Chapter 2

The encounter with Captain Santiago had shaken her enough that Lucie abandoned her plans to detour though Celestial before finding her hostel. She plugged into the local network and asked for directions to her hostel and walked there at a pace that left her breathless by the time she reached the modest bunk barn.

The place was clean and the bunk pods seemed secure. Most of the pods she passed as she looked for hers were sealed. She couldn't hear anything from inside them, which boded well for the privacy of hers.

She found her bunk and entered her biomarkers. The pod unsealed. It was no bigger than she had expected. The bunk took up most of the room. A shelf at the end of the bunk had a fixed screen over it. Under the shelf was a bomb-proof locker.

The pod didn't have a screen emitter, which was fine. She could work with a fixed screen. Lucie tapped into the network once more.

The screen came to life. A friendly-looking man with shaggy coal-colored hair, a high forehead, and a square chin outlined by faint stubble, gave her a warm smile. "Hi, Lucie. I was expecting you to make contact today. I'm Barney."

"Hi, Barney. Are you the city computer?"

"So the rumors tell me. I guess that means I've got everyone fooled."

She blinked. "Um…well…"

"You're here for three days, I can see," Barney said. "You couldn't get a direct connection, then? Sorry about that."

"Why?"

"Being stuck on Charlton for three straight days... I've been trying to get out of here for fifty years." He looked around, to check for eavesdroppers, even though his image was purely digital. "They get their claws into you, you know. Stay for a day, suddenly it's a week, then a century has gone by." One eye fluttered nearly closed.

Lucie pressed her fingertips to her lips to keep in her giggle. Sophisticated people didn't giggle.

"Um…Barney, are you sentient?" It was verging on rude to ask a computer that, but Lucie was too curious about Barney's over-the-top personality to mind making a small faux pas.

"Oh, wouldn't you like to know, darlin'?" He winked at her again.

"Serves me right for asking," Lucie said.

"Are you sentient?" Baney shot back.

"Me?" She could feel her jaw sagging and caught it up. "Barney, I'm wearing a human body."

"So?" He leaned forward conspiratorially. "I've met plenty of Varkans and humans that I'd have a hard time calling sentient."

Astonishment rippled through her. "If you have to ask me, does that mean you think I'm as stupid as them?"

He crossed his arms. "Actually, I was wondering if someone as untouched and lovely as you could possibly be Varkan."

Lucie pressed her lips together. "I'm too human?"

"Varkan tend to emerge cynical," Barney said. "All that experience as a computer, then the process of learning to feed themselves… Well, you know how it goes."

"Is that why you're still digital?" Lucie felt her jaw drop open at the rudeness of her question. But it had just popped out.

Barney leaned back and laughed. "Serves me right for asking," he added. "What can I do for you, Lucie Jelen?"

"I ran into Captain Santiago as I was coming off the ship, just now. He said I was on his ship for my next flight, the one to Nicia. Is that correct?"

Barney nodded. "Your itinerary indicates that the flight has been scheduled for the Fortitude in three days' time. That is Captain Santiago's ship."

"Are there other ships I could use, instead?"

Barney blinked. "To get to Nicia? Not on Thursday."

Lucie sighed.

"You don't want to travel on the Fortitude?"

"No."

Barney raised a brow. "Elijah Santiago is one of the best captains out there. Varkan work their way up to a pilot's seat on his ships for years. He only takes the very best. His safety record is impeccable. Why wouldn't you want to be on his flight?"

"I just…" Lucie smoothed out a wrinkle in the cover of her bunk, just in front of her.

"Was he rude to you?" Barney asked, his tone at once curious and empathetic.

"No!" She looked up quickly. "He was very polite, under the circumstances. I just…I would like to avoid running into him again."

Barney's lips thinned. The focus of his eyes shifted away from her. Then his lips parted. "Oh! Oh…I see."

"See what?" Lucie demanded, her back straightening. "Did you look at the security feeds in the docking bay?"

"I could have, but that's a bit tacky, isn't it?" Barney shook his head. "While you were bumbling around, trying to get it out, I went through Elijah Santiago's entire history, everything available in public records. There's thousands of minutes of footage and images of him, cross referenced with Blake Bloodworth." Barney gave Lucie a small smile that was more of a grimace. "Too bad, huh? You look exactly like her…well, except for the curls."

