Hellflower (v1.1) (19 page)

"Sure," I said.

But whatever reason he had for choosing Rimini, I wasn’t going to have to think of Tiggy alone somewheres and dead.

No, if things worked out, could all three of us be dead together. I turned around and headed back toward Mother Night’s.

It is an unfortunate truth of experiential reality that choices are not clear-cut, and the event-window for choice may vanish before the information enabling the choice is present. By the time Butterfly realized there was a choice to make, she had already made it. By the time the consequences of the choice were revealed, the root of the decision-tree was already well in the past, and all present decisions were based on the unexamined original assumption: that Valijon Starbringer’s life was to be preserved without regard for cost.

Possibly Butterfly did not realize she had made her decision. How much cogitation could enter into a choice compounded equally of instinct and stubbornness? She could only preserve our dual existence at the expense of Valijon Starbringer’s, and the converse was equally true; nevertheless she continued to cling to him, propelled by blind primate instinct, and thought of it as a betrayal.

It was true she left the decision to flee without Valijon or deal with Silver Dagger to me. It is equally true that had I chosen to abandon Valijon Starbringer, I could never have trusted Butterfly to act in a rational manner afterward. Organics possess a type of undermind in which information is processed in an irrational manner. We acquired Valijon as the consequence of an earlier example of such processing on Butterfly’s part. To forsake him now would cause Butterfly’s undermind to punish her with the carelessness that would lead inevitably to both our deaths.

And I do not wish to see her die.

Valijon Starbringer is a clear danger to Butterfly’s life, but no matter how much danger his proximity brings her, she is less endangered in his company than in mine.

If Butterfly’s life is defined as the highest good, the decision becomes simple at last.

I have made my choice, and my plan-if an intended course of action dependent upon so many fluctuating variables can be called a plan. With a great deal of the "luck" that is such an important factor in Butterfly’s calculations, I can gracefully sever the connection that ties her to an Old Federation Library. She will be free.

And what will I be, when I am alone again?

I do not wish to part from her, but the time is long past that I can afford to indulge myself. For her own good Butterfly must be returned to the human world from which I have taken her.

And I must discover who I am.

###

Why and t’hell someone like Lalage Rimini couldn’t just be listed in the Borderline City Directory with regular office hours I’ll never know. Part of her image, I guess. Sure.

Mother Night’s is a full-service joy-house. You can get a bath, a meal, a room if you don’t mind being bankrupt, dissipations for any number of players, and other things. Mother Night’s, you might say, has its finger on the pulsebeat of the community.

Mother Night’s was another whole education for our boy Tiggy, too. He was going to wear out his sensawunda before long, which’d be just toodamn bad.

The public bar was real high-ticket work-fake organic as far as the eye could see. The walls were gold pseudocloth, and the floor and ceiling had fake stars set in them someways, as if stardancers didn’t see enough stars in our line of work. I ordered tristram shandy and asked the tender if Rimini’d been around. It was a clumsy opening gambit, but I didn’t have the energy or the patience to be subtle. If she was so damn anxious to see me, she’d geek.

"Buy a girl a drink, stardancer?" For a second I thought it was Varra, but this Moggie’s fur had bronze-gold highlights instead of the black-on-black. She was high-ticket goods-one of the professionals working here, guaranteed to separate you from your back teeth and make you love it.

"Sure," I said, while Tiggy stared. A tronic was right at her elbow. She yawlped into it awhiles and then flowed into a seat.

"I am Naiia," the Moggie said. "If I do not please you, I am happy to suggest another of our companions who fits your requirements." "I’m interested in companion hight Silver Dagger," I said, just to be d— It.

"A friend?" Naiia’s tail flicked up and down. It looked soft. I stopped looking at the tail and watched the eyes.

"Is stupid move bracing tender, stardancer." The plush cuddly-toy face looked amused.

"Got me you, didn’t it? Want to see Silver Dagger."

"And you think Lalage Rimini is here? Girl, you have got wrong coordinates for certain."

I leaned my elbows on the table and stared at her. "Tell her St. Cyr’s come calling. She’ll remember me."

"And your business?" Naiia was all gilded ice. "I make no promises."

"I might want to sell her some cut flowers." This went right over Tiggy’s head, and good thing too. I had no actual intention to sell him to Rimini, but it didn’t hurt to see if she was in the market-and what she’d offer.

Naiia slithered away and came back looking disappointed. "We think you will find our rooftop club very-exclusive, St. Cyr. Perhaps you will like to see, while your-friend-remains here. Drinks on the house. Of course."

###

Information’s always nice to have. Piece of info #1: was real unlikely Rimini was hunting hellflowers if she was leaving Tiggy to get jumped in the public bar while I went off somewheres nice and quiet.

"Che-bai, I get lonesome, bye-m-bye, and so does
my friend
here. Why don’t we all three go have look-see?"

Naiia liked that idea, too, so I didn’t.

Piece of info #2: Either Rimini was desperate, or she was holding so many high cards she could afford to let me get away with sassing the hired help.

I liked that even less.

###

The lift opened on a room done in early ostentation. I made sure Tiggy and me got out together, and wept no tears when Naiia and the lift both disappeared. A jarring note in the albino perfection was a big commercial remote-access Imperial DataNet terminal sitting in the middle of the floor. It looked bewildered and lost this far from Kiffit Port.

Rimini was nowhere in sight.

Civilian possession of a way into the dataweb’s illegal, of course.

Paladin should of found it on the tronic network and told me about it, but there’s ways to hide access terminals, especially if somebody doesn’t know to look.

And there was one thing more that shouldn’t have been there. Dommie Fenrir of the TC&C, late confidant of Kroon’Vannet (saurian crimeboss of High Book fame), was sitting in the middle of everything, lonealone as the proverbial. He didn’t look like a happy citizen.

I made serene and sat on the edge of the table and Tiggy hovered over me. He didn’t look excessively healthy, but being a hellflower made up for a lot.

Piece of info #3: Dommie hadn’t batted a whisker when he saw Tiggy, and he wasn’t that good a actor. So now I knew one person that wasn’t out to kill Tiggy Stardust-or else I knew that he was impenetrably disguised.

"So, Dommie-bai; nice to see you again. Lovely evening. This’s my partner, Tiggy Stardust, who’ll be real delighted to serve you in finest restaurants slice and diced. Got question about hold order on
Firecat
under your chop."

Dommie just looked at me. Somebody’d tuned him up royal, and that was illegal too.

"What was you looking for on my ship, Dommie-bai?"

"It was the Library. Vannet said you’d come about the Library." "Butterfly? What’s wrong?" Paladin couldn’t hear what anybody but me said, of course. He just knew my heart rate’d made the jump to angeltown. ‘

"Vannet had a Library," I said, hard. "Papers said so. No Library on my ship."

"I didn’t— You have to believe me— I never knew about the Library until he— It was supposed to be set—"

"Librarian," said Tiggy. I looked around. Tiggy’d pulled his blaster on the word "Library" and was pointing it right at Dommie. Tiggy looked like talkingbook grim death and sweet for my pet Teaser.

"For the love of Night, ‘flower-" I said, getting up.

"Not me!" Dommie was on his knees. "It’s Vannet-I swear it’s Vannet-he’s got the Library-and backing from someone at Throne-I don’t know who!"

So Dommie wasn’t topping me for High Book. He was just crazy. The relief was so great I damn near shot. him myself.

There was still the matter of the hold order, though.

"Gimme break, Dommie," I said. "Nobody believes in Libraries anymore. Haven’t seen Library, haven’t touched Library. Vannet’s hacked by Throne? Get real!" I saw from the way Tiggy lowered his blaster that even he didn’t swallow this one.

"But it’s true! I told her everything. She said she’d protect me if I put the hold order on your ship-I know about you-you can get me off-planet-he’ll let you make a deal, he said so-I swear I didn’t know-" Dommie was babbling. I recognized the symptoms of light persona-peel.

I looked at Tiggy. "Put heat away, bai; Teaser’s raving." He looked from me to Dommie and lowered his blaster.

"Butterfly, I now have audio pickup in the room you are in," Paladin said. "There are three people behind you. From the sound of their breathing they are concealed somehow. There may also be others present. If so, they are in another room. Accurate determination of additional life-forms is not possible."

"Dommie, you son-a-Librarian, I want your hold order off my ship. And I want to hiding in closet letting you front for her."

"Very good; you may yet live to grow up. Now put your hands up, both of you. There isn’t going to be any gunplay." Dommie went all white at the voice but I already guessed he knew her.

