you are guilty, because as soon as he got wind of that decision, he decided maybe I was working with you to cover things up.’

She thought about this for a moment. ‘You’re sure about that?’

Luc shrugged. ‘Alternatively, maybe Cripps was trying to throw me off for some other reason.’

‘Perhaps he did it.’

‘Maybe he did,’ Luc agreed. ‘He certainly acted like a frightened man, and he really doesn’t trust you.’

She let out a small laugh. ‘The one thing I and Bailey Cripps have in common is that we don’t trust anyone. It’s an essential trait for a long career in the Temur Council. I’ll be in touch, Mr Gabion. I’ll do my best to arrange interviews with anyone who might be able to throw some more light on this whole sorry mess.’

Luc watched her turn and stride up the path without another word, then stepped back, the hatch folding back into place.

SIX

When Luc arrived home through the Hall of Gates, it was mid-afternoon in Ulugh Beg. Eleanor came to him later that evening, exploring his new skin with fingers and lips while the setting sun sent shards of orange light slanting through the window of his apartment.

Tell me what happened , she had asked him shortly after appearing at his door, obviously distraught and out of her mind with worry. Tell me where you disappeared to. When you didn’t come back, I really started to think maybe you were gone forever .

But he knew the risks of telling her too much and getting her involved, and her work in SecInt meant she understood the necessity of keeping secrets. She had not really expected him to answer. Even so, he felt a pang, as if by refusing to answer her questions he was in some strange way betraying her.

He lay back, head propped up on a pillow, Eleanor’s own skin limned by the city’s myriad lights as she moved above him, hands kneading his flesh. He noticed again the cosmetic alterations she had recently made to her own body: her hips were slightly narrower than they had been, her breasts fractionally and fashionably smaller. She shuddered, skin glistening, then pressed herself down against him, holding him tight as he came inside her. She held perfectly still for a moment, then slid down onto the bed beside him.

He lay there for a long time, listening to her sleep. He was still wide awake, despite his exhaustion. Sleep was impossible after everything he’d been through.

Sometime in the early morning, he had the overwhelming sense that someone else was in the room with them.

He lifted his head and saw a hunched figure with its hands pushed deep into pockets, staring out the window with its back to him.

The figure turned and looked at him: Cripps. A rainbow shimmer surrounded his outline.

Luc climbed naked out of the bed and pulled on a night-robe. Eleanor, he saw with relief, hadn’t woken. He gestured towards the living room and stepped through. Cripps took the hint, his data-ghost vanishing from the bedroom and reappearing in the living room a moment later.

‘There are laws about data-ghost voyeurism,’ Luc hissed the moment the door into the bedroom folded itself shut behind him. ‘How the hell long were you standing there watching us?’