When the River Ran Dry

by Robert Davies

  Above, air traffic sped along in precise, neat columns and Ricky felt suddenly alone and brushed with the irritating sensation of inadequacy, landed by accident in a superior place. The sky cars and speeders swooped in and out like shiny, wingless birds to join a formation in this direction or that, curving gently to meet another on a transverse course. With so many, it was clear an average Veosan found the luxuries only Novum Uppers enjoyed were routine—a place of order and calm without the meanness and filth of the surface streets across the Sectors of Novum.

  “This is not what I expected,” Ricky said at last.

  “It’s a different place than we’re used to,” Maela replied. “I haven’t been here in years, but it’s still the same; clean and tidy, not full of garbage and shit like our streets.”

  “Do you ever miss it?”

  “Sometimes, I suppose, but…”

  “Not enough to move?”

  “I still have plenty to do in Novum.”

  Ricky remembered the old man’s cautious words about the distant city.

  “Elden never spoke of it much, but I knew there was something about this place that bugged him. Seeing it now…it makes me wonder even more; how could you look at this and not be amazed?”

  “Fellsbach never told you he was born in Veosa, did he?”

  “No. I knew he spent time here, but Elden always avoided conversation about it.”

  Maela aimed an eye at the little box.

  “Let’s find Valery and give her those files. Elden said she worked at some research lab, so that should be our first stop.”

  “KazTek, he called it.”

  “Our comms don’t always connect directly with Veosan networks yet,” Maela cautioned, “but they have lots of public terminals.”

  “We can ask a cop for the nearest cluster—cops know everything, don’t they?”

  “Very funny, Richard.”

  Ricky smiled and stepped from the van as Maela parked it on a wide expanse near the edge of a sprawling park and beside it, a public comm hub was nestled between two small food kiosks.

  “They look a lot like ours,” he said with a relieved smile.

  The terminals were arranged in a circle and protected by a transparent, plastic dome. Above, a stylish light sign read ‘Central South 200,’ but the words held no meaning. Each comm station showed little more than a bulb-shaped object fixed to a sloping panel and Ricky looked at once to Maela.

  “I have no idea how to work this.”

  “Just tap the ball,” she replied. “It will ask for a name, then it will find your wrist comm, see?”

  Ricky tried and a simple touch of a finger on the bulb brought the system to life.

  “Name of recipient, please.”

  Ricky paused as he fumbled with the response until Maela nudged him aside.

  “Valery Sharma,” she said firmly.

  “Processing.”

  Ricky watched her closely.

  “I hope we’re getting somewhere.”

  “Valery Sharma has not authorized information release from this terminal.”

  “Shit,” Maela said.

  “Processing.”

  “No, wait! I didn’t mean…”

  “Shit is not listed in this terminal.”

  “Okay, how about KazTek?”

  “Kazmar Technical Research Corporation, general number, 6556 19121. Would you like to connect now?”

  “Yes, please!”

  “Connecting.”

  A second later, a voice answered.

  “Good afternoon and thank you for calling KazTek.”

  “Valery Sharma.”

  “One moment, please.”

  Maela listened as a chirping sound announced what could only have been a code sequence until a female voice answered at last.

  “Can I help you?”

  “Valery, it’s Maela.”

  “I wondered when you’d call.”

  “We need to discuss something with you in private.”

  “We?”

  “I’m with Richard Mills; he was friends with your dad and he’s helping me out.”

  “You’re leading the investigation?”

  “Not exactly, but I am investigating.”

  Again there was silence and Maela waited.

  “Go ahead,” Valery said at last.

  “We have something from your dad,” Maela continued; “a package that might be of interest. Is there some place we could meet?”

  “Center Town Pavilion. I’ll be at the entertainment stage in one hour. Do you remember it?”

  “I remember.”

  “Your companion—how much does he know?”

  “Nothing.”

  “I was referring to origins.”

  “So was I.”

  “See you in an hour.”

  The link went dead, but Ricky pieced together Maela’s responses and what it meant.

  “She already knew about Elden?”

  “His records must have shown her as next of kin, so the Homicide guys released Valery’s name and the Veosan Consulate’s information office probably made the call.”

  “You’ve been here before,” Ricky said as he watched passersby, “what do we do for the next hour?”

  “Let’s get the van parked and then we should look for food.”

  “Do they take Novum tokens all the way out here?” Ricky asked.

  “After the trade and exchange agreement was signed a couple of years ago, currency works either way, so long as you pay the administrative fees for the conversion.”

  “Then all we need to do is grab a bite and find this Pavilion.”

