Offspring

by Steven Harper

“I’m not sure,” Lucia said. “Ben won’t say.”

  Kendi tensed. “What’s going on? What happened?”

  Ben took Ara to the rocking chair, sat, and stared down at Ara’s face. “I didn’t get it. The codes, the program—none of it. And he’s...Sufur is...”

  “What?” Kendi said, resisting the urge to grab Ben by the shoulders and shake him. “Sufur is what?”

  “Dead,” Ben said flatly.

  Icy chills slid over Kendi’s skin. “What do you mean he’s dead?”

  “I mean,” Ben said, “that he’s dead.”

  “That isn’t very—”

  “Ben,” Lucia interrupted gently, “please start from the beginning. Tell us what happened.”

  Ben started to rock. Ara sighed once and fell asleep. “It was weird. I went into Sufur’s house to find his computer. I remember seeing it when we visited him, so I knew right where to go. I was trying to be real quiet, you know? I turned on my data pad to give me a little light and I looked around. His computer was right there in the living room. I listened for a minute and didn’t hear anything, but the house smelled funny. Sausage from the kitchen, but a sort-of sewer smell, too. I though Sufur had maybe used the bathroom a little while ago or something, and that made me nervous—what if he hadn’t fallen back to sleep yet? So I tried to work fast.

  “His computer had a standard set-up, and I was able to find my way around his system pretty quick. Parts of it were secured with expensive and powerful programs—I expected that—so I connected my data pad to the machine and uploaded a few programs of my own. Sufur probably thought his security was pretty good, but I’ve hacked government computers inside the Empire of Human Unity. Sufur’s stuff was almost...cute by comparison.”

  “Only you,” Kendi said, “would describe security protocols as cute.”

  “Shush,” Lucia said. “Go on, Ben.”

  “I started nosing around the secure part of computer’s drive,” Ben said. “I found logarithm generator pretty quick, along with the files containing the coordinates of the ship and the satellite. I also saw a manifest list of thirty people—fifteen Silent and fifteen Silenced—as being stored in cryo-sleep aboard the ship. Six more people are on satellite and they’re going to be transferred soon. One of them...one of them is Gretchen.”

  Kendi set his jaw. “We’ll get her back, then.”

  “Maybe,” Ben said. “At any rate, I figured it would be best to download the codes the program had created, erase them from Sufur’s computer, and then disable the logarithm program entirely. Sufur wouldn’t be able to communicate with S” Station or with the ship. Or rather, he would, but they would assume it was some kind of trick because he couldn’t give them the clearance code.”

  “Right,” Kendi said. “That’s all according to plan.”

  “Except for one problem. I called up the logarithmic generator, but the computer was slow. The sewer smell was really strong now, and I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from, and it seemed really strange that it wasn’t going away. So while the computer was working, I looked around the room a little more. You remember that chair Sufur sat in when we visited before? It was still half-facing the window so I couldn’t really see into it, and now that I was paying attention to it, I could tell the sewer smell was coming from that direction. I went over to the chair, trying to stay really quiet, and that was when I saw him.”

  “Sufur,” Lucia said.

  “Yeah. He was just sitting there in the chair. His mouth was hanging open like he was surprised. There was a circle burned in the middle of his chest. The sewer smell must have been because his bladder had let go.” Ben continued to stare down at Ara. “I didn’t understand what I was looking at. I kept thinking it was some kind of joke—a dummy or a hologram set out to fool burglars or something. I reached out and touched him. That was when the alarm went off.” Ben sighed. “I don’t know what I was thinking. He’d shocked me when I just got near him that last time. I guess I figured with him being already dead, the defense system wouldn’t kick in. But he must have had a proximity alarm set to go off in case anyone touched him. Anyway, the police were coming. I grabbed my data pad and ran for it. Lucia and I barely managed to get away. And here we are—screwed. The whole house is a major crime scene now. We’ll never get in there.”

  “Shit,” Kendi said.

  “Yeah,” Ben said.

  “Who killed him?” Lucia asked.

  Ben shrugged, but carefully, so as not to disturb Ara. “We should call the Vajhurs. The killer should have shown up on the surveillance cameras.”

  “I’m stupid,” Kendi said, and tapped his earpiece. A moment later, Sejal’s sleepy voice yawned in his ear.

  “What’s going on?” he said.

