eyes as if praying, and then rolled.
terns. Money flowed through casinos in gradi-
The onlookers cheered at another pair of
ents, the same way energy f lowed down
sixes.
gradients from high-energy molecules to low-
Powell grinned at him. The boxman
energy ones. Life colonized the energy gradi-
seemed to be expecting the Fortuna AI to go
ents: plants put themselves between sun and
off, but he turned back to the table and nod-
stone; animals put themselves between plants
ded to the stickman. Belisarius made himself
and decay. Criminals inf iltrated casinos like
look happy. The dice cooled on the table, one
vines on a tree.
of the advantages of a casino in a city buried in
Anywhere money flowed, someone would
ice. The only remaining player rode out his
try to siphon off some of it. Even in clean casi-
combined bet, but rolled a nine. Out. All the
nos, convergent evolution created new peo-
attention was on Powell.
ple ready to try to scam either the casino or its
“Cornrows,” she said, and passed the box-
customers. Dealers could be bought off. Gam-
man a money wafer. The boxman’s eyebrows
10
DEREK KÜNSKEN
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018
rose in surprise. Ten thousand Congregate
bing his hands together, “your f loor is freez-
francs, a small fortune added to the smaller
ing.”
fortune she’d just made.
The olive-skinned boxman hopped down
“Take it easy,” Belisarius whispered. “You
from his perch behind the craps table. “Don’t
sure you don’t want to wait?”
lie down.”
She took the dice, held them tightly for ten
Misfortunes and bad debts in the Anglo-
seconds and then rolled them against back-
Spanish Plutocracy had blown Enrique all the
stop. Two sixes came up. People threw their
way to this armpit of civilization, where he’d
hands up in the general cheer, and Powell was
gotten a job at Blackmore’s. He helped Belisar-
laughing and looking around. Then, her face
ius sometimes. Belisarius opened his coat to
froze and her hands lowered slowly.
remove the device that had blown holes in it
A young Puppet priest had come up behind
in response to the blanks. Fake blood still
them. Her skin was old European pale, like
leaked.
her hair. She stood at eighty-five centimeters,
“Nice work, Rosalie,” Belisarius said.
proportioned like a human adult in miniature,
Rosalie Johns-10 wasn’t a priest yet. She had
but she wore armor over her robes. Forming a
a year or two left in her studies as an initiate,
quarter-circle on each side of her were a
but in a world of listless, work-avoiding Pup-
dozen episcopal troopers, their sealed armor
pets, no one cared if she dressed as a priest
giving them an extra ten centimeters of
sometimes and hired some off-duty troopers
height. They leveled their rifles at Powell and
as muscle. She punched Belisarius in the arm.
Belisarius. The casino-goers slowly backed
She couldn’t reach very high, but it was the
away. Some screamed and moved for the door.
spirit that counted.
Belisarius and Powell were trapped.
From the off ice, a man and a Puppet
Belisarius bolted for the back of the casino.
emerged. The Puppet was the custodian of
The priest pulled a pistol and f lashing, loud
the national treasure that was the holy site
bangs echoed. People screamed. Along Belis-
where Peter Blackmore had gambled. The
arius’ side, microexplosions of blood and
Puppets had named a lot of things after Black-
smoke burst through his coat. He fell to the
more, but this one actually made sense. The
ice floor, where blood froze in an expanding
man was an Anglo-Spanish investigator with
pool. He looked beseechingly at Powell, but
the Fortuna Corporation. He shook Belisarius’
she was horror-struck as the other patrons
hand.
ducked and ran for the exits. The priest and
“We never would have gotten Powell under
the episcopal troops ignored them.
Anglo-Spanish law,” the investigator said.
“Evelyn Powell, you’re under arrest for blas-
“Thank Initiate Johns-10 and the Puppet
phemy,” the Puppet priest said.
blasphemy laws,” Belisarius said, indicating
Powell’s jaw ground and her forehead wrin-
her.
kled. “What?” she said.
“Better yet,” Enrique said, pushing past the
“Cheating in Blackmore’s is blasphemy,” the
investigator to hand Belisarius the money
Puppet said.
chip, “just thank us by getting out of the way
Powell looked helplessly at the ceiling,
while we split Powell’s stake.”
where the Fortuna AI would have made some
Enrique handed him his pad. Belisarius
noise if it had detected anything underhanded
transferred two thousand francs to him. En-
in a game. She gestured upward. “I was
rique grinned. Rosalie handed him hers, and
lucky!”
