Realms of Light

Chapter Four

I had time to think it over on the ride back toAlderstadt.

It was not going to be an easy job. Nakadahimself had already done the easy stuff, and it hadn’t worked.

The way it scrolled along was this: Someonehad turned the old man’s own personal com against him, in theNakada family compound itself. In his own bedroom, in fact. He hadbeen settling down for the night, about to jack in for a nicelittle dreamscape, when he decided to double-check the program.He’d already read out the schedule once, but on a whim, just alucky accident, he read it out again.

It was wrong. Instead of a sensible,conservative dream enhancer, the com was running a euthanasiaprogram. If he’d jacked in it would have quietly shut down hisautonomic nervous system. And when they found him in the morning itcould have been put down to wetware systems failure-old ageaffecting the brain, his body just giving out on him.

After all, he was two hundred and forty-oneyears old, he said, and at that age no one was really surprisedwhen even healthy people didn’t happen to wake up.

He’d shut the bedroom com off from the restof the household net immediately, of course, and used his personalimplants to analyze the programming. It was clever-the euthanasiaprogram was nested inside a worm that would control the entire unituntil he was dead, and would then shut itself down, turn controlback to the original program, and set markers so that the com’s owneveryday internal monitoring would wipe out all trace of the wormand its contents, just as if it were an ordinary bit of gritwarethat slipped in over the lines. The worm was started in the firstplace by his regular check of the night’s dream schedule.

If he hadn’t done the check over again afterthe worm had been invoked, or if the programmer had set the worm tohide its tracks even while it was actually running, he’d have goneto sleep and never woken up. Sweet and simple.

And it was on his own bedroom com. That comwas not on the planetwide nets. It wasn’t even on the internalcorporate nets that Nakada Enterprises ran. It was only hooked intothe family’s household net.

So only family members could get at it-intheory.

In practice, both the old man and I knewbetter than that. The household net wasn’t totally closed off; ithad links to the top-level corporate net, and that had links to allthe rest. All those links were heavily screened and firewalled,though. It would take phenomenal skill and planning to work intothat bedroom com from outside the household.

It wasn’t impossible, but it came close. Thatmeant the most likely explanation was that someone inside thefamily compound-which meant either a member of the family or one oftheir AIs-was responsible.

The next most likely was someone on the toplevel corporate net at Nakada Enterprises.

And so on, down through all the internalcorporate nets to the intercorporate net and finally the publicnet.

That was from the point of view ofopportunity; if you considered motive, then business rivals jumpedup the scale-but the family and the corporate insiders at Nakadastayed on it, too.

And if you considered means-who knew? Someonewho knew a lot about the old man’s personal com habits had designedthat little booby-trap, but that didn’t mean much.

It could be anybody.

Anybody, Grandfather Nakada thought, exceptme.

So I was going back to Alderstadt to cleanout my office-I was moving to American City for the duration ofthis case. The trip would give Nakada time to start the disksturning to get ’Chan and my father off Epimetheus. When I got backto American City and saw some proof that they were coming, I’dstart to work.

There wasn’t really much to clean out. Iduped my office software, and left one copy in Alderstadt, took onecopy with me. I’d already had my gun with me. I didn’t own all thatmuch else, in the way of external hardware-mostly just a set ofteacups my mother had left behind when she headed out, and a coupleof changes of clothing. The furniture was rented; it stayed.

I hadn’t made any close meatspace friendsduring my stay in Alderstadt. I’d gotten to know some of the localsoftware, and I said hello to some of the neighbors when I sawthem. There were a few people I chatted with over tea, and aroundthe corner, at Steranko’s, I called Ed the bartender by his firstname, but that was about it. No one would be heartbroken if I left.I didn’t know if I’d be back or not, so I didn’t say anygoodbyes.

I was on my way out the door when the combeeped. I wasn’t in that big a hurry; I turned and went back andsat down.

“Yeah?” I said.

“Mis’ Hsing,” said a synthetic voice.“There’s a problem.”

“Yeah?” I said again.

“Details cannot be given here, but you mustreturn to American City immediately.”

“I was planning to,” I told whatever it was.There was no visual.