  After refreshing themselves in a busy sidewalk café, Maela asked a waiter to call a land taxi. The ride through the center of Veosa was brief, but Ricky seemed lost in his thoughts, smiling and shaking his head as the stark contrasts between Veosa and Novum passed by. Broad avenues, void of rubbish and meticulously maintained looked nothing like the narrow, gridlocked nightmare on any Sector street. Trees and manicured parks were everywhere and he wondered if the locals appreciated the distinction and how differently life was lived outside their gates. It took only minutes before their taxi—delightfully free of food wrappers, urine and vomit—stopped at the long edge of a rectangular plaza filled with trees and neatly bordered stone walkways. In the middle, an oblong structure he guessed correctly to be a concert hall stood on an angle to the street and before it, a modest depression with a circular stage for outdoor productions. A few groups loitered where a fountain sent shimmering streams of water misting into a cloud to form splendid rainbows, but near to the stage, a lone female paced with folded arms as she surveyed the faces.

  Ricky nodded toward her.

  “Is that her?”

  “Yeah, that’s Valery.”

  When they approached slowly, their eyes met and Valery Sharma walked quickly toward them.

  “Maela,” she began, “it’s been a while.”

  “I wish it was for a better reason, and I’m very sorry about your father, but thank you for meeting us. This is Richard Mills.”

  “Have you found something?”

  “Not exactly,” Maela replied. “Your dad left a message for Richard and in it, instructions to find you and deliver these data sticks. He said you would know what to do with them.”

  “He sent you to find me?”

  “Yes; they’re technical documents, mostly, but he was very specific; Richard was to give them to you personally. Do you know what they are?”

  “Maybe, but why did he send you, and what do these files have to do with his murder?”

  “We were hoping you might be able to tell us.”

  “I need to look at them on my private system.”

  “I understand,” Maela said, “but our time here is limited; we have to leave within three days or apply for an extended pass.”

  Valery held out her hand where a thin, black thread circled her wrist and Maela knew it was for Elden.

  “Put your comm in search
mode for a second; mine will find and link the call codes.”

  Maela fumbled for her unit and tapped in the search function. After a moment, it clicked to signal the two were joined.

  “I’ll call you.”

  “Of course.”

  Valery did her best to return a smile and then she was gone. They waited for a while, simply to process the event and sort out what it all meant.

  “We should’ve told her where this was going,” Ricky said suddenly.

  “Maybe,” Maela answered, but something was off in her tone and Ricky heard it clearly.

  “Elden seemed to believe she’d understand those documents. I hope this wasn’t a wasted trip.”

  Maela nodded toward the street where Valery disappeared into the afternoon crowd.

  “I think she’s going to tell us more than we could ever tell her.”

  With nothing else to do, they returned to the van and followed a patrol officer’s directions to an open lot where visitors park land vehicles for the night. Workers, up from the vast, open-pit mines far to the south traveled in similar machines and found a comfortable place to rest between their business activities each day. There would be a small fee, the cop cautioned, but it was equipped with power and water stations, relieving them of the need for a hotel. Ricky wondered if the sleeping arrangements might make things awkward, but Maela didn’t seem to care. When they walked from a lively steak bar and the rare treat of herd meat with no restrictions, roiling barbeque smoke pulled delicious aromas into the evening air. Maela wanted to stroll a while along a broad avenue where couples and small groups crowded at tables and lounge chairs to sip their drinks and chatter away because, she said, it was a favorite location on her previous visits. Ricky smiled and nodded, regarding an aimless walk for no reason beyond relaxation as a strange and alien activity, but a buzzing note in her earpiece announced an incoming call.

  “You read the documents?” she asked and Ricky knew Valery was on the opposite side of the link.

  “We need to talk.”

  Maela looked at Ricky with raised eyebrows.

  “Whenever you’re ready.”

  “I can see your location on my system; stay where you are and I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

  “All right, but…”

  The link closed abruptly.

  “Nice talking to you, too,” Maela said sarcastically and to no one. “Whatever was inside those spec sheets, she obviously knows what they mean.”

  “How did she sound?” Ricky asked.

  “Pissed-off,” Maela answered.

  They stood a while and watched an automated machine trundle slowly through an intersection, sucking up dirt and debris through an array of vacuum tubes. Ricky smiled at the spotless condition left in its wake, knowing an equivalent street in Novum would remain untouched and littered for years. After a while, an air car moved downward from its traffic lane far above in a strangely soothing warble that was nothing like the excessive, pulsing thrum of Maela’s MPE cruiser. When it settled with a clunk onto an open lot, Valery reached from the clam-door hatch and waved them toward her.

  “Get in,” she said with a nod.

  In seconds they were lifting upward quickly, angling for a traffic stream and hundreds of air cars moving steadily northward at two hundred meters. When the machine settled automatically into the requisite speed, Ricky watched as the gleaming cityscape passed by; clean, advanced and orderly, but with an overwhelming contrast to the hard, cheerless streets of Novum. No surveillance drones, he noted, and Maela smiled at his reaction when she said the pristine city contained no hidden Watchers or pious, lurking Behavior Regulation enforcers.

  As they sped through clusters of graceful buildings constructed as much for aesthetic appeal as simple, urban utility, Valery turned first to Ricky.

  “Elden didn’t explain what’s in those files?”

  “No,” Ricky answered. “I didn’t realize what they were until after he…well, after he was gone.”

