Tangled Up in Blue

by Joan D. Vinge

“Why should we believe you?” Gundhalinu demanded.

  “You gave me the truth drug, you bastard! You think I have any choice?… I never got off a shot! I got grazed, stunshot; that’s how I lost the goddamn artifact. I got grazed and my arm went dead!”

  “So you ran.…” Gundhalinu smiled.

  “I’ll fuck you where you breathe, Gundhalinu! I’ll kill you both—”

  “You’ll have to get in line,” Tree said. “Who else was at the warehouse that night? Tell me all the names.”

  Herne began to spew names like spittle; Tree eased the pressure on his throat, but only a little. “You getting all this?”

  Gundhalinu nodded, and pointed at the recorder on his belt. “Who do you work for?” he asked.

  “For Arienrhod,” Herne said.

  “You, mekru?” Gundhalinu looked skeptical. “We’re supposed to believe that it was you who delivered the Queen’s precious goods to the warehouse for her?”

  “Yes!” Herne’s eyes filled with hatred. “You wouldn’t believe the things I do for her—”

  “I’m sure you’re right,” Gundhalinu said acidly. He looked back at Tree, half frowning. “Arienrhod again.… What do you make of it, Tree?”

  “If he’s telling the truth, that would explain why he knows so much about what happens at the palace.” Tree shrugged. “You know a Winter woman named Devony Seaward, Herne? She wears a sensenet; she’s a—”

  “A whore. Yeah, I know her. I hear you know her real well, LaisTree.…” Herne leered. “She’s been real good to you, hasn’t she, shevatch? Ever wonder what she sees in you—?”

  “I figured it out.” Tree leaned harder on his foot.

  “So the Queen had possession of the tech in the first place?” Gundhalinu asked. “Where did she get it?”

  “I don’t know!” Herne gasped. “Maybe she found it in her closet; this whole fucking city’s an Old Empire relic.”

  “And the equipment is Old Empire technology?”

  “Functioning Old Empire tech. That’s what I heard.”

  “What did it look like?”

  “There was a piece of mesh … and some kind of synthetic jewel. It looked like crap. I think Arienrhod was putting something over on them—”

  Tree looked at Gundhalinu.

  Gundhalinu looked up, as if his gaze could penetrate the layers of the city all the way to Devony Seaward’s townhouse, and the jewel lying abandoned on a bathroom shelf.

  Herne bucked under Tree’s weight, trying to throw him off. Tree staggered, and clipped Herne’s jaw with a boot heel. “Not so fast, asshole.” He replanted his foot. “Where can we find the Ondinean?”

  “Why don’t you try the palace?” Herne said sullenly.

  “Maybe you’d like to come with us, so the Queen knows how cooperative you’ve been,” Gundhalinu suggested. “Or maybe you want to give us another option.”

  Herne glared at him. “Find Humbaba.”

  “Who’s Humbaba?”

  “Drug dealer, from Ondinee. You can’t miss him, he’s got i-shin scarring … looks like he’s wearing his guts on his face. He’s here in Carbuncle on business.”

  “What’s Mundilfoere got to do with him?”

  “She’s his wife.”

  Gundhalinu shook his head. “Gods … all in the family.”

  “Let’s hope they don’t breed.” Tree took his foot off Herne’s neck and stepped back, keeping the gun trained on him.

  “I plan to make sure of that,” Gundhalinu said. “Get up, mekru.” Herne climbed heavily to his feet, and Gundhalinu freed his hands from the binders. “Let’s go, LaisTree.”

  “You’re not taking me in?” Herne asked, frowning.

  “We’re on a clock. Some other time.” Gundhalinu looked back at him. “The way I see it, if you tell anybody we had this conversation, you’ll end up just as dead as we do.”

  Tree toed the empty truth-serum bottle. “Maybe we should keep this, get it analyzed.”

  Gundhalinu shook his head. “No point. It’s a pretty simple formula. Anyway, you can always get more from the supply room.”

  “What?” Tree said.

  “That was a bottle of surfactant. I was cleaning some equipment.”

  “What?” Herne said.

