The City and the City Part 17

Chapter Seventeen.

IN BOL YE'AN men of the Ul Qoma bomb squad lounged outside the tiny ersatz postroom, talking to several awed security guards, chewing, squat in their protective clothes. The squad wore their visors up, angling from their foreheads. men of the Ul Qoma bomb squad lounged outside the tiny ersatz postroom, talking to several awed security guards, chewing, squat in their protective clothes. The squad wore their visors up, angling from their foreheads.

"You Dhatt? It's cool, SD," one said, glancing at Dhatt's insignia. "You can go in." He eyed me and opened the door onto the cupboard-sized room.

"Who caught it?" Dhatt said.

"One of the security boys. Sharp. Aikam Tsueh. What? What?" Neither of us said anything, so he shrugged. "Said he didn't like how it felt; he went out to the militsya militsya outside, asked them to take a look at it." outside, asked them to take a look at it."

Pigeonholes covered the walls, and large brown parcels, opened and unopened, lay in corners and plastic bins, on tabletops. Displayed on a stool in the centre, surrounded by ripped envelope and fallen letters trodden with footprints, was a package splayed, electronic innards jutting like wire stamens from a flower.

"This is the mechanism," the man said. I read the Illitan on his Kevlar: his name was Tairo. He spoke to Dhatt, not me, pointing with a little laser pen, red-dotting what he referred to. "Two layers of envelope." Scribbling with the light all over the paper. "Open the first one, nothing. Inside's another one. Open that... that..." Clicked his fingers. Indicating the wires. "Nicely done. Cla.s.sic."

"Old-fas.h.i.+oned?"

"Nah, just nothing fancy. But nicely done. Not just son et lumiere son et lumiere either-this wasn't made to scare someone, it was made to f.u.c.k someone up. And I tell you what also. See this? Very directed. It's linked up with the tag." The remnants of it visible in the paper, a red strip on the inner envelope, printed in Bes either-this wasn't made to scare someone, it was made to f.u.c.k someone up. And I tell you what also. See this? Very directed. It's linked up with the tag." The remnants of it visible in the paper, a red strip on the inner envelope, printed in Bes Pull here to open Pull here to open. "Whoever does is going to get a faceful of bang and fall down. But short of pretty bad luck, anyone standing next to them's only going to need a new hairdo. The blast is directed."

"It's defused?" I asked Tairo. "Can I touch it?" He did not look at me but at Dhatt, who nodded him to answer.

"Fingerprints," Tairo said, but shrugged. I took a ballpoint from one of the shelves and took out its cartridge, not to mark anything. I prodded gently at the paper, smoothing down the inner envelope. Even scored open by the defusers, it was easy to read the name written on it: David Bowden.

"Check this," Tairo said. He rummaged gently. Below the parcel on the inside of the outer envelope, someone had scribbled, in Illitan, The heart of a wolf The heart of a wolf. I recognised the line but could not place it. Tairo sang it and grinned.

"It's an old motherland song," Dhatt said.

"It wasn't a scare and it wasn't for generalised mayhem either," Dhatt said to me quietly. We sat in the office we had commandeered. Opposite us, trying politely to avoid eavesdropping, Aikam Tsueh. "That was a kill-shot. What the f.u.c.k?"

"With Illitan written on it, sent from Besel," I said.

Dusting didn't turn anything up. Both envelopes had been scrawled on, the address on the outer and Bowden's name on the inner in a chaotic script. The package was sent from Besel from a post office that was grosstopically not far from the dig itself, though of course the package would have been imported a long way round through Copula Hall.

"We'll get the techs on it," Dhatt said. "See if we can trace it backwards, but we've got nothing to point to anyone. Maybe your lot'll turn something up." The chances were low to nil we could reconstruct its journey backwards through both the Ul Qoman and Bes postal services.

