The Credulity Nexus (38 page)
Read The Credulity Nexus Online
Authors: Graham Storrs
Tags: #fbi, #cia, #robot, #space, #london, #space station, #la, #moon, #mi6, #berlin, #transhuman, #mi5, #lunar colony, #credulity, #gene nexus, #space bridge
“
How are you doing?” she asked, glancing at
the sling on his left arm.
“
Torn ligaments. A bit of bruising. They
put a nerve damper in my shoulder and it feels just fine
now.”
Best of all,
they'd had a surgical bot do a quick repair on Rik's cogplus, and
the headaches that had plagued him were completely gone. The
technician who had supervised the work, handed Rik a tiny biochip
afterwards and said, “That was piggybacking your implant. Someone
gave you those headaches on purpose.” Rik could only marvel at how
thorough Cordell's people had been. If you wanted your dupe too
distracted to think straight, a migraine did the job just fine.
Maria said, “I
just came over to say goodbye. I'm catching the four o'clock
gondola to Partway.”
“
I heard from Burleigh,” Rik said. “He was
in here a while ago. Said you were all square with the
FBI.”
Maria smiled.
“The UN seems to have some clout, even with the CIA. I think the
British Government was involved in sorting things out somehow too.
Your friend, Fariba?” She looked at Rik oddly, as if she were
trying to read his reaction. “I like her. She's... tough.”
Rik took her
hand. It was long-boned, fine and delicate. “I didn't mean to get
you mixed up in this, but I'm glad you were. I mean, if you'd been
at home when Lanham's people came, I don't know how I'd have lived
with it. I'm sorry about your boyfriend too.” He felt a sharp pang
of remorse. He had done so much damage to this woman. “I owe you
for so many things. I made a big mistake when I...” He stopped
himself. He had almost said, “When I married you.” It was true, but
he didn't want to say it like that. Despite everything, he would
never regret knowing Maria.
She seemed to
understand his difficulty, because she smiled again and said,
“Yeah, I've thought about it a lot, too. Time we both grew up and
moved on.” She squeezed his hand and then withdrew hers.
“
Maria–” He wasn't sure what he'd been
about to say, but her eyes were full of kindness and acceptance,
and it stopped him dead. It was over. Properly, truly over. And he
knew he wouldn't pine over her the way he had done for so long. A
wonderful lightness filled him, and he smiled back at
her.
“
Let me know how you are from time to
time,” he said. “And check your bank balance when you get a chance.
I decided Lanham owed you a service fee for finding the package and
delivering it, and since I had control of Lanham's funds for a
while back there...”
Maria gave him
a puzzled smile. “As long as it covers the trip here,” she said.
“Flying to the Moon is not exactly cheap.”
“
It should be enough.”
She leaned
close and kissed his cheek. “Goodbye, Rik. Look after
yourself.”
“
You too.”
-oOo-
Rik found
Freymann in a makeshift treatment room, arguing with a red-faced
nurse. He waited politely in the background while the MI6 agent
finished explaining what she planned to do with the man's medical
scanner if he didn't get out of her goddam way and let her
leave.
The nurse
finally gave up and stomped off to find more grateful patients,
leaving Freymann to notice Rik at last.
“
That dress has seen better days,” he said,
referring to the torn and filthy rag she had on that had once been
such a lovely, gauzy confection.
“
She's dead now,” Freymann said. “Vicki. Do
you think she knew they planned to destroy themselves like
that?”
Rik said nothing.
The Phenomenon of Man
had hit the ground fifty
kilometres from Heinlein with the force of a large nuke. A small
amount of debris had rained down on the town itself, but there had
been only minor damage to a few surface buildings. No-one was
injured. No-one had died.
“
What happened up there?” she asked.
“Between you and Burleigh? I heard a gunshot.” Rik didn't reply.
Burleigh's last-minute ethical issues were between the two of them.
“He told me he was heading Earthside for a funeral.”
“
It's a long story, for some other time.
But we're good. We worked things out. And he's in sweet with his
bosses again, now that they've bothered to get the story straight.
He's been a big help cleaning up the mess I was in. I gather you've
been helping out there, too.”
“
What could I do? They were going to throw
you in the slammer for the next thousand years until I explained
you were working undercover for Six. Our mutual friend Mr. Shah
backed up the story. So did my section head. There's a feeling that
if you wanted a proper job, they wouldn't be completely against the
idea of putting you on the payroll.”
Rik grinned
and offered Freymann his arm. “Do you fancy a coffee? I've got a
counter offer, but I've had enough of this place. You OK to
walk?”
Her right leg
was in a cast from knee to toes, and her right arm was in a sling
that matched Rik's. She slid her good arm into his. “I'd crawl if I
had to. Just get me out of here.”
