Stealing the Elf-King's Roses: The Author's Cut (24 page)

Dil’Hemrev ordered drinks for the group, and they shared them uneventfully enough; and afterwards their guide led them back to the hotel. But all the while, Lee could feel dil’Hemrev’s attention on her, if not actually her gaze. The Alfen was playing it cool. Lee did her best to do the same, at least until they got back to the hotel.

She was somewhat surprised to find Gelert lounging around in the suite when she got back. “You finished early,” she said.

“It’s just that there weren’t a lot of us still standing after yesterday’s transit,” Gelert said. “We’ll have to do tomorrow a lot of what we thought we’d be doing today. But we got some preliminary work done.”

“That’s good,” Lee said. She keyed her implant on, and said in Palmerrand, 
I think their bug is active in
 
here now…

I heard it,
 Gelert said. 
Those relays make a teeny, tiny noise when they shift states.
 He flicked one ear back and forth. 
E-flat above C above high C, minus a quarter tone.

Lee avoided giving him the amused look she would have at home. 
The opera fan speaks.

“So how was the architecture?”

“Extremely beautiful,” Lee said. “There are some patterns that repeat…”

“The elevens thing?” Gelert said, sounding idle. “I noticed that in passing.” 
What’s the matter with you? You look rattled.

Partly that I heard more history from dil’Hemrev today than I think I’ve ever heard or read
, Lee said silently, 
and I’m still trying to digest what I remember of it. But there’s another problem. I
 
mentioned the mountains.

He looked at her oddly. 
What mountains?

Lee’s heart seized. 
Have you looked out the window lately?

First thing this morning. Lovely countryside, I thought.

But no mountains.

Gelert looked at her strangely. 
Lee, this is the flood plain of the Seine, or what would be the Seine if
 
we were at home, which I’m really beginning to wish we were. Mountains are in short supply here. Or they should be.

I’m not arguing. However, I
 am 
seeing mountains. And I don’t think our hosts expected me to, or
 
any of us, for that matter.

You think this is going to be a problem?

I think maybe it already is. But there’s nothing I can do about it.

Gelert looked thoughtful. 
And your implant’s been working a little strangely since we got here. Picking up things it wouldn’t normally. Is it some effect on the machinery…or are our own
 
sensitivities being sharpened by our presence here?

It could be both. Something to watch out for…
 Lee said.

You mean, besides dil’Hemrev. Well, we’ll see what comes of it.

There’s still the problem of what I overheard last night.

I just wish the ice machines had been closer to the elevator
, Gelert said. 
What you got was
 
tantalizing. And I have one easy guess which Senator he was discussing. Milelgua. He’s widely
 
known to be scraping the bottom of his campaign chest.

What I want to know is what the ‘goodies’ were that they were discussing
, Lee said.

Gelert let out a long breath and rolled over. 
Not enough data…
 he said. 
Meanwhile, can you spare a
 
few minutes? I’m chary of getting into long conversations inside the hotel, and Sal wanted a word
 
before we move on to our next location.

Already?
 Lee said.

Yes
, Gelert said. 
The records we’re investigating, after all, aren’t physically located here. They’re
 
going to run us up to Aien Mhariseth tomorrow. There’s some weekly, or tenday-ly, meeting of
 
the Alfen Grand Council tomorrow; they want to bring us up there and give us the official seal of
 
approval. I don’t know whether we’ll be reconvening down here again. But this is either a big
 
honor, or an attempt to keep us from getting comfortable in any one place.

If they try to take us over to their version of North America, I guess we’ll know for sure
, Lee said. 
Meanwhile… we roll with the desires of our hosts, I suppose. Where’s Sal going to meet us?