  “You see, unlike some people, I actually learn from my mistakes.” Gundhalinu smiled, glancing at him. “It’ll give you a case of the runs, Herne, but that’s about it. You told us the truth of your own free will.” He turned his back on Herne’s livid fury, and started away toward the open alley.

  Tree followed him, looking back more than once.

  16

  “I can’t believe he fell for that,” Tree muttered, when they were safely on their way back down the alley.

  “Why not? You did,” Gundhalinu said.

  Tree swung around in sudden anger.

  “No—” Gundhalinu said hastily, raising his hands, “I only meant that Herne had no way of knowing it was a lie, any more than you did. And besides, he’s a mekru, a product of his caste. No matter how tough or intelligent he is, deep inside he’ll always feel inferior to a Technician. I assumed that would make him particularly susceptible to a psychological trick.”

  “So,” Tree said finally, “I guess that would make you either a lot smarter than I figured, or a complete hypocrite.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You lied, cheated, and intimidated to get that information out of Herne. Did you let me rough him up just because he’s a mekru?”

  “No!” Gundhalinu glared at him. “Sainted ancestors, it’s bad enough that we did it at all!” They started on again; Gundhalinu’s gaze turned bitter and distant. “My own brothers were proof enough for me that any ‘genetic superiority’ of the Technician class was a joke.… The social codes should be reformed. But on Kharemough, tradition is god. And no matter what your caste or rank, a god’s hand.…” His voice faded; he bit his lip. “A god’s hand can crush you like a fly.”

  “Then why?”

  “Why what—?”

  “Herne,” Tree said irritably.

  Gundhalinu stared straight ahead; Tree saw a muscle jump in his cheek. “Because he’s a sadistic, psychopathic bastard, who would have murdered you and me and every other Blue at that warehouse, if he’d had the chance.…” His frown deepened. “And because right now we can’t afford to go through the proper channels.”

  “Then I guess you are smarter than I thought.”

  Gundhalinu looked back at him. “Then I suppose I’d have to say the same about you.” His pace lagged as they reached the alley’s mouth; he took out another stim patch and stuck it on.

  Tree pressed his arm against his side, his own burden of doubt and pain redoubling as the adrenaline of their encounter with Herne wore off. He took the fresh patch Gundhalinu passed to him without comment, and put it on. “Now what?”

  “We go back to Devony Seaward’s and get that other piece of tech from her,” Gundhalinu said.

  Tree looked at him; looked away again without saying anything. At last he asked, “And then?”

  Gundhalinu hesitated, looking down. “We turn it over to the Chief Inspector, along with the names we got from Herne.”

  Tree caught Gundhalinu’s arm, pulling him to a stop. “Are you crazy?”

  Gundhalinu frowned. “No,” he said. “Why, are you contagious?”

  Tree swore. “I mean, you’re going to trust Aranne with that? He lied to you about what it was! He’s covering something up.”

  “I can’t believe that.” Gundhalinu shook his head. “There’s some other explanation. And when I bring in the evidence, I’ll find out what it is.”

  “I guess you are as stupid as I thought.”

  Gundhalinu jerked his arm free. “Then tell me who on the force you trust now—absolutely, unequivocally? Who can you swear to me hasn’t been leaking information to the Source?”

  Tree glared at him. “I don’t trust anybody.”

  “Then what does it mat
ter who we tell?” Gundhalinu said. He glanced restlessly up the Street. “We have to tell someone. If we don’t get help, we’re dead. And the information we got from Herne dies with us.” He looked away again, raised his hand suddenly.

  Tree saw a Police patrolcraft swerve toward them. “You called them? Why—?”

  Gundhalinu turned a bleak stare on him. “Because we need to get back to Azure Alley, LaisTree. And I don’t think I can walk uphill for half the length of the Street, in my present condition. And I don’t think you can, either.”

  Tree watched in resignation as the patrolcraft settled on the pavement in front of them. Two Blues got out, KerlaTinde and another officer he knew … or hoped he did. He kept his hand on the grip of the pistol pushed through his belt, counting every second that passed without either of the officers pulling a weapon on them.

  “Sergeant.” KerlaTinde saluted Gundhalinu, looked him up and down. “You requested a patroller for a pickup … Are you all right?”

  “Yes,” Gundhalinu said brusquely.

