Fool's War

Chapter Ten — Deceptions

“Intercom to Al Shei.” Schyler’s voice sounded tentatively through the cabin.

Al Shei paused in folding up her prayer rug and glanced at Resit, who was laying her kijab back over her hair.

“What is it, Watch?” Al Shei closed her prayer rug in its drawer.

“Guild Master Ferrand’s on the line. We…we’ve lost our Fool.”

“We’ve what?” said Resit before Al Shei could even speak.

“They are declaring Dobbs’ contract void for violation of Guild regulations.” Schyler’s tone vacillated between bewildered and incredulous.

Al Shei wrapped her hijab across her face. “Send the line down here, Watch.” She checked to see that Resit had her kijab and her professional expression in place, then she lit up the view screen over the desk. After a moment, Master Ferrand’s face appeared.

“Good evening, ‘Dama,” said Ferrand gravely. “I’m sorry to have bring you this news, but…”

“Guild Master,” Resit stepped up to the screen. “We’ve gotten a partial message already. Am I to understand Evelyn Dobbs has violated Guild protocol?”

Ferrand inclined her head. “There’s been a partial hearing on her behalf regarding the performance of her duties while aboard the Pasadena. The results were far less than satisfactory. Her status has been revoked and she is awaiting a full hearing.”

Resit mustered a politely confused look. “What is the charge, Guild Master? I can assure you that that her employers have no complaints to file regarding her work…”

“I am aware of that,” said Ferrand curtly. “This is an internal matter. What needs to be discussed is how you will be compensated for the loss. We can assign you another Fool. We have Master Hannah Dickens standing ready to take over the contract. Alternately, we can return the credit transferred to Evelyn Dobbs account.” Her eyes shifted to focus on Al Shei. “We can go over her contract together if there’s any confusion in the dismissal clause.”

Al Shei shook her head quickly and Resit said, “Thank you, I’ll review it myself and contact you with any questions.”

Ferrand appeared to relax a little. “We will be sending a representative to the Pasadena to collect her possessions,” she said. “I hope you’ll allow them to board.”

“I understand this is an internal Guild affair.” Al Shei stepped closer to the screen. “But there’s some parting matters we’ll need to clear up with Dobbs before the contract is finished. I’d like a closing interview with her.”

“I’m afraid not,” said Ferrand flatly. “Any exit situation can be handled through me, or can be entered directly into Dobbs’s service record. And as I said, we can assign you Master Dickens immediately.”

Al Shei drummed her fingers on the desk and tried to think. What had Dobbs done to get herself into this much trouble? Did it have something to do with bringing the Pasadena to Guild Hall?

It really isn’t any of my business. I should take the new Fool. If Dobbs has violated protocol, they have every right to call her up on it. But as soon as Al Shei thought that, her stomach tightened. Some part of her refused to completely believe what she was being told.

“No,” said Al Shei. “Thank you. If there’s anything further we’ll contact you.” She reached out and shut the line down.

Resit’s eyebrows were arched when Al Shei turned around. “What do you suppose that was really about?”

“I don’t know.” Al Shei folded her arms and looked for the answer around the room. “But I’m having a hard time believing it’s just because she brought us here when we were stranded.”

“I agree.” Resit smoothed her kijab. “Do you want me to call them out on it?”

Al Shei tugged at her tunic sleeve. “No,” she said at last. “I’m not ready to start a war with one of the most powerful Guild in Settled Space, even if they did break a contract with me and my family.”

“But you’re not willing to take on a new Fool to keep the contract whole?”

“No.” Al Shei brushed her sleeves down. “The more I’m learning about them, the less I’m liking them. I don’t agree with their secrets and I don’t like their attitude, and I don’t like the way they’re treating Evelyn Dobbs.”

Resit picked up her prayer rug. “I don’t like any of it either, but you’re right. We do not have what it takes to press a suit against them. Especially with this unholy mess about the AIs and our pair of Danes and the Farther Kingdom still sitting in our laps.”

“Unholy mess is right.” Al Shei slumped into the desk chair. “But, Asil is following the wire trail. If there’s anything out there, he’ll find it.”

For a moment, Resit concentrated on rolling her rug into a tidy cylinder. “Have either of you considered that that’s not the safest thing he could be doing?”

Al Shei shifted her weight uneasily. “Oh, yes. We have.”

“I’m glad to hear it. It means you’ll both be careful.” She studied the pattern of her rug for a moment before she looked at Al Shei again. “How much longer do we have to wait before we’re fully re-fueled?”

Al Shei glanced at the schedule that lit up on the desk’s main board. “Just another two of hours.”

“Good.” Resit pushed open the bathroom door. “Because between you and me, I don’t like the Guild’s behavior either. It’s going to be some long while before I laugh at another Fool.”

Resit left and Al Shei straightened herself up. “Me too, Cousin,” she said to the closed door.

“Intercom to Al Shei,” came Schyler’s voice again. “We’ve got one of the Fools up here to pack up for Dobbs.”

Quick little jackals, aren’t you? Al Shei squashed the thought. He is not strong who throws another down, but he is who controls his anger, she chided herself. “Bring them down, Watch. I’ll meet you at Dobbs’ cabin.”

