Offspring

by Steven Harper

  “Sorry,” Lucia said, and flipped the girl another freemark coin. Then she turned and trotted away before she could respond. The girl’s image stuck with her, though. What would it be like to spend your nights on the walkways, worried you could be mugged or raped or murdered for your shoes? Lucia, at least, had places to go. Despite Ben and Kendi’s advance on her detective services, Lucia had decided to continue living with her family and pay them the rent she would have put toward an apartment. Mom and Dad had at first refused her offer, then had given in after minimal persuasion. In addition to her family, Lucia knew she could go to Ben and Kendi for help. Lucia had many resources. That girl had none. There had to be a way to help her and others like her. She couldn’t—

  Pain exploded across the back of her head. With a small cry, Lucia slumped to walkway.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “It’s narrow thinking to see the customs and manners of other people as ridiculous and extravagant when they don’t resemble our own “

  —Daniel Vik

  “The newsfeeds are already calling us Tapers,” Kendi said with a laugh. “It’s become a nickname for the Unionist party.”

  “What does Grandma think of that?” Ben asked.

  “Dunno. I left the party before she could explode again. It was all over the feeds on the ride home, though.” Kendi picked up his data pad, the one he had left home by accident, and fiddled with it idly. “Grandma gets seriously scary when she’s pissed off.”

  Ben shifted on the living room sofa. His posture held him inward and upright, as if he were balanced on the head of pin. Kendi wondered if he should ask what was wrong or let Ben come around to telling him.

  “Grandma didn’t always used to be like that,” Ben said. “But then there was the Despair, and Mom’s...death. I don’t think she’s taking it well—being Silenced, I mean. She never wanted anything to do with politics before the Despair, and then she sort of threw herself into it.”

  “Coping mechanism?” Kendi asked, setting down the pad.

  “Maybe.” Ben shifted again and glanced toward the door. Kendi decided to go for it.

  “What’s the matter?” he asked. “You’re nervous about something.”

  “What makes you think I’m nervous?”

  “Just say it, Ben,” Kendi said. “It’s been a long night, and I don’t think I can—”

  “Attention! Attention!” boomed the computer. “Emergency message for Ben Rymar. Playing now.”

  “What the hell?” Kendi said.

  “Shush!” Ben snapped.

  “Ben! Help me! I can’t...stand up. I’m about...about fifty meters from the house. Southwest, I think. Can you...can you come?”

  Ben and Kendi were out the door before the message finished. Kendi almost crashed into Lars the bodyguard, who was on patrol outside the house for the night. The drawbridges on both walkways and staircases were up, further blocking their path.

  “Come with us!” Kendi ordered Lars. “Friend in trouble.”

  “Lucia!” Ben shouted. He slapped the scanner set into the balcony rail. “Lucia, can you hear us? Dammit, open sesame!”

  The drawbridge ahead of him lowered itself. Ben sprinted across before it was completely level. Kendi and Lars followed, also shouting Lucia’s name. The darkness swallowed their voices, and dark houses glared accusingly at the way they shattered the peaceful night. Kendi’s nerves hummed like high-tension wires. His active imagination foresaw a dozen terrible things that could have happened to her. Ben ran beside him, his footsteps thudding on wood. Bulky Lars brought up the rear.

  They found her struggling to stand in a puddle of moonlight. Ben sprinted ahead of Kendi and picked her up as if her lush body weighed nothing at all.

  “Lie still,” he instructed. “We’ll get you home and call the rescue squad.”

  “What happened?” Kendi asked. “Can you talk?’

  “I’ll be all right,” Lucia said, though her speech was slurred. “Don’t call the squad. Please. I’ll have to explain my outfit.”

  Belatedly Kendi realized she was wearing her camouflage jumpsuit. He tapped his earpiece. “I’ll call Harenn, then.”

  “And no Guardians!” Ben said to Lars before the bodyguard could speak. “Let’s get back.”

  He carried Lucia back to the house with Lars and Kendi trailing behind. Lucia held on as best she could, but it was clear she was in pain. Kendi looked for blood as they ran, but the moonlight made it impossible to see clearly. When they got back home, Ben laid her down on the couch. Harenn arrived moments later in a breathless swirl of billowing cloth. She had her medical scanner out and in motion before anyone could speak to her.