“You must go to where you spoke to thefloater.”

“Got it,” I said, and signed off.

If whoever it was was being that mysterious,I didn’t want to ask any more questions. I didn’t need to, either.It meant that someone wanted to talk to me in private. Either itwas the old man, or one of his flunkies, or else the wholeinvestigation had already been blown. Whoever it was didn’t wantanything important to get out on the nets.

So it was back to the dressing room.

And a couple of hours later, there I was atthe clothier.

“Number Four,” I said. “I’msuperstitious.”

The entry clerk said, “I hope you’ll findsomething you like this time, Mis’.” I ignored the sarcasm,but decided this time I’d pick up a little something-maybe a videoscarf. If I was going to keep meeting here, I wanted to keep myhosts happy by buying a few things. I could even put them on theexpense account with a clear conscience.

“We’ve coded Number Four just for you,” theclerk said. “Will you be taking your floater in again?”

I looked up, and there was the blue andsilver floater, right behind me.

“Yeah,” I said.

“I’ll tell the door,” the clerk said. “Youcan go right in.”

We went. The stardust still itched.“Privacy,” I ordered when we were inside. “And kill the display, Iwant to think.”

The booth obeyed. The screen over the doortold me we were private. I turned to the floater. “What’s up?” Iasked.

“Mis’ Yoshio Nakada would like to propose amodification of your agreement.”

“No,” I said.

It fizzed, then asked, “Don’t you want tohear what he’s suggesting?”

“No,” I said again.

It hung silently for a moment, mulling thatone over. With the privacy seal on it couldn’t ask anyone else tohelp it make up its mind, so it had to work the problem out foritself, and the neural net in a floater isn’t really made for thatsort of decision.

Eventually, though, it said, “I would like toask you to reconsider.”

“I don’t intend to modify the deal,” I toldit, “but we’re here, so what the hell, give me the read-out.”

That it could handle.

“Mis’ Nakada would greatly prefer to pay youthe five million credits now, in advance, and to bring SebastianHsing and Guohan Hsing from Epimetheus to Prometheus only after theinvestigation has been completed to Mis’ Nakada’ssatisfaction.”

That was all, and I let the silence run for amoment.

“Why?” I asked, finally.

“I’m not sure I should tell you that,” itsaid.

“Then I’m damn sure I won’t agree to thechange,” I replied.

It fizzed again, which could have meantalmost anything, and then said, “You know that Mis’ Nakada isconcerned about the integrity of the corporate software in use byNakada Enterprises.”

“Yeah,” I said, with a nod. “So?”

“You are aware that Guohan Hsing iscurrently, by the terms of his lifetime entertainment andmaintenance contract, legally incompetent, and a ward of theSeventh Heaven Neurosurgical Corporation. Legalities aside, he isalso in an induced coma and kept comatose but alive by machineryowned and operated by Seventh Heaven.”

It paused, but I didn’t bother sayinganything this time. I just stared at it.

“Removing a properly-contracted ward from theproperty of Seventh Heaven is not legal, except in a very fewexceptional circumstances, none of which appear to apply in thiscase.”

“So?” I said. “Nakada knew that from thestart.”

The floater ignored my objection. “SebastianHsing,” it said, “is employed by the Interstellar ResortsCorporation at the Ginza Casino Hotel. IRC has classed him asessential personnel. While he is still technically a free adult, ifhe chooses to leave his job he will be in breach of contract andsubject to a fine of up to one million credits. He has not chosento leave. Nakada Enterprises is forbidden by city regulations topay his fine, should he choose to leave; to do so would leaveNakada open to lawsuit for employee piracy, and would have seriousextra-legal consequences as well. Nakada could make an offer to buyout his contract, and in fact, such an offer has been made. Theoffer was refused; IRC is not willing to part with SebastianHsing’s services at any reasonable price, and to make an offer anyhigher would surely raise suspicions.”

“Go on,” I said.

“Are you recording?”

“No,” I said, which was a lie, but what thehell.

“I believe that Yoshio Nakada had everyintention of circumventing these obstacles. However, he now hasreason to believe that the corruption of the corporate softwareavailable to him is far more extensive than he had realized when hespoke to you last night.”