  “LaisTree, what are you doing here?” Both men looked at Tree, back at Gundhalinu, with more than passing curiosity.

  Tree said nothing, relieved as Gundhalinu ordered the two men away down the alley to pick up Herne. “You think he’s waiting around?”

  “I don’t care if he is or not.” Gundhalinu’s face pinched with self-disgust as he watched them go. “I needed to get them out of the way, for just long enough—Come on.” He nodded at the patroller.

  “No.” Tree shook his head. “I’m going after Humbaba.”

  “LaisTree, do you have a death wish? You know we need to stick together now, more than ever—”

  “I want the Ondinean more than I want that artifact. I thought you did, too.”

  “Or maybe you just don’t have the stones to face Devony Seaward again,” Gundhalinu said bluntly. He unsealed the patrolcraft’s gullwing doors.

  Tree swore. “Go fuck yourself, Gundhalinu. Or fuck her, if that’s what you want—but make it fast, before she does it to you.” He turned away, heading downhill.

  “Did it ever occur to you that Devony could be in danger?” Gundhalinu called after him. “The Queen’s using her … why the hell else would she have given Devony that necklace?”

  Tree turned around. Gundhalinu sat behind the controls, waiting. Slowly, grudgingly, Tree started back to the patrolcraft.

  Gundhalinu got out, looking relieved as he vacated the pilot’s seat. “You drive.” He held up his hands, and started for the far side of the craft.

  Tree hit the flashers and took them back up the Street, scattering pedestrians like startled birds.

  He was more than surprised when Devony opened the door to them—Devony herself, her face filled with sorrow and resignation, as if she read the future and the past in their eyes. She stood aside to let them in.

  “Tree,” she said. “Nyx—”

  “Shut up.” He felt his face burning as if she’d slapped him; his hands ached with the urge to hurt her back. He kept them open at his sides, forcing himself to remember that he was a Police officer, and not a shevatch. “Save it for your conversations with the Queen.” He looked away from the pain he saw in her eyes, so that she wouldn’t see the pain in his own.

  Gundhalinu strode past her without speaking, heading down the hall toward the steamroom.

  “What…” Devony murmured, as she watched him go.

  “The necklace,” Tree said. “We know what it is.”

  She looked at him blankly. “What is it?”

  Looking into her eyes, he could almost believe she didn’t know. “Bait,” he said.

  “I don’t under—”

  “Damn it!” he said furiously. “Don’t lie to me anymore! Don’t say anything, if you’re going to lie to me!”

  “I’m not…” she whispered.

  He could have sworn there were tears in her eyes. “Oh, gods, you’re good.” He shook his head. “Are you telling me you didn’t fuck me just to find out what I knew about the missing piece of tech?”

  “That was never why—”

  “And you didn’t go to Arienrhod with everything I said?”

  She looked away helplessly.

  Gundhalinu came back into the room, the necklace dangling from his half-closed hand. “It’s still here,” he said, as if he was amazed at their good fortune.

  Devony glanced toward him with brimming eyes as Tree said, “I guess we know now why you got your fingers broken, BZ.”

  Gundhalinu stopped, his gaze still on her. She looked down. So did he. Tight-lipped, he put the jewel into his belt pouch.

  “Why are you taking my necklace?” she asked, almost angrily.

  “It isn’t a necklace,” Gundhalinu said, “and it isn’t yours. It’s a piece of Old Empire tech the Queen was trading to offworlder criminals—the vigilantes walked in on them by accident and got butchered.”

  “It can’t be. I don’t believe you.” She shook her head. “It was a gift; the Queen gave it to me! Why would she give it to me, then—?”

  “Because you were seeing him.” Gundhalinu nodded at Tree. “And he needed to remember.”

  She opened her mouth, closed it, looking back at Tree. The tears brimming in her eyes spilled out and down her face. He looked away; his own eyes felt like a desert.

  “Arienrhod’s gifts always have strings attached,” Gundhalinu said.

  “You don’t know anything about our Queen!” Devony wiped her cheeks, her face reddening. “Arienrhod puts her world and her people first, when the Hegemony would put us last … Do you have any idea of how you sounded when the two of you stood in front of me today and told each other how the Hegemony had to keep technology from my people—as if I was too stupid to even understand what you were talking about?” Her voice rose. “What right do you have to treat me like that?” she demanded. “Or this world?”

