02. The Shadow Dancers (41 page)

"But what, exactly, was the plot?" Basuti asked us when all had been calmed down. "I can understand motive, yes, on both their parts, but I just can't see how they were going to take control and get that substance in."

"First of all, it didn't matter to Addison-Ioyeo-or Carlos if they
did
get the substance in. They had thirty hours from their last drink of the rainbow weed pulp to get the girls in after the setup and party was all arranged and infect as many upper-class types as possible. Because of Mukasa's last embrace with loyeo, we wound up with six cases so far and maybe more. Imagine what half a dozen initial ones would have done. The cornerstone of security and the corporate classes would have been devastated before they knew what hit them. That was all Addison and Carlos wanted. The destruction. But they did have a way, and they made Brandy prove it would work by walking through."

"What? How's that?"

"Once they found the one that worked, or actually a way to get almost any normal rainbow weed to work, they gave it to both Brandys and took samples from their vaginal areas. They found live, complete viral reproductive units there. They gave them pulped but not pureed bulbs that grow on top of the stalks-the seed pods. They contain millions of tiny seeds and they are resistant to tremendous amounts of things. They are, among other things, indigestible but harmless. Only some of those fifty girls, restored to their original looks, being the correct race, would be used to spread the infection. The first, small group, only a couple, would be brought in as mistresses from the colonies under their original codes. Everyone of your race has the right to come here, at least for visits. The families are too closely interrelated. The scanners would pick up swallowed balloons, and even just clusters of foreign things where they shouldn't be. But they were not set to pick up addicts alone-a very complex process, finding one virus that you could only kill by killing the person-but only unusual things. Each of the girls would be fed till they burst with seed pods. Once away, they would be given diarrhetics. The human feces, with the seeds, would have been spread in a private greenhouse. The girls could then conveniently be discovered to be addicts in withdrawal and sent to the Center."

"Yeah," I added. "In just two or three weeks that greenhouse would be up to its armpits in rainbow weed."

"With all the alien races coming in and out and all the field people, it was impossible to scan the normal food and wastes that might show up in the scan, even if that scan showed odd material. It usually did, since people have different foods and diets," Sam pointed out. "Short of forcing everyone, regardless of race or class or what, to take an enema and have their stomach pumped, there's no way to guard against this."

"And what was the secret of the plant's missing ingredient?" Mayar asked.

"It wasn't soil, certainly, nor geographic position. The thing was a plant that converted sunlight into food without chlorophyll. It was sunlight-dependent if it didn't need much else. There are differences in the amount of solar
radiation, and the type and degree, even within one world, and they subtly vary every world away. The exact balance of the origin world was required for maximum efficiency. Any variations and it was below maximum photosynthesis. It was actually a slight excess of one of those chemicals that made the difference. You'll have to get the chemists to tell you just why it's not obviously different in analysis, but I think it's the same stuff as on the other worlds, only when it has an excess it converts it somehow into an allied chemical, and that's the one. No excess, no biochemical waste. Any good greenhouse with special lights and the exact radiation balance of the origin world can duplicate it, giving you perfect rainbow weed that will sustain this virus indefinitely."

"Yeah, and if they hadn't made two big mistakes, it'd all worked and most of this world would have been under 'em in a couple of weeks," I pointed out. "One was fallin' for the same trap y'all was in here. Things was goin' so good, and they was so dedicated and radical and ruthless they got real cocky, started doin' side deals they didn't have to do. Me, for example. They figured when I come back from Vogel's place they'd stick me under Jamispur's machines and he could restore me and program me and all the rest. But I got shot, and Sam wasn't dead, so I went to the Center instead, and I had them do it. But not all of it. I ain't never been able to have straight hair in my life and I hate cornrows with a passion. Friend of mine went
bald
wearin' them things. And we girls spend millions a year tryin' to get our complexion creamy smooth and totally even. I kept the hair and the complexion. When I finally showed up down there, I didn't look like my twin. They couldn't make no switch, so they had to nab me and hook me, too."

