Too Like the Lightning (70 page)

Guildbreaker:
“So it seems.”

Papadelias:
“Thirty-five deaths over seven years. The rafting accident that killed their ba'pas was five years ago, right?”

Guildbreaker:
“Correct.”

Papadelias:
“So this has to have started before that.”

Guildbreaker:
“At least two years before.”

Four minutes of reading in silence.

Papadelias:
“Hmm … You intend these as control groups?”

Guildbreaker:
“Which?”

Papadelias:
“Proportion of lethal food poisoning victims whose deaths had a detectible political impact, two point two percent; proportion of beesting deaths with a political impact, two point five percent; proportion of deaths from elevators breaking, two point three percent…”

Guildbreaker:
“Yes, control groups. I had my analyst do precisely the same analysis of these groups that they did on the car crash deaths, since it's possible that, with five degrees of separation, anyone's death can have a traceable political impact. Two percent can, it seems, but two percent is not fifty percent.”

Papadelias:
“No. No, it's not.”

Eighteen minutes of reading in silence.

Papadelias:
“Where did you get this data?”

Guildbreaker:
“Which?”

Papadelias:
“Cato's episode in January did not precede a crash, but preceded the suicide of Tipper Casterman, which pulled Haleakala Banks out of the Nurturist movement. Cato's episode in November preceded the alcohol poisoning death of Carlyle Gali, which stopped their uncle's string of inflammatory speeches against President Ganymede. Cato's episode in August preceded an unforeseen reaction to new medication which killed the infamous blackmailer Colorado Dix.”

Guildbreaker:
“Three weeks before that episode, an experiment Cato conducted in the Junior Scientist Squad lab in Chicago suggested the possibility of that very medication causing such a fatal reaction when combined with another rare drug, but Cato tried to destroy the data. I stole the files.”

Papadelias:
“You just confessed to a crime.”

Guildbreaker:
“I know.”

Papadelias:
“These deaths, these people who didn't die in crashes, they have no connection of any kind to the Saneer-Weeksbooth bash', to
Black Sakura,
to anything. What did you do, analyze every single person who died the day after one of Cato's episodes to see if any had a political impact?”

Guildbreaker:
“The two days after, yes.”

Papadelias:
“How? There must have been thousands.”

Guildbreaker:
“Tens of thousands. At first I asked the Romanovan Censor if they could do some calculations for me, but they were too busy. Their deputy Jung Su-Hyeon Ancelet Kosala was also too busy, and Toshi Mitsubishi is biased, so I asked Mycroft Canner.”

Papadelias:
“Naturally.”

Guildbreaker:
“Mycroft was also too busy, so I asked Jung Su-Hyeon to recommend someone else who could do calculations on this scale. They said I should hire a Cartesian set-set.”

Papadelias:
“Cartesian specifically?”

Guildbreaker:
“Cartesian specifically. They're capable of following dynamic charts with up to forty-five variables at once, so they can do the work of ten Censors, at least as far as reading data goes.”

Papadelias:
“That's the same kind of set-set Eureka Weeksbooth and Sidney Koons are, right?”

Guildbreaker:
“Yes. I hired one as the Censor recommended, and that set-set is also how I found the political connections of the car crash victims. The connections are so indirect that, on my own I would only have spotted a handful of them, but the set-set found them in a flash. All they needed was a computer system with software for tracking the relationships between all people in the world. Five such computers exist to my knowledge: the computers in the Romanovan Censor's office, the Tracker System, the Transit Computers in the Saneer-Weeksbooth bash', the identical computers at the Salekhard backup site, and the Utopian Transit System computers, which are what I used for the purpose.”

Two minutes of reading in silence.

Papadelias:
“From this report, the victims tend to be, how should one put this…”

Guildbreaker:
“Unpromising individuals.”

Papadelias:
“I was going to say ‘losers,' but that'll do. People with few friends, low-impact hobbies, and jobs which don't generate much that's used by anyone else—no artists, researchers, teachers, great industrialists, corporate leaders, athletes, or anything.”

