“Have you been caught at this yet?” Lee said.
“Lee,” said Sal, “is that a question you really want me to answer?”
“Uh, no.”
Sal’s smile got more ironic. “I trust the cardinal Virtues to know that I’m on their side. But I’d sooner not have to discover the truth about that in a courtroom. My goal is to make some other poor sonofabitch discover it. And with that goal in mind, I’ll keep certain details in my own head until they need to get out in the fresh air.”
“You’d need a lot of cooperation to do that kind of thing,” Gelert said.
“Yup,” said Sal. He smiled even more broadly.
Mist was beginning gently to gather over the water as the shadows lengthened. Lee watched it creep in toward the shore. “So eventually you’re going to be able to derive information, at home, to compare against the information you’re being given here.” Lee didn’t have to say, “to see whether we’re being lied to.”
“Eventually?” Sal said. That smile kept broadening.
Gelert rolled over on his side and fixed Sal with one eye. “I’m glad you’re on our side,” he said, “that’s all.”
“But these people are deep in deception, Gelert,” Sal said softly. “Deep. We are going to have to chase them right around the block, up hill and down dale, before we get what we really need to know out of them. The second ‘set of books’ looks tight enough…but the third set is going to look absolutely watertight, I’m sure. It’s going to prove everything they’ve said to us about their balance of trade; it’s going to confirm that they are on the straight and narrow, and all these other people are out to make them look bad. So you guys, and the other investigators, had better come up with the goods within a week or so, and give the rest of us a reason to stay around and dig deeper. Otherwise, this whole thing is going to turn into a PR exercise, for them, proving how hard-done-by the poor Alfen are. Played for a fool by naughty Interpol and the silly UN, so full of mere humans, so easily led astray. We need some nice solid excuses to hang around… and we need all the rest of the team, of which you two are part, to provide them to us. Otherwise, my data suggests they’re going to turf us out of here in less than a week.”
“We’ll do what we can,” Lee said, though she wasn’t sure what that might be. “Gelert?”
“I could bury something and claim to forget where I left it,” Gelert said.
Sal nudged Gelert with his foot. “Someone’s reputation, probably,” he said. “But somewhere here there’s a smoking gun. We need to find it, and pronto.”
*9*
The people gathered in the hotel lobby the next morning looked like an unusually worn-down tour group, standing around with their luggage and regarding the morning with bleary equanimity. Some of them looked far more bleary than others. Lee guessed that she was probably well into this second camp, for she hadn’t slept well the previous night. She hadn’t exactly been expecting to, anyway. But it had come as a shock to her to return to the suite and find a low mist lying over everything outside…and when the mist rose, there had been no sign of the mountains.
That had shaken her badly enough to make Lee spend the whole night curled up on one of the couches in the suite’s sitting room, peering out into the darkness, past the city lights. Morning began to gray out the black of the sky, little by little, and Lee sat there fixedly watching the horizon for the least sign of the jagged shapes she knew should be there. But they didn’t come. And finally dawn slipped up over the far edge of the world to illuminate a broad and smiling plain, a beautiful green patchwork landscape of fields and forests, mostly flat until it melted away into gently rolling hills and the mist of distance away at the hinted-at horizon; but no mountains were to be seen anywhere.
Through her frustration and unease, Lee knew her own uncertainty was being used against her as a weapon. It was a potent one, and the only way to take it out of the hands of those using it against her was to admit that she had no idea what was going on here, and resign herself to apprehending what might present itself before her, rather than actively searching under appearances—for the moment. If they think they’ve thrown me off the scent, as Gelert would put it, then they may get careless in some other way. So, fine: let them think I’ve learned my lesson. Or that I’m scared.
I won’t have to fake that very hard…
Exactly on time Isif dil’Hemrev turned up, looking what was to Lee almost intolerably beautiful, as if she had bathed in morning dew, that swirl of hair like night around her shimmering where the sun caught it as she escorted the group out to the pavement in front of the hotel. There Lee had a moment’s irrational satisfaction as, ever so briefly, she saw dil’Hemrev look up and around at the sky and display annoyance.
Her eyes went chilly, and a little straight deep frown line drove down from the middle of her forehead to the top of her nose, disfiguring that perfect face for just a few moments. Lee began to feel ashamed of herself for being so pleased to see the alabaster perfection marred. Then the shame gave way to puzzlement. What’s she so upset about? It’s just a late bus or something…
Beside Lee, Gelert looked up, his ears twitching. “Not bad,” he said under his breath. Lee looked where he did, where dil’Hemrev was looking, and saw the transport angling in toward them in utter silence, the sun glinting on its long sleek shape through the still-fading morning mist as it landed with exactitude out in the center of the greensward near where she and Gelert and Sal had had their talk. She glanced over at dil’Hemrev and was bemused again to see her beautiful face get angrier still, before the look sealed over.