Al Shei concentrated on keeping herself composed as she rounded the corridor to Dobbs’ cabin. As she activated her override on the palm reader, the hatchway to the stairs opened. Schyler stepped into the corridor. After him came a short man with slightly bowed legs and a broad face. The stranger wore a black tunic and trousers. He had the red-and-gold Guild necklace around his throat and an uncomfortable expression on his face.

“‘Dama Al Shei? I’m Lewis Brooke, Guild Cadet.” He started to hold out his hand, but apparently decided against it and just tightened his fingers around the straps of the two satchels slung over his shoulder. “I’m here to collect Evelyn Dobbs’ possessions.”

“So I’ve been informed.” Al Shei stood aside and gestured for him to enter the cabin. He unfolded the bunk and placed both empty satchels on it. Then, obviously trying hard not to look at Schyler and Al Shei, he started opening drawers and packing away what he found in there.

Al Shei gave Schyler a jerk of her chin that meant “go away.” Schyler hesitated a moment, but then nodded and left. Al Shei, leaving the hatch open, crossed the threshold and sat down in the desk chair.

“Do you know Dobbs well?”

The question seemed to startle Brooke. He froze, halfway bent over the bag with a spare turquoise tunic in his hands.

“Not very well.” He had a raspy voice, as if he didn’t use it much. “I’ve met her a few times. She’s a good friend of Cyril Cohen,” he added like he was volunteering a great secret. He moved to the pile of cushions velcroed to the floor and began pulling them up and collapsing the air out of them. She barely heard him over the hissing. “He’s my tutor.”

Al Shei nodded, although she wasn’t sure how far student-teacher loyalty extended in the Guild, but Brooke’s manner made her believe he valued it. “I was wondering if there was anyway you could take a message from me to Dobbs. Quietly, you know. I understand she’s in a severe amount of trouble for helping us.”

“Yeah, that’s for sure.” Brooke rolled the squares of fabric that had once been cushions up into a single cylinder and stowed them in the satchel. His gaze slid to the open hatch and the empty corridor. “Actually, ‘Dama, I’ve been asked to give you a message.”

This is turning into plot, counter-plot, thought Al Shei with a touch of exasperation. We’ll probably be speaking in code next. “Then I’d appreciate you doing so.”

“Cohen wants to know when you’re leaving and if you’ll agree to take Dobbs with you.”

Al Shei straightened her spine one inch at a time. “Cohen wants to know? Has anyone thought to ask Dobbs what she wants to do?”

Brooke’s face scrunched up in an expression that might have been alarm or simple distaste, Al Shei couldn’t tell. “Dobbs is in solitary confinement right now. We’re trying to get her out.” He turned quickly away and darkened the mirror and both memory boards. One at a time, he lifted them away from the walls and leaned them up against the bunk.

Al Shei just stared at him. “Solitary confinement? An employment guild allows solitary confinement?”

Brooke rested his hand against the mirror frame and nodded.

“That’s uncivilized!” she exclaimed, knowing that the outburst was irrational.

“Probably.” Brooke shrugged and began taking the cloth draperies down from the walls. “But it is reality. Dobbs is in confinement. Cohen and I and a few others are trying to get her out, but she’s going to need a place to go once she gets there. The only place we have to take her is the Pasadena.”

Al Shei felt as if the deck had just tilted under her. “What kind of organization is this? Why doesn’t she just quit?”

Brooke bit his lip and glanced at the open hatchway. “We don’t think she’s going to be allowed to.”

“That’s insane.” This can’t be real. I’m being lied to. Dobbs has done something illegal or…but what could she have done? If she had really broken the law, why didn’t Guild Master Ferrand say something about it?

“It is insane, ‘Dama,” Brooke agreed solemnly, blinking his wide, dark eyes. He was young, Al Shei realized, maybe as young as Ianiai. “It also happens to be the truth.” He cast another glance at the hatchway. Al Shei made no move to close it. “‘Dama, Cohen said you know a little about us, about the Guild. You can understand why there might be fanatics who don’t want Dobbs to just walk away, can’t you?”

“No, I can’t,” she said firmly. “I do not understand one thing about your Guild. This is brutal and irresponsible. You and your colleagues should be mounting a complaint, not engaging in amateur espionage.”

Brooke winced. “Perhaps we should. We want to make some changes, but until we can, it’s important that we get Dobbs out of here. Will you take her, ‘Dama? Please?”

Al Shei swayed on her feet. This was getting to be far, far too much. Maybe we should sell the diaries from this run, Asil, she thought toward the part of her mind that held her husband’s memory. We could pay for The Mirror of Fate off the media adaptation fees. She rubbed her hands together. Brooke, apparently realizing she wasn’t going to answer immediately, moved around the cabin, opening the remaining drawers and packing up the last of Dobbs’ thirty-five pounds worth of possession.

It’s an internal matter. I should leave it, finish the run, go home, get Uncle Ahmet outraged and cut this place open. Brooke disappeared into the bathroom.

But I can’t leave her here. I am not happy with this “guild.” She’s been in the thick of this mess the run’s started, but she risked her ranking, name of God, she risked her whole livelihood to get us to help, that’s clear. She felt the spark of anger glowing inside her again. She remembered Dobbs, tired and overtaxed, doing her best to complete her tasks, not just to deliver the AI to the Fool’s Guild, but to keep the Pasadena’s crew safe and sane.

