by Patty Jansen
It might even be that marooning this guy on an island offshore, with no way for his wife to ever find out where he had gone, was the intended result. The unintended part about it might have been that he managed to send that message in a jar and that we happened to have found it.
Shit.
A lot of things suddenly made so much more sense.
Damn, how much more often had this happened? I hadn’t heard anyone speak of a Bermuda Triangle for rich businessmen, but then again, what did I know about the most pressing news on Earth? Unless the Exchange was mentioned, news would never make it to Barresh.
“So,” Nicha said. “What are we going to do?”
“Amarru has asked me to try and find him.”
“Did she say where the budget for this activity was going to come from?” Count on Sheydu to be blunt. “Finding a single person out there would require aerial surveillance. We’d have to hire a solar plane and boats, and people to drive them, and possibly Pengali trackers. Those can be a bugger, especially if they get a whiff of the urgency of the situation.”
“We’ll cross into Thousand Islands tribal territory,” Veyada said. “By rights, we should first apply to them to mount an official search on their land.”
I said, “I understand that the sand bar is in their territory. We didn’t need a permit for that, did we?”
“No, because the sand bar falls under the more lenient fishing grounds provision, but if we are going to set foot on the islands, that is a different matter. We should probably also have a guide from that tribe.”
“Good luck finding one of those,” Sheydu muttered.
Thayu said, “It would help us a great deal if we knew how this man ended up where he did. What type of vehicle was used? We don’t immediately need to resort to going out there and doing on-the-ground searches. We can search the Exchange records if we know what we’re looking for.”
There were nods all around. Thayu had taken a lot of training from local security people and it was starting to show.
That was the crux of the matter. Before we did anything, we needed to find out who was involved locally, because there would have been some local logistics for anyone to get out there. A boat at least, and someone to drive it. Possibly food and fuel.
Thayu said she would follow that up with the Exchange. Reida said that he knew people who hired out boats, and he would ask around if anyone had been seen gathering camping gear.
“We may have to use your Pengali contacts,” I told him. “Anyone from the Thousand Islands tribe?”
He laughed. “When most of the local Pengali are from the Washing Stones tribe? Not likely.”
Veyada said, “Yeah, that is going to be a problem. We can easily get permits to search in Washing Stones tribe territory. They’re relaxed and many of them work in town or live in town. The Thousand Islands tribe is going to be a bit different.”
Hmm, so going to the islands might require a visit to the Pengali Office but most likely the people there would be from the Washing Stones tribe, too. How did one even file a request to visit with the Thousand Islands tribe?
Sheydu was still unhappy about the matter of money.
I told her, “Look, at this point in time it’s more important that this man gets found—”
“So that Nations of Earth and the Exchange can save themselves from embarrassment? They should send someone out there to do that job, because why should we risk our lives to do it? This man put himself in danger.”
I spread my hands. “Look, I . . .”
Veyada shot his mother a sharp look. She pressed her lips together. Whatever went on there clearly had some history.
Nicha said there was money to cover any hire of equipment, if we needed it. We could worry about reimbursement later. The office staff would probably hit Nations of Earth for that. Those people were excellent in that way.
Thayu had taken place at the second bench at the back, getting ready to dive into the Exchange records of vehicle movement out to sea.
I said I’d go into town to visit the Pengali Office to see if I could do something about visiting the Thousand Islands tribe territory.
But first, I went to get the jar with Robert Davidson’s note from my office. I showed it to Devlin. “I would like you to see if you can match this drawing up with any geographical features offshore.”
Devlin gave me a strange look. “What do you mean ‘match up’?”
“He’s drawn something here. Some natural feature of the location. See if you can find something that matches the shape. I will probably take you off the archiving. If we’re going back out there, I want you to liaise with the Athens Exchange instead.”
Devlin nodded, looking very serious.
I went to my office. I wanted to view all the things that Amarru had sent me, and perhaps write to Robert’s wife with some more specific questions if necessary. If it had to go through all the channels, it might take a few days before I had an answer.
I had just sat at the desk when the door opened and Deyu came in. She crossed the floor and sat down on the very edge on the chair opposite the desk.
She was at that age where, when doing physical work, Coldi women would develop broad shoulders for the rest of their lives, and that classical triangle shape was already evident in her body. She looked quite pleasing now, but next year she would be formidable.
“Deyu? Is something wrong?”
“No, but there is something I want to say that I didn’t want to say in there, because it might be embarrassing. It’s about Sheydu.”
“She did seem a bit out of sorts.”
“Yes, and I’m not even supposed to know this at all, but do you know when we went on that nightly trip to the main island to destroy the relay?”
“The one where you showed off your train-driving skills?”
Her cheeks went red. “Well, yeah. I was a train driver, so that was easy for me. But Sheydu decided during that trip that she really doesn’t like water. You know, most of us don’t like water, but we can deal with our fear by training.”
Like Thayu going surfing, which had been amusing, but I’d always had to be on the lookout for the possibility of a panic attack while either Nicha or Thayu were in the water.
