Marooned in Realtime

was substituted for the original flicker scheme. The murderer was lucky: if he had tried for anything longer, it would have tripped all sorts of alarms.'

'Could it happen again?'

'No. Whoever did it is good, Brierson. But basically they took advantage of a bug. That bug no longer exists. And I'm being much more careful about how my machines accept outside comm now.'

Wil nodded. This was a century beyond him, even if his specialty had been forensic computing. He'd just have to take her word that there was no further danger-of this sort of assassination. Wil's strength was in the human side. For instance:

'Motive. Who would want Marta dead?'

Yelen's laugh was bitter. 'My suspects.' The windows of the library became a mosaic of the settlement's population. Some had only small pictures-all the New Mexicans fitted on a single panel. Others-Brierson, for instance-rated more space- 'Almost everybody conceives some grudge against us.

But you twenty-first-century types just don't have the background to pull this off. No matter how attractive the notion' --she looked at Wil —'you're off the list.' The pictures of the low-techs vanished from the windows.

The rest stood like posters against the landscape beyond. These were all the advanced travelers (Yelen excepted): the Robinsons, Juan Chanson, Monica Raines, Philippe Genet, Tunc Blumenthal, Jason Mudge-and the woman Tammy said was a spacer.

'The motive, Inspector Brierson? I can't afford to consider that it was anything less than the destruction of our settlement. One of these people wants humanity permanently extinct, or --more likely-wants to run their own show with the people we've rescued; it would probably come to the same thing.'

'But why Marta? Killing her has tipped their hand without —'

'Without stopping the Korolev Plan? You don't understand, Brierson.' She ran a hand through her blond hair and stared down at the table. 'I don't think any of you understand You know I'm an engineer. You know I'm a hardheaded type who's made a lot of unpopular decisions. The plan would never have gotten this far without me.

'What you don't know is that Marta was the brains behind it all. Back in civilization, Marta was a project manager. One of the best. She had this figured out even before we left civilization. She could see that technology and people were headed into some sort of singularity in the twenty-third century. She really wanted to help the people who were stranded down time.... Now we have the settlement. To make it succeed is going to take the special genius she had. I know how to make the gadgets work, and I can outshoot most anyone in a clean fight. But it could all fall apart now, without Marta. We are so few here; there are so many internal jealousies.

'I think the killer knew this, too.'

Wil nodded, a little surprised that Yelen realized her own failings so clearly.

'I'm going to have my hands full, Brierson. I intend to spend many decades of my life preparing for the time when the Peacers come out and I bring the settlement back. If Marta's dream is to succeed, I can't afford to use my own time hunting tire killer. But I want that killer, Brierson. Sometimes ... sometimes I feel a little crazy, I want him so bad. I'll give you Ally reasonable support in this. Will you take the case?' Even at fifty megayears, there was still a job for Wil Brier

There was one obvious thing he should demand, something he would not hesitate to require if he were back in civilization. He glanced at Yelen's auton, still hovering at the end of the table. Here... it might be better to wait for witnesses. Powerful ones. Finally he said, 'I'll need personal transportation. Physical protection. Some means of publicly communicating %. with the entire settlement-I'll want their cooperation on this problem.'

'Done.'

'I'll also need your databases, at least where they deal with people in the settlement. I want to know where and when everyone originated, and exactly how they got bobbled past the Extinction.'

Korolev's eyes narrowed. 'Is this for your personal vendetta, Brierson? The past is dead. I'll not have you stirring up trouble with people who were once your enemies. Besides, the low-techs aren't suspects; there's no need for you to be sniffing around them.'

Wil shook his head. This was just like old times: the customers deciding what the professional should see. 'You're a high-tech, Yelen. But you're using a low-tech person, namely me. What makes you think the enemy doesn't have his accomplices?' People like Steve Fraley were the puppets now. They s earned to be the puppeteers. Playing Korolev against her enemy was a game the New Mexican President would love.

'Mph. Okay. You'll get the databases-but with your shanghai case locked out.'

'And I want the sort of high-speed interface you have.'

'Do you know how to use it?' Her hand brushed absently :it her headband.

'Uh, no.'

'Then forget it. The modern versions are a lot easier to learn than the kind you had, but I grew up with one and I still can't properly visualize with it. If you don't start as a child, you may spend years and never get the hang of it.'

'Look, Yelen. Time is the one thing we've got. It's God knows how many thousands of years till the Peacers come out and you restart the settlement. Even if it took me fifty