Belisarius transferred her three thousand. She
Then the alarms went off, and a spotlight
had to pay the troopers, the fake businesspeo-
fell on Powell. She made soundless mouthings
ple who’d helped them, the episcopate’s tithe,
as one of the episcopal troopers put her hands
and the officials in the Puppet Constabulary.
behind her back and disarmed her. She was
“You got any other jobs coming down the
marched out at the end of batons and
line, Boss?” she asked.
f irearms. It took ninety-six seconds more for
Belisarius shook his head. He really didn’t.
the other troopers to shoo the terrified casino-
This con had been good, distracting, but the
goers out and close the casino.
rest of his leads were meat-and-potato cons on
“Enrique,” Belisarius said, rising and rub-
small-time targets. Nothing that would keep
THE QUANTUM MAGICIAN, PART I
11
ANALOG
his brain busy. “It’s slow, but I’ll call you if I get
tracked the gradual deteriorations that no one
another one.”
fixed. The magnetic organelles in his cells felt
The custodian of the gambling shrine gave
the unevenness of the electrical currents in
them all a drink, delighted that the casino’s
the neighborhood, and his brain assigned no-
reputation was going to go up for once. It
tional probabilities to different service failures.
wasn’t the best stuff, but the Puppets were un-
His brain wouldn’t have done all this if small
der an embargo.
scams o
n off-worlders were enough to hold its
Enrique drifted away. So did the investiga-
bioengineered curiosity. The jobs were lucra-
tor. The owner went to setting up the casino
tive, but they were getting too easy, too small
again. Belisarius and Rosalie grabbed a booth,
to hide behind.
and used his new money to crank up the
His gallery AI spoke in his implant as he
heater and buy something better to drink.
neared. “Someone is looking for you.”
They were cousins in a way, she a Puppet,
more properly a Homo pupa, and he one of
Chapter Two
the Homo quantus. Rosalie was young, in-
Belisarius stopped. He hadn’t done enough
sightful, and curious.
jobs to warrant an assassin, but he’d started
“Was that guy really from the Fortuna Cor-
fleecing higher-level crime figures lately. And
poration?” she asked in wonder.
even with assassination off the table, a few
“In the flesh,” he said. “How did you think I
people would probably pay to have him beat
got the alarms not to go off with the weighted
up.
dice?”
“Show me,” he sub-vocalized.
“I thought maybe you really did hack the
The gallery AI projected a picture into his
AI,” she said sheepishly.
ocular implants. His brain knit together the
“Nobody can do that.” He swirled his drink.
multiple camera feeds into an omniscient col-
He didn’t enjoy lying to her. She was too inno-
lage. Human art students sat drawing one of
cent, too trusting. “Fortuna knew that Pow-
the sculptures. The poorly disguised crimes
ell’s people were getting close to hacking their
against humanity inspector snapped pictures.
security patches, and they don’t have a solu-
The cluster of Puppet school children threw
tion yet. They were eager to take her off the
pebbles at one of his displays. The image
board, eager enough to temporarily install a
zoomed onto a figure just inside the lobby on
bad AI in Blackmore’s. It’ll take them days to
the top floor.
install a new one, but to them, it’s worth it.”
Her skin was darker than his by many
Rosalie had a few more questions about
shades, and an uncomfortable-looking knot
confidence schemes. It still seemed like such
held her black hair tight. She didn’t seem to
an alien world to her, even though she’d
know what to do with her body. Her hands
helped him on four cons already, not includ-
rested awkwardly behind her. She stood with
ing the sting on Powell. The conversation
feet apart, poised, suggesting a readiness to
drifted, and f inally fell to theology again. In
move. She wore an off-the-rack tunic and
this, Rosalie was a stronger conversationalist.
loose pants, neither daringly nor conservative-
Her thinking drew lines of defensible logic
ly cut.
over the surface of Puppet madness, and she
“Sub-Saharan Union?” he asked.
had no natural pauses when discussing theol-
“I don’t know,” the gallery AI said. “Check-
ogy. This forced Belisarius to sharpen his own
ing her financial links. Would you like a genet-
questions about the natures of humanity, and
ic analysis?”
his logical constructions usually inspired Ros-
“Armed?” Belisarius asked. He resumed his
alie’s thinking. By midnight, though, they’d
stroll.
f inished drinking two bottles and discussing
“No. She has some quiescent augments,
three of Bishop Creston’s early ethical models.
though,” the AI responded. “I can’t tell what
That was enough of both for Belisarius, and he
they are.”
headed home, vaguely dissatisfied.
