Partnership. Part 15

For the first time Fa.s.sa deliberately summoned up the memories she'd tried for so long to bury, seeking the confidence she needed to go on. She really was ir- resistible to men. Faul del Parma had proved that, hadn't he? Even knowing it was wrong, even knowing she hated it, he'd still refused to let her alone.

"It'severytkfngaboutyou, the way you walk, the way you smile up atme with those bigsooty lashes hatfcoveringyour eyes"

Instead of giving her confidence, die memories made Fa.s.sa feel grimy. She must have invited him, not with words, but with something about the way she walked and looked at him. Somehow she'd made Daddy want her without even knowing it. She was a bad little girl and if Mama ever found out...

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Mama screamed and fell endlessly through the glittering interior atrium of the hotel, tumbling in a cloud of gauzy draperies. And it was all her fault. Fa.s.sa cried out once and threw some- thing across the cabin with all her might, and Sev Bryley burst through the unlatched door.

"What's the matter? What happened?"

His arms went around her and Fa.s.sa rested against the fresh starched fabric of his shirt, feeling the strong beat of his heart beneath her face. For some reason she was crying; she couldn't stop crying for long minutes while Sev just held her. Not easing her backwards towards the bunk, not letting his hands slide artfully downward in a disguised caress. Just holding her.

"Well," Fa.s.sa said finally, gulping down the last of her sobs, "I told you; 1 have bad dreams."

"You seemed wide awake when I left you."

Fa.s.sa drew a shaky deep breath. "I - I'm afraid to be alone just now," she said. It happened to be true.

"Could you stay with me?"

"As it happens," Sev told her, "I was going to anyway." He released her, as if sensing that she was171.

recovered for the moment, and moved a step back- ward. Fa.s.sa sighed again, with a little more forethought this time, and watched his eyes. Yes, he was aware of what those deep breaths were doing to the sliding knot that held the sheet together between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, and he couldn't take his eyes off the creamy skin that contrasted with the stark white of the sheet. Good. She had a job to do, here; she had best think about that and nothing else, or she'd never win this man to her side before she was taken away for trial.

"Oh, that's right," she said, allowing a tear to creep into the corner of one eye; not difficult, in her present shaky mood. "I forgot; you're my jailer, aren't you?"

Sev looked uncomfortable at this a.s.sessment, as she'd wanted him to. "I wouldn't put it quite like that But someone does have to stay widi you until..."

"Until the end," Fa.s.sa finished for him. "What sort of sentences are in favor these days? Will it be hard labor, do you think?" She tossed her head and gave him her Christian-facing-the-lions look, all n.o.bility and virgin defiance. At the same time she moved slightly so that the sheet molded over one thigh, giving him (she hoped) visions of what sort of hard labor she might be good for.

"You'll have a fair trial," Sev told her, "and a chance to speak in your own defense."

"Will I?" Fa.s.sa challenged him. "Look at me. Don't you think there'll be some old judge who'd just love to see me mindwiped? They'll be thinking what a pity it is to waste such a beautiful body, keep the body, just wipe out the personality and start over."

"Oh, I'm sure they won't do that," Sev said, but he sounded less righteously certain than he'd been a mo- ment before. Fa.s.sa mentally applauded her own cleverness. There wasn't much point in trying to con- vince Sev that she was innocent of the charges against her, not when he was Central's prime witness. Much 172.

6? Margaret Bail better to switch the topic to the corruption at all levels of government. Sev knew something about that. Let him stew over the a.s.sertion that she couldn't possibly get a fair trial, let him think - as he must be thinking now - about the danger that she'd end up as the mindwiped toy of some corrupt official.

"You know it happens," Fa.s.sa said in a low voice.

"You know how much cheating there is in the govern- ment. Everybody wants something for himself. One of them will want me, and then - " She blew a kiss into the air with a mocking smile. "Bye-bye, Fa.s.sa del Parma!" Time to let the sheet fell to the ground, giving Sev a good look about what some dirty old man would get if he didn't get there first. She moved towards him, inch by inch, watching the color rise in his sharp fea- tures, watching the blue eyes darken with desire. "You could at least say good-bye properly, Sev, my love," she whispered.

