Night's Pawn (24 page)

Shiva looked at him steadily. "There are things, I take it, you need to know."

"Lachesis has been gathering information for me." Chase snapped his eyes open. "Which you probably already know. She told me you knew about it."

"I know what her search parameters were, but not the results. She was not able to tell me."

"What do you mean, wasn't able to tell you?" Chase was watching him carefully. A few hours ago Lachesis had said that he, Shiva, had all her data.

"You really don't know then?" asked Shiva. When Chase didn't reply, Shiva shifted in his seat and continued. "It's what Bash was going on about. Lachesis got burned a few hours ago. She was making a run against Fuchi, at your request apparently, and got lined. There's neurological damage, maybe permanent, but she's alive."

Chase stood up and walked back to the window and focused his stare on one of the orbiting computer systems clear of the black data hole. Something was wrong, but Chase knew he had little choice but to play along. Here, in the Matrix, he was at Shiva's mercy. "I explicitly told her
not
to go into Fuchi. Which system did she try and run?"

"Seattle."

"She should have known better than that."

Shiva shrugged. "It's what her kind live for. I don't lay blame on any side. Deckers like Bash, however, see it differently."

Chase looked over at him.

"The way they see it, you dangled the Fuchi involvement in front of her as bait. You have Fuchi connections, they say, why didn't you just get the data?"

"I see."

"They don't know the whole story."

"Do you?" Chase asked.

"No. Nor, do I suspect, do you."

Chase nodded. "You'd be right. Too much of it makes no sense. I was hoping that Lachesis would turn up something. I take it her deck got burned?"

"Total loss."

"Does anybody know about any back-ups she might have kept?" Chase asked him.

"There were no back-ups."

Chase shook his head again. "You'd think she'd have played it safer than…"He glanced outside at the data hole, just for an instant, and then back at Shiva. He'd play along, but that didn't mean he'd have to play it safe. "But you said every request, and every result, is stored away in there for retrieval."

"I did."

"Then if Lachesis used the data haven's systems—"

"She did."

"—the data should be stored away in there."

"You're correct."

"So…"

Shiva's eyes shone. "The problem is that it is
not
. The data was diverted before compression. It's not in the main memory core."

Chase stared at him. "The haven's been compromised?"

"Perhaps. Hopefully, it is merely one individual with questionable loyalties."

"Damn."

"Exactly so."

Chase dropped back down into the chair. "Well, that points everything back at Fuchi again."

"Oh?"

Chase nodded. "Somebody is after Cara. Fuchi made sense, except it didn't feel like them. Fuchi's internal intelligence is
good
. I should know, I had to deal with them enough."

"Times change."

Chase shook his head. "Fuchi's still on top. If their intelligence people were letting them down, they'd be slipping by now."

"Which leaves?"

"Alte Welt. Cara's old friends. It looks like Fuchi-Nakatomi hired members of Alte Welt to kill Villiers when he's in Frankfurt next month."

"Ah," said Shiva, "pieces drop into place. She found out. Then Fuchi-Nakatomi found out she knew, and now, presumably, wants her dead."

"Except that if it was Fuchi after her, there should be more evidence of it," said Chase. "There was an incident in Manhattan, but no proof beyond circumstantial that it was Fuchi. Since then, nothing. No pressure at all."

"Which implies that it's Alte Welt. They're fearful of telling Fuchi, perhaps?"

"That's my guess, but I doubt Alte Welt could have agents here in Denver."

"You'd be surprised where we hail from," Shiva told him. "There are quite a few Germans here, of all types and kinds."

Chase nodded and stared for awhile at the slowly changing gray patterns of the walls. He hadn't noticed the motion before. It was soothing. What kind of game was Shiva playing? Should he confront him? How much of the old anger remained?

"Could Der Nachtmachen be involved?" Shiva asked after a moment.

The statement surprised Chase. Why would he bring up Nachtmachen? Chase shook his head. "They're castrated. I barely ever give them a thought anymore."

"I doubt they're as dead as you think."

"The organization is active, cheap local politics, but it's just a dead body thrashing. The heart is gone."

"It's been thrashing for some time now."

"Look, Veitman is dead. So are Lieber and Kaufmann. Who's left?"

Shiva stood up and moved over to the window. He stared directly into the darkness. "No one who was involved when you were. Even Steadman is dead."

"Oh? Falling out later?"

"Of a sort. He was assassinated in Hamburg a few years ago. It is believed that the person who ordered the assassination also killed Shavan, shadow-liege of The Revenants policlub, a few days later in Seattle."

"News to me," said Chase, and then after a moment, "Seattle?"

Shiva turned away from the window, but did not look at him. "Shavan was there to work the tail end of a deal with Saeder-Krupp."

Chase stared at him. "Holy shit." This was all very interesting, but what was the point?

"The deal did not go down. She was stopped before it could. Rumor has it that she was opposed by another interested party that did not want Saeder-Krupp extending its power."

"Fuchi…"

"No." Shiva shook his head. "Not Fuchi. Not a corporation.

"Saeder-Krupp has the distinction of being the only known megacorporation owned and actively run by a great dragon."

"Lofwyr."

"And apparently," continued Shiva, "even dragons can have brothers, if that word is even entirely accurate."

"You've lost me."

"The information is sparse, but indications are that Shavan's deal to use Saeder-Krupp money to back The Revenants was opposed by another dragon, one Alamais, allegedly Lofwyr's brother, who wanted to keep the two groups from reaching a deal."

"As if Saeder-Krupp doesn't already wield enough power in Europe."

