The Commonwealth Saga 2-Book Bundle (193 page)

They turned off the ring road onto a dirt track that led away into the hills above the town beyond the fusion stations. He actually enjoyed sitting behind the wheel, driving manually. There were no real roads on the planet outside the town and its sprawling grid of industrial buildings. All the tracks out here had been made by residents taking off to explore. Mark turned left at the first fork, then right, following a route he’d been told about. The Ford’s tires churned up a lot of dust, deepening the wheel ruts.

After an hour they came to the tarn. The sand had given way to naked rock kilometers earlier. All around them were the steep rolling slopes of the interlocking mountaintops. There were no streambeds, or erosion gullies; the planet hadn’t had an atmosphere long enough to begin features like that, although rain was busy washing regolith sand down into the lowlands. From there it was creeping steadily into the shallow oceans. Up here, water trickled over the undulations in unbroken sheets until it found basins and nooks to collect in. The tarn was a long oval shape, with water up to its brim. When the rains came it overflowed into a sharp cleft of black granite at the eastern end.

“It’s so clear,” Barry exclaimed as they stood at the edge. Apart from small ripples reflecting the velvet sky there was no movement. They could see the rough rock bottom sloping away toward the center. “Just like the Trine’ba,” he said with a smile.

“Almost,” Liz agreed. “Come on, let’s go get changed.”

The four of them waded in, gasping at how cold the tarn was. Their voices echoed cleanly through the mountain air, bouncing off the high rumpled inclines around them.

“I miss the fish,” Sandy confessed as she swam cautiously farther out from the shore. Mark had insisted she wear inflatable wings on the back of her suit. For once she didn’t argue.

“No fish, no algae,” he said to Liz. It was strange; he normally associated water with life, while this was the complete opposite.

“It’ll come,” she said. “Every time someone comes swimming up here they leave bacteria behind. In a hundred years this tarn will be a proper little vat, the planet’s biggest natural petri dish, leaking its new bugs out across the landscape every time it rains.”

“We always leave our mark, don’t we?”

“Just about. I guess it’s evolution on a galactic scale. A planet that produces life smart enough to figure out star travel will spread its DNA across the stars. And evolution is one tough battleground.”

“That sounds like the Gaia hypothesis.”

“Taken to the extreme, I suppose it is. I wonder if the Primes recognize it at an instinctive level. They were certainly keen to alienform Elan. Remember those images Morton recorded of the biorefinery they built on the edge of Randtown?”

“So whoever built the barriers knew that, too?”

“Yeah. A stellar-sized rabbit-proof fence, like the one they built in Australia once the immigration started. And along we came with the bolt cutters. Damn, we’re dumb. Maybe this is evolution’s way of telling us we’re obsolete.”

Mark stood on the slippery rock, and started to wade out. “We’re not dumb, we’re principled. I’m proud of that, of what we are collectively.”

“Hope you’re right, baby.” Liz waded out beside him, and hurriedly wrapped a big towel around herself. “Five minutes, you two,” she called out to the children. They were several meters offshore now, splashing about with Panda. Barry waved back.

“Here.” Mark twisted the tabs on a couple of hot chocolate cans, and handed her one as it began to steam.

“Thanks.” She gave him a quick kiss.

“They’re moving me,” he said tersely.

“Moving you where?”

“To a different part of the project.” He looked up. One of the spaceflower moons was gliding up over the horizon. Even now, the massive gigalife gave him a thrill. To think that there was a society out there that could afford to produce such things just for the sheer fun of it. That was inspiring. The kind of endeavor that a new human civilization should strive for, rather than the constant commercial rat race the Commonwealth pursued and worshiped.

“What do you mean?” There was a hint of steel in her voice.

“It’s not just lifeboats the Dynasty is building up there. A fleet that big traveling through space we know nothing about … it needs protection, Liz.”

“Oh, Jesus,” Liz spat in contempt. “I might have known: they’re building warships.”

“Frigates, yeah. It’s a new design, smaller and faster than the
Moscow
-class. There’s something different about the drive, as well. I don’t know what. And nobody will talk about the weapons it carries.”

“No kidding. So what did you tell them?”

Mark took a long drink of the hot chocolate, marshaling his thoughts. He always hated it when they had an argument. For a start she was so much better at it than he was. “This isn’t the kind of job you get to choose assignments. We both knew that.”

“All right,” she said. “I guess not. I just don’t like the idea of you working on weapons.”

“I’m not. It’s the assembly system they want to get up and running. They’re using a different method than on the lifeboats, with their preassembled sections. The frigate assembly bays are combined with the station dockyard. Individual components are shipped in directly and integrated up in orbit.”

“Whoopee, another great technological step forward.”

“Liz,” he said accusingly. “We’re at war. From what I hear, we might not win. We really might not.”

She sat on a big boulder, and looked forlornly at the can in her hands. “I know. I’m sorry I’m being a bitch. I just … I feel so helpless.”

“Hey.” He went over and put his arm around her shoulder. “I’m the one who needs you to support me, remember, that was the deal.”

She grinned weakly up at him, squeezing his hand. “That was never the deal, baby.”

“So, are you cool with this?”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Thanks, that means everything, you know that.”

Liz pulled him closer. “I’m so glad I’ve got you. I wouldn’t want to be with anyone else right now.”

