Emerald Eyes | Page 5

bundle of amino acids that was my ancestor.
They had assembled him with lasers and viruses, in a process that the histories said would be obsolete within a decade. It was a primitive process, far likelier to fail than otherwise; the histories were unclear as to how many times the technique had ever functioned properly in the decade it was employed.
There are moments when Destiny reaches out to trace a finger down my cheek, with the touch of a lover. I do not know if it is the same for Camber Tremodian; he is an immensely practical man in some ways. The tiny bit of matter before me was the great-grandfather of the first of my line; and it was right that it was with the Gift of the House of November that I reached out, and took the broken long chains of dead matter, and brought them together in the pattern that would let Carl Castanaveras live.
Robin Macintyre finished reading off status reports in a dull monotone. "We hustled the decon unit downstairs, and--"
"Radiation?"
"All over the place. Low levels most places, but--Jorge's badge was black." For the first time Suzanne understood Robin's grief stricken expression; Robin's closest friend on the staff was a dead man. "They're taking Jorge to the hospital; I'm going to log out and go with him."
"No." It was Amnier, standing on the other side of the Information Network terminal. He could not see either Robin or the status reports that filled the other half of the screen. "You can't take him out of here."
Suzanne was not sure Robin had heard Amnier; she'd slapped down on the silence point as soon as he'd begun speaking. "Why the hell not?"
"If his badge is black," said Amnier patiently, "he's dead regardless. I saw enough of that during the war; so did Malko. Check with him if you must; medical technology hasn't advanced as much as all that in the last decade. Taking him to the hospital will be of use to nobody except this Robin person, and it will, by releasing knowledge of this radiation contamination into the general populace, place a potent weapon into the hands of those who do wish to close you down."
Robin was gesturing on the terminal's screen. Suzanne lifted her thumb from the pressure point. "One moment, Robin." She pressed down again. "How so?"
"It will mean that you are either incompetent enough to have allowed radioactives to escape from confinement--"
"We don't even use radioactives."
"Irrelevant. Or it will mean that you have been targeted by ideologs." Amnier shook his head. "The Unification Council would find that an excellent excuse to shut you down. We haven't the resources to guard an installation of questionable worth against a group of determined ideologs."
An override suddenly flashed on Suzanne's terminal. "Malko here. I'll meet you at the showers. Bring Amnier." The override ended, and Robin's form appeared again in the terminal.
"This is," said Suzanne, the instant the thought struck her, "a fascinating coincidence, that this should happen while you are visiting."
Darryl Amnier smiled at her, the first true smile she had seen from him. He spoke with chilling precision. "I have thought that myself."
Terence Kniessen, a tall fat man with a shock of red hair, met them at the showers. He was wearing his head bubble--barely visible refraction ran five centimeters around the perimeter of his skull--but his gloves had been removed. Malko was already there, undressing to enter the chemical showers; Amnier flinched visibly at the sight of the long laser scars that crisscrossed Kalharri's body. Almost hidden among the marks of the lasers were the small round puckered bullet scars. Kalharri did not look at Amnier; he entered the first shower in the row as they began undressing.
Sweat dripped off Kniessen. He took Amnier's coat, babbling instructions at the man. "--and then gargle with the mouthwash, you'll have to swallow the second mouthful. I'll meet you on the other side and show you how to--"
Suzanne interrupted him. "Terence."
He stopped speaking instantly and glanced at her sideways--he was more of a prude than most. "Yes ma'am?"
"You took your gloves off."
Terence let out a low moan. "Oh, damn," he swore and began stripping off his clothes.
The first thing Amnier noticed as they cycled through the double doors that led into the labs was the faint smell of ozone. The bubble let filtered air through, and it was not supposed to filter anything so small as an ozone molecule; but before he could be certain about the smell, he was led through the inner door and found himself upon a catwalk looking down on chaos.
Kalharri was down there, with a pair of technicians wearing decon badges. Only one of the decon badges bore the radiating triangle insignia that meant its wearer had passed training to deal with radioactive materials. The