Mists of The Ages, page 4
“Is that what we ‘decided together’?” I asked, making a rude face as I leaned back in my chair. “I thought what we decided was that I’d be better off getting evidence for your group, instead of vegetating in a heavy detention center while those four Houses went blithely on the way they had been going. If I’d known you scared this easy, I would have opted for the heavy detention.”
“Since I’m not the one whose life is on the line, scared doesn’t enter into it much, does it?” she countered, ignoring what I’d said about how I’d been coerced into the partnership. “And I’m not trying to tell you to back off for good. I want these people as badly as you do, but throwing away the life of the only one able to get me my evidence doesn’t make much sense. What you picked up for us four days ago from the Larcher House was a coded list of scheduled ventures involving drugs, prostitution, soul-selling, air smuggling, puppet-stringing—at least a third of everything they’re into. Since we’ve got to take the time to document that stellium-mine of a list, there won’t be anything of a gap showing in our evidence trail. And don’t forget what you got for us tonight. If that works out the way I expect it to, what’s in that envelope will give the Empire court no choice but to step in. When politicians that big are owned by a House, trying to find an unbiased planetary court is an exercise in futility.”
“All of which is a reason for you people to sit back a while, but doesn’t in any way apply to me,” I said, refusing to buy the wiggler oil she was so good at selling. “That list you’re so hot about involves only one of the Houses, which leaves three more for me to go after while you’re playing with the first. In case you’ve forgotten, it’s all four I want, not just a token one or two.”
“But you can’t get all four if one of them gets you first,” she said through her teeth, her fist clenched and her short blond hair almost bristling. “If you leave them alone for a while they’ll have to dismantle their traps, or take the chance of losing one of their own, with legitimate business, to something meant to get you. Can’t you under—”
Her little speech of useless repetition probably would have gone on until she ran out of breath, but she was interrupted by something other than my impatience. A single knock came at the door, and I turned in time to see a man walking in. He was of average height and build, wearing the tight trousers, tight-waisted jacket, sad severely cut shirt that was the masculine equivalent of Raksall’s outfit, but his was a conservative yellow and tan. He had brown hair and eyes and a narrow, humorless face, was carrying a file of some sort, and I’d seen him once or twice during my previous visits to those offices.
“I’m sorry, Filster, but we’re in the middle of an important discussion here,” Raksall said to the man, making an obvious effort not to be too short with him. “I’ll let you know as soon as I’m through, and …”
“This can’t wait until you’re through,” the man Filster said, coming forward after having closed the door behind himself. “When you’re through, the girl will disappear the way she always does, and I need her here for this.”
“For what?” Raksall demanded, letting the river of annoyance inside her wash over the man who was pulling up a chair to her side of the desk. “She isn’t an operative who shifts from one department to the next and therefore needs to know everything going on everywhere. She has a limited association with my department, so what could you possibly have that concerns her?”
“I have a Situation,” the man answered, the word so clearly capitalized that his glance at Raksall was unnecessary. “I queried the main files in search of someone to suit my needs, but rather than offering me a choice of our own operatives, I was given the suggestion of that girl. After considering the matter, I was forced to agree with the decision.”
His narrow-faced sourness showed how unhappy he was over being forced into whatever it was he was talking about, but I wasn’t in the least curious as to what that could be. I’d already done what I’d come to that place to do, and wasting any more time there would have been—a waste of time.
“I think I’ll be going now,” I said to Raksall as I got out of my chair. “From what you said I’m assuming you and your people will be too busy for a while to come up with any target assignments, so I’ll take care of finding my own. If I happen across anything interesting, I’ll be sure to let you know.”
“Just a moment, young woman!” the man Filster said in a very stern way as I turned toward the door, interrupting whatever Raksall had been about to come up with. “You and I have a matter to discuss, which means you’re to sit back down and listen to me. I didn’t come in here just to watch you walk away.”
“I don’t much give a damn what you came in here to do,” I told the disapproving frown I was getting, liking the man as much as he obviously liked me. “You and I don’t have anything to discuss on any subject I can think of, and I really would prefer keeping it that way. Have a nice evening.”
“How about your four friends?” he countered at once as I began turning away from him again, his tone unpleasantly triumphant. “My department is the one responsible for assigning operatives to make sure the Twilight Houses don’t try to use them in an effort to locate you. I’ve had no trouble finding enough people to assign up until now, but with a Situation demanding all the attention and manpower I can give it …”
He let the sentence trail off without finishing it, and when I looked at him his smug expression was all but pure enjoyment. They really did enjoy threatening without using the words, those people, and I was beginning to dislike the habit more than I’d thought was possible.
“Part of my agreement with your group covers the protection of the four people my efforts put in the most danger,” I said, speaking primarily to a Raksall who was mostly mad but partly upset. “If that aspect of the deal falls through, so does the rest of it. You may need me to get the Twi Houses, but I can do my own getting with people who don’t have your problems. Would you like to tell me which way you want it?”