He’ll be down in the bar. We’ll go for ‘a walk in the park.’  They may have that bugged, but we
 
can at least pick the least buggable parts of it, and Sal’s carrying a changeable-frequency
 
multispectrum surveillance-buster. We’ll find but soon enough if it works…

Lee changed into something more casual than she’d been wearing, a loose tunic and light pants suitable to the nearly tropical weather, and wandered out with Gelert, for all the world as if they had no plans. The people working behind the desk looked at them curiously as they passed, but seeing that they were heading straight across the main road into the parkland by the lake, did nothing else.

Lee and Gelert went out across one of the paved paths that led through the perfect lawn running to the perfect lakeside. There they found a bench to sit down on, and did nothing for fifteen minutes or so but admire the perfect view out across the water. “Would this be the Atlantic,” Lee said at last, looking out into the rainbowed mist, “or the English Channel?”

“I have to confess that geography is not my highest priority in life,” Gelert said. “Especially Alfen geography, which is half-classified anyway. But this should be central France, not the coast as it occurs in our own world…I think. The cognacy with Paris in our world is supposed to be fairly close.”

Lee heard a step on the nearby walk, turned to see Sal coming. “Have you ever noticed,” she said, “that Elves don’t make any noise when they walk?”

“A whole lot less than humans of your type, anyway,” Gelert said. “And a ton less than Sal. Hi, Sal…”

Sal lowered his considerable bulk to the bench beside Lee. “Gelert,” he said, “you bad-mouthing me again?”

“Somebody’s got to do it.”

“Yeah, well, you’re not the skinny runt you used to be, either. It’s those expense account dinners. Look at the gut on you—”

“If you two could stop slagging each other ever so briefly,” Lee said, “who knows how human knowledge might be increased.”

“Huh,” Sal said, a world’s worth of doubt in the word.

“Your widget working?” Lee said softly.

Sal nodded just once. “Far as I know. Let’s keep it fairly brief, though.”

“So did your team have a good day?” Gelert said.

“Huh, huh, huh, huh,” Sal said, laughing, and went on in that vein for so long that Lee became seriously concerned. That much laughter from this man usually indicated a disaster in the making.

She leaned back on the bench and waited, while Gelert lay down on the ground and rolled his eyes at the impossibly blue sky. “I take it,” Lee said when Sal paused for breath, “that your initial findings have been positive.”

“Oh yes,” Sal said. “Everything very much on the up-and-up… if you have about as much math, or networking expertise, as a high school graduate. I’d be really insulted, if I didn’t find it all desperately funny.”

“So they’ve showed you the ‘not so public’ version of their books,” Gelert said, “as regards their mining records, and the data that suggests how much FG they release to the markets of the other worlds, and when, and in what amounts to which markets.”

Sal nodded. “There are some holes in the numbers already,” Sal said. “Nothing we can authenticate from the information they’ve let us see so far. But what really interests me is the details they’ve let fall about their accounting computers’ connections to the worlds’ computer networks… which may present some possibilities for authentication from our side of things. Whether they like it or not.”

Lee gave him a look. “I thought there 
were
 no direct connections between their home computers in Alfheim and the subsidiary computers in other universes,” Lee said. “Privacy concerns, territorial ‘information sovereignty,’ and all that.”

Sal sniffed. “That’s what they want everybody to think,” he said. “But it’s operationally impossible. Oh, they go on in public about their secured data transfer, but it’s just more obfuscation designed to direct attention elsewhere and make their own lives easy.”

He leaned back and folded his hands over his ample stomach. “They have direct transfer, all right,” Sol said. “They squeeze the data down to packets, and transmit it at unpredictable intervals using a randomization paradigm, using standard ‘tween-universe protocols and comms channels. How better to cover their tracks than to blend in with all the other traffic between the worlds? And I can’t believe they think we’re so stupid as not to have seen the comms calls in some of their code. Yes, their cryptography is of a very high order. Not unbreakable; as usual, what the mind can devise, the mind can break. But in terms of anybody cracking their traffic in real time, which would be their main worry, they’re safe enough.”