Shiva smiled. "That, I believe, was the point. Saeder-Krupp is one of the backers of the Pan-Europa Restoration plan that would restore the political borders from before the wars in the thirties. Alamais apparently likes things the way they are: nice and chaotic."

"Sounds like he should be running a policlub," said Chase.

Shiva shrugged. "Dragons seem to be running just about everything else."

Chase shook his head. "Jesus. What a fragged-up world."

Shiva said nothing, but shifted in his chair again. "What about Alexi?" he said finally.

Chase started. He was surprised Shiva would bring that up. He had expected that they would tap dance around their past history just as they always did. "Alexi?"

Shiva nodded. "Could he finally be coming after you?"

"From the dead?" said Chase, incredulous. "Sorry, but I haven't read about any resurrections recently."

Shiva's eyes widened slightly. "Then you don't know?"

The room felt colder. "Know what, Gennedy Polemov?
Know what
?"

"Your brother is alive."

"That's impossible."

Shiva stared at him.

"You were there, damn it. You saw what I did."

The other man nodded. "I was there, and I would have agreed with you." He sighed. "Except that I've seen him."

"You've
seen
him?"

"Yes."

"Where? When?"

Shiva shook his head. "I cannot say. But he is alive, and now a magician."

Chase couldn't believe what he was hearing. "A
magician
? Look, what the fuck are you trying to do here? You can't expect me to believe any of this."

"Believe what you will. I'm simply telling you that Alexi is alive."

Chase leaned back in the chair and stared at the other man. What he was saying was impossible. Alexi was dead. Chase had seen the gunfire tear into him and had watched as his body flipped backward over the rail and into the water. Weighed down by his combat gear, it had quickly sunk. Nothing could have saved him at that point. Nothing.

"The magician part is a nice touch," Chase told him. "It's the only way the whole story could work."

"No matter how it sounds to you, all I can say is that Alexi is alive, which raises the strong possibility that he is the source of some of your problems."

Chase shook his head. "No. Regardless of whether or not my brother is alive, he's not the cause of this."

"You're sure?"

"Very," said Chase. "None of this could have any possible connection with him. Remember, I'm involved, but it's not directed at me. If Alexi were coming after me, he'd be in my face. I'd know about it."

"Yes, he always preferred direct confrontation."

"Right to the end."

Shiva looked up at Chase. "I wish I could tell you more, but I have certain obligations—"

Chase held up his hand. "Then don't. When all this is over I might be back. Then I'll expect some answers, but right now I need something else."

"And that would be?"

Chase thought for a second. No, there was too much about what his old comrade was doing that he didn't understand. He cut the list of favors he was going to ask for down to one. "Travel passes, three of them, out of Denver, across NAN, and into Seattle."

"Travel passes."

"Yes."

"How mundane."

"And that's exactly the way I'm trying to keep it," said Chase.

20

The big room was empty when Chase's senses finally became his own again. More time had passed than he'd have liked as he and Shiva had sat and talked, raising ghosts best left to rest. The conversation had turned to the things they'd done and the people they'd done them with. Shiva knew more about their fates than Chase, which wasn't surprising. Counting Alexi, they were the only three of the seven still alive.

Finally, they'd parted as they always did, uncomfortably, and almost silently. Shiva did promise to have someone continue Lachesis' research and to keep Chase apprised of her condition. Chase thanked him, but knew somehow he'd never see those results. Had Fuchi gotten to his old friend? Was the Nexus not as impartial as claimed? Or was it something else?

Just outside the room, two deckers waited for him. One was the red-haired boy, the other an ork who smiled as Chase stepped through the doors. The redhead looked away.

"Bash," said Chase.

The decker glanced back at Chase, but said nothing. The ork, however, chuckled.

"We're leavin', and guess what?" he said with an even bigger grin.

"What?"

The ork hefted his prize. "You get to wear the helmet again."

Leaving the data haven and the staring girl at the gate, Chase thought of what little he knew and had learned. Something about it all was
wrong
, a feeling that seeped deeper into him every time he reviewed the little he had.

It was a puzzle that had the
wrong
pieces instead of pieces missing. His meeting with Shiva had only made it worse.

He drove the Hummer onto Intercity 25 and took it north without concern. Whomever it had belonged to, wherever it had come from, Chase knew that within minutes it would be the registered and legal property of the identity on the credstick locked into the ignition slot. It was one of three newly forged credsticks that he'd been presented with halfway through his blind exit out of the haven. The Hummer had been Shiva's idea. It even had a full tank of fuel.

Chase almost had second thoughts about taking the credstick IDs and the Hummer, but Shiva seemed to be relieved, despite his pretense, that Chase had ultimately asked for something so simple. Chase thought there was a decent chance that no matter what else was going on with his old friend, the IDs would be secure.

He noticed the changing colors on the distant horizon and realized that his dealings in the haven and his long talk with Shiva must, in reality, have taken far less actual time than it had seemed. Another benefit, he thought, of a world where even talk occurs at the speed of thought.

He entered Denver proper along Intercity 25, exiting at Broadway. From there he took the Hummer cross-town and approached the hotel from the south. The front of the building was just catching the morning sun as he rounded the corner, promptly letting out a curse at what he saw.

There, in front of the hotel, were two men. Tall and lean, they wore long dark coats and looked far too alert for the hour of the morning. They were waiting and watching for him said a gnawing feeling in his chest. But they were amateurs, local talent. He drove on past them, casually glancing away at just the right moment. One of them continued to watch the light truck, but the man's gaze moved on as Chase slowed and signaled to turn.