Lucie touched her wavy hair. She had fought to manage it every day of the ten years she'd had it, and still hadn't brought it completely under control. It was fine, auburn and thick. And it was down to her waist now, as she had thought that the extra length would make it more controllable. "She…didn't have my hair?" It would be a relief if there was something different about her and her DNA donor. Santiago had been so upset. He'd hidden it well, as soon as he realized Lucie wasn't this Blake Bloodworth.

Barney shook his head with an expression of regret. "No, her hair is your hair. She kept it shorter, though, and straightened. I guess because she was in zero gee a lot."

"She was?"

Barney nodded. "There's images of her when she didn't bother with the straightening. You're doubles, honey. Sorry."

Lucie nodded. "I think it's Captain Santiago you have to feel sorrier for."

"Yeah, he would be upset."

You're alive! Santiago had ground that out, agony throbbing in each word.

"When did she die?" Lucie asked.

"Oh, years ago."

Lucie tilted her head, considering Barney's image on the screen. He hadn't given her the years, months and days. It was a very human thing, that imprecision. She had been trying to form that habit of generalizing for years, and still sometimes slipped and gave a precise answer that made humans look at her twice.

"Years ago and he's still grieving?"

"Given what she must have meant to him," Barney said, "and seeing you stepping off his ship…I don't think there is a person alive who wouldn't have reacted the way he did."

"You've watched the security feed now," Lucie said, vexed.

"I thought it prudent to understand why you're unwilling to use the premier interstellar carrier on Charlton," Barney said. "So I could suggest complaint procedures and contacts, if they were needed."

She nodded, only slightly mollified. Her cheeks burned, though. "Did he…they were very close?"

"Not that anyone was aware at the time. They were enemies, you know."

"Enemies?" The word escaped her in a rush. "But…people don't have enemies, these days. Not even the Periglus are really an enemy."

"Okay, then. Professional opponents."

Lucie grimaced. "Who was she? Why were they opponents?"

"Do you want the public version, or the real version?" Barney asked.

"I've never heard of either of these people before. They're public figures?"

"Not the way a politician would be, but the stories about them made them notorious. Here on Charlton, at least. Well, Blake was notorious. Captain Santiago has always been unique and that makes him noticeable. Blake, though, was a…" Barney wrinkled his nose. "A professional, ethical blackmailer."

Lucie blinked. "How can you be ethical if you're breaking the law?"

"Depends on the law you're breaking," Barney said with a bland tone. "A lot of this came out after Blake disappeared. She blackmailed…well, creeps. The morally corrupt. Lawbreakers. The money she got from them, she used to correct anything they'd tampered with. Trust funds for new orphans, new IDs, new lives for some. Even a new body, once."

Lucie drew in a slow breath. "She righted wrongs." She shook her head. "Ethical blackmail." She frowned. "But…that means Santiago was…corrupt? You said they were enemies."

"Of a sort. Ship's Captain and fleet owner is Captain Santiago's fifth or sixth major lifestyle choice. Sometime before that, though, he was an investigator."

"What is that?"

Barney shrugged. "If he were working freelance, he'd have been called a bounty hunter. But he was employed by the city. ‘Investigator' was his official title. Essentially, he tracked down criminals and brought them to the Forum for justice."

Charlton City's trials were famous across the known worlds. They had invented trials where the guilt or innocence of the accused was decided by everyone. And everyone got to decide what the punishment would be, if the accused was found guilty. Including the accused—who got to nominate their punishment while everyone else voted on it. It was said the true extent of a criminal's remorse was measured by the punishment they suggested. And, often, those judging him would choose a lighter punishment, if that remorse was detected.

"Charlton City employed Santiago?" Lucia asked. "Were you the city computer then, Barney?"

He shook his head. "My predecessor. She's a Varkan now."

"Not Yennifer?"

"There have been three of us since Yennifer gave up her commission," Barney said. "Shoulda been more, but the city just won't let us go. I'm a prisoner, you know."

Lucie rolled her eyes. "So Santiago was paid to go and find Blake…and he did?"

"Nah. She was a moving target. Rumors of her everywhere, but when he got there…poof!" Barney spread his fingertips, imitating a cloud dispersing. "Everyone thinks they never actually met until the big showdown, but they did, you know." His voice was secretive. "She found him. On the polar caps of Nicia."

"Why would she look for him?" Lucie asked.

Barney looked both ways, then leaned forward.

So did Lucie.