“Well, I couldn’t face this without you.” He gestured at the kids. “And them. But the frigates are as far as we can go. We’ve been running ever since we got back from Elan. No farther. There won’t be any more surprises for us.”

“I hope you’re right, baby. I really do.”

The shower nozzles pumped water out at a velocity that pummeled Mellanie’s skin almost to the point of being painful. She didn’t even have to turn around; the water came at her from all sides, the nozzles sweeping up and down. Foam ran down her body as scented soap was mixed in by the management array. Cooler water flushed it away, its temperature invigorating her after the luxuriant heat. The water turned off, and warm dry air gushed out of vents all around the big marbled cubical, snatching the moisture away from her skin and blowing her hair about.

She wrapped a huge purple and cream towel around herself and went back out into the office suite’s bedroom. Michelangelo was still lying on the big bed. He watched her lazily as she began getting dressed.

“Damn, I’m glad you defected from Baron,” he said. “You’d be wasted on her, she’s a cold bitch.”

Mellanie flashed him a naughty grin. “Whereas we have a deep and meaningful relationship.”

“You’re good in bed. We both know that. A real turn-on.”

“You’re a good teacher.”

“Yeah?”

It was almost as if he were the bashful one, seeking reassurance. “I keep coming back, don’t I?” she said. “And we both know I’m doing well enough for the show that I don’t actually have to anymore. But I like it, I like it a lot.”

There was a growling sound from the bed. He rolled off the mattress and pushed his long highlighted hair back. Mellanie couldn’t help the way her eyes lingered on his body. It was like a youthful Apollo had returned to walk among the mortals once more.

“Hell … I don’t understand you,” he complained. “What is it you really want?”

She grinned as she struggled into her asymmetric top. “Your job.”

“You know ordinarily if some intern your age said that I’d just laugh it off as pitifully naïve. But with you it’s truly not funny.”

“Be careful whose face you tread on today, because it could be the one you’re fetching coffee for tomorrow.”

“Duly noted.”

“Admit it, I did good on the lifeboat story, didn’t I?”

“I’ve never seen a senior Halgarth so defensive. Congratulations.”

“Black, one sugar.”

“You’re not that good,” he said with a scowl. “Not yet.”

“I know. I want to get the Sheldon lifeboats. Now that would be a real break while we all wait for the starships to come back from Hell’s Gateway.”

He gave her a pensive look. “How’s the other big story coming on?”

“The New York finance scandal?” she said with a sigh. “Not so hot. The leads are all dead and cold. Besides, the authorities are showing an interest. Where’s the impact of breaking something the rest of the pack all know about? Exclusivity is our goal and god, as you so rightly told me when I started here. See, I haven’t forgotten.”

“Yeah.” He nodded slowly.

“What?” She knew that reluctance; he hated giving away any advantage.

“Please?”

“All right, quick tutorial, you’re not thinking this problem through properly. You’re trying to track down three fairly successful lawyers who’ve been involved in some dodgy finance deals, right?”

“Yes.” She wasn’t telling anyone on the show about the Starflyer. Not yet.
That
would land her a show of her own, probably a studio of her own.

“You’re trying to chase after them. Wrong. That’s what the police will be doing; but they’re fugitives, they’ll be ready for that and take care to cover their tracks. Any decent hunter will come at their prey from the direction they least expect. So what you should have done is ask where would they go.” He gave her an expectant look.

“A crime syndicate that can protect them?”

“Close. You need a place where you can change your identity completely. And I don’t just mean some decent data registry alterations, a memory erasure, and a new face. If they’ve ripped off as much as you say they have, the Financial Regulation Directorate will chase them right across the Commonwealth for the next ten centuries. They need to be free to fritter away their new wealth in perfect safety without spending the rest of their lives looking over their shoulder. For that you need a lot more than a bit of cellular reprofiling. Their DNA will be on record, the FRD will always be able to identify them. So the thing they need above all else is a baseline DNA modification.”

“What’s that?”

“Damn, I never know if you’re taking the piss or not. That is a treatment similar to rejuvenation, when the clinic alters your DNA in every cell. Permanently. The person who comes out of the tank is literally not the same person who went in. Once you’ve had that done, along with your new birth certification, a decent back history, and all your desourced money, you’re home free. You can live where you want, even next door to your old family, and they’ll never know.”

“Where would they go for that?”

“Unless you own your own biogenetic medical facility, there’s only one place: Illuminatus. There’s a lot of very specialized, ultra-discreet clinics there which offer such a service.”

“I need to go there.”

“I just knew you’d say that. Even if you did, you haven’t got a clue where the clinics are. They don’t exactly advertise on the unisphere.”

“I’ll find them.”

Michelangelo gave an extravagant sigh. “One week ago, three people checked in to the Saffron Clinic on Allwyn Street, two men, one woman. I don’t know their names, but the time frame fits.” He gave a diffident moue. “I have contacts. I am still
numero uno
here, please remember.”

“Thank you,” she said sincerely.

“Mellanie, take care, Illuminatus isn’t the safest place in the Commonwealth.”

Ozzie woke up as slim beams of bright sunlight slid across his face. He grunted in dismay at the awakening. Yesterday’s disappointment was still churning through his mind, making him listless. It was snug inside the sleeping bag, and he could feel cool air on his face. Getting up was an effort.