The City and the City Part 18

"Yeah, Jaris. I know, I know, 'It wasn't him.' Right. You said. Well, whatever, he knows something and I want to talk to him."

"You won't find him."

"What?"

"Good luck. He's gone."

He fell behind me a few steps and made a phone call.

"You're right. Jaris is nowhere. How did you know? What the f.u.c.k are you playing at?"

"Let's go to your office."

"f.u.c.k the office. The office can wait. Repeat, how the f.u.c.k did you know about Jaris?"

"Look ..."

"I'm getting a bit spooked by your occult abilities, Borlu. I didn't sit on my a.r.s.e-when I heard I'd be babysitting you, I looked you up, so I know a little bit, I know you're no one to f.u.c.k with. I'm sure you did the same, so you know the same." I should have done. "So I was geared up to be working with a detective. Even some hot s.h.i.+t. I wasn't expecting this lugubrious tutting b.u.g.g.e.r. How the f.u.c.k did you know about Jaris, and why are you protecting protecting that little s.h.i.+t?" that little s.h.i.+t?"

"Okay. He phoned me last night from a car or I think from the train and told me he was going."

He stared at me. "Why the f.u.c.k did he call you? you? And why the f.u.c.k did you not tell me? Are we working together or not, Borlu?" And why the f.u.c.k did you not tell me? Are we working together or not, Borlu?"

"Why did he call me? Maybe he wasn't bananas about your interrogation style, Dhatt. And are we working together? I thought the reason I was here was to obediently give you everything I've got, then watch TV in my hotel room while you find the bad guy. When did Bowden get burgled? When were you going to tell me that? I didn't see you rus.h.i.+ng to spill whatever s.h.i.+t you found out from UlHuan at the dig, and he should have the choicest info-he is is the b.l.o.o.d.y government mole, isn't he? Come on, it's no big deal, all public works have them. What I object to is you cutting me out then coming the 'How could you?'" the b.l.o.o.d.y government mole, isn't he? Come on, it's no big deal, all public works have them. What I object to is you cutting me out then coming the 'How could you?'"

We stared at each other. After a long moment he turned and walked to the kerb.

"Put out a warrant for Jaris," I said to his back. "Put a stop on his pa.s.sports, inform the airports, stations. But he only called me because he was en route, to tell me what he thinks happened. His phone's probably smashed up by the tracks in the middle of Cucinis Pa.s.s, halfway to the Balkans by now."

"So what is it he thinks happened?" thinks happened?"

"Orciny."

He turned in disgust and waved the word away.

"Were you even going to f.u.c.king tell me this?" he said.

"I told you, didn't I?"

"He's just done a runner. Doesn't that tell you anything? The G.o.dd.a.m.n guilty guilty run." run."

"What, you talking about Mahalia? Come on, what's his motive?" I said that but remembered some of what Jaris had told me. She had not been one of their party. They had driven her out. I hesitated a little. "Or you mean Bowden? Why the h.e.l.l and how how the h.e.l.l would Jaris organise something like that?" the h.e.l.l would Jaris organise something like that?"

"I don't know, both. Who knows what makes these f.u.c.kers do what they do?" Dhatt said. "There'll be some f.u.c.ked-up justification or other, some conspiracy thing."

"Doesn't make sense," I said carefully, after a minute. "It was ... Okay, it was him who called me from here in the first place."

"I knew knew it. You f.u.c.king it. You f.u.c.king covered covered for him ..." for him ..."

"I didn't know. I couldn't tell. When he called last night he told me. Wait, wait, listen, Dhatt: why would he call me in the first place if it was him who killed her?"

He stared at me. After a minute he turned and hailed a cab. He opened its door. I watched. The cab had halted skew-whiff on the road: Ul Qoman cars sounded their horns as they went past, Bes drivers cut quietly around the protub, the law-abiding not even whispering cusses.

Dhatt stood there half-in, half-out, and the cabbie made some remonstrance. Dhatt snapped something and showed him his ID.

