brought to mind a statue of a powerful Roman senator. Only a slight translucence made the figure appear less than totally solid. After the silence had stretched almost to snapping point, Anthony Theobald said, “If you didn’t want to ask me questions, perhaps you shouldn’t have brought me back to life, Prefect.”
“I’ve got a lot of questions,” Dreyfus said easily.
“I just wanted to give you the chance to have your say first.”
“I suppose you’d be the man your colleague mentioned during my last invocation.” Thalia had already activated the beta-level to test its readiness for interviewing. Of the twelve beta-levels saved from Ruskin- Sartorious, only three had been deemed sufficiently functional to offer useful testimony, despite the best efforts of Thalia and Sparver to mend the remaining nine.
“I’m Dreyfus,” he said pleasantly.
“Welcome to Panoply, Citizen.”
“Perhaps it’s me, but ’welcome’ doesn’t have quite the necessary degree of solemnity.”
“I was just being polite,” Dreyfus replied.
“My personal belief is that beta-levels have no claim on consciousness. As far as I’m concerned, you’re just an item of forensic evidence. The fact that I can talk to you—the fact that you might claim to feel alive—is entirely irrelevant.”
“How reassuring to meet someone with such an enlightened viewpoint. What’s your opinion on women? Do you consider them capable of full sentience, or do you have lingering reservations about them as well?”
“I don’t have a problem with women. I do have a problem with software entities that pretend to be alive and then expect to be accorded the rights and privileges of the living.”
“If I’m not alive, how can I ’expect’ anything?”
“I’m not saying you can’t be persuasive. But the instant I sense evasion or concealment I’ll send you back to the deepfreeze. Once you’re there, I can’t vouch for your safety. Things go astray. Files get deleted by mistake.”
“A policeman of the old school,” Anthony Theobald said, nodding approvingly.
“Skip the appetiser and straight on to the main course of threats and bullying. Actually, I welcome it. It’s a refreshingly direct approach.”
“Just so we understand each other.”
“Now are you ready to tell me what happened?” Dreyfus scratched at the bulge of neck fat lapping against the back of his collar.
“My background files say that you were the head of the family in the Bubble. According to the last census, you were lording it over more than nine hundred subjects.”
“Free family members and citizens. Again: what happened?”
“How much did my deputy tell you?”
“Nothing useful.”
“Good for her. I’ll begin by telling you that Ruskin-Sartorious no longer exists. Your habitat was gutted by the drive exhaust from a lighthugger space vehicle, the Accompaniment of Shadows. It appears to have been a deliberate act. Do you remember this event?” Anthony Theobald lost some of his composure, the set of his jaw slackening.
“I have no recollection of it.”
“What’s the last thing you do remember? Does the name of the ship ring any bells?”
“It rings more than bells, Prefect. We were in negotiations with the Accompaniment of Shadows. The ship was parked near Ruskin-Sartorious.”
“Why wasn’t she using the Swarm, like all the other ships?”
“I gather there was a problem with their long-distance shuttle. It was simpler to move the entire ship and rely on one of our own short-range shuttles. We had the facilities to cope, and Dravidian’s crew seemed happy enough to be entertained at our expense.” It was the first mention of the captain’s name.
“Trade talks?” Anthony Theobald looked at Dreyfus as if the question was absurd.
“What other reason is there to deal with Ultras?”
“Just asking. How were the talks running?”
“Agreeably, at first.”
“And then?”
“Less agreeably. We weren’t experienced in dealings with Ultras. I’d hoped matters wouldn’t come to such a sorry pass, frankly. We had some financial difficulties and I’d been hoping that the affair between Vernon and Delphine would ease matters somewhat… but that wasn’t to be. In the end we had no choice but to deal with Ultras.”
“What were you hoping to sell?”
“Delphine’s works, of course.” Dreyfus nodded as if nothing more needed to be said, but filed the information away for future reference.
Thalia had already informed him that the other two stable witnesses were Delphine Ruskin-Sartorious and her lover, Vernon Tregent.
“And when the crew visited you—who were you dealing with, primarily?”
“Dravidian, in the main.”
“How’d you take to him?”
“I found him straightforward enough for a cyborg, or chimeric, or however they wish to be called. He appeared interested in some samples of Delphine’s work. He felt he could get a good price for them around one of the other worlds.”
“Where was his next port of call?”
“I confess I don’t recall. Fand, Sky’s Edge, the First System, some other godforsaken place. What did it matter to me, once the works were sold?”
“Maybe it mattered to Delphine.”
“Then you can take it up with her. My sole concern was the economic benefit to Ruskin-Sartorious.”
“And you got the impression Dravidian was offering a fair price?”
“I’d have preferred more, naturally, but the offer appeared reasonable enough. Judging by the state of his ship and crew, Dravidian had his own financial difficulties.”
“So you were happy with the deal. You sold the goods to the Ultras. Dravidian said goodbye and took his ship away. What happened next?”
“That isn’t how things played out. Negotiations were winding to a close when Delphine received an anonymous message. She brought it to my immediate attention. It suggested that Dravidian was not to be trusted: that the price he was offering us was far below a realistic market value, and that we would be much better off dealing with other Ultras.”
“But you had no access to anyone else.”
“Until then. But the message hinted that there might in fact be interested parties.”
“How’d you react?”
“We consulted. I was suspicious, urging that we should conclude our business with Dravidian. We had a deal. But Delphine demurred. She used executive privilege to block the transaction. Vernon supported her, of course. I was furious, but not half as furious as Dravidian. He said the honour of his ship and crew had been impugned. He issued threats, saying that what we’d done would cost Ruskin-Sartorious gravely.”
“And then what?”
“His crew returned to their ship. Our shuttle came back. We saw the Accompaniment of Shadows move away.” Anthony Theobald spread his hands.
“And that is all I remember. As you have been so thoughtful as to remind me, I am a beta-level simulation: reliant for my perceptions on the distributed surveillance systems of the habitat. Those perceptions would have been processed and consolidated in the core, but it would not have been an instantaneous process. There would not have been enough time to incorporate those final observations into my personality model before Ruskin- Sartorious was destroyed.”
“At least you remember something.”
“You’ll hear the same story from the others.” Anthony Theobald peered intently at Dreyfus.
“There are others, aren’t there?”