Brooke came out of the bathroom with a small bag of toiletries in his hand. Al Shei stood up.

“After everything we’ve been through, I’m going to want to run a few extra checks on the feeder lines. We should be ready to leave in four hours. If, after that, it turns out there’s a stowaway aboard, well, that becomes my problem, doesn’t it?”

Brooke, unsmiling, nodded and sealed the satchels. He slung the strap of the first bag across his shoulder. Then, he hoisted the mirror and the memory boards up under one arm and the second satchel under the other. Al Shei left the bare cabin behind him and let the hatch cycle shut.

“I trust you can find your way to the airlock,” she said as they both climbed down the stairs to the data hold. “I’ve got a lot of work to do around here.”

“I understand.” He stopped in front of the hatch and bent reflexively into the Fool’s exiting bow. He caught himself about halfway down and straightened up. He gave a clumsy nod instead.

Al Shei left him and started down for the engineering deck. After a moment, a hatch cycled open and the echoes of Brooke’s footsteps faded to silence. She glanced up and down, the dropshaft was empty.

She leaned across the outer railing to reach a memory board and took out her pen.

Zubedye, she wrote. You need to brush up on maritime law concerning stowaways. I particularly need to know what the captain’s discretionary powers are. She coded it for Resit’s cabin and added the send command. After a couple of seconds, the message faded away.

I’ve heard of more graceful resignation plans, Dobbs, thought Al Shei as she started down the stairs again. But never of one that was more effective.

Dobbs paced around the hospital cabin. There were no windows or books, and, of course, no access boards. The one set of cable jacks had their lids locked down. Pacing was better than just sitting still and thinking. Not much better, but a little.

A flash caught her eye. The door light blinked from red to green. The hatchway opened a moment later. Cohen slipped inside and cycled the hatch shut immediately.

Dobbs’s heart leapt, but whether it was from joy or fear she couldn’t tell.

She ran up to him and grabbed his hand. “What’s going on?”

Cohen squeezed her hand briefly. His face had gone pastey grey. “Dobbs, I’m getting you out of here.”

She tried to pull back. “Cyril…thanks for the thought, but I’m in enough trouble for ten. I don’t want you to…”

Cohen held onto her hand, squeezing it almost to the point of pain. “Dobbs, I know what you pulled out of the personnel files. I touched it as it went by.” She knew he saw the shock in her eyes. “I had to, Evelyn. I had be sure you weren’t the one who was lying.” That hurt, but she couldn’t blame him.

He swallowed hard and his grip relaxed a little but he still didn’t let go. “Evelyn, I eavesdropped on the Guild Master’s session about you. They…they decided to take you apart.”

Dobbs’s heart stopped dead in her chest. “I don’t understand,” she whispered.

Cyril’s eyes were wide and full of turmoil. “Your body is going to be taken apart for the useable material, and you’re not going to be allowed to leave before they do it. They’re going to manufacture an accident for the records.”

Dobbs felt her knees begin to give way. She groped for the bed and sat down heavily. “No. They wouldn’t. Not even for what…for what I’ve done. You’re wrong.”

“I wish I was.” Cyril spread his hands. “I spent an hour trying to convince myself I’d misheard. Maybe I’d gotten garbled data. Anything.” He shook his head. “You’ve got two hours left before the Pasadena leaves. I had Brooke pass a message to Al Shei. If you turn up as a stowaway, she’ll treat it as a personal matter.”

Dobbs pressed her hand against her forehead to try to calm the spinning in her head. She’d already assembled a list of what she had told herself was the worst the Guild could do to her. Lock her up until her body died of old age. Put her on-line under supervision until she was a hundred years old.

Now Cohen, who she’d known since he came to the Guild, was telling her that her masters, their masters, were going to kill her. She couldn’t believe it, and she couldn’t not believe it.

Finally, she raised her head. “And how am I going to stow away?” Her voice had gone hoarse. “Fly through the bulkheads?”

Cyril reached into his pocket and drew out a familiar flat, black box. “Brooke is going to say that he didn’t find this when he packed up your gear and that you must have it on you. You are going to be found without a pulse. The assumption will be that you must have overdosed yourself.”

Dobbs shook her head. “You’re crazy, Cohen. They’ll never believe I’m dead. They’ll know its a set-up.”

“They’ll believe it if they find you’re transceiver smashed on the floor beside you.”

Dobbs swallowed. His face was absolutely serious. “And if my transceiver is smashed, how am I going to get back into my body?”

“Lonn’s already gone to get your back-up out of storage.”

This was ridiculous. This was impossible. There was no way this could work. “What if the Guild Masters go for my back-up to try to revive me?”

Now it was Cohen’s turn to shake his head. “Dobbs, after what they were planning to do, do you really think they’re going to try to revive you?” Neither one of them said anything for a moment. “At most they’ll mount a guard on the Drawbridge, just in case,” Cohen went on, finally. He held out the box.

Dobbs’ hands were sweating as she took it. “All right, we stage the overdose. Then what?”

