by John F. Carr
"That's good, Errox. Ahead of schedule."
Turning to me, Boget said, "Rathe, I want you to become familiar with all aspects of the Simulike Palace so that you can report to me the patrons reactions to the new machines. I believe that the data generated by the Simulike experiences can be used for the common good—"
The bell indicating the cokafa was hot interrupted Boget.
Errox said, "I'll get the drinks."
Boget continued telling me about the possibilities of Simulike data.
Errox came back with three cups and sat them down on the table. I was surprised that Errox served us. It didn't seem in keeping with his usual behavior. Perhaps the death scene had affected him strongly. We all sipped the hot, brown beverage.
When Boget paused between sips, Errox said to him, "You could spend more time with the Simulike data if I took over greater responsibility in our projects."
"Errox, I believe that your ambition knows no limits."
Errox, flashing a smile that was probably intended to be disarming, said, "Of course I'm ambitious. That's one of the reasons you chose me as an associate. But I'm also concerned about you. You haven't had your usual level of high energy lately. I thought that with the new Simulike machine installation complete and with Rathe joining the Simulike Palace crew, you could let me handle things. Now you could take some time off. Rathe could be running the entire Palace in a cycle or two and I could take care of our other enterprises."
Boget shrugged.
I said, "I'm a fast learner and a willing worker."
Boget said to Errox, "I don't think this is the right occasion to discuss this."
When he said the word occasion he shifted his focus from Errox to me for an instant. I perceived that he was indicating to Errox that he didn't want to talk about their other projects while I was present. I didn't volunteer to leave, not only because I had no particular place to go but mainly because I wanted to learn more about their activities.
Boget took a deep drink of his cokafa, draining the cup. I did the same. Errox had only taken one small sip of his.
Errox looked at our empty cups, glanced at me, and then said to Boget, "You and I both recognize the potential that Rathe has. A short time ago he was a nu-blanc that someone had dumped in the Rainbow Room. He figured out how to get out alive. Then he didn't have a wristlock, didn't know his name or the name of anyone else. Now he's got a white wristlock and he's sitting in the dwell of one of the most powerful people on the planet. He's more than just a survivor—he's a high achiever. He's going to figure everything out. I think he should be told what's going on."
"Errox, that isn't your decision to make." Boget's speech was slightly slurred and he seemed to be having trouble focusing his eyes. I wondered if he really was overtired or in bad health.
"Rathe already knows that you deal in unauthorized wristlocks because you provided one for him. He didn't go running to the VIS to report you. He understands that sometimes you have to make your own way as best you can. Right, Rathe?"
I couldn't deny that. I started to speak but my tongue seemed strangely thick. I nodded. I realized that I felt peculiar, like the cokafa had upset my system.
Boget looked at me, saw that I wasn't feeling well, and asked Errox, "Did you poison the cokafa?"
"No, I just added a little something that a friend borrowed from the medical center. It's a drug used to quiet belligerent patients physically and mentally. Your body will become too relaxed to move and your mental attitude will be cooperative."
Errox turned to me and said, "I had to dose you too, Rathe, to keep you from interfering."
I wasn't able to move my arms or legs. I couldn't take any action, even if I’d wanted to.
Errox said to Boget, "I want a rainbow wristlock. I've heard that you have one, ready for the next lover who meets all your needs. Where is it?"
Boget seemed to have no resistance. He said, "In the drawer underneath my sleep platform. Errox went to the drawer, opened it, and removed the rainbow wristlock. He turned it over and over in his hand, admiring it. Then he put it in his waist pouch and came back to the table.
Ignoring me, he said to Boget, "When I get Dreena to put this on me, I'll be able to open the storage locker in the Simulike Palace where the Cainenol is kept. I'm going to take over the trade, Boget. You will be the silent partner. Where's the rest of the Cainenol?"
"It's all in the storage locker."
"How do you get more?"
"It comes to the transporter station in the House of Rebirth with each new shipment of human blancs from the other worlds."