She paused, eyes closed, awaiting the warmth of his arms about her and his mouth on hers.

"I think not," said Sev Bryley, and while Fa.s.sa's eyes flew open in shocked disbelief he took the two steps that brought him to the cabin door.

Once outside the cabin, Sev reactivated the guardlock mechanism that would prevent Fa.s.sa from leaving. He leaned against the wall and wiped his forehead with the back of one hand. It wasn't much help; he still felt as hot as if he'd just done a ten-mile run in the Capellan jungle. He needed a cold shower.

And that ten-mile run might not be a bad idea, either, except he couldn't leave Nancia alone to guard Fa.s.sa.

He could get some extra help, though - and some insurance against temptation. "Nancia?" he said in a low voice, looking upward at the angle between ceiling and roof where her auditory sensors were installed.

"Nancia, I think you'd better activate full sensors173.

within Fa.s.sa's cabin. I know it's a breach of the prisoner's privacy, but this is a very dangerous woman.

And, Nancia? You'd better keep the sensors on at all times. Even when I'm with Ms. del Parma."

Sev thought that over and decided he hadn't worded that last request strongly enough. "Especially when I'm with Fa.s.sa," he rephrased.

"I'd already done that, Sev," Nancia responded from the wall speaker. "Don't worry. Everything has been observed and recorded."

"Excellent," said Sev between his teeth. "I'm sure that little scene will be vasdy amusing to somebody who's not troubled by hormonal urges. Now, if you don't mind,just keep watching Fa.s.sa and let me know if she tries any- thing. I'll be in the ship's exercise room."

"What for?"

"Taking care of my hormones," Sev said. He stamped off to improve his weight-lifting record.

"FN-935, Forister Armontillado-y-Medoc requests permission to come aboard."

"Permission granted."

Even to her own ears, Nancia sounded brusque. After a grudging nanosecond's thought she added formally, "Welcome aboard, Forister Armontilladoy-Medoc."

The short, spare man whom she'd last seen heading into the tangled planetary conflicts of the Tran Phon guerrillas on Charon dropped three heavy pieces...o...b..g- gage onto the lift with a grunt of relief. Pm getting an old man who can't even carry his own luggage without getting out of breath. But as if to contradict die unspoken criticism, Forister waved the lift upwards with his luggage and took the circular stairs. Nancia watched his progress from sen- sor to sensor. He moved with quick, neat steps, economical of his motions. You couldn't say he was bounding up the stairs, but he did get to the top more quickly dian she'd expected; and there wasn't a gray hair 174.

Anne McCafjrey 6? Margaret Bail out of place or a drop of sweat on his forehead when he entered the central cabin.

"Greetings, Nancia," Forister said. Unlike Caleb, he looked directly at the t.i.tanium bulkhead that housed Nancia's human body and brain. His direct gaze was rather disconcerting to Nancia, who'd been used to Caleb wandering round the ship and addressing her without turning his head, counting on her efficient sensor system to pick up his words wherever he might be. She took a mo- ment to look over this strange elderly brawn and prepare her response. Light eyes in a tanned fece, with a network of crinkles around the eyes as if he were accustomed to looking deeply at whatever he saw; hints of red and ginger in the graying hair; a light, erect, relaxed stance, as if he were prepared to move in any direction at a moment's notice. He may do. But he's not Caleb!

"You seem remarkably fit for someone who's just been recuperating at Summerlands," Nancia said at last Forister grimaced. "Oh, I'm fit enough, if that's what's been worrying you, FN. The stay at Summer- lands was not for any medical reasons."

"Then what? The orders I received said you were there for R&R."

"Um. Yes. Well, they would, wouldn't they?" Forister said, maddeningly, while Nancia wondered if the man ever gave a straight answer to anything. Maybe that was trained out of you in the diplomatic service.

At last he vouchsafed one more sentence that could be considered an explanation. "My last posting for CenDip was... shall we say, stressful, and things didn't work out as well as I'd hoped."

"Charon?" Nancia asked.

The brawn blinked once, surprised. "Why, no. Why - oh, I remember. I had the honor of being transported to Charon by you, didn't I? Some years ago - you were the CN-935 then, as I recall. My con- dolences on the loss of your partner."175.