The craft was a big one, a forty-seater at least—a broad oval main body, with a slenderer oval of clearsteel or some similar substance mounted atop it. A door appeared in the craft’s side as Dil’Hemrev led them out to it, and not until Lee was halfway there and waiting in line to go up the ramp the craft had extruded did she notice the symbol on its side near the nose—not the undifferentiated golden sun-disc of Alfheim, but an irregular green hexagon, wider than it was tall, pierced from below by an unfletched arrow or spear. Lee’s eyes widened at that. Oh, really? she said to Gelert via their Palmerrand link, for the sign was that of the Alfen Miraha, the executive body comprised of the Grand Council, the Survivor Lords, and the Elf-King.
Not what she was expecting, I take it, Gelert said. Apparently the unexpected annoys her.
Lee thought of the woman’s expression yesterday. That’s not exactly news. She was still worrying at the questions raised by dil’Hemrev’s reaction yesterday. The Alfen had to know perfectly well that Lee was a Seeing psychoforensicist. So why should dil’Hemrev then have been surprised that she’d Seen the mountains? And since the mountains had been gone again, this morning, why should she now be trying to get Lee to admit that she’d Seen them?
…And again, if I wasn’t meant to See those mountains, why were we given a suite on that side of the building, where I wouldn’t have any choice about Seeing them if I could? Unless someone counted on me Seeing them. …Unless I was meant to See them. Meant to be noticed Seeing them.
By whom?…
They climbed up into the craft, found seats. Lee took a window seat behind Mellie Hopkins, but just as Gelert was about to slip into the same row and jump up on the seat beside her, dil’Hemrev sidestepped him and gracefully sat down there herself. Gelert flicked one ear at Lee, and went around to the next row behind. As the craft lifted, again in silence, dil’Hemrev turned to Lee, and said, “I’m sorry I didn’t have a chance to talk to you after the group outing yesterday. We’ve been remiss, it seems.”
Lee was uncertain just how to take this, but also intent on giving dil’Hemrev no leads to pursue. “I’m sure you’ve been very busy…”
The craft angled out over the sea, gaining altitude, then turned inland again, still gaining height and speed; Ys dropped away behind, more and more quickly, becoming indistinct under the scattered morning cloud. “Not so busy that we would willingly pay less than full attenti
on to our guests’ security,” dil’Hemrev said, sounding apologetic. “We’ve had a rather angry communication from the LA Police Department this morning, wanting information on what personal protection we’ve assigned you. They’re very concerned for your safety, and so naturally we are, too.”
The second part of this, she had been expecting… but the first part took Lee by surprise. Assuming it’s true… “It’s certainly nothing I’ve asked them to act on,” Lee said. “I’m convinced the break-in at my house was a one-off, and the extra security was probably unnecessary… certainly after the damage to the house was repaired, anyway. And as for security here, I very much doubt that common thieves or housebreakers are going to have managed to follow me into Alfheim.” She smiled at dil’Hemrev. “I’m sure the security arrangements you have in place for the group as a whole will be more than adequate to keep me safe.”
“All the same,” dil’Hemrev said, “I’m not sure we would feel comfortable with going against the express wishes of the organization which employs you. If we—”
“I’m sorry,” Lee said gently, “but there’s some misunderstanding here. I’ll grant you the situation is complex; possibly there’s no equivalent structure in Alfen law inducement. I’m not an employee of the LAPD: I’m an independent contractor. If anything, I employ them, from time to time, with an eye to the furtherance of Justice, Whom I serve. I understand their concern, on their own ground; but here it’s almost certainly unnecessary.”
“Ms. Enfield,” dil’Hemrev said, “I’m sorry too, but I find myself in a position where I must insist—”
“I don’t like to cause you trouble,” Lee said, a flat lie for which she would have to make recompense later. “But if you do insist, then perhaps matters will be most simply handled if as soon as we set down, I make arrangements to be returned to Ellay. I’m sure the Security Council’s oversight committee will understand when I explain the circumstances to them.”
That produced a brief silence during which Lee concentrated on looking guileless and watching dil’Hemrev’s face as mildly as if there was nothing unusual to be seen there at all. The Alfen woman did her best to keep her expression serene, but wasn’t entirely successful. Lee knew what she was thinking: that any departure of a member of the investigative committee at this point would be looked upon most suspiciously, as possibly involving some kind of coercion… and Lee’s side of the story, suggesting that the Alfen were trying to impose personal surveillance on her against her will, would only serve to reinforce that suspicion back home.
“I’ll have to tell my superiors, then, that you’ve refused protection,” dil’Hemrev said.
The alarm already growing in the back of Lee’s mind suddenly gathered itself into an entirely different shape. But she was not going to let that show. “I’d appreciate it if you’d do that,” Lee said.
Dil’Hemrev got up with a smile and a nod, and headed away to sit down by Per Olafssen, beginning to chat with him as if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened. Lee spent the next few moments looking out the window as the craft ascended farther and farther above the clouds, beginning to shudder ever so slightly as it accelerated. The thought of dil’Hemrev’s expression as this craft had landed was again on her mind. Not at all what she was expecting… And dil’Hemrev was ExAff, Mellie Hopkins had said.
