Read Online Home Fires by Gene Wolfe - Free Book Online Page B

Suppose they had begun to act when they got my call—which they did, come to think of it. Feuer told me my payment had been refused. Even so, they would have had to learn your address, get one or two security agents into my building, and search. A search like that would take one person at least an hour. Probably more.”
    “What were they looking for?”
    “I’d love to know. I don’t. Let’s get back to what we do know, which is that it wasn’t Reanimation’s security goons who stabbed you, and it wasn’t their security who searched your apartment. The timing is wrong for both.”
    “I liked it better when you had your arm around me,” Vanessa said.
    “Besides all that, Reanimation’s a business. It’s got to act sensibly for the most part, or go under. They want that pretty body of yours back alive.”
    “Well, they don’t act like it!”
    “We don’t know how they act. Listen to me. The mind of a Reanimation employee has been wiped and your own mind uploaded into her brain—the brain that you call yours for the time being. It means they had a nice-looking woman of thirty-five or forty in their database who resembled you and would consent to being used like this. She must be very valuable to them. Injuring her or killing her would be the last thing they’d want to do. Kidnap you, wipe the brain and reinsert her mind, and they’d have a strong case. ‘There she stands, ladies and gentlemen of the jury. That is her body, the body she was born with. And as you have heard, she consents to everything we’ve done.’ ”
    “I see.”
    “Kill you, and it’s murder. Not some two-bit hate-speech charge but real murder. This country has far too many people, or thinks it does. The result is that the government kills as many as the politicians can justify. Murder means execution, and quickly. The murderer dies; so does everybody they can convict as an accessory.”
    Vanessa said, “Well, somebody wanted to kill me.”
    “I agree, and we need to find out who and why. What were they looking for in your apartment?”
    “I haven’t the least idea.”
    “Think!”
    “Skip…”
    “Yes?”
    “Do you remember when we met at the railroad station?”
    He nodded.
    “It was one of the very first things since I’ve been back. I don’t remember dying. I know I must have, but I don’t remember it.”
    “Of course not. You can’t be scanned after death.”
    “The last thing I remember is going to Saint Andrew Kim’s for a transplant. After that, I was lying on a gurney in a different room. I got up and a woman helped me dress and drove me to the station. She told me a lot about you on the way and gave me a little money. Well, of course I wanted to see Chelle, so I did what she’d said to. I had nothing then. A few clothes in a little bag.”
    “I remember.”
    “Everything I had after that, I bought with money you gave me. I don’t steal, Skip. It’s so, well, déclassé.”
    He had stopped pacing to stare out a porthole.
    “I never hid anything there. Not a thing. Tim gave me a little money. For these shipboard clothes, you know.” Vanessa held up the white blouse. “If they were looking for some sort of treasure that would be very funny.”
    “I’ve been trying to convince myself that they were looking for something that would tell them where you’d gone.”
    She shook her head vigorously. “After I was stabbed, I went back there to pack, but I had no idea where I was going afterward, and I was in and out in ten minutes.”
    “They cut open sofa cushions, so they were looking for something you would’ve hidden.” Skip paused, and snapped his fingers.
    “You’ve thought of something. What is it?”
    “Your face, basically. It’s a very pretty face. Delicate features, sharp chin, perfect nose.”
    Vanessa’s smile flashed in the dim light. “Why, thank you!”
    “Big eyes, with a tiny upward tilt. Most of all the vivacity. Chelle didn’t recognize me at Canam, but she knew you at