Sliding Scales (27 page)

Although he did not know it, part of his plan was already coming to fruition—several days too soon.

* * * 

Joofik WWLONDK was proud of his thoroughness. Like any responsible, ambitious, dedicated AAnn worker, he kept the results of his downtime work to himself.

It hadn't been all that difficult, really. All that was needed was a different approach. With everyone else in his section chewing the scales off their lips as they struggled to find leads to the well-organized bands of violence-prone Vsseyan dissidents, Joofik decided, in his free time, to utilize the considerable resources available at his disposal to try to find just one potential extremist. In the frantic, expensive search for large groups of radicals it would be easy to overlook a single fanatic.

And that was exactly what he had found: one.

The first thing he did was eliminate all the vocal dissident Vsseyan philosophical groups. To Joofik, they were too obvious, their profile too high. Given the dead-slow speed (at least compared with that of the average AAnn) at which the Vssey accomplished anything, and the need to arrive at a group consensus before doing anything at all, it seemed to Joofik that the more Vssey who were involved in an enterprise, the longer it would take to get going. Whatever could be surmised about whoever had twice attacked AAnn facilities, they had worked swiftly and with dispatch. That suggested fewer Vsseyan minds at work, not more. Following that line of reasoning to its ultimate conclusion, one Vssey could theoretically move faster than any faction.

Adopting the notion of the single saboteur as his research mantra, Joofik had set about the laborious task of collating forensics. Instead of trying to work his way up to identifying possible groups, he winnowed the available information down—down until it led him to a few dozen unlikely individual suspects. A month's work of monitoring the movements of these individual natives gradually
reduced the number of possibles one by one, until he was left, at last, with only a single suspect.

As best as he could trace them, the movements of this penultimate entity on the days that both the AAnn complex at Morotuuver and the import-export service offices in Aulauwohly had been devastated by explosions were sufficient to damn the suspect creature. At the very least, an excited Joofik recognized, the indicated individual should be subjected to some serious questioning. If he was correct in his work and in his subsequent assumptions, he realized, the result could likely be swift promotion and accolade. Naturally, he told no one else. To have done so would not merely have been imprudent, it would have been un-AAnn. All the glory and reward should deservedly be his.

In order to secure his triumph he needed to present his data to someone in a position to both verify and act on it, in addition to guaranteeing its discoverer the credit he was due. Joofik could have gone directly to Keliichu, the senior administrator. But the senior administrator was responsible for far more than the hunt for the Vsseyan extremists. Below him were several secondary administrators. The most obvious of these to present with the information he had gathered was Takuuna VBXLLW, the head of the special unit that had been created to track the perpetrators of the two atrocities. Transferring all the relevant information to his personal work tablet, he locked it down and made certain nothing remained within the Administration's system for the curious to uncover.

Though not the chief administrator, Takuuna VBXLLW also seemed to be exceptionally busy of late. It took several days for the persistent Joofik to arrange a meeting. As Takuuna's work schedule was overfull, they agreed to meet not in an office but in a rejuvenation lounge at the end of the day.

When Joofik arrived at the designated meeting place, Takuuna was already there, sitting beneath a sandfall of powdered, recycled silica, a tired bureaucrat relaxing beneath the caress of glittering particles and the soothing sound of synthetic windrush tones reverberating in the background. Though large enough to hold a dozen or more AAnn, the lounge was empty save for the two of them—no doubt because it was well after duty hours. Except for the recently arrived minimal staff necessary to keep operations running smoothly during the Jastian night, the compound had been rapidly deserted by its weary diurnal occupants.

“Honorable Ssecondary Adminisstrator.” Joofik gestured effusively as he began to remove his garments. Instead of a sandfall, he chose to sit beneath a hot air blower opposite the older nye.

Takuuna eyed the junior bureaucrat with tolerant disdain. He would have called the meeting off had he not felt the need for a time-part or two of augmented repose. Though his private apartment was comfortable enough, it was neither large enough nor sufficiently well equipped to support an extravagance as expensive as a silica sandfall. So he had magnanimously agreed to meet this unknown low-ranker at a timeplace that was convenient for him, thereby accomplishing two ends simultaneously. He hissed through the wisps of falling sand. The sooner he was rid of the subordinate, the sooner he could slip into a voluntary semi-comatose state beneath the sparkling veil.

