Burned (39 page)

‘Not safely,’ I said. ‘I’m pretty sure that all of our regular mail accounts will have been tapped by now. If Luna and Vari have set up any new ones, then they’ll probably be safe, but…’

‘… but they’re secret from us too,’ Anne finished. ‘And if they tell us what they are, then anyone who’s listening in will find out as well.’

‘I really should have set up some secure way of talking to Luna,’ I said. ‘A synchronous focus or something. I prepared for what’d happen if I was killed, but…’

‘How long do you think they’ll keep looking for us?’ Anne asked.

‘They might be winding down the search already. We never stuck around to confirm whether that guy in Argentina was working for Levistus or not.’

‘Do you
really
think he wasn’t?’

I grimaced. ‘No.’

‘But they’ll have to give up eventually, won’t they?’ Anne sat down on the bed, kicking off her shoes and curling her legs up underneath her. ‘It must be costing them something.’

‘More importantly, it’s not
gaining
them anything,’ I said. ‘The way I figured, if they kept on spending resources with nothing to show for it, then eventually they’d have to write the whole thing off. I just didn’t expect them to chase us this hard.’

‘Why do you think they’re doing it?’

‘Guess I pissed Levistus off more than I thought.’ I sighed. ‘It’s not like I didn’t have warning. Enough people told me that this was going to happen.’

‘We’re going to keep being on the run, then,’ Anne said. It was a statement, not a question.

I looked at Anne. ‘I’m sorry for getting you into this.’

‘You don’t have to be sorry for anything.’

‘But if it wasn’t for me—’

‘If it wasn’t for you, I’d already be dead. From the Council, or from Vitus, or from Sagash. Besides … even if they couldn’t tie me to you, I’m not sure it would have made a difference.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I’ve been thinking about that conversation we had with Talisid,’ Anne said. ‘I mean, the one you had. I don’t think it was Levistus who wanted me brought in.’

‘Talisid only said that he couldn’t find any evidence…’

‘Then why just go after me?’ Anne asked. ‘He could have blocked the sponsorship order for Vari too. Or sabotaged Luna’s test.’

I paused. Looked at that way, it
was
odd. Levistus hated me, no argument there. But while he’d made threats towards my allies, it had always been in the context of getting to me. I’d never had the impression that he cared about Anne, Luna or Variam directly. ‘You think someone else piggybacked on to what Levistus was doing already?’

Anne lifted her hands helplessly. ‘I’m out of my depth with this. I just don’t think it’s all your fault.’

‘I suppose that makes me feel a little better. Though I don’t know if it should.’

Anne smiled slightly, but it didn’t last. ‘What’s our endgame?’

It was a good question, and not one that Anne would have asked when I’d first known her. Luna isn’t the only one who’s changed over the past few years. ‘Levistus’s men can’t catch us, not the way they’ve been going,’ I said. ‘The only reason they were able to get close before was that we were tied down to one place. Sooner or later, they’re going to have to realise that.’

‘And then?’

‘And then Talisid or Landis or someone else we trust can go to the Council and negotiate,’ I said. ‘I hope.’

Anne looked dubious. ‘Won’t they just try to kill us some other way?’

‘Probably. If I were them, what I’d be doing right now would be trying to lull us into a false sense of security. Find us, wait a while, then get us while our guard’s down.’

‘So we don’t let our guard down.’

I nodded. ‘Because they’ll still be coming after us. I can’t believe they’ll keep chucking assassination attempts at us for ever.’

Anne sat quietly for a while. ‘And until then, we wait,’ she said.

‘We wait.’

We sat in the room, listening to the growl of the generator. The email waited on my computer, but I didn’t go to finish it. We had nothing but time.

Once dinner was over, I moved to my bedroom, shut the door, found a comfortable spot on the bed and closed my eyes, looking through the futures to see what would happen if we stayed here in this house and did nothing. Once I’d confirmed that we were safe in the short term, I extended and broadened my search, looking further and further, wider and wider, always on the alert for the patterns that signified danger. Nothing materialised, but I kept looking. You can never be sure that you’ve caught all the potential dangers with divination, in the same way that you can’t prove a negative. All you can do is slice the probability of being wrong as thin as you can, shaving it down until the futures thread away to nothing, at which point you go back to the beginning and start again.

