The Cause of Death (28 page)

The idea of a nighttime meeting in a warehouse had instantly summoned a thousand positively ancient cliches into Jamie's mind. The decrepit old structure at midnight full of dark, hulking, abandoned machinery. Broken windows, the sound of water dripping from some leaking pipe that was hidden in the shadows.

The reality was a meeting that started right after dinnertime in a clean, well-lighted, well-maintained building. They were in a large, high-ceilinged warehouse space that took up nearly all of its interior. A small windowless office space had been built against one wall of the main room, and its one door stood slightly ajar.

It was clear why their meeting place had to be in so large a building: The warehouse was where the Stannlar lived when they were in town, and, after all, Stannlar were big.

Jamie found himself wishing he could have taken the time to savor the moment, the experience of seeing two Stannlar right in front of him. Few humans ever saw even one. And in a sense he was seeing more than two--for there seemed to be a constant stream of components of all sorts emerging from their Consortia, going off on various errands, then reentering the Stannlars' main bodies--and, unless Jamie wasn't keeping track of their movements as well as he thought, a few of the little starfish-shaped ones were shuttling back and forth
between
the two main bodies of the Consortia. It was a disconcerting sight.

He shifted his attention to the Hertzmanns. Georg Hertzmann--tall and handsome, with a studiously neutral, even stoic expression on his face. Even to Jamie's eyes, he seemed awfully young to be at the center of all this. And if Hertzmann had been found guilty of treason, why the devil was he allowed to attend secret meetings at night?

How could Hannah and he possibly accept that any human being could be found guilty of
not
committing a murder, then witness his execution, and finally return to Center as if nothing had happened? No. The best interests of the human race included protecting its honor, and to leave Georg Hertzmann to that fate would heap dishonor on all humanity. And Caldon Saffeer ascending to the Thelmship would not likely be good for Reqwar or human involvement on Reqwar.

Jamie glanced over at Hertzmann's wife, Marta Hertzmann. Her expression was defensive, defiant, angry--and she was doing a completely hopeless job of hiding her own fear. How exactly did she fit into things?

"Before we go any further," Hannah said, speaking in Lesser Trade Speech, "we have to tell you that the Thelek knows everything." She quickly described their meeting with Saffeer and Brox, and how accurately the High Thelek had predicted what would happen next. No one around the table seemed particularly surprised by any of it.

"You can bet it's that Kendari Inquirist," Zahida said. "Brox is good. He's very good, and he's developed a lot of contacts--and my guess is he's also just done a lot of good research work."

"I also have to say they had listening devices in our room," Jamie said dourly. "We tried to be careful--we
were
careful--but it's at least possible we gave them some sort of lead, enough for a really good Inquirist to work with."

Hannah laughed bitterly. "I don't see how we could have, given how little we knew--how little we still know--about what's going on."

"That was a large part of the decision not to brief you immediately," said Zahida. "There seemed no point in giving Brox more material to work from."

"But the bugging, the surveillance, is at an end now," said Cinnabex.

"You put that much faith in the Thelek's promises?" Hannah asked in surprise.

"Hardly," Allabex said. "We put our faith in Stannlar jamming equipment." She extended a pair of pseudopods toward the BSI agents. Jamie took what appeared to be a featureless golden coin about three centimeters across. Hannah received a similar coin. "Keep those about your person. Ingest them, tape them to your torsos, wear them as pendants, implant them. Do so however you wish, but keep them close to you, and they will ensure that, whatever device the Kendari or the Thelek's people point at you, it will fail to pick up anything."

"Never mind about the ingesting part," Georg said with a small flash of humor. "I keep having to remind Allabex that things like that might work for Stannlar, but not for humans. I keep mine in here," he said, patting the breast pocket of his tunic, "and it works just fine."

