Free Dark Intelligence by Neal Asher Page B

searching with her cowl for poisons or a nano attack, but the six etched sapphires were all the case contained. She carefully reached over and picked up one to hold it close to her eye, linking to its microputer through the close-focus scanner in her artificial pupil. The sapphire was good and, if the other five contained the same amount of credit, there was enough here to pay for a complete refurbishment of the Moray Firth’s primary fusion reactor. She found avarice beginning to win the battle amongst her internal conflicts.
    “This is a down-payment, of course,” he said, “to cover your expenses. There is a netlink to Galaxy Bank here, where you can check on my credit rating.”
    She put the sapphire down. “If, as you say, you know the location of a salvageable abandoned Polity destroyer, you will also be aware that you’ll need an AI to fly it.”
    “Which is why the location of those necessities I mentioned is a place called the Rock Pool.”
    “Shell people,” she stated, without the rancour she had once felt for that kind.
    “Yes, shell people.”
    “I’ll have to think about that.” She paused, “But you also offered help …”
    He pointed down at the etched sapphires. “Net data on me is limited, so I’ve loaded a private file on me to the transaction memory of sapphire T782. I think you will find it interesting. You’ll also see that the balance of the payment could involve something more valuable to you than money.”
    Still watching him, she reached down and ran her fingers over the sapphires, sensors in her fingertips identifying the correct jewel. Leaning her elbow on the table, she held the sapphire to her eye, accessing its memory right away. She already knew from her own research that this guy was old, he’d fought in the prador/human war, but there was little beyond that. This file filled in more detail which, after a security scan, she loaded directly to her mind.
    “Polity bio-espionage?” she said disbelievingly.
    “That’s the one that leaps out,” he said, “but check the others.”
    She took a few moments to get it all, then, with slow control, placed the jewel back in its case. Yes, he had worked in bio-espionage during the war, but the more interesting stuff was before then. He’d worked in numerous sciences and had even spent time in partnership with the infamous Dr Sylac. Then there was the other data: a report from a forensic AI on his mental stats. A lot of them were at the top of known scales, while others were listed as non-applicable, which meant the AIs had found no sensible way of measuring them. Something long-suppressed rose up inside her then—hope. To undo what Penny Royal had done required a level of skill beyond anything in the Graveyard. Certainly Polity AIs could have done something for her, but considering her history their first inclination would be to dissect and study her. And if that didn’t kill her, they would execute the death sentence on her directly afterwards.
    “You have a nerve conflict problem I can probably deal with immediately,” he stated. “But that’s almost certainly the least of your problems. Your haiman installations are overloading your human body, so you need base-level nanonic upgrade. You’ll require secondary cyber-immune micro-factories inside your bones, to generate nano-machines which can constantly repair the damage.”
    “And you can do this?” she asked, trying to stamp on her bitter disappointment at the way he was deliberately circumventing her real problem.
    “You’ve seen my CV,” he said. “I specialized in surgical adaptation and adaptogenics before I trained under Sylac in cerebral augmentation.”
    “You have no idea,” she replied, considering killing him right then and walking out.
    “You mean about the change you’re undergoing?” He gave a brief mirthless smile. “I understand that very well, Isobel.”
    “Oh really?”
    “Oh really,” he replied. “I know exactly what Penny Royal did to