Up Against It - M. J. Locke [132]
“Ah. So that’s why you were with them at the time of the attacks.”
“Right. And in answer to your other question, I am willing to bet the parents don’t know. Things between Geoff and his parents are … strained at the moment.”
“‘Strained’?”
Sean hesitated. “Put it this way. I got there this morning just in time to watch Geoff’s father plant a fist in his face.”
“He didn’t! He’s got fifty kilos on Geoff!”
“He did. It was ugly. Geoff took off and I doubt he’s gotten back in touch with them since.” Jane sighed. Sal, you asshole. Dee must be beside herself. Jane knew at that instant that Dee’s marriage to Sal was over. Dee had put up with a lot, over the years, for the sake of her boys. But she wouldn’t swallow that.
“Anyhow,” Sean went on, “the kid’s sitting on a sugar rock, and Xuan is on the team checking it out.”
“Did he say when he’d be back?”
“No, but let me check the flight logs…” She waited, and he came back on. “It’s about a two-and-a-half-hour journey, depending on burn rate, and they left before noon. Depends on how long it takes them to finish the tests, but I’d say he’ll be back by late evening.”
“Thanks, Sean.”
“My pleasure, Commissioner. Jane,” he corrected himself. “Commissioner Jane.” He smiled and cut the connection.
Jane did some more thinking about Marty. The tampered tapes were security recordings from a utilities branch office. The question was, were there other recordings from that vicinity? “Stroiders” recordings, for instance? Or recordings from other security cams in the area? She called the Phocaea Public Library’s main branch and asked to speak to the head librarian. Masahiro Takei was a great-great-nephew of Chikuma Funaki’s and was delighted to help Jane.
“We can order whatever ‘Stroiders’ content you want,” he said, and spread his hands apologetically. “We don’t store ‘Stroiders’ content here—there’s too much. Neither does the local Upside-Down server, in fact. They encrypt it and beam the raw feed straight to Earth. So we have to submit a request for video of specific times and places.”
“So how long will it take to get that information?”
“Normally a request can take as much as five to seven business days to process. But”—he smiled—“I belong to the science wave and we have high-priority access to the full Library of All Nations files. Some friends of mine on Earth manage various content, and they should be able to help us. Send me your list. I’ll get back to you later with the clips you request.”
“Thank you.” Jane sent him the coordinates for the deleted videos, and then sat back, musing. Her thoughts turned to Marty. She realized how little she knew about him, outside of work. She could only imagine how his family and friends were feeling. She must contact them. She made herself a note.
The dream she had had last night intruded. There had been more to it than just that prescient flash of knowledge of what lay ahead for Marty. Her mother had been in the dream, too. She had never felt so loved, so fully cherished, not even by her own mother, as she had been by the woman in that dream. She realized suddenly that it had been the Voice, giving her a hint of what lay ahead. And this thought opened an inner gate. The Voice came again. This time it was no whisper, but a shout.
JANE!
She tried to stand, but her surroundings reeled away. Knowledge tumbled into her, like a great wave—filling her—swamping her. She felt her body sink to its knees.
She saw a great hand cupping a fetus in a sac. The sac looked like a globe of ice, or a teardrop. The fetus within it was beautiful—innocent and terrible.
The fetus was the feral sapient.
It hadn’t been destroyed during the excision. It was in hiding.
The Viridians had it. Thondu was working for them, and had smuggled it out during the attack. The troubadour, Thondu, and that young woman Chikuma-sensei had told her about, the one who was, perhaps, spying on Upside-Down for the mob, were somehow linked. The resemblance between them was stronger,