On the downside, it meant that someone with a tendency to violence didn't want Lilia being nosy.
Danger had never stopped her before, and neither had a fear of repercussions. Gid deserved justice and Lilia was going to get it for him.
She hadn't, after all, given him much else.
Lilia glanced down and saw a white plastic envelope on the dark carpet. It must have been slipped under her door while she was out. Lilia Desjardins was written across the front of it, but that wasn't what made her heart stop.
Her name was written in Gid's handwriting.
But Gid had been dead for two months and was unlikely to be keeping up with his correspondence.
"So what?" Rachel said. "People come around asking questions all the time. I've got a few of my own."
Montgomery spared her a glance. "This is the guy you wanted me to assess, remember. Maybe his widow knows whatever he knew."
Rachel shrugged. "It's not important anymore. We have to go to Chicago tomorrow. There's new evidence ..."
"Chicago?" Montgomery's gaze fell to the tattoo on her forearm that Rachel always kept hidden. "Are you sure?"
"This isn't about me," she said with impatience.
"It could be. You should be careful." Montgomery pulled up the images of the savagely murdered shade. "This happened tonight."
Rachel caught her breath. "A dissection cut," she murmured. "Made on a shade. Sounds like Nuclear Darwinists to me."
"Their convention is in town this week."
"Great," she said wryly. "Thousands of them underfoot. All the more reason to go to Chicago."
"Even though the Institute for Radiation Studies is there."
Rachel shuddered. "And the labs. Don't forget the research labs."
"Is that why you're going there?"
"No. I heard something. We need to check out this lead, and besides, we've done everything possible in New Gotham." She spoke brusquely. "I've made the arrangements and you'll leave tomorrow on the express train."
Montgomery didn't want to go. "Fitzgerald's widow is the one who captured Armaros and Baraqiel last spring."
"Oh, that explains everything." Rachel laughed under her breath. "Maybe you are looking at vid porn." Before he could ask, she leaned over him and tapped back to Lilia's record, pulling up the image of Lilia.
Even in the official image, she looked mutinous, clever, and gorgeous. Montgomery's mouth went dry.
Rachel lowered her voice. "She's beautiful, isn't she? A renegade and a rebel, a liar and a fellow barely tolerated by the Society. Anything she tells you is completely suspect."
"She found the dead shade in Gotham."
"Maybe she killed the shade in Gotham. There's no way to know."
"No. I trust her motives. I think she's an idealist..."
"We have better things to do, Montgomery." She gave him a hard look. "I chose you for my team because you were always such a good judge of human character. I'd really hoped that you wouldn't suffer the usual affliction of male volunteers."
"This isn't about lust," Montgomery began to argue.
"Isn't it?" Rachel demanded. "You're all the same. You get earthbound and you can't control yourselves. It's as if mortal women are fatal to your ability to reason ..."
"That's not true. She knows something."
Rachel snorted. "What I know is that you have the hots for her and it's not convenient. I don't have time to fight, Montgomery, and I don't have time to help you get lucky. Our mission is important, more important than sex. Don't you want to go back?"
"Of course I do ..."
"Then you don't be seduced by earthly pleasure. You can enjoy it, but don't surrender to it. Don't let it drive your choices. That puts you on the other side—it gives power to the dark one and can keep you from going back."
Montgomery blinked. It was the most information Rachel had given him in months.
She pivoted and would have walked away, but he caught at her arm. "You haven't told me why you're going to Chicago."
"I'll tell you on the way."
Montgomery shook his head. "I'm not going, not tomorrow. I need to find out what Lilia knows." At her skeptical expression, he shook his head. "It's not lust. She knows something. This is the clue we've been waiting for."
Rachel's lips tightened. "Do me a favor, Montgomery, and get Lilia Desjardins out of your system quickly. You know where to find me when you're ready." With that, Rachel left him there, her displeasure hanging between them.