"It's only temporary," Nancia said. "Which reminds me. I wouldn't wish to hurry your unpacking, but as soon as you're ready, I'd like you to take over guarding the prisoner. Sev Bryley is needed at Summerlands to look after my brawn."

"As you wish." Forister did not quite d.i.c.k his heels together as he executed a perfect bow in the direction of the t.i.tanium column. He wheeled, collected his bags from the open lift and marched down the hall to the brawn's cabin - Caleb's cabin - leaving Nancia with the feeling that she had been unpleasantly brusque.

She opened a speaker in the cabin.

"If you don't object, we could continue our conver- sation while you unpack."

"No objection," said Forister. He was slighdy out of breath now, after lifting the heavy bags to his bunk.

What on Earth did the man travel with? A fortune in Corycium bars buried beneath his underwear? The first things he drew out of the bags were commonplace enough: CenDip formal dress and spare shirts, toiletries and a handful of laser-printed datahedra.

He might not object, but he wasn't being very help- ful either. Well, she hadn't been as friendly as she might; it was up to her to make the first move. "What was your last posting, then, if it wasn't Charon? And why did you pick Summerlands?"

"Summerlands has a very good reputation as a rest facility," Forister said. "I expect you're unduly worried about your former brawn; the medical staff there is top-quality."

"It's not their technical skills I'm worried about,"

Nancia told him. There was movement in Fa.s.sa's cabin. She had been keeping the sensors there down to monitor level; now she activated full pick-up and saw that Sev had gone in to talk to Fa.s.sa. The girl was fully dressed this time, and they were sitting on op- posite bunks; she didn't think Sev would encounter 176.

& any real problem. All the same, she captured their quiet conversation and listened to it with one ear while she watched Forister and wished he would hurry up with his unpacking. Now he had got to the hottom layer of the first bag, and she saw what had weighed his luggage down so: nothing but a lot of antiques.

One antique book after another, kilos and kilos of them, and doubtless no more information in the lot of them than could be stored in a few facets of a datahedron! There was no accounting for tastes.

"Isn't Summerlands rather remote for a man of your importance?" Nancia probed. She knew she was being pushy, but she didn't care. If Forister was in with Alpha and her criminal friends, she didn't dare set him to guard Fa.s.sa - nor did she dare send him back to the clinic to watch over Caleb. She would have to get on the datastream to Murasaki Base at once.

"I've family in the Nyota system," Forister told her.

"I was hoping to make a brief visit after I left Summer- lands. And I'd a friend at the clinic."

"Alpha bint Hezra-Fong," Nancia surmised. She might as well face all the bad news at once.

"Good G.o.d, no!" Forister seemed genuinely startled. "If that's what you think of the company I keep, no wonder you've been so hostile. Somebody else entirely, I a.s.sure you."

"Who?"

"I'm not at liberty to say just now. If all goes well - "

Forister broke off and rather fussily adjusted the port- able folding shelf where he had stowed his books, lightening the spring-bindings that would keep them in place in case of any rapid ship's movements. "But whether it comes off or not," he said, more slowly, "I won't be here to help. And I won't have any free time afterwards to visit in this system. I'll be on my way back to Central with you, and once I land there, G.o.d knows what six urgent a.s.signments will be waiting." He177.

looked up, direcdy into Nantia's primary cabin sensor.

"So you see, dear lady, this a.s.signment is no more to my liking than it is to yours. I hope we can sink our dif- ferences for the duration - "

"Hush" The conversation in Fa.s.sa's cabin had sud- denly become very interesting; Nancia didn't want to have to wait and replay it, she wanted to know what was going on right now.

It appeared that Fa.s.sa was trying to plea bargain with information on some of the other young people who'd been involved in that vicious wager. She began by hinting to Sev that she might be able to inform on a whole gang of criminals in the Nyota system if doing so would get her a reduced sentence. Sev, quite properly, told her that he wasn't authorized to make such promises.

MOh, what the h.e.l.l," Fa.s.sa said wearily at last." If I'm going down, I won't go alone. You might as well know everything. At least then you'll see that I'm not the worst of the bunch by a long shot."

