friends again. I'll be found, thrown clear of the wreckage, tonight. You and Cristof will find me. I'll be shaken up, feverish…. 'he touched his face ruefully. 'Scratched and bruised. You'll be heroes, and everyone will be happy to have me back. Is Cristof in trouble over the bomb?'
'Yes! How did you—'
'I'll clear his name. One of the lictors you've just killed must have tampered with the clock while it was sitting in my office overnight. They were saboteurs, stopped just in time.'
'Cristof will never lie for you.'
Alister started to speak, then paused.
'Well. Maybe not. I hadn't realized he was working for the lictors until you told me about Pins. That was a real surprise, although it explained a lot. Still, we're family.' He looked wistful. 'Cris and I have gone through a lot together.'
'You just threw him over the railing!'
'Oh, for the Lady's sake, I wouldn't have done it if I'd thought he'd get hurt. I'm sure he'll understand. He loves Ondinium as much as I do, although he shows it differently.' He caught her eyes again. 'It's convincing you that worries me, my swan. What do I have to do to prove I'm not your enemy?'
Despite the heat, Taya felt ice crawl down her spine. Her calf was starting to throb in time to the Engine's pounding.
Behind Alister, a lone bead of blood dripped down from the rifleman's needle-punctured neck, falling through the crosswalk's grille floor and into the depths. She shuddered.
'I'm not going to lie for you, either.'
'I could guarantee you a position in the diplomatic corps.'
'I don't want it badly enough to protect a murderer.'
'You don't even know what I'm doing. I — did you hear something?'
Taya listened, but all she could hear was the Engine's roar, its vibrations making her wingfeathers jingle.
'No.'
'This place. A man can't hear himself think.' Alister reached down and picked up a tin punch card that had fallen to the crosswalk floor. Taya tensed to kick him while he was looking down, then flinched as a jolt of pain ran through her calf. The exalted straightened, oblivious to her aborted action. 'All I'm doing is setting up a few new permanent subroutines. I'm not stealing any data, and I'm not sabotaging the Engine.'
'What kind of subroutines?'
'Iterative simulations. They'll need regular checking and adjustment, which is why I need Heart in place. I can't afford to waste my time guessing the Labyrinth Code every time I need to run some cards.'
'You stole the Code.'
'I was just borrowing it,' Alister corrected her. 'I was planning to return it. Unfortunately, losing the last few cards to Cris rendered months of effort completely worthless. That's why I had to do it this way, instead.' He sounded proud of himself. 'But I replaced all the cards I bought from Pins. Nobody will ever know they'd been stolen. Well, of course they'll know about the twenty-five Cristof got, but we can say the lictor who set the bomb was the same one who was smuggling out the cards. This could be flawless, if you'd just cooperate with me.'
Taya looked down at the wire-mesh platform beneath her feet, wondering if she should lie and agree to work with him so she could fly down to find Cristof. She couldn't see any sign of him.
He'll be all right. I counterweighted him well. He might be terrified, but he's safe.
She looked up and took a deep breath.
'What kind of simulations do you want the Engine to run for you?'
'Immigration, crime, breeding… I want to make sure Ondinium stays healthy over the long term. That means making careful choices about whom we allow to become citizens and how the composition of future generations should fall out. The ideal population ratio is ten to five to two to one, plebeian to cardinal to icarus to exalted. But Ondinium's always been open to immigration, and my research indicates that we're starting to accumulate too many plebeians. That's what's causing our higher rates of poverty, violence, and crime.'
Taya nodded, reserving judgment. So far he hadn't said anything she hadn't heard before from self-styled social critics.
Alister smiled as if her nod had been an endorsement.
'I plan to run the simulations on a regular schedule to calculate the city's ideal immigration and childbirth rates each year.'
'And you couldn't have done that legally?'
'The Council has a strong conservative element when it comes to relying on simulations to inform public policy. Look at the fuss they kicked up over Clockwork Heart, and all it does is ensure stable marriages and healthy, caste-appropriate children. Who could argue with that?'
'I can. A program can't tell you how well a marriage will work or whether a child will be ‘caste-appropriate.’ What does that mean, anyway? I'm completely different from my sister, and you're completely different from Cristof.'
'You're being distracted by surface differences. I'm looking at deep, behavioral similarities. Now, I grant you, nothing's guaranteed, but if I can control enough of the variables, Clockwork Heart should be able to reach satisfactory statistical likelihoods.' His eyes gleamed with enthusiasm. 'Logically matched marriages and rationally directed childbearing programs can help Ondinium raise a stronger and smarter generation of citizens.'
'Childbearing programs?' A fresh wave of dizziness overtook her and she leaned on the Engine, trying to collect her thoughts.
'Certainly. Mareaux has been breeding superior horses, cattle, and dogs for centuries, and if a group of uneducated farmers can set up a successful breeding program without an analytical engine….'
'Wait.' Taya frowned. 'You want to breed people like farm animals? That's insane.'
'You're grossly simplifying the matter.'
'We're reborn according to the Lady's judgment. You can't breed for caste.'
'Yes, yes.' He waved a hand. 'And there will always be a certain amount of movement between the castes due to the social and environmental variables of individual upbringing. Those issues are too difficult to control, which is why we established the Great Examination to reassign children who are poor fits with their birth caste. But I believe that as a society we can take logical, progressive steps to improve the quality of the bodies into which our spirits are reborn. It's not a matter of breeding better people; it's a matter of breeding stronger castes.'
'What if Clockwork Heart recommends a cross-caste marriage? Everyone says they never work out.'
'It won't. I built in caste as a selection parameter. After all, the idea is to strengthen desirable caste traits, not dilute them. Consider it social engineering. A rational, civilized world is a blessing to everyone. The Lady gave us intelligence so that we can improve ourselves and work toward the perfect final rebirth.'
'And the Lady also gave us the free will to choose who we love.' The pain in her leg was growing worse. 'What about Viera and Caster? Would Clockwork Heart have let them marry? Would your childbearing program have come up with Ariq?'
'I'm sure it would have.'
'Cristof said both of you objected to the marriage.' Taya leaned over and felt the back of her leg. Her flight suit had a ragged rip in it, and she felt something damp. She pulled her hand back.
A thin smear of blood. Just what she'd been afraid of.
'We—' Alister's eyes fell to her hand. 'You're hurt.'
'One of your men shot me.'
'I thought they'd missed.' Alister stepped forward and knelt, examining her left calf. Taya flinched and braced herself on his shoulder with her left hand. 'It looks like a bullet went in and out. You're bleeding into your suit padding. Give me your knife. I want a better look.'
She reached up with her right hand and pulled the utility knife off her harness. Alister's back was protected