As he watched her stride away, Montgomery noticed a strange silvery fog sliding across the floors of the nether-zones. He heard a faint echo of laughter, and knew it had to be carrying from another beverage bar.
Even if it sounded as if it was inside his own head.
He turned back to the reader. Rachel was wrong about Lilia. Lilia wasn't completely playing on the Nuclear Darwinist team, and he was going to find out why. Montgomery took one last survey of Lilia's file, not expecting to see anything new.
Maybe that was why he was so shocked when he did.
Mother of E562008
He blinked and read the line item again.
Lilia had borne a mutant child.
Montgomery stared at the words but they didn't disappear. This had to be a malicious lie planted on her file to discredit her. He clicked through the hotlink on the child's assigned number, which brought up a much shorter record.
E562008
DAUGHTER OF LILIA DESJARDINS
FATHER UNKNOWN
HARVESTED AT BIRTH
2081-2090
That was it. A short life, and one apparently unworthy of documentation.
As Montgomery stared, the scrambler fizzled. The window disappeared and only the daily news remained on the screen.
Everything Lilia said indicated that she held shades in higher regard than the law did, so why would she have joined the ranks of those who harvested shades when they had taken her own? He couldn't imagine that she could have been so indifferent to the fate of her child. The fact that there was no father listed made Montgomery doubt its truth even more.
It had to be a lie.
Giving birth to a shade was scandalous, especially for a Nuclear Darwinist. Citizens paid good cred to see these kinds of damning details buried deeper in the databanks, where fewer eyes could see them. Lilia wouldn't have ethical issues with doing that, or fail to find the cred necessary to see it done.
It was a malicious information plant to discredit Lilia, left where a great many people could see it, a great many people who could use it against her.
Lilia should know about the false data, and if he told her, Montgomery might gain some goodwill.
She might exchange one truth for another. It wasn't much of a card, but it was the only one he had and Montgomery would play it.
Fortunately, he knew just where to find the lady.
Lilia peeled off Gid's pseudoskin and hung it up in the bathroom of her unit. She wasn't that tired anymore, not since she'd seen the envelope. She propped it up against the bathroom mirror, and stole glances at it from the shower stall as she soaped down. It never hurt to have another chemical shower and she'd brought the appropriate soap with her.
Either it was Gid's writing, which was against the odds, or someone had copied his writing brilliantly.
What were the chances that Gid had left her a last message? Lilia would have said slim to none, but she looked at that envelope and wasn't so sure.
She considered the price of opening the envelope. The room would be infested with monitors, but then the Republic was already aware of the envelope.
It might look more suspicious to not open it.
There was no good answer, not without knowing the contents of the envelope itself. Lilia wondered whether the shade on the front desk had been tipped to deliver it— that would explain her interest in Lilia's return.
Maybe it was a love poem from an ardent admirer. Lilia thought immediately of Montgomery and wondered if he was the type to compose lo
ve poems. The idea made her smile.
He'd be more likely to have ordered S&D to take her down for violating the law code of the Republic. Montgomery was not a fun date, even though he was a delicious beast.
A woman couldn't have everything, apparently.
Not that Lilia wanted anything Montgomery had.
Well, maybe that wasn't quite true.
Lilia plucked the envelope off the vanity with an impatient gesture. The plastic envelope crackled as she opened it.
Inside it was a temporary tattoo.
The tattoo was the cheap kind included with breakfast cereal granules. To pacify moms everywhere, it would wash off in any time frame from a couple of hours to a couple of days—which moved the battleground from permanent disfigurement to personal hygiene.
Lilia's mom, of course, didn't possess any maternal prejudice against tattoos, a good thing since Lilia had a variety of them.
Like Gid. Lilia's stomach rolled at the unwelcome reminder of her last exchange with NGPD, and she considered this gift instead.
This image wasn't ancient or symbolic of anything beyond the power of centralized authority. It was the logo used by the Republic as a reminder and a warning: a pair of eyes drawn in black. It was apparent that they were feminine eyes, even in the simple line drawing, because they were tilted exotically upward at the outer corners as if they had been outlined in kohl. Women were the heart and soul of trouble, as every citizen knew.
