Crystal Heat

7

“Hoo, chals, I’m wiped.” Shadith moved her shoulders, then patted a yawn; the room’s single window was bright with the striated colors of the diurn dawn. “Been dogging on my job long enough.”

Bisa grimaced, worked her mouth. “Something died on my tongue. Job, Shadow?”

“Looking for someone, what I should be doing. You all feel like having a peer at a phot?”

“Why?”

Shadith ignored the sudden wariness in Herm’s voice. “I’m hunting for this girl. A rescue of sorts, no prosecution. She got conned by a scamjack and went off with him because she was too scared to stay behind. Poor kid. Her boss said she’s near genius with tech stuff and a real klutz with everything else. Boss wants her back on the job. The jack’s probably long gone, but the girl’s supposed to be floating around the Market somewhere.”

Bisa held out her hand and scowled when The Max caught her by the wrist. “The two of you can take a long walk out a short lock. Any dirtkickin’ kid that hits the Market without a clue or connections is in bad trouble and you know it.”

She took the flake viewer, clicked it on, and swore. You didn’t say how young she was Shadow.”

“She’s around twenty standard. But a babe when it comes to knowing what’s what. She came out of a foundling home and lived in a dorm when the client took her on as an apprentice?’

Chali took the viewer from Bisa, glanced at the image and passed it to Herm. “Mind telling us who the client is?”

“I’ll tell you this much. I’ve know her for a number of years now She’s the mother of “a friend of mine, and we’ve done a bit of business, together that worked out real well for me. She’s prickly and hard-nosed and I don’t much like her, but when she says she’ll do something, she does it; she plays fair and doesn’t hold grudges. If any of you happen to know the girl, talk to her first, see what she says.” She yawned again. “Sar! I’m tired.” She took the viewer from The Max. “Think about it. I’m hiving in Mimarose. If you decide to give me a call, as a favor, not before Node noon.”

Shadith drifted out of sleep, shifting off her stomach onto her side. It didn’t help. She didn’t want to wake, but her bladder gave her no choice. Grumbling under her breath she rolled off the bed and stumbled to the fresher.

When she came back, she saw the message light blinking. She rubbed at her eyes, tried to wake herself enough to cope with whoever was calling. “Read message.”

The words unreeled in a minatory tone as the Marratorium governors wanted to make sure she knew she couldn’t receive pay for singing unless she had a cabaret license and was she planning to apply any time soon? She groaned. “Abort that. Any more messages?”

“One message received and read.” The hum ended and the light clicked off.

“Ah spla. I was afraid of that. Ah well, I did my best. Now it’s back to slogging along the hard way.”

One by one she hit the smaller places along the Circle, showing the viewer, asking her questions. Have you seen this girl? She’s a lamb ripe for shearing and I want to send her home. Do you know anyone who might know where she is?

She chatted with waiters and barmen, waitresses and barmaids, the occasional full-time drunk or dreamer, Cousin and non, even a meditating Sikkul Paem with ve’s budlets sitting in pools of focvoda, doing ve’s drinking for ve, passing the vibes along the rootlets that connected them to their parent. Sometimes she traded stories with all of them about what could happen to girls trying to get by without connections, sometimes she simply gossiped about this and that, her ears primed to pick up any information she could about female smugglers.

Footsore and hoarse from talking so much for such little result, awash from the drinks she’d had to buy, she reached the Tangul Cafй toward the end of the Node afternoon. The shell was beginning to darken and it was the slow time, too late for the working crowd and too early from the night owls. The place was almost empty.

She dropped into a chair at one of the tables near the bar, sighed with the pleasure of getting off her feet, then sat slumped with her head against the wall, her eyes closed. After a moment, she pried them open and inspected the menu written in liquid crystal above the bar mirror.

A jaje waitress came trotting over, her dusky fur absorbing light so efficiently she was little more than a blotch of darkness with a pair of shining gold eyes. “Hard day?” Her voice was as soft and muted as her fur.

“Oh, yes. I think a cup of tea’s all I can manage.” She glanced at the menu again. “Uplands Red.”

“Ah. One of my own favorites. They do it right here, two pots and water on the edge, of boiling.”

“Well, would your bosses infarct if you sat a moment and had a cup yourself? spring for it.” She chuckled as the gold eyes narrowed and the small round ears flattened against the jaje’s skull. “Only renting a moment of your time. You can always walk away.”

“Why not.” The jaje waved a three-fingered hand. “It’s not as if we’re rushed off our feet right now.” A breathy sucking sound, jaje laughter. “If you come up with a tip, the time might be more fruitful.” She went gliding off.

Shadith took a sip of the tea and smiled with pleasure. “You’re right. Ah, that’s good.” She slipped the flake viewer from her belt pouch and set it on the table close to the edge where the tiny jaje could reach it. “I’m a bitty shovel in Digby’s Excavations.” She went through the patter she’d repeated so many times already. “… no friends, no connections, likely she’s not enjoying herself much these days.”

The jaje tapped on the viewer, examined the image with care, then shook her head. “Sorry. Haven’t seen her. And she’s unusual enough I’d probably have noticed. Too bad. Femmes on their own, even when they know what’s what, they can get in a mess of trouble. At least we jajes have our bond. And the home tree. Sometimes, though… Z-juice I hate that stuff. They got my bonds and me that way. We’ve a long line to swing before we get home again. You offering a reward?”

“I can go high as fifty gelders, higher I’d have to check with the client. I know what you mean. Had my own problems that way. I’m a lot older than I look, and a few years back I was so dewy I might have been just hatched. Ran into a guard on a transfer station who liked ’em young and scared. Tried to use Zombi on me. Ah spla!”

“What happened?”

“He ended in the garbage chute as molecular dust. Not my doing. Long story and complicated. Anyway, that’s when I met Digby the first time.”

The jaje shivered. “We had someone try it here a couple months ago. On this smuggler, at least that’s what the talk was. I suppose she got off with something the Kliu wanted. That’s who they said hired the ghoul. OverSec got real hot. The ghoul’s brain-stripped now and doing a term under Contract. Cheered my bond and me up no end when we heard that.”

“Wonder if she was someone I know. I’ve got several friends who fly the egg route. Caan?”

“Nah, that was her friend. Cousin. Lylunda-yeah, that’s it. Lylunda Elang.”

“Nah, her I don’t know. Take another look at the viewer. If you see someone like that who does things like spill her drinks in her own lap, give me a call. I’m at the Mimarose.”

“Poor tissa-la. Think you could make some dupes of this? My bonds are working several other Nodes. We could ask around.”

“Not a bad idea. All right if I drop them by later tonight?”

“My shift is over an hour after Node midnight. That’d be the best time.”

“I’ll see you then.” She finished the tea. “Nice break, but I’d better shift my feet some more.”