"I don't know why," he said to me. "Something to find out. But it's a bit f.u.c.king much, isn't it? That he's gone?"

"If he was in on it there's no sense him drawing my attention to anything anything. And how's he supposed to have got her to Besel?"

"Called his friends over there; they did it ..."

I shrugged a doubting maybe maybe. "It was the Bes unifs who gave us our first lead on all this, guy called Drodin. I've heard of misdirection, but we didn't have anything to misdirect. They don't have the smarts or contacts to know which van to steal-not the ones I've met. Plus there's more policzai policzai agents than members on their books anyway. If this was unifs it was some secret hardcore we've not seen. agents than members on their books anyway. If this was unifs it was some secret hardcore we've not seen.

"I spoke to Jaris ... He's scared," I said. "Not guilty: scared and sad. He was into her, I think."

"Alright," Dhatt said after a while. He looked at me, motioned me into the cab. He stayed standing outside for several seconds, giving orders into his phone too quiet and quick for me to follow. "Alright. Let's change the record." He spoke slowly as the cab drove.

"Who gives a f.u.c.k what's gone down between Besel and Ul Qoma, right? Who gives a f.u.c.k what my boss is telling me or what yours is telling you? You're police. I'm police. Let's fix this. Are we working together, Borlu? I could do with some help on a case that's getting more f.u.c.ked by the minute, how about you? UlHuan doesn't know f.u.c.k, by the way."

Where he took me, a place very close to his office, was not as dark as a cop bar in Besel would have been. It was more salubrious. I still would not have booked a wedding reception there. It was, if only just, during working hours, but the room was more than half-full. It cannot have all been local militsya militsya, but I recognised many of the faces from Dhatt's office. They recognised me, too. Dhatt entered to greetings, and I followed him past whispers and those so-charmingly frank Ul Qoman stares.

"One definite murder and now two disappearances," I said. I watched him very carefully. "All people who are known to have looked at this stuff."

"There is no f.u.c.king Orciny."

"Dhatt, I'm not saying that. You said yourself there are such things as cults and lunatics."

"Seriously f.u.c.k off. The most culty lunatic we've met just fled the scene of the crime, and you gave him a free pa.s.s."

"I should have said first thing this morning, I apologise."

"You should've called last night."

"Even if we could find him I thought we didn't have enough to hold him. But I apologise." Held my hands open.

I stared at him some time. He was overcoming something. "I want to solve this," he said. The pleasant burr of Illitan from the customers. I heard the clucks as one or two saw my visitor's mark. Dhatt bought me a beer. Ul Qoman, flavoured with all kinds of whatnot. It would not be winter for weeks, and though it was no colder in Ul Qoma than in Besel, it felt colder to me. "What do you say? If you won't even f.u.c.king trust me ..."

"Dhatt, I've already told you stuff that-" I lowered my voice. "No one else knows about that first first phone call. I don't know what's going on. I don't understand any of this. I'm not solving anything. I'm by some fluke that I do not know the whys of any more than you, being used. For some reason I've been a repository for a bunch of information that I don't know what to do with. I hope there's a phone call. I don't know what's going on. I don't understand any of this. I'm not solving anything. I'm by some fluke that I do not know the whys of any more than you, being used. For some reason I've been a repository for a bunch of information that I don't know what to do with. I hope there's a yet yet after that, but I don't know, just like I don't know anything." after that, but I don't know, just like I don't know anything."

"What does Jaris Jaris think happened? I'm going to track that f.u.c.ker down." He would not. think happened? I'm going to track that f.u.c.ker down." He would not.

"I should've called, but I could ... He's not our guy. You know, Dhatt. You know. How long you been an officer? Sometimes you know know, right?" I tapped my chest. I was right, he liked that, nodded.

I told him what Jaris had said. "f.u.c.king c.r.a.p," he said, when I was done.

"Maybe."

"What the f.u.c.k is is this Orciny stuff? this Orciny stuff? That's That's what he was running from? You're reading that book. The dodgy one Bowden wrote. What's it like?" what he was running from? You're reading that book. The dodgy one Bowden wrote. What's it like?"

