Trickster

'What are you getting at?' Kendi asked, leaning forward.

'I think there's a good chance Bedj-ka was sold after the Despair,' Lucia finished. 'He would still be a perfectly good slave-sorry, Harenn-he just wouldn't be Silent anymore. We should probably start with recent sales records, check for nine-year-old males. It's a good… I mean it might be a good a place to start. Father.'

Kendi nodded and turned his attention toward Ben. 'You're the computer genius, Ben. What do you think? Is the information hackable?'

'We can probably get some data through social engineering,' Ben said. 'Tricking people into telling us what we need to know, peering over shoulders to get passwords, that sort of thing. I can hack the networks directly too, but I won't know how long that'll take until I actually start working on it and find out how tight their security is.'

'Ballpark,' Kendi said. 'We're under a time limit, here.'

'Uh, a week to figure out who to hack?' Ben hazarded. 'Probably another week to sneak in without getting caught and another two or three to search. That's assuming Bedj-ka isn't too hard to find in the first place.'

'All life,' Kendi muttered. 'That's three weeks, maybe four. We have to narrow it down. Otherwise we may not have enough time to find-' He cut himself off.

Harenn touched his shoulder. 'Father Kendi,' she said hesitantly, 'if finding Bedj-ka will cost you the chance to find your own family, perhaps we should-'

'No,' Kendi said. 'Our mission is to find Bedj-ka.'

Ben stiffened at the voice in his head. Kendi's eyes glazed over. The voice sounded familiar, but Ben, still new to the concept of Silent communication, didn't immediately recognize it.

'What's up?' Gretchen demanded.

'It's Sejal.' Kendi rose from his chair. 'We'll be in the Dream for a while, troops. Ben?'

Recognition clicked. The speaker was Sejal. A tang of anticipation burst into Ben as if he had bitten an unexpected orange. He bounced to his feet and followed Kendi from the bridge. Sejal was a Silent street kid Kendi had rescued and brought to Bellerophon just before the Despair ripped the Dream to pieces. Sejal had not only survived the Despair with his Silence intact, he had also sensed the general location of Harenn's son Bedj-ka and of two members of Kendi's missing family. If he needed to talk with Ben and Kendi, it was probably because he had narrowed something down. That could shorten their mission considerably.

'Are you sure we couldn't get the ship for more time?' Ben asked, quickening his pace. The rounded, blue corridor was wide enough for Ben and Kendi to walk side-by-side. Walls curved down gently to meet the carpeted floor.

'I'm sure.' The strain lines on Kendi's face tightened. 'I've tried twice since we left to get an extension, but the Council won't budge.'

'It's not like we don't deserve it,' Ben growled. 'They wanted to give us a parade, remember? Heroes of the Despair, that's us. I think they didn't go through with it only because everyone was so damned busy.'

'That's why we don't have more time,' Kendi pointed out. 'With all the ships drafted into courier work-'

'Yeah, yeah. I know. We were lucky to get the Poltergeist for as long as we did.'

'Mine,' Ben said as he and Kendi entered the lift. It hummed as they dropped smoothly downward. 'I'm still not very good and finding people in the Dream, and it'll be easier if you two come to me.'

'You should practice more,' Kendi chided, though his dark eyes carried no hint of rebuke. 'And you should also comb your hair. It looks like a red haystack.'

'Who are you, my mo-my keeper?' Ben said.

'It's definitely a zoo around here,' Kendi said. 'Between the Council, Gretchen's griping, the pressure Harenn's been laying on me, and you turning into a loose cannon, it's pretty-'

'Hey!' Ben protested. 'I've never been a loose anything!'

Kendi looked Ben's body up and down with an appreciative grin. 'Yeah. You do look pretty tight.' Ben flushed but managed to grin back. Kendi could still do that to him, make him feel embarrassed and empowered at the same time. Ben still liked it. When Kendi took command of the Poltergeist, Ben had wondered if it would feel strange receiving orders from him, but so far it had worked out fine. After all, Ben had once been under his own mother's command. Maybe he was just used to taking orders from people he loved.

