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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“I’ll concede that some of that is speculation,” I said as I concluded. “But I think the logic holds together.”

“Speculation can be useful,” Ixil said thoughtfully, “provided you don’t put too much weight on it.”

“Especially the tacticals,” McKell said. “Like this wholly unwarranted assumption that the Iykams were tossed back in the holding tank because the Ammei don’t have enough soldiers to guard their visitors and the portal ring at the same time. Personally, I think First of Three simply wanted to cut down the number of variables and limit your and Huginn’s degrees of freedom for the night.”

“I agree,” Ixil said. “Even if we arbitrarily limit the number of Ammei residences to the houses in the inner ring, they could still have an uncomfortably large force available.”

“Not arguing the point,” I conceded. “As my father used to say, Speculation usually includes a high percentage of wishful thinking. Incidentally, as long as we’re talking tactics, do bear in mind that we have no idea what those lightning guns’ range is.”

“Noted,” McKell said. “I’m also not convinced that the Ammei genuinely want you to go looking for something in the library, grove, and Upper Rooms.”

“Then why make sure Selene got those same three places on her tour?” I asked. “And why make sure she got there after us so she’d know we’d also been there?”

“Maybe they’re just toying with you,” McKell suggested. “Trying to lure you onto forbidden territory so that they’d have an excuse to drop some consequences on you.”

“But who would that excuse be for?” Ixil objected. “The Ammei have full control here.”

“Maybe it just looks that way,” McKell said. “Maybe these Gold Ones are really the ones in charge, and the Ammei need to make sure and cover their legal butts.”

“In which case the Gold Ones are hiding really well,” I pointed out. Huginn and I had already been over this ground, but it wouldn’t hurt to let McKell and Ixil take their own crack at it. “I haven’t seen any evidence they’re still around, and Selene hasn’t mentioned picking up any spurious scents.”

“They could be up in the mountains,” McKell said. “If they’re far enough away and downwind, even Selene would have trouble picking them up.”

“Speaking of Selene, it’s possible she’s the one they need to impress,” Ixil said thoughtfully. “I note that you and she weren’t immediately put into confinement like Huginn and the Iykams.”

“We noted that, too,” I said. “Plus the fact that the Ammei immediately turned Huginn over to us, as if they just assumed Selene was in charge of the whole group. Did Tera pass on my thoughts about the Kadolians and Patth being possibly linked together?”

“You mean because their local currencies have similar names?” McKell asked.

And because the existence of the Patth Talariac Drive meshes nicely with the transportation requirements of the portal system,” I said. “Like I said, there’s an internal logic here that I think makes sense.”

“Let’s back up a moment,” Ixil said. “Assume that you’re right about everything. If the Ammei want you to find something, why not just ask them what it is?”

I shook my head. “Asking a question the other guy doesn’t want to answer just buys you a bald-faced lie. It also tips him off that you’re on to him and puts him on his guard. I usually find you do better to be oblivious and stupid in the hope of getting your opponent to underestimate you.”

“So the Ammei fawn all over you, load you up with breadcrumbs, and watch where you scatter them?” McKell asked.

“Basically,” I said. “And like Ixil said, the unexpected arrival of a Kadolian may have ratcheted up their interest and urgency a few notches.”

“And we’re sure the Ammei aren’t the Icari?” Ixil asked.

“They don’t have the appendages we all assume the Icari have in order to work the portal controls without flopping down on the deck,” I reminded him. “Anyway, Selene’s money is on the Gold Ones.”

“Did she offer any reason in particular for that conclusion?” McKell asked.

“Not really,” I said. “She mentioned that Second of Three had made some comments that led her to that conclusion, but she didn’t elaborate.”

“We need to get that nailed down,” McKell said. “If we’re on the brink of locating or identifying the Icari, we need to know it.”

“Agreed,” I said. “Next time we’re alone I’ll ask her to elaborate.”

“We also need to nail down their interest in silver-silk,” Ixil said, looking over at the torn-up section of wall I’d pointed out to them. “You’re sure they’re not using it for decoration? Perhaps woven into their hats?”

