Inherit the Earth - Brian Stableford [110]
“This is crazy, Damon,” Diana complained. “They must know that we didn’t kill the guy. We didn’t even know the body was there.”
“They know you didn’t kill him,” Damon reassured her. “What on earth possessed you to go there? Why was Madoc fool enough to let you?”
“I was only trying to help,” Diana said defensively.
“Thanks,” Damon said, for diplomatic reasons. There was no point in contradicting her, even though it was a blatant lie. “I’m sorry you got involved in this, Di—but I’ll do my best to make sure that you get out clean.”
“If the Eliminators are after you,” she told him sharply, “I’m hardly likely to stand idly by and let them get you, am I? Just because we fell out over private matters doesn’t mean that I want you hurt.”
For the sake of eavesdroppers, Damon said: “As soon as Madoc contacts me I’ll tell him to turn himself in and hand the VE pak to Interpol. I’ll pay for his lawyer and any fine he incurs. Neither of us ever intended our investigation to overstep the limits of the law, and I’ll make certain that there are no further transgressions.”
“And what then?” she asked, presumably hoping that he might have an olive branch ready to extend to her.
“I might have to go away for a while,” he said.
“Where?” she wanted to know. She was trying hard to cling to a forgiving mood—or at least the appearance of one—but all her resentments were still bubbling away beneath the surface.
“I don’t know. I’ve been out of touch with my family for too long; it might be a good idea to rebuild some bridges. If Karol and Silas really are dead I ought to see Eveline, even if it means a trip into space. There’s just the two of us now, it seems—and I hear that one can get a very different perspective on things from L-Five. One that helps a lot of things become clear.”
Diana looked at him as if she thought he might be taunting her. In her view, the first person he ought to be seeing with a view to putting things right was her. “And then what?” she said, not bothering to apply the brake to the escalation of her anger.
“I don’t know, Di,” Damon said, refusing to be drawn. “I haven’t thought any further ahead than that. Just sit tight for a while, okay? You’ll be out soon.”
As soon as she realized that he had no intention of sticking around for a row, her rising anger melted into mere anxiety. “Don’t go,” she said swiftly. “We really need to talk, Damon—to straighten things out.”
“Those things are already straightened out,” he said as gently as he could. “None of this concerns you, Di. I didn’t know you’d gone to Madoc when I asked him to help me. I suppose I’d have asked him anyway, because he was the one who seemed best placed to help me out—but to be honest, Di, your involvement is a complication I could well do without. Let’s leave things as they are, shall we?”
“You ungrateful bastard!” she howled as the anger returned in full force. “After all I’ve done for—”
“I don’t have time for this, Di,” Damon said brutally—and broke the connection.
He remained silent and still in the ensuing darkness for a few moments while he collected himself, and then he returned himself to one of his own customized VEs: one which made it appear that he was imprisoned within a vast multifaceted gem. He set up his other messages on a virtual lectern and began to scroll through them tiredly, fearful of finding some Eliminator threat that would further intensify his confusion and anxiety. Mercifully, nothing of that kind seemed to be lurking among the more usual junk.
Had he been in a more conventional holding pattern Damon would have noticed the flicker earlier, but it hardly showed up against the dazzling crystalline background and its first effect was to communicate an unfocused and near-subliminal awareness that something was slightly out of kilter. He glanced around anxiously for a moment or two, wondering whether there was some kind of glitch in his code reader, before he realized what was happening—at which point he returned his attention to the lectern and