'We're coming, we're coming,' Kendi said. He and Ben exited the lift and hurried down to their shared quarters.

As captain of the Poltergeist, Kendi-and therefore Ben-rated the largest set of quarters on board. Ben luxuriated in them like a cat caught in a sunbeam. The Post-Script, their previous ship, had been a cramped, tiny tub, with grimy beige deck plating and barely enough room to turn around in. Their quarters on this ship boasted separate living and sleeping rooms, a private bathroom, a kitchenette, and a small office area cluttered with Ben's computer equipment. An adjustable-gravity workout machine occupied one corner and built-in shelves contained a scattering of bookdisks. The furniture was plain but comfortable. Klimkinnar and her moonlets created a spectacular view from the window. Precisely half the living room was a complete mess-clothes, disks, more computer parts, and something that looked like an erector set on steroids cluttered floor and furniture. The tidy half was Spartan by comparison, with a short, rubber-tipped red spear hanging on the wall as the only decoration. The setup was the compromise Ben and Kendi had created so they wouldn't kill each other. Ben could trash one half of the living room and all of the office while Kendi kept the other half of the living room and the entire bedroom pristine. The kitchenette wasn't an issue, since Ben, an aggressive non-cook, never set foot in the place.

Kendi took down the spear and pulled a dermospray cylinder from his pocket. Ben pursed his lips and rummaged through the stuff on the floor near the erector set. Kendi sighed and stripped off his clothes, leaving only a loincloth. Then he bent his left knee, slipped the spear under it as if it had become a peg-leg, and pressed the business end of the dermospray to his inner elbow. There was a hissing thump as the drug drove home. Kendi cupped his hands over his groin in the classic meditation pose of Kendi's people, the Australian Aborigines. Kendi called them the Real People, and Ben sometimes wondered if that made Kendi a Real Person. He had never asked because he suspected the answer would involve a thwack to someplace tender.

'I'll meet you in the Dream,' Kendi said. 'And maybe now we should pause to mention how you could save yourself a lot of time by-'

'Found it!' Ben said, triumphantly brandishing his own dermospray. 'I'll see you in there.'

Kendi shook his head and closed his eyes. Ben started for the bedroom, then paused to look at Kendi. As if sensing Ben's proximity, Kendi opened his eyes again.

'What?' he said.

Ben reached out and ran the back of one finger down Kendi's cheek. 'You. You're so different these days. Sometimes I don't even know you.'

'What do you mean?' Kendi's pupils were dilated from the effect of the drugs, but his voice sounded tense again.

'It's not a bad thing,' Ben said hastily. 'I just mean that you've become Mr. Responsibility lately, all we need some options and we'll be in the Dream, troops. It's so different from… before.'

'Before the Despair, you mean,' Kendi said in a slightly strained voice. 'Everyone has to grow up some time. I guess it was just my turn.' He flashed a smile that went straight through Ben. 'I'll do something irresponsible after lunch just to keep you on your toes. How's that?'

'Deal,' Ben laughed, heading for the bedroom again. Kendi closed his eyes, and Ben paused one more time to look at him. Although Kendi kept his voice and his words upbeat, Ben sensed his tension. If they didn't get the Poltergeist back to the monastery in time, Kendi's career would go straight down the recycling tube, hero or not, and Kendi would never command another mission. Ben swore to himself that he'd find a way to shorten the search and give Kendi enough time to find his own family after they located Harenn's son.

Ben stretched out on the bed and turned the dermospray over and over in his hand. Such a weird situation. For Ben's entire life, he'd been the only non-Silent in his family, the only one who couldn't enter the Dream. His aunt, uncle, and cousins had made his life living hell, and although his mother had never said anything, Ben knew she had been disappointed. Then came the Despair and a quirk of fate that had not only gotten Ben into the Dream, but had torn his family out of it, leaving Ben the only true Silent among them.

He set the flat end of the dermospray to his inner elbow and pressed the button. The dermospray thumped and Ben closed his eyes to concentrate on making his breathing deep and even. His heartbeat slowed, and colors swirled across the darkness inside his eyelids. The small noises of the Poltergeist faded away. He was floating,