Read Online The Rifter's Covenant by Sherwood Smith, Dave Trowbridge - Free Book Online Page B

trinity—She’s pregnant, Fierin realized
belatedly. No. Was.
    Though she knew
that a bomb was going to explode it was still a shock; again she paused the vid
to watch children play. She’d yawned twice before she tabbed it on again. The
screen filled with a weird light Fierin knew she would have nightmares about
for the rest of her life.
    And then the Douloi
reverted to normal human behavior, some panicking, some taking charge and
giving directions with sharp voices and trembling hands. Movement was quick and
chaotic; the ajna swept from side to side, as if Leseuer wanted to record
everything she could. One by one, then in clumps, people fell in agonized
death. The angle of the lens dropped finally, and was still.
    Fierin frowned,
then went back again, and this time kept her emotions under strict control as
she forced herself to watch. Not one but several people had died because of
this chip, and to get his hands on it, Fierin’s own lover had lied to her and
had violated her privacy by ordering her things searched repeatedly. Why?
    Moving the vid so
slowly it was like looking at ancient stillpics, Fierin scanned every portion
of the Hall visible. She did not know what to expect. Some threatening person?
An attack?
    When at last she
did find the anomaly, it was so subtle she almost missed it.
    At the beginning,
after Leseuer’s conversation with the Kelly, three figures caught her eye from
the among the crowd, briefly distinct in the way they all backed a few steps
toward a discreet door and slipped out.
    Fierin would not
have caught it if it had been one person, for anyone might need to leave discreetly,
but three of them, and just before a key part of the Enkainion for a member of
the ruling dynasty?
    Freezing the vid on
the clearest view of the three, Fierin forced the enhancer to bring them
closer, until the picture was on the point of dissolving into a fractal
nightmare. But there they were, distinctively recognizable: Hesthar
al-Gessinav, Tau Srivashti, and Stulafi Y’Talob.
    He was there .
    Fierin looked up at
the children without seeing any of them. Hesthar’s voice, from one of the cabal
meetings, came back in memory: Our
problem is that none of us were there. Regrettable: I was to have represented
our family, as my cousin was on Lao Tse, but my yacht would not cooperate.
    Ice flowed through
Fierin’s veins, nerves, and brain. They
were there. And they left.
    They knew about the bomb.
    The understanding
exploded inside her, a silent bomb. She had no idea how long she sat there
until fear returned, her closest companion of late: how long had she sat there?
    Feeling brittle as
ice about to shatter, she forced herself to move slowly. Calmly. Normally as
she snapped the chip out and slid another into its place. Breathe in, and out,
though her eyes saw nothing of Meet Genz
Hydroponics burbling cheerily on the vid. Instead, she saw, over and over,
those three figures stepping back and vanishing through the service door, one
by deliberate one.
    She watched all the
way through, ran her hands through her hair again and secured the horrible
chip. Now she knew the purpose of Srivashti’s searches, the questionings. His
having prevented her from going to Commander Nyberg as Ranor had urged her.
    Now she knew why
Ranor and those other people had died.
    Then she took out
the hydroponics chip, set it on her pile, and rose to her feet.
    She began another
circuit as her gaze moved from object to object. Ah. She caught her foot on the
edge of a desk, and fell full length.
    The handset flew
out of her grasp and smashed against the sturdy support of the climbing set.
Nothing could be recovered from it now.
    Several children
jumped; another staff member appeared, his face full of concern. Fierin
twittered in apology, gabbling about being so tired she couldn’t see her feet
in front of her, as she and he picked up the broken bits and restored
everything to order.
    She then went on
with her job of viewing and cataloguing chips,