A Deepness in the Sky

There was a pause, and when Nuwen spoke, he sounded distracted, "Yes."And you're handling everything yourself, aren't you? It made sense. An ordinary conspiracy would have been detected years ago. It had been just Pham Nuwen and Ezr Vinh, right from the beginning. Like a single man pulling his wagon across a continent, Nuwen had persevered, had almost conquered. "It's an honor to meet you, sir. I've studied you for many years." As he spoke, Nau popped up a view of the torpedo's diagnostics. He was looking straight down the launch rail; the tube was clear. "Perhaps your only mistake is that you have not fully understood the Podmaster ethos. You see, we Podmasters grew out of disaster. That is our inner strength, our edge. If I destroy the temp, it will be an enormous setback for the L1 operation. But my personal situation willimprove. I will still have the rockpile. I will still have many of the zipheads. I will still have theInvisibleHand. " He turned away from the launch tube. He looked across the equipment bays, at the remaining torpedoes; he might have to knock out the Hammerfest Attic, too.That had not been part of even the most extreme disaster plans. Maybe there was some way to do it that would leave some of the zipheads alive. Another part of his mind waited curiously for what Pham Nuwen would say. Would he cave in like an ordinary person, or did he have the true heart of a Podmaster? That question was the essence of Pham Nuwen's moral weakness.

Abruptly, there was a clattering sound that echoed through the vault. Ali Lin had fallen beyond his view, into the downward end. But the sound came again and again, a million metal plates crashing together.Maybe theinward entrance? That was at the lowest point in the vault. Nau moved silently toward the edge of the drop-off.

Pham Nuwen's voice was faint against the racket: "You're wrong, Podmaster. You don't have the—" Nau cut the audio with a swipe of his hand and moved slowly forward. He did a manual traverse of the vault's fixed cameras. Nothing. The primitive automation was a salvation and a pest. Okay. Weapons. Was there anything smaller than a nuke around here? The database wasn't set up for such trivia. He let the catalogue listings stream by his huds, and he moved close to wall, still out of sight from below. The clanking and banging continued.Ah, that was the lake-bed servos, theirnoise channeled down the tunnel! Quite a fanfare for a secret break-in.

The ambusher, such as he was, floated up into sight.

"Ah, Mr. Vinh. I thought you were well drowned."

In fact, Vinh looked semiconscious, his face pasty pale. There was no sign of his wire-gun wounds.No, he stole one of my jackets. The full-press was trim and perfectly creased, but the right arm was subtly twisted, lumpy. Vinh held Ali gently against his left shoulder. He looked back at Nau, and hatred seemed to bring him more alertness.

But the downward end of the vault was empty of further intruders. And Nau's catalogue search had completed: there were three wire guns in the cabinet immediately behind him! Nau breathed a sigh of relief and smiled at the Peddler. "You did well, Mr. Vinh." A few seconds' difference and Vinh would have been here first, setting a real ambush. Instead...the fellow appeared to be unarmed, one-armed, weak as a kitten. And Tomas Nau stood between him and the wire guns. "I don't have time to talk, I'm afraid. Stand aside from Ali, please." He spoke mildly, but didn't take his eyes off the two. His left hand moved up to open the gun cabinet. Maybe the calm style would work on Vinh, and he would have a clean kill.

"Tomas!"

Qiwi stood above them, at the entrance to the vault's open space.

For an instant, Nau just stared. She had a nosebleed. Her lacy dress was torn and splattered. But she was alive.The jettison must have jammedalong with the taxi hatch. With the taxi still in place, lock security would not reset—and somehow she had clawed her way back in.

"We were trapped, Tomas. Somehow the lock was defective."

"Oh, yes!" The anguish in Nau's voice was completely sincere. "It slammed shut and I heard venting. I—I was so sure you were dead."

Qiwi came down from the ceiling, guiding the body of Rei Ciret onto a grabfelt rest. The guard might be alive, but he was clearly of no use just now. "I-I'm sorry, Tomas. I wasn't able to save Marli." She came across the room to hug him, but there was something tentative about the gesture. "Who are you talking to?" Then she saw Vinh and Ali."Ezr?"

For once, some good luck: Vinh was perfect, his full-press jacket stained like a butcher's smock, with Ali's blood. From behind Vinh came the banging of the ruined park. The Peddler's voice was gasping and harsh. "We've taken over L1, Qiwi. Except for a few of Nau's thugs, we haven't hurt anyone"—this while her own father lay bleeding in his arms! "Nau is using you like he always does. Only this time, he's going to kill us all. Look around! He's going to nuke the temp."