Probability Space by Nancy Kress

Author:Nancy Kress
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: A Tom Doherty Associates Book
Published: 2014-04-29T16:00:00+00:00

TWENTY

ABOARD THE MURASAKI

My God, it’s the cavalry. Or are you the savages, Lyle?”

“Hello, Tom,” Kaufman said, surprised at how glad he was to see Capelo. After months of seeing Tom’s face, and then his daughter’s, on the news holo, months of speculation about whether the physicist was dead or alive … and here he was. Thin, but Tom had always been thin. Intense. Furious.

“What the fuck are you doing here? What the fuck am I doing here? Are you here to give me more military orders from El Generalissimo Stefanak?”

“No, I’m here as a civilian,” Kaufman said, because he had to start somewhere.

“My family?”

Kaufman hesitated. But truth had always been the only way to deal with Capelo; everything else cost too much later on. “Your wife and younger daughter are fine. Amanda seems to have disappeared. We hoped she was with you.”

Capelo went ashen. “She … she wasn’t even home when I was abducted.”

“Apparently she was. The news holos said she left her swimming class early. Her friends said she told them she was going home. Tom, there’s no evidence that whoever took her took you, and in fact if that were the case, she’d probably be here with you. There’s been no political demands, no ransom requests. If they didn’t take her along with you, my guess is that she hid in the house and then later went into hiding somewhere.” Kaufman hoped this was true.

A little of the color returned to Capelo’s face. “She’s an unusually resourceful kid.”

“I believe it,” Kaufman said. He’d decided on a strategy: Hit Capelo hard with everything at once. “Tom, we need to talk to you quickly. A lot has happened, and we think the artifact might be used at setting prime thirteen in the same star system as the Falters’ artifact.”

“No one would be stupid enough to do that, not even Stefanak.”

“Stefanak’s dead. Nikolai Pierce brought off a military coup.”

“Pierce? He’s crazy as a syphilitic shark!”

Kaufman had never heard a more apt description. “Yes. He didn’t know the artifact was actually here, aboard the Murasaki … did you?”

“Of course I did, what do you suppose Stefanak’s thugs brought me here for? Soldiers know nothing about science. They were stupid enough to think that a theoretical physicist has to actually be in the presence of a phenomenon to do its math, Good thing they weren’t trying to force Sarinsen to extend his work on black holes.”

Marbet said, “What were they trying to get you to do?”

“Figure out why the artifact affected brain functioning. Stefanak refused to put it in the Solar System until he knew it wasn’t going to turn his soldier’s brains into pulp. Although I don’t know how he’d tell the difference. Hello, Marbet. Hello, McChesney. The jailer himself—I’m honored.”

So that was the reason the artifact—and Tom—were here. Not that it mattered now. Kaufman said, “The artifact is on its way back down to World. Pierce didn’t know where it was; evidently Stefanak kept that information highly restricted. But he’ll learn

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