“We want it our way,” Filster said with narrow-faced aggressiveness before Raksall could answer me, a gleam of satisfaction still inexplicably in his eyes. “If you don’t do your getting with us, you won’t do it at all, especially not from the cell of a heavy detention center. You are a thief, young miss, and we have enough evidence against you in your dossier to keep you in a cell until long past the time the designation ‘young’ is no longer appropriate. What will happen to your friends during that time, I have no idea. If you aren’t identified as the one who robbed the Houses, they may well survive without any sort of difficulty.”
Or they may not, his tone suggested, the man ignoring the way I straightened where I stood. He seemed to know as well as I that if the Houses found out I was the one who had been stroking them, also learning where I was would not keep my closest friends safe. There was still what I’d taken to sustain interest in my background, and until they had that back no one I’d known would be safe.
“Inky, a department with a Situation has priority over all other departments until the Situation is being handled,” Raksall got out with difficulty, her intention probably to smooth things over despite her own raging anger. “If you discuss the matter with Filster and can prove to him you can’t be of any help, he’ll just have to look elsewhere. Let’s listen to what he has to say, and afterward you and I can talk for a minute or two.”
And get things back to where they were, she didn’t bother adding, at least not aloud. At that point I had lost my appetite for dealing with any of them, and if it hadn’t been for Tris, Sharp, Ricco and Mal, I would have walked out of there and let them try to catch me. But I did have my friends to consider, so I went back to the chair and sat.
“Your wisdom is exceeded only by your graciousness, young miss,” Filster said when I crossed my legs, his tone as dry as abrasive powder. “Despite your obvious opinions to the contrary, I’m not enjoying this any more than you are. With that glowering expression you’re now wearing, you look more than ever like the innocent child you most certainly are not.”
“If all you came in here to do was insult her, Filster, you can just get out again,” Raksall said with a hard look in her eyes, her voice thick with the anger she was feeling. “And however this turns out, don’t think for a minute that I won’t be reporting you. Even having a Situation is no excuse for ruining another department’s dealings with essential associates.”
“For all the control you have over her, even ‘associate’ is too binding a descriptive word,” the man came back with complete unconcern, paying more attention to his papers than to his coworker. “You can report me as much as you like, as long as you’re ready to tell the same board why so essential an ‘associate’ of yours does as she damned well pleases. And would either of you mind if we got on with this now?”
He finally raised his dark eyes to look at each of us in turn, but not even Raksall had anything else to say. She made herself more comfortable in her chair with her fingers laced together in front of her, and the look in her eyes that promised the man more argument to come at a later, better time didn’t bother him in the least.
“About five standard years ago, the planet Joelare announced the opening of its new vacation continent, and within a year it was on the ‘must’ list of three-quarters of the people in the Empire,” Filster said, keeping his eyes on me even as he lectured. “The planet has an anomaly area that does cover just about an entire continent, an area of perpetual fog, and the section was considered a waste of good world-space until someone came up with the idea of turning it into a tourist attraction. They had a hell of a time doing the necessary building and developing, but when it was finally completed they had the Mists of the Ages.”
He paused then, as though expecting Raksall or me to comment, and when we didn’t he smiled faintly.
“What are the Mists of the Ages, you ask?” he said in the lightest tone he’d used yet. “I thought everyone already knew about them, but since you don’t, I’ll explain. Towns, villages, and even cities were built in the fog, each area depicting a different historical period from the past of dozens of the worlds of the Empire. No one really knows yet why so many human and humanoid-populated worlds arose independently to eventually reach the stars and become the core world of the Empire, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t interested in what other people lived through before they reached contact capabilities. Joelare hasn’t been settled long enough to have picturesque historical eras of its own, so it used everyone else’s. With tours ranging from basic to aristocratic, everyone chooses what he or she can afford, and everyone has a fabulous time.
“Or so claim the press releases,” Filster went on, impatient disapproval suddenly back in his voice. “Approximately six standard months ago, odd reports began being filed. People who were supposed to have been on the tours were reported missing by friends or relatives, but a couple of days later the reports were canceled. The missing people weren’t really missing, they’d only been enjoying themselves so much they’d extended their tours beyond their original intentions. Some of the reports, however, weren’t canceled; the missing people really were missing, and eventually turned up dead. They’d wandered off on their own into areas which were restricted because of dangerous conditions and had had accidents that turned out fatal. What was left of each body was returned to its home world, and then those reports were officially closed.”
