Realms of Light

Chapter Ten

I considered that for a moment before I spoke.

“What family?” I asked. “It’s not the entireNakada clan-that’s a couple of hundred people, and there aren’tthat many in there.”

“No, not the entire clan,” it agreed. “Justsome of the key personnel of Nakada Enterprises who agreed to berecorded, but are still alive.”

“Still alive? What about the dead ones?”

“Oh, when anyone I had recorded died, I wouldassess the situation, and either activate the recording andtransfer it back to the secure household systems on Prometheus, orerase it.”

“Activate it? So there are some human-baseduploads living in the household systems?”

“Oh, yes. There were eight when I wasrecorded myself.”

I grimaced. “It might have been useful if theold man had told me that! He said there were AIs in thehousehold net, but he never said any of them used to be human.”

“It’s not public knowledge.”

“I’m not the public; I’m his employee. Ican’t do my job properly if I don’t have all the relevantinformation.”

“You think it’s relevant?”

“I don’t know if it’s relevant, but itmight be.”

“You prefer to have as much information aspossible, I see.”

“Yes. In my line of work I can rarely tellwhat’s going to matter and what isn’t until I’ve learned everythingI can.”

“Obviously, I can’t literally tell youeverything I know-your brain doesn’t have room, even with yoursymbiote and other peripherals. I’ll answer your questions, though,and perhaps if I knew more about the exact nature of theassassination attempt, I could be more useful to you.”

“Maybe you could,” I agreed, and I told itabout the dream enhancer and the euthanasia virus, and everythingelse I could remember of the old man’s words. Which, since I had myimplants working properly and had recorded the encounter, was allof them.

It considered this carefully, then said,“I… he did not actually lie. He said it could be a member of thefamily, or one of their AIs. He merely neglected to mention thateight individuals fall into both those categories. You failed toask for a complete roster.”

“He was supposed to be volunteeringinformation, not avoiding it.”

“Secrecy is a hard habit to break, Mis’Hsing.”

“Yeah. So I’ve heard. All eight of thosepeople would know what’s in the death files here in Nightside City,wouldn’t they?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Would the other AIs? Or the living membersof the family?”

“Ah. Some would, some wouldn’t. Any specificsI might give could be out of date.”

“They’d be better than nothing,” I told it.“Tell me about your family, human or AI.”

It told me. It took awhile.

I had already seen the official genealogy, asI’ve said before, but that didn’t mention any recordings, andapparently some members of the family weren’t necessarily livingwhere the official reports said they were.

As of the day the old man had recordedhimself, the family compound on Prometheus was home to sixteenliving members of the Nakada clan, counting Yoshio, and eight AIsthat had started out as copies of human brains. Nine of the sixteenhad been recorded, and those recordings were in the ITEOD files.Vijay Vo had also been included, as had Narumi Desai, Yoshio’sniece-it seemed she maintained legal residence on Earth, buttraveled a lot, and had spent some time the Eta Cassiopeia system afew years back.

There were dozens of others Nakadas scatteredthrough human space, but it wasn’t clear how any of them could havebeen responsible for tampering with the dream enhancer. On theother hand, after arbitrarily assuming that the old man wasn’tsuicidal, that left twenty-three suspects living in the familycompound without even counting the staff.

That staff included a varying number ofhumans, typically half a dozen, and at least three AIs, soaltogether I had more than thirty possibilities to work with. Thatwas too damn many.

I hadn’t really intended to seriouslyinvestigate this yet; I wasn’t even on the right planet. I had cometo Epimetheus to collect my brother and father as the down-paymenton my fee, not to start looking for the assassin. If ’Chan hadn’tmentioned that everyone here thought Grandfather Nakada was dead, Itold myself, I wouldn’t have been doing any of this. I wouldn’t betalking to a simulacrum of the old man. I wouldn’t have recordingsof almost a dozen other people I could interrogate, if I wantedto.

But then I remembered the newsies hoveringoutside the ship, and I realized that I would have beeninvestigating, in any case. ’Chan had been the first to mention it,but I would have found out about Yoshio’s phony death soonenough.

And if the would-be assassin was one of thosethirty-odd intelligences in the Nakada compound back on Prometheus,who had faked the death reports here in Nightside City? Had thatbeen the same person, taking command of reports going out fromPrometheus, or had it been someone on this end, controllingincoming news? I had thought it had to be someone on Epimetheus,since there hadn’t been any news about his death back onPrometheus, but that would mean I was dealing with two people,rather than one…

Or would it? Could the assassin have plantedthe virus in the dream enhancer, then immediately left forPrometheus, and been here in time to spread the word of the oldman’s death?