She began telling Sev all she knew about Darnell Overton-Glaxely and the ways in which he'd worked his illegal Net access, first to bring in shipping bids that were always just a shade lower than those of his compet.i.tors, then to destroy the credit and acquire the stock of any small businesses he felt like adding to his empire.

"AU very interesting," Sev told her. "But if Overton- Glaxely is as clever as you say at accessing private Net datastreams, he'll have been clever enough to leave no traces of his taps."

"Oh, he's not clever at all," Fa.s.sa said. "He was taught how to tap into the datastream - "

"By?" Sev prompted gentiy.

Fa.s.sa shook her head. She had gone rather white about the lips. "It doesn't matter. n.o.body you're likely to catch up with. Not me, if that's what you're think- ing; I haven't got that kind of brains."

"I never suspected you had," Sev said, rather too 178.

6f Margaret BaS solemnly. Fa.s.sa gave him a suspicious glance. His lips were twitching. She aimed a mock blow at him.

"That's right, insult my intelligence!"

Sev caught her wrist and held it for a long moment while Nancia wondered if it was time to interrupt. At last his fingers relaxed. Fa.s.sa subsided onto her bunk.

There was a white ring about her wrist where Sev had held her; she rubbed it absently while she went on talking. "Never mind about the Net, then. There's other ways to prove it. One of the men Darnell ruined found out a little too much about his methods, and Darnell sent him to Summerlands."

At that point Nancia decided that Forister had better hear this too. Whatever she thought of the man as a re- placement for her Caleb, he was a trusted CenDip senior civil servant. He had friends in Summerlands.

And he seemed to share her opinion of Dr. bint Hezra- Fong. She piped the input from Fa.s.sa's cabin through her speakers in Forister's cabin. After a moment's stunned silence, Forister sat down amid the piles of an- tiques on his bunk and listened carefully.

"Darnell thought Alpha would kill the man for him.

She'd had a bunch of accidents with the tests she ran on her charity patients; she was getting quite good at faking death certificates with innocent-seeming causes of death. She used to boast about it at our annual meetings. One more wouldn't have been any problem for her. But she didn't kill him. She keeps him so full of Seductron that he doesn't know who he is, and when- ever she wants Darnell to do her a favor, she threatens to cut the man's Seductron dosage."

"His name?'* Sev demanded.

Fa.s.sa looked down. "I'd like some a.s.surances that you'll see my sentence reduced."

"You know I can't do that," Sev told her She twisted her fingers together. "You could lose the records of this last trip, though. Without your tes-179.

timony and the recordings, there woulan't be any hard evidence against me." She looked up, eyes bril- liant with unshed tears. "Please, Sev? I thought you cared for me a little."

"You were wrong," said Sev in a voice as dead and even as any droneship's artificially generated speech.

"Then what do I have? Why should I give you a d.a.m.ned thing?" Fa.s.sa pounded on the yielding sur- face of the bunk in frustration. Her fists sank into the plasmaform and left momentary dents that smoothed out as soon as she lifted her hands. "Oh, all right. Go ahead and see me mindwiped, or sent to prison until I'm too old to care," she said wearily. "Why should the others get away with it when my life is ruined? The man's name is Valden Alien Hopkirk, and he used to own Hopkirk Glimware right here on Bahati. Is that enough for you, or would you like his Central Citizen Code as well?"

"Any little thing you can tell us would be much ap- preciated," said Sev carefully.

"Well, I don't happen to know his CCC, so you're out of luck!" Fa.s.sa snapped. "Wait - wait - there's more."

"There is?"

"Find Hopkirk, and you'll have evidence on Alpha and Darnell both," Fa.s.sa said rapidly. "But there's another one you ought to get. His name's Blaize...."

In the brawn's cabin, Forister lowered his head to rest on his clenched hands. "Blaize Armontillado- Perez y Medoc," he whispered. "No. No."

Fve family m the Nyota system... I was going to visit after fleft Sunrnierhnds ...

Nancia cut off the audio transmission to Forister's cabin and shut down her own sensors there. She lis- tened alone while Fa.s.sa babbled out the details of Blaize's felonious career on Angalia; the diverting of PTA shipments, the slave labor and torture of the na- 180.

fc?

rive population he was supposed to be guarding.