Guildbreaker:
“Yes.”

Papadelias:
“And all the victims are either Masons, Cousins, Brillists, or Hiveless. No Humanists, no Mitsubishi, no Europeans, and, of course, no Utopians, since the Utopians have their separate transit system.”

Guildbreaker:
“Humanists, Mitsubishi, and Europeans have died in crashes on occasion, but Cato did not have episodes before those crashes, and less than two point five percent of their deaths were influential, just as in the case of beestings or elevator crashes. And they die in crashes substantially less often than Masons, Cousins, or Brillists.”

Papadelias:
“How did no one notice that before?”

Guildbreaker:
“Perhaps because there are many more Masons and Cousins anyway. Or perhaps because the entire press and media of the whole world is united in a conspiracy to conceal this. Or something in between.”

Papadelias:
“Heh. And one of them has the gall to go by ‘Sniper.'”

Guildbreaker:
“You see it, don't you?”

Papadelias:
“It's too much. I expected a small conspiracy, a couple murders, not dozens over years, thirty-five using the cars themselves, as many by other means, but Cato knew … No wonder the others wouldn't let Cato quit and become a Utopian.”

Guildbreaker:
“Yes. Yes, that was what led me to this, actually.”

Papadelias:
“Oh?”

Guildbreaker:
“Cato said, quote: ‘The Utopians aren't dirty like the rest of us.' From the point of view of someone who runs the cars, the thing which most distinguishes Utopians from everyone else is that they have their own separate system. Utopians can't be killed in crashes, and you won't find any Utopian names in the lists of people killed by other means either.”

Papadelias:
“Of course not. Anything that kills a Utopian they investigate until they solve it. If I were an assassin I'd never touch them.”

Guildbreaker:
“Exactly. Utopians don't profit from the system and they aren't targeted by it. They're untouched, ‘clean' from Cato's perspective, while the rest of the world…”

Papadelias:
“While the rest of the world has been held together by shoestrings and assassination for the past seven years.”

Guildbreaker:
“For the record, Commissioner General, would you please explain out loud the conclusion that you've come to, so a third party can compare it to my independently derived conclusion which I recorded just before I came?”

Papadelias:
“Relax, Guildbreaker. I know you're a Mason, but there are limits to how methodical you have to be.”

Guildbreaker:
“For the record.”

Papadelias:
“Fine. Since coming of age, the current generation of Saneer-Weeksbooth bash has been carrying out a series of systematic assassinations. The two Cartesian set-sets, Eureka Weeksbooth and Sidney Koons, can use the Transit System computers to figure out how to influence events by identifying low-profile people to assassinate, whose deaths won't seem suspicious but will have the desired impact. This bash', or someone controlling it, has been using these assassinations to manipulate world politics for at least seven years. They've conspicuously avoided killing any Humanists, Mitsubishi, or Europeans, either because those Hives are backing them, or just because the bash' are Humanists, they have old ties with the Mitsubishi manifest in the ancestry of Sniper, Cato, and Eureka, and … no, I have no theory about Europe at the moment. The assassins know they can't kill too many people in crashes or the sudden increase will look suspicious, so members of the bash' had to develop other ways to kill, culminating in the unfortunate Cato Weeksbooth, who's been using their scientific expertise for murder, and feels so guilty about it that they come close to attempting suicide every time. Twelve times a year for seven years makes at least eighty murders, is that about right?”

Guildbreaker:
“My set-set is still looking at earlier years.”

Papadelias:
“It's hard not to see it when you look. All it took was someone to point us at the Saneer-Weeksbooth bash' and connect it with Sugiyama through
Black Sakura
. Someone wants this exposed.”

Guildbreaker:
“Yes, that's very worrying. I still have no clue who, or why. Do you?”

Papadelias:
“Only hunches. It's best not to share hunches.”

Guildbreaker:
“May I ask a couple more details?”

Papadelias:
“Fire away.”