Sal looked thoughtful. “What 
does
 seem to be very secure is access to 
their
 machines from 
outside
 their universe. They can get into our networks anytime they want to: but since they’re the ones who control information flow, by controlling the ‘ring time’ that permits it in the first place, they make it almost impossible for anyone to get at their machines from outside.”

Gelert’s ears went up. “‘Almost’ impossible?”

Sal got a dreamy look that Lee found most provocative. “When a data ring here gets in contact with one in one of the other worlds,” he said, “they have to exchange authentication information first. Now, there are, oh, fifty different ring systems in our six worlds with which the Alfen rings at Ys and Aien Mhariseth communicate on a regular basis.”

Gelert’s eyes narrowed in sudden amusement. “But only two Alfen data rings.”

“Three,” Sal said. “There’s a comms-only ring at Ayehmendeh, at the foot of Manhattan Mountain: their Brookhaven. Their first ring, I think—they keep it around for sentimental reasons. Or some other.” He frowned, his usual look when he suspected an answer to a question was hiding itself from him. “Anyway, each of their rings is programmed to generate a new ID herald each time they ‘call up’ another machine. Yet they can’t change it 
too
 much: it’s simpler and much more secure to change the cryptography in the message, rather than in the transmitter.” Sal smiled. “But this allows us to compare all the login heralds from the small number of Alfen machines against the large number of heralds from the machines in the other five universes, and deduce
—
though very slowly
—
how to fake an Alfen herald that’s likely to occur in a future cycle of communications. After that it’s just a matter of sending it back to them, over and over, from all those other machines, for a long time. Sooner or later the Alfen machine at the other end of the linkage hears its own newly generated herald echoed back to it by the other machine, then goes on to the next step of the process, which is spilling its guts. Or at least, letting us capture the whole message it would have sent to that machine, without raising any warning flags.”

“Have you been caught at this yet?” Lee said.

“Lee,” said Sal, “is that a question you really want me to answer?”

“Uh, no.”

Sal’s smile got more ironic. “I trust the cardinal Virtues to know that I’m on their side. But I’d sooner not have to discover the truth about that in a courtroom. My goal is to make some other poor sonofabitch discover it. And with that goal in mind, I’ll keep certain details in my own head until they need to get out in the fresh air.”

“You’d need a lot of cooperation to do that kind of thing,” Gelert said.

“Yup,” said Sal. He smiled even more broadly.

Mist was beginning gently to gather over the water as the shadows lengthened. Lee watched it creep in toward the shore. “So eventually you’re going to be able to derive information, at home, to compare against the information you’re being given here.” Lee didn’t have to say, “to see whether we’re being lied to.”

“Eventually?” Sal said. That smile kept broadening.

Gelert rolled over on his side and fixed Sal with one eye. “I’m glad you’re on our side,” he said, “that’s all.”

“But these people are deep in deception, Gelert,” Sal said softly. “Deep. We are going to have to chase them right around the block, up hill and down dale, before we get what we really need to know out of them. The second ‘set of books’ looks tight enough…but the third set is going to look absolutely watertight, I’m sure. It’s going to prove everything they’ve said to us about their balance of trade; it’s going to confirm that they are on the straight and narrow, and all these other people are out to make them look bad. So you guys, and the other investigators, had better come up with the goods within a week or so, and give the rest of us a reason to stay around and dig deeper. Otherwise, this whole thing is going to turn into a PR exercise, for 
them
, proving how hard-done-by the poor Alfen are. Played for a fool by naughty Interpol and the silly UN, so full of mere humans, so easily led astray. We need some nice solid excuses to hang around… and we need all the rest of the team, of which you two are part, to provide them to us. Otherwise, my data suggests they’re going to turf us out of here in less than a week.”

“We’ll do what we can,” Lee said, though she wasn’t sure what that might be. “Gelert?”

“I could bury something and claim to forget where I left it,” Gelert said.

Sal nudged Gelert with his foot. “Someone’s reputation, probably,” he said. “But somewhere here there’s a smoking gun. We need to find it, and pronto.”