They found a
café out in the street. People stared at the tattered and bandaged
couple, looking away quickly when either of them noticed.
“
Oh, that's good!” Rik sipped his
cappuccino and closed his eyes.
“
So tell me about your counter-offer. If
you're looking for a barmaid for that flea-pit of yours, forget
it.”
“
The Harsh Mistress is a fine
establishment. Or it will be, when the new owner completes the
repairs.”
“
You've sold it!”
Rik was
enjoying himself. “I gave it away. To Veb. He was pretty
surprised.”
“
You–” For a moment, Freymann was
speechless. “What are you planning to live on? I've seen your file,
remember? The gumshoe business up here isn't exactly flourishing.
You only got by at all because you lived at the bar and your wives
fed and clothed you.”
“
I've come into a little money.” She
waited, open mouthed, so he went on. “While I still had control of
Lanham's account, I paid myself for my services. I added a little
danger money.”
“
OK, so you got paid. I still don't see
how-”
“
I gave you a consultancy fee too. And Veb.
You should check your account, to be sure it's all
there.”
The glaze in
Freymann's eyes told him she was doing just that. A moment later,
she was wide-eyed and open mouthed again. “Holy shit,” she
said.
“
I hope it's enough. I don't have access to
Lanham's dough any more.”
“
It's...”
Speechless
again. Rik laughed with delight. “I know. It's a fortune. We're all
set up for life. You, me, Veb, Maria.” Then his smile fell. “I put
money in Brie's account too. You heard that Blake didn't make it?”
He couldn't say it yet without the pain of it clutching at his
throat. He pushed past it. “Brie will hate me for it, but she won't
refuse it. She's... practical about these things.”
Freymann said
nothing for a long time, long enough that Rik began to feel
nervous. He'd been so pleased with himself, but Fariba's silence
was making him wonder if maybe he'd made some kind of mistake.
When she
finally spoke, it was to ask, “When did you do all this? Does
Lanham know?”
“
I did it as soon as the ship crashed. I
was in a pretty shitty mood. I sent him a message to say I was
putting right some of the wrongs he'd done. He sent back just two
words before he cut off the funds. He said, “Smart move.” It's all
small change to him. The ship he wasted trying to bomb us was worth
a lot more than I took. Even Rivers and her fancy nuclear plumbing
would be worth more. It's just small beer when the stakes are as
high as he thought they were.
“
Speaking of Rivers, I lost track of her in
all the craziness. So did Burleigh. And Veb won't say. Any idea
where she went?”
“
None at all. It's not like my guys have a
field office here.”
“
Probably gone back to Earth to build the
criminal empire of her dreams.”
“
That's where I'm going too,” Freymann
said.
Rik nodded.
He'd guessed as much. “That's what I wanted to talk to you
about.”
“
Rik, I know we–”
He held up a
hand to stop her. “It's kind of different, when the adrenaline's up
and there are people trying to kill you. People get close real
fast. Closer than they would under normal circumstances. You know
what I mean?”
Freymann
nodded. She looked relieved. Rik went on.
“
Yeah, so I thought I'd go down to Earth
and set up a real detective agency. You know? With a sign on the
door and staff and everything, not just a table in the corner of a
bar. With all that money, it's not like I ever need to work again,
but...” He shrugged. What else was he going to do with
himself?
“
Sounds good.”
“
Yeah. LA would be a good place. I've got a
lot of contacts there. But, well...” He looked up at the tunnel
roof above them. “I've got used to living indoors, and everything
being miserable and grey. So I figured London would suit me better
these days. What do you think?”
She was
smiling, and he could have sworn she looked genuinely happy.
“London sounds just perfect,” she said.
About
the
Author
Graham
Storrs
is
a
science
fiction
writer
living
in
Queensland,
Australia.
A
former
research
scientist,
IT
consultant
and
award-winning
software
designer,
he
now
lives
and
writes
in
a
quiet
corner
of
the
Australian
bush
with
his
wife,
Christine,
an
Airedale
terrier
called
Bertie,
and a Tonkinese cat called Minsky.
His
writing
credits
include
three
children's
science
books,
and
a
great
many
magazine
articles,
academic
papers
and
book
chapters.
Since
turning
his
attention
to
writing
fiction
he
has
had
many
short
stories
published
in
a
wide
range
of
magazines
and
anthologies,
some of them in the Placid Point universe in which this novel is
set and available for free in the collection:
Placid Point
.
The Credulity Nexus
is Graham's fifth novel and the
beginning of a set of three trilogies set in the same world. The
second book in the series, another Ryk Sylver novel, is
The Sentience
Machine
.