Firebird (3 page)

Light finally dawned. The physicist who'd come home from somewhere, had gotten out of a skimmer at his front door, and never made it into his house.

Alex shook his head. Sad story. “But it gives some value to anything connected with him.”

“Yes. I remember now.”

“So tell me about the sister-in-law.”

“Her name's Karen Howard. She's inherited the estate, and she wants to market some of his personal items.”

Alex gave me a broad smile. “Sounds promising. What's she have?”

I showed him the inventory. He looked at it and made some notes. “Okay. The ring will probably bring a decent price. What about the house AI?”

“It got erased.”

He groaned. “How'd that happen?”

“I've no idea.”

He shook off the other boot. “Well, the books might be worth something.”

“She says Robin was in the habit of writing notes in them.”

“Okay. That'll help. You saw some of these, right? The books?”

“Some.”

“Okay. I'll want to go over and take a look.”

“I'll set it up.”

“Good. I'm surprised you haven't taken care of it already. Was there a problem?”

“Alex, I didn't think we were going to do anything with this unless maybe because he was a songwriter.”

That brought a smile. “All right. Let's lock it down.”

“So what's he done? Other than drop out of sight?”

“Chase, what else does he
need
to do? You make up a list of people who've vanished over the years, they've almost all become famous, but hardly anyone's done anything other than that. It's all you need. And Chris Robin is among the top ten.”

I called Howard, told her we were interested in representing her, and set up an appointment for the following evening. Then I looked up Christopher Robin.

A pilot who often worked with him had dropped him off at his home on Virginia Island at around 11:00
P.M.
on the first day of spring, 1393. And if that rings a bell, it's because that's the date of the Great Kolandra Earthquake. The pilot's name was Cermak.

Robin's home was located in an isolated area at the southern tip of the island. A young couple who were strolling along the edge of the ocean saw the skimmer arrive. Elizabeth, apparently, slept through it all.

Robin seems never to have entered the house, and no one ever saw him again.

In an odd coincidence, it was also Cermak's last night. He'd been bringing Robin in from Skydeck. They'd flown a lander into the Vasilyev Terminal in Kolandra and parked. From there, Cermak had delivered Robin to Virginia Island, then gone home to his own place at Caton Ferry, a small coastal town five hundred kilometers north. He apparently arrived just in time to get caught in the quake.

Cermak became one of the heroes of that unhappy event. There are pictures of him, scorched and bleeding, carrying kids out of burning buildings, administering first aid, pulling people from wrecked cars. In one particularly dramatic shot, he's charging across a rooftop several floors above the street, surrounded by flames.

Two hours and seven minutes after the first quake hit, a tidal wave rolled ashore and demolished most of Caton Ferry. It also destroyed the Vasilyev Terminal.

Fortunately, Virginia Island felt only a few temblors.

Like Robin, Cermak simply vanished that night. He disappeared during the general chaos. He was either carried out to sea by the tsunami or buried in the wreckage. According to the accounts, it's unlikely he ever learned that his passenger had gone missing.

“What do you think happened to Robin?” Alex asked. His voice surprised me; I hadn't seen him come into the office.

“I have no idea,” I said. “It sounds as if he jumped, or fell, into the ocean. But if so, why didn't they find the piece of luggage he'd been carrying? Or the notebook?”

“It's a good question.”

“Maybe he just ran off. Maybe there was another woman.”

“It's possible.”

“He could have been murdered.”

Alex nodded. “Maybe he wasn't there at all.”

“Why do you say that?”

“The people who saw the lander on the pad did
not
actually see him get out.”

“That doesn't mean anything. But maybe that's what happened. It's unlikely that both men would disappear on the same night. Maybe he went on to Kolandra with Cermak.”

Alex shrugged. “If so, why stop at his home first?”

“He might have changed his mind. Maybe he just needed something at the house.”

“It's possible, Chase. It would explain the bag.”

“Well,” I said, “it's a long time ago.” Alex was silent. “We aren't going to look into it, are we?”

“No,” he said.