I was startled by the information I was getting. We were not alone. There were other worlds and there was contact between worlds. As soon as that information registered in my mind, I wondered why blancs were sent here from those other worlds. Was the House of Rebirth no more than a receiving station for blancs from elsewhere?
The implications were staggering. I had been told that reincarnation was the process by which humans began new lives with new bodies, that everyone was reincarnated, but only rainbows retained their memories. How much of what I had been told was true? Was I in a culture full of disinformation?
I heard Errox ask Boget, "When is the next shipment due?"
Boget, whose speech was slurred by the drugged cokafa, answered, "Ozerta knows. I don't. There've been some problems." His voice trailed off.
"What problems?" Errox demanded.
Boget's head lolled. Drool dripped from his mouth onto his tunic.
Errox shook him and repeated, "What problems?"
Boget blinked his eyes, looked at Errox and said, "At the Outpost, the Cainenol is packed into the pods with the nu-blancs. Sometimesthe nu-blancs escape when the pods are opened and the Cainenol is illegally unloaded. The pods are not supposed to be discharged until they arrive at the rebirthing room in the House of Rebirth. The overseers at the Outpost have reported the blanc problem."
"What's Ozerta doing about it?"
Boget seemed to have fallen asleep. Errox slapped him in the face and repeated his question when Boget's eyes opened.
Boget mumbled, "She's in the Fane of Change getting the rejuv treatments. She should be out today."
Errox made a sound of disgust and said, "You people are too soft. You need me to put some spine into the organization. Ozerta is too vain, getting rejuv treatments when she should be taking care of business. Flantel has never put out enough effort. Wanklurm runs roughshod over all of you. I'm going to take his place. I'm going to run this show and you're going to be a silent partner. Do you hear me?"
I was making sense of some, but not all, of what I heard. Clandine's conspiracy theories seemed to be true. Her suspects, Boget, Flantel, and Ozerta, were part of a conspiracy to distribute Cainenol and provide illegal wristlocks. Clandine hadn't mentioned anything about Wanklurm. Errox had told me that Wanklurm was the rainbow who was chief of the VIS. I wondered if Clandine suspected him. She might have suspected him, but has been unwilling to tell me. Clandine evidently hadn't known how deeply Errox was involved in the Cainenol smuggling. I was trying to put everything together, but I still didn't have all the pieces of this puzzle.
Errox seemed to have worked himself into a rage. In a loud voice he said to Boget, "Get used to it. Wanklurm is history. I'm going to eliminate him."
Feeling very groggy, I tried to figure out how a person who was immortal could be eliminated. No answer was forthcoming in my fuzzy head. Boget mumbled something about warning Wanklurm. Suddenly, everything went black and I felt myself falling….
FIFTEEN
"Wake up. Wake up."
I heard the voice and, for a moment, thought that I was back in the Rainbow Room. I tried to focus my eyes, to get ready to move over the treacherous tiles before they collapsed. What I saw were two large men, with rainbow wristlocks, both of them strangers to me. One of them, a blond with blue eyes that glared at me, stepped forward as if to grab me by the shoulders and shake me.
Th
e other one, the brown-haired one, put a restraining hand on his shoulder as he said, "Take it easy, Incate. Let’s find out what’s going on first."
He then looked at me. I was surprised to see that his right eye was brown and his left eye green. He said to me, "My name is Prevance. My partner’s name is Incate. We came to see Boget but it looks like we're too late."
Incate asked, "Why did you kill Boget?"
"I didn’t. He was alive when I passed out."
"Well,” Incate said, “someone broke his neck. If it wasn’t you, who was it?"
Prevance made a stop gesture with his right hand to Incate, and then tuned to me asking, "Who are you?Why are you here and what happened to Boget?"
"My name is Rathe,” I replied, trying to keep from snapping back.“Boget offered me the opportunity to assist in the operation of the Simulike Palace. One of Boget's associates, a man named Errox, was also here. He drugged the cokafa that Boget and I drank. He wanted information from Boget. He got frustrated with the answers he was gettingand became enraged. After that, I don’t know what happened. You’ll have to ask him."
