I nodded thoughtfully. “Okay, here’s a suggestion: take a pillow in there with you.”
“What?”
“That room is full of the most god-awful, dull-brained crowd of gasbags you could ever meet outside of a nightmare. Your biggest problem will be staying awake. They just brought me in there for about ten sentences, then they talked for ninety long minutes after that. I’m almost wall-eyed after the experience.”
Her lips perked up at the corners. “That’s funny… and I believe you. Thanks for the encouraging words, McGill.”
Smiling at each other, we moved to pass each other by, but Dross paused. “Hey, I heard you had a loss of your own in the attacks.”
It was my turn to look like a drowned cat. “Yes… my daughter.”
Dross nodded. “I… you know, if you know where to look here at Central, there are intel agencies that keep their own records on people.”
“Yeah?”
“Yes. Detailed personnel files—if you get my meaning. A smart, resourceful person might be able to get ahold of them.”
Dross turned away after that, and she left me standing in the hallway, staring after her.
Intel…? Where could I find someone who was inside the intel community?
-55-
Finally, at long last, I’d managed to evade the endless meeting. I don’t think they even noticed I was gone, as I’d already said my piece and there were plenty of people lined up for their turn to talk.
My thoughts immediately went to Etta. I can’t tell you anytime during my overlong existence that I’d felt as worried about a straightforward death. Not even when I’d killed my parents and almost couldn’t get them back—not even then was I as concerned as I was right now. My guess was I was being abused by parental instincts of some kind.
Accordingly, I rode the elevator down, down, down into the belly of Central. My mind kept churning the whole way.
Intel? Who did I know who knew jack-squat about Intel? When it comes to important connections at Central, I didn’t have many options in this area.
There was always Galina herself, of course. But she was still a month away on Dominus. Besides, I didn’t think she could help much this time. If she’d been able to help, she would have offered to do so when she first informed me about Etta’s death.
Drusus was powerful and connected, but he was real busy right now getting ready for a surprise-party full of Galactic guests. He couldn’t be bothered with one midlevel employee’s death. Thousands had died during the attacks from the docks, after all.
No, I could only think of one person who had the clout and the inclination to help me: Floramel.
When my security clearance left me stranded in the sub-basements, down around floor negative sixty, I contacted her. She was slow to answer, but she did so at last.
“James? What’s this about? Why are you even on Earth?”
“Think about it, Floramel. Think about it real hard. Why do you think I’m here?”
Her face went blank for a few seconds. She was a technical genius, but her powers of reading emotion and understanding motivations were limited. At last, her face lit up.
“Ah, this must be about Etta. I’m so sorry for your loss. My thoughts and prays go out to you.”
These last words were so practiced, so lame, that I almost got mad at her—but I managed to keep calm. Floramel wasn’t the most empathic creature that had ever walked my blue Earth. She’d been raised by squids as an enslaved scientist, and it showed in moments like this.
“That’s right, I’m talking about Etta. I need your help, girl.”
She blinked once, a slow motion eye-movement. “You mean… with the arrangements? I would think you’d consult your parents concerning that, James.”
I gritted my teeth and forced my face to smile. “They don’t even know yet—and I want to keep it that way. I intend to fix this, Floramel.”
She stared for a few more seconds, but then she looked away. She tapped at a computer screen that I couldn’t see.
“I just checked. There are no records of Etta’s body scan or her engrams in Central’s data core. I’m so sorry for your loss.”
“Girl… do you know what I had to go through to bring Raash back to you?”
She hesitated. “I’m grateful for your efforts in that regard, but—”
“But nothing. This isn’t some coldblooded alien girlfriend of mine. This is my daughter we’re talking about. The girl who’s served you faithfully for damned near a decade.”
Floramel blinked. “We’re talking about Etta, right?”
“Dammit girl—yes. We’re talking about Etta. I had to transport your skinny butt all the way out to Dust World to bring Raash back—then what did he do? He got depressed over having blue scales and started killing people, that’s what!”
“My memory is eidetic, James. I recall all these incidents.”
“Well then, you know that you owe me, don’t you?”
Floramel looked evasive for a moment. I could tell she was trying to work out some sort of practical or emotional appeal that would get her off this hook—but there wasn’t any.
“Yes,” she sighed, “I owe you a debt regarding Raash. But James… I don’t see any way to proceed in this instance. With Raash, you brought me back a perfect copy of his engrams. All we needed was the body.”
“Right. We can start right there. Here, inside Central, there are intel-spooks who have a copy of those files.”
Floramel looked surprised. “How would you know that?”
“A certain Station Chief told me,” I said with exaggerated confidence. Dross was a Station Chief, but she didn’t work for Central. Not directly, anyway.
“Really? That’s a startling breach of protocols, if true. I’ll have to—”
“You’ll have to what? Contact the authorities and tell them Raash is a crazy hybrid lizard who should be
