by Patty Jansen
The weather had calmed, and the trip was easy and without drama. Thayu notified the hospital of Melissa’s arrival and they said they would send people to pick her up.
They were waiting outside the terminal when we landed, a couple of people in purple uniforms. With all the noise from aircraft, roaring engines and cargo being loaded and unloaded, it felt like it was so busy here. All these people were just annoying.
We accompanied Melissa to the hospital, since she had no relatives in Barresh to do this for her. I would have to try and contact her parents later. I seemed to remember that her mother lived in Germany and had remarried a Coldi man who went by the Earth name Ludo Chan. He might be able to come here to keep her company.
There was going to be some fallout from this case. I was still hitting myself on the head that I had sent Melissa out there. It was a sign of how addled I had been while I was sick, and how focused on Robert as innocent victim.
There wasn’t much for us to do at the hospital while she went into surgery. The medico told me that the bullet might have missed a lot of vital organs, but it would still be tricky to remove. And yes, the wound was infected, which made recovery dicier. They would have to keep her sedated for a while. They let us know that they would contact us as soon as she woke up. Her story, when it finally could be told, would be an interesting one. I also realised that her experience brought Melissa in the firing line if there was some sort of court procedure resulting from this. Damn it, I’d probably have to cover some of her job while she was recuperating.
“How far off are the others?” I asked Thayu, who was doing something on her reader.
“They’ve just passed the sand bar. Nicha says that a good number of boats are following them, which are probably Thousand Islands tribe people.”
Damn it. I’d hoped to avoid that. “I know you want to go home, but would you come with me to do one more thing?”
She gave me a surprised look. “Why do you ask?”
“Because last time I didn’t, and you got angry. And because it’s important that we make this visit while we still have the element of surprise. And because we’re already quite close to our destination.”
“You planned this, right?”
I grinned. I loved that woman.
We left the hospital quickly and vanished in the backstreets of the new rich part of the city. We arrived at Clovis and Juanita’s house via a detour, again to make sure no one followed us.
The house looked the same as during my previous visit. The garden was neat and the doors to the veranda stood open to let in fresh air.
Thayu and I went through the gate, making sure to shut it quietly, and walked through the garden to the front door.
“Hello,” I called at the screen door.
I could hear a noise inside the house, a rustling of paper or something like that. I waited, but after a while no one had come to the door.
I called again, “Hello, is anyone there?”
Again I waited, but no one came.
Meanwhile, Thayu had walked to the side of the veranda. She looked inside the windows and then around the corner of the house.
“Someone is here,” she said. “I can see them.”
Yes, I thought she was right. I tested the screen door, but it was locked. That was interesting. It looked like he didn’t want to see us.
Thayu went down the veranda and walked around the corner of the house. From there, the garden sloped to the water’s edge. After the rain, the water had risen and inundated the reed beds. Someone had brought a boat up to the bottom end of the garden, one of the flat-bottomed ones that people used in the delta. Did this mean he had visitors?
Thayu stopped and looked around. She took the gun from its bracket on her arm. She listened.
A second boat came around the point, heading for the garden, but when the driver, a keihu youth, saw us, he changed course and continued past us, without looking in our direction.
“Do you get the feeling that was heading in this direction?” I asked.
“I know for certain,” she said.
“So, what’s Clovis’ game? He’s trying to flee? Trying to hide?”
We walked along the side of the house and up the back veranda. The chairs were out and there was a teapot on the table; it was hot, too. The door into the house was open. Sloppy.
Thayu went in first. She walked carefully, trying to be as quiet as possible. There was no one in the kitchen, but a cutting board and a knife had been abandoned on the table, as well as a half-cut fruit.
I called, “Is anyone there? Clovis? Juanita?”
There was no reply. It was all very strange. I followed Thayu further into the house, into rooms where I hadn’t been, like the bedroom, a study, the bathroom—which looked very Earthly, with a porcelain wash basin and toilet—and the guest room, where someone had dumped a couple of sturdy travel bags on the floor. They looked well used, of high quality material. There were brand logos on them, a distinctly Earthly thing.
That was interesting.
I went into the room, and as I crouched to check the bags and their content, someone appeared in the doorway. It was Clovis. He carried a hunting rifle. One of Robert’s? He noticed Thayu and was sensible enough not to raise the gun.
“What are you doing here?” he said. “This is my private house.” He was breathing fast.
“I knocked and called several times but no one opened,” I said. “I have to talk to you. It’s important.”
“And you have to break into my house for that?”
“The back door was open.”
He snorted. “Well, ask your question then.”
“Whose bags are these?”
“What does that have to do with anything? You were going to ask a question.”
“That was part of the question.”
“It’s none of your business whose bags those are.”
“I think it is. We’re looking for a fugitive, a man who has killed several people.”
“Do I look like I would have someone like that in my house? I have no idea what you’re talking about. Two weeks ago you came to me with this infantile note in a bottle, and now you’re talking about murderers.”