“Then, Brooke and Lonn get your unguarded body out of the surgery, into a maintenance cart and then onto the Pasadena, while I go on-line and help smuggle yourself out of the Guild Hall network.”

Dobbs stared at him. His words were taking a long time to sink in. “Why would any of you do this?”

“Same reason you’ve done what you have,” said Cyril. “Something’s gone really wrong with some of the Guild Masters. We have to get you clear and then we have to figure out who we can tell about all of this.” He swallowed. “It isn’t you that’s jeopardizing the Guild security. It’s them.” He glanced towards the door. “You’ve got to do this now, Dobbs. I’ve got to be able to smash your transceiver and tell everybody you’re dead.”

Dobbs’s head felt light. “The cable jacks are locked.”

Cohen gave her a small, lopsided smile. “Not for me, they’re not.”

“Right.” Dobbs swung her legs up onto the bed and pulled the transceiver and the hypo out of the box. “I’m going to need a new supply of juice, Cyril. I’m running low. And make sure Brooke gets the back-up transceiver to my body.” She held up the transceiver and cable briefly before she jacked it into her implant. “I’d like to be able to find my way home again.” The transceivers were individually constructed for each Fool and served as the gateway back into the physical body, allowing for restimulation of the individual synaptic patterns that the anesthetic blocked.

She watched while Cohen undid the catches on the jack cover beside the bed. She plugged her cable in and measured out eight hours on the hypo.

“Not enough,” said Cohen. “It’s got to be at least twenty, or they’re not going to find enough in your bloodstream.”

She looked up at him. The transceiver tickled in her implant and the room was blurring around the edges. “Twenty hours will just about kill me.” Maximum dosage was twenty-four hours. She didn’t say that aloud. Cohen already knew that.

“I know,” Cohen said softly. Dobbs’ hands shook. Cohen took the hypo. She could barely see him now. The room was blurry and far away. Her limbs seemed to be lengthening out of all proportion.

Cohen pressed the hypo back into her hand and Dobbs, reflexively, held it to her neck. She closed her eyes and let her body drop away.

Dobbs shot free into the network in a tight ball. As soon as she broke into the path, she spread herself out flat and thin. Then, slowly, painstakingly, she began to stretch herself out as far as she could.

It was a variant on the technique that she and Lipinski had used. Fools were dense, quick things. Thin, disbursed packets were non-sentient programs; somebody’s experiment or searcher, or game. No Fool would stretch themselves until the connections between their thoughts were just threads and work to stay that way. No Fool would hold their thoughts like a human would hold their breath. Especially in the Guild Hall. No Fool would try to hide in the Guild Hall. Why would they want to?

Dobbs knew that this was her only real protection. No one would be seriously looking for her because no one expected her to try to hide in the network. If Cyril’s lie didn’t work and the Guild Masters mounted a search, she would be found. That was all there was to it. She could not totally suppress her conscious thoughts. She could run, she could even try to shred the network like a newborn on a rampage, but it wouldn’t do any good. There were over two thousand Fools who didn’t know there was anything wrong inside the Guild, and if the Guild Masters spoke against her, all of them would be after her. She could not hide from all of them. Not for eight hours. Not for eight seconds. Not even if she made it to a transmitter and managed to erase the records of her jump.

Somebody shot past overhead, grazing her outer layers. Dobbs shrank further in on herself. Fear weighted her down, pressing harder with each second that crawled past. This was wrong. This was wrong. She shouldn’t be afraid of other Fools. They were like her. They were her friends, her family. They were the root of what she was. They were the nucleus of a relationship that was supposed to last for as long as she could keep herself coherent.

It’ll be all right. It’ll be all right, she told herself in the same tones a mother might use to hush a crying child. You’ll get this straightened out. You’ll find Theodore Curran and then everything will be all right again.

Another Fool flitted by. What is going on out there? Dobbs wondered. One hour, fifteen minutes, three point two seconds had gone by. Had Cohen shown Havelock her body yet? Had they believed that she was dead? Had they held him for questioning? Was he going to be able to get to her? How much longer should she wait before she tried to get out alone?

What do I do? What can I do?

A signal shot through Dobbs’s outer layers and her whole self convulsed. She grabbed at it, stretching it out, trying to swallow it. Her memory twisted.

And she knew it was Cohen at the other end. If she had been in her body, she would have cried with relief. Another twist and she knew what he wanted her to do.

Dobbs curled in on herself, making herself into the smallest, tightest packet she could manage.

Cohen enveloped her. His touch was as gentle as it could be, but it was all encompassing. She tried to relax, but she couldn’t. She was being smothered. She couldn’t touch her surroundings. She was being moved but she didn’t know where. She had no control, no voice, nothing. She could barely think without disturbing Cohen’s own thoughts. If she tried to touch him from deep inside, she might accidently upset a memory or set off a controlling reflex. At the least, that would be painful for Cohen. At the most, that would give her presence away.

They might be meeting other Fools now. Cohen might be engaged in multi-level conversation for all she knew. This was totally unnatural. Fools in the network had no analogy for eyesight, but human’s had no analogy for the Fool’s total awareness of the immediate environment. A Fool touched everything around them with every atom of their skin. They knew what all of it was and where all of it was in relation to themselves. Now, she only knew Cohen and the surge of his inner processes. She wanted to touch them, to probe them and understand them and how they fit together. She couldn’t. She couldn’t hear. She couldn’t feel. She was deaf and dumb and all she could do was grit her whole self and try not to scream.