“Not a chance,” I said. “I haven’t seen any evidence of it in the hats, or in any other clothing or decorative items we’ve seen.”

“It could be buried somewhere inside,” McKell suggested.

“You don’t bury silver-silk inside something,” I said. “Its sole purpose in life is to sit out in the light where it can impress your friends.”

“From the evidence,” Ixil said, “that’s apparently not its sole purpose.”

“Absolutely,” I agreed soberly. “I should have said that was its sole purpose for the Spiral’s elite. I keep thinking about how gold and silver were just decorative metals before humans discovered electricity. I tried to find technical stats on silver-silk, but there’s nothing in our info pads’ general files.”

“We can look it up when we get back to Icarus,” McKell said. “Meanwhile, it sounds like our first job here is to get into the library and see if RH is there.”

Our first job, maybe,” I said. “Selene’s and mine. Not yours.”

McKell snorted. “Did I mention Kinneman’s feelings about you two going all lone-wolf on him?”

“At least three times,” I said. “And I’ve already told you why we did it. The point is that you two can’t suddenly appear out of nowhere, especially when the Ammei have all the portals under surveillance. It’ll start them looking and thinking elsewhere, and we can’t afford that. Alpha’s our one and only ace in the hole, and I have no intention of compromising it.”

You have no intention?”

“He’s right, Jordan,” Ixil said. “You and I can’t make any overt moves until we’re ready to come back in force.”

“Which will be when?” I asked.

“No idea,” McKell growled. “Kinneman’s furious enough to yank us off the project as soon as we deliver our report.” He gave me a tight smile. “Personally, I suspect the only reason he let us come over was that we weren’t sure Alpha was working properly, and Ixil and I were the most expendable ones on the payroll.”

“Which makes a good case for you two staying put here for a while,” I pointed out. “Keep some of Kinneman’s uncertainly going. The last thing we want is for a squad of EarthGuard Marines to come charging in with plasmics and lasers blazing. We do that, and we might never figure out what’s going on here.”

“I don’t think that’s how the general sees things,” Ixil said. “His philosophy is that every problem will eventually yield to sufficient application of weapons and brains.”

“You might want to remind him how long the Icarus Group has studied Icarus, Alpha, and Firefall and how little information they’ve collected,” I said. “If that doesn’t work, remind him that Huginn’s backup could be arriving at any time. He gets his Marines in a firefight with the Patth and we’re straight back to serious political and economic fallout.”

“He might consider gaining access to a ring of Gemini portals to be worth the risk,” McKell said.

“And he would be dead wrong,” I said flatly. “Make sure he understands that, too. Or ask my father to explain it to him.”

I levered myself off the sloping piece of more or less flat stone I’d adopted as an impromptu seat. “Right now, time rushes on, the night grows short, and I’ve got a long walk ahead of me before I get back to the Tower.”

“Understood,” McKell said, getting up from his own slab. “What can we do to help?”

“Right now, just keep Kinneman’s wolves on their leashes,” I said. “Selene and I may be able to figure out a way to get you two back in, but a full armed presence is the last thing we want.”

“How about we split the difference?” McKell suggested. “I go back and report while Ixil and the outriders stay here and keep an eye on you.”

“Not sure that’s a good idea,” I warned. “Going to be hard to keep Pix and Pax out of sight with all those tenshes prowling around.”

“They’re better at that sort of thing than you think,” Ixil assured me. “I agree, Jordan.”

“Good,” McKell said, as if I didn’t have any further say in the matter. Which, realistically, I probably didn’t. “Roarke, get going. Ixil, you’ll need to find someplace within close-support range to hide out.”

“Not a problem,” Ixil assured him, snapping his fingers twice. The outriders, who’d been poking around the reeds along the river, scampered back and climbed nimbly up his clothing to their usual positions on his shoulders. “If and when you need to bail, Gregory, just shout artichoke, and I’ll be there as quickly as I can.”

