Cetaganda

'So . . . these ghem-women exhibitors are, um, imitating their haut half-sisters?'

'Trying to, anyway. That's the name of the game, here.'

The ghem-ladies' exhibits were arranged not in rows, but each set individually in its own curve or corner. Miles wondered briefly what kind of jockeying went on behind the scenes for favorable sites and spaces, and what kind of status-points one could win for obtaining the best ones, and if the competition went as far as assassinations. Character-assassinations, anyway, he judged from a few snatches of conversation from groups of ghem-ladies strolling about, admiring and critiquing.

A large tank of fish caught his eye. They were filmy-finned, their iridescent scales colored in the exact pattern of one of the ghem-clan's face paintings: bright blue, yellow, black and white. The fish swirled in a watery gavotte. It was not too remarkable, genetic-engineering-wise, except that the proud and hopeful exhibitor hovering nearby appeared to be a girl of about twelve. She seemed to be a mascot for her clan's ladies' more serious exhibits. Give me six years, and watch out! her small smile seemed to say.

Blue roses and black orchids were so routine, they were used merely as framing borders for the real entries. A young girl passed by, in tow of her ghem-parents, with a unicorn about half a meter high scampering after her on a golden leash. It wasn't even an exhibit . . . maybe a commercial product, for all Miles knew. Unlike Hassadar's District Agricultural Fair, utility did not seem to be a consideration. It might even count as a defect. The competition was for art; life was merely the medium, a bio-palette supplying effects.

They paused to lean on a balcony railing that gave a partial over-view down the hanging garden's slopes. A green flicker by his feet caught Miles s eye. An array of glossy leaves and tendrils was spiraling up Ivan's leg. Red blossoms slowly opened and closed, breathing a deep and delicate perfume, albeit the total effect was unfortunately mouth-like. He stared in fascination for a full minute before murmuring, 'Uh, Ivan . . . ? Don't move. But look at your left boot.'

As Miles watched, another tendril slowly wrapped itself around Ivan's knee and began hoisting. Ivan glanced down, lurched, and swore. 'What the hell is it? Get it off me!'

'I doubt it's poisonous,' said the protocol officer uncertainly. 'But perhaps you had better hold still.'

'I … think it's a climbing rose. Lively little thing, isn't it?' Miles grinned, and bent nearer, cautiously checking for thorns before extending his hands. They might be retractable or something. Colonel Vorreedi made a hesitant restraining motion.

But before he mustered the nerve to risk skin and flesh, a plump ghem-lady carrying a large basket hurried up the path. 'Oh, there you are, you bad thing!' she cried. 'Excuse me, sir,' she addressed Ivan without looking up, kneeling by his boot and commencing to unwind her quarry. 'Too much nitrogen this morning, I'm afraid . . .'

The rose let go its last tendril from around Ivan's boot with a regretful recoil, and was unceremoniously plunged into the basket with some other writhing escapees, pink and white and yellow. The woman, her eyes darting here and there at corners and under benches, hurried on.

'I think it liked you,' said Miles to Ivan. 'Pheromones?'

'Get stuffed,' murmured Ivan back. 'Or I'll dip you in nitrogen, and stake you out under the . . . good God, what is this?'

They'd rounded a corner to an open area displaying a graceful tree, with large fuzzy heart-shaped leaves filling two or three dozen branches that arced and drooped again, swaying slightly with the burden of the podded fruit tipping each branch. The fruit was mewing. Miles and Ivan stepped closer.

'Now . . . now that is just plain wrong,' said Ivan indignantly.

Bundled upside down in each fruit pod was a small kitten, long and silky white fur fluffing out around each feline face, framing ears and whiskers and bright blue eyes. Ivan cradled one in his hand, and lifted it to his face for closer examination. With one blunt finger he carefully tried to pet the creature; it batted playfully at his hand with soft white front paws.

'Kittens like this should be out chasing string, not glued into damned trees to score points for some ghem-bitch,' Ivan opined hotly. He glanced around the area; they were temporarily alone and unobserved.

'Urn . . . I'm not so sure they're glued in,' said Miles. 'Wait, I don't think you'd better—'

Trying to stop Ivan from rescuing a kitten from a tree was approximately as futile as trying to stop Ivan from making a pass at a pretty woman. It was some kind of spinal reflex. By the glint in his eye, he was bent on releasing all the tiny victims, to chase after the climbing roses perhaps.

Ivan snapped the pod from the end of its branch. The kitten emitted a squall, convulsed, and went still.

'Kitty, kitty . . . ?' Ivan whispered doubtfully into his cupped hand. An alarming trickle of red fluid coursed from the broken stem across his wrist.

Miles pulled back the pod-leaves around the kitten's . . . corpse, he feared. There was no back half to the beast. Pink naked legs fused together and disappeared into the stem part of the pod.

'… I don't think it was ripe, Ivan.'

'That's horrible! ' Ivan's breath rasped in his throat with his outrage, but the volume was pitched way down. By unspoken mutual consent, they sidled quickly away from the kitten-tree and around the nearest unpeopled corner. Ivan glanced around frantically for a place to dispose of the tiny corpse, and so distance himself from his sin and vandalism. 'Grotesque!'

Miles said thoughtfully, 'Oh, I don't know. It's not any more grotesque than the original method, when you think about it. I mean, have you ever watched a mother cat give birth to kittens?'

Ivan covered his full hand with the other, and glared at his cousin. The protocol officer studied Ivan's dismay with a mixture of exasperation and sympathy. Miles thought that if he had known Ivan longer, the proportion of the first emotion to the second would be much higher, but Vorreedi only said, 'My lord . . . would you like me to dispose of that for you . . . discreetly?'

'Uh, yes, please,' said Ivan, looking very relieved. 'If you don't mind.' He hastily palmed off the inert pod of fluff onto the protocol officer, who hid it in a pocket handkerchief.

'Stay here. I'll be back shortly,' he said, and went off to get rid of the evidence.

'Good one, Ivan,' growled Miles. 'Want to keep your hands in your pockets after this?'

Ivan scrubbed at the sticky substance on his hand with his own handkerchief, spat into his palm, and scrubbed again. Out, out, damned spot . . . 'Don't you start making noises like my mother. It wasn't my fault. . . . Things were a little more complicated than I'd anticipated.' Ivan stuffed his handkerchief back in his pocket, and stared around, frowning. 'This isn't fun anymore. I want to go back to the embassy.'

'You have to hang on till I meet my contact, at least.'

'And when will that be?'

'Soon, I suspect.'

They strolled to the end of the aisle, where another little balcony gave an enticing view of the next lower section.

'Damn,' said Ivan.

'What do you see?' asked Miles, tracking his gaze. He stretched to stand on tiptoe, but it wasn't enough to spot what had caught Ivan's negative attention.

'Our good buddy Lord Yenaro is here. Two levels down, talking to some women.'

'It . . . could be a coincidence. This place is lousy with ghem-lords, with the award ceremony this afternoon. The winning women gain honor for their clan, naturally they want to cash in. And this is just the sort of artsy stuff that tickles his fancy, I think.'

Ivan cocked an eyebrow at him. 'You want to bet on that?'

'Nope.'

Ivan sighed. 'I don't suppose there's any way we can get him before he gets us.'

'Don't know. Keep your eyes open, anyway.'

'No lie.'

They stared around some more. A ghem-lady of middle-age and dignified bearing approached them, and gave Miles an acknowledging, if not exactly friendly, nod. Her palm turned outward briefly, displaying to him a heavy ring, with a raised screaming-bird pattern filigreed with complex encodes.