“I’m not seeing what you consider so odd,” Raksall said to the man, interest rather than criticism narrowing her eyes. “People do enjoy themselves so much they extend their vacations, and people do die when they wander into places they shouldn’t be. All natural-habitat resorts have restricted areas; that’s why you sign a release when you vacation in spots like that. If you’re properly warned and the restricted areas are clearly marked, your getting killed doesn’t entitle your estate to sue.”
“Everything you say is absolutely correct, but you haven’t seen the reports,” Filster answered with a shake of his head. “The computers considered them all together, did a little records checking, then kicked the matter out with gongs clanging and blazing red Situation flags flying. Thirty of the canceled missing persons reports stated that the people involved couldn’t possibly have simply stayed past their intended time; they had previous, very important commitments, and weren’t the sort to forget those commitments. When it turned out they had only stayed a little longer, the ones who had filed the reports were bewildered. The objects of their concern had laughed off the entire matter, and none of the thirty showed even the faintest regret for what they’d done. That was the point the computers checked the cash and credit accounts of those thirty and the other ‘missing’ vacationers for the additional payments they should have had to make to Joelare for their extended stays, and then the alarms went off.”
“The payments hadn’t been made?” Raksall guessed, her brows higher than they had been. “That would make even an adding machine suspicious.”
“Which is probably why most of the additional payments had been made,” Filster said, grudging respect only very faintly coloring his continuing disapproval. “Where there were no funds or available credit to meet the payments, suits had been filed against the defaulting parties. All nice and proper and legal, except for two things: the suits were in perpetual continuance despite the fact that not even token payments had been made, and most of those who had paid hadn’t really been in a position to take those extra days. They’d strapped themselves badly by doing it, and were right then working their backsides off trying to make up the losses.”
“I’d hate to be the computer who had to specify a Situation like that,” Raksall said, one finger to her lips as her mind raced behind distracted eyes. “Is there something in the mists on Joelare that causes reliable people to become uncaring spendthrifts, and if so, do the friendly natives running the show know about it? If they don’t know about it, why aren’t they pressing for payment from everyone? If they do know about it, are they taking advantage of an existing situation, or causing the situation to begin with? If the reaction is a natural phenomenon, why aren’t more people suffering from it? And as a temporary last, how, if in any way at all, do the dead bodies fit in?”
“A neat summation as to why we have a Situation,” Filster said to her, his attitude indicating anyone in Raksall’s position would have been expected to do the same. “There are people being hurt and taken advantage of somehow, but we don’t yet know who is innocent and who isn’t. It’s also been pointed out that the number of people actually reported as missing is guaranteed to be a lot less than the grand total in that category. Some planetary authorities operate under the absurd conviction that people who never deviate from schedule even once in their lives, can’t be considered missing until a prechosen amount of time has passed. Places like that would have nothing in the way of reports filed.”
“So the questions asked need immediate answers, and then we’ll know what we’re dealing with,” Raksall said with a slow nod. “If it turns out the people of Joelare decided to help hurry the return on their investment by convincing certain people to stay longer and therefore spend more money, our branch of the Service won’t be involved any longer. What we need to do is get those answers,”
“Which is the reason I’m in your office now instead of my own,” Filster said, back to looking at me rather than Raksall. “We need someone to go in there who will not only not arouse any suspicion, but who also has the ability to check records and files that arc out of easy reach. Mists of the Ages is run from a central location situated itself in the mist, which means the very finding of it won’t be a matter of checking the address and then walking in. Our computer tells roc your—associate—over there has a definite talent for finding things, so she’s the one I want.”
By that time Raksall was sharing in the stare directed at me, and I didn’t need to hear her saying anything to remember the “we” she’d used with Filster. After hearing his problem, she was no longer blaming him for barging in on us and was also no longer inviting him to look elsewhere for help. I’d somehow had the feeling things would work out like that, but they and the computer who had suggested me all had equally randomized circuits.
“Anyone with a little intelligence can be expected to find things,” I said after a decent pause, making it seem as though I’d considered his request. “What isn’t quite as reasonable is hauling someone off the streets and expecting them to be able to do the sort of job you people are trained for. Not only wouldn’t I know where to begin, I wouldn’t even know when to look unsuspicious. They’d have me spotted five minutes after I got there, and that would be the end of my playing snoop. My talent is in extracting things from places people have them hidden, not inserting myself in places people don’t want me to be.”
“Your talent is in stealing,” Filster contradicted with no change of expression, his dark eyes still directly on me. “You specialize in preying on those who have managed to acquire possessions of worth, and haven’t enough social conscience to feel shame over such a thing no matter how badly your victims are hurt by it. I despise parasites like you and your sort, who live well themselves by causing misery for others. If I had any choice in the matter I’d see you all in heavy detention, but instead of that I’m forced to work with you. I need information stolen from a place others can’t get near, and for that you are exactly right. If you refuse to do it, the trash you call friends will be entircly on their own, just as they really deserve to be. Make your decision now, and make it fast.”