  “Sejal, I need you to check the surveillance equipment,” Kendi told him. “There’s been an incident. Sufur’s been murdered.”

  “Really? When’s the party?”

  “Just check the system,” Kendi said tightly.

  “Gimme a sec to call up the display, guy. Let’s see, here...Hmmmm...Okay, this can’t be good.”

  “What? What’s going on?”

  “The cameras are out. Hold on...hold on...Okay, I’ve got the image of you two leaving—you never did tell me what the hell was up with that—and then we’ve got...let’s see...one hour...two hours...Shit! Now I’ve got nothing. The cameras went out two hours and twelve minutes after you left.”

  Kendi relayed this to Harenn and Ben. “So whoever killed Sufur knew the cameras were there,” he said.

  “Duh.”

  “Then maybe we should start with who knew the cameras were there,” Lucia said.

  Ben knew. The thought came unbidden into Kendi’s mind. Disconcerted, he tapped his earpiece. “Thanks, Sejal. I’ll be in touch.” He disconnected.

  Ben continued to rock Ara. He was still wearing the camouflage suit. “Now what?”

  “Did you two leave any clues of your presence?” Kendi asked.

  “No,” Lucia said emphatically. “No DN”, no fingerprints, nothing. Ben left the computer running, but lots of people do that.”

  “At least tell me you know when Sufur was supposed to transmit the next code to the ship?”

  “Ten-thirty tomorrow night,” Ben said. “But I don’t know the ship’s coordinates.”

  “We should go to bed,” Kendi said. “Try to get a couple hours’ sleep so we can tackle this with fresh minds.”

  “Gretchen’s on that ship, and they’ll space her if we don’t find it in time,” Lucia said. “I don’t know how much sleep I’ll get.”

  “Try,” Kendi said. “You’ll think better if you’re not tired.”

  “I’ll stay up with Ara a little longer,” Ben said.

  Kendi kissed the top of his head. “Then I’ll see you at breakfast. In four hours.”

  Ched-Theree arrived during breakfast. Evan and Ara swung gently in identical baby swings in Salman’s enormous, sunny kitchen while Kendi served up scrambled eggs with white cheese and red onions to Ben, Harenn, and Lucia. Bedj-ka was already in class at the monastery. The adults looked tired and drawn despite the lateness of the morning hour. Kendi himself felt like his eyes were full of sand. Ben filled in Harenn about the events of the previous evening while Kendi set a plate of fluffy yellow eggs in front of Lucia, who tasted them and nodded her approval. Kendi managed a wan smile. They were eating scrambled eggs and toast on a sunny spring morning while Gretchen was who-knew-where going through who-knew-what.

  Sufur was dead. This was the granddaddy of all mixed blessings. On the one hand, Kendi couldn’t wait for the man’s burial so he could perform a traditional Real People dance of some kind on his grave. On the other hand, Ben and Lucia hadn’t managed to get Sufur’s codes, which meant somewhere out there, a spaceship crew was going to—

  A—murder thirty-odd people if we don’t figure out what to do,” Ben concluded.

  Harenn gave a tight-lipped nod. “Then we must figure out what to do.”
>
  “All right, troops,” Kendi said, sitting down with his own plate, “rescue plan time. Options?”

  “Hey, guys,” rasped Tan from the doorway. “Inspector Ched-Theree is here. She’s insistent.”

  A chilly hand clutched Kendi’s stomach. Ben shot Lucia a quick look. She calmly forked up more eggs. Harenn composed herself behind a sip of tea.

  “She’s here to see who?” Kendi asked casually.

  “You and Ben,” Tan said. “Should she come in?”

  Kendi’s eyes met Ben’s. Get it over with?

  Ben shrugged. May as well.

  “Yeah,” Kendi said. “Show her in.”

  Ched-Theree entered the kitchen, her heavy front claws clicking on the wood floor. Her blue head cloth was freshly pressed and her silver Guardian medallion hung prominently around her long neck. Tan stood to one side, both hands behind her back, expression neutral.

  “Can I offer you some breakfast?” Kendi said. “It’s human food, but—”

  “Thank you, no,” Ched-Theree interrupted with a dip of her head. “You know why I have come, of course.”

  “Actually, I don’t,” Kendi lied. By unspoken decree, he became spokesman for the group. “Unless it’s to offer your sympathies on Senator Reza’s loss last night.”