"There's a lot in it. A lot of stuff. I don't know. Of course it's ludicrous, like you say. Secret overlords behind the scene, more powerful even than Breach, puppetmasters, hidden cities."

"c.r.a.p."

"Yeah, but the point is that it's c.r.a.p a bunch of people believe. And"-I opened my hands at him-"something big's going on, and we have no idea what it is." big's going on, and we have no idea what it is."

"Maybe I'll take a look at it after you," Dhatt said. "Who the f.u.c.k knows anything." He said the last word carefully.

"Qussim." A couple of his colleagues, men of about his age or mine, raising their gla.s.ses to him, just about to me. There was something in their eyes, they were moving in like curious animals. "Qussim, we've not had a chance to meet our guest. You've been hiding him away."

"Yura," Dhatt said. "Kai. How's tricks? Borlu, these are detectives blah and blah." He waved his hands between them and me. One of them raised his eyebrow at Dhatt.

"I just wanted to find out how Inspector Borlu was finding Ul Qoma," the one called Kai said. Dhatt snorted and finished his beer.

"f.u.c.k's sake," he said. He sounded as amused as angry. "You want to get drunk and get into an argument with him, maybe even if you're far gone enough, Yura, a fight. You'll bring up all manner of unfortunate international incidents. The f.u.c.king war might get dusted off. You might even say something about your dad. His dad was in the UQ Navy," he said to me. "Got tinnitus or some s.h.i.+t in a f.u.c.king idiot's skirmish with a Bes tugboat over some disputed lobster pots or whatever." I glanced, but neither of our interlocutors looked particularly outraged. There was even a trace of humour on Kai's face. "I'll save you the trouble," Dhatt said. "He's as much of a Bes w.a.n.ker as you think, and you can spread that around the office. Come on, Borlu."

We went via his station's garage and he picked up his car. "Hey ..." He indicated me the steering wheel. "It never even occurred to me, maybe you want to give the Ul Qoman roads a go."

"No, thanks. I think it would be a bit confusing." Driving in Besel or Ul Qoma is hard enough when you are in your home city, negotiating local and foreign traffic. "You know," I said. "When I was first driving ... it must be the same here, as well as seeing all the cars on the road you've got to learn to unsee all the other cars, the ones abroad, but unsee them fast enough to get out of their way." Dhatt nodded. "Anyway, when I was a kid first driving we had to get used to zooming past all these old bangers and stuff in Ul Qoma, donkey carts in some parts and what have you. That you unsaw, but you know ... Now years later most of the unseens have been overtaking me."

Dhatt laughed. Almost embarra.s.sed. "Things go up and down," he said. "Ten years from now it'll be you lot doing the overtaking again."

"Doubt it."

"Come on," he said. "It'll s.h.i.+ft; it always does. It's already started."

"Our expos? A couple of little pity investments. I think you'll be top wolf for a while."

"We're blockaded!"

"Not that you seem to be doing too bad on it. Was.h.i.+ngton loves us, and all we've got to show for it is c.o.ke."

"Don't knock that," Dhatt said. "Have you tasted Canuck Cola? All this is old Cold War bulls.h.i.+t. Who gives a f.u.c.k who the Americans want to play with, anyway? Good luck with them. Oh Oh Canada Canada ..." He sang the line. Dhatt said to me, "What's the food like at that place?" ..." He sang the line. Dhatt said to me, "What's the food like at that place?"

"Okay. Bad. No worse than any other hotel food."

He yanked the wheel, took us off the route I'd come to know. "Sweet?" he said into his phone. "Can you chuck some more stuff on for supper? Thanks, beautiful. I want you to meet my new partner."

Her name was Yallya. She was pretty, quite a lot younger than Dhatt, but she greeted me very poised, playing a role and enjoying it, waiting at the door of their apartment to triple-kiss me h.e.l.lo, the Ul Qoman way.

