Offspring (36 page)

Slowly Ben nodded. He turned and walked like a zombie into the waiting area, which was just off the main doors. A scattering of other worried-looking humans sat in worn chairs or paced about. The room smelled like floor polish and stale fried food.

A commotion at the main entrance caught his attention, and Ben turned to see what was going on. A bunch of people crowded the entrance, trying to push past a trio of security guards that barred their way. Cameras beeped wildly and a dozen voices shouted questions.

“Mr. Rymar, can you tell us what happened?” “Mr. Rymar, can you confirm that Father Kendi is dead?” “Mr. Rymar, was this an accident or an attempt at murder?” “Mr. Rymar—” “Mr. Rymar—” “Mr. Rymar—”

Ben fled. He shoved open the nearest door and stumbled into the hallway beyond. The door swung shut, cutting off the noise. It was too much. He couldn’t handle it. Already, he knew, pictures and holograms and live reports were cramming the feeds, feeding the relentless, hungry maw of a nosy public. The weight of it all pressed him down with a terrible weight, and he suddenly felt dizzy. He sank to the cold floor, put his head between his knees, and tried to slow his breathing. After several breaths, he sank into a stupor, staring at the white tiles without thinking. It was a blessed blankness.

A hand touched his shoulder. “Ben?”

He looked up to see Lucia kneeling beside him. Harenn, Keith, Martina, and Bedj-ka stood beside her. He hadn’t even heard them come in.

“Is there news?” he croaked. His mouth was so dry he could barely move his tongue.

“None yet,” Lucia said. “Keith called us and we came right over.”

“I want to be with him, Harenn,” Ben said. “I should be there.”

“I know.” Lucia put an arm around him and he noticed her newly-rounded stomach. “The orderly said we can wait in that empty patient room over there. Can you stand up?”

Ben found he could. The group filed into the room. Lucia and Harenn sat on the bed while the others crowded along the wall. No one spoke. Ben started to take the only chair, then found he was too restless to sit.

“You probably want to know what happened,” Ben said.

“Lars and Keith filled us in,” Martina said. “You don’t need to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

“His heart stopped for a while,” Ben said dully. “But they got it started again. Now they’re doing other stuff to him, but I don’t know what.”

“Polydithalocide poisoning is treatable,” Harenn said. “And Lars acted quickly. I am confident Kendi will be fine.”

Ben tried to find hope in her words, but his mind kept shutting down. Bedj-ka, standing in the corner, was clearly fighting tears.

“The reporters were real assholes,” Keith growled. “A pack of vultures hanging around the—”

“Okay, Keith,” Martina interrupted. “We don’t need to dwell on that.”

“He’s my fucking
brother
,” Keith snarled. “I’ll dwell on whatever I—”

“Mr. Rymar?” A man in a white coat stood in the doorway. “I’m Dr. Ridge.”

Ben’s heart jumped. “How is he?” he demanded, wanting and not wanting to hear the answer.

“He’s going to live,” Dr. Ridge said, and a universal breath of relief sighed through the room. “It was touchy for a while, no question, but he’ll recover. The rain slicker prevented the dart from penetrating completely and he only got a partial dose of the toxin. Still, Father Kendi wouldn’t have made it if your bodyguard hadn’t administered those antidotes. You can thank him more than me.”

“I will,” Ben said. His throat was thick. “Is Kendi awake? Can I see him?”

“We’re transferring him to intensive care upstairs,” Dr. Ridge said. “He’s still unconscious but should wake up soon. You can see him when he does. He’ll be very weak and will have to spend several days with us.”

Ben thanked Dr. Ridge and accepted embraces from everyone in the room, including Bedj-ka. Almost everyone was wiping surreptitious tears from their eyes. Upstairs at the intensive care ward, the nurse on duty firmly refused anyone who wasn’t family to enter.

“Mr. Rymar and no one else,” she said. “Those are the rules.”

“I’ll stay here in the waiting room in case Ben needs me,” Martina said. “The rest of you should go home, especially the pregnant ladies. You need your rest.”