"Listen." I made sure Aikam could not hear. "We know Mahalia had p.i.s.sed off some hardcore nats back home. I get it, such organisations cannot possibly exist in Ul Qoma, of course, but if by some inadvertent glitch any of them are are out here too, the chances are reasonable that she might have p.i.s.sed them off too, no? She was mixed up in stuff that could have been designed to annoy them. You know, undermining the power of Ul Qoma, secret groups, porous boundaries, all that. You know." out here too, the chances are reasonable that she might have p.i.s.sed them off too, no? She was mixed up in stuff that could have been designed to annoy them. You know, undermining the power of Ul Qoma, secret groups, porous boundaries, all that. You know."

He watched me without expression. "Right," he said eventually.

"Two out of two students with special interests in Orciny are out of the picture. And now we've got a bomb to Mr. Between Cities." Between Cities."

We looked at each other.

After a moment, louder now, I said, "Well done, Aikam. That was really something that you did."

"Have you held a bomb before, Aikam?" Dhatt said.

"Sir? No."

"Not in national service?"

"I haven't done mine yet, Officer."

"So how do you know what a bomb feels like?"

Shrug. "I didn't, I don't, I just... It was wrong. Too heavy."

"I bet this place gets a lot of books in the mail," I said. "Maybe computer stuff too. They're pretty heavy. How did you know this was different?"

"... Different heavy. It was harder. Under the envelopes. You could tell it wasn't paper, it was like metal or something."

"Matter of fact is it even your job to be checking mail?" I said.

"No, but I was in there, just because. I was thinking that I could bring it out. I wanted to, and then I felt that one and it was ... there was something about it."

"You have good instincts."

"Thank you."

"Did you think about opening it?"

"No! It wasn't to me."

"Who was it to?"

"It wasn't to anyone." That outer envelope had named no recipient, only the dig. "That's another reason, that's why I looked at it, maybe, because I thought that was weird."

We conferred. "Okay, Aikam," Dhatt said. "You gave your address to the other officer, in case we need to get hold of you again? When you go out would you send in your boss and Professor Nancy, please?"

He hesitated in the doorway. "Do you have any information about Geary yet? Do you know what happened yet? Who killed her?" We told him no.

Kai Buidze, the chief guard, a muscular fifty-year-old, ex-army I'd guess, came in with Isabelle Nancy. She, not Rochambeaux, had offered her help in any way she could. She was rubbing her eyes. "Where's Bowden?" I said to Dhatt. "Does he know?"

"She called him when the bomb squad opened the outer envelope and there was his name." He nodded at Nancy. "She heard one of them reading it out. Someone's gone to get him. Professor Nancy." She looked up. "Does Bowden get a lot of mail here?"

"Not so much. He doesn't even have an office. But a bit. Quite a lot from foreigners, a few from prospective students, people who don't know where he lives or who a.s.sume he's based here."

"Do you send it on?"

"No, he comes in to check it every few days. Throws most of it away."

"Someone's really ..." I said quietly to Dhatt. Hesitated. "Trying to outrun us, know what we're doing." With everything that was happening, Bowden might be wary now of any packages to his home. With the outer envelope and its foreign postmark discarded, he might even have thought something with only his name written on it an internal communication, something from one of his colleagues, and torn the strip. "Like someone knew he'd been warned to be careful." After a moment I said, "They're bringing him in?" Dhatt nodded.

"Mr. Buidze," Dhatt said. "You had any trouble like this before?"

"Not like this. Sure, we get, you know, we had some letters from f.u.c.kups. Excuse me." A glance at an unruffled Nancy. "But you know, we get warnings from Leave-the-Past-Alone types, people who say we're betraying Ul Qoma, all that s.h.i.+t, UFO watchers and junkies. But an actual ... but this? this? A bomb?" He shook his head. A bomb?" He shook his head.

"That's not true," Nancy said. We stared at her. "This happened before. Not here. But to him. Bowden's been targeted before."

"Who by?" I said.

"They never proved anything, but he got a lot of people angry when his book came out. The right. People who thought he was disrespectful."

"Nats," Dhatt said.

"I don't even remember which city it was from. Both lots had it in for him. Probably the only thing they agreed on. But this was years years ago." ago."