  “That has nothing to do with this,” Gundhalinu said, frowning.

  “It had everything to do with it!”

  “And is that supposed to make everything all right—?” Tree shouted, in sudden fury. “My brother’s dead!” He began to pace, caged in the space between her body and the door. “He’s dead, because Arienrhod makes dirty deals with the kind of human garbage who’d do anything to anybody, even to you—even to her—to get what they want! You saw what they did to him,” pointing at Gundhalinu, “and, and, gods, what they did to me … I trusted you, Devony! I told you all my … my … everything, because I thought … thought you—” He choked on the word, and spat it out. “Goddamn you, you bitch! You went to the palace as soon as we were gone!”

  “You were watching me…?”

  He nodded, his face clenched.

  She held his gaze, taking a long, slow breath; her fingers wove a lover’s-knot in front of her. “Then you ought to know that I never went inside.”

  He stopped, staring at her.

  “Why?” Gundhalinu murmured, finally.

  “Because it was wrong!” Devony looked back at him. “When I saw what the Ondinean did to you, and I realized … This is all Mundilfoere’s fault!” she said bitterly. “Arienrhod is still our Queen, and I’ve never regretted giving information to her. But this was wrong. I never meant to hurt you … either of you. Especially not … not you.…” Her voice fell apart as she turned back to Tree. “I’m sorry!… Oh, Nyx, please believe me, I didn’t know. I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry about everything that happened,” she reached out, trying to take his hand, “everything I did that—”

  His hand made a fist, he jerked it away before it could crush her fingers. Glaring at Gundhalinu, he said, “Fuck you. Fuck me! Why the hell did I listen to you? Why did I even come here?” He swung around, heading for the door. “Why the hell did I ever come here—?”

  “LaisTree!” Gundhalinu started forward. “Wait a minute, for gods’ sakes—”

  “Nyx, don’t, please—”

  He turned back, their voices drowning in the white noise of his blood
. “I have to. I have to.” He shook his head. “Just—just get her to someplace safe, Gundhalinu. Then do what you’ve got to do.… Because that’s what I’ll be doing.”

  He went out the door alone, slamming it behind him.

  * * *

  “Damn him!” Gundhalinu pressed his throbbing hands to his throbbing head as he stared at the door. “That stupid, stubborn—” He took a deep breath, letting his futile anger out in a sigh between clenched teeth.

  When he felt able to face Devony’s distracted gaze again, he turned back to her. “Devony, I … I mean we … we came back for you, as well as for the necklace.”

  “You’re arresting me?” she whispered.

  “No—” He shook his head. “No. I only meant protective custody. We were concerned about your safety. It’s not safe for you to stay here.”

  She smiled, a kind of rictus, as she wiped the wetness from her face. “I’ll be fine, Sergeant.”

  He studied the shadows in the corners of the room, the shadows under her eyes. “No,” he repeated softly, “I think you won’t be.”

  She glanced down. “There’s nowhere I can go that’s any safer,” she said. “Not in Carbuncle.…”

  “There is one person I still trust completely, though.” He was only certain of it as he said it. Jerusha PalaThion. “Please, let me take you to her.”

  Devony nodded, finally, as if something in his expression had made her change her mind. Her body followed, metamorphosing within heartbeats into a Winter avatar he wouldn’t have recognized, until he looked into her eyes again. And then she left the townhouse with him, leaving behind everything in it without a backward glance.

  By the time they reached the Street, there was no sign of the patrolcraft, or of LaisTree. Gundhalinu sighed, and told himself that at least they would be walking downhill.

  * * *

  Tree took the patrolcraft down to the Lower City, to Sienna Alley—to the place where the Boatman had carried his brother and the rest across without a ticket, and left him behind, stranded on the shore of Life, forced to make restitution for all their souls before he would be allowed to follow.

  Abandoning Gundhalinu and Devony hadn’t caused him a moment of regret. Fuck them both. He hoped they spat on his grave. They meant nothing to him—an arrogant brass-kisser and a one-night stand—and there was nothing more he needed from either of them: No more truth, no more lies.…