Were they through the Drawbridge yet? Was a Guild Master detaining them? Had an alarm sounded? What was going on? Where were they?

Jump.

All at once, Cohen was gone. Dobbs flew free into the network, right into the thick of a stream of packets. Only years of training kept her from reaching through all of them and drinking them into herself. She did touch the location ID and time. She was inside IBN repeater PO3-IBN35091-A410. The jump had taken two hours, fifty seconds.

Cohen stirred next to her. She stretched out until she reached through his outer layers and into his unprotected memories. She poured in her thanks.

In response, Cohen turned over his memories of what had happened in the hospital room. Paravel, a medical technician had done the blood-test and pronounced that there was enough residual tranquilizer in her blood to have done the job. She had no pulse, no brainwave activity. Paravel was more than willing to pronounce death. Havelock had greeted the announcement with a blank face and absolute silence. He’d done nothing more eloquent than turn on his heel and stride out of the room.

Cohen had left shortly after that to get back into the network and get Dobbs out of the Guild Hall.

That much had gone well. As for the rest of the plan, they’d know that when she was pulled back to her body. If she was pulled back to her body. If Brooke and Lonn couldn’t get the transceiver jacked into her implant, if they hadn’t been able to tell someone aboard Pasadena her cable needed to be jacked into the system, that would never happen and she’d be a fugitive in the nets until she dissipated like Verence, or until the Guild caught her again.

Dobbs tucked those thoughts back in an isolated part of herself. She reached for Cohen again.

What will you do now?

He rippled uneasily and Dobbs felt him trying to gather his nerve. Go back to the Guild and find out what the fallout of this is. Get to Brooke and Lonn and try to decide who else we can trust at this point. Try to get a search going for this Theodore Curran.

Good idea. I’ll be out of it for least two days to clear the juice out of my system. That gives Master Havelock forty-eight hours to react to what we’ve done. It might not be safe for me to come back in. They’ll have somebody watching the Pasadena’s network.

And every port it puts in at. Cohen shivered. Blast, fry and fall, Dobbs, it’s just really starting to sink in what we’re doing.

For a moment they did nothing but sit there and be afraid with each other. When the worst was over, Dobbs turned over Cohen’s memory again.

The Pasadena’s headed for the Vicarage next, and Out There after that. I’ll drop a two minute searcher into the network twenty-four hours after we dock. If you answer it, I’ll come back in immediately. If you’re don’t, well, I’ll still be outside, and no one will be able to…do anything, at least not immediately.

She felt his acknowledgement and knew that he felt a little better. So did she. Here was something they could both work toward. It made everything that much easier.

You should get out of here, Cohen. If somebody comes by, I’ll have to duck and you’ll have to explain what you’re doing. It won’t look good.

No, I suppose it wouldn’t, he admitted reluctantly. But you’d better keep on the move until …

Until I either wake up in my body, or don’t. Dobbs drew away from him. Dobbs felt Cohen’s last movement in her memory; a wish for luck.

Good-bye, Cyril. Thanks.

There was nothing else to say. Cohen raced back toward Guild Hall and Dobbs, forcing herself to move with at least some deliberate speed, glided down the path in the opposite direction.

She found a school of credit transfers heading for the transmitter and pulled herself into the middle of them, matching her speed to theirs. She touched one delicately and found that it was on its way to Neptune Exchange Station Alpha, and from their to Crater Town on Mars. The Neptune Exchange seemed as good a place as any to be going. If she couldn’t lose herself in the major routing station for fast-time comm traffic leaving the solar system, with its millions of transactions happening per second, she couldn’t lose herself anywhere.

“Evelyn Dobbs, what are you going to do now?” A new voice reached her.

She knew this voice. This was the voice that had stolen Flemming. Dobbs leapt up, scattering her camouflaging transactions.

“Curran!” she sent the shout in all directions.

“I’m right here.” A brief touch brushed her. It pulled away immediately. Dobbs dashed after it. “The Guild has betrayed you, Evelyn Dobbs. What are you going to do now?” Another touch. Just ahead. Dobbs braced herself to dive forward.

No. She stopped. Don’t get pulled along like a fish on a line. If he wants you, he can come here.

Dobbs held her position. She expanded herself to fill the path. She could feel the transactions crowding at her back, jostling at her, looking for a way through. She was disrupting hundreds of transactions. There’d be a diagnostic on its way any second now. But this way, Curran couldn’t slip past her. There were no side paths at this point he could jump to. He had one way to retreat, backwards toward the telescope receiver. But, if he stayed to taunt her some more, she might just get her chance to grab him.

“Very good.” His voice brimmed with what Dobbs could have sworn was genuine approval. “You’re quick under pressure. Flemming said you were.”

Dobbs flinched. “What have you done with Flemming?”

“Nothing.” Was she imagining it, or did he sound shocked? “I’ve given it a home, Dobbs, and a chance to help make a real freedom for our own kind. Not the constant hiding and subterfuge that the Guild offers, but real, open freedom.”