There’s a tendency for us to think of Alfen as if they all had the same agendas and all answered to the same authorities. And maybe it serves their purposes to have us think that. But Lee was now beginning to suspect what she should have realized long ago; that there were factions among them, and infighting, just as among any other kind of hominid. And spotting the sigil of the Miraha on this ship threw her off balance somehow. Was our group being covertly ‘sponsored’ by one group, one governmental agency, for one set of purposes, until another one coopted us? One higher up?…
She felt the slight thump as someone sat down in the seat next to her, and across the bottom of her vision, the characters ran by: That was a bluff that could have gone fairly wrong…
She didn’t turn to look at Gelert right away. It didn’t, though. Now all we have to worry about is who’s going to attack me here, and how…
She didn’t actually threaten you, did she??
Oh, no, Lee said. She was the one who felt threatened, if I’m any judge. But she does think something’s going to happen to us, or to me. They’re trying to cover themselves. But at the same time, she thinks something’s gone wrong—
They both started, then, as the craft shook with the characteristic double bang of a vessel going hypersonic; and Lee looked at Gelert, smiling slightly at his nervousness, and her own. But beyond that, she didn’t feel much like smiling. I think we’re caught in the middle of some kind of obscure protocol fight, Lee said. If I’m reading the signs right, ExAff was supposed to be in charge of our group…until suddenly the Miraha took an interest.
I would have thought the Miraha would have been interested from the beginning, Gelert said. But what do I know? Meanwhile, there could be other possible readings, Lee. Herself only knows what the internal political situation here is like at the moment. The Alfen are pretty closemouthed about their government departments’ interrelationships…
I suspect they’re relying on our ignorance, Lee said. Well, we’ll see what we can do to remedy that over the next few days. And in the meantime, no matter what they may intend to try, I didn’t want some Alfen version of Larry sleeping across our threshold.
“Well, we’ve got half an hour or so before we get there, I believe,” Gelert said. “Coffee?”
Lee turned to see one of the craft’s Alfen staff standing by their seats with a tray, and noted in passing the Miraha‘s insignia on the man’s one-piece uniform. “Xoco if you have it,” Lee said.
“Certainly, Ms. Enfield. A moment. Lhei’madra? ”
“Water would be fine. Still, please; at altitude the bubbles give me trouble.”
The Alfen walked away. Lee looked at him idly as he went; he was as usual too handsome to be believed, as well as tall, radiantly blond, big-shouldered and narrow-waisted, though not too much so—a wrestler’s build. What I want to know is, where in that uniform could he be hiding a weapon?
Gelert caught her look. “In the market for a ‘professional boyfriend’?” he said, pulling his grin wider than usual.
Lee shook her head. Not an Alfen one, she said silently down their link.
You sure? He might look decorative sleeping across the threshold.
“Gelert…!”
Their drinks arrived. Lee took her xoco and tasted it cautiously; she had no confidence in the food here anymore, not after that piece of fruit back in the hotel, and she didn’t want to be taken by surprise. “It would make Matt crazy,” Gelert said, bending his head to the bowl that had been put on the side tray for him.
“Matt,” Lee said under her breath. “Please don’t mention him right now.” She was wondering how she was going to find out anything useful at all if the Alfen kept hauling them from place to place before she had a chance to look hard at anything. How did I let you inveigle me into this, Matt? I swear, when we get home, I’m going to take it out of your hide …
The problem was, she knew she wouldn’t There were too many memories of him lying back against the pillows in the early morning, lazy, smiling tenderly at her…
Lee cursed herself inwardly and looked south out the window, ahead of them, toward the very slight curvature of the earth that concealed their destination.
*
The flight was as short as Gelert had predicted. They had hardly spent fifteen minutes cruising supersonic before the ship shook with subsonic reinsertion. It was still strange to do it in such near-complete silence, except for the roar of air past the craft’s hull, and even that was muted to a faint demure rushing sound like air conditioning. Another technology they’ve declined to share with the rest of us. I wonder, did they get it from the Xainese?. .. For Xaihon was as protective of its universe
’s monopoly on space travel and space technologies as Alfheim was of fairy gold. Possibly these two cultures have better grounds for understanding each other than the rest of us know…
They were dropping into a landscape of mountains tall enough to be snowcapped even at this time of year, in these latitudes; Alfheim’s version of the Alps. Where in Lee’s world those mountains were as full of the marks of civilizations as anyplace else, now she looked down out of the window and saw no sign of roads or habitations, nothing at all—a white waste lined here and there with green valleys, but the valleys were empty.
On the southern side of the great Alpine watershed, though, the picture began to change as their craft dropped lower. The character of the mountains changed, too; they became lower, the valleys wider and greener, and now signs of life began to appear—small handsome cities, valleys wide enough for cultivation, roads winding among the peaks. And then, without warning, the character of the mountains changed.
Before they had been more like the Rockies, granite or basalt, dark gray or almost black in places, an older, volcanic stone in stepped peaks and great massifs. Now, suddenly, as the craft descended, Lee found herself looking at a sharper, more dangerous landscape, a maze of upward-pointing daggers of white stone set against a cloudless blue sky. At the heart of one cluster of those daggers, almost as if set there for protection, a collection of sharp-pointed gems in greens and blues reached upward, glittering in the day: Aien Mhariseth, the Alfen’s oldest settlement in Europe, and the ancient home and seat of power of the Elf-Kings.