Realms of Light (7 page)

“But you know people here. I don’t
anymore.”

“Carlie, I’m glad you’re free, and I’m happy
to see you again, but I’m under contract to the Ginza. I can’t go
anywhere or help you with anything if it would interfere with my
job.”

“That’s why I came to get
you
off
Epimetheus.”

He didn’t try to hide his annoyance. “And how
were you going to do that? I can’t get a ticket.”

“You don’t need one. I have my own ship.”

That
got his attention. “The hell you
do!”

“Fine, I don’t. I have the
use
of a
ship. My client owns it, but he’s back in American City, and I’m
here in Nightside City with his ship and crew, and they’re under
orders to do what I say. I intend to get you and Dad aboard, then
get the hell off Epimetheus for good. Are you coming?”

“Who the fuck
is
your client? Since
when do you work for people with that kind of money?”

“Since I moved to Alderstadt,” I said.
“Sayuri Nakada may not have been happy with me, but some of her
friends and family thought I’d done a good job. Good word of mouth
means I get work.”

“Come on, Carlie. Anyone with his own damn
spaceship can do better than
you
! I know you’re smart, I
know you do an honest job, but you’re just a widget. Someone with
that kind of money can hire one of the big investigation
firms.”

It jittered me that my own brother didn’t
think I had the ram to do what I said, but I kept my temper. “He
has reasons to keep this off the nets.
You
come on,
’Chan—you think I’d come in here and tell you this if it weren’t
true?”

“I don’t know, Carlie. It’s crazy, and
sometimes
you
can be crazy.”

“Fine, then, but give me this much—come to
the port with me and take a look at the ship yourself. If there’s
really a ship, and the captain says he’ll really get you
off-planet, will you come?”

“Of course I will! You think I’m an idiot? I
don’t want to fry. I saw what you looked like after your little
stroll on the dayside. Nightside City’s going to be a fucking
microwave in a couple of years.”

“Then come on to the port with me and I’ll
show you.”

’Chan hesitated, then admitted, “I
can’t.”

I didn’t know what he was talking about. I
thought he was just being stubborn, playing the big brother who
doesn’t want his little sister taking charge. “Why not?” I
demanded. I remembered that IRC was almost certainly listening,
given where we were, so I added, “I’m not asking you to skip out on
your contract. Just come out to the port, so you can see I’m not
crazy. Then you can come back here, and when I’m ready to go you
can buy yourself out, nice and legal.”

“I can’t,” he repeated.

“Why
not
?”

“I’m on call,” he said.

“So what?” I didn’t see how that was a
problem.

“It means I agreed to accept an implant,” he
explained. “I can’t go more than ten minutes from the casino or my
legs shut down. I can’t go as far as the port to check out your
story. And I can’t buy out my contract—that was part of the deal,
too. Like it or not, I’m here until sunrise.”

I couldn’t believe my own brother had been that
stupid. “What the hell were you thinking, agreeing to that?” I
demanded.

“I was thinking the bonus would be almost
enough for my fare off-planet,” he answered instantly.

“
Almost
enough,” I repeated.

“Yeah,
almost
,” he said, and I could
see he was getting angry—partly with me, but partly with himself.
“I knew they were keeping it just a little short of what I’d need.
IRC isn’t a charity; they want me to stay here until everything
cooks. I figured it would help. I wasn’t going anywhere for awhile
anyway, so I’d have time to find the rest somehow. I didn’t know my
kid sister was going to show up with a magic carpet to whisk me off
to Prometheus.”

“It’s a ship, not a magic carpet, and getting
you and Dad out of here with it is part of my fee.”

“Your fee? What the hell, Carlie—who agreed
to that? Whose ship is it? Since when do you take anything but
credits?”

“When I don’t want the job and the client
needs to come up with a way to make me take it anyway,” I said. “A
way I’m having second thoughts about the more I look at you.”

“I didn’t
ask
for your help!”

“Neither did Dad. I’m here anyway.”

“You can leave any time, then. I’m stuck here
until my contract is up. Come back for me when the sun’s up.”

“The offer isn’t good that long. The client
wants me
now
, and I wouldn’t work until he got you two out
of here.”

“He’s willing to hack off IRC and
Sixth...Seventh... the dreamtankers to get you?”