“I will need to speak with you first, Mr. Rymar,” said a new voice. It was Inspector Ched-Theree, her blue cloth tied neatly around her head and her silver medallion around her neck. She looked incongruous, standing in a low-ceilinged hallway designed for humans. The Ched-Balaar’s medical needs were vastly different from human ones, and they had a different medical center. “This was a clear attempt at murder, and I have many questions to ask.”

Ben swallowed. In all the stress and excitement, he had completely forgotten about that. Anger kindled inside him and overshadowed the fear. The bastard who had done this would pay. Ben wouldn’t rest until he had his hands around the asshole’s throat. If only he knew who had—

The thought struck him with absolute clarity.
Sufur. It has to be Padric Sufur.

“I have already spoken to Father Kendi’s brother and to the bodyguard,” Ched-Theree was saying. “Now I will need your statement, Mr. Rymar. Perhaps we could sit in the waiting area.”

“Do you wish that we stay, Ben?” Harenn asked.

“No,” Ben said, forcing the anger back. “Martina was right—you should go home. I’ll be fine with Martina.”

The others left. Martina, Ben, and Ched-Theree retired to a small waiting room, where the Inspector had Ben go through the events. Unfortunately, Ben had been walking just in front of Kendi and hadn’t noticed much.

“And then he just collapsed,” Ben finished. “I didn’t see anyone who could have done it.”

“Did you notice any movement?” Ched-Theree persisted. “Anyone acting in the least bit strange?”

I saw Padric Sufur
, Ben thought,
in a house. Walking free and unmolested.
But he didn’t want to tell Ched-Theree this. Ben wanted Sufur to himself. So he shook his head. “I didn’t see a thing. I was mostly looking at Kendi. Did Keith see anyone?”

“He says he only saw a flash of movement just before Father Kendi collapsed,” Ched-Theree said. “The bodyguard gave us the dart he pulled from the wound. The alloy carried a tiny magnetic charge, which seems to indicate it was propelled rather than thrown by hand or blown from a pipe. We will analyze the data more thoroughly for further clues, of course.”

A nurse poked his head into the room. “Mr. Rymar, Father Kendi is awake.”

“We can finish at another time,” Ched-Theree said. “Gratitude.”

Ben barely heard. He hurried to follow the nurse into Kendi’s room. The lighting was dim. Kendi lay face-up on a hospital bed surrounded by medical equipment. Sensor patches were stuck on his head, arms, and chest. The equipment made soft beeps and whirrs.

“Only five minutes, please,” the nurse said. “He needs to rest.” And he left.

Ben sat next to the bed and took Kendi’s hand. It was cool and dry. Kendi turned his head and gave Ben a weak smile.

“Still here,” he whispered. “Wow.”

Ben’s throat thickened. “You just
stay
here, mister. I’m not going swimming in the Dream by myself.”

“The Real People...spoke to me,” Kendi said in a halting voice. “They said...we have to repopulate the Dream and I...I have to help. So I came back...even though it was...cold. I was cold.”

“Are you cold now?” Ben asked uncertainly. “I can probably find the temperature control on the blanket and—”

“Not cold now. Tired.”

“I’ll go,” Ben said. “You sleep. And we’ll find the bastards who did this.”

He started to rise, but Kendi squeezed his hand with surprising strength. “Promise.”

“That we’ll get them?” Ben asked. “You’re damned right I—”

“No. Promise you’ll...let the police do it. Don’t...go after Sufur.”

Ben gasped. “How do you know it was Sufur? Did you see him?”

“Didn’t see anyone. I just know...how you think. Promise me.
Promise
.”

The effort was costing Kendi a great deal, and Ben couldn’t bring himself to refuse. “I promise.”

Kendi released Ben’s hand and fell instantly asleep. Ben looked down at him for a long time. “ll right. He couldn’t go after Sufur directly, but damned if he was going to sit and do nothing. He kissed Kendi’s forehead and tiptoed out of the room.

