Venus of Shadows (35 page)

Chimene remembered the dark-eyed blond woman she had met. She hadn't really liked the warm and familiar way the woman had greeted Malik, and was somewhat pleased to have another reason to dislike her.

Lately, her friends were talking of little except this hearing; Lena Kerein had told them all that Chimene had actually met the sister of the accused Russian. They had gaped at Chimene when she admitted that both Kolya and her father had also known the man on Earth, but she hadn't been able to tell them much more than that. She had tried to ask Kolya about the man, and Malik had told him not to answer her questions; she had never seen her father so angry before.

They left the tunnel and followed a stream of people along the main road. The dome's light was dim, but the greenhouses near the road were lighted, and many in the crowd were carrying light-wands or small, glowing globes. The spots of light made her think of the stars she bad seen only on the screen, the distant suns hidden by Venus's thick dark clouds.

We won't get good seats, she thought impatiently. Malik was bringing a pocket screen along, on which they could see and hear everything that took place, but if she had to look at a screen, she might as well have stayed home. She sighed. At least she could say she had been here, and that was the important thing. She felt a little sorry for Todd Hansen-Barini, who wouldn't be here, and for Maryam Nishimoto, whose parents had said she might have to stay home with her little brother.

People were already seated on the ground just beyond the airship bay. Some sat on blankets; others settled on the grass. Near the tents, a platform had been set up; two gray-garbed men were adjusting the lights on the poles around it. A wide screen sat against the poles, and the other four Council members were waiting on the platform.

The people near them stood up as Risa's household was ushered toward the platform. They would get good seats after all. That had to be because Risa was on the Council. Her mother was an important person, even if she did always tell Chimene that one Cytherian was as good as another and it was wrong to think you were better than anyone else.

Kolya and Emilia seated themselves; Grazie helped Tina to the ground before sitting down herself. Risa released Chimene's hand and walked toward the steps that led up to the platform. Chimene looked up at her father, but his eyes were on Risa.

Patrick nudged her. "I see Maryam." Chimene looked around for her friend. "Over there — she's with her aunt and uncle." Chimene waved in that direction but still couldn't see the other girl. Her friends were probably envying her for getting to sit up here.

"Sit down," Paul said to Patrick, "and behave yourself. You're not likely to see another hearing as important."

The two children settled on the ground, Malik sat down next to Chimene. Three men were being led to the platform by others wearing Ishtar's sash. The first man looked like one of Chen's people; the second was tall and dark-haired, and the third was blond.

A woman had died because of them; that hardly seemed real. Such things had never happened here before, and some of her friends had been told by their parents not to wander around after dark and to be careful about those they let inside their houses. She squinted as the three men climbed onto the platform, surprised to see how much they looked like other people. She noticed then that their hands were tied behind their backs.

Risa stood up and raised her arms; the murmurs of the crowd faded. Alain al-Kadar pinned a tiny microphone to Risa's collar. "Fellow Cytherians!" her amplified voice rang out. "You'll have a few more minutes to get settled, and then this hearing will begin." The men standing with the accused began to pin microphones to the collars of the three.

Patrick leaned toward Chimene. "Gur told me they'll probably die."

"A lot of the kids say that," Chimene replied. "I don't know why they're so sure. They haven't had the hearing yet." She recalled what she had learned about hearings. "They get to defend themselves."

"What good'll that do?" Patrick scratched at his reddish-blond hair. "Everyone knows what they did. You want them to come after you?" Patrick lowered his voice. "Gur said they — you know — did things to that woman before she died. He said nobody'll talk about it, but —"

"Be quiet," Malik muttered angrily. "Those men are in enough trouble without having lies told about their deeds." Chimene shivered a little and wondered why her father was here if the hearing disturbed him so much. Risa might have told him to come, but there had been plenty of times when he hadn't done what she wanted.

"I hope this doesn't take too long," Kolya whispered behind her. "Won't help to drag it out."

Malik turned his head. "Don't be so impatient to see the end. It isn't likely to lead to anything good."

"Even the Administrators haven't tried to stop it," Kolya answered.