  “What happened?” she demanded.

  “I was hit from behind,” Lucia said. “A mugger, I think. Mother Irfan, my head hurts.”

  “You have a concussion.” Harenn removed a dermospray from her kit, racked in an ampule, and thumped it against Lucia’s arm. “This will ease the pain and the dizziness. You should remain quiet for the rest of the evening and for tomorrow. Perhaps it would be best if you stayed the night here.”

  “Lars,” Kendi said suddenly, “this is private business. Go back outside, please.”

  Lars drew down bushy blond eyebrows and looked ready to argue. Kendi, however, leveled him a hard look he had learned from Ara and the younger man retreated without further discussion.

  “Details, Lucia,” Kendi said. “Start from the beginning.”

  “I—I’m not sure if—” she stammered.

  “It’s okay, Lucia,” Ben said. “Go ahead and tell them.”

  Kendi glared at him. “You’ve been up to something behind my back.”

  “It was supposed to be a surprise,” Ben said. “Tell him, Lucia.”

  Lucia did. Kendi listened, open-mouthed, as she described breaking into the Day house, finding the file, discovering two dead bodies, and getting hit on the head.

  “Everything becomes disjointed after that,” she finished. “I remember trying to send an emergency message to Ben. The next thing I knew he was picking me up off the walkway.”

  “What if the Guardians do a DN” sweep?” Kendi asked. “Won’t they find out you were there?”

  “The suit and mask prevent DN” leavings,” Lucia said. “Besides, DN” sweeps are ungodly expensive. The Guardians only use them in truly high-powered cases.”

  “Speaking of expensive,” Harenn said, “where is the money sack? You said you found it.”

  Lucia looked around, as if she expected to find it on the floor beside the couch. “I don’t know. I must have dropped it. Or the mugger took it.”

  “I’ll go look for it,” Ben said, heading for the door.

  “Take Lars with you,” Kendi called after him.

  “So someone broke into the Days’ house just before you did,” Kendi said. “Whoever it was killed the Days, found the file about Ben, and started to delete it, but you showed up before they could finish the job. Do you think the killer was the person who mugged you?”

  “I don’t see how it could be,” Lucia said. “I traveled quite a ways on the safety net before I came back up, and I didn’t see anyone following me. I’m trained at spotting a tail, even at night, and I’m sure I would’ve noticed something. Besides, if the killer did mug me, why just hit me instead of kill me?”

  Kendi rubbed his temples. “I don’t know.”

  “Where’s the disk?” Harenn asked.

  Lucia fumbled in one pocket. A frightened look came over her face and she quickly checked her other pockets. “It’s gone,” she said.

  “Oh, shit,” Kendi groaned. “Why didn’t you wipe the disk when you released the file?”

  “Ben wanted the file,” Lucia said. “He thought he could take them to the Guardians as proof.”

  “Proof of what?” Kendi asked.

  “The blackmail plot. The markers on the file tell where it came from. Ben said he wanted to have a hold on the blackmailer, threaten to take the disk to the Guardians or t
he police unless they dropped the whole issue.”

  “Blackmailing the blackmailers,” Kendi muttered. “Except Ben said he didn’t want the Guardians involved.”

  “He doesn’t,” Lucia said. “But he said the blackmailers wouldn’t know that.”

  Kendi gave a snort of admiration. “Sounds like something I’d do.”

  The front door opened and shut. “No sign of the sack,” Ben reported. “Lars is still looking, but it’s gone.”

  “Perhaps it was a simple robbery,” Harenn said. “The thief took the money and the disk without realizing what it is.”

  “It’s possible,” Lucia said.

  “The disk?” Ben said, face pale. “The disk is gone too?”

  Lucia’s face reddened. “I’m afraid so.”

  “So there’s a mugger out there who knows who I am?”

  “Not necessarily,” Lucia said. “It would take a certain amount of reading and interpretation to understand what the file means.”

  “Finn and Helen Day figured it out,” Ben pointed out.

