“And chaos within bounds is creative,” he agreed, eagerly taking what seemed to be an opening offered him. “You’ve given us splendors, you Lunarians. But can’t you understand, the cybercosm is creative too? Is alive too?” Impulse: “It accepts downloaded human minds into itself, you know, minds that can contribute something fresh. Would you consider yours joining in the adventure?”
With his. Not that anything but a ghost of fleshly memories would linger; the seed outgrows the husk. And yet—
Merriment pealed. “Eyach, and would they also like to put my bones on display? I have a most graceful skeleton.”
“Must we be enemies?” he asked. “Is it impossible to make peace and, and cooperate?”
Her laughter died away. An inward mirth abided.
“If you care to talk further, at leisure, I will happily receive you again,” she purred.
And distract him. No, not captivate him; He was no boy, no—a piece of archaic reading came back to twitch at his lips—mooncalf. But divert his attention. While he was not about to admit realizing what a trick she had played on him before, let alone that it had succeeded, he said, “Thank you. When time permits. I hope you will profit,” with a sardonicism directed more at himself than at her.
How beautiful, how unfairly beautiful she stood inthe light gravity of her lair, 384,000 kilomete’rs out of his reach.
“We both may,” she answered. “After all, the object of our quarrel lies in far space, does it not? Fare you well, seigneur.”
The image vanished.
At first he felt only the emptiness. After a second, he could grin and shake his head. Tension followed. Exactly what had she meant by that last remark?
Perhaps no more than a gibe. She’d never drop a hint that might draw his attention toward a different machination of hers. Unless she did it in hopes that he would dismiss it as a misdirection and keep his focus on Earth.
That would not be a fool’s idea. Earth was in fact where he and she had been playing their game. Alice Tarn was entirely of this planet. Tracing back the movements of Tarn’s volant, ransacking the records of phone calls she had lately made, checking on the recipients, had been a gigantic effort, savagely concentrated into a pair of days and nights. But it led to the Carfax house, and from there the trails might well branch out to every node of Lunarian conspiracy on the globe. Where then could Lilisaire turn but to space?
Farther space, Mars, the asteroids, the outer-planet moons, folk of hers thinly scattered but in possession of spacecraft, nuclear generators, robots, unsentient but highly capable computers, instrumentalities potent for work or for harm. She would hardly cry rebellion. They would not heed if she did; they were not insane. But he could think of other possibilities. For example, if somehow she had gotten an inkling of the nature of the secret, a few Lunarians yonder might furtively commence an astronomical search … He must organize a surveillance of them. That would be a lengthy and effort-costly undertaking in its own right.
At the same time, he must not neglect Earth, the more so when Lilisaire and her bravos might yet be able to accomplish something here. Maintain a watch for Tarn and Kenmuir. However, don’t let it employ a substantial force, which could better be assigned elsewhere. The odds were large that they were of little further consequence. They had broken into the Proserpina file, yes, and it had run through to the end before it stopped; but the record showed that that had been a straight playing, no skips forward, whereas they fled within minutes of starting it. So they lacked the critical data.
It could be awkward if they made public what they did know—not unmanageable, but awkward. Best catch them soon. They had allies around the planet, Kenmuir his trothmates, Tarn her metamorphs and their associates. No doubt they’d try to contact one or more. But the system was alerted, and how could amateurs evade it?
Guthrie House, for instance—no, an unlikely destination, because Kenmuir wasn’t stupid—he’d know it for a dead end and a trap. Still, just in case, robots at appropriate locations were set to observe every vehicle that went in or out of the Fireball mansion. If anyone debarked at it who might be either of the fugitives, that person would not get far without being halted and identified. Places more obscure posed more difficulty, but Venator did not see how his quarry could run much longer.