*9*

The people gathered in the hotel lobby the next morning looked like an unusually worn-down tour group, standing around with their luggage and regarding the morning with bleary equanimity. Some of them looked far more bleary than others. Lee guessed that she was probably well into this second camp, for she hadn’t slept well the previous night. She hadn’t exactly been expecting to, anyway. But it had come as a shock to her to return to the suite and find a low mist lying over everything outside…and when the mist rose, there had been no sign of the mountains.

That had shaken her badly enough to make Lee spend the whole night curled up on one of the couches in the suite’s sitting room, peering out into the darkness, past the city lights. Morning began to gray out the black of the sky, little by little, and Lee sat there fixedly watching the horizon for the least sign of the jagged shapes she knew should be there. But they didn’t come. And finally dawn slipped up over the far edge of the world to illuminate a broad and smiling plain, a beautiful green patchwork landscape of fields and forests, mostly flat until it melted away into gently rolling hills and the mist of distance away at the hinted-at horizon; but no mountains were to be seen anywhere.

Through her frustration and unease, Lee knew her own uncertainty was being used against her as a weapon. It was a potent one, and the only way to take it out of the hands of those using it against her was to admit that she had no idea what was going on here, and resign herself to apprehending what might present itself before her, rather than actively searching under appearances
—
for the moment. 
If
 
they think they’ve thrown me off the scent, as Gelert would put it, then they may get careless in
 
some other way. So, fine: let them think I’ve learned my lesson. Or that I’m scared.

I won’t have to fake
that
very hard…

Exactly on time Isif dil’Hemrev turned up, looking what was to Lee almost intolerably beautiful, as if she had bathed in morning dew, that swirl of hair like night around her shimmering where the sun caught it as she escorted the group out to the pavement in front of the hotel. There Lee had a moment’s irrational satisfaction as, ever so briefly, she saw dil’Hemrev look up and around at the sky and display annoyance.

Her eyes went chilly, and a little straight deep frown line drove down from the middle of her forehead to the top of her nose, disfiguring that perfect face for just a few moments. Lee began to feel ashamed of herself for being so pleased to see the alabaster perfection marred. Then the shame gave way to puzzlement. 
What’s she so upset about? It’s just a late bus or something…

Beside Lee, Gelert looked up, his ears twitching. “Not bad,” he said under his breath. Lee looked where he did, where dil’Hemrev was looking, and saw the transport angling in toward them in utter silence, the sun glinting on its long sleek shape through the still-fading morning mist as it landed with exactitude out in the center of the greensward near where she and Gelert and Sal had had their talk. She glanced over at dil’Hemrev and was bemused again to see her beautiful face get angrier still, before the look sealed over.

The craft was a big one, a forty-seater at least—a broad oval main body, with a slenderer oval of clearsteel or some similar substance mounted atop it. A door appeared in the craft’s side as Dil’Hemrev led them out to it, and not until Lee was halfway there and waiting in line to go up the ramp the craft had extruded did she notice the symbol on its side near the nose—not the undifferentiated golden sun-disc of Alfheim, but an irregular green hexagon, wider than it was tall, pierced from below by an unfletched arrow or spear. Lee’s eyes widened at that. 
Oh, really?
she said to Gelert via their Palmerrand link, for the sign was that of the Alfen 
Miraha
, the executive body comprised of the Grand Council, the Survivor Lords, and the Elf-King.

Not what she was expecting, I take it
, Gelert said. 
Apparently the unexpected annoys her.

Lee thought of the woman’s expression yesterday. 
That’s not exactly news.
 She was still worrying at the questions raised by dil’Hemrev’s reaction yesterday. The Alfen had to know perfectly well that Lee was a Seeing psychoforensicist. So why should dil’Hemrev then have been surprised that she’d Seen the mountains? And since the mountains had been gone again, this morning, why should she now be trying to get Lee to admit that she’d Seen them?