“That's good. But you're surprising me. Why not?”

“Because if we were able to find an answer, the value of the artifacts would go down.”

“Oh.”

“Maybe what we'll do is
pretend
to look into it. If we do
that,
and can't solve the riddle—”

“The value goes
up.”

“Very good, Chase. You're a natural for this business.”

TWO

Science is an investigation into reality, how atoms interact and biological systems develop and stars give heat. Myth is also an investigation into reality, but into a reality of a different type: It informs us of the deepest desires and fears of the subconscious mind. The place where we really live.

—Kosha Malkeva,
The Road to Babylon
, 3376
C.E.

Karen Howard lived in a plush estate in Westmont Park, where Mt. Gordana was just visible in the west when the light was right. The storm had finally subsided, and the skies had cleared, but the entire world was buried in snow. As we settled toward the ground that evening, we were instructed by a deep baritone to identify ourselves and state our business. “Rainbow Enterprises to see Ms. Howard,” I said, giving the system a code word that had been issued to us earlier. A ring of lights came on around the landing pad. The lights weren't necessary because it wasn't quite dark yet, but they did add a sense of luster to the place.

The house resembled an Itaki temple. Towers rose above both wings, and I found myself expecting to hear chanting as we touched down. The voice, still speaking through the comm link, welcomed us to Howard Manor and invited us inside. We got out of the skimmer and started along a sheltered walkway.

The windows were sedately illuminated, and a viol played wistfully. More lights came on. The front door opened, and a young woman greeted us, took our jackets, and showed us into a large sitting room. “Ms. Howard,” she said, “will be with you shortly.” The room possessed an elegant sterility: window curtains that might have been employed as ceremonial robes, ivory-colored ornamental shelves supporting vases filled with year-round flowers, a red carpet that looked as if no one had ever walked on it. It was a room to admire but not one in which you could relax and kick off your shoes.

We'd been there only a couple of minutes when Ms. Howard walked in. She inspected Alex and said hello to him. Then she smiled condescendingly at me. “It is nice to see you again, Ms. Kolpath.”

We exchanged a few pleasantries. Alex commented on how well kept the grounds were, presumably apparent to him under the snow cover. Howard took a moment to admire his scarf, and suggested that we all make ourselves comfortable. We sat down on a sofa while she took a large, padded armchair. “Chase tells me,” Alex said, “you have some items connected with Christopher Robin.”

She looked momentarily as if that fact had slipped her mind. “As a matter of fact, Mr. Benedict, I do.” Sidewise glance at me. “I take it you're in a position to represent my interests?”

Alex fell back on his charm. “Of course,” he said. “We'd be delighted.” His tone conveyed a sense that we were all friends, that whatever had gone before was of no concern, was part of a misunderstanding, and that he would find it gratifying to assist her. “I wonder,” he continued, “if it would be possible to see the materials?”

Some of the stiffness drained away. “Certainly, Mr. Benedict,” she said. “Please follow me.”

We went out into a central corridor, turned toward the rear of the house, and entered another, smaller, room. The objects had been placed on a dinner table, arranged with the Carpathian hat as the centerpiece. Plaques, lamps, framed pictures, books, paintings, the wedding ring, the diamond-studded comm link, a bust of a bearded man (Adam Karvenko, I learned later, who'd connected quantum theory with consciousness), and some electronic gear. And, of course, the books.

Alex circled the table, examining the objects, using a magnifying lens on some, lifting others so he could study them from different angles.

He took a long look at the wedding ring. “The names will help,” he said, “and especially the inscription.” Alex lifted the cover of one of the books. Mirabeau's
The Social Abstract.
Comments were printed in precise characters in the margins:
Exactly!!
And
Out of context.
And
I'd love to see the documentation for that.

He paged through Hai Kallei's
Lost in the Shadows,
smiling at Robin's comments.
Dumb.
And
Tribalism will always be with us, despite your assertions.
And
Sometimes I wonder if we deserve to survive.