  “Forgive me for being blunt, but why would he give them to you to deliver all the way from Novum?”

  “Elden was my friend, Miss Sharma; I owe him a lot.”

  “Oh? Why do you ‘owe’ him?”

  Ricky looked at Maela suddenly, perhaps for a nod or an expression that told him it was all right.

  “My dad died when I was a teenager, and Elden kept me going in the right direction when I was too young and stupid to figure it out for myself. He took my dad’s place, from a certain perspective, so…”

  “Wait,” Valery said, leaning closer. “Mills?”

  “Yeah?”

  “So you’re Slider. I didn’t make the connection until just now.”

  Ricky remained silent, allowing the moment to play itself out as a sad smile crossed Valery’s face.

  “He told me about you. If he became a surrogate father, it would make me your sister…from a certain perspective.”

  “I guess it would,” said Ricky, suddenly without anything better to say and ignorant of Valery’s noticeably sarcastic finish.

  “I have to ask,” Ricky said cautiously. “Sharma?”

  “My mother’s maiden name; we took it after my father went his own way.”

  “Why didn’t he bring you with him to Novum?”

  Valery leaned closer still and leveled her eyes at Ricky.

  “Those people—the ones who wanted to take over Novum after the war—they offered him a lot of money and a big lab all to himself. It meant relocating from our home and that was not something my mother wanted for herself, or for me.”

  “How long has it been since you saw Elden?” Maela asked.

  “Three or four years, I guess. I don’t know exactly, but it’s been a long time.”

  “I’m sorry you had to hear of his death from strangers.”

  “Does it matter? He’s just as dead either way and we can’t get back the time, so…”

  Her words trailed off, punctuated with a sad smile and a slow shake of her head.

  “He was dead to my mother when he chose Novum over her.”

  “You aren’t going to tell her?”

  “I will, but not right now. The information you brought in those files—what he wanted to do…”

  “Elden knew he was in danger,” Ricky said gently. “He left a message for me in the hours before his murder with instructions to find you because he knew there wouldn’t be enough time for him to do it. He said you would understand and know what to do with the information.”

  Valery’s face went blank as the elusive clues made their inevitable connections at last. When she closed her eyes, her head tilted suddenly back, signaling her understanding. Ricky saw it at once.

  “Valery, do you know why he sent us?”

  “They found out,” she muttered.

  “I’m sorry,” Maela said, “but who are ‘they?’”

  “The same people who lured him to Novum years ago.”

  “He mentioned something about that in his note to Richard; he said powerful people would try to stop him.”

  “Of course he did,” Valery said. “You’re here because he knew they would get to him before he could escape.”

  “So what was it?” Maela asked. “What’s in those files that made these people murder your father?”

  Valery sat in silence for a while.

  “Perhaps we can meet again tomorrow,” Maela offered. “Maybe give you some time to take all this in?”

  Valery looked away again, trying her best to conceal the pain, but it was no use. Maela reached instinctively for her hand, holding it tight until the moment passed. Wiping the tears from her eyes, Valery cleared her throat and nodded vigorously.

  “We should continue—it’s okay.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes; there’s no point in waiting, and nothing is going to bring him back anyway.”

  “Valery…”

  “No, it’s all right, really. After seeing those files, it’s clear what my father wanted to do,
and he’s left it for me to finish. What I can’t see in his notes is why. Something has happened and it forced his hand.”

  “We need to understand, too,” Ricky said at last. “I can’t leave it like this.”

  “We’ll be at my home in a few minutes,” she replied.

  “Thank you, Valery,” Ricky said.

  “Don’t thank me until you see what all of it means. If I succeed, everything you know will change.”

  “If it helps Maela find and punish Elden’s murderer, I don’t care what it means.”

  Valery looked at Ricky again.

  “You might care an hour from now.”

  The air car nosed downward gently, slowing when it detached from the traffic stream smoothly toward a pyramid-shaped structure clad in mirrored glass that shimmered in dazzling, multi-spectral waves. They slowed through a wide gap in the building’s flanks, easing gently into a sub-level parking garage.

  As the machine nudged into its dock, Valery stepped onto a wide, metal grate that divided one parking bay from another, motioning for Ricky and Maela to follow. The lifts nearby took them quickly to her floor high above. They went through a lobby of polished floors and strange wall treatments made of decorative cork sculpted into geometric shapes to form a sort of relief map Ricky admired immediately. At the end of a hallway, Valery paused until the door to her apartment opened with a touch of her finger on a reader pad.

  An angled wall of darkened glass was both her wall and ceiling, showing a narrow park toward the west and Ricky shook his head in wonder, knowing what so opulent a place would demand in rent fees in Novum. Valery motioned them to her study and thumbed to life an array of monitors they guessed were replicas of her work environment at the KazTek offices.

  “Have a seat while I get the files opened up.”

  They waited as one of her display monitors blinked to life, scrolling immediately through a menu until she held it at an expanded view of a vast field of alphanumeric phrases only she seemed to understand.