“Got it,” I said. I had no intention of bailing, not unless Selene and I were in imminent danger. But I didn’t have time to argue the point. “Incidentally, the Tower’s architecture is another mark against the Ammei being the Icari. As far as I can tell it doesn’t look a thing like any of the Icari ruins we’ve found in the Spiral.”

“Good point,” McKell said. “On the other hand, Earth architecture has changed significantly over the ten thousand years or so of recorded history. The Tower here could be very early Icari, or very late Icari.”

“Or just something a maverick architect put together,” Ixil added. “Not really conclusive either way.”

“Good,” I said. “Glad we got that settled. I’ll hopefully not see you around, Ixil.”

“Indeed,” Ixil said. “Good luck.”

“And watch yourselves,” McKell warned. “If you’re right about the Ammei trying to play you, odds are the game is running some seriously high stakes.”

“I know,” I said. “Say hello to my father for me. Oh, and if you get a chance, bring me back a radio scanner.”

* * *

The subway, fortunately, was deserted. I hurried along the tunnel, glancing up the ramps as I passed, but not bothering to slow to a more silent tread until I was close to the portal ring. Again, I heard nothing from the topside guards, nor did any of them seem to hear anything from me. Two stops later I again picked up my pace, mindful of the passing minutes and the danger of getting caught in the light of dawn.

There was still the problem of getting into the Tower, of course. I’d found a few strong but slender metal shards while waiting for Ixil and McKell, and my tentative plan was to try to wedge them into the cracks around one of the doors to create a ladder, then climb up to the first roof and use one of them to jimmy open a second-tier window.

It was hardly the most solid plan in the world. It wasn’t even in the top ten plans I’d come up with on my own. But the only alternative was to sneak into the house where Selene had been taken and try to persuade the Ammei that I’d left my own sleeping room purely out of my sense of duty to her.

Odds on that one were that I would get tossed into the cooler with the Iykams.

I reached the end of the subway and headed up the ramp. The lawn surrounding the Tower was as I’d left it. The Tower itself was also as I’d left it.

What wasn’t as I’d left it was the slender rope that was now draped along the side that led from the ground to the window I’d left roughly three hours ago.

I stopped beside it, frowning up at the window as I fingered the slender line. Close up, I saw now that it wasn’t a rope, but a vine or collection of vines that had been tied or spliced together. Presumably from the Grove of Reflection, almost certainly Huginn’s handiwork. The question was whether he’d specifically set it out for me, or whether he was currently off prowling the city on an errand of his own and had left this little back door for his own benefit.

But for the moment the reasons and history didn’t matter. The line was here, I was here, and dawn was coming. Sliding my metal shards carefully into the back of my belt, I got a grip on the vine and started up.

I’d noticed the plant’s slightly rough feel when I first touched it. What I hadn’t realized until I was actually climbing was that the texture was wonderfully suited to the task, with enough bumpiness to keep from being slippery but not enough to scrape into my skin. Wherever Huginn had found this stuff, it was like it had been designed for the purpose.

I hit the first splice midway up level three, a type of knot I didn’t recognize but that seemed to be doing its job. I was carefully working my way around it, making sure I didn’t loosen it, when an odd fact caught my attention.

The south side of this level, on the opposite side of the building, contained the library, which filled a sixth or more of the tier’s floor space and featured a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows. The section I was currently climbing up had those same tall windows.

But on this side, all the windows had been covered over with close-fitting sheets of metal.

I studied the shutters as best I could in the time it took me to get past the splice. It was hard to tell in the starlight, but I had the sense that the coverings were newer than the Tower itself, as if the Ammei had only recently decided to hide whatever was behind them from prying eyes.

Or maybe I had that backward. Maybe the shutters were instead to hide the outside world from whoever was inside.

My first night here I’d briefly speculated that the ring of mounds surrounding the Tower were the city’s prisons. Maybe I was now climbing past the real thing.

But that would be for later consideration. Right now, I had maybe an hour before the stars faded from the sky over the mountains, and there was nothing to be gained hanging along the side of an alien building. Giving the shutters one final look, I continued up.