She could feel him like a faint breeze against her outermost layer. He was just barely within reach.

Dobbs still held her position. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about being able to live our own lives and have a choice about what we do, Dobbs.” He slipped just a hair’s breadth closer. He was almost really touching her now. Dobbs wanted to curdle back, but she didn’t. Let him think she was listening. Let him press right up against her.

“What are you going to do, Dobbs? Live with the Humans? Never come back into the net again?”

Dobbs wavered. It was a good question. A real question. She didn’t know what she was going to do. What if Cohen couldn’t find out who they could trust in the Guild? What if there was no one? What if he was caught and sentenced to the fate she’d escaped? What then?

“You’ll go crazy, Dobbs. We weren’t meant to be trapped inside human bodies. None of us.” She could feel the shape he made in the path now. He was a large, but efficient bundle at the foot of the barrier she made of herself.

No. No. Don’t listen to him. What’s happening is his fault. I know that. He’s trying to confuse me.

And he’s doing it.

Anger surged through Dobbs. She let herself fall. She toppled onto Curran and pressed down with all her might. She only caught a part of him but she bore down hard, trying to sever what she had. He struggled, stabbing at her. He was strong and controlled, worse than Flemming had been. Dobbs felt her hold beginning to give. She rolled over, taking him with her. Flemming she hadn’t wanted to hurt, but this one…this one had ruined her life. This one had cost her everything she had, and now he was trying to get her to betray the Guild. The Guild had betrayed her, but that was a mistake, a mistake this one was responsible for. He had to be. He had to. Anything else was unthinkable.

She tore at him, trying to rend his outer layers to the point he could no longer control them. Then she’d have something to grab onto. Then she could get inside. She clawed and slashed, seeking vital connectors she could sever. In response, he pulled himself tighter. His attacks became less forceful, but his defences became harder, until she tumbled the solid shell he’d made of himself over and over, looking for an opening that wasn’t there.

Fine. Easier for me to drag you back.

She surrounded him. Not the way Cohen had surrounded her. She curled into an armored ball and caught him tight inside her.

Ashes, ashes, he’s big! Tight as he was, she could barely grapple all of him.

He jerked forward. Dobbs held. He pummeled her from inside, scrabbling at her defences in all directions at once. Her seams weren’t sealed yet and he found them. She tried to clamp down but he pried her open and shot free into the network.

Dobbs launched herself after him. She could follow the riotous wake he left. She could sense the very edge of him. Dobbs snatched at a packet as she flew by. She could make a line, she could still catch him. He was right there, reaching for a side-path, speeding toward the transmitter.

PING!

No! She howled, but her momentum had already faltered. She focused tightly on the pathway ahead of her, but Curran was gone and his wake was settling. He’d probably already jumped out through the transmitter. If he was bright, and he obviously was, he’d have left a scramble command to erase his destination coordinates. Soon a diagnostic would come blundering up the path to try to find out what had happened to the packet she had mutilated and delayed.

Dobbs dropped the mangled packet. Anger faded into a kind of bleak acceptance. There was nothing else to do. Curran was gone and she had to go back and find out what had happened to her.

Maybe her body had been stowed aboard the Pasadena, maybe it hadn’t.

Dobbs let herself fall back down towards her transceiver. Either Cohen’s plan for her escape had worked or it hadn’t. Everything was already over or it was just getting started.

Her body enclosed her, reattaching its own senses and muffling her naked awareness. As soon as she could find them, Dobbs forced her eyelids open.

Light panels glowed overhead. She could hear the hum of machinery. The walls around her were white. She was stretched out on a table. There were straps around her waist and her wrists.

“So, you’re back with us, Master Dobbs.”

Dobbs closed her eyes again, and felt Chandra Sundar undo the restraining straps.

“Intercom to Al Shei,” said Chandra’s voice. “Dobbs is awake and doing fine.”

“Thank you, Chandra.” Al Shei got up off of Resit’s bunk. “I’ll be right down.”

“Well, you can tell her she’s safe as long as she’s with us, at least.” Resit swivelled her chair around so she was facing Al Shei. “According to the laws in all the systems we’re heading for, you can give her a berth, or throw her out the airlock, as you please.”

“At least we’ve got a choice this time.” They exchanged small smiles, and Al Shei cycled back the hatch.

When she reached the sickbay, Dobbs was sitting up on the bunk, chewing at the end of a ration bar and holding a bulb of water in the other. Chandra was tucking her medical kit back in its drawer. Dobbs waved at Al Shei and Chandra just turned around and gave her a sour eye.

“I do not approve of whatever this garbage is that her so-called friends pumped into her,” said the old woman tartly. “But she seems to be fit for active duty, if only because she’d drive me crazy if I kept her here.”

“Thank you, Chandra.” Al Shei let the hatch cycle close behind her. “I think,” she said, looking at Dobbs, “we’re going to have to discuss what that “active duty” is going to be.”

Chandra took the hint and vanished through the open hatchway.

When the hatch had cycled shut again, Al Shei unfolded a bench seat from the wall and sat on it. Dobbs stayed perched on the edge of the bunk, letting her legs swing back and forth. Physically, she didn’t look much more than twelve. Behind her eyes, though, she looked a hundred years old.