In a collection of science essays, Alex, admiringly, read one comment aloud:
We are like the seas. Tides come in, go out. Our shorelines wear down and drift away, but in the end, the substance does not change. Neither technology nor accumulated wisdom has any fundamental effect on who we are.

Baron's
Cosmological Constant
was also filled with commentary.
Sounds good, but the logic is confused.
And
If this is so, the world is even more illusory than we thought.
Alex smiled. “Did you know him very well, Ms. Howard?”

“Not especially,” she said. “I didn't especially like him.”

“Why is that?”

“He thought he was better than everybody else.”

Alex nodded. Isn't that the way of the world? He put the book down and looked up at the picture of the interstellar that Howard had shown me at the country house. It hung directly opposite the entrance, making it the first thing you'd see coming into the room. “This is exactly the way he'd placed it in his own house,” she said.

Alex examined it from several angles before turning to her. “Ms. Howard, what about this? Did it have a special meaning of some sort for Professor Robin?”

“Not that I'm aware of.”

Alex turned back to the picture. Shook his head.

“What's wrong?” I asked.

“I've seen it before somewhere.”

I didn't recognize it. The superluminal looked retro. Too thick through the hull. The two odd characters near the main hatch. Individual portals on the bridge rather than the wraparound.

“So what do you think, Mr. Benedict?”

Alex smiled pleasantly. “We'll be happy to assist you, Ms. Howard. I doubt there'll be any trouble moving the ring, or the plaques. The books should be okay. Photos are always a difficult sell, because they are not single items, if you get my meaning. But I think we can do reasonably well.” He hesitated. “Ms. Howard, I'm going to ask you to be patient, however. It might be possible to increase the value of these items if you'll allow me some time.”

“Time to do what, if I may ask?”

“I won't be sure until we learn more about Professor Robin.”

He remained quiet until we got up into the night sky and had started home. It was not yet dark, but we had a crescent moon directly overhead. “There are some speculations about this guy,” he said.

“Like what?”

“Are you aware there's a Christopher Robin Society?”

“No. I didn't know that. Is that really so? What is it? A society of physicists?”

“Physicists, historians, enthusiasts.”

“Okay.”

“They meet monthly at Sanova.”

I knew the tone. “We're not going, I hope?”

“Why not?”

“What would be the point?”

“Who better to drum up interest in Robin artifacts than people who have a passion for his work?”

“But aren't we talking about physics? How do you get collectors passionate about physics?”

“Chase, we're talking about alternate universes and black holes.”

We were passing over the Melony. Fireworks were being launched from one of the casinos. Somebody celebrating something. “Alex?”

“Yes, Chase?”

“A lot of people have disappeared. Why does Robin draw enthusiasts? What are they enthusiastic about?”

His eyes caught some of the light. “Robin worked at the edges of science. He was interested, for example, in whether any part of us survives death.”

“Oh.”

“Okay?”

“And what did he decide?”

“I couldn't determine whether he'd ever reached a decision. Chase, Robin explored the fringes of science. He was looking for breakthroughs in areas that are considered beyond the pale by most of his colleagues. He asked questions nobody else dared to ask.”

“Like whether there really are alternate universes.”

“Yes.”

“I thought the notion of alternate universes was an established fact.”

“Mathematically. But Robin apparently wanted to find a way to cross over.”

“Oh.”

“And he thought maybe we were getting occasional visitors from one.”

“You're kidding.”

He laughed. “I think he was hoping. In any case, a lot of people are fascinated by the fact that he disappeared on the same night as the Kolandra Earthquake.”

“I suspect a lot of people disappeared that night.”

“He wasn't in the area where the quake hit.”

“So what are they suggesting happened?”

“The theory is that there was a collision that night. Between universes. That's what caused the quake.”

“That's crazy.”

“Ah, Dr. Kolpath, I'm glad to have that settled. However that may be, some of the enthusiasts—but I suspect none of the physicists—think Robin took advantage of the collision to cross into the other universe.”

“Okay. I know you're not buying into any of this. Are you?”

He laughed. “Of course not. But the more extreme elements make for good copy.”