Incate said, "I don’t believe you. I think you're part of one of Boget's illegal schemes. I also believe you killed him. I don't see any cups, any cokafa, or any other evidence of anyone named Errox."
"Take it easy, Incate. I'm sure Rathe is eager to cooperate."
Then facing me, Prevance said, "We’re special investigators, here to check into Boget's activities. We found you with a dead body. We are determined to uncover exactly what happened. Is there anyone who can support your story?"
The answer came to me immediately. “Boget can tell you himself. All you have to do is send his body to the Fane of Change and have him reincarnated. Then, he'll be able to tell you what actually happened."
Incate emitted a grunt of disgust. "Rathe, you can’t possibly be that naive. You wouldn't be here in Boget's dwell if you were ignorant about his activities."
"I don't understand what’s going on. Boget’s a rainbow: reincarnate him and let him tell you who his murderer was. Or is there some reason you don'twant Bogetbrought back to life?"
Prevance answered, shaking his head in disbelief. "There is no way Boget’s mind and body can be reanimated. He’s dead, and he’s not coming back to life. Incate thinks you know that. I don't know what you know. Why don't you tell me what's going on in your head?"
I looked Prevance in the eyes, first the brown one and then the green one. I found the contrast between eyes oddly upsetting, but not as disturbing as Incate's hostility. "According to what I've been told, rainbows are immortal. When they die, they go to the Fane of Change and they are reincarnated in the same body. The body is rejuvenated and they retain all their memories. Are you telling me that there is some reason Boget can't be reincarnated? Something I don't know or haven't been told?"
Incate moved closer to me in an intimidating manner, "I can't believe you're taking that lame line with us. Nobody has solid proof that anybody has ever reincarnated. Everybody knows that."
Prevance held a hand up to silence Incate. Then he said to me, "My partner is a confirmed skeptic. I'm open-minded. Although reincarnation can't be proved, it can't be disproved either. Either way, the Fane of Change has nothing to do with it. That's just the place where rainbows go for rejuvenation treatments."
Incate gave a disapproving look to Prevance, "We're here to get information, not to give it. Let's take Rathe back to the overseer's center and have a vericator session with Nordel and Yondoka."
I didn't know who Nordel and Yondoka were. I was shocked by what I had learned. Rainbows were not immortals according to Prevance and Incate. Errox had indicated that the alleged reincarnated beings that emerged from the House of Rebirth were not reincarnations of the people of this world but were blancs that had been sent here from other worlds, other worlds I hadn't known existed. There was a lot I didn't know and I was learning all the time that much of what I thought I knew was wrong.
"Let me tell you my story now so you can verify it later."
Incate started to object but Prevance silenced him with a hand gesture. "Go ahead, Rathe, tell us."
I told them the whole story. First about waking up in the Rainbow Room, not knowing who I was or where I was. I told them about the woman who died and how Errox had removed her green wristlock. Both of them seemed impressed when I told them about solving the equation that determined which tiles would collapse. I told them about Errox saving me from drowning, finding me places to stay, and having a smitty put Errox's gray wristlock on my wrist.
I recounted my arrest in the Simulike Palace by the VIS who thought I was Errox and the attack on the VIS station by the Freedom Crusaders.
Incate asked, "Who are these Freedom Crusaders?"
I told him the little I knew.
Prevance asked, "Then Errox is an important person in the Freedom Crusaders?"
"It seems so. At least he was important to the woman who died. She helped stage the raid on the VIS station to rescue him. She didn't know I was wearing his wristlock and that the VIS thought I was Errox."
"Why did the VIS let you go?"
I told them about Clandine and her plan to use me to locate Errox, to investigate the conspiracy, and help end the Cainenol problem. Prevance looked like he believed what I was saying. Incate asked who Clandine suspected. I felt the complete truth was the only course of action open to me since I was going to be questioned while hooked to a vericator. I told them that Clandine had suspected Boget, Flantel, and Ozerta.
Incate, seeming more interested than hostile, asked, "No one else?"
"She suspected Errox was involved in some way. She also suspected a Listener named Lyonella, but I've met Lyonella and I think she's innocent. I don't know if Clandine still suspects her or not."