"Then, when they knew they were near, they got arrogant," Sam said. "They did a quickie search and recruitment for a down-and-out Sam Horowitz who was corrupt as hell. We didn't think they'd do it, but we were ready for them when they did. There aren't very many of me. I'm not sure if that's reassuring or depressing. I nailed him in the Labyrinth. I talked to him first, because I just wasn't sure I could kill myself. I forced him into an available world and we had a talk. He had Nazis and concentration camps in his
world, too. He lost the same relatives I had. It didn't bother him a bit. Not a bit. Before I knew it, I'd blown his fucking face in."

"That meant they thought they had Sam Two when they actually had Sam back home," I added. "We had a real go-round. He finally showed us that only by helpin' him did we guarantee our supply. He turned us in and our job was to press, finagle, or in some way get one or both of us to the origin world. See, that was their final and biggest mistake. More'n once they used that damned trackin' gizmo inside me for their own ends, includin' wastin' Vogel. Carlos was so busy and so sure of himself, and Addison had so much on her mind and one corner of it on the clock, they never bothered to take it out or turn it off. Since we was the only two addicts they had left not of their own race, Sam and Bill felt sure that they wouldn't do nothin' bad to us till they had their cure, their agent. We was the only guinea pigs they had."

Sam sighed. "Well, that about wraps it all up." He downed the last of his drink.

"Uh uh. You forgot one thing. Who killed Siegel and then helped me escape into the Labyrinth? That's the only part that has me completely confused," I said.

"Oh, Addison killed Siegel, just as you thought. The only thing unusual was the reason for that argument. It was you."

"Huh?
Me?"

"Yeah. She wanted you for experimental or sentimental or whatever purposes; she had personally dropped off the load of filled shot capsules earlier in the evening. That's why the Labyrinth was running when you first saw it. The guards knew her, so they didn't think anything was wrong with it. Then she went into town to make some phone calls, probably to discover why Carlos, who should have been there, was not. She was just going back, but saw the office light on and went in to have a talk with him. She had seen you earlier out running, so she knew you were here, and decided to take you with her, probably to their safe world hideout, until the rest of the plans played out. Siegel refused. They got into a bad argument in which Siegel revealed inadvertently how much he knew and understood
about all this, which was far more than he should have. Whether this was just his people monitoring Carlos closely and the Brandy Two project or what we'll never know. She lost her temper and shot him. She was used to being in charge, but suddenly it occurred to her that she was in a very bad position in a house completely surrounded by Siegel's most trusted bodyguards. She did a force on the Labyrinth with a remote device, which drew the guards, and she couldn't get away.

"In the meantime, you'd discovered the body, gotten rashly accused of the murder-you know better than to pick up a murder weapon, damn it!-and tried to shoot your way out. Addison had no choice when she saw this. You polished off a number of the guards, and she picked off the rest. This meant you would get away, something she hadn't planned on, but also cleared the way for her to come out, blame you for the crime, and take a leisurely exit of her own."

"Uh huh. Two things wrong there, though. First, where did the rest of the juice go? I shoulda had hundreds of capsules in that case. And, second, how do you know all this? Everybody who was there 'cept me is dead, and I didn't know."

"The rest of the capsules had gone directly into Siegel's office wall safe, of course, to be picked up and sent down to Fast Eddie the next day by plane. The remaining package was yours. He planned on you being around awhile. For some reason, he wanted you bad enough to risk Addison. In the end, for all his power and money, Arnie Siegel was a very lonely man whose own success required him to be totally paranoid at all times. He couldn't have the shadow dancers permanently. You were probably the only human being in his whole world he could trust absolutely. As for my source of information-you're still a hell of a detective. You figure it out." He got up like he was goin' someplace.

"Sam-"

"Not now, Brandy. We'll talk tomorrow." And, with that, he made his excuses and left. I started after him, but Aldrath stopped me, then took me over in a corner.

"I think you proved conclusively tonight that it was time I retired," he said. "It was a rather stunning and embarrassing collection of deduction, hard work, and theatrics, but the root cause was my own failures."

I kept lookin' after where Sam disappeared.
My
mind wasn't on no more small talk.

"Don't you know how he knew, Brandy?"

