Machine Vendetta by Alastair Reynolds

Author:Alastair Reynolds [REYNOLDS, ALASTAIR]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2024-01-03T00:00:00+00:00

Dreyfus undocked. He set his cutter for Panoply on an expedited return. He put ten kilometres between himself and Carcasstown, then a hundred, then a thousand. Even then he still had an itch between his shoulder blades, as if a knife was hovering between them.

He was not in the least surprised when Aurora spoke to him, her frozen-in-youth face appearing on the console.

“From the haste with which you’re heading back to Panoply, may I deduce that you’ve found something?”

“I can’t be sure yet,” he said levelly. “But Carcasstown fits. There’s an outfit in there running a computer powerful enough to bottle you. They know about abstraction, and there’s a chance I’ve crossed paths with one of them before.”

“The odds on that would be tiny, unless there was a connection to the earlier operation.”

“That’s my thinking as well.”

“How fun it is to be solving a case with you, Dreyfus!”

“I’m glad you’re enjoying this process. I can assure you I’m not. I’m looking at a rising civilian death toll in the middle of a pre-existing emergency, and now I’ve lost another trusted colleague.”

“I’m sorry about Sparver.” She became earnest. “No, truly, I am. Would it help if I told you I had nothing to do with that nasty bit of business?”

“It might if I thought for a second you weren’t lying.”

“Well, it wasn’t me. Tench poked under a lot of stones trying to find the right one. It seems someone didn’t appreciate her nosiness and left that trap for Sparver. But it wasn’t me and I couldn’t stop it from happening.”

Dreyfus wondered if there was a grain of truth in her response. Aurora was given to boasting, after all. Disavowing responsibility for a grand spectacle was hardly her style.

“Would you have tried?”

“If it didn’t compromise me . . . perhaps.”

“Too bad you didn’t. But then lifting a finger to do one right thing might be beyond even your elevated intellect.”

“That wounds me, Dreyfus. I’m really not as bad as you make out. I led you to the Salter-Regents, didn’t I? Would I have done that if I didn’t have some basic interest in human welfare? They’ve done unspeakable things; even I can see that. Murdering those poor pigs in Mercy Sphere, not to mention all the other crimes they’ll turn out to be implicated in. That’s evil in its purest sense, and I’m not so far from the origins that I don’t recognise it.”

“One good deed doesn’t make you a saint.”

“But if it was down to the Clockmaker there wouldn’t be any deeds at all, just carnage. I’m your better bet, Dreyfus. Deep down you know it, too.”

“I know self-interest when I see it.”

“Oh, you doubting Thomas, Dreyfus! Look, I’ll prove what I can be by showing restraint. I’m checking out Midas Analytics as we speak. It’s interesting . . . very interesting. Someone’s done nearly a good enough job to fool nearly everyone.”

“But not you.”

“I could destroy them quite easily. I wouldn’t even need to expose myself to any part of Carcasstown. Just pick a few robot carriers moving through the outer orbits of the Glitter Band and hack their destination settings.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.