Last night? I’d been thinking of it asearlier today. Not relevant; I ignored that and asked, “Whatreason?”

“He is unsure whether he can get Guohan andSebastian Hsing off Epimetheus safely, given the current meansavailable to him,” it said, which did not answer my question.

It shut up, and I stared at it for amoment.

“That’s it?” I said at last.

“That’s it,” it agreed.

“But that’s stupid,” I protested. “Everythinghe’d need is on Epimetheus, not in the Nakada family compound. Allhe has to do is send one message to a trustworthy human onEpimetheus!”

“No,” the floater said.

“Why the bloody hell not?” I demanded.

“Because all supposedly-secure corporatecommunications between Prometheus and Epimetheus have beenaffected. While he has established that there has beeninterference, Mis’ Nakada is unable to determine the nature orextent of the meddling. He attempted to contact Epimetheus afteryou left last night, and discovered that he cannot tell whether heis, in fact, speaking to a human on Epimetheus, or to a digitalsimulation-his usual security tests have been compromised. This wasnot the case when he made his preparations; something has changed.He suspects that when he met with you, his absence from his usualroutines was noted and prompted this action. It now appears thatthe conspiracy that… the conspiracy he is aware of is moreextensive than he thought, and there is literally no one employedby Nakada Enterprises on Epimetheus he feels he can trust with theassignment.”

I felt a creeping uneasiness somewhere in myspine.

“It’s that bad?” I asked.

“I don’t know, Hsing,” the floater said, “butMis’ Nakada thinks it is.”

The thing’s manner had changed. It had gonefrom formal and every centimeter a machine to its more familiarself. I guessed it was because it was back in its familiar groove,no longer stretching its instructions to the limit and telling methings it hadn’t been told to tell me.

“If the conspiracy, or whatever it is, isthat extensive, how do I even know he sent you?”

“If you agree to continue on his revisedterms, he will meet you in person to verify it.”

“Fine. How the hell does he expect me to stopit?”

“By finding the parties running it, ofcourse.”

I snorted. “Sure, that’s all,” I said.“Finding the people responsible for infiltrating one of the mostpowerful corporations in the galaxy, and exposing them-that’s easy,right? Hell, maybe it is easy, I don’t know. I’ve nevertried it.” I grinned at the floater. “But you know what must bepretty tricky? Staying alive while I do it. That’s got to betough!”

“But Hsing,” it said, “you’re good atthat.”

“Good at what?”

“At staying alive. You’re tough, Hsing-peoplehave tried to kill you, IRC tried to break you, but here youare.”

“Yeah, right,” I said. “The old man’s stayedalive six times as long as I have-he’s the one who’s good atit!” I shook my head. “And besides, if he can’t get ’Chan and myfather off Epimetheus, why should I work for him?”

“For the money?” the floater asked, as Ipaused for breath.

“No, thanks,” I said. “Money’s nice, but so’smaintaining decent odds of living to enjoy it. No family, no deal.That was what we recorded.” I reached up and signaled the privacyseal off; I didn’t see that we had anything more to talk about.“Guess I’ll be buzzing back to Alderstadt,” I said. “Good luck toyour boss.”

“Hsing, wait,” the floater said.

I didn’t answer, I just headed for the doorof the booth.

“Hsing, please,” it said. “I’m talkingto him now. Could you wait? He may have an offer to make.”

“What can he offer?” I asked, my hand on thedoor.

“Hsing,” the floater said, “he does have anoffer.”

“I don’t care,” I said.

“You will,” it stated flatly.

I hesitated, then turned back.

“All right,” I said. “Boot it up. What’s theoffer?”

“You get an unlimited expense account,” itsaid. “The corporation will pay any fines, bail you out, anything.You investigate the infiltration, conspiracy, whatever it is-onEpimetheus. There has definitely been covert activity there. Andwhile you’re there…”

“I get them out myself,” I finished.

I stared at the machine while I thought itover, stared at the metal that gleamed pink in the booth’s light,and the blue plastic that looked almost as black as the plasticstreets of Trap Under.

“You’ve got a deal,” I said at last.