The next day, Kendi was much improved and could sit up unaided. The day after that, he was trying to climb out of bed. After three days he was complaining to anyone who would listen about how bored he was. After six days he tried to leave the hospital and was physically stopped by Gretchen and Tan, who were standing guard outside his room. After eight days, the doctor pronounced Kendi in perfect health and ready to go home. Ben guided the hoverchair to the main entrance, and Kendi all but leaped for the door. Outside, an enormous crowd of reporters were standing in the rain, held back by a line of police officers. They shouted incoherent questions when the doors opened. Kendi gave them a brief wave before Tan hustled him into the flitcar.

“Praise the Dream,” he sighed as the car door shut. Gretchen took the pilot’s chair and her takeoff was smooth. “I have to say that rainy air never smelled so good. It’s
fresh
air.”

“Three Drink Night is tomorrow,” Ben reminded him as they flew home. “Lucia’s been cooking up a storm. “re you up for a party?”

“You bet!” Kendi said with enthusiasm. “I’ve been sitting on my bum for so long it’s gotten flat.” He ran his hand up Ben’s leg. “There are lots of other things I’ve missed, too.”

“Keep it for home, please,” Tan said from the front seat.

“Tell him your surprise, Ben,” Gretchen added. “Maybe it’ll distract him.”

“Surprise?” Kendi said, curiosity piqued. “You got me a present?”

Ben gave a strange grin that conveyed both pleasure and severity. “Sort of. I found out a few things about Padric Sufur.”

Kendi’s mood shifted from ebullient to wary. “Like what?”

“With you in the hospital, I had a lot of time to hack around,” Ben said. “I finally managed to access a few of Sufur’s accounts. He’s operating under the name Patrick Sulfur—original—and he has all the utilities and network accounts you’d expect. I’m not up to hacking banks, thanks, but he pays his bills in advance and buys some pretty expensive groceries. His messages are too deeply encrypted for me to crack—yet—but I’ve been able to tell he’s communicating a lot with
somebody
. And we haven’t bugged his house.”

“Why not?” Kendi asked.

“He’s always home. Lucia scrounged up some distance listening devices and we tried to listen through the walls, but he’s insulated his house and we couldn’t hear a thing. We’re keeping an eye on the place, but it’s barely worth it because he rarely goes outside. That makes it hard to plant bugs in there. Besides, if he’s insulated the house, he’s probably also set up detectors and scramblers.”

“Okay,” Kendi said. “I’m assuming there’s more.”

“Martina and I started sniffing around the Dream, too,” Ben said. “We learned something really interesting. We would have picked it up earlier pre-Despair, but these days it takes news quite a while to get—”

“What did you
learn
?” Kendi demanded. “No babbling.”

“Sorry.” Ben took a deep breath. “We found out that Silent Acquisitions was in bankruptcy. When we freed all those Silent slaves and destroyed the Collection last year, we destroyed Silent Acquisitions. Except at the last minute they found a buyer. Guess who?”

Adrenaline thrilled through Kendi’s veins. “Sufur.”

“Sufur knew the Despair was coming because he arranged it,” Ben said. “Turns out he managed to set himself up so his own fortune would remain untouched, and he has the buying power to be a savior. He owns a majority of stock in Silent Acquisitions now.”

“All life,” Kendi said in awe.

“Now we just have to figure out why he tried to kill you,” Ben said.

“Ben,” Kendi said, “this is going to sound really strange coming from me, but—aren’t you jumping to conclusions?”

“He shows up on Bellerophon at the same time the attempts on your life begin,” Ben said. “That’s opportunity. You foiled his plan to destroy the Dream. That’s motive.”

“We haven’t seen means,” Kendi said. “Did the Vajhurs say they saw him leave the house when I was darted?”

“No, but he probably hired someone.”

“He could have,” Kendi said, “but I’m still thinking Foxglove is involved.”

“Why?” Ben said. “You’re no threat to him anymore. Grandma’s polls are at an all-time low. I know Petrie was hoping there’d be some kind of martyr effect with you being attacked and all, but it never happened. Grandma’s credibility is shot, thanks to that gangster, and Ched-Pirasku is too boring to put up a good fight. It would be stupid of Foxglove to try and kill you now. If he got caught, it would ruin his chances of winning an election he’s already got locked down.”

“I’m just saying we should keep an open mind,” Kendi said. “Sufur’s high on my list, but he isn’t the
only
one I’m looking at.”