This is what diviners do when they want to keep themselves safe. And it works, more or less. You can’t ever reach one hundred per cent, but you can get close enough that your chance of dying is so small that writing it down would require scientific notation. Diviners have a reputation for being impossible to kill, and while that’s exaggerated, there’s some truth to it. As long as I kept doing this, there was no realistic way that Levistus or his men could pin me down. Long before they’d got a fix on either of us, I’d have seen them coming and moved away.

The problem was that I couldn’t really do anything
else
. While I was doing this, I couldn’t spend too much time interacting with other people, as it would introduce too much unpredictability. I couldn’t be near crowds, or get in touch with friends, or do anything that would draw attention to myself. Sure, I was safe … as long as I lived like a paranoid hermit. And if that sounds like a good deal, then try it for a few years and see if it doesn’t change your mind.

I’d been at it for about half an hour when something caught my eye. There was a swirl of activity revolving around a set of futures close to midnight – it wasn’t completely settled, but it was definitely going to happen and it was firming as I watched. No immediate danger, which was why I hadn’t noticed it on the earlier scans, but … yes, definitely hostile. I spent another ten minutes thoroughly checking it out before walking into the living room. ‘Trouble.’

Anne had been sitting on one of the chairs, drawing in a notebook. As I spoke she looked up, then nodded and closed her book. ‘Time to go?’

‘Maybe.’

‘Maybe?’

‘They’re going to phone us.’

‘That seems very polite of them.’

‘Yeah. “Hello, Mr Verus, we’re just calling to inform you that we’ll be killing you later tonight.”’

‘So what
are
they going to say?’ Anne asked curiously. ‘It’s them, right?’

‘Couldn’t get a clear look, but I think they’re saying they want to make a deal.’

Anne’s eyebrows went up into her hairline. ‘You believe that?’

‘Hell no.’

‘Just wanted to make sure.’

‘There’s no way they’re willing to talk terms this fast,’ I said. ‘The number they’ve got is from one of our burner phones we picked up in Argentina. Best guess is they’re hoping to keep us on the line long enough to get a trace.’

‘So…’ Anne said. ‘Leave the phone and move on?’

‘By the time they call, we’ll have our bags packed and the gate stone spun up. Looks like you don’t need to bother washing those dishes.’

Anne shrugged. ‘We might as well leave the place tidy.’

It didn’t take long to pack. Most of our possessions had been winnowed away, lost to raids or to necessity, and both of us were down to a single suitcase each. ‘You’re kind of letting down the stereotypes for your gender,’ I told Anne. ‘You should have three suitcases worth of clothes and shoes.’

Anne smiled, but it faded quickly. She looked at the phone, lying alone on the table. ‘Is it even worth answering?’

‘I did think about ignoring it,’ I admitted. ‘But there’s always the chance they’ll let something slip. We’re really starved for information.’

‘That’s probably what they’re counting on.’

‘Just keep the gate stone ready. I can’t see any way they could spring anything, but no point taking chances.’

Anne nodded, taking out the small river pebble that marked our next destination. We waited. ‘Where’s our next stop?’ Anne asked after a little while.

‘China.’

‘Do we have to go back north? I was enjoying the summer.’

‘It’s Yunnan province. Should be one of the warmer ones.’

‘I’d still prefer Mauritius.’ Anne glanced at the phone. ‘They’re taking their time.’

‘Keeps shifting.’ I could sense the futures in which the call was made jumping around, going from seconds ahead to as far as five or ten minutes. I wondered why there was so much variation. Maybe they were setting up some equipment. I checked again to confirm that they couldn’t stop us gating out, and as I did the futures narrowed. ‘Here we go.’

The phone rang, then rang again. I waited. Ten rings, fifteen.

‘Are you just deliberately annoying them?’ Anne asked when I didn’t answer.

‘Pretty much.’

Anne gave me a look. ‘Okay, okay,’ I said. I picked up the phone and thumbed the green button. ‘Hi.’

‘Mage Verus.’ The voice was calm and polite.

‘And you must be Barrayar,’ I said. I’d only met the guy a couple of times, but I had a good mental picture of him. Slim, a little shorter than average, expensive suit, pleasant expression that revealed nothing of what he was thinking. From what I’d seen, he seemed to function as Levistus’s primary assistant. ‘How can I help you?’