"Of course not," Malik said, "They'll wait until it's over before they act — that way, they won't have to deal with those three themselves or worry about how to control this mob."

Risa was standing up again. "Silence," she called out. "This hearing will now begin. The other Councilors have asked me to present the facts in this case." Risa accepted a pocket screen from Jeannine Loris and studied it for a moment.

Chimene sat up a little straighter. All of these people would be listening to her mother, and the other settlements would watch on screens. Chimene had attended a couple of hearings before to learn how they were conducted, and she had noticed then that Risa did most of the talking for the Council. But those hearings had been held in the room where the Council usually met and had involved only minor disputes. This was different.

Chimene wondered what it would be like to have all these people listening to her words. It would be frightening but also thrilling, perhaps a little like those times Malik asked her to recite some of the Arabic poetry he had taught her to a few of his friends. She always enjoyed the attention, and the smiles and words of praise when she finished.

"Here are the facts," Risa continued. "Nora Toland's body was found in the common room of her house by members of the household just before first light. The physician Gupta Benares was called to examine the body, and he determined that Nora's death was caused by a severe blow to the head. A neighbor, the engineer Yakov Serba, saw three men leave Nora's house some hours before, after dark."

Chimene watched the three men as her mother told how they had been identified and what had been found in their tent. The tall dark one seemed angry, while the Chinese man sat with his head bowed. The blond one was studying Risa intently. What were they thinking? They had to be afraid. She was often a little frightened of Risa herself when her mother knew she had misbehaved, and she had never done anything this bad.

Chimene tried to pay attention to what her mother was saying. "That concludes our preliminary summary," Risa said. "If you look at the screen behind me, you will now see the two interviews the Council had with Ciceron Davan, Alexei Osipov, and Chang Ho. The first took place four hours after the men had been identified by Yakov Serba and the members of Nora Toland's household. We conducted the second yesterday." Risa crossed the platform and sat down with the other Councilors.

Chimene had already seen the first interview, although she'd had to sneak over to Lena Kerein's house to call it up. Malik had pulled her away from the screen in their common room when she tried to look at it there. "Your mother's smart," Lena told Chimene after they had watched it. "She fooled them into admitting it." Chimene, after thinking of the times Risa had tricked her into saying she had done something she shouldn't, had felt a bit sorry for the men before reminding herself that they had killed a woman. One of them had anyway; the others had apparently only tried to help their friend hide it. Did that mean they wouldn't be punished as much?

She looked around at all the people sitting in the clearing. The ones farthest from the platform were peering at pocket screens; others were whispering to the people near them. A few had climbed up into the trees at the edge of the open area for a better view. Most of them had probably seen the interviews before, since they were in the public record. She turned back to the large screen as the second interview began. The Chinese man was telling the same story he had in the first; when he finished, the blond man said only that the story was true and that he had nothing to add except that he was sorry. The dark-haired man refused to say anything at all, even though he had been the one to kill the woman.

The screen went blank. "I'll call the first witness," Risa said. "Gupta Benares." Chimene sighed as the physician climbed up to the platform and accepted a microphone from Istu Marnes. This was the part of the hearing when witnesses would testify in detail about what they knew, and it was likely to go on for a while. She began to wish that she had brought her own pocket screen so that she could have played a game in the meantime.

Gupta Benares droned on as the screen showed images of the scan he had conducted. Patrick was fidgeting; Chimene poked him in the arm. "The tall man didn't say anything," she whispered.

"It doesn't matter," Patrick whispered back. "We already know what happened. I don't know why we have to listen to all this stuff."

"It's their hearing." Patrick often didn't seem to know the simplest things. "They have to —"

"Hush," her father muttered. She noticed then that the blond Russian man was staring directly at Malik; the cold look in his eyes made her shiver.

The physician left the platform; Yakov Serba was called. Chimene tried to concentrate. The last time she and her friends had gone to a hearing, Yoshi had questioned them in school about the Council's decision and whether or not any of them would have decided differently. Yoshi might ask about this hearing, and Chimene, who was usually quick to respond, did not want to look as though she had not paid attention.