“I have since found out that the person who wrote that note is dead. His name was Gusamo Sahardjo and he was a businessman from Earth. Apparently, he came on a trip that advertised ‘surfing with plesiosaurs’, and apparently it was also not the first time he has been here. The Exchange has no records of him, nor of a man called Robert Davidson, visiting Barresh, so they came under a false identity as part of a well-planned scheme. I have seen an ad for these ‘exclusive’ trips for very rich people.”
I let a silence lapse to study his reaction. His face remained blank.
“When I found that note in the jar, I assumed it was either a hoax of some kind, or child’s play, but I persisted because the note was written in Isla; and few people, and none of the children, in this town can write Isla. It seems that Robert Davidson and Gusamo Sahardjo went on this surfing trip, but that Robert had a different agenda, and that maybe the organiser of this trip had a different agenda as well. At any rate, there was a falling out of some kind, the organiser took off, or was killed, Gusamo fled and wrote the note, before he, too, was killed. I found the note, but because I was ill, sent Melissa Heyworth out to investigate, because at the time I genuinely thought someone was in danger.”
Was that a flinch, a look of distaste, or worry even?
“We arrived at the place where Robert was stranded, and he shot at us. He shot Melissa. We’ve found no trace of the other people on Melissa’s team.”
I had to stop to draw breath. “There will be quite a bit of fuss once people on Earth find out what has happened. Gusamo was well-known and well liked, an A-list businessman with a high profile in the graphic design world. He ran a lot of charity projects, had a lot of contacts, and there will be a lot of questions asked. So it would be helpful if you came forward with what you know about this busin
ess of running illegal tourist trips.”
“Why do you assume I am involved?”
“I don’t assume. I know you were. But let’s add up the facts, shall we? I don’t have to tell you about the continued boat wars in Barresh. Learning about those has been very educational for me. What would be more lucrative than hiring out boats for the very rich to visit a place where you have almost exclusive access: the territory of the Thousand Islands tribe. Or should I say: used to have, because the Thousand Islands elder Abri has told us that she no longer approves of your activities on their land.”
“Abri is an old crone. The youth holds the future.”
A seed of victory grew in me. He was talking. “I don’t think most of the tribe will agree with you on that. They’re on their way to Barresh as we speak. They can testify that Robert killed Gusamo.”
His eyes widened briefly.
“They aren’t too impressed that you used the trips as a cover for a diamond smuggling business—”
“That whole business was his idea. He’s a mining person.”
“Still, he came on a trip you organised. Illegally.”
He snorted. “You may not believe me, but we, Juanita and I, have always been about educating young Pengali. We use the trips for that purpose.”
“The hideous fees you charged the participants were just a side issue, I suppose?”
His mouth twitched. I knew I had him.
“At any rate, whatever happened, you were told you by the tribe that you were no longer welcome because of the sky stone business. And this is my speculation: you are a half-decent person and wanted to pull out, but your partner, Robert Davidson, did not. Because Robert has a thing about guns and survival and is capable of defending himself against savages, he decided to dig in.”
“That man is an idiot. I should have seen that much earlier.”
I looked at the bags on the floor between us. “So these are not his things?”
“I have no idea why you would think so. If you really must know, I’m packing to take Juanita on a trip to Miran. She wants to go to the baths and spend some time in the fresh mountain air. As you can imagine, this climate is very hard on her. She hates the wet season.”
“So, it has nothing to do with the fact that a man, who used to be a partner of yours but has become a dangerous enemy, is on the loose?”
He looked at me, blinked a few times, but said nothing. He looked old and tired and I felt sorry for him.
I continued, “I am also guessing that you are not going to help me find Robert, because you’re afraid that any investigation will bring your own illegal activities to light, such as giving your rich customers false identification and bribing members of gamra and the council in order to get favours from them.”
“You have no proof to make any accusations like that.”
“Yes, we do. That box of documents we retrieved from the channel was very illuminating, and worth me spending a few days in hospital for.”
He stared at me. Drops of sweat pearled on his upper lip. Behind his eyes, I could see him fighting not to show his disturbed feelings. But he remained silent.
“Well,” I said, “I wish you a nice trip to Miran then. I’ll continue to look for Robert. My next visit will probably be to Jasper Carlson. He’s the only person who has voluntarily come forward with any information.”
He continued to stare at me. The light filtering in through the window highlighted the deep crevices on his face.
“All right then. If there’s anything you want to tell me later, you know where I am.”
I went into the hallway. Thayu followed me like a silent shadow, and Clovis hobbled after her. We walked through the kitchen and Thayu and I went out on the veranda.
We were about to leave when he said, “Be careful of what Jasper says. He’ll try to get you to contradict yourself in a way that incriminates you. Then he’ll string you up with your own argument.”
“I guess he’d have an easy job doing that with you.”