  Ched-Theree tapped her claws on the floor. “Father Kendi, I know of Padric Sufur.”

  Silence around the table. Every instinct Kendi possessed shrieked at him to grab Ben and flee. Instead he gave Ched-Theree a quizzical look. “Are you asking a question? I’m not sure what you want.”

  “Perhaps you should begin by telling me all you know about Padric Sufur’s presence here on Bellerophon.”

  Kendi set down his fork. “Inspector, I’m getting the feeling that this has become an interrogation.”

  “Did you know he was here? I would advise you not to lie.”

  “Yes,” Kendi said. “All of us knew. We were also watching his every move, though he rarely left his house. I imagine you’ve already spoken to the Vajhur family about the cameras.”

  “Why did you not tell me you knew of his presence?”

  “We weren’t sure it was him,” Kendi said, working hard to keep his voice calm. “At first.”

  “Exactly when did you decide the inhabitant of that house was indeed Padric Sufur?”

  Evan woke up and began to fuss. Ben plucked him from the swing and sat down with the baby in his lap.

  “Inspector,” Kendi said, “why don’t you tell us what this is about? I—we—might be able to help if we knew what was going on.”

  “This morning the Treetown police received an automated alarm call. When they arrived on the scene, they found the body of an old man. He had been murdered.”

  “How?” Kendi asked.

  “A neuro-pistol strike to the chest. Such a weapon would not set off a tactile proximity alarm. The man carried no identification, and at first we thought his name was Patrick Sulfur, the registered inhabitant of the house. A search of his home turned up his true identity. A scan of the surrounding neighborhood revealed numerous surveillance devices which we tracked back to the Vajhur family.”

  “Have you arrested them?” Harenn asked.

  “They have broken no law that we know of,” Ched-Theree said.

  “Why are you here?” Ben asked, still cradling Evan. “Sufur’s house isn’t on monastery property. It falls under police jurisdiction, not Guardian.”

  “We are performing a joint investigation,” Ched-Theree said. “And I have interviewed all of you before. Can each of you please tell me where you were last night?”

  “We were all here,” Kendi said. “At the party. And then we went to bed.”

  Ched-Theree went around the table getting specifics. Everyone echoed Kendi, saying that they had attended the party and gone to bed late. Harenn and Ben added that they had gotten up to give night feedings to Evan and Ara, respectively, and no, they hadn’t noticed anyone coming or going.

  “And where is the Senator?” Ched-Theree asked.

  “At her office, I think,” Kendi said. “The campaign is over, but she still has a senatorial seat and all the business that goes with it. She left before any of us got up.”

  “Why did you and Father Weaver visit Padric Sufur’s home last night, Mr. Rymar?”

  Kendi tensed. Mr. Rymar, not Offspring. Ben shifted Evan on his lap.

  “What makes you say we were there last night, Inspector?” Ben asked.

  “We confiscated the camera files and reviewed them,” Ched-Theree said. “At eight thirty-seven last night you and Father Kendi approached Sufur’s home. He answered the door and you went inside. You emerged thirteen minutes later. Your face, Mr. Rymar, was clearly angry. I would say it was even murderous. No one else was recorded entering before the cameras mysteriously went off-line at ten forty-nine. It is of interest to note that the medical examiner has put Sufur’s death at sometime between eleven-thirty p.m. and two-thirty a.m., well after the cameras were deactivated. This seems to indicate that the killer knew the cameras were there.”

  Ched-Theree paused, and Kendi swallowed. Ben and Lucia had left for Sufur’s house at a little after two in the morning. It only took twenty or so minutes to get to his house from Salman’s, meaning it was possible Ben could have...have...

  Killed Sufur, Kendi finished. He looked at Ben, who met Ched-Theree’s gaze without blinking. Had Kendi suspected Ben from the start? The eggs churned in his stomach as he realized the answer was yes. Ben had hated—no loathed—Sufur, had made it clear he wanted Sufur dead and that he wanted to see to it. Ben had set up the cameras, knew the location of each one, possessed the skill to disable them. Had he been at the party every moment last night? Kendi thought back and couldn’t recall.

  “You knew Padric Sufur was in that house, Mr. Rymar,” Ched-Theree said. “You were keeping that knowledge a secret from the Guardians and the police. Understandable. Perhaps you went to confront Sufur about his creation of the Despair and he made you angry. There is no shame in that. Perhaps you went back later, disabled the cameras that you yourself set up, went inside, and killed him. Also perfectly understandable. The man is a mass-murderer. Thousands, perhaps millions, died because of him. Including your mother. You lost your temper and over-reacted. Is that the way it happened?”