"Someone's remembered him," I said. Dhatt and I stared at each other and he pulled me aside.

"From Besel," Besel," he said. "With a little he said. "With a little Illitan Illitan f.u.c.k-you on it." He threw up his hands: f.u.c.k-you on it." He threw up his hands: Any ideas? Any ideas?

"What's the name of those people?" I said after a silence. "Qoma First."

He stared. "What? Qoma First?" he said. "It came from Besel." Besel."

"Maybe a contact there."

"A spy? A nat Qoman in Besel?"

"Sure. Don't look like that-it's not so hard to believe. They'd send it from over there to cover their tracks."

Dhatt wagged his head noncommittally. "Okay ..." he said. "Still a h.e.l.l of a thing to organize, and you're not-"

"They never liked Bowden. Maybe they figure if he's got wind that they're after him he might have alarm bells, but not not with a package from Besel," I said. with a package from Besel," I said.

"I get the idea," he said.

"Where's Qoma First hang out?" I said. "That's what they're called, right? Maybe we should visit-"

"That's what I keep trying to tell you," he said. "There's nowhere to go. There is no 'Qoma First,' not like that. I don't know how it is in Besel, but here ..."

"In Besel I know exactly where our own versions of these characters hang out. Me and my constable went round there recently."

"Well congratulations but it doesn't work that way here. There's not like a f.u.c.king gang gang with little members.h.i.+p cards and a house they all live in; they're not unifs and they're not The Monkees." with little members.h.i.+p cards and a house they all live in; they're not unifs and they're not The Monkees."

"You're not saying you've got no ultranationalists ..."

"Right, I'm not not saying that, we've got plenty, but I'm saying I don't know who they are or where they live, very sensibly they keep it that way, and I'm saying Qoma First's just a term some press guy came up with." saying that, we've got plenty, but I'm saying I don't know who they are or where they live, very sensibly they keep it that way, and I'm saying Qoma First's just a term some press guy came up with."

"How come the unificationists congregate but this lot don't? Or can't?"

"Because the unifs are clowns. Dangerous clowns sometimes, alright, but still. The sort of people you're talking about now are serious. Old soldiers, that sort of thing. I mean you got to ... respect that..."

No wonder they could not be allowed to gather visibly. Their hard nationalism might rebuke the People's National Party on its own terms, which the rulers would not permit. The unifs, by contrast, were free or free-ish to unite the locals in loathing.

"What can you tell us about him?" Dhatt said, raising his voice to the others who watched us.

"Aikam?" Buidze said. "Nothing. Good worker. Dumb as a brick. Okay look, I'd have said that until today, but given what he just did, scratch that. Not nearly as tough as he looks. All pecs and no teeth, that one. Likes the kids, makes him feel good to hobn.o.b with clever foreigners. Why? Tell me you're not eye-balling him, SD. That parcel came from Besel Besel. How the h.e.l.l would he-"

"Absolutely it did," Dhatt said. "No one here's accusing anyone, least of all the hero of the hour. Standard questions."

"Tsueh got on with the students, you said?" Unlike Tairo, Buidze did not look for permission to answer me. He met my eye and nodded. "Anyone in particular? Good friends with Mahalia Geary?"

"Geary? h.e.l.l no. Geary probably never even knew his name. Rest her." He made the Sign of Long Sleep with his hand. "Aikam's friends with some of them, but not Geary. He hangs out with Jacobs, Smith, Rodriguez, Browning ..."

"Just that he asked us-"

"He was very keen to know about any leads in the Geary case," Dhatt said.

"Yeah?" Buidze shrugged. "Well that got everyone really upset. Of course he wants to know about it."

"I'm wondering ..." I said. "This is a complicated site, and I notice that even though it's mostly total, there's a couple of places where it crosshatches a bit. And that's got to be a nightmare to watch. Mr. Buidze, when we spoke to the students, not a single one of them mentioned Breach. At all. Didn't bring it up. A group of foreign kids? You know how much foreigners are obsessed with that stuff. One of their friends is disappeared and they're not even mentioning the most notorious bogeyman of Ul Qoma and Besel, which is even real real, and they don't mention it? Which couldn't help but make us wonder what are they afraid of?"