“Yes, he is.”

“I hadn’t thought my little sister was as
special as all that.”

I was getting annoyed, but ’Chan had always
been able to hack my code, and he was angry enough himself that he
didn’t mind doing it. “Now you know,” I said.

“
I
know it, fine, but who knows it who
doesn’t mind risking a stay on IRC’s blacklist? You never used to
operate at that level.”

“I told you, I’ve done all right on
Prometheus.”

He looked at me, and I could almost see the
screen flash. “You said Sayuri Nakada’s friends and family—you’re
working for one of the Nakadas, aren’t you?”

“None of your business. I’m here to get you
off-planet, not tell you my life story.”

“That’s it, though, isn’t it? And I can guess
what the case is, and why they aren’t hiring one of the big
firms.”

That froze me up for half a second. He
couldn’t possibly know about the rigged dream enhancer, so what did
he think was up? “What are you talking about?”

“Someone hired you to investigate Yoshio
Nakada’s murder, didn’t they?”

I stared at him for a moment, then said, “So
Grandfather Nakada’s been murdered?”

“Of course. Don’t try to tell me you didn’t
know—it must have happened while you were still on Prometheus, and
there’s no way you could have missed it. The family tried to hush
it up, but it’s all over the nets. And whoever hired you didn’t go
to one of the big firms because they don’t trust them—they know
those people will switch sides and back the highest bidder if the
money’s big enough, and the killer may be one of the big heirs.
You
, though—you’re old-fashioned. You stay bought.
Especially when they’re paying you with me and Dad.”

“Lovely theory, ’Chan,” I said, but what I
was thinking was that he’d come closer to the truth than I’d
wanted.

And it was...
interesting
to know that
everyone on Epimetheus thought Grandfather Nakada was dead, that
the assassination had been successful. I wasn’t sure whether it was
going to make my job easier or harder, but it definitely pulled up
some new menus.

One was the possibility that he really
was
dead, and that I’d been hired by an actor—I didn’t think
it could be a simulation; sims aren’t that convincing. I could
smell
the old man when we spoke, and we shook hands when he
left me on his ship, it wasn’t just image and audio.

Maybe an actor with a good makeover...

But why would anyone bother? And how had
whoever it was gotten me the run of the old man’s yacht?

No, I’d spoken to the real Yoshio Nakada, and
he’d still been alive when I left Prometheus.

“I notice you aren’t denying it,” he
said.

“I’m not confirming it, either. I’m trying to
figure out how I’m going to get you out of here—you and Dad
both.”

“You can’t.”

“I’m not convinced.”

“Look, I’m going to have almost enough money
when my contract’s up—why don’t you just leave me here until
sunrise, then loan me the difference out of all the fat fees you’re
collecting?”

“You know better than that. Once the sun is
over the rim of the crater the fare off-planet is going to be
everything you can afford, no matter how much that is. It’ll leave
you broke. If I try to contribute, it’ll leave
me
broke.”

He tried to look as if he didn’t agree with
me, but it didn’t work. He shifted aps.

“You can’t get me out, all right? Don’t worry
about it. Do your job. Get Dad out if you really want to, and if
you can, then go back to your magic spaceship and fly back to
Alderstadt. I’ll be fine. I may be broke when I land on Prometheus,
but so what?”

“So I’d prefer you to not be.”

“If I break my contract with IRC, I’ll be
worse than broke. Come back when it’s run out.”

“I
can’t
come back.”

“Why not? Make that part of your fee.”

I looked around, wondering just where the
cams were, and what software would be processing this scene. Then I
turned back to my brother.

“Break your contract,” I said. “The fine’s
limited to a million credits, and I can cover that.”

He stared at me as if I’d been pixelated.
“How did you know that, and where would you get a million
credits?”

“My client.”

“Well, your client must know that whatever
the official fine is, IRC isn’t going to be content with that.”

I couldn’t argue with that—unless ’Chan was
under someone’s protection, someone like Grandfather Nakada, IRC
was likely to be vindictive. I knew that from first-hand
experience.

“Why can’t you just wait for me? What’s the
rush?”