Jamie realized that, somehow, a line had been drawn, sides had been picked, and everyone here was simply assuming the BSI agents were on their side. It might even be true. And while he was entirely prepared to believe that the Stannlar coins would block any Kendari bugging, he was going to assume until it could be proved otherwise that the gadgets would also serve as convenient listening devices for the Stannlar themselves. So long as he didn't say anything he didn't care about the Stannlar twins hearing, it wouldn't matter.

Hannah pocketed her coin with a smile, then got down to business. "Before we go any further--or anywhere at all--my partner and I need to know more. A lot more. We've been getting bits and pieces of the situation. We need someone to start at the beginning and explain what is going on around here."

Marta Hertzmann opened her mouth to speak, and Zahida did the same, but it was Cinnabex who spoke first, cutting off the other two in deferential tones. "Perhaps it would be best if this were explained by one outsider to another," she suggested. "Georg has already told us he would prefer to let someone else do the talking on this point. Marta, of course, has strong emotions about the case, which might make it difficult for her to explain things with enough objectivity. Lady Zahida is also quite close to the situation, both in terms of the politics, and, forgive me, in terms of the ah, biology. I mean no offense."

Zahida shrugged, imitating the human gesture, and sat again. "I am not offended. It might even do some good for me to hear a xeno perspective on this."

"Go ahead if you want to," Marta said, in far less gracious tones, and took her own seat again.

"Excellent," said Cinnabex. She turned back to Hannah and Jamie. "I suggest we start with the
biological
background to the problem. Georg has remarked to me more than once that humans and Pavlat are almost
too
similar in outward appearance, similar enough that all parties constantly make the mistake of assuming that the two are more alike than they are."

Cinnabex nodded to Allabex. "My split-clone and I are convinced that the primary cultural difference is rooted in a few seemingly trivial biological differences, most especially that regarding the birth ratio between males and females."

"What in the stars could
that
have to do with my husband facing execution for not committing murder?" Marta demanded.

"Stannlar like to take the long view of things," Georg said evenly.

"There's taking the long view--and there's going too far," Marta replied in a half mutter.

Cinnabex went on smoothly. "Birth ratio, we believe, has everything to do with Georg's predicament. Both species usually have one birth per pregnancy, and pregnancies are usually widely spaced. However, there are differences. In human births, males and females are born in roughly a fifty-fifty ratio. Of equal significance, the life expectancy between various human populations varies widely, but, within each population, there is an all-but-inviolate rule: No matter what the average life span for the overall population, women on average live slightly longer than men. One other feature of human biology is of interest. Humans can suffer mental deterioration due to age--and this affects both sexes in more or less similar numbers. However, this is the exception, not the rule. It is quite common for old men and women to retain clear minds and sharp memories until death."

That
not particularly fascinating bit of news had Zahida sitting bolt upright. Glancing at her, Jamie sensed that they were on the edge of something big, something at the center of it all.

"I should emphasize that in all this I speak in generalities, and there are exceptions to all these statements." Cinnabex paused, and swiveled her forward eye pair about the room. "But consider how profoundly a change, even a slight one, in any of these biological facts would have altered human cultural and political development. If women outnumbered men five to one, would marriage customs be the same? Would the common tradition of the eldest son inheriting all power, wealth, and property on the death of the father have developed if male births were rarer, or if males lived half as long as females?"

"Wait a moment. Did you say the eldest son inherits power
and
property?" Zahida asked. "What do the daughters get?"

"Basically, nothing, under those rules," said Hannah. "But it only really mattered back when most countries were ruled directly by kings. They aren't, anymore."

"But Reqwar is," said Jamie. "What is the Thelm, if not a king?"

"That is a key and vital point," said Cinnabex. "But I call upon my split-clone, Allabex, to speak of the Reqwar Pavlat."

Cinnabex settled back, while Allabex raised herself up a bit, and directed her speech generators, forward eyes, and main ears at the assembly.

"Thank you, Cinnabex," said Allabex. "The prime thing," she began, "is to remember we talk of the
Reqwar
Pavlat, the Pavlat that inhabit this world of Reqwar. Genetically, they are virtually indistinguishable from the Pavlat of other worlds. Culturally--forgive me, Lady Zahida, but they are throwbacks."