Belisarius magnified the image, considering
His restless brain counted the stones of the
the woman’s expression. “How much is she
arcade, measured the angular errors in the
worth?”
joints of walls and buildings and roofs, and
He reached a squat brick building of sintered
12
DEREK KÜNSKEN
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018
regolith growing into the ice-enclosed tunnels
tle of rice soju stood on the table between two
of Bob Town, a suburban lobe of the Puppet
small glasses. Belisarius stepped down into the
Free City. Within that building, plunging deep
living room, slumped onto the couch, and mo-
into the ice, was his art gallery.
tioned for Ayen to select a seat. She sat.
“No credit limit I can f ind,” the gallery re-
“How private is this conversation?” she
ported, “but she has one link to an account
asked in a low voice.
held by the Consulate of the Sub-Saharan
“The apartment is secure. The Puppets
Union.”
aren’t very nosy outside the Forbidden City
The Sub-Saharan Union was a small client
anyway,” he said. Her face remained taut. “Did
nation with two worlds and some industrial
you want to secure this conversation by your
habitats on the other side of the Freyja worm-
own means?”
hole. Their patron nation gave them second-
Her eyes narrowed, and she produced a
hand weapons and warships. In return, the
small device. It looked newly-made, but its de-
Union undertook military expeditions or
sign was antique, maybe thirty years old.
stood garrison duty. Not wealthy. They’d nev-
“Multispectrum white noise generator?”
er been his clients or his marks, and they
Belisarius asked.
didn’t have a reputation as the kind of muscle
She nodded. He regarded the device with
he might worry about.
some doubt. Last decade’s surveillance sys-
He opened the door and stepped into the
tems could probably have cracked the little
lobby at the top of the helical stairs. Smell
generator, but she must have known that. She
was a powerful part of the Puppet religious
switched it on, and the carrier signal from his
experience, and to give some sense of it to
house AI became faint in his ear, transmitting
his human visitors, Belisarius had laced the
small alarms that its surveillance of the room
lobby with the faint citrus odor of Puppet
was deeply compromised. Interesting. More
sweat along with a sugary sweetness that
questions congealed in his brain.
evoked pastries. From the gloom below, a
“I need a con man,” she said.
whip snap echoed, underscored by ambigu-
Belisarius poured two shots of soju.
ous cries of anguish or love. The woman
“You’re five years too late,” he said. “I’m on
seemed aware of all this, but
untouched by
a spiritual journey.”
the environment.
“The right people say that you get impossi-
She stood taller than Belisarius by a good
ble things done.”
ten centimeters and had intense eyes. Her
She leaned for her glass with wiry, con-
waiting stance shifted, shoulders back, hands
tained power. She sniffed warily, then drank it
at her side, but nothing close to the body lan-
down.
guage of resting. She was an unfired bow.
He memorized her pronunciation as she
“Monsieur Arjona?” she asked.
spoke. Like her white noise generator, her di-
“I’m Belisarius,” he said in français 8.1.
alect was antique, an early variant of français
“I’m Ayen,” she said. “Can we speak some-
8, but where had it come from? His augments
where more private?” An odd accent laced her
carried all the accents, dialects, and versions
French.
of French, but her accent didn’t match any of
“I built an apartment into the gallery,” he
them.
said, leading her down a hallway.
“That’s as f lattering as it is inaccurate,” he
Brick made of cooked asteroidal dust sur-
said. “I don’t know who does cons anymore.
faced the ice of the walls, giving the illusion of
They’re all in prison, I suppose.”
warmth. His apartment was opulent by the
“People call you the magician.”
standards of Oler, with several bedrooms, a
“Not to my face.”
wide dining area, and a sunken living room.
“My employer needs a magician.”
The walls and ceilings were white and devoid
She stared at him with unnerving intensity.
of decorations. The dining room was spotless,
His brain began constructing patterns, theo-
and the living room barely furnished. All low-
ries, abstractions of the identities of Ayen and
stimulus.
her unknown employer. Why couldn’t he
The gallery AI had soft colored lights glow-
place her accent? Who was she working for?
ing in sconces and the heaters running. A bot-
What did she think he was?
THE QUANTUM MAGICIAN, PART I
13
ANALOG
“What kind of magic does your employer
pressed on his magnetosomes, swallowing
need?” Belisarius asked.
them. Something big was out there, big
“She needs something moved through the
enough to be a warship. The clanking outside
Puppet wormhole. Distal side to here.”
the hull signalled that the grip was more than
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