outline of the road ahead. The ho-crawl rocked sideways with the force of the wind, and Dael muttered something profane under his breath.
Then, almost as quickly as it had risen, the storm began to ease. The wind dropped, and the rain began to fall again, rather than being blown horizontally against the ho-crawl’s sides. The lightning faded, and the banks of clouds began to look less solidly threatening. By the time the ho-crawl drew up at the entrance to the corporate hostel, just outside the 5K Road that was the city’s legal limit, the rain had stopped altogether and weak sunshine was beginning to throw beams through the shredding clouds.
“Here we are, then,” Neilenn said, over the intercom, and Dael looked sideways at Heikki.
“I hope I’ll see you again, now that you’re here.”
Despite the polite words, his tone was less than enthusiastic, and Heikki could not hide a crooked, comprehending smile. It had been too long, they had both changed, had nothing really in common any more. Better not to have met, than to have met like this, when the only tie between them was their work for Lo-Moth. She said aloud, “Definitely, if we can find the time,” and was ashamed to see the fleeting relief in the other’s eyes. She looked away, and reached for the interlock, pushing herself up and out of the well in the same smooth movement.
Djuro and Nkosi were already out of the passenger compartment, and Djuro was checking the crates on the tow. He looked up at her approach, and nodded grudgingly. “Everything looks all right. The seals are tight.”
“Good,” Heikki said, though she’d expected no less, and looked at Neilenn.
“Your rooms are already reserved and confirmed as of this morning,” the little man answered. “There will be a corporate systems Accesscard waiting for you at the desk, as well as the information you requested from the central office. I have also been instructed to inform you that a local expense account has been set up for you, with a five thousand poa line of credit. Ser Mikelis asked me to make clear, however, that this was intended for incidental expenses rather than employment or equipment rental or anything of that nature. For the latter, you need only call the Bursar, and she’ll issue the order. Your projected expenses have already been placed in her accounts.”
“Thank you,” Heikki said, and saw Nkosi staring open-mouthed. She frowned at him, and he hurriedly adjusted his expression, but for once she couldn’t blame him. Lo-Moth was being unusually generous…. She put the thought aside, annoyed with herself for borrowing trouble, and turned her attention back to Neilenn.
“There’s just the question of where to store the equipment, then.”
“Kasib will see to that,” Neilenn said.
Heikki turned, to find herself face to face with a tall, unsmiling man in a high-collared, short-sleeved tunic and loosely woven trousers. The collar button was printed with Lo-Moth’s logo. The man touched his forehead politely, still unspeaking, and Neilenn said again, “Kasib will take it.”
Djuro said, “I’ll give you a hand.”
“Oh, that won’t be necessary,” Neilenn said, and in the same moment, Kasib said, “I can handle it.”
Djuro opened his mouth to protest, and Heikki said quietly, “I think he can manage, Sten.”
Djuro’s mouth closed abruptly. After a moment, he said, “Whatever you say, boss.” He was silent as they made their way into the suddenly cool lobby, and while Heikki collected room keys, information packet, and the promised disks from the desk clerk, who made a production of summoning a scout to lead them to the suite. She glanced warily at Djuro as she turned to the hovering scout, but the little man’s expression was remote to the point of mutiny. She suppressed her own annoyed response, and nodded to the scout.
“You can take us up, please.”
The scout led them through the expensively furnished lobby, and past a first bank of lifts to a second, more secluded row of cars. There was a card sensor in place of the usual panel of buttons, and the scout cleared his throat. “Dam’ Heikki—?”
Heikki handed him one of the cards she had received from the clerk; the scout passed it across the reader face and handed it back to her with a flourish. Heikki said nothing, and the scout looked away.
Lo-Moth had assigned them a comfortable suite of rooms near the top of the building, bedrooms, mini- kitchen, mainroom and workroom. Comfortable, but hardly luxurious, Heikki thought, scanning the working space, and could not help feeling a certain relief. Lo-Moth was finally behaving the way it should. She tipped the scout, and saw the door closed and locked behind him. Djuro still glared at her, but said nothing. Heikki smiled, crookedly, and rummaged in her carryall for the minisec she always carried. She keyed the general search, and then, when that triggered no alarms, tried the more specific common frequency search.
“No bugs,” Nkosi said, and grinned. “Not that I really expected any, in a place this expensive.”
Djuro muttered something inarticulate.
Heikki ignored them both, and readjusted the minisec’s controls so that it shifted from active to passive security, putting out an inaudible field guaranteed to disrupt most of the bugs commonly used in the Loop and Precincts. Only then did she look at Djuro.
“Sten—”
“Why did you let them go off with our equipment?” Djuro demanded. “Damn it, Heikki, they were just looking for a chance to search it.”
“I know.” Heikki shrugged. “At least, I think I know. Maybe we’re misjudging them.” She could hear how doubtful her own voice sounded, and sighed. “And if they do—they’d’ve found a way anyway, Sten. You know that.”
“They might damage something.”
Nkosi made an odd sound that might have been a snort of laughter. Heikki said, “I doubt it. If they do—we call them on it, Sten, get repair plus the nuisance value, and if necessary, we break contract. We’d have a good argument that they violated the contract first, at any rate.” She paused, staring out through the workroom door at the enormous window that dominated the mainroom. The storm had almost vanished over the western horizon, was little more than a distant line of clouds. The sun streamed across a broad swath of perfectly manicured lawn, drew faint curls of vapor from the vanishing puddles at the edge of the metalled access road. “What I’d really like to know,” she said slowly, “is why they want to search the crates.”
“It doesn’t make good sense,” Djuro agreed. His anger had vanished almost as quickly as it had risen.
“Oh, I can think of quite a few reasons that Lo-Moth might want to search us,” Nkosi began, and Heikki smiled sideways at him.
“But do any of them make sense, Jock?”
“That I cannot promise,” Nkosi answered.
“So you’re saying we should ignore it, Heikki?” Djuro asked.
“For now, yes.” Heikki’s smile widened. “Maybe I’m wrong after all, and they’re just being polite.”
“To an independent?” Djuro murmured.
Heikki ignored him. “If not, think of it as giving them the rope to hang themselves.”
CHAPTER 4
Heikki spent the next few hours at the communications console, arranging for the rental of a fastcat, an on- road machine lighter and faster than a ho-crawl, and eminently suited for city travel. After the encounter with Dael, she was reluctant to run into anyone she’d known from the old days, and was glad to rely on the relative anonymity of the communications net. Only contacting the Explorers’ Club’s local representative required a face to face meeting—ostensibly, she wanted to check what her membership could bring in the way of local privilege; actually, of course, she wanted to tie in to whatever local networks the local representative had managed to infiltrate, and that required a personal touch—and at least the name was not one she recognized.
Ionas Ciceron was listed in the city’s business and services index as a private meteorological consultant, with an office in the Portside district. That area was inexpensive but respectable; Djuro lifted an eyebrow at the address.
“Problems?” Heikki asked, and kept her voice calm with an effort.
Djuro shook his head. “Weathermen—especially poor weathermen—don’t usually act as Club Reps, that’s all.”