On the way to the house, Dhatt had looked at me and said "You okay?" It was quickly obvious that he lived within a mile, in grosstopic terms, of my own house. From their living room I saw that Dhatt and Yallya's rooms and my own overlooked the same stretch of green ground, that in Besel was Majdlyna Green and in Ul Qoma was Kwaidso Park, a finely balanced crosshatch. I had walked in Majdlyna myself often. There are parts where even individual trees are crosshatched, where Ul Qoman children and Bes children clamber past each other, each obeying their parents' whispered strictures to unsee the other. Children are sacks of infection. That was the sort of thing that spread diseases. Epidemiology was always complicated here and back home.

"How you liking Ul Qoma, Inspector?"

"Tyador. Very much."

"Bulls.h.i.+t, he thinks we're all thugs and idiots and being invaded by secret armies from hidden cities." Dhatt's laughter was not without edge. "Anyway we're not getting much chance to exactly go sightseeing."

"How's the case?"

"There is no case," he told her. "There's a series of random and implausible crises that make no sense other than if you believe the most dramatic possible s.h.i.+t. And there's a dead girl at the end of it all."

"Is that true?" she said to me. They were bringing out food in bits and pieces. It was not home cooking, and seemed to include a lot of convenience and prepackaged food, but it was better quality than I'd been eating, and was more Ul Qoman, though that is not an unmitigated good. The sky darkened over the crosshatched park, with night and with wet clouds.

"You miss potatoes," Yallya said.

"Is it written on my face?"

"It's all you eat, isn't it?" She thought she was being playful. "This too spicy for you?"

"There's someone watching us from the park."

"How can you tell from here?" She glanced over my shoulder. "Hope for their sake they're in Ul Qoma." She was an editor at a financial magazine and had, judging by the books I saw and the posters in the bathroom, a taste for j.a.panese comics.

"Are you married, Tyador?" I tried to answer Yallya's questions though they came too fast really for that. "Is this the first time you've been here?"

"No, but the first time for a long time."

"So you don't know it."

"No. I might once have claimed to know London, but not for years."

"You're well travelled! And now with all this are you mixing with insiles and breachers?" I did not find this line adorable. "Qussim says you're spending your time where they're digging up old hex stuff."

"It's like most places, much more bureaucratic than it sounds, no matter how weird the stories are."

"It's ridiculous." She looked contrite, quite suddenly. "I shouldn't make jokes about it. It's just because I don't know almost anything about the girl who died."

"You never ask," Dhatt said.

"Well, it's ... Do you have a picture of her?" Yallya said. I must have looked surprised because Dhatt shrugged at me. I reached into my inner pocket jacket, but remembered when I touched it that the only picture I had-a small copy of a copy taken in Besel, tucked into my wallet-was of Mahalia dead. I would not show that.

"I'm sorry, I don't." In the little quiet it occurred to me that Mahalia was only a few years younger than Yallya.

I stayed longer than I had expected. She was a good host, particularly when I got her off this stuff-she let me steer the conversation away. I watched her and Dhatt perform gentle bickering. The proximity of the park and of other people's affection was moving, to the point of distracting. Watching Yallya and Dhatt made me think of Sariska and Biszaya. I recalled the odd eagerness of Aikam Tsueh.

When I left, Dhatt took me down to the street and headed for the car, but I said to him, "I'll make my own way."

He stared. "Are you okay?" he said. "You've been funny all night."

"I'm fine, sorry. I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude; it was very kind of you. Really it was a good night, and Yallya ... you're a lucky man. I just, I'm trying to think things through. Look, I'm okay to go. I've money. Ul Qoman money." I showed him my wallet. "I've got all my papers. Visitor's badge. I know it makes you uncomfortable having me out and about, but seriously, I'd like to walk; I need to be out for a bit. It's a beautiful night."

"What the f.u.c.k are you talking about? It's raining."

"I like rain. Anyway, this is drizzle. You wouldn't last a day in Besel. We get real real rain in Besel." An old joke but he smiled and surrendered. rain in Besel." An old joke but he smiled and surrendered.

"Whatever. We have to work this out, you know; we're not getting very far."

"No."