“Sometimes, for some people, the fear of water is inbuilt and no amount of training can do anything about it. Sheydu is really embarrassed that she hasn’t been able to shake her fear.”
“Is that why she was so blunt? Because she is afraid to go out over the ocean?”
“Yes. But please don’t tell anyone that I said this to you.”
“It’s all right. The secret is safe.” No one made fun of Sheydu. No one, ever.
“She is extremely embarrassed.”
“We are all afraid of something. I’ll just put her on hub duties if we go out there.”
Except after Deyu had left, I knew it wasn’t as simple as that. Devlin was by far the best to be at the hub, and he didn’t need a second person. And Sheydu was our explosives specialist. We might need her.
Gah, the complications.
I opened all of the documentation that Amarru had sent me. There was little more on the company Exclusive Adventures. On a whim, I translated the name into Coldi and searched in the information and news channels. I didn’t find anything useful there.
There were some photos of Robert—balding, brown hair, bearded, a bit soft around the middle—at family gatherings, cooking a giant lobster, climbing a mountain in the snow, riding a kayak down a rapid. There were pictures where they had taken their disabled son on trips. I came across a wedding photo, dated 2108, over twenty years ago.
Just before he vanished, he had sent his wife a picture of a ring he had bought or was going to buy for her, with a stone in the shape of a bee. The wings consisted of closely-set tiny diamonds. The stone that made up the body was soft turquoise. I wasn’t into this style of jewellery at all, but that stone was very pretty. And it looked expensive.
“I’ll pick it up when I c
ome back,” he’d said. I presumed when he came back from his surfing trip. Cute.
Next I found some pictures to do with his work in the mining industry.
In one, he sat in an office with a group of other people. It looked like they might be well-known people, but I had no idea who they were. Another picture showed a piece of mining equipment where chunks of ore were crushed into smaller chunks. Two people in yellow overalls stood at the controls.
Then there was a picture of a view over an open-cut mine. Wow, I thought they’d shut down those eyesores ages ago.
I collected the pictures onto my reader. I’d take them into town to show people. I would be highly surprised if none of the Earth people I’d visited had any involvement with the organisation of this trip, even if only in passing. They might remember the man’s face or might know who would be running tourist trips.
The fact that my visit to all the Earth people had brought up no information was strange. Either someone was lying or this venture was run entirely from Earth. But there would have to be a local connection. For now I wasn’t seeing that connection, so I decided to make a start on the Pengali issue.
The train timetable didn’t have any trains arriving in town before the close of business—or, I should say, before most administrative offices closed, because trying to pin Barresh to a opening and closing schedule was like trying to teach a fish to paint. The fact that Pengali were nocturnal, especially the tribal ones, might even mean that the office was open all night. Who knew?
I played it safe and ordered a water taxi.
Both Thayu and Nicha were busy. I would otherwise have taken Sheydu and Veyada, but now that I knew about her sensitivity I thought maybe not, so I went into the hub and asked Deyu and Reida to come.
Deyu jumped up immediately. “I need to put on my uniform.”
“We’re only going into town,” I protested. I really didn’t feel like the dress-up thing, but, gamra being gamra, it was unavoidable.
I tried to get ready as quickly as I could, but it still involved Eirani fussing over my hair and my clothing. When I came into the foyer, both Reida and Deyu stood next to the door in their black outfits, both of them carrying guns and looking very impressive.
It struck me that this was the first time they alone had accompanied me and, yes, both had developed from scruffy Outer Circle kids into fine young people. I must think of something to celebrate this special occasion for them.
We left the apartment. The area around the door felt empty without Evi and Telaris. I wondered if anyone had heard from them yet.
We walked at a brisk pace along the gallery, down the stairs and out the building past the uniform shop on the ground floor. The old fellow who ran the shop waved a greeting.
The boat was just coming in as we arrived at the jetty, and because it was coming up to high tide, we didn’t have to climb down the ladder. It was funny how, since going out to the sand bar I’d started to take notice of things like tides, things that most people at the gamra island wouldn’t give a second thought to.
As usual, the trip was quick and windy.
The driver dropped us at the jetty below the airport. We walked up the slope past the aircraft parking area with the sunlight at our back. No dark unmarked craft sat on the tarmac this time. The problems and mysteries were all mine and Asha would not come to interfere or help me. It was a little . . . disconcerting. I’d come to rely on the fact that someone was looking over my shoulder.
From the top of the path where it widened out into the square, it was only a short walk to the Pengali office, which was in the council complex. As expected, they had only just opened and the young woman in attendance was slightly flustered while we waited for her to flip all the wall levers to turn on the—Pengali-made—pearl lights, so that the entire office became bathed in an eerie greenish light.
“Yes, can I help you?” she asked.
She wore an elfin-like dress of diaphanous material that showed off the leopard spots on her shoulders, upper arms and back. I saw myself reflected in her huge eyes.