…And again, if I wasn’t meant to See those mountains, why were we given a suite on that side of
 
the building, where I wouldn’t have any choice about Seeing them if I could? Unless someone
counted
on
 
me Seeing them. …Unless I
was
meant to See them. Meant to be
noticed
Seeing them.

By whom?…

They climbed up into the craft, found seats. Lee took a window seat behind Mellie Hopkins, but just as Gelert was about to slip into the same row and jump up on the seat beside her, dil’Hemrev sidestepped him and gracefully sat down there herself. Gelert flicked one ear at Lee, and went around to the next row behind. As the craft lifted, again in silence, dil’Hemrev turned to Lee, and said, “I’m sorry I didn’t have a chance to talk to you after the group outing yesterday. We’ve been remiss, it seems.”

Lee was uncertain just how to take this, but also intent on giving dil’Hemrev no leads to pursue. “I’m sure you’ve been very busy…”

The craft angled out over the sea, gaining altitude, then turned inland again, still gaining height and speed; Ys dropped away behind, more and more quickly, becoming indistinct under the scattered morning cloud. “Not so busy that we would willingly pay less than full attention to our guests’ security,” dil’Hemrev said, sounding apologetic. “We’ve had a rather angry communication from the LA Police Department this morning, wanting information on what personal protection we’ve assigned you. They’re very concerned for your safety, and so naturally we are, too.”

The second part of this, she had been expecting… but the first part took Lee by surprise. 
Assuming it’s
 
true…
 “It’s certainly nothing I’ve asked them to act on,” Lee said. “I’m convinced the break-in at my house was a one-off, and the extra security was probably unnecessary…  certainly after the damage to the house was repaired, anyway. And as for security here, I very much doubt that common thieves or housebreakers are going to have managed to follow me into Alfheim.” She smiled at dil’Hemrev. “I’m sure the security arrangements you have in place for the group as a whole will be more than adequate to keep me safe.”

“All the same,” dil’Hemrev said, “I’m not sure we would feel comfortable with going against the express wishes of the organization which employs you. If we—”

“I’m sorry,” Lee said gently, “but there’s some misunderstanding here. I’ll grant you the situation is complex; possibly there’s no equivalent structure in Alfen law inducement. I’m not an employee of the LAPD: I’m an independent contractor. If anything, I employ 
them
, from time to time, with an eye to the furtherance of Justice, Whom I serve. I understand their concern, on their own ground; but here it’s almost certainly unnecessary.”

“Ms. Enfield,” dil’Hemrev said, “I’m sorry too, but I find myself in a position where I must insist—”

“I don’t like to cause you trouble,” Lee said, a flat lie for which she would have to make recompense later. “But if you do insist, then perhaps matters will be most simply handled if as soon as we set down, I make arrangements to be returned to Ellay. I’m sure the Security Council’s oversight committee will understand when I explain the circumstances to them.”

That
 produced a brief silence during which Lee concentrated on looking guileless and watching dil’Hemrev’s face as mildly as if there was nothing unusual to be seen there at all. The Alfen woman did her best to keep her expression serene, but wasn’t entirely successful. Lee knew what she was thinking: that any departure of a member of the investigative committee at this point would be looked upon most suspiciously, as possibly involving some kind of coercion… and Lee’s side of the story, suggesting that the Alfen were trying to impose personal surveillance on her against her will, would only serve to reinforce that suspicion back home.

“I’ll have to tell my superiors, then, that you’ve refused protection,” dil’Hemrev said.

The alarm already growing in the back of Lee’s mind suddenly gathered itself into an entirely different shape. But she was not going to let that show. “I’d appreciate it if you’d do that,” Lee said.

Dil’Hemrev got up with a smile and a nod, and headed away to sit down by Per Olafssen, beginning to chat with him as if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened. Lee spent the next few moments looking out the window as the craft ascended farther and farther above the clouds, beginning to shudder ever so slightly as it accelerated. The thought of dil’Hemrev’s expression as this craft had landed was again on her mind. 
Not at all what she was expecting…
 And dil’Hemrev was ExAff, Mellie Hopkins had said.