I wished I knew who or what would be
reviewing the recordings of this conversation, but it seemed a
pretty safe bet that Yoshio Nakada wouldn’t be on the alert list;
after all, if ’Chan was right, everyone in Nightside City thought
he was dead, and the old man himself had said he had no reliable
communication with anyone on Epimetheus.

“’Chan, I made a deal to get you out as my
down payment. I don’t start the investigation until you and Dad are
on Prometheus. You think my client’s willing to wait until
sunrise?”

“So put it on hold! Go ahead and do your job,
then come back for me.”

“You really think I’ll be able to find
Nakada’s killer?”

That stopped him dead.

“Oh,” he said. “I assumed... I mean, I
thought... I always thought you were pretty good at what you
do.”

“I’m not bad,” I said. “But think about
it—someone went after
Yoshio Nakada
. You asked me when I
started working for people who have their own ships, and I tried to
click past it, but you had a good point. I’m a widget. I’m going to
try, I’m going to put in an honest effort, but I’m just an ordinary
detective. I can’t hack the universe’s code. Anyone who could get
past Nakada’s security can probably hide her tracks well enough
that I’ll never find her. My client’s playing a long shot, hiring
me. If that long shot comes in, if I find whoever’s behind it, then
we’re smooth, I get paid and you get a free ride to Prometheus, but
’Chan, what if it doesn’t pay off? I can’t ask for a fee I haven’t
earned.”

“Well, you could
ask
,” he said
wryly.

“But I wouldn’t get it. But if I get you off
Epimetheus
now
, that’s my deposit, I can keep that. Get
it?”

“I get it,” he acknowledged. “And I
appreciate the try, Carlie, but it’s not going to work. I’m stuck
here. Find Dad, take him back to Prometheus with you, do your job,
and if you pull it off you can come back for me, and if you can’t,
hey, I’m no worse off than I was an hour ago.”

I sighed. I wasn’t ready to give up, but I
also saw I wasn’t going to convince ’Chan of anything unless I
could bring something new to the conversation, something I hadn’t
thought of yet. “Fine,” I said. “Can you help me find Dad?”

He shook his head. “No. I didn’t even
remember the name of the company. I don’t know anything more than
you.” He glanced at the wall display. “I need to get back to
work.”

“When do you get off? In case we want to
talk.”

“Midnight. But I’ll probably be too tired to
do anything but sleep, and what is there to talk about?”

I grimaced. “Probably nothing,” I said, “but
I’m keeping on open mind.”

“You do that, Carlie.” He headed for the
door. “And see if you can find out who killed Yoshio Nakada. Do
that, and we’re all set.”

“Yeah. I’ll try. Good night, ’Chan.”

Then the door closed behind him and I was
alone in the break room.

I looked at the wall. The hype for Seventh
Heaven was still displayed.

“Locate nearest human-operated office for
Seventh Heaven,” I said. I thought I’d do better persuading a human
to cooperate than software.

The hype vanished, and a map appeared, with
directions. I snorted.

Seventh Heaven had an office directly under
the Ginza. Very handy for the gamblers whose luck ran out. All I
had to do was go back up the service corridor and out into the
lower level of the casino, then take an elevator down two stories
into Trap Under and follow the signs. I trotted out the door and
headed for the casino.

When I reached the turn where I didn’t head
for the door I’d come in through, a voice said, “You are not
authorized beyond this point.”

“I’m heading to an office down on B3,” I
said. “Seventh Heaven Neurosurgery. Nothing to do with IRC or the
Ginza.” I kept walking.

For an instant, it didn’t reply. Then it
said, “If you diverge from your announced route, you will be
escorted from the premises and risk trespassing charges.”

“I love you, too,” I said. “I won’t
diverge.”

And I wouldn’t. I wasn’t giving up on my
brother, but I wasn’t going to be able to fly him away as easily as
I’d hoped. For now, I was going after Dad, and once I had him, I
would worry about ’Chan.

I told myself I should also look into this
story that Yoshio Nakada was dead. If I could trace it back to its
source, that might tell me something useful. I didn’t really think
I could clean out the conspiracy; I’d told ’Chan the truth about
that. I was operating far beyond my specs, and I knew it.
Grandfather Nakada must have known it, too, but hiring me hadn’t
cost him anything he couldn’t easily spare, so why not? Play enough
long shots, and eventually one of them will come in.