Redemption Ark

Antoinette shrugged, knowing she was going to have to bluff this one out. ‘So?’

‘The body was already dead. And you never arrived at the Hospice. You steered for interplanetary space shortly after I departed.’

‘Why would I have done that?’

‘That, Miss Bax, is precisely what I would like to know.’ The proxy abandoned the paperwork, kicking the cabinet aside with a whining flick of one sharp-edged piston-driven limb. ‘I asked Mr Liu, and he was no help at all. Were you, Mr Liu?’

‘I told you what I knew.’

‘Perhaps I should take a special interest in you too, Mr Liu — what do you think? You have a very interesting past, judging by police records. You knew James Bax very well, didn’t you?’

Xavier shrugged. ‘Who didn’t?’

‘You worked for him. That implies a more than passing knowledge of the man, wouldn’t you say?’

‘We had a business arrangement. I fixed his ship. I fix a lot of ships. It didn’t mean we were married.’

‘But you were undoubtedly aware that James Bax was a figure of concern to us, Mr Liu. A man not overly bothered about matters of right and wrong. A man not greatly troubled by anything so inconsequential as the law.’

‘How was he to know?’ Xavier argued. ‘You fuckers make the law up as you go along.’

The proxy moved with blinding speed, becoming a whirling black blur. Antoinette felt the breeze as it moved. The next thing she knew it had Xavier pinned to the wall again, higher this time, and with what looked like a good deal more force. He was choking, clawing at the machine’s manipulators in a desperate effort to free himself.

‘Did you know, Mr Liu, that the Merrick case has never been satisfactorily closed?’

Xavier couldn’t answer.

‘The Merrick case?’ Antoinette asked.

‘Lyle Merrick,’ the proxy replied. ‘You know the fellow. A trader, like your father. On the wrong side of the law.’

‘Lyle Merrick died…’

Xavier was beginning to turn blue.

‘But the case has never been closed, Miss Bax. There have always been a number of loose ends. What do you know of the Mandelstam Ruling?’

‘Another one of your fucking new laws, by any chance?’

The machine let Xavier fall to the floor. He was unconscious. She hoped he was unconscious.

‘Your father knew Lyle Merrick, Miss Bax. Xavier Liu knew your father. Mr Liu almost certainly knew Lyle Merrick. What with that and your propensity for ferrying dead bodies into the war zone for no logical reason that we can think of, it’s hardly any wonder that you two are of such interest to us, is it?’

‘If you touch Xavier one more time…’

‘What, Miss Bax?’

‘I’ll…’

‘You’ll do nothing. You’re powerless here. There aren’t even any security cameras or mites in this room. I know. I checked first.’

‘Fucker.’

The machine edged closer to her. ‘Of course, you could be carrying some form of concealed device, I suppose.’

Antoinette pressed herself back against one wall of the office. ‘What?’

The proxy extended a manipulator. She squeezed back even further, sucking in her breath, but it was no good. The proxy stroked its manipulator down the side of her face gently enough, but she was horribly aware of the damage it could do should the machine wish it. Then the manipulator caressed he; neck and moved down, lingering over her breasts.

‘You… fucker.’

‘I think you might be carrying a weapon, or drugs.’ There was a blur of metal, the same vile breeze. She flinched, but it was over in an instant. The proxy had torn her jacket off; her favourite plum jacket was ripped to shreds. Underneath she wore a tight black sleeveless vest with equipment pockets. She wriggled and swore, but the machine still held her tightly. It drew shapes on the vest, tugging it away from her skin.

‘I have to be sure, Miss Bax.’

She thought of the pilot, surgically inserted into a steel canister somewhere in the belly of the police cutter that had to be parked nearby, little more than a central nervous system and a few tedious add-ons.

‘You sick fuck.’

‘I am only being… thorough, Miss Bax.’

There was a crash and a clatter behind the machine. The proxy froze. Antoinette held her breath, just as puzzled. She wondered if the pilot had notified more proxies of the fun that was to be had.

The machine edged back from her and spun around very slowly. It faced a wall of shocking orange-brown and rippling black. By Antoinette’s estimate there were at least a dozen of them, six or seven orang-utans and about the same number of enhanced silverback gorillas. They had all been augmented for full bipedality and they were all carrying makeshift — in some cases not so makeshift — weapons.

The main silverback had a comically huge wrench in its hands. When it spoke its voice was almost pure subsonics, something Antoinette felt more in her stomach than heard. ‘Let her go.’