by Chris Bunch
“How many other people know where this is? The police report on the robbery said the thief or thieves—”
“Thieves, sir,” Penruddock said. “There had to be more than just one man. They took away half a dozen trays, and I’ve never known a burglar so bold as to make more than one trip.
“But to answer your question. Myself. My wife. One… perhaps two of my servants. Long-time employees, still with me today.”
“But all that doesn’t matter, does it? You’ve recovered what you were able to recover, for which I am grateful, and Innokenty Khodyan is dead, which makes things still better.” Penruddock looked anxiously at the open door and sighed in relief when Joshua nodded. He closed and relocked the vault.
“Now I must ask the question that’s been puzzling me, Joshua,” the judge said. “I was told you are a warrant hunter now. Your business with me is over, isn’t it?”
“No,” Joshua said. “Sometimes I hunt other things than men. I’m interested in the things that weren’t on Khodyan when I killed him.”
“You mean the diamonds?”
“And one other thing.”
Judge Penruddock started and tried to cover it. “Oh… you mean that little stone? That was just something of sentimental value. Something I bought when I was a boy, and, well, I guess it was the cornerstone, without intending the pun, of my collection.” He had deliberately kept his eyes on Joshua, trying to force belief.
Wolfe stared back until Penruddock looked away. The silence climbed about them.
“Very well,” Penruddock said. “I don’t know why I’m so secretive about it. It’s not illegal to own, after all. It was an Al’ar Lumina stone. How did you guess?”
“I didn’t know exactly what it was,” Joshua lied. “But that ‘sentimental value only’ jumped at me. Since no one died in the robbery, there had to be something important for you to post the reward you did.”
“You came to the correct end, sir, but you took a wrong turn. I would have wanted the thief hunted down regardless. Have you ever been robbed? It’s like… like being raped. They came into my house and defiled it. So of course I wanted revenge. Consider this, Joshua. If my wife and I had been here on that night, wouldn’t we have most likely been hurt or worse? The police told me this Khodyan had no hesitation about using violence.”
“Let’s get back to the stone, Your Honor.”
“Since you were among the Al’ar, you know what it was used for.”
Joshua hesitated, then told the truth. “No. I don’t. Not completely. The Lumina gave them focus, like I’ve heard crystal does a meditator. But it also was an amplifier and allowed greater use of their powers.
“Was that why you had it?”
Penruddock turned around and looked out a window at a huge Japanese rock garden, its effect ruined by size.
“No, or not exactly. I’d heard stories about the Lumina. But I’m not into such metaphysical—” Penruddock hesitated before going on, “—stuff. I wanted it as a trophy. Most of my gems have a history, and I know their value, not just in money. Some have been the ruin of a family or a dynasty, some have been part of a reluctant bride’s price, and so forth. This Lumina was the price of empire for us.”
Joshua knew Penruddock was lying.
“What do you think happened to it?” the judge went on.
“I don’t know. Innokenty Khodyan hadn’t linked up with his fence when I took him, and supposedly nobody else on Platte had gotten any jewels from him.”
“Then he must have sold it before he reached whatever godforsaken world you killed him on. Certainly there’s no market for it on Mandodari III.”
“Possibly,” Joshua said. “Or else he had already made the delivery to his customer.”
“What do you mean?”
“Innokenty Khodyan was a professional. Some of the dozen thefts he pulled before I took him were general—he’d found out about someone’s stash and gone after it.”
“But this would appear to be something different, I’d suspect the theft was commissioned.”
“For the Lumina?” Penruddock looked shaken.
“There are other collectors of Al’ar gear,” Joshua pressed. “Do you know any of them? Better, have any of them come here and seen the Lumina?”
“No to both of your questions,” Penruddock said flatly. “I’ve heard about those wretches, with their bits of uniforms and parts of shot-down ships… thank you, I am hardly of their ilk.”
“Where did you get the Lumina?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Was it here on Mandodari?” Joshua caught and held Penruddock’s gaze.
“I said I can’t—”
“You just did. Who sold it to you?”
“A man contacted me directly,” Penruddock said grudgingly.
“How did he know you were interested?”
“I’d mentioned what I wanted to some friends.”
“Other gem collectors?”
“Yes. One had told me he’d heard of a Lumina—actually that there were two, for sale, but they were far beyond his price.”
“Where is he now?”
“He’s dead. He died… natural causes… about two months after I bought the stone.”
“The man you bought it from here. Was he a native of Mandodari?”
“No. I met him at the spaceport. He said he was between ships.”
“Do you know where he came from? Where he was going?”
“No. I only cared about what he wanted to sell.”
“How’d you pay?”
“Cash.”
“How much?”
Penruddock looked stubborn.
“How much?”
“Two million five hundred,” he said.
“That’s a great deal of money for something you’re just going to leave in a vault and just look at once a week or so. What else did you plan to do with it?”
“I already said—nothing. It was merely to have it! You’re’ not a collector, so you wouldn’t understand.”
“Maybe I wouldn’t,” Wolfe said. “Have you ever heard of a man named Sutro?”