  Kendi started to take a sip of tea, then stopped when he saw his hand was shaking. Ched-Theree’s thoughts were echoing his own.

  “Nothing happened,” Ben said calmly. “I never went near Sufur’s house after Kendi and I talked to him.”

  “What did you talk about?”

  “The Despair. What a bastard he is. I...I hated him, right along with just about everyone else on Bellerophon, but I didn’t kill him.” Ben handed Evan to Harenn and held out both hands. “When you use a neuro-pistol set to kill, the backlash makes your hand shake for a day or two afterward. Mine are rock steady. See?”

  Kendi looked at Ben’s unmoving hands and felt relieved again. But not everyone gets the shakes, his treacherous mind pointed out.

  “The symptom is common but not universal,” Ched-Theree said. “You have a history of keeping secrets, Mr. Rymar, and I think you are keeping another one.”

  And a light flashed in Kendi’s mind. He turned the idea over in his mind but saw nothing wrong with it. “You’re right, Inspector,” he said impulsively. “We are keeping secrets. And we need to come clean. Maybe we should do this in the living room?”

  Ched-Theree dipped her head in surprise as Kendi rose.

  “Ken?” Ben said. “What—?”

  “It’s okay,” Kendi said. “I just realized it’s going to be all right. Come on.”

  They left the table, breakfast unfinished, and filed into the living room. Looking mystified, everyone took seats. Harenn and Ben held the babies. Ched-Theree sat on a floor cushion.

  “I’ll start at the beginning,” Kendi said. “Yesterday I had a conversation with a Silent human in the Dream. His name was Frank Kowalksi. He told
me that Padric Sufur has been arranging for various people—Silent and Silenced—to be kidnapped.”

  “Kendi!” Ben said. “You swore—”

  “Sufur is dead,” Kendi said. “And he was the one Frank was afraid of. With Sufur out of the picture, there’s no reason to keep quiet.”

  Ched-Theree sat completely upright, head raised high on her serpentine neck. “Go on.”

  Kendi explained about the Silent Corridor and Sufur’s plan to use the Silenced people as decoys back on S” Station so he could kill the remaining human Silent at leisure. He kept his reservations about the plan to himself, however. “The coordinates for the ship and the communication codes Sufur used are on his computer. “ll you have to do is turn the information over to the military and they can rescue everyone.”

  “How do you know the codes are on his computer?” Ched-Theree asked.

  “He told us when we visited him,” Kendi said, falling back into the lie. “It was his way of taunting us because he didn’t think we could stop him. You need to hurry—if the ship doesn’t hear from him by this evening, they have orders to dump the hostages into space and run.”

  Ched-Theree seemed to deflate. Her head lowered. “Then I fear we have bad news. When our technicians attempted to access Sufur’s computer this morning, they discovered an empty drive. At first we thought Sufur’s killer had wiped the computer’s drive, but then they discovered traces of a time-zone virus. The computer was programmed to wipe itself clean if Sufur did not access it by a certain time every morning.”

  Harenn put a hand to her mouth. “Oh.”

  “Gretchen,” Lucia whispered, and grabbed automatically for the Irfan figurine she no longer wore around her neck. “What do we do?”

  Ched-Theree rose. “I must report this to my superiors. If any of you remember anything, even the tiniest detail, contact me immediately. We have less than fourteen hours to find that ship.”

  Kendi stared at the blackened, creaking timbers that had been his and Ben’s home. A wilting bouquet of blueflowers and a paper picture of a Ched-Balaar Kendi didn’t know fluttered in the breeze, offerings left behind by die-hard Offspring idolizers. Slowly, carefully, testing every step, he picked his way across the surviving drawbridge and into the mess. It was like walking into a giant skeleton. Charcoal crunched underfoot, and the place smelled faintly of burned wood. Kendi figured he was standing in the living room, but it was hard to be sure. Work crews had removed all the salvageable possessions to the new house, and souvenir hunters had cleared out a lot of the loose pieces. How many chunks of charred wood hung on walls or sat on altars around Treetown now? “This piece belonged to the Offspring’s house,” says a proud owner. “It cured my daughter of her cold.”