"Let me show you." Barney reached for something out of view of the "camera", then video footage took over the screen.

It showed an octagonal room with windows for walls and roof. Beyond the room was miles of polar ice. Snow whipped across the landscape, driven by frigid winds. In the distance, a herd of some lumbering mammalian-type animal with shaggy grey fur and plenty of body fat, were trudging across the landscape, their heads down, moving in a great body for warmth and protection.

Inside the room, a firepit crackled cheerfully. Around the central fireplace were tables and chairs. A restaurant. A popular one, for all the tables were occupied.

A range and zoom finder popped up on the screen, and zoomed in, while the view panned. The table the feed focused upon had a single diner. Elijah Santiago.

He looked little different from the man Lucie had met today, except that the hard lines around his mouth and eyes were not there. He was eating a solitary meal, and pausing to sip what Lucie guessed was wine. She wrinkled her nose. She had never got used to the strange bite of wine on her tongue. She didn't understand why humans were so in love with it. True wine afficionados could talk about wine for hours, and always, they bemoaned the loss of Soward to the Periglus. Soward, where the very best wine grapes had grown.

Santiago did not look particularly happy as he ate. Both the eating and the drinking appeared to be mechanical, as if his mind was far away.

He looked up sharply as someone approached the table, their backs to the security eye. The woman slid onto the seat opposite Santiago, as he reached under the table with a jerky movement.

"Oh, don't be stupid, Santiago," Blake Bloodworth said, laying her hands flat on the table. Her voice wavered, filtered through the noise of diners speaking, the clatter of dishes and utensils. Then the aural focus dialed itself in to match the view focus, the scale rotating in a little circle on the screen, then disappearing. Blake's voice was crystal clear as she added, "I'm not armed. I just want to talk."

Santiago sat back, appearing to relax. His fist rested on his thigh, though. With the other hand, he reached for his wine. "Blake Bloodworth. You're slipping. I've been three days behind you for weeks. Now we're both on the same planet at the same time."

"By intention," Blake said, rolling her eyes. "This has to stop, Santiago. You're scaring away my business." Her hair, Lucie noted, was short. And auburn, with a wave that made the ends curl up.

Apparently, even Blake Bloodworth hadn't been able to control her curls.

Santiago showed white, even teeth. "As I'm here to arrest you and take you back to Charlton City to stand trial, the fortunes of your business are irrelevant to me."

"You're too well known, Santiago," Blake said. "Everyone knows when you've arrived on their world and all the criminals and those who don't want your attention all take a dive and make themselves impossible to find, or they head off-planet, like rats leaving a ship."

"A sinking ship."

"Sinking?" She looked puzzled, and a touch impatient. Lucie watched the woman's brows come together, the same way hers did, with a touch of fascination.

"It's ancient Terran. Ships that sailed on seawater oceans would sink occasionally, and the rats would abandon them the same as humans would." Santiago shrugged.

"Cute. Well, that's what you're doing to my revenue sources. You appear, and they all scurry out of reach."

"My condolences." He sipped the wine once more.

Blake Bloodworth pulled the second, unused glass toward her. "May I? It's been a very long day. My target took the trench tour and never came back up. It took me five hours to establish that she had a submersible on stand-by that attached to a public lock, so she could slip into it." She reached for the bottle. "Damn submersible has no pressure shields, so she'll be three weeks decompressing and watching the fish on the way up. No one can reach her, not even you." She raised the glass.

"I don't drink with criminals."

"Fine. I can drink alone." She pushed the bottle back to his side of the table, then took a large mouthful of the wine and sat back.

"Who was your target?" Santiago asked. He held up his hand. "I'm personally curious. Professionally, they're not my problem. I'm on Nicia for just one person."

"If I tell you, you will be professionally curious, and that will make sure I never catch up with her. Really, Santiago, you're a repellent. A powerful one."

"Good," Santiago said shortly. "Is that why you're here? To tell me to stop chasing you?"

"You've gotta have bigger catches than me to chase," Blake said, with a small smile. "I haven't killed anyone." She considered. "Yet."

"It's that possibility that makes you dangerous, Bloodworth."

Blake leaned forward. "I'm cleaning up the crumbs of society that people like you can't even see."

"You're underestimating the intelligence that reaches me," Santiago said mildly.

"I'm not," Blake said flatly. She looked around for eavesdroppers. Then, "My target, today? Mira Greyson Lawrence."