Three women and two men followed Yakov to the platform, but their voices were faint and subdued, difficult to hear even with microphones attached to their collars. They were members of the dead woman's household. Chimene nearly choked at the idea of finding a body in her own common room. She glanced at Malik. Maybe he and Risa would let her sleep with them tonight, even though she hadn't for a long time.

Her mother was walking across the platform. "You've all heard the testimony," Risa said. She turned toward the three men. "Do you have anything to say in your own defense?"

The tall man got up awkwardly, then wobbled a little on his feet as his companions stood. "You've made up your minds," he said. "I've got nothing to say to you."

"You can't blame me," the Chinese man shouted. "I didn't kill her."

"You could have gone for help," Risa replied; she lifted an arm, then let it fall. "Something might have been done for her if you had, but all you thought about was hiding what you did." Chimene was startled by her mother's enraged tone; a Council member was supposed to be calm during hearings.

"Ciceron was a friend," the blond man said. "I told myself I couldn't betray a friend. Maybe that was a mistake, but we didn't know what to do, and he didn't mean to kill her. She got him angry, pretending she was our friend, and saying she was going to complain we'd been stealing. If she hadn't said that —"

"You're not helping yourself," Risa said. "Nora Toland admitted you to her home, offered to forgive you if you gave back what you took, and was trying to befriend you."

"I'm sorry for what happened," Alexei Osipov said quietly. "I was trying to protect my friend. He'd never do anything like this again — none of us would."

Risa stepped toward the front of the platform. "The records of the accused have been studied," she said. "We found no medical or psychological disorder that might have contributed to their deed, a brutal act one of them committed so that he would not be revealed publicly as a thief, and which his companions sought to conceal. If they had called a physician immediately, they might have been judged as others are who injure another person in rage. If they had confessed to the deed willingly, we might have believed repentance was possible."

"We've heard all we have to," a man behind Chimene shouted. "What are you going to do about it?"

"Silence!" Risa called out. "Some facts about people aren't always part of their records, and they have the right to have others speak in their defense. Perhaps someone here, or in one of our sister settlements, can tell us of their more worthy deeds or of circumstances that would show them to be deserving of more mercy. If anyone wishes to speak, step forward now or give your message over the screen."

Chimene craned her neck. The crowd was murmuring, but she did not see anyone stand up. Maybe their friends were afraid to speak. Perhaps they had no friends.

"Those three are trouble," a bald man near the platform called out. "I had to work with that one in the greenhouses." He pointed at Alexei. "He'd start a fight over nothing at all!"

"Sit down," Risa commanded. "Previous complaints don't concern us now, and any judgments about them have already been made. We're asking for those who will speak in their defense."

Malik suddenly rose. Risa tensed as he walked to the platform and climbed the steps. "What's he doing?" Patrick whispered. Risa seemed stunned; she moved back a little as Alain gave Malik a microphone. Chimene wanted to shrink away; what would her friends think of her father now?

Malik was holding his screen in his hands. "I promised to read this statement from one who can't be here to speak. Her name is Yekaterina Osipova, and she's the sister of Alexei Osipov. She came here from one of Earth's camps, and she's lived in al-Khwarizmi for the past three years. She volunteered to work on the Bats, a task which, as a new arrival, she could easily have avoided. You won't find any black marks on her record."

Malik looked down at his screen. "I'll read her words now. She would have offered them herself, but her grief has made that impossible." He cleared his throat. "My brother Alexei has made mistakes, but please see him for what he is. He knew that Earth could offer him little, and so he chose to go to a camp. I went with him — I was happy for him then because I believed there would be something better for him here. I didn't like some of the companions he found in that camp, and maybe they led him astray, but life there is hard, and waiting can seem endless. There's little reward for goodness in a camp, especially among Guardians who look for weakness and prey upon the people there. Alexei had to survive and stay strong enough to reach Venus, and sometimes that meant doing things he wouldn't have done at other times. Whatever our disagreements, he always tried to protect me, and one Guardian nearly expelled him from the camp for that. I pleaded with the Guardian for my brother, and I say that without shame. I wanted Alexei to have his chance."