I started, “We are looking for someone.”
I told her our unlikely story. While I spoke, her frown deepened. I pulled out my reader and flicked through a couple of pictures of Robert. Robert smiling at the camera while climbing a rock face. Robert giving the thumbs up while skiing. There, the Pengali woman frowned deeply. She would know the concept of snow—for all that Barresh was tropical, Ceren was a cool world with extensive ice caps.
Then a picture of Robert on—
“What’s that?”
—A camel.
She definitely did not understand the concept of camels. And she was getting distracted with too many details in the pictures.
“Please, have you seen this man at all?”
I flicked to another picture.
The Pengali woman gasped.
I looked at the screen. Dang, I’d accidentally copied across the picture of the ring. “I’m sorry. That doesn’t belong in there.”
She stared at the screen. “That is a sky stone.” Her voice dropped to an angry whisper. “How dare they sell sky stones for the making of trinkets.”
“It’s a type of glass stone?” I very much doubted that the ring was a cheap trinket, but that aside—
“That type is only found in the territory of the Thousand Islands tribe. We call it that because it is the colour of the sky.”
I looked from the picture to her and back again. “This stone has a special significance?”
She burst out, “It’s a sky stone! He has put a sky stone in an ugly piece of metal. What is it for? Just so that he can adorn himself with frivolous glittery things?”
Whoa.
I involuntarily took a step back. Pengali often had a highly intense quality in their speech that could be very intimidating. Like everyone knew their customs. Like people were stupid for not knowing them. Maybe I was stupid, I don’t know, but I didn’t like being attacked. “Look, I have no idea where he got this stone—”
“It’s a sky stone. It’s from the Thousand Islands.”
“He lives off world. People over there make glass stones in every single colour.”
“You do not make glass stones. They grow in the rock for many ages. We search for the colours and make pretty panes and pretty windows. But you do not cut sky stone, ever.”
I held up my hands. “All right, all right.” I should probably have looked up the stone first, but then again how could I have known about this? Was this stone from Barresh? I guessed it could be. Would a mining executive buy his wife a fake stone? I didn’t think so. Were these stones found anywhere else? No idea.
I flicked back to the last picture of Robert. “Please, have you seen this man?” I asked for the third time.
She squinted at the image with her large Pengali eyes that were dark brown, almost without whites, and bulging like deer eyes. “I don’t know. I’ve seen plenty like him. They come here at time when it’s unsuitable to go out fishing or whatever they come there to do and expect to be taken anyway.”
“What sort of people are they?”
“They’re usually rich, and they’re from places like Damarq or Kedras or wherever that world is . . .” She gestured at the screen.
“They come for fishing?” Living at the gamra island, I was thoroughly unaware that this happened, but it probably shouldn’t surprise me.
“Usually. I’ve heard that it all started when someone started telling stories about catching giant creatures with bait and a net. He must have been telling tall tales, because no one can catch beisili with a net. Or even catch them at all. They’re too big and stroppy for that. But still these idiots come to risk their lives.”
“Who takes them out there?”
“They try to hire anyone who has a boat. We told all our boat operators not to take them. They are poor customers. They want this, they want that or they threaten not to pay. They’re more trouble than they’re worth.”
“Who takes
them if none of your people don’t?”
“Pah. I don’t know. Other people. Or people who need money really badly.”
“But who organises for them to come?”
“Organise? You misunderstand. They come by themselves. If anyone was organising it, they’d be smart and stay away in the wet season. Something like this was an accident waiting to happen. Probably he took a guide and the guide wanted to come back, but he didn’t. They had a fight and the guide left him there.”
“We need to help him.”
“I don’t know that you can. This man, he is in the territory of the Thousand Islands tribe.”
“I understand that we need permission from the tribe to look for him on the islands.”
“You don’t get permission from them. You go, and hope they don’t discover you or that you can talk your way out of it if they do. It’s up to their generosity to provide for him. I’d say they are not keen to do so. They do not want anyone fouling their lands with their footsteps.”
“I was hoping you could tell me where I could hire a guide.”
She laughed, a snorting sound. “None of us would go there.”
“Is there no one from the Thousand Islands tribe in town?”
“If there is, I am not speaking to them, and they are not speaking to us.”
“If there is? Or do you know for sure that no one from the tribe is here?”
“I know for sure about my friends and people who come in here. But who knows what crawlers live in the dirty alleys of Far Atok? I would not recommend that you look for them. Your beautiful uniform will get dirty.”
“So. If I offered a lot of money to find this man, would anyone help me?”
“Your money is not worth anything to us. We value peace. We stay away from uncivilised tribes. The Thousand Islands tribe are always looking for reasons to fight. They want our land, that’s why. This man, why do you think he is worth the trouble of a war?”
CHAPTER 8
* * *
“WELL, I WOULDN’T call that the epitome of useful,” I said when we were outside. “I was under the impression that the function of the Pengali Office was to facilitate relations between the Pengali and other people in this city, but I must have been mistaken.”