“Ukiba,” I said, “I want the trafficreports for the Nightside City port, dating back, oh, let’s sayfour hundred hours.”

The ship gave me the list. It didn’t help;with the tourist traffic coming to Nightside City to watch thesunlight scroll down the crater wall, there were half a dozen shipsmy theoretical target could have been on. There weren’t any NakadaEnterprises ships or private yachts to worry about other than theUkiba itself, but that didn’t mean anything.

I might be after one person, or an entireconspiracy, and if it was only one person, she might behuman or might be artificial. What’s more, she could be anywhere inthe Eta Cass system. There was no reason to think she was still inNightside City, assuming she had been here at all. She might wellhave gotten what she was after and left.

But there was reason to think that theassassination attempt had been carried out by one of theinhabitants of the Nakada family compound in American City. If oneof those people had visited Nightside City immediately after theincident, that would be… well, let’s just say it would arouse mycuriosity.

But I couldn’t just call and ask.Interplanetary communications couldn’t be trusted. If I wanted toinvestigate further I needed to go back to Prometheus.

I could do that, of course. I had the ship. Ihad most of the ITEOD files, for whatever part they might have inall this, and I had Yoshio-kun activated and cooperating. Ididn’t see anything else in Nightside City I really needed for myinvestigation.

But I didn’t have my brother or my father,and if I left them here to go back to Prometheus I might not haveanother chance to get them out.

Well, I would just have to get them,then. I knew where ’Chan was, and I could get him to the ship byforce if I had to.

Finding our father, though, wasn’t quite sosimple.

“You wouldn’t happen to know anything aboutSeventh Heaven Neurosurgery, would you?” I asked the old man’supload.

“The dreamery? I considered buying it once-orrather, the original Yoshio Nakada did.”

That was an interesting coincidence. Not atremendously unlikely one, given how many businesses the Nakadaclan scanned, but interesting. “But you-he didn’t?” I asked.

“The company’s long-term prospects werepoor,” the upload replied.

“Why?”

“Oh, come, Mis’ Hsing. Its entire operationis in Nightside City.”

I couldn’t argue with that. Somethingoccurred to me, though. “Grandfather Nakada is two hundred andforty years old. Why would you care about the longterm?”

“I may be old, Mis’ Hsing, but I am in nohurry to die. Modern medicine can accomplish miracles, and is stillimproving; I may… or rather, Yoshio Nakada may yet surviveanother century or two. I, of course, may be around evenlonger.”

“Yes, but…”

It hadn’t finished. “More importantly,” itcontinued, before I could make my protest, “I care about myfamily.”

That answered my question, so I clicked backto the important subject. “So you didn’t buy it.”

“I did not, either in my human incarnation ormy present one, though of course I don’t know everything that’shappened since I was recorded.”

“So you don’t have access to itsrecords.”

It did not respond immediately; then it said,“I didn’t say that.”

That got my full attention. “Oh?”

“Naturally, when I was considering it as aprospective acquisition, I thought it advisable to learn as much aspossible about the company.”

“You aren’t just talking about the publicrecords, are you?”

“Oh, it was possible to learn far morethan was in the public records!”

“You got into their private systems?”

“I was able to explore their records, yes. Orrather, Yoshio Nakada explored them; I didn’t yet exist. I find itintriguing to think that now, were I to access those records, Iwould be ‘getting into them’ in a rather more literal way than inmy previous incarnation.”

“Could you do it again?”

“I don’t yet know, Mis’ Hsing. I paid anemployee of Seventh Heaven Neurosurgery to provide a back door intotheir systems, and I have no way of knowing whether that back doorstill exists.”

“Tell me about it.”

It told me.

“Mis’ Perkins,” I called, whenYoshio-kun was done, “can we use the nets from the shipunobserved?”

“No,” Perkins said. No hesitation, nouncertainty, just “No.”

That was inconvenient. I didn’t want a bunchof snoopers watching me break into Seventh Heaven’s files. If I didit from the ship, they’d monitor the whole thing. If I left theship, they’d follow me. If anyone left the ship, the newsieswould follow her.