‘We were hoping you might spare us a few minutes.’

‘Sure, why not?’ I looked ahead to check that Anne and I could escape if need be. ‘What sort of things were you planning to discuss? Arsenal’s chances in the premier league?’

‘Something a little more to the point. We’d like to—’

‘“We”, right. Sorry to interrupt, but just to check, do you actually have any authority to make any deals? Or tell me anything? Because if you’re going to need to run everything by Levistus, then it’s really kind of a waste of time me talking to you.’

‘I’m afraid the person I’m representing values his privacy,’ Barrayar said. ‘However, he has given me full authority to negotiate in his place.’

‘In other words, Levistus doesn’t want his name or voice going out on an open call.’

There was a slight pause. ‘Verus— do you mind if I call you Verus?’

‘Go right ahead.’

‘Having had some time to consider, both I and the people I represent feel that the current situation is … unproductive. This chasing you around from one country to another isn’t achieving anything.’

‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘Demonstrating that you can’t catch me seems pretty useful from my point of view.’

‘Yes,’ Barrayar said. ‘You have demonstrated that. And the message has been received. With this in mind, I’d like to negotiate.’

‘Really.’

‘I’d like to believe that we can come to an equitable solution that satisfies all parties.’

‘Somehow I doubt that.’

‘Oh, I don’t know,’ Barrayar said. ‘We can be quite persuasive. I’d like to show you something, if you don’t mind. I’m sending you a web address.’

The phone buzzed as the text message came through. I studied it. ‘So you’d like me to load this up?’

‘If you don’t mind.’

‘Sure. Just give me a second.’

I checked our escape route again, then pulled my laptop out from my bag. Anne gave me a quizzical look, and I made a reassuring gesture. I put the laptop down, opened a browser and typed the address in, checking to make sure I got each letter right. Once I was done, I looked into the future in which I hit the return key. I could just have path-walked without moving at all, but it was easier to do a few of the physical steps first. ‘Looks like a video link,’ I said into the phone.

‘It is,’ Barrayar said. ‘Shall I give you the encryption code?’

‘I wouldn’t bother,’ I said. ‘Given that there’s no way in hell I’m visiting it. Honestly, Barrayar, how stupid do you think I am?’

‘I can understand why you would be suspicious,’ Barrayar said. ‘But I can assure you there are no traps. No viruses, no tracer programmes. Just a simple video feed.’

‘Sure. I’ll just take your word for it, shall I?’ I shook my head.
This is going nowhere.
I signalled to Anne, who nodded and took out the gate stone.

‘The code is 8YST57,’ Barrayar said. ‘Why don’t you divine it?’

I paused, my hand on the laptop screen. Examining the content via my divination would be safe … entirely safe, and that made me suspicious. Maybe he was hoping to lure me in?

‘It’s not case-sensitive, if that’s what you’re wondering.’

Curiosity won out. I looked into the future in which I navigated to the website and entered the code. My future self found himself looking at a video feed. The scene was a night-time city, although you couldn’t see much of it – the camera seemed to be focused on a block of flats. Something about them looked familiar. I’d been there before. Now where was—?

I stopped dead. My hand froze on the phone as I stared into the future, my heart speeding up.

Anne looked up. She’d been starting the preparations to open the gate, green light beginning to gather at her hand, but now she focused on me, frowning.
What’s wrong?
she mouthed silently.

I reached for the keyboard, hit return, then typed in the code when I was prompted, only half aware of what I was doing. The video feed paused as it loaded, then came up on the screen. The image it showed was dark, in moderately poor resolution but quite watchable. It showed the rear side of a small block of flats, the bottom corner obscured by a tree. It was night-time and orange light reflected up from the street below. The block of flats was four stories high. Lights were on in the ground and first floors, but the two above were dark. The camera was focused on the top floor.

The vision wasn’t great, but it was enough for me to recognise the location. The block of flats was in Crouch End, in London. The flat the camera was trained upon was Luna’s.

‘Ah,’ Barrayar said through the phone. ‘Apparently we have one viewer. I’m going to assume that’s you. Just hold on a moment and I’ll get them to zoom in.’