“Oh, man, fuck off. You’re an arrogant piece of work. I can see why Danziger ditched you. I’m helping you, giving you a warning. Jasper Carlson is an agent of some kind. What you tell him goes into places you don’t want it to go and comes back to bite you.”
“Don’t worry. We know.”
He snorted. “Worry? Don’t know why you think I haven’t got better things to do than worry about you.”
Thayu and I walked back to the gate through the garden. It was early afternoon, the heat pressing as hell; the air vibrated with the absolute fucking racket of the ringgit in the reeds on the other side of Robert’s yard, and even a couple of meili squabbled in the trees that lined the street.
Something was on the verge of breaking, and not just the thunderstorm building over the escarpment.
CHAPTER 21
* * *
“WELL, THAT WAS interesting,” Thayu said when we were in the street. At times I wondered how much Isla she understood; and at other times, like this, I was sure that through a combination of knowledge and translation software, she had understood every single word in the room.
“I think we’ve got the basic gist of it. There’s more, but I don’t think Clovis is a major partner, so I’m not sure how much he’s worth bothering with at the moment. He’s merely a man who owns boats, and is opportunistic to the point of criminality. I think he does care about the Pengali, in his own, misguided way. I feel sorry for Juanita. I also think Clovis knows where Robert is. He is possibly inside that house, threatening Clovis. Unfortunately, a hunch is not going to be strong enough to make a case with the guards or to get them to do anything. Also, I don’t think that the guards are going to care much about protecting Clovis from Robert, or the other way around. I don’t think they even care much about people going illegally to Earth. That would be for Athens to sort out. And we all know how much they care.” Probably a little unfair to Amarru, but Earthly crime was very low on her list of priorities, even if the criminals travelled off world to do it.
Margarethe cared, that was for sure.
“We’ll keep an eye on the house,” she said.
I met her eyes. Hesitated. I so badly wanted to say, No, leave it. This mess had taken far too much of our resources already, and caused too much pain, to myself and my association, and Melissa and her people.
“Yes, we can,” Thayu said, picking up on my feelings through the feeder.
“We’ve got stuff to do. It’s Nations of Earth trouble. Clovis is right. Nations of Earth didn’t want me. How high should I still jump for them?” I guessed the whole issue could be boiled down to how loyal I still felt to Earth, a question I had been avoiding for years.
“Would Margarethe be in contact with Jasper?”
“I don’t think so. She would have mentioned it to me.” At least I hoped so, because at the moment, nothing seemed certain anymore. “At the end of the day, I don’t know what Jasper is doing here or who he works for. He seems like a nasty piece of work, and I don’t want him involved.”
She dug in the pocket of her jacket. “Well, isn’t it good then that we can use these.”
She held her hand out. In her outstretched palm lay a little spy camera. I didn’t often get to see all the devices she hid in various places, but I had seen these things before: little sticky pads that could look like an unevenness in the wall, a fallen leaf or something else unremarkable. This one looked like a smudge of mud. “I’ll stick this to the inside of one of these fence posts,” she said.
She walked a few steps back along the wall where there was a little decorative opening with metal latticework, a common design feature in houses in Barresh. She stuck her hand through the opening and slapped the bug on the inside of the wall.
“That’s the last one,” she said, oh so casually. “It can form a nice network with all the other ones in the house and let us know if anyone is moving.”
I stared at her. “You didn’t!”
But oh, yes, that was just the thing Thay
u would do.
“Have I ever told you I love you?”
She gave me a rare, lopsided smile.
I took her hand, which she even held until we came to the corner of the street where there were other people. We were a team. We figured out the best way of doing things and, occasionally, we were sneaky. But we worked so well together because we loved and respected each other. And, damn, if Lilona said she could change my genes but I needed to spend a month in hospital and would never be able to return to Earth, I’d still do it.
We walked back to the station and caught the train to the airport. In the middle of the day, most of the passengers were servants going to market or people going shopping. We got a few strange glances, dirty as we were.
On the way, we visited the guard station to notify them of a fugitive in town and possible action by us, but as I had predicted, I had trouble finding a supervisor who would listen to my story. Why didn’t I ask gamra guards, they said, and I said they wouldn’t be interested because it concerned a non-gamra world. The people I could prove Robert had injured or killed were all from Earth, or were Pengali, and of the latter they said, “They don’t want us to interfere with their tribal law, so we don’t, unless they specifically ask us to.”
Which was fair enough. I hadn’t seen evidence that anyone cared much about the Pengali, or that the Pengali thought that other people should care about them. But I thought that maybe it was time someone did. It was no good having a shadow society in town of people living their own lives in their own way in places where the normal processes of law broke down. Because criminals would take refuge in those places, and that, in turn, reflected badly on the Pengali.
After we left the guard station, we paid a visit to the Exchange, where I made sure that the security employees would check all passengers boarding transport to Earth against a description of Robert. I left them images and contact information in case they found him.