I started and turned to him. "Huh?"

"He was there. Once he recovered here and then found out what had happened to you from me, there was no stopping him. He wanted no one notified, not even Crockett. He trusted nobody and nothing. In the close to a year you were shadow dancing, he managed to research and even worm his way into confidences. He had a fair amount of money-he took it in in precious metals and converted it-and he knew his job. In only three months he managed to get a job with the Crockett agency. I have no idea what sort of means he used to come up with the credentials and background, but I suppose he knew just what she would look for and how she'd find it, being in the business himself. He watched over you, Brandy. And he kept me from going in full tilt with squads and invading the operation. He felt we could get far more by letting it run."

"He was sure right." Sam . . . there all the time.

We was fast approachin' that time I didn't want to think about. "What will happen to us? And to the shadow dancers?"

"The events of tonight will not be kept under wraps very long. When Carlos hears that the plot is compromised, he will undoubtedly finish off the shadow dancers and regroup. When he hears that Ioyeo, his Addison, is dead, he will redouble his efforts. He has no clearance to headquarters, but he has a lot of skill and knowledge and equipment and at least a small organization. As Sam said, until we capture or kill him, he will be the most dangerous man alive. Undoubtedly they will be going through every single detail of Jamispur's life trying to figure out the connection. They must have been together quite some time. At least we'll find out who he is and where he came from."

"And us?" We'd been in on everything, but both Brandy Two and me had been kept under close watch and restrictions. We was Typhoid Marys, too.

"Well, everyone with the live reproducible virus will be
under strict quarantine restrictions. You will be kept with your double here tonight and locked in, as before. Tomorrow, you both will be transferred to the Center for tests, after which you will have some hard decisions to make."

"What kinda decisions?"

"Options for the future. Someday, perhaps soon, we might be able to stabilize this thing, but its very nature will require taking something every day for life. Wait for the doctors. They'll explain it."

"Aldrath-promise me. Promise me that you won't let Sam leave till I made them decisions. Will you do that much for me?"

"I think I can guarantee that much. Farewell, Brandy. You and Sam cost me my job, but you saved my world. I have children. I can't be angry with you for that."

Then they came to take me back up to my comfortable prison I shared with my twin. I didn't see Sam till the next day, and it was clear he was comin' off a real drunk. Still, they let me have some time with him.

"Sam-I heard what you done back at Siegel's. Damn it, I
do
love you, Sam. There's gotta be a way for this to work out. For us."

"How?" he managed, his head poundin' somethin' awful. I could tell. I knowed they had hangover cures here and I got the idea he just didn't want one. "Brandy, they're going to convert Carlos's old safe world into a quarantine colony. Any who have the full virus, and any who for some reason wish to join them, will be able to do so. They will be researching this thing for years to come. In a short time that colony will be able to provide a small supply of the semen for capsules, allowing some people limited mobility elsewhere so long as they take the capsules and can't transmit the virus. It'll be a leper colony, but a very pleasant and self-governing one.
Owl"
He felt his head.

"Sam-you know how hard it is. The only way out for me is to take the cure, and you saw all them folks who took the cure. Not a one of 'em is right. I love you, Sam. I really do. Come with us to this place. It ain't so bad, and we'd still be together. Maybe they need a private eye."

"Forget it, babe. I can do a car chase at a hundred and ten miles an hour through city traffic but I can't stand roller coasters. Know why? I can't stand not to be in full control. Besides, it wouldn't be the way you imagine. You have your full intellect, but it's untempered. You have no inhibitions and no brakes except what is necessary for your own survival. You know that even now you're only being civilized because they'll shoot you if you aren't. You aren't human anymore. Love and lust are synonyms to you. The only meaningful concept of right and wrong you have is that what gives pleasure to you or is necessary for your survival is right. It won't let you get hurt, it won't let you get depressed for long, and there's no guilt, no sense of responsibility. That's why I couldn't take the stuff myself. A Jew without guilt is just a Unitarian. The Almighty would strike me dead for it. Right now, you want me, and you have that cultural and intellectual knowledge of right and wrong, but there's no sense on the gut level. I can't handle that."