  “I have a theory about that,” Lucia said. She sat up with a slight wince and waved away Kendi’s offer of help. “I’m feeling better.”

  “What’s your theory?” Kendi asked.

  “Finn Day has—had—contacts with Foxglove’s Federalists, remember. I wonder if Foxglove used Finn and Helen to get access to the Poltergeist when we got back.”

  “What for?” Kendi said, puzzled.

  “Trolling for random dirt. It isn’t unheard of for politicians to dig around for scandal that might discredit their opponents. Ben is Senator Salman’s grandson, and he spent considerable time on the Poltergeist. What if Ben did something scandalous and left a record of it on the ship? It would have been worth it to look around and find out.”

  “Seems like a real long shot to me,” Kendi said. “It’d be expensive to arrange, for one thing.”

  “And Foxglove is poor?” Lucia said. “At any rate, it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest to learn that Mitchell Foxglove arranged for Finn Day—one of his secretaries, remember—to be hired at the shipyard. It’s entirely possible Finn knew about the Poltergeist from his sister and put the idea to Foxglove himself. Helen had access to the ship, Finn had the computer knowledge. She sneaks him on board during the refit to look for dirt and he finds gold. But instead of turning the information over to Foxglove like they’re supposed to, they figure they can squeeze some money out of Ben with a little blackmail.”

  “So Foxglove found out about it and murdered them?” Ben said. “That’s seems...extreme.”

  “This is Bellerophon’s first gubernatorial election since it joined the Independence Confederation, and our first governor will be in a position to dictate policy and custom for centuries to come,” Harenn said. “There is considerable power at stake, and the murder of two low-level workers does not strike me at all extraordinary.”

  “But why kill them?” Kendi said. “If Foxglove—or whoever he hired for it—were caught, it would destroy his campaign. “And they’re his own people. It’d make more sense to discipline them or fire them.”

  “Not so,” Harenn countered. “The information they possessed would only hurt Foxglove if it were released—Salman’s popularity would increase if her grandson turned out to be Irfan’s child. If Foxglove angered the Finns, they might release the information just to spite him. Foxglove is better off with them dead.”

  “So is Ched-Pirasku,” Lucia added. “It’s possible that Foxglove’s Federalists uncovered the information but Ched-Pirasku’s Populists worked to suppress it—for the same reasons.”

  “The women in this room are certainly bloodthirsty,” Kendi remarked.

  “The women in this room are realistic,” Harenn corrected. “Do you think Salman is any less so?”

  “She’s my grandmother,” Ben said.

  “Has your grandmother ever been a wrinkled old lady who bakes blue cupcakes for the “wakening Festival and spoils her grandchildren on weekend visits?” Harenn said.

  Ben snorted. “Hardly. She’s been a Grandmother with the Children of Irfan for as long as I can remember. Her idea of a relaxing weekend was serving on only two committees instead of four. Sometimes I think Mom went so big on field work because Grandma was such a heavyweight at the monastery—it gave Mom a chance to do something Grandma wasn’t involved with.”

  “So Salman is driven to succeed just like Foxglove and Ched-Pirasku,” Harenn said. “Bloodthirsty or practical?”

  “This is all speculation,” Kendi said. “And it’s too complicated. I think someone mugged you, Lucia—possibly that girl you talked to—and took both the money and the disk. End of story.”

  “Someone should tell the authorities about the Days,” Lucia said. “Anonymously. They live—lived—outside the monastery, so it’ll have to be the police, not the Guardians.”

  “I will do so,” Harenn said, rising.

  Kendi noticed Ben was still looking pale. He put an arm around him. “The mugger will just throw the disk away, Ben. I promise. We don’t have anything to worry about here. Really. Let’s go to bed and forget about it.”

  They did. But Ben tossed for much of the night.

