Free How Dark the World Becomes by Frank Chadwick Page A

nodded, doubtfully.
    “He thinks I came to him by chance, and that he’s the one who’s arranging everything, so he stopped looking for us, and for anyone helping us. He knows he can take the children as soon as we show up to leave planet. So I gave him Bronstein’s World as a destination, because I knew there would be no shuttle for the Bronstein C-lighter until several days after the Akaampta departure. With luck, we should be gone before he realizes anything is wrong.”
    I thought about that for a couple seconds. Two things occurred to me. 
    First thing, she wasn’t afraid of me anymore. She wasn’t trying to convince me that she’d actually done this thing—only that it was a good idea. So she was probably telling the truth.
    Second thing was, much as I hated to admit it, this was actually an okay plan, or would be under most circumstances. It was a very gutsy move, but that’s what made it work. Kolya would never think that this pale and pampered thoroughbred with a PhD in something or other would walk right into the lion’s den unless she was as clueless as she looked. Pretty smart.
    “Except for the part about not telling me,” I said. “Why didn’t you tell me?” 
    “We couldn’t right away. Mr. Arrakatlak found out that Mr. Markov has a data mine on your comm link, and there was no one at your office. Then you disappeared. I thought you were dead, but Mr. Arrakatlak said to wait, and that you would turn up.”
    Now it was starting to smell like bullshit. A mine? Surgically implanted comm links like I have are all but impossible to mine, even with nanos, since you need to have someone physically close enough . . . like Cinti. Shit! Cinti could have planted nanos while I was sleeping. And, sentimental fool that I was, I’d figured she really had told me everything. 
    It occurred to me that if I didn’t start getting smarter here, and really quickly, I was going to die. At least Kolya couldn’t trace me through my link. Nobody could, data mine or not, unless I told somebody right where I was over an open circuit. I had too many dummy repeaters squirreled away in different parts of the city and all my signals went through them. Even if somebody was smart enough to backtrace all the electronic blind alleys to pinpoint a transmission—and I didn’t know of anyone working for Kolya that smart—by the time they did it I’d be long gone. 
    “Okay, but how did Arrie find out about the mine?” I demanded. 
    She shrugged, and I could tell it had never even occurred to her to ask. This was all black arts stuff to her, and one magic trick seemed as difficult or as easy as the next. But how the hell did Arrie find out about a comm mine that Kolya had planted on me? I was sure Arrie didn’t have Kolya’s organization penetrated—he was an operator, but on his own side of the divide, not on the Human side. I was his link to Kolya’s organization. Right?
    But at the moment, I had bigger concerns. This changed everything, and I had to figure out the new patterns here—and quickly. 
    First things first. I triggered my embedded comm link and called Henry. He was waiting, of course; he was back in one of the under-the-rock plazas that adjoined the inside face of Marfoglia’s living complex, watching the entrances. 
    “Yeah,” he answered inside my head.
    “Hey, what’s new?”
    “Not much,” he answered. “You?”
    “Nuthin’ worth mentioning, except I’m gonna bow out on dinner later. I think I got some bad curry at lunch.”
    “You gotta watch that subcontinent stuff, boss. It’ll eat your guts out.”
    I laughed.
    “Yeah, but this was Thai, so go figure. See you later.”
    I broke the connection. Marfoglia was looking at me with a mix of curiosity and disdain. 
    “Breaking a date with a girlfriend?” she asked.
    “For you? In your dreams,” I answered. “That was my number-two guy. ‘Bad curry’ is my code phrase for compromised communications.
    “We’re going to have to