Starmind.

"One of yours," Eva said. "Dunno which-he didn"t have his face with him."

Cruz"s face darkened. "I know which. s.h.i.t. Where"d they take him, the tech hole?"

"I think so." She turned to Jay. "Can you stand another look at the son of a b.i.t.c.h? Chief Cruz needs you to show her what happened."

"Oh sure," he said.

As they left the tunnel, they had to duck around tumbling bodies and a few severed limbs-but fortunately no more horrid trails of blood, as laser amputation tends to self-cauterize. Eva noticed how hard Cruz had to work to ignore the one in Shimizu livery.

Cruz made them wait briefly outside the tech hole. Two crime-scene technicians and three interns all arrived at once; she and the doctor went inside with them. The security chief emerged with Rand in less than a minute, scowling blackly. The conference took place there in the corridor. Cruz-mortified that one of her own people had been the killer-obviously wanted Eva gone, but did not dare try to chase her out. Eva did not even have to claim status as Jay"s attorney of fact; a steely glance was all it took. She and Cruz had taken each other"s measure a long time ago. So she was able to ride herd on Jay. She was fond of the boy, and his raving about the attempted a.s.sa.s.sination being partly his fault had unsettled her. If Cruz had heard that, the questioning might well have taken place under drugs. At Eva"s direction, Jay gave a baldly factual account of what had occurred. She spotted what he had meant as soon as he said it-"I told them to safety their d.a.m.ned weapons and continued on to the hole"-but of course no one else saw any blame in that. It was what anyone might have said in his place. She was glad she had gotten to him first.

"Pity you couldn"t have taken him alive," Cruz said, when Jay had finished the story and Rand had added events from his perspective. "I hate to let someone kill a dozen people in my care without asking him who paid for it."

"I was dead," Jay said, "and then Rand gave me a split-second advantage. I didn"t think about it. I grabbed his gun hand and made him shoot himself under the chin. I"d do it again."

"Oh, I wasn"t criticizing!Do it again, if there"s a next time."

Eva snorted at that. If Jay had not gotten lucky, Cruz would have had more dead-and perhaps a dead uip or two as well-and would have been looking for work tomorrow.

"I wish he was still alive too," Jay said. "So I could kill him again. Nika"s . . . Nika was special."

Suddenly he shook his head with great violence. "Jesus! Did that really happen?" He giggled.

"You"ve got everything you need for now, right, Chief?" Eva said.

Cruz frowned, but nodded. "I may want to hypno him tomorrow."

"Gotta wait for it to seep into long-term storage for hypno to do any good," she agreed. "Jeeves-"

"Yes, madam?" He shimmered into existence, urbane and unflappable.

"Take Mr. Sasaki home. My place, not his. Bunk him down in my bed and make me a doss in Guest Room Two."

"Very good, madam. If you would be good enough to follow me, sir . . ."

"Half a mo." She motioned Jay close and murmured in his ear. "Want Jacques to join you?"

He blinked at her and struggled with the question. Jacques"s job description read, "hedonic technician"-but Eva happened to know that he was more artist than technician, a natural healer and comforter. "No," Jay said, and then, "I don"t think so," and then he blushed slightly and said, "Uh . . . yes.

Please."

She nodded. "Tell Jeeves. Run along now."

Once he was gone, she turned back to Cruz. "How did you know who the a.s.sa.s.sin was?"

"Eh?"

"You said, "I know which." How did you know?"

"Oh. Savannavong only joined the force a month ago. I wouldn"t have used him on this job, for thatreason-but Hanh came down sick this afternoon and I was stretched thin."

"Savannavong was real good at making people come down sick," Rand said bitterly. "Hanh got lucky."

"So did you two," Cruz said. "You both reacted like trained cops. Either of you ever in service?"

"I did two years with NYPD. Draftee. But that was over twenty years ago, and I never drew my weapon in the line of duty. Jay"s never had any kind of combat training, to my knowledge. We just kept making mistakes until the b.a.s.t.a.r.d was dead."

"You"d better get home," Eva said. "Your wife still doesn"t know the details."

"Chief?"

"Go ahead."

Rand threw her a grateful glance and made his escape.

People were coming and going from the tech hole now, bringing in forensic equipment and taking out corpses. But they gave the glowering Chief Cruz a wide berth; for the moment Eva was effectively alone with her. "Does your thumb hurt, Chief?" Eva asked suddenly.

"Eh? Yes it does-why? How did you know?"

"Because I figure you for an honest cop. The moment that alarm sounded, an honest cop in your shoes would have pushed a b.u.t.ton and flooded the whole d.a.m.n theater and backstage area with sleepy gas."

"I did! Some son of a b.i.t.c.h had-"

"I know. It didn"t work, so you kept pushing; that"s why your thumb hurts."

Cruz nodded slowly. "I see." She thought some more. "Well, it wouldn"t have helped anyway; the b.a.s.t.a.r.d obviously had nose filters in."

Eva nodded. "Like you do. But you didn"t know that at the time. An honest cop couldn"t have."

"But why disable the sleepy gas if he had filters?"

"So he"d have maximum confusion to escape in after he made his kill? Squawking civilians in all directions."

"G.o.d dammit, Eva-"

"Relax, Rani-I"m on your side. I know this whole episode makes you look like a horse"s a.s.s, but I can"t think of anything you could"ve done better. And I"ll tell Kate Tokugawa that, if you like. But if I were you, I"d have Dr. O"Regan doc.u.ment that thumb sprain."

She left Cruz and went to the reception, curious to see how the ultimately rich responded to a brush with death. Six cronkites ambushed her just outside the door, looking like children who needed to urinate; the first in line named a figure. "No comment," she said. He named a second figure, and when she refusedthat too, a bidding war developed. She brushed through them grandly and entered the hall. Guards prevented them from following; frustrated, they all jaunted off to file what little they already had.