  In the morning, Kendi woke with the feeling that he was forgetting something important. He sat up and looked down at Ben, who in the manner of insomniacs everywhere, had managed to fall asleep just before it was time to get up. His red hair was sleep-tousled and the sheet had slipped down from his upper body, displaying smooth skin and hard muscle relaxed in sleep. The bruises from Kendi’s rescue were already fading, thanks to Harenn’s ministrations, and he wouldn’t need the sling anymore. Kendi ran a dark finger along the underside of Ben’s raspy jaw. Ben didn’t stir, though his chest and stomach rose and fell with steady breathing. Kendi was going to have a child with this man. They were going to be parents. The idea filled him with—

  Parents. Children. Ched-Hisak. That’s what he had been forgetting. Ched-Hisak’s children were Leaving today, and he and Ben were supposed to be there.

  Kendi slid out of bed, wrapped a robe around himself, and headed for the bathroom. On the way he pressed an ear to the closed guest room door. Silence. Lucia must still be—

  “She is fine,” Harenn said behind him. Kendi jumped.

  “I’m combat-trained, you know,” he growled. “I could have killed you where you stand, woman, mother of my child or not.”

  “The male ego,” Harenn remarked, “continues to be a mystery. I have already checked on Lucia, and she is fine.”

  “You went home last night, didn’t you?”

  “Of course. But now I have returned to visit my patient—and make her a decent breakfast. One of you two bachelors must one day learn to cook.”

  Kendi shook his head and wandered into the kitchen. He smelled toast, hot rice cereal, honey, and butter. Bedj-ka was sitting at the table, digging into a steaming bowl with a spoon. A data pad on the table in front of him showed a feed story about a boy who had gone missing on a solo nature hike. The boy was a few years older than Bedj-ka.

  “Shouldn’t you be in school?” Kendi asked.

  Bedj-ka swallowed a mouthful of cereal. “They’ve shortened the school week because of money. We’re supposed to study at home on the computer. I’m doing current events.”

  “Are you going to study all day?” Kendi rummaged through the cupboards.

  “Mom’ll make me,” Bedj-ka said. “It’s not fair. School gets canceled but we have extra homework.”

  “Suffer, kid,” Kendi said heartlessly, still searching the shelves. “When I was your age, things were a lot harder. We didn’t have these sissy walkways and monorails to get to school. We had to swing from tree to tree on vines. In the rain. Against the wind. And we liked it.”

  “If you are looking for coffee,” Harenn said behind him again, “we are out. The grocer also has none. Have some tea.”

  Kendi groaned. “I wanted coffee.”

  “Wow,” Bedj-ka
said around a mouthful of toast. “You do have it rough.”

  “Your son,” Kendi said, “is turning into a smart aleck.”

  “He does not get it from my side of the family,” Harenn said. “How did you sleep, Bedj-ka?”

  Bedj-ka shrugged. “Okay, I guess. I had a rigid dream! I was racing flitcars through the woods. It was like riding a roller coaster. I was dodging through the trees and branches and one time I almost crashed. When I woke up, I was shaky—way better than a sim-game.”

  “Good. Then you will not miss the sims while you are doing your homework today.”

  Bedj-ka turned morosely back to his cereal and Kendi took a quick shower. Afterward, he was heading back to the bedroom to get dressed when he ran into Lucia in the hall. Her complexion was back to its usual olive coloring and she managed a smile at him.

  “I feel fine,” she said, forestalling his question. “Physically, at any rate.”

  “Physically?”

  “I’m still upset about losing the disk.”

  Kendi patted her shoulder. “I’m not worrying about it. You shouldn’t either.”

  “I’ll try.” She sniffed the air. “Did Harenn come over and make breakfast?”

  “How do you know it wasn’t me?”

  Lucia didn’t deign to reply and disappeared into the bathroom. Kendi entered his own room, and Ben stirred, only half awake. Kendi slid back into bed next to him and gave his ear a long, languorous lick. Ben shuddered sleepily and opened blue eyes. Kendi ran his hand over Ben’s warm chest and stomach.

  “Once we have kids,” he said, sliding his hand even lower, “you’ll have to start sleeping in pajamas in case they walk in.”

  A pause. Then Ben whispered, “Don’t start something you aren’t willing to finish.”

  “How do you know I’m not willing?”

  Kendi’s hand moved under the sheet. Ben gasped, then gently pushed him away. “Not with Lucia and Harenn in the house.”

  “How did you know Harenn’s here?”