“Never.”
Joshua searched for his next question.
“I didn’t expect this when I allowed you to come here,” Penruddock said. “To be grilled like I was some kind of criminal.”
“So the Lumina’s gone, and you have no idea who might have taken it,” Wolfe went on, paying no mind to the judge’s words. “Do you want it back?”
“Yes… no.”
“Make up your mind.”
“I don’t want that stone back. I don’t think you could recover it,” Penruddock said. “Especially if what you said is true and another collector sent that son of a bitch Khodyan to steal it from me. But I want another one.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“I don’t have to make sense, Wolfe,” the judge said, trying to regain control of the situation. “Perhaps I just realized it myself. You said you came here looking for warrant work. Very well. You’ve got it. I’ll cover your expenses and pay you a finder’s fee when you secure me a second Lumina. I’ll pay the same price as I did for the first.”
Joshua walked across the room and stared down at the mansion’s front entrance and driveway. He heard a slight noise, and a small metallic green lifter came into view, hovering down the drive and out the gate. Joshua turned back.
“If I take the warrant,” he said, “I’ll want the rest of what you’re not telling me.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’ll need to know who the man was you bought it from, how he got in contact with you, where he came from, and why you trusted him enough to go to a spaceport with that much cold cash. Just for a beginning.”
“I told you everything!”
Joshua Wolfe took one of the hotel’s cards from a pocket and laid it on a table.
“You can reach me here.”
* * * *
The gate closed behind Joshua, and he started back towa
rd the city. He heard a turbine whine, turned, and saw the metallic green lifter. Ariadne Penruddock was at the controls. She stopped the craft, and the window hissed down.
“It’s a long walk, even if it’s downhill. Need a ride?”
“I never walk unless I have to.”
Joshua went around the back of the vehicle and opened the door. He looked back up the drive at the house. In an upper-story window he saw a white blur that might have been a face.
He got in and slid the door closed.
“I’m at the Acropolis,” he said.
“Mister Wolfe, would you mind if we had a talk?”
“Not at all. What about?”
“My husband. Lumina stones.”
“I felt someone else’s presence while we were talking,” Joshua said. “Were you eavesdropping… or are you more sophisticated?”
Without taking her eyes from the road, Lady Penruddock opened her purse and showed him a small com. “Sometimes a woman needs to know what’s being said about her even if she’s away from the house. I had the pickup put in his study just after we were married.”
“Maybe,” Wolfe suggested, “you’d better pick a place for our talk where you’re not known.”
“The Acropolis is fine. Nobody in our circle goes there.”
* * * *
The bar was automated, which meant one less witness. It was empty except for two salesmen nursing beers and glowering at their notebook screens as if they were the supervisors who’d given them this awful territory. Ariadne studied the menu set into the tabletop.
“Deneb sherry,” she decided, and touched the correct sensor.
There were no Armagnacs, but there was a local pomace brandy. The delivery slot opened, and Lady Penruddock’s drink and Wolfe’s water and brandy appeared. He fingered the tab sensor, touched the snifter to his lips and drank ice water.
“Let me tell you about my husband and myself,” Ariadne said without preamble. “We married for our own separate reasons, and for me at least, nothing has altered my intent.”
“Malcolm and I largely lead our own lives. What he does is his business. If he wishes me to accompany him, I am delighted. If not…” She shrugged. “I have my own friends, my own pursuits. Malcolm cares little what I do so long as I do not embarrass him or force him to take notice.”
“If I found you attractive, which I do, and we happened to spend some time together, that would only concern the two of us.”
“I am not sure, though, that that would be wise. For me. But I am still thinking about it.” Her fingers touched the fastener of her blouse for an instant, then went away.
“What Malcolm perhaps does not yet realize is that I require the same from him. He must not embarrass me or force me to have to apologize for his sometimes unusual predilections.”
“Such as the Lumina?”
“Exactly. Did you know he was lying when he said he only wished to own the Lumina for itself?”
“I did.”
“My husband is a devotee of power,” Ariadne said carefully. “He chose to become a civil judge for that reason, instead of criminal law. That was well before the war, when our world was thriving.”
“Malcolm made his decisions wisely over the years, not so much for justice as for how they might benefit him. He was quite successful.”
“Then the war ruined him, as it ruined this world. When it was over and the Federation left, all the wonderful wheelings and dealings with land, and estates, and investments, on- and offworld, were mostly gone.”
“Malcolm had planned to use his Loyalty Courts to propel him into politics, possibly to the highest offices. But with peace came the new government, which holds office by the size of the welfare checks it gives out.”
She shrugged. “I care nothing about that or about what the working man does or thinks.”
“Malcolm retired from the bench at the advice of several lawyers who said there might otherwise be an investigation of his decisions before and during the war.
“So he looked about for other fields to conquer.”
“One of them was me. My family had been very indiscreet in war investments, so our standing with the hoi polloi was shaky. Also, I’d been a bit… indiscreet once when I was very, very young. Mandodari doesn’t care what goes on in its bedrooms so long as the windows are blanked. I wasn’t that cautious. The woman and her husband were able to leave, but I was trapped here, and Malcolm was a most convenient salvation.