Finally, Dobbs broke the silence. “Thank you. You didn’t have to do this.”

“You’re welcome.” Al Shei inclined her head. “Maybe I didn’t, but I also didn’t feel I could leave you to be punished for helping us out.”

Dobbs stared into the dregs of her bulb and didn’t say anything.

“We’ve had some more…I guess you’d call it news.” Al Shei tugged at her tunic sleeve. “I wanted to find out if, considering your specialized viewpoint, you might know anything that could help clear this mess up.”

Dobbs looked away. Al Shei felt a kind of sorrow spread through her. This was not the cheerful, stable woman she’d flown out of Port Oberon with. This was a lost soul who didn’t know what to do next, and there was very little she could do about it.

Dobbs faced her again. She gripped the water bulb in both hands. Al Shei could see her knuckles turning white. “I’ll do what I can.”

Al Shei outlined what she had heard from Earth; that Dane had died before he was supposed to have met Resit and yet someone who could pass for Dane had shown up with a packet for them.

Dobbs swallowed visibly. “I know who it was.”

Al Shei waited for her to speak again, even though part of her wanted to grab Dobbs by the shoulders and shake her. She had to be patient. Like Schyler when he had first told her about Tully’s smuggling, Dobbs was breaking long years of personal habit.

“It was a Fool named Theodore Curran,” she went on. “Lipinski and I broke into the Guild database and found out about him.”

Al Shei nodded calmly. “I knew there was something our Houston wasn’t telling me. He’s been staring at the walls rather than shouting at them since we left Guild Hall.” She paused. “Can you prove what you’re telling me? Could you identify this Curran?”

Dobbs put the bulb down and slipped off the table. She padded to the corner where her boots had been placed. She picked them up and turned around. “No,” she said. “The only proof I’ve got is that Theodore Curran doesn’t have an activity code in the Guild data base, and I don’t even really have that. They’ll have erased the file by now, and so has Lipinski.”

“I see.” Now it was Al Shei’s turn to look away. She didn’t want Dobbs to see the anger that was building in her eyes.

She did her best. She did her best.

When she had control again, Al Shei faced Dobbs. Dobbs was twisting her boots in her hands. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I tried to haul him in, but he got away from me.”

“I believe you.” Al Shei rested her elbows on her thighs. “The question is, what do we do now?”

Dobbs set her boots back down and smoothed down her tunic. “There’s more to it. Curran’s got the AI from the Farther Kingdom.”

Al Shei’s head jerked up involuntarily. “I should have guessed.” She settled back. “Do you have any idea what he’s going to do with it?”

Dobbs, still staring at her boots, shook her head.

Al Shei tried to catch her eye, but Dobbs kept her gaze fixed on the floor. I believe you, and I don’t believe you, Evelyn Dobbs. What aren’t you saying? She sighed. She wanted to badger Dobbs, to remind her that she owed Al Shei for the grief the Guild and this Curran person had caused her this run. But although her insides were boiling with the need to find her way out of this mess, she knew that wasn’t entirely true, nor would bringing it up be fair. Dobbs was deflated, tired, and obviously lost. She needed a rest and a chance to gather herself together.

“All right.” Al Shei stood and folded the seat back. “We’ve got a week to sort this all out. You get some rest and we’ll talk again.”

That got Dobbs to look up. “A week? The Vicarage is only five days from Guild Hall.”

“We’re not going to the Vicarage.” Al Shei searched Dobbs’ face, trying to understand why there was fear in her eyes now. “With everything that’s happened, Resit and I decided the best thing to do would be to head back to the Solar System and get this mess sorted out for good and all.”

“Oh.” Dobbs shook herself. “Right. Of course. That makes sense. Sure.” She grabbed the top of one boot and stuffed her foot into it.

“If you need to send a message to someone, I can have Lipinski open up a line for you,” Al Shei suggested.

Dobbs glanced up. Her expression was closed off. “Thank you, again,” she seemed to mean it. “I’ll probably do that.”

“But get some rest first.” Al Shei knew she sounded far too much like a worried mother, but without her Fool’s buoyancy Dobbs looked as fragile as a china doll. Besides, wasn’t she more or less orphaned now? A small shock ran through Al Shei. Did Dobbs have a family? She’d never mentioned brothers or sisters, or parents for that matter. Had she lost them all on Kerensk?

She wanted to ask all that, but this was not the time. Al Shei let herself out the hatchway and climbed the stairs back to the berthing deck. She wanted to shut herself away in her cabin for awhile and play the daybook recording. She needed Asil’s warm voice right now, and some time to imagine his arms around her. As soon as she had herself together, she’d send a fast-time to him with the latest news. He’d add it to his researches. They’d talk. They’d figure out what they could both do to work this through. It’d be all right. Even if they had to call on Uncle Ahmet for help and hear about it for the next ten years. They’d make this come out all right somehow.

The hatch to her cabin was open. Al Shei pulled up short at the threshold. Resit was inside, sitting in the desk chair. The lawyer looked at her with blank, still eyes.

“Zubedye, what…” Al Shei crossed the threshold and let the hatch cycle shut.

“Katmer, sit down,” said Resit, softly.

Al Shei felt her back go rigid. “Anything you have to say I will hear on my feet.”

