The Barsoom Project by Niven Larry & Barnes Steven

Author:Niven, Larry & Barnes, Steven [Niven, Larry & Barnes, Steven]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery, Crime
ISBN: 9781429926447
Amazon: 1429926449
Goodreads: 9852933
Publisher: Tor Books
Published: 1989-09-01T07:00:00+00:00

19

Old Friends

Millicent Summers’s office was tucked away beneath the Blue Lagoon swimming spa. A wall-wide window piped in a view of clear blue water. Healthy young and firm old bodies smashed through the rippling mirror-surface and drove swarms of bubbles under as they plunged.

Millicent’s head snapped around, and she sprang out of her chair delightedly. “Alex! I was hoping you’d come by.”

“Couldn’t stay away,” he said. He didn’t need a mirror to know that his smile wasn’t very convincing. “Besides,” he said with more bitterness than he had intended, “I don’t know who I can trust.”

She was taken aback, opened her mouth and closed it without speaking. Millicent spun without touching him, and raised her voice. “Are you there, Jackie?”

“Yes, Miss Summers.”

“Hold all my calls for the next hour.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Millicent led Alex by the hand over to her desk, and sat with him. “Why don’t you tell me about it?”

“I don’t have enough yet, but …” He reached over to her key pad. “Mind?”

“What’s mine is yours.”

He typed his security code in, and made a few quick routing instructions. When he looked up, he saw that she was seriously concerned.

“Alex, you don’t usually ignore an innuendo.”

“Millie, I can’t trust anyone who was here ten years ago. You came in seven years ago, so that’s why we’re talking.”

“And here I thought it was my lucid personality.”

“I need that too.”

“So talk.” The smile was gone. Millicent knew him too well to expect pleasantries, or anything pleasant at all.

He took a deep breath. “All right. Ten years ago, Cowles Industries was in trouble.”

“Financial trouble. I know, I’ve got it in my files.”

“There was going to be a hostile takeover, but enough stockholders held on out of loyalty to make it difficult. And then somebody, no one’s sure who, but his initials are Kareem Fekesh, set up an accident that would help to scare off some of our supporters. Enough to tip the scales.”

“Kareem Fekesh … I’ll look him up. What kind of an accident?”

“Murder. A man named Calvin Izumi was killed during the playing of the Fimbulwinter Game. The woman who killed him is a Michelle Sturgeon. She popped back up in the park two days ago.”

Millicent sat down hard, her face tight. “Oh. That Michelle Sturgeon.” She searched his face for clues. “All right, Griff. What can I do?”

“Help me sort through this. This first part isn’t pleasant at all, and maybe only Harmony has had the nerve to look at it.”

“What’s that?”

“It was no outside job. The current theory among the bereaved is that someone came in as an Actor, switched rifles, and carried the dummy away somehow.”

“You don’t buy that.”

“Not for a hot second. Ah.”

Millicent’s wall screen beeped, and a picture took form. It showed a man in Eskimo makeup, pouchy cheeks, epicanthic folds, and long, glossy black Mongol hair. The next picture was of the same man out of makeup. The two pictures matched only vaguely.

“Have they run this through FBI? How long ago did this all happen?”

“Maybe ten years.

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