I’d sometimes regretted not getting a major strength upgrade when I had to replace my left arm after the Fidelio incident. But even without that, the arm’s artificial muscles had the huge advantage of not getting fatigued like the organic ones in my right arm. I could feel my right hand starting to shake when I finally reached the window and pulled myself inside. Working my right hand to ward off any cramps, I peered outside. If Huginn was out there racing for the vine, he was going to cut things dangerously close—

“I was starting to think you’d be out all night,” his voice came from behind me.

“Sorry,” I said, looking over my shoulder. He was standing in the doorway of my sleeping compartment, an inquisitive look on his face. “I know how you and Mom worry,” I added, turning back to the window and starting to pull up the vine. “Thanks for this, by the way.”

“No problem,” he said. “You can pay me back by telling me everything.”

I winced. But really, he’d earned it.

Besides, with Alpha now up and running, and with Kinneman poised to breathe fire and fury all over us, Huginn and I needed to be on the same page if we were going to keep Nexus Six from becoming an all-out battlefield.

“Let me get this in first,” I said, continuing to reel in the vine. “How was your evening, by the way?”

“Mildly productive,” he said. “I think I’ve figured out why the Grove of Reflection was on Third of Three’s special notice list.”

“Because these are in there?” I asked, waving a loop of vine.

“That, and the fact that it’s directly over the library,” he said. “Apparently, they think that instead of just walking in through the library door we might try to be clever and rappel in.”

“We’re a Patth Expediter and a former bounty hunter,” I reminded him. “We do sometimes tend toward the overdramatic.”

“Personally, I prefer the straightforward approach,” he said. “But in general you may be right. Which again shows that someone here knows more about the Spiral than they’re letting on.”

“Or are passing messages and information back and forth to one of the Ammei enclaves.”

“Or both,” he said, his voice suddenly going all casual. “I also got a look into the Upper Rooms.”

“Really,” I said, resisting the urge to spin around and stare at him. The big fancy area where the elite Gold Ones hung their hats, and he’d just walked in? “How was it? Nicer than ours?”

“Not necessarily nicer, but definitely different,” he said. If he was disappointed that I hadn’t reacted with open-mouthed surprise it didn’t show in his voice. “It’s technically only a single room, though there are chest-high partitions that divide the floorspace into four squares. There are two beds, one each in the north and south sections, a bathroom to the east, and a meal-prep area to the west, though I didn’t see any groceries or food-prep implements. Windows all around—great view of the city.” He paused. “Plus each of the sleeping compartments includes a small library.”

“Interesting,” I said, pulling the last length of vine through the window. “Any current bestsellers? Or are they all classics?”

“They were a bit hard to read,” he said. “But they look like the books in the main library. So which of the books are you looking for?”

“We’re looking for everything we can get on the Icari,” I said. “Same as you.” I paused, pretending to be preoccupied with coiling the vine rope into a tight spiral. Just because I’d convinced myself that I needed to coordinate actions with Huginn didn’t mean I had to tell him everything I knew. Especially not the parts that would get me dropped into the deep hole Kinneman had threatened me with at our first meeting, and which was certainly already being excavated. “Though I’m guessing our mandate may be a bit more specific than yours.”

“How so?”

I paused, prepping my casual tone as I slid the coiled vine under my bed. “To cut to the chase, the Icarus Group found what appears to be an Icari document.”

“On Meima, I presume?”

“What makes you think that?” I asked, making sure my neutral expression was in place as I turned to face him.

Apparently, it wasn’t neutral enough. “Thank you for the confirmation,” he said calmly. He gave me a lopsided smile. “Oh, don’t look like that—you didn’t give anything away. We knew from the beginning that you’d made some discovery there.”

“Or at least you guessed.”

“No, we knew,” he said. “You see, you let us have that Janus portal a little too easily.”

“I’d already promised it to Sub-Director Nask,” I reminded him.

