The City & the City - China Mieville [82]
“Nats,” Dhatt said.
“I don’t even remember which city it was from. Both lots had it in for him. Probably the only thing they agreed on. But this was years ago.”
“Someone’s remembered him,” I said. Dhatt and I stared at each other and he pulled me aside.
“From Besźel,” he said. “With a little Illitan fuck-you on it.” He threw up his hands: Any ideas?
“What’s the name of those people?” I said after a silence. “Qoma First.”
He stared. “What? Qoma First?” he said. “It came from Besźel.”
“Maybe a contact there.”
“A spy? A nat Qoman in Besźel?”
“Sure. Don’t look like that—it’s not so hard to believe. They’d send it from over there to cover their tracks.”
Dhatt wagged his head noncommittally. “Okay …” he said. “Still a hell of a thing to organize, and you’re not—”
“They never liked Bowden. Maybe they figure if he’s got wind that they’re after him he might have alarm bells, but not with a package from Besźel,” I said.
“I get the idea,” he said.
“Where’s Qoma First hang out?” I said. “That’s what they’re called, right? Maybe we should visit—”
“That’s what I keep trying to tell you,” he said. “There’s nowhere to go. There is no ‘Qoma First,’ not like that. I don’t know how it is in Besźel, but here …”
“In Besźel I know exactly where our own versions of these characters hang out. Me and my constable went round there recently.”
“Well congratulations but it doesn’t work that way here. There’s not like a fucking gang with little membership cards and a house they all live in; they’re not unifs and they’re not The Monkees.”
“You’re not saying you’ve got no ultranationalists …”
“Right, I’m not saying that, we’ve got plenty, but I’m saying I don’t know who they are or where they live, very sensibly they keep it that way, and I’m saying Qoma First’s just a term some press guy came up with.”
“How come the unificationists congregate but this lot don’t? Or can’t?”
“Because the unifs are clowns. Dangerous clowns sometimes, alright, but still. The sort of people you’re talking about now are serious. Old soldiers, that sort of thing. I mean you got to … respect that…”
No wonder they could not be allowed to gather visibly. Their hard nationalism might rebuke the People’s National Party on its own terms, which the rulers would not permit. The unifs, by contrast, were free or free-ish to unite the locals in loathing.
“What can you tell us about him?” Dhatt said, raising his voice to the others who watched us.
“Aikam?” Buidze said. “Nothing. Good worker. Dumb as a brick. Okay look, I’d have said that until today, but given what he just did, scratch that. Not nearly as tough as he looks. All pecs and no teeth, that one. Likes the kids, makes him feel good to hobnob with clever foreigners. Why? Tell me you’re not eye-balling him, SD. That parcel came from Besźel. How the hell would he—”
“Absolutely it did,” Dhatt said. “No one here’s accusing anyone, least of all the hero of the hour. Standard questions.”
“Tsueh got on with the students, you said?” Unlike Tairo, Buidze did not look for permission to answer me. He met my eye and nodded. “Anyone in particular? Good friends with Mahalia Geary?”
“Geary? Hell no. Geary probably never even knew his name. Rest her.” He made the Sign of Long Sleep with his hand. “Aikam’s friends with some of them, but not Geary. He hangs out with Jacobs, Smith, Rodriguez, Browning …”
“Just that he asked us—”
“He was very keen to know about any leads in the Geary case,” Dhatt said.
“Yeah?” Buidze shrugged. “Well that got everyone really upset. Of course he wants to know about it.”
“I’m wondering …” I said. “This is a complicated site, and I notice that even though it’s mostly total, there’s a couple of places where it crosshatches a bit. And that’s got to be a nightmare to watch. Mr. Buidze, when we spoke to the students, not a single one of them mentioned Breach. At all. Didn’t bring it up. A group of foreign kids? You know how much foreigners are obsessed with that stuff. One of their friends is disappeared and they’re not even mentioning the most notorious bogeyman of Ul