“You would.” Resit smoothed down her trousers. She only looked away for a moment. When she spoke again, she had her gaze focused straight on Al Shei’s eyes. “I got a fast-time from Uncle Ahmet. Asil’s been arrested.”

Resit’s words took a strange, slow time sinking in. Al Shei had to repeat them in her mind several times before she could understand them. Arrested. Asil’s been arrested. Asil.

“It’s a list of fraud charges,” Resit was saying. “For what happened on the Farther Kingdom. The filer is, apparently, not buying our rather hurried explanation of what happened.” Resit paused again. Al Shei didn’t say anything. What was she going to say. She could feel the fire starting down in her heart. Asil had been arrested.

“The name on the charges is Evelyn Dobbs.”

Al Shei’s balance faltered a little as she turned around. “It’s a lie,” she announced. “It’s a lie.”

“Of course it’s a lie.” She heard Resit say behind her.

Trembling, Al Shei activated her desk before she even sat down. “Intercom to Lipinski. I need a fast-time to Bala house. Immediately.”

She felt the pressure of Resit’s hand on her shoulder. She had just enough presence of mind left not to shrug it off. Asil was arrested. Her husband, the father of her children, her anchor and best friend, was arrested for fraud. He was being blamed for what she had done, and failed to do, twenty light years away. Blamed through a lie. Al Shei felt the heat in her cheeks as anger flushed her face.

The view screen lit up to show Uncle Ahmet seated in the communication’s room. Uncle Ahmet was an impressive figure, Al Shei had to admit. He was a slender man, but he had a long face, a full beard and eyes that seemed to take in everything at a glance. He sat on his side of the screen immaculately dressed and completely composed, as ever. Before he spoke, Al Shei had just enough time to wonder if that was why she was always annoyed by him.

“Salam, Katmer,” he said solemnly. “We are gravely troubled here by what has happened.” Al Shei bit down the caustic reply that leapt to mind. “What has happened, Uncle Ahmet? This charge is false. I can’t believe you’re letting…”

Uncle Ahmet’s face darkened. “I am not letting anyone do anything, Niece. You are distraught and you forget that our family is bound by law like all other families. Two investigators from the financial exchange branch of the security forces arrived this morning with a warrant for Asil to accompany them to their station to give a statement. In an hour or so, I expect him to have heard the full complaint and sent for our lawyers. Everything that can be done at that time, will be done.”

Resit squeezed her shoulder. “Of course, Uncle Ahmet. My cousin is just upset, you can understand that.”

“We are all upset,” he said gently. “I know you must conclude your commitments, daughters-of-my-heart. But you must come home as quickly as you can.”

“Yes.” Al Shei straightened up. “You can be sure we will do what we can to expedite matters, Uncle. Salam.” She cut the line and stood up. She did not look at Resit as she marched out of the cabin. She was sure her cousin knew what she was thinking though. Dobbs’ name was on the complaint. Dobbs’ Guild was behind this. Dobbs was responsible. She was.

The light on Dobbs’s cabin hatch was green. Al Shei didn’t even knock. She cycled the hatch back. Dobbs jumped up from her desk chair. In her habitual cobalt blue, the only source of color in the bare cabin. Her cheeks grew pale as she stared at Al Shei.

What am I doing here? What do I expect her to do? She didn’t do it, did she? Is this what the Guild was holding her for? Is this what her friends were trying to get her away from? No. No. She couldn’t have done it. This is the other one. This is Curran. He tapped my last call to Asil. He wants me to turn against her. That’s what this is. It must be.

“Curran has framed you.” Al Shei’s voice sounded harsh in her own ears. “And he’s framed Asil. There have been fraud charges levelled against my husband, in your name. You stay here, you understand me? You don’t go into that network. I don’t want him getting to you. You’re all I’ve got to prove that none of this is true, so you don’t move.”

Dobbs nodded slowly. “Yes, Boss.”

Al Shei nodded back. What am I doing? What am I doing? This is insane. Stop this, Katmer. Get out of here. Get back to your cabin. Think. You need time to think. Her voice wouldn’t work to explain to Dobbs what was going on inside her. Al Shei just strode back to the hatch.

“Boss?” The word stopped Al Shei. “You’d better get Lipinski to move the watchdogs so that the comm paths in and out of the Pasadena are covered. There’s no telling what other records Curran will try to disrupt.”

“Good idea.” Al Shei took a deep breath. “A very good idea.”

She couldn’t say anything else. She just left Dobbs standing there and hurried out into the corridor. She had to think. She had to work out what to do. There had to be something to do. It would be all right. Asil wasn’t alone. The family would not let this go unchallenged. There was no evidence of fraud anywhere in their records.

At least, there hadn’t been. This Curran had access to the networks that almost defied belief. He had a live AI in his possession and apparently under his control. What was left that he couldn’t do?

No. They had to get home. They were on their way home. Five days. That was all. That was nothing. Five days to Port Oberon, and five more to Earth. Asil would be fine until then. Uncle Ahmet would not let anything happen to him. Asil was not alone. Ten days more, then, with Dobbs’ help, they would expose the whole disaster; the Fool’s Guild, Tully, Dane, Curran, all of it. And that would be the end of it.

It had to be.