“You look surprised, Mister Wolfe. Isn’t a woman permitted to be honest about herself and her chances?”
“I’m just surprised you’re telling all this to a stranger.”
“Why not? Better to a stranger, one that’ll be off-world in a few days, than to the whale-mouthed gossips I normally associate with. As I was saying, marriage benefited us both. Malcolm received certain material advantages, perhaps what was known as a dowry in the old days, and I became a quote honest end quote woman.
“After we were married, Malcolm started hearing about the Lumina stone. He already had his collection of jewels, which I truthfully believe is the only thing he completely loves, and so it didn’t seem that odd for him to want an Al’ar stone.”
“The Lumina is not a jewel.”
“And how many people know that? Let me continue. He felt that possession of a Lumina stone could bring him some feeling for power that might guide him to his next step.
“At least that was what he thought when he began his quest. Then he heard about the wr-Lumina.”
“The what?”
“Now it’s my turn for surprise. I thought you would have known of that, since I heard Malcolm say you were among the Al’ar, although I’m not sure I completely understand.”
“Malcolm heard stories of a great Lumina, although I don’t know if anyone ever said anything about its physical size. I’ve heard him call it a ‘king Lumina’ or a ‘mother Lumina.’ He didn’t tell me what it was used for, what it was meant to do. But if a small Lumina had the purpose you told Malcolm, the great one would surely be worth possessing.”
“He was going to use the Lumina he had to track down the big one. I don’t know how. Maybe he thought it would lead him directly; maybe he thought whoever he bought the stone from could help him. He was never that specific. Now he wants to hire you for the search.”
Joshua rolled brandy around his mouth, concentrating on the burn, letting the words find their own meaning. He took a second swallow.
“Very well,” he said. “You were honest with me, and I’ll return the trade. I’ve never heard of this ultimate Lumina, not even when I was a boy and was among them. I don’t see how such a thing could even exist. If it did, it would have been at least hinted at in their ceremonies.”
“You could be right,” Ariadne said indifferently. She touched the menu for another sherry. “It doesn’t really matter to me.”
“All right,” Joshua said. “So what do you want me to do about your husband?”
“You can take the commission if you wish,” Lady Penruddock said. “All I ask is you keep Malcolm from making an utter fool of himself—or getting hurt.”
“I can guess you have your own agenda with this Lumina stone and don’t know what it is or care.”
“All I’m concerned about is Malcolm. Do what I want, and I’ll be a friend. A very good friend. Otherwise… well, my family may be in disgrace, but we still have enough power to make life exceedingly miserable for you even if you are some kind of war hero, even out into the Outlaw Worlds.”
She drank most of her drink. “As for that other thing I spoke of, whatever might happen between you and me… that can wait until another time.”
She dipped a finger into the dregs of the sherry, touched it to Joshua’s lips, got up, and walked out of the bar, not looking back.
Joshua sat very still for a time. He picked up his snifter, was about to drink, then put the glass down, signed the tab with a fingerprint, and went out of the hotel into the dusk.
&nbs
p; Chapter Seven
Twenny-five credits for straight, thirty-five for a suckoff, fifty for roun’ th’ worl’, an’ for a hunnerd you can have me an’ Irina,” the woman said, trying to sound as if it mattered which was chosen. Her partner smiled in Wolfe’s general vicinity, then turned as a lifter approached and saluted it with her chest. She looked disappointed when the driver didn’t slow down.
“Suppose I’m interested in something else,” Joshua said.
“Like what? I don’t do pain or shit… but I can send you to somebody who does.” The woman leaned back against the wall of the bar. “Shoulda known you weren’t th’ kind who wants somethin’ normal. Guys who look like you never do.”
“Not that, either,” Wolfe said. “I think you might be needing a new fancy man.”
“Not a chance. Keos takes real good care a me an’ Irina an’ the other girls.”
“I didn’t say I was asking.”
“Get on your scooter, bud. Or you’re gonna get hurt.”
Joshua didn’t move. The woman’s hand dove in her purse and came out with a silent alarm. “You’re lookin’ for trouble, you’re ‘bout to get on kissin’ terms with it.”
The other woman came closer, her eyes wide. She licked her lips in anticipation.
A man came out of the bar, hand inside his vest. He was big and walked with a limp, and the surgeon who’d rebuilt the side of his face hadn’t done a very good job.
“What is it, Maria?”
“Him,” the first woman said. “He wants’t’ be our new mack.”
“Shit!” the man spit, and came in on Joshua, hand coming out of the vest with a sap. Joshua stepped into him, and two fingers rapped sharply on the man’s forehead as Wolfe struck the pimp’s forearm with the side of his blocking hand.
The blackjack hit the filthy pavement before the man did.
The two whores looked scared. Joshua kept one eye on them while he knelt and rifled through the man’s pockets. He found a knife, a wad of cash, a vial containing a brownish powder, and a flat blaster in an ankle holster. He threw the vial and knife into the street and tossed the credits to Maria.