These were the eyes displayed throughout the Republic on billboards, on official notices from the Republic to its citizens. There were lots of them at the circus, fluttering on little colored banners that were strung between the tents, not that anyone ever heeded that warning.
The eyes of the Republic are everywhere.
As messages from beyond the grave went, this one had to count as a disappointment. On a whim, Lilia applied it to her upper left arm. Who knew? Maybe it would open a secret door somewhere. Lilia checked it out in the mirror, then made the connection.
The tattoo was a warning.
The envelope was from someone who knew that Gid's death hadn't been an accident—Lilia was being warned, probably by someone very much alive, that what she did would not go unwitnessed.
The hair stood up on the back of her neck.
There was someone other than Y654892 who knew more about Gid's death, probably the same someone who had been responsible for the shade's untimely demise.
This person or persons unknown knew exactly where Lilia was.
Lilia shivered. This wasn't the most reassuring note on which to end her day. It seemed pointless to go anywhere else, to try to hide from someone who could apparently find her so readily.
It wasn't like Lilia to be afraid, but her heart was pumping. She went to bed anyway. Unlike a real tattoo, the temporary one pulled against her skin. It couldn't have been just the persistent tug that kept her awake long into the night.
It wasn't a guilty conscience either.
It was Montgomery's terse words: "Two minutes. Max."
In two minutes, the shade's killer couldn't have gotten far from the dead shade, whether or not there was another exit to the plaza. He couldn't have started another bike without Lilia having heard it.
Which meant the killer had lingered, maybe even watched her discover the shade's body, then left after Lilia was gone. It would have been easy for him to kill Lilia, but the choice had been made to let her live.
Why? Lilia couldn't get warm once she made that realization. She tossed and turned, exhausted but unable to fall asleep.
The Republic's eyes weren't the only ones watching her.
75th ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE SOCIETY OF NUCLEAR DARWINISTS
OCTOBER 28-31, 2099, IN NEW GOTHAM
• Highlighted Schedule of Events •
THURSDAY
• 7-11 — Mix and Mingle in the Lobby Bar
FRIDAY
• 9-NOON — Special Session-Wilhelmina Olsendatter on her recent work (Angels and Demons: Past and Present Perceptions of Good and Evil, Institute of Radiation Studies Press, Chicago, 2098)
• NOON-3 — Opening Keynote Luncheon: Mike MacPherson: Annual Review of the Society's New and Pending Drug Patents
• 2-3 — Sunshine Heals: Vid Feed of Official Launch into Frontier
• 7-9 — Cocktail Reception for new 7th Degree Fellows.
SATURDAY
• 9-11 — Incumbent President Ernestine Sinclair and Declared Candidate Blake Patterson present their election platforms for 2100 Presidency
• NOON-3 — Closing keynote: "A Mathematical Model of the Society's Future" : Abraham Malachy
• 3-6 — Special Session-"Harvesting in the Field"-Rhys Ibn AH shares his shade-hunting techniques and strategies
• 6-10 — Annual Gala and Dinner: a Tribute to the first 75 years of the Society and the Memory of Ernest Sinclair, Society Founder. Presentation of Gideon Fitzgerald Award for Academic Excellence at the Institute for Radiation Studies (presented by Lilia Desjardins)
V
Thursday, October 29, 2099
Lilia didn't imagine that there could be much worse than being roughed up by S&D, but she was soon proven wrong.
Being snagged before breakfast by a videvangelist on a mission was much worse.
"Lilia Desjardins!" boomed a familiar voice. "Here she is, ladies and gentlemen, the mortal designated by God to welcome angels into our midst!"
The Reverend Billie Jo Estevez had finally found her. The exchange Lilia had been ducking for months finally caught up with her, in the hotel lobby. On the upside, Lilia had dressed to the full measure of the decency code, if only because she had been so spooked the night before—at least, she'd look good on the vid.