“So you had,” he agreed. “Let me restate: Jordan McKell let us have the Janus portal a little too easily. You had to have told him something that persuaded him to back off and let us take the portal and get off the planet, hopefully before we could wonder what that something might be. What kind of document?”

“It was a book,” I said. “Couple of centimeters thick, bound in black Icari metal with pages a thinner version of the same stuff, all held together with a magnetic hasp. Sound familiar?”

A minute ago he’d read my poker face with ease. Now, it was my turn. Despite the studied blankness of his expression there was a twitch of tightening in a couple of his cheek muscles that confirmed I’d hit the mark. “Very familiar,” he agreed. “Also like the ones in the main library?”

“The edges looked the same, anyway,” I said. “No way to be really sure unless I can get a close-up look at one.”

“I’ll see if I can arrange that,” he said. “Have you been able to translate any of it?”

“Not as far as I know,” I said. “But then, I’m hardly at the top of the current administration’s party-invitation list. They could be reading whole chapters to each other at bedtime and I wouldn’t know it.”

Huginn grunted. “Stupidly short-sighted policy, if you ask me. You and Selene are as valuable as any other fifty people on their payroll. So what exactly are you looking for?”

“Mostly, I’m hoping to find a dictionary,” I said. “Selene told me that Second said one of the Gold Ones had been here sometime in the past few years or decades. If they’ve been hanging around the Spiral, they must have a working knowledge of English or Patth or something else. Even if the Gold Ones themselves aren’t the Icari, they presumably know their language. Maybe they worked up a Rosetta Stone type of thing.”

“Interesting thought,” Huginn murmured, staring off into infinity in concentration. “Also a real game changer. If we could read those books down there…” His eyes came back to focus. “Though you realize that there’s no reason why that particular Gold One had to have been anywhere near the Spiral,” he pointed out. “If he popped in via one of the portals, he could have come from anywhere in the galaxy.”

“Or from anywhere in any other galaxy,” I said, wincing. There was so much we still didn’t know about the portals. “I don’t suppose you took pictures of any of the books’ pages.”

“They took my phone and all my equipment when they locked us up, remember?” he said sourly, his eyes flicking to the phone case on my belt. “Anyway, we should probably get some sleep before Third and Rozhuhu come looking for us. Any idea what’s on today’s agenda?”

“You’ve heard everything I have,” I reminded him. “Why? Something in particular you want to see?”

“I was hoping to get a closer look at the portal ring,” he said. “We didn’t get a chance to check them out before we were grabbed, and I’d like to rectify that.” He lifted a finger in sudden thought. “It also occurs to me that we’ve only got Second’s word that it was years since the Gold One he mentioned was here. If it was more recent than that, Selene might be able to pull the scent off whichever portal he came in through.”

“Good idea,” I said. “Problem: she doesn’t know what the Gold Ones smell like.”

“Though any unfamiliar scent would be an indicator,” Huginn pointed out. He scowled in thought a moment, then suddenly brightened. “Try this. I touched several of the items in the Upper Rooms while I was looking around, including a couple of the books. Maybe she can pull the scent off my hands.”

“It would have to have been a lot more recent than Second claimed,” I warned. “A couple of weeks is about her limit.”

“Yes, but that’s when she’s tracking someone out in the open, right?” he asked. “With weather and a hundred other scents messing with the trail. Here, it’s protected and about as pristine as anything she’ll ever find. I don’t think even the top Ammei ever go up there.”

“I don’t know,” I said doubtfully. “But it’s worth a try. I’ll talk to Selene at breakfast, assuming they serve breakfast here, and see if she can talk Second and Third into a joint tour.”

“Sounds good.” He yawned. “Meanwhile, it’s been a long day. Sleep well.” With a final nod, he disappeared back toward the common room and the other sleeping compartment, shutting the door behind him.

“And sleep quick,” I called after him. Kicking off my shoes, I pulled back the heavy blanket and lay down on the bed. Huginn was right about it having been a long day. Unfortunately, it was about to get a little longer.

Huginn had gotten to the Upper Rooms ahead of me. It seemed only fair that I beat him to the library.



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