'I can try.'
'Well, it'd be great not to lose a whole year of programming.' Kyle tipped his cup toward the clicking analytical engine. 'Clockwork Heart was Alister's obsession. Even when the rest of us went home, he'd be here, working away, running tests, trying new approaches. He pretty much lived in this room for several months.'
'He was the best of us,' Victor said heavily, pouring himself more wine. Before Taya could protest, he'd refilled her mug, sloshing some over her hand. 'No one'll ever punch code the way he did.'
'On the Clockwork Heart program?' Taya asked.
'On any of ‘em. Lady knows what'll happen if something he wrote ever needs to be modified. It'll probably take the whole team to figure out what he did.'
'What other programs did he work on?' Cristof inquired, finishing a long swallow. Taya expected him to wince at the flavor, but he didn't seem to notice.
I guess he really has lived a long time on Tertius.
'Lots of things.'
'Top-secret things.'
'I heard he was fourth programmer on Labyrinth,' Emelie said.
'Labyrinth Code was before his time,' Lars objected.
'No, they brought him in for it,' Victor asserted.
'Not a chance.'
'I'm telling you, he worked on it.'
'You don't know what you're talking about.'
Cristof picked up one of the jugs and refilled everyone's drink as the argument continued. Taya was surprised by the amiable gesture until she observed that he didn't refill his own flagon. He wanted them drunk.
'Didn't he work on Project Refinery, too?' Isobel asked, giving Cristof a distracted nod as the exalted topped off her tankard.
'Oh, yeah,' Kyle said. 'He was second programmer on that one.'
'And he got the job because of his work on Labyrinth Code,' Victor insisted.
'What's—' Taya started, then caught Cristof's warning look and let the question die on her lips. The programmers didn't notice her, anyway, caught up in their argument. Then the analytical engine began to click, and Isobel flinched and began feeding it cards again.
'How much longer is that going to take?' Lars complained. 'We've been running it all day.'
'Not much longer. We're almost down to the bottom,' Isobel said, hoisting the box as evidence.
'Good. Here's to us, beautiful.' Lars lifted his glass and winked. She snorted, unimpressed, and went back to work, sliding cards into the machine.
'Why did the Council permit Alister to work on something as ridiculous as Clockwork Heart after he'd spent so much time on important programs?' Cristof asked.
'It's not ridiculous,' Isobel objected.
'Oh, they kept him working on their projects, too, but Heart was always part of the deal,' Kyle explained. 'Alister agreed to work on the Council's programs as long as he was given equal time to work on his own. Tells you something about how much they needed him that they let him cut the deal.'
'He charmed them, just like he charmed everyone,' Emelie said with irritation. 'Alister always got what he wanted.'
'Hey, don't complain,' Lars protested. 'We're lucky he wanted us, or we'd still be punching accounting programs for the slagging Bank of Ondinium.'
A chorus of groans greeted that comment.
'Besides,' Isobel commented, 'if he got everything he wanted, it wasn't entirely his fault.' She gave Emelie an sly look. 'Just because he asked didn't mean you had to say ‘yes.’'
Taya felt her heart skip a beat. Emelie turned red and leaped to her feet, beer spilling on the ground.
'I thought he was—'
'Oh, please, you can't tell me—'
'What other programs was he working on?' Cristof repeated, raising his voice and cutting through the imminent argument. He turned, and Taya felt him study her red face a moment before addressing Victor. 'What program would be worth killing him over?'
A silence fell over the room. Taya caught her breath and glowered at Emelie. The programmer was dressed in casual clothes, with her long black hair caught back but slipping from its pins. She wasn't as petite as Taya, but she was thinner, without an icarus's wiry muscles. She was good-looking enough, in kind of a careless, bookwormy way. Taya had a hard time imagining Alister being interested in her.
Of course, Taya couldn't figure out why Alister had been interested in her, either. Pressure started to build in her throat and she shook her head, denying it. Not now.
'Do you think that's what happened?' Lars asked, at last. 'He was murdered?'
'Forgefire, Lars! He was killed by a bomb.' Victor scowled. 'What did you think ‘bomb’ meant? Natural causes?'
'Well, it might have been random…. 'Lars looked at the others for support.
'It was murder,' Cristof said, tersely. 'It might have been aimed at him.'
'Oh.' The big programmer took another drink, subdued.
'He wasn't working on anything unusual,' Victor said, slumping in his chair. 'Encryption, decryption. Some modifications to Refinery.'
'What's wrong with Refinery?' Cristof asked.
'Well, Decatur Neuillan slipped past it, so the Council asked Alister to look it over, figure out what it missed, and patch the holes in the algorithm.'
The loyalty test, Taya realized. That's what Refinery was. It was the name of Ondinium's loyalty program.
'What holes?' Emelie sounded bitter. 'That program was flawless. Neuillan just knew how to beat it. Alister told him.'
'What?'
'Not a chance!'
'Alister would never do that!'
'Well, not in so many words,' Emelie hedged. 'But they were friends, or at least Alister thought they were. He told me he was afraid he might have let too much slip, that Neuillan might have been able to figure out from what Alister had said to him what kinds of answers would trigger the program to flag a profile.'
'I don't believe that,' Cristof objected, the lines around his mouth deepening as he frowned. 'Neuillan was one of our guardians when we were orphaned. He was a good friend, but Alister wouldn't have compromised Ondinium's safety for him.'
'He didn't do it on purpose,' Emelie protested, looking around the room. 'You know how much Alister liked to brag. Even if he wasn't supposed to talk about something, he'd still drop hints or tell you some little secret to make you feel special. That's how he made friends so easily. Everyone felt like he was trusting them with his confidences, and that made them trust him back.'
'You're saying he was manipulative.' Taya felt cold. Was that why Alister had so easily entrusted her with the 'secret' of his Clockwork Heart program?
'No, no,' Lars protested. 'It wasn't like that. Sure, he tried to make friends with everyone he met, but there's nothing wrong with that. He wasn't manipulative. He was proud of his work, but we all are. Emelie's just got bent edges because he dumped her.'
'He didn't dump me! I dumped him.'
'Either way, it's coloring your perceptions. I liked Alister.'
'We all did,' Kyle agreed.
'He told me he thought Neuillan was his fault,' Emelie repeated. Her tone was sullen. 'He said he felt bad about it.'