"Believe me, I know that much," said Zahida. "That's why I left here in the first place--and why I wasn't too happy when the family said they needed me to come back."

"Very good. Your attitude means I won't have to try so hard to be polite about things. As Cinnabex said, both cultures have a lot of traditions and ways of doing things that can be traced back to pretechnological times. Reqwar was founded, a very long time ago, by Pavlat who wanted to go
back
to the old ways, even pretechnological ways. They banned certain technologies--including certain types of medical assistance and pretty much all forms of genetic engineering. That's the main reason for Cinnabex's, Georg's, Marta's, and my coming here, of course. The Reqwar Pavlat don't know how to restore their ecosystem, so we're here to do it for them."

Allabex looked around the table. "There are also bans on quite straightforward and simple medical processes that are used on other Pavlat worlds to, shall we say, adjust the natural state of affairs."

"You hear that phrase a lot on Reqwar," Zahida said bitterly. "The 'natural state of affairs.' As if being natural was always for the best. A good many deadly poisons are entirely natural."

"So they are," said Allabex absently. "But the point is that, the technical and cultural adjustments made on most Pavlat worlds were long since undone on Reqwar."

"Can someone explain how that plays into the current situation?" Jamie asked.

"No problem," Zahida said bitterly. She held up one hand, extended both thumbs, and counted on three of the four remaining fingers. "There are three big effects of banning modern medicine. One, male births are about three times as common as female births. Two, males live about fifty percent longer than females, if you don't count violent deaths and accidents, which kill off a large fraction of young males. And three, without treatment, males that live past about one hundred and twenty Pavlat years always go senile, in a very slow and gradual way. Females never go senile."

"A very clear summing-up," said Allabex. "There are simple medical procedures to select gender before birth, to extend the lives of females, and to prevent the onset of senility. All three processes are listed in the large number of illegal medical procedures on Reqwar. They are not practiced at all in the general population here.

"However, any basic statistical analysis of the upper orders, the nobility, on Pavlat makes it plain that both female life extension and male senility prevention must be quite common, though done very quietly. You will find that both male and female members of the upper classes are often very cautious about revealing their ages--for fear that they will be accused of using proscribed medical practices."

Jamie mentally reviewed his briefing materials, and noted that the current Thelm was something like 130 Pavlat years old. No one, of course, would ever admit it, but the inescapable conclusion was that he must have been taking antisenility treatments.
Maybe he's even been taking them without knowing it, because he doesn't want to know. Maybe some ultraloyalist in the kitchen has been putting the treatment in his whrenseed tea without telling him. It would be awfully convenient to keep oneself ignorant about a thing like that.

Allabex spoke. "Any analysis of human traditions concerning ascension to power and inheritance will show the rules are not meant to protect individuals, but to preserve property and power, and retain them in the family. The Reqwar Pavlat rules are quite different, but have the same effect. There is a surplus of males. Even among the ruling families, they are treated as 'cannon fodder,' to use an unpleasant term. There are endless border squabbles, turf wars, incursions, raids, and so on between the various ministates that aren't supposed to exist, but do. There is a great deal of banditry in the rural areas, and the battles against the bandits produce a more or less constant level of casualties on both sides. Young males are expected to show bravado and daring, to demonstrate their manhood and courage by seeking out dangerous sports and activities. The accident that wiped out the Thelm's sons by birth was by no means unusual. Dueling is popular."

"And females are rare and precious jewels," Zahida said with heavy sarcasm. "My brothers were all expected to go out and get themselves slaughtered in the grand old style to thin the herd. I was supposed to stay home and wait for my marriage to be arranged. I got tired of waiting. I left." She looked around the room defiantly. "I went to lots of places, including Pavlat worlds where they perform a variety of female life extension treatments, most of which leave no medical trace, aside from your not dying early. But there are laws about that here, as Allabex has said. So I won't say more.