Unless, of course, they couldn’tfollow. I needed a place the floaters couldn’t go, and to anyonewho knew Nightside City there was an obvious possibility. Outsidefloaters weren’t allowed in the casinos without prior clearance;there were too many ways to use them to cheat. I could lose thenewsies, at least temporarily, though they would pick me up againwhen I left the casino. I could probably lose any human reporterswho might try to follow me, too.

But I needed a casino where I wouldn’t bewatched by the management. That meant the IRC houses were out. Itmeant most of the casinos were out. But there was one thatmight cooperate.

“All right,” I said, “is there some way wecan make a private call to Vijay Vo at the New York, andkeep it private?”

“Oh, of course. Mis’ Nakada has a dedicatedencrypted link.”

Of course.

“Set it up. He knows you?”

“Yes, Mis’.”

He knew me, too, at least slightly. We hadmet when I was investigating Sayuri Nakada’s real estate scheme. Ididn’t know whether he liked me-he hadn’t given me any sign eitherway-but he knew who I was, and he had connected me with GrandfatherNakada.

I told the upload to be quiet. We didn’t needanyone else knowing it existed. Then I crossed to the main comconsole and activated a privacy field, surrounding me and theconsole with a soft blue fog.

I knew Perkins could listen in if he wantedto, field or no field; the upload probably could, too. The fieldwas just skin, just for looks.

The holo field blinked on, and Vijay Vo’simage appeared. He smiled pleasantly at me, his hands folded acrosshis belly.

“Carlisle Hsing,” he said. “What can I do foryou?”

“Mis’ Vo,” I said. “Good to see youagain.”

“I’m a busy man, Mis’ Hsing. What do youwant?” The smile was still there, but wasn’t quite as welcomingnow.

If he didn’t want to waste time being polite,that was fine with me. “There are half a dozen floaters watchingthis ship, trying to get a story about Grandfather Nakada’s death,”I said. “For my current investigation I need full net access wherethey can’t listen in.”

“You are suggesting we provide this for youhere at the New York?”

“Yes.”

“Why should we?”

“I am working for the Nakada family, Mis’ Vo.You work for Nakada Enterprises. A little cooperation doesn’t seemlike an unreasonable request.”

“Professional courtesy for a fellowemployee?”

“If you like, yes.”

“Just ordinary net access?”

“And privacy.”

“You are working for the Nakadas?”

“I think I am. If I’m not, someone back onPrometheus did one hell of a good job spoofing me. And Perkins,too.”

Vo nodded. “Come to the hotel, then. We’llescort you to a secure com.”

“Could you send a car for me, perhaps? Iwould prefer not to be harassed en route.”

“That can be arranged.”

“Thank you.”

“The car should be there in about twentyminutes.”

“That’s fine.”

“I probably won’t attend to it personally,you understand.”

“Of course.”

“Goodbye, then, Mis’ Hsing.”

Before I could answer the image blinked out.I stared at the empty air for a second, then killed the privacyfield.

There was one possible flaw in my plan; Iknew that. The New York Games Corporation would undoubtedly keep arecord of everything I did with their equipment. They would know Iwas breaking into Seventh Heaven.

I was putting my trust in them to not care.Seventh Heaven operated out of the Ginza’s sub-basement, and theGinza was an IRC operation; IRC was the New York’s chiefcompetition. I hoped that meant that no one in authority at the NewYork would feel any need to tell anyone at Seventh Heavenanything.

If they did decide something should be doneabout someone using their equipment for illegal purposes-well, thatwas a risk I was willing to take. The old man could bail meout.

I gathered up a few things, including my gun,and ate a little more. I was trying to think whether I hadforgotten anything when Perkins announced, “Your car’s here.”

“Thanks,” I said, and I headed for theairlock.

There were more floaters than I had seen whenI arrived. There was an entire swarm. I put one hand on the butt ofmy gun, just in case some of them got aggressive.

The car was waiting for me at the foot of thesteps, sleek and gleaming white. A door slid open as I approached,and I climbed in.

The door closed as I settled onto the darkred upholstery. “You’re armed,” the car said.

“Yes,” I replied.

“I was not informed.”

“No one asked.”

“May I speak to the weapon?”

“It doesn’t have wireless or speech. It’s notvery bright.”

“What model is it?”

“Sony-Remington HG-2.”

“Are you the only authorized user?”

“Yes.”

“I will need to inform Mis’ Vo and thesecurity system at the New York.”