Guildbreaker:
“How do you account for the suicide deaths? The recording of the phone call to Aki Sugiyama proves O'Beirne was talking about wanting to kill themself, whether or not that was what actually made the car crash, and the autopsy of Esmerald Revere left no doubt that that was suicide. If you review the list of supposed victims, more than thirty percent of those who didn't die in crashes are suicides.”

Papadelias:
“Suicide is the most common cause of death. Any smart killer tries to make their murders look like suicides.”

Guildbreaker:
“Would you guess this conspiracy involves every member of the Saneer-Weeksbooth bash' or just some of them?”

Papadelias:
“No telling yet, but my gut says all. They must know Cato is the weak link; if they've involved Cato they'll have involved everyone. Plus, every member of that bash' is insane to some degree. Being a mass murderer will do that to you. So will murdering your own ba'pas when they find out.”

Guildbreaker:
“Then you agree the rafting accident was no accident?”

Papadelias:
“I investigated that myself when it happened. There was no evidence of foul play, but it always smelled fishy to me. Now we know why. This system couldn't work if the parents were against it, if nothing else the older set-sets would have figured it out sooner or later.”

Guildbreaker:
“Do you think the bash' calls the hits themselves, or are they working for someone?”

Papadelias:
“It would be wonderful, wouldn't it, if they were calling the hits themselves? Then we could jail them and have an end of it. But Ganymede sure did look worried talking to Sniper at the party. And it's been people at the top, not in the bash', above the bash', working so hard to keep me off the case. Hive leaders involved in eighty assassinations over seven years will make Mycroft's rampage look like a slow news day.”

Guildbreaker:
“Do you think Mycroft knew about this? They spend time with the Saneer-Weeksbooth bash'. A lot of time. Mycroft doesn't have spare time to spend.”

Papadelias:
“Maybe we shouldn't have switched desks after all.”

Guildbreaker:
“Mycroft's murders were thirteen years ago. We don't know yet if this goes back that far, but the kids would have been awfully young. But the Mardi murders were the most politically influential deaths in centuries.”

Papadelias:
“No, I don't … Mycroft was the mind behind … maybe. But the Mardis' deaths were too early, and too conspicuous to fit the profile. And they didn't exactly benefit the Humanists, or any Hive.”

Guildbreaker:
“Not all the deaths benefited Humanists. There are deaths here which benefited Masons, Cousins, or Gordian, many with more general benefits, to end a crisis, calm things down, anti-Mitsubishi land riots, Nurturists, all our hot spots.”

Papadelias:
“Yes. That sounds like something a lone bash' might plot. Especially if the set-sets can see these things coming. Though possibly your definition of benefit is too strict. All Hives benefit when the world is stable and the economy is strong. Given how incestuous politics is today, a death that helps the Masons short-term may be a long-term good for everyone. Ganymede recognizes that, Andō recognizes that, MASON recognizes that.”

Guildbreaker:
“Yes. Commissioner General, I've been thinking … in a larger sense, this … assassination system … it's arguably a good thing for the world. The vaguer economic influences aside, some of these murders provably saved hundreds of lives, thousands in some cases. Cumulatively many thousands. Thousands at the cost of dozens. We're not talking about a secret underbelly of mass murder here, we're talking about a secret underbelly of killing one to save ten thousand.”

Papadelias:
“Mm. Nurturism and the Mitsubishi land grab are the most volatile issues in our world right now, and a good third of these hits seem to have been designed to calm those down. If they hadn't, I wonder what those set-sets see in their numbers. What would've happened?”

ADDENDUM of Martin Guildbreaker, 05/21/2454: I feel compelled to edit myself here. It is strange rereading this history as an editor, with the fuller context adding layers to the facts. But nothing has changed more than this moment. I gave a different answer then, which I pass over here, a useless, reasonable, Mycroft might say rose-tinted answer. But now, as I reread, I hear a different answer, not in my voice, in Tully Mardi's, prefaced by Mycroft's desperate, silent plea: “Don't say it! Saladin, don't let them say it!”