The party had that slightly forced gaiety which screams of fear just past. But the uips themselves seemed the calmest people in the room-except for Reb, of course. In fact, the only person who still showed any overt signs of fear was Evelyn Martin, grinning and sweating and talking even faster than usual. He spotted her, detached himself and came over.

"Hi, Eva," he said loudly. "So glad you could make it." Sotto voce he added, "Anything else gone wrong out there? Any more a.s.sa.s.sins come to squeeze my ulcers? Fresh stiffs? Other major felonies? Chief Cruz find out the a.s.sa.s.sin is a High Council member or anything like that?"

"Good news," she said. "No news." Louder, she added. "Awful to see you, Evelyn. You"re looking uglier than usual tonight."

He beamed. "Thank you, dear--have you met our honored guests? Chen Ling Ho, for instance?"

"Get a grip, Evelyn. I introducedyou to Ling. Why don"t you go take a trank?"

"I"m at system max now," he said.

"Take stimulants, then. Your voice will rise above the audible range and you won"t be so conspicuous."

She drifted away, and joined her escort, Dr. Chen. He was chatting with Reb and Victoria Hathaway.

Chen introduced her to Hathaway-who regarded her aged features with barely concealed horror.

"h.e.l.lo, dear," Eva said. "It"s nice to see you again."

"We"ve met?" Hathaway said, disbelieving but polite.

"I knew your grandmother. You peed on my lap once."

Hathaway gave the only possible reply: dead silence.

Chen intervened. "Eva, have they determined yet who was the a.s.sa.s.sin"s intended target?"

She shrugged. "For all Cruz can tell at this point, he was a good guy, come to take out Evelyn Martin on behalf of all mankind."

That got a laugh; even Hathaway almost smiled. "I a.s.sume the man"s background is being checked?"

Eva shrugged again. "Sure. But it"s a waste of time. The background check you have to go through to get hired for Shimizu security can"t be improved on. Serious money went into this." She made sure her gaze was not resting on either Chen or Hathaway. "I will bet cash the person who hired it done is in this room."

Hathaway flinched, but Chen only nodded. "The probability is high," he agreed.

"Was it you, Chen?" Hathaway asked bluntly.

Again Chen looked as if he were remembering what it felt like to smile. "Twelve dead, none of them the right one? I"m offended, Victoria. Can you truly believe me so inartistic?" "Oh, but you can believe it ofme, right?"

"Since you ask, yes. Now we are both offended. Shall we seek another topic of conversation?"

Eva had a mischievous thought. "Unless you"d like me to narrow the list of suspects for you," she said.

"How?" Chen and Hathaway and Reb all asked simultaneously.

"Well, only theoretically. I don"t actually expect, uh, people of your caliber to submit to a body search.

But I"ll bet a dead frog the person who hired that killer is wearing nose filters. He or she knew the killer would be covering his escape with death gas, and might have been forced to flee past his employer.

Nose filters that go in far enough to be invisible aren"t easily removed."

Hathaway objected. "That wouldn"t prove a thing. Any of us might be wearing nose filters out of simple paranoia. In light of events, it would seem an intelligent precaution."

Eva nodded. "But you"re probably notall filtered. I said "narrow the list," not nail it down. Irrelevant anyway; none of you will tolerate a search on principle-and I don"t blame you."

"Then why did you bring it up?" Hathaway snapped.

Eva did not answer. But she was already enjoying the mental picture. As the word spread, the five would spend the next hour discreetly trying to peer up each other"s nostrils. Victoria Hathaway might actually not look down her nose at anyone for the rest of the night.

Reb escorted her home. They took double-bulbs of Irish coffee to the window, and sat looking out at Mother Terra in companionable silence for some time.

"Jeeves," she said then, "is Jay awake?"

"He and Master Jacques are both sound asleep, madam."

"Thank you. Let me know if he wakes." He shimmered away again, and she turned to Reb. "That bedroom is soundproof anyhow."

Reb nodded. "Go ahead."

"I need a better cover story for him. About why I"m still using up air. Oh, you did a good job. But I heard his voice, and he didn"t really buy it, deep down. I"m afraid I shot my mouth off to him about why I was planning to take a cab. He"s not going to be satisfied with what you told him. And I don"t know what else to say. The boy knows me too well. And he spent a whole month trying to change my mind: his pride demands a convincing explanation."

"Not just pride, Eva. He loves you."

"So what do I tell him? Ican"t tell him about-"

"No. I suggest you stall as long as possible. With everything that"s happened tonight, he"ll be too busy to remember the question for a few days. When he does, you can be unavailable for some additional time. Itmay be weeks before he has time and opportunity to brace you about it."

"And what then?"

"You tell him I promised you entertaining surprises were still in store for you-and proved it the very next day."

"And if he persists?"

"Let icicles form on your brow and tell him it"s personal. A shame to hurt his feelings, of course, but I don"t see what else you can do."

She sighed, and sipped her drink. "You"re right. I can"t tell him."

"No, you cannot. I should not have toldyou, Eva. But you are my oldest living friend, and I could not see you leave just before everything changed."

She found her eyes stinging, and shut up. They shared more silence for a time.

"Do you think it was Chen?" she asked at last.

"Behind tonight"s violence, you mean? I don"t know. What do you think?"

"I think an inartistic hit would be a very artistic touch indeed. But it"s hard to refute his essential point. If he"d done it, it would have worked, however garishly."

"Apparently it was only by incredible chance that it didn"t."

"And I tend to find incredible chance incredible. But I"d bet my life both Jay and Rand are straight." She glanced over her shoulder at the bedroom door. "You know what I mean. They"re both honest."

"The G.o.ds have blessed us," Reb said cheerfully.