Cryoburn - Lois McMaster Bujold [82]
"It's not a toy," said Johannes. "We use it for making positive IDs of people wanting travel documents and so on." He looked at Jin and weakened. "You'll have to ask Counsel Vorlynkin."
Miles-san called Jin over to his comconsole, where Mina was already standing and shifting from foot to foot. Still-shots of four different men hovered in a row above the vid plate. Two had gray hair. One wore a white laboratory coat.
"Miss Mina, I'm hoping you can help us out, here," said Miles-san. "All these men are different Dr. Leibers who live around greater Northbridge. We've already eliminated the female Dr. Leibers, trusting none has made a trip to Beta Colony lately." His mouth twisted up at some joke that Jin didn't understand, although Roic did, judging from his short smile. "Do any of them look like the man you overheard talking to your mommy, that night? Or, do any of them definitely not look like him?"
Mina peered anxiously at the scans. "It was a long time ago. I don't really remember."
"Do you remember anything at all? Was your Dr. Leiber young, or old?"
"Oh, old."
"Gray hair?"
"No, black. I do remember that much. I'm not too good at telling grownups' ages. But he was real old. Thirty, maybe?"
Miles-san and Vorlynkin exchanged a look; the consul's lips twitched, but he didn't say anything.
"So, old but not gray." Miles-san tapped the vid controls, and the two gray-haired men vanished. The other two looked rather alike, with similar haircuts, except one's face was bonier and the other's more round.
"When I was a wee little kid," remarked Roic, watching over their shoulders, "there was a time I thought that any skinny old man I saw was my grandfather. It was pretty confusing."
"Nevertheless," said Miles-san. "Jin, do you remember ever seeing either of these two men in your mother's company? Even if you weren't introduced?"
Jin shook his head.
After a long hesitation, Mina pointed at bony-face. "That one. Maybe. The other one seems too fat."
"He might have gained weight," Jin offered helpfully, getting into the spirit of this.
"Show her scans of a hundred fellows," said Roic, "or even ten, and I doubt she'd be able to tell, m'lord. You're leading your witness."
"If we had to look at the entire pool of elderly gents of thirty on Kibou, that would doubtless be true," said Miles-san. "Fortunately, we have some other sorting constraints." He pointed at round-face. "This Dr. Leiber is an obstetrician at a replicator clinic in a northern suburb." His finger swung to bony-face. "This Dr. Leiber is a biochemist working for NewEgypt Cryonics. Given that Mina's witness does not positively eliminate him, that combination puts him at the top of my to-do list."
"What happened to your theory that the fellow must have fled?" asked Roic. "This Leiber doesn't look much like an activist. I mean-good salary, stock options, cryo-insurance. A company man, belike."
Miles-san sat back and rubbed his chin. "That is a problem, true. Maybe I was wrong, before."
Roic gave him a head-tilt, which induced a fleeting grin on Miles-san's face for no reason that Jin could see.
Johannes and Raven-sensei had finished their task at the table and taken over the satellite comconsole. Now Raven-sensei said, "Ah! Is there a face scan of her? I have fingerprints and footprints for back-up, but-no, we're not going to need them, are we."
Miles-san shoved his chair back with his feet and swung around. "What have you found over there?"
Roic bent and peered. "Aye, that does look like our woman, doesn't it? Look at her cheek bones. And her ears. And that same mole above her left eyebrow. This scan must have been taken pretty near the time she was frozen."
"Can't say as I'd noticed her ears . . ." Miles-san grabbed his cane and stood up to get a better view.
Jin wriggled in to look, too. Comparing the picture of the live, smiling woman with that still, alien figure they'd seen on the treatment table made him queasy all over again. Would his mother look all strange like that if she died for real?
"Good, this