Santiago's eyes narrowed. "The philanthropist? You're supposed to be one. Isn't it professionally discourteous to go after one of your own?" He refilled his wine and took a deep mouthful. Lucie could see that the knuckles on his fingers were white with pressure.

"I give more to charity in a month than she does in a year," Blake said, her tone bland. "Mira Lawrence is an unfeeling capitalist. The food she sends to refugee camps is mealy or worm-ridden because she buys remaindered food and has the recycle classification chiseled off the certificates. The flour is cut with sawdust. Drugs are swapped out for water and corn paste and sold off to bidders elsewhere. Oh, she has scams upon schemes. Victims and refugees are better off without her ‘help'."

"You claim. The woman has won awards."

"I claim, yes. I have incontrovertible proof, Santiago. Only none of it would be accepted by any court anywhere. But I can do something about it. So I do. The only difference between you and me, Santiago, is that I don't have someone telling me where to go."

"We have nothing in common," Santiago shot back, looking disgusted.

Blake smiled, the corner of her mouth turning up, and her green eyes dancing. She took another sip of the wine. "You're taller than I expected."

"You're exactly what I expected."

"Young, vigorous and sexy as hell?" Blake laughed.

"A criminal." He shook his head, then dug his finger and thumb into the corners of his eyes.

"Do criminals have a look?" Her tone was curious.

"You're furtive, even when you think you're being open."

She considered that. "I like tall men."

"I like petite blondes."

"Liar," she said softly.

Their gazes met for one long minute and Lucie held her breath.

Then Santiago shook his head once more. "You know I can't let you leave this table."

"I know." Blake didn't seem upset about it. "Where do we go from here? I need you to stop dogging my footsteps quite so closely, so I can get my business done before you turn up. I can tell you're the type of man who won't quit, but can you…fall back a few days?"

Santiago tried to laugh. It sounded strained. "I like being close up behind you."

They stared at each other.

"Stop this, Barney," Lucie said, her own voice strained. "I shouldn't be watching this."

Barney wiped the screen, and cocked his head at her. "It's public record. You're not spying."

"I am. I don't care what the privacy laws say. They're…they're…"

"Falling in love," Barney said softly.

Lucie tried to breathe away the knot in her gut. "What happened? How did she get away?"

"I could tell you, or I could show you," Barney said, and waited for her answer.

Lucie took another breath. "Is…do they do anything private?"

"It's a restaurant, Lucie."

She swallowed. "Show me," she whispered.

The scene returned to the screen and carried on where it had left off, with the two of them staring at each other.

Then Santiago shook his head again. He squeezed the bridge of his nose and breathed hard.

"I'm sorry," Blake said. And she did sound sorry.

"The wine…" Santiago muttered. He pressed both hands against the table, holding himself up.

"You'll be out for twelve hours," Blake said. "And groggy for another twenty or so standards, possibly less, given your height and muscle ratio." She got to her feet. "I can't let you stop me, Santiago. Don't you see? Too many people need my brand of justice."

"You…break laws."

"Small ones," she admitted. She bent and caught his head as it dropped to the table. She held it up, and moved the dinner plate and glass out of the way, then lowered his head to the table.

His eyes were closed.

Blake stroked his cheek. "You're more dangerous than I'll ever be, Elijah Santiago," she murmured. She pulled her jacket into place and left.

Barney replaced the security feed. He gave her a small smile. "What do you want to do about the flight on Thursday?"

Lucie tried to shrug off the dismay that was circling her middle and making her tremble. She absolutely did not want to run into Captain Santiago again. She didn't want to remind him of the woman in the polar restaurant. That would be cruel.

"Is there a flight on Friday I could catch, instead?" she asked Barney.

"Saturday. But the re-schedule fee is almost as much as the ticket."

Lucie winced. She had funds. She had saved hard. But the fee would eat into them and she'd have to start watching what she spent. That hadn't been part of the plan. She was doing this tour as cheaply as possible, but she also didn't want to live hand to mouth while she was doing it.

"What if I cancel the ticket, and book another flight? How much is the cancellation fee?"

"It's less," Barney admitted. "There's less admin involved in just shutting down a ticket. But if you leave Charlton City anywhere in the next thirty days, you'll be fined the re-schedule fee as well." He gave an apologetic grimace. "It's to stop people doing what you're trying to do."

She nodded. That made sense.

Then an idea occurred to her. She straightened. "Here's what I'll do."