“You do that.” I leaned back, and the seatadjusted itself to support my head.

“I appreciate your cooperation.” With that itfinally took off and headed for the Trap.

The main entrance to the New York was onFifth; in the past I’d usually used the entrance around the corneron Deng that led directly into the Manhattan Lounge. The car didn’tgo to either of those; instead it took me to the business entranceon the roof, where it sailed through a holo of a twenty-metershowboy and set down at the door.

I’d come in this way once before, but thistime I was expected. The scanners had finished their inspectionbefore I was even out of the car, and the door was alreadyopen.

A floater was waiting just inside, as I’dexpected. “Leave the gun,” it said.

I slid the HG-2 onto its tray. It printed areceipt and rose up out of my way, and a swarm of flitterbugsappeared to guide me.

The last time I had come this way they tookme to Vo’s office, but this time they led me around the corner to asmall room with walls glowing a deep, restful blue. A desk extrudeditself from one of those blue walls as I stepped in, and a chairpresented itself, rolling out of the corner to a position behindme.

I sat down and leaned over the desk, my handin the sensor field. I didn’t want to ride wire here; even if Voand the upload were both being completely honest with me, it waspossible that some time in the past four years Seventh Heaven hadfound the back door and put some defenses with teeth in it. Hand,voice, and screen would be slower, but much safer.

I followed the instructions Yoshio-kunhad given me, and sure enough, the back door was there-if SeventhHeaven had found it, they hadn’t shut it down.

But they might have booby-trapped it.

I had some of my own software with me, ofcourse, so I set out half a dozen watchdogs and sent a probe in tosee if I was stepping in something I didn’t want to.

Nothing. It looked clean. It looked as if noone had found it. I could access Seventh Heaven’s entire network,their entire database, without showing up on their system at all.If I disturbed anything, or drew a noticeable amount of power orbandwidth, it would be reported as internal maintenance.

I entered my father’s name, and got thecoordinates of his dreamtank-Guohan Hsing, Tier 4, Row 6, Station31. While I was at it I got the maintenance logs for his tank, thedream schedule, the medical read-outs, and everything else handy,all downloaded to my wrist com.

With that information I could find him, and Icould get him out of the tank without killing him.

That was all I wanted. If I could get him and’Chan onto the ship we could get off Epimetheus for good, and onceI was back on Prometheus I could finish up the investigation theold man had hired me to do. I was pretty sure that everything Ineeded to learn about the assassination attempt was back in theNakada compound in American City; the phony death reports were justa peripheral, a subroutine.

I wiped the inquiry record, and did a quickcheck to make sure I hadn’t left any obvious traces that would showup when Seventh Heaven looked everything over-and I knew theywould look everything over once I had kidnaped my father. Ididn’t want to make it easy for them to find the back door; someonemight need it again someday.

Then I got ready to close the door, puteverything back the way I found it. The whole thing had taken maybeten minutes, start to finish, and I was feeling pretty pleased withmyself as I started the shut-down routine.

But then I saw the log, and I stoppedeverything right where it was, and all of a sudden I wasn’t feelingpleased at all.

This back door was something Yoshio Nakadahad had installed about eleven years ago, when he was thinking ofbuying Seventh Heaven. According to the upload, he had never toldanyone else about it. The recording of the old man knew about it,of course, and it had told me, and there was the woman who hadinstalled it in the first place, Mei-Li Gussow, but that should beall.

The original Yoshio was in American City.Mei-Li Gussow, as of four years ago, was working for a medicalresearch unit of Nakada Enterprises in South Tarnauer, onPrometheus, and even if she had moved on from that, she had noreason to be in Nightside City, poking around Seventh Heaven.Really, there was no reason anyone but me should have used thatback door for at least a decade.

Mis’ Gussow had been thorough when she put itin, though, and had provided it with an automatic log. Every accesswas listed, with time and date. There were nine of them.

Seven of them were over a period of a coupleof weeks eleven years ago, when old Yoshio had checked the companyout. One of the nine was still open, with an entry time but noexit-that was me.

But the other one was dated just the daybefore, and had lasted over an hour.

I checked it again, to be sure. Sevenentries, then an eleven-year gap, and then two more, about sixteenhours apart. Someone else had been in here.

But who? Why?

What on Epimetheus did anyone want with adream company’s records?

Maybe I wasn’t as done in Nightside City asI’d thought.