“
Nsshasst
, what iss it that you have for me that cannot be forwarded via the ussual channelss, worker Jaalit?”

“Joofik,” his anxious caller corrected him. Cloaked in the delightfully hot artificial breeze, the younger nye struggled to unlimber his tablet. “I have sspent much free time reaching the conclussions that I am about to pressent to you, honored Secondary Adminisstrator. I would not
wissh them widely disseminated until proper accreditation had been prepared.”

Takuuna replied with a gesture of third-degree tolerance. That, at least, was understandable, even if it was doubtful such precaution was required. “Get on with it,” he urged his visitor irritably.

“Truly, honored ssir”—Joofik continued to fumble with his suddenly recalcitrant tablet—“I believe that I have for you that for which you have been ssearching for ssome time now, ssir.”

Takuuna blinked away glittering particles and sat up a little straighter, so that the sandfall struck the back of his head and ran down his spine instead of cascading over his face and jaws. Despite the warmth of the silicates and the cocoon-like lounge, he felt a slight chill. “And for what have I been ssearching, youngling?”

“Why, in your capacity as head of the sspecial unit in charge of locating the native terrorisstss, you have been looking for thosse ressponssible, of coursse.” A vast hiss of pleasure escaped the junior bureaucrat's jaws. “And I have found it for you.”

“ ‘It’? Not ‘them’?” Lassitude, thoughts of lingering relaxation long forgotten, Takuuna was fully alert now. This might all be nonsense, of course—but if there was an inkling of useful information in it …

“That wass the key to my ssuccess.” Joofik's neck swelled with pride. “To sseek one who might have been overlooked in the ssearch for many. It wass the correct approach to take. I am convinced of it.”

“I ssee. And what iss it you have found that convincess you?”

“Thiss,
ssarrick.
” Joofik finally succeeded in activating the compact device he had brought with him.

In the sere atmosphere of the lounge, images coalesced in the dry, sterile air between them. Takuuna swiftly
scanned the charts and lists that Joofik had compiled. Records of movements, of personal histories. Lines that inexorably connected places, events, and individuals. All of it uniting around the figure of a single Vssey. There was a three-dimensional likeness that meant nothing to him: all Vssey looked the same. Unsettled more than he would have cared to admit by the charting's comprehensiveness, there was also an attached name his eyes skipped over: Vsseyan names were nothing but a barbaric oral diarrhea of vowels, anyway. Moving completely out from beneath the flow of heated particles, he studied the details of the charting more closely.

“You have been mosst active. Thiss ressearch would appear to be very thorough.”

“It iss,
fssasst
!” Joofik hissed with pardonable pride. “I have checked and rechecked. Tracking the evidence, the only possible conclussion a logical nye can reach iss that the indicated individual native iss not only ressponssible for the atrocitiess againsst our people, it iss
ssolely
ressponssible.”

Takuuna gestured understanding. “It sseemss asstonisshing that a ssingle persson, and a native at that, could have ssuccessfully planned and implemented both devasstating actss of aggression againsst uss.”

The junior bureaucrat enthusiastically agreed. “That iss one thing that hass worked to itss advantage. Until now. Until I began narrowing as oppossed to expanding the area of ressearch. A ssingle Vssey wass eassy to overlook.”

“Certainly a valid, and apparently a rewarding, approach to the problem we have been facing. You are to be commended, Joofik.”

“My thankss to you, Honored Adminisstrator.” The delighted subordinate saw the results of all his hard work coming to fruition.

“And you are certain thiss native hass been working
alone? It hass not, for example, received any assisstance, material or otherwisse, from a vissiting alien? A human?”

“A ssoftsskin?” Joofik gestured second-degree bewilderment. “How iss that possible, honored ssir? I have heard talk recently of a human here on Jasst, but only of one.”

“Your honesst confussion ansswerss my quesstion.” A composed Takuuna gestured at the subordinate's tablet. “You are entirely ressponssible for thiss line of ressearch, and have conducted it ssolely by yoursself?”

Joofik straightