James P. Hogan (22 page)

“Do you think that’s what Tek’s doing, too?” Korshak asked.

“Well, I wouldn’t really know. I’ve never ‘eard of a robot doin’ anythin’ like that before. Ye’d be better off askin’ Tek.”

Which they didn’t appear any closer to being able to do. Korshak braced a hand on his knee, looked behind him first to one side, then the other, then turned back. “I’d like to. So, where is it?”

Bahoba frowned and rubbed the back of his neck. “Ee, it’s right funny, that. ‘E were ’ere, workin’ away one, maybe a couple o’ hour ago. Then I realized it ‘ad all gone quiet out there, and when I went out, there were no sign of ’im. I ‘aven’t seen ‘im since. The only thing I can think of is, ’e might be up in ‘is room.”

“The robot has a room?”

“I know, it sounds funny, don’t it? But I just let ‘im ’ave the same one that all the others who come to ‘elp ’ere use. Didn’t seem right, somehow, not to. Better than ‘avin ’im ‘anging around down ’ere all the time, too. Anyroad, come on. We’d better go up and ‘ave a look.”

Bahoba set his mug down on the table and got up to lead the way through to the house. “That’s a fine dog you have,” Korshak said as he followed into a small hallway at the foot of a flight of stairs. “Interesting that he didn’t make any noise when I was out there.”

Bahoba began climbing with slow, heavy steps. “Well, ‘e likes to see what people are up to before ’e lets ’em know ‘e’s there. No good yappin’ an’ makin’ a fuss an’ scarin’ ’em off, is there? That way yer never find out what’s goin’ on. I’ve known a few people who could learn from that. I think every animal’s there for a reason. They’ve all got something to teach, if we’d only take the time to get to know ’em…. Whew. When I was a young lad, runnin’ up ‘t stairs was as easy as runnin’ down. These days it’s as ‘ard to go down as it is to go up.”

They had reached a landing with a hall stand and a couple of doors, and a short passage leading away to more doors. Bahoba stopped outside one, rapped on it a couple of times, and waited. There was no response. He rapped again, louder. “Are you in there, Tek? Ye’ve someone ‘ere who wants to talk to yer.” No answer. Bahoba and Korshak exchanged questioning looks. Then Bahoba shrugged, turned back to the door, and pushed it open.

Inside was a small room with – incongruously, considering its present occupant – a bed, an upright chair and table by a window looking down over the wider track at the front of the house, an easy chair, a freestanding closet, and a few other basic furnishings. The walls were of board painted cream, and bare except for some pictures, a mirror, and a set of shelves in an alcove. There was no sign of Tek.

Bahoba stood in the middle of the room, looking around for several seconds. Then he pushed the door closed to reveal some hanging hooks on the back of it, which were empty. Frowning, he moved to the closet and opened it to inspect inside.

“It’s gone – all ‘is stuff,” he announced. “That cloak that ’e wore when ‘e come ’ere, ‘is ’at and the big coat – all of it.”

“You mean Tek doesn’t wear any of it around here?” Korshak said, surprised. The thought hadn’t crossed his mind. “It goes around openly as a robot?”

“There’s nobody to mind up ‘ere. Wouldn’t be able to work in that lot, anyroad. See fer yourself.”

Korshak moved forward and peered inside. The closet was empty apart from some pillows, linens, and other oddments that obviously belonged to the house. He looked at Bahoba questioningly.

“I suppose there’s a place for you ‘ere if you decide you want it,” Bahoba said. “But I don’t think that’s what ye really came for, is it? It looks as if Tek’s gone, Mr. Korshak. And if you want my opinion, don’t ask me ‘ow, but I’d say ‘e knew you were comin’.”

Korshak had nothing to gain by staying longer, and Bahoba had as good as said that he didn’t expect him to do so. Korshak left shortly afterward, carrying his bag slung across a shoulder. At this point he had formed no clear plan of what he intended to do next. His guess was that if Tek didn’t want to be found, as seemed to be the case, its first move would be to try and leave Plantation, which would mean getting to the ferry dock at the hub. However, six spokes connected the torus to the hub, three of which provided general access for anyone wishing to travel. Hence, the only way to keep a watch on who was leaving – assuming he could get there before the next ferry departure – would be to find somewhere suitable to wait at the dock itself. The next spoke continuing northward was now the nearest with a public-transit service to the hub, so instead of angling back through Forest the way he had come, Korshak took the wider track leading directly down to the valley floor.

His thoughts had progressed that far, and he had gone only a short distance from the house, when, not far ahead of him, a figure who had been sitting on one of several cut stumps by the side of the track straightened up, looking in his direction. It was a woman in a light jacket and tan shirt worn open over casual pants. She gave every indication of having expected him and having been waiting. As Korshak drew closer, he recognized her as Lois Iles, the optical physicist from the Hub observatory on
Aurora
. Years previously, in the time leading up to
Aurora
’s launch, she had also been involved in identifying and recruiting likely candidates for the mission.

It had been a while now since their paths had crossed. He had last seen Lois at a reception that Masumichi had held celebrating the first child to be born to one of his innumerable relatives. She was somewhere in her forties now, her shoulder-length hair still blond and wavy. The firm set to her mouth and features was relieved from harshness by a rounding of the nose and chin, and just at this moment softened further by an expression of amusement at Korshak’s obvious perplexity.

“Hello, Korshak,” she said.

It was a day of one weird thing after another. “I don’t believe in coincidences,” Korshak replied simply.

“I waited a little way farther up, nearer the house, where I thought I’d be able to catch you before you reached it, whichever way you came,” she said, as if that explained anything at all. “But I missed you somehow. The first thing I knew was when you and Bahoba were crossing the yard at the back. So I waited here. I had a feeling you’d probably come down this way – but it was close enough to see if you went back the same way you came.” She paused. Korshak just stared at her. “Did you talk to Tek? What have you told it?” she asked.

Korshak’s mental gears began turning again and gradually came back up to speed. Since he hadn’t mentioned Tek by name to anyone other than Bahoba, Lois must have known about it already. And there was only one way she could have learned about his being directed here. “You’ve been talking to Dari,” he said. “I thought it wasn’t the done thing to broadcast other people’s business. What’s going on?”

Lois’s manner lost the flippancy that she had been effecting. “There’s more going on than you’re probably aware of,” she said. “Really, Korshak, I need to know what was said. It’s important that Tek’s intentions not be interfered with. I was sent here to keep an eye on it.”

Korshak could only show an empty hand. “I didn’t talk to it at all. I haven’t even seen it. It’s taken off. Gone. Sometime in the last hour or so.”

Lois bit her lip, thinking rapidly for several seconds, then reached inside her jacket and produced a phone. Her gaze flickered over Korshak’s face, taking in his astonished expression while she spoke. “Priority bypass, code seven, seven three… nine-two… Message forward to Op C-Two. Subject has departed from last known location within last one to two hours. Whereabouts and destination unknown. Need to instigate immediate exit-port surveillance. Description remains as previously reported, as far as is known. Out.” She returned the phone to her pocket and turned her face fully toward Korshak for the inevitable gesture of protest at the phone. “Official business,” she told him before he could say anything. “We’ve got a lot to talk about. This isn’t the best place. There’s a spot lower down, off the track, by a waterfall. We can go there.”

In the normal course of events, an individual’s movements were considered a matter of personal privacy. However, exceptions were made in cases involving the public interest. Lois’s help had been enlisted by Andri Lubanov, who, although not bestowed with any formal title to that effect, acted in one of his loosely defined capacities as Director in Chief Ormont’s political intelligence officer. Among other things, this meant being aware of undercurrents and developments likely to affect the stability of the governing executive. His office was taking a great interest in the activities of some of the cults that had established themselves on Etanne.

“Most of them are as crazy as they seem, and nothing more,” Lois explained. “But some have political motives that go deeper.”

They were sitting on corner bench seats in an open-fronted hut built as a rain shelter below the waterfall that Lois had mentioned. The gravity synthesizers beneath the creek bed were adjusted to enhance the flow downward from the ridge. Weather around Plantation changed in response to data from sensors monitoring air and soil conditions, which meant it was unpredictable – hence the usefulness of a shelter. A group of chattering day-trippers had been in occupation when Korshak and Lois arrived, but left soon afterward.

“I thought you did lasers and optics, and played old-world music,” Korshak said. “How did you get mixed up with Lubanov’s people? That doesn’t sound like your kind of world.”

“Back in the recruiting days, I brought Marney Clure out of Tranth,” Lois replied. Korshak nodded. Clure’s name was generally known. He had a reputation for dynamism, directness, and radical views. Some even tipped him as a likely successor to Ormont in years to come. Lois continued, “He stuck around me as a kind of mentor while he was finding his legs on
Aurora
, and we’ve stayed in touch ever since. He still comes to me for opinions and advice.”

“Okay.”

“One of the cults on Etanne is called the Dollarians. Do you know much about them?”

Korshak decided to play dumb and see where this was leading. He shrugged. “I’ve heard of them. It’s supposed to be based on some old-world religion or something, isn’t it?”

“Not strictly a religion. More of a fanatical ideology that elevated buying, selling, and owning property above everything else in life. It was obsessed with numbers. People were judged on the basis of their possessions, and tried to measure the comparative worth of everything to ridiculous extremes.”

“What they were and what they did weren’t important?” Korshak queried. Evaluating people by the worth of their contribution had become so taken for granted in Constellation that it was difficult to visualize any other way of doing it.

Lois shook her head. “That didn’t matter. Business dominated just about all aspects of everyone’s lives.” She leaned down from the seat and used her finger to trace a wavy line in the sandy floor, and then drew two lines through it: $. “That was their sign – a sort of sacred symbol. You’ve probably seen it before.”

“Is that what it means? I never knew. So, what does it have to do with Marney?”

“The Dollarians are behind scares about resource depletion and the population getting out of control, stop
Envoy
, and things like that. The aim is to undermine confidence in Ormont’s administration and prepare the ground for an opposition movement to eventually challenge it. Spreading irrationality helps the cause by making people suggestible and manipulable. But underneath, there’s a hardcore agenda to get their people into the Directorate and eventually dominate it. The plan is to have things run their way.”

Korshak raised his eyebrows. “And what’s their way?”

“Well, as far as the general picture goes, you can see where they’re coming from already. Scares to make people feel insecure about the future and lose confidence in the present system. More planning and control as the only sure protection. Which, of course, means power in the hands of whoever can come off looking as if they have the answers.”

“Uh-huh. So?”

“They were putting out feelers for likely candidates to groom for a future leader figure – probably also a fall guy who would be expendable if things went wrong. For whatever reasons, they picked Marney as a possible. Some of their people made contact inconspicuously and started to sound him out. But that was where they miscalculated. Marney may have ideas that challenge accepted ways of thinking, but he’s straight. If he ends up heading the Directorate one day, it will be legitimately, through the system, not via anything underhanded.” Lois made a throwing-away motion with a hand, as if the rest shouldn’t really need spelling out. “Marney came to me and asked what he should do. I took it to Lubanov. It turned out that Lubanov had been watching the Dollarians for some time – I don’t know exactly how; he has his ways. He seems to think they’re planning something big, sometime soon, but he’s not sure what…. Or else it isn’t considered to be something that I need to know. But that was how I got involved, and how I learned most of what I’ve just told you.”

Outside the shelter, a deer and a large breed of goat had appeared and were drinking at the pool beneath the waterfall, at the same time keeping a wary eye on the humans. The foraging area available in Plantation could never have supported its animal population naturally, and was supplemented by force-grown fodder from Evergreen. An elaborate underground industry kept things looking the way they did above the surface.

“Okay,” Korshak said again when he had absorbed that much. “So where does Tek come into it?”

“The cults are always sending their people to Istella. It’s almost funny in a way. They’re either sermonizing against debauchery and the libertine goings-on, or they’re proselytizing for new recruits.”

“I know. We’ve all been there.”

Lois sighed. “This might sound wild, and I don’t know how it happened, but Tek showed up there a couple of weeks ago – on its own, like one of the crowd. It got interested in a line that one of the cults was pushing, and said it wanted to join!” Lois looked at Korshak expectantly. He reacted neutrally, neither pretending surprise nor giving anything away. Lois seemed surprised and mildly deflated. She interrogated him silently with her eyes for a few seconds. “You knew that already.”