Maybe if Lilia cooperated, the reverend would go away.
It was worth a shot.
Lilia pivoted and tried not to wince at the brightness of Lhe lights. The reverend was closing fast, her arms outspread, as if they were old friends who had finally met.
Not as if Lilia had spent the last six months deleting the reverend's pings with no reply.
"Lilia, Lilia! Lilia!"
The reverend was much more imposing in person than on her daily vid upload. Her hair was silvery white and she wore flowing garments in bright colors. She was a woman whose only punctuation was an exclamation mark.
She always reminded Lilia of the cross-dressers in the Frontier's pleasure fringe. In person, that effect was amplified a hundred times. The reverend was too large, too vivid, too loud—visually and aurally—to be real.
But the bear hug she gave Lilia wasn't imaginary. "Lilia, I am so delighted to have found you!" She caught Lilia close, stunning her victim with a cloud of perfume.
"How are you?" she demanded. Her gaze was steely, for all her apparent down-home friendliness.
"I think I've cracked a rib," Lilia murmured.
The reverend laughed, then gathered her upload team with a flick of the wrist. Lilia was positioned with the reverend's arm around her shoulders—holding her captive.
"For those of you as yet unaware," the reverend boomed in the direction of one feed, "angels are among us, and here, with me, is their divinely appointed trustee."
"Well, actually, those two angel-shades have signed a contract to work with Joachim Delorenzo's circus ..."
"Nonsense!" The reverend boomed, burying Lilia's words beneath her own. "We cannot know the mind of God, but we can see his workings upon the face of the earth and in our midst." The reverend's fingers dug into Lilia's flesh as a warning. "You, Lilia, were chosen as the trustee of God's appointed messengers. You, Lilia, hold the secret to their arrival among us. You, Lilia, have almost seen the face of God!"
If she hadn't made such a stretch for the superlative, Lilia could have played along. "Actually, Reverend, I just found them in a little clearing in the woods ..."
"Remember the parable of the Good Samaritan!" the reverend interrupted. "The apostle Luke tells us of a lawyer who asked Jesus 'And who is m
y neighbor whom I should love as well as my own self?'"
The reverend paused. "Who is my neighbor, Lord?" She drew herself up to her full height. "Who is my neighbor? Luke records the reply Jesus gave to the lawyer, the story we know as that of the Good Samaritan." She began to recount scripture and Lilia's thoughts wandered to escape and breakfast, in that order.
She wondered how the reverend remembered so many verses so well. It was impressive, at least until Lilia saw the tiny feed in the reverend's left ear.
The Reverend finished her lesson and raised a mighty finger. "And so it was that Lilia offered aid to a neighbor, much as did the Good Samaritan, and so perhaps, in God's great mercy, might Lilia have gained the kingdom of eternal life."
Lilia cleared her throat. "It wasn't exactly like that."
"Humility and modesty! Paul tells us in I Timothy, 2:10-15, that what becomes a woman best is modesty and good works. 'Let a woman learn in silence with all submission.'" The reverend gave a rapturous sigh. "And so it is, Lilia, that we see the reason for the divine choice, in your modesty and willingness to serve."
"Demure, that's me," Lilia said and someone made a choking sound behind her. She couldn't see who because of the lights, but the choke was definitely feminine.
Therefore not Montgomery, unfortunately.
The reverend leaned closer, so close that Lilia could see the pores on her nose beneath her rosy-hued mask of makeup. "So, tell us, Lilia, what message did the angels bring to humankind?"
Lilia blinked. "Message?"
"God dispatched angels throughout the Old Testament to deliver his messages to his faithful," the reverend explained. "An angel came unto Joseph in a dream and counseled him to not put Mary aside, that she carried a child in truth but one conceived by the Holy Spirit. The angel Gabriel appeared to Zacharias to tell him that his wife, Elisabeth, should conceive a son, John, and that this son should smooth the way for Jesus and his teachings."
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