There’s a tendency for us to think of Alfen as if they all had the same agendas and all answered to
 
the same authorities. And maybe it serves their purposes to have us think that.
 But Lee was now beginning to suspect what she should have realized long ago; that there were factions among them, and infighting, just as among any other kind of hominid. 
And spotting the sigil of the
 Miraha 
on this ship
 
threw her off balance somehow. Was our group being covertly ‘sponsored’ by one group, one
 
governmental agency, for one set of purposes, until another one coopted us? One higher up?…

She felt the slight thump as someone sat down in the seat next to her, and across the bottom of her vision, the characters ran by: 
That was a bluff that could have gone fairly wrong…

She didn’t turn to look at Gelert right away. 
It didn’t, though. Now all we have to worry about is
 
who’s going to attack me here, and how…

She didn’t actually threaten you, did she??

Oh, no
, Lee said. 
She was the one who felt threatened, if I’m any judge. But she does think
 
something’s going to happen to us, or to me. They’re trying to cover themselves. But at the same
 
time, she thinks something’s gone wrong—

They both started, then, as the craft shook with the characteristic double bang of a vessel going hypersonic; and Lee looked at Gelert, smiling slightly at his nervousness, and her own. But beyond that, she didn’t feel much like smiling. 
I think we’re caught in the middle of some kind of obscure protocol
 
fight,
 Lee said. 
If I’m reading the signs right, ExAff was supposed to be in charge of our group…until suddenly the
 Miraha 
took an interest.

I would have thought the
 Miraha 
would have been interested from the beginning
, Gelert said. 
But
 
what do I know? Meanwhile, there could be other possible readings, Lee. Herself only knows what
 
the internal political situation here is like at the moment. The Alfen are pretty closemouthed
 
about their government departments’ interrelationships…

I suspect they’re relying on our ignorance
, Lee said. 
Well, we’ll see what we can do to remedy that
 
over the next few days. And in the meantime, no matter what they may intend to try, I didn’t
 
want some Alfen version of Larry sleeping across our threshold.

“Well, we’ve got half an hour or so before we get there, I believe,” Gelert said. “Coffee?”

Lee turned to see one of the craft’s Alfen staff standing by their seats with a tray, and noted in passing the 
Miraha
‘s insignia on the man’s one-piece uniform. “Xoco if you have it,” Lee said.

“Certainly, Ms. Enfield. A moment. 
Lhei’madra?
 ”

“Water would be fine. Still, please; at altitude the bubbles give me trouble.”

The Alfen walked away. Lee looked at him idly as he went; he was as usual too handsome to be believed, as well as tall, radiantly blond, big-shouldered and narrow-waisted, though not too much so—a wrestler’s build. 
What I want to know is, where in that uniform could he be hiding a weapon?

Gelert caught her look. “In the market for a ‘professional boyfriend’?” he said, pulling his grin wider than usual.

Lee shook her head. 
Not an Alfen one
, she said silently down their link.

You sure? He might look decorative sleeping across the threshold.

“Gelert…!”

Their drinks arrived. Lee took her xoco and tasted it cautiously; she had no confidence in the food here anymore, not after that piece of fruit back in the hotel, and she didn’t want to be taken by surprise. “It would make Matt crazy,” Gelert said, bending his head to the bowl that had been put on the side tray for him.

“Matt,” Lee said under her breath. “Please don’t mention him right now.” She was wondering how she was going to find out anything useful at all if the Alfen kept hauling them from place to place before she had a chance to look hard at anything. 
How did I let you inveigle me into this, Matt? I swear, when
 
we get home, I’m going to take it out of your hide …

The problem was, she knew she wouldn’t There were too many memories of him lying back against the pillows in the early morning, lazy, smiling tenderly at her…

Lee cursed herself inwardly and looked south out the window, ahead of them, toward the very slight curvature of the earth that concealed their destination.