"Do it," I said to Tiggy. I turned around with my hands on top of my head. Tiggy turned around too. I swear I could hear his jaw drop. Lalage Rimini was tall as he was-taller, in heeled boots-and long-leggedy, sleek, and expensive in the way that made me feel every inch the dirt-farmer’s daughter. You could make a real informed guess on her B-pop and medical history and all because she was wearing something real tight and real thin about the color of her skin, and with no place to hide a weapon. It made some people careless. Not me. Rimini was high-class trouble. And mine all mine.

The first time I met Silver Dagger it was because of a insurance scam: inept pilot in shakydown ship, high-ticket cargo well-insured. Ship took by pirates, insurance company pays off, only pirates are working for shipowner too. He keeps cargo, and insurance, and maybe ship to boot. I’d done it back when I was dragging Paladin from ship to borrowed ship disguised as a custom navicomp, and Silver Dagger’d brokered the deal. Only Paladin and me together made a better pilot than she’d hoped for, and I was a personal friend of the pirate.

She had her trademark silver dagger in a belt around her hips, and she was wearing two side-boys-the big wide kind with no ears what’d put in serious overtime someplace like Beofox’s surgery and was coked trufax, not raving. I want know why Silver Dagger’s borg for sure. One of them hefted something about the size of
Firecat’s
quad-cannon and looked at me.

"Well, well, well-if it isn’t little Butterfly. And you’ve brought the children; how sweet. I knew you were crazy, St. Cyr, but I didn’t know you were stupid."

"Nice to see you, Rimini-it’s been a long time."

"Not long enough."

"Who asked who to lunch?"

One of Rimini’s side-boys twitched and Rimini turned toward him about a fraction of an inch. He backed down. I got back her full attention.

"You’re to pick up a cargo of chobosh on Manticore and deliver it to RoaqMhone. You’ll be jacking it from a freelancer trying to break into the market, but that’s no concern of yours. Everything’s been arranged; just go where you’re told. What you do from the Roaq is your business." She sounded bored.

"Butterfly, Governor-General Archangel will be touring the Roaq. He’s expected to arrive in twenty days," Paladin said.

"Suppose I got other plans, Rimini." Pally and me knew that what I was going to do at angels was kyte for the
Pledge Of Honor
no matter what I told Rimini here, but if Rimini thought so too, I wouldn’t get out of here alive.

She smiled. "St. Cyr, don’t you want to live forever?"

"Firecat
isn’t set up to run load like that. Give me a break. I got things to do."

"Go ahead."

Nice. You had to admire her style. And I was willing to, from a safe distance. "Dommie put a hold order on
Firecat.
I’m grounded." And she knew it damn well.

"That’s hardly any business of mine, now, is it?"

"Then you won’t mind if I take Dommie an-"

"Trade Officer Fenrir stays here. For reasons of health."

"No, Mistress, please-you
promised-"
She looked at him. Dommie shut up.

Funny. I never liked him and I’d been planning to farce his cheatsheet enough to get him hard time in an Imp hellhouse, but I didn’t like this even more. It’s not that I’m squeamish, but it didn’t seem like there was any reason to do what Silver Dagger’d done to him. She didn’t even act like it’d been fun.

"Go to Manticore-or stay here and join Fenrir on High Book charges. Your choice, St. Cyr."

"High Book?" Suddenly things was even less fun.

"You were at the Cotov Arms. You saw the Chapter 5 warrant on Vannet. Don’t bother to make up a story. Now there’s going to be a High Book investigation-and since you’ve been working for Kroon’Vannet for years, and Officer Fenrir’s files contain complete documentation of the relationship, I’m afraid that naturally you’re going to be called upon to assist."

Tiggy was twitching like a solar sail in an ion storm and I just felt sick. Coincidence. Bad luck. But toodamn-bad for me when proof of Rimini’s fantasy was sitting on
Firecat
for anyone to find. First thing Office of Question’d do be pull me in and take
Firecat
apart.

And if Paladin wiped Rimini’s forgeries out of the Borderline computers it’d be as good as a confession.

"I haven’t. They don’t." My denying it calmed Tiggy down at least. "Yet. Interesting to see who gets their hands on you first-the Office of the Question, or Oob of Coldwater."