Dark State: A Novel of the Merchant Princes Multiverse (Empire Games, Book II) by Stross Charles

Author:Stross, Charles [Stross, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Fantasy, thriller
ISBN: 9780765337573
Amazon: 0765337576
Goodreads: 34928718
Publisher: Tor Books
Published: 2018-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

Learning Exercises

NEW LONDON, TIME LINE THREE, AUGUST 2020

Okay, this is a setup, Rita told herself as Huw led her to a rear exit opening onto a long driveway. It’s all about family. Because that’s how these people roll. “You’re related to Miss Thorold, aren’t you?” she asked.

“Yes. We’re first cousins, actually,” Huw added, waving in the direction of a black limousine. It slowly rolled toward them, gravel crunching under tires. “The world-walking ability is a recessive trait, so the Clan practiced first cousin marriages. A lot of first cousin marriages.” The car arrived beside him, and he opened the rear door: “After you, my lady.” He said my lady as if he meant it, totally unironically. Rita boggled slightly as she slid across an acre of high-grade leather, unsure whether to feel insulted or flattered. Huw leaned close to the sliding window that separated them from the human chauffeur. “To the residence, please.”

The limousine slowly made its way down the drive. “So, um. You’re the Explorer-General?” she asked, succumbing to the anxious impulse to fill an uncomfortable silence. After all, she was alone in the back of a limo with a strange man: and while Huw was anything but threatening, she had no idea what she should do. “What does that mean?”

“It means I mostly front a bureaucracy and set policy these days.” He busied himself with a seat belt. Either VIPs weren’t above traffic stops here, or it was a habit he’d picked up somewhere else. “It used to consist of three people and a dog, but over time it sort of grew. Now … we’ve got research institutes, remote exploration bases in other time lines, university departments studying everything we find, cooperatives and companies supplying us with specialized equipment. Thousands of people, really: tens of thousands, even. Managing it is a committee process, but it helps to have a front man.” He sat back. “It’s much the same job that the DHS’s Para-time Transportation Safety Agency does, facilitating industrial and scientific access to other worlds.”

“You know about the PTSA.”

He caught her eye and nodded. “Yes. You’re wondering if we’re spying on the United States, aren’t you?” It was Rita’s turn to nod. “Well, we’d be idiots not to, wouldn’t we? After what the USA did to the Gruinmarkt.”

Although inarguably true, his reply killed the conversation for a while. Luckily the ride was short. The limo left the driveway and cruised through a curving maze of row houses—all of them remarkably well-maintained—until, less than a mile later, it halted outside a white-painted three-story dwelling fronted by cast iron railings. Behind the railings a flight of steps arched across an open-topped cellar with basement windows, ending at a front door trimmed with polished brasswork. “Welcome to my town house,” said Huw. “It’s where Brill and the kids and I live when we’re here—in the city—on business. We don’t own it, it’s an official residence.”

“When you’re not in the city”—she was already on the front steps—“where do you live?”

He smiled. “Wherever

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