Buidze stared at me. He glanced at Nancy. He looked around the room. After long seconds he laughed.

"You're joking. Okay then. Alright then, Officers. Yeah they're scared alright, but not that someone's breaching from f.u.c.k knows where to mess with them. Is that what you're thinking?" He shook his head. "They're scared because they don't want to get caught." He held up his hands in surrender. "You've got me, Officers. There is is breaching going on that we're not able to stop. These little sods breach all the d.a.m.n time." breaching going on that we're not able to stop. These little sods breach all the d.a.m.n time."

He met our stares. Not defensive. He was matter-of-fact. Did I look as shocked as Dhatt? Professor Nancy's expression was if anything embarra.s.sed.

"You're right, of course," Buidze said. "You can't avoid all breach, not in a place like this, and not with kids like these. These aren't locals, and I don't care how much training you give them, they've never seen anything like this before. Don't tell me it's not the same back in your place, Borlu. You think they're going to play loyal? You think while they wander around town they're really really unseeing Besel? Come on. Best any of us can hope for's they've got the sense not to make a big thing of it, but of unseeing Besel? Come on. Best any of us can hope for's they've got the sense not to make a big thing of it, but of course course they're seeing across the border. No we can't prove it, which is why Breach wouldn't come unless they really f.u.c.k up. Oh it's happened. But much rarer than you think. Not for a long time." they're seeing across the border. No we can't prove it, which is why Breach wouldn't come unless they really f.u.c.k up. Oh it's happened. But much rarer than you think. Not for a long time."

Professor Nancy still looked down at the table. "You think any any of the foreigners don't breach?" Buidze said, and leaned in towards us, spreading his fingers. "All we can get from them's a bit of politeness, right? And when you get a bunch of young people together, they're going to push it. Maybe it's not just looks. Did you always do what you're told? But these are smart kids." of the foreigners don't breach?" Buidze said, and leaned in towards us, spreading his fingers. "All we can get from them's a bit of politeness, right? And when you get a bunch of young people together, they're going to push it. Maybe it's not just looks. Did you always do what you're told? But these are smart kids."

He sketched maps on the table with his fingertips. "Bol Ye'an crosshatches here, here here, here, and the park it's in here here and and here here. And yeah, over at the edges in this direction, it even creeps into Besel total. So when this lot get drunk or whatever, don't they egg each other on to go stand in a crosshatch bit of the park? And then, who knows if they don't, maybe standing still there, without a single word, without even moving, cross over into Besel, then back again? You don't have to take a step to do that, not if you're in a crosshatch. All here." Tapped his forehead. "No one can prove s.h.i.+t. Then maybe next time when they're doing that they reach down, grab a souvenir, straighten back up into Ul Qoma with a rock from Besel or something. If that's where they were when they picked it up, that's where it's from, right? Who knows? Who could prove it?

"So long as they don't flaunt it, what can you do? Even Breach can't watch for breach all the time. Come on. If they did, not a single one of this foreign lot would still be here. Isn't that right, Professor?" He looked at her not unkindly. She said nothing but looked at me in embarra.s.sment. "None of them mentioned Breach, SD Dhatt, because they're all guilty as h.e.l.l." Buidze smiled. "Hey, don't get me wrong: they're only human, I like them. But don't make this more than it is."

As we ushered them out, Dhatt got a call that had him scribbling notes and muttering. I closed the door.

"That was one of the uniforms we sent to get Bowden. He's gone. They got to his apartment and no one's answering. He's not there."

"They told him they were coming?"

"Yeah, and he knew about the bomb. But he's gone."

Chapter Eighteen.

"I WANT TO GO BACK AND TALK to that kid again," Dhatt said. to that kid again," Dhatt said.

"The unificationist?"