"Tell me why Errox drugged Boget?" Prevance asked.
"Errox wanted to take over the Cainenol operation. He wants to replace VIS Chief Wanklurm as head of the conspiracy."
Incate’s jaw dropped. "Are you telling us that Chief Wanklurm is behind this conspiracy?"
"Yes, according to what Errox and Boget said."
Prevance inquired, "The VIS officer, Clandine, did she suspect Wanklurm?"
"If she did, she didn't tell me."
Prevance said, "So according to this conversation you heard between the drugged Boget and Errox, they were involved in a conspiracy to distribute Cainenol, with co-conspirators Flantel, Ozerta, and Wanklurm. What else were they doing?"
"I don't know about the others, but Boget was dealing with unauthorized wristlocks. He got this white one for me. Errox stole a rainbow wristlock that Boget had in the dwell."
Incate said, "It's time for a vericator session. Let's go to the overseers' urbode.Rathe, I'm going to have a stunner trained on you all the time we're on the slidestrips. If you do anything to make me use it, you won't enjoy the experience."
I didn't bother making a reply. I just got up and left with them. The slidestrip trip was uneventful. The only unusual thing I noticed was the increased number of VIS personnel patrolling everywhere, alert for any sign of trouble.
Inside the overseers' urbode, Prevance and Incate took me to what appeared to be a command center for their investigation. Incate watched me while Prevance sent one runner to get Nordel and Yondoka, another runner to notify the medical center personnel to pick up Boget's body and a third runner to notify Clandine that she was wanted in the overseers' urbode.
Incate left and returned with two rainbows. Prevance introduced them to me as Nordel and Yondoka. I immediately recognized them as the loving couple I had encountered in my recent Simulike experience. Nordel's handsome, tanned face showed lines of worry or concern. Yondoka's almond eyes were puffy with reddened lids that still held the hint of tears. I wondered what had caused the tears.
Prevance said to them, "Rathe was in Boget's dwell when Incate and I went to question Boget. Boget was murdered. According to Rathe, Boget was killed by a man named Errox.
Do either of you know of Errox?"
Neither of them had heard of Errox.
Prevance resumed speaking. "Rathe has quite a story to tell. It involves a conspiracy, illegal wristlocks, Cainenol and a VIS officer named Clandine. We're waiting for her to arrive before using the vericator. Do you know Clandine?"
Yondoka spoke first. "Yes, I know Clandine. She's trying to stop the spread of Cainenol."
Nordel added, "I doubt if she's involved in any conspiracy. She sought us out as allies in her quest for the source of Cainenol. Her suspicions supported the evidence of corruption that we reported in the last batch of Delphic data we sent to the Council. So her suspicions are part of the reason that you and Incate are here to investigate the situation."
"I want her story verified before we tell her anything," Incate said. "She works for Chief Wanklurm and could be part of the conspiracy."
Prevance added, "My partner's suspicions are justified. None of us want to end up like Boget or your friend Jonter."
I was hearing information that was new to me. I didn't know anything about Delphic data and I had never heard of Jonter. Curiosity got the best of me. I asked, "Who is Jonter?"
Yondoka answered. "Jonter and Nordel and I all attained rainbow status recently. Jonter became aware that new rainbows were put in positions where they couldn't threaten the power structure of old rainbows. He thought that corruption was widespread and suspected that our culture was an artificial construct based on deceit and fallacies. He was about to go public with his information just before he was killed."
That explained Yondoka's tears. She had lost a friend.
Nordel put a comforting arm around Yondoka, as he said, "That's when we discovered that we were not immortals. The Fane of Change is a fraud. Rainbows die like everyone else. They just get a higher level of medical care and rejuvenation treatments that increase their life expectancy. Wanklurm reported that Jonter's killer was a berserker. We think that some of Wanklurm's elite guards are assassins who kill anyone Wanklurm considers a threat to his power."
"Let's stop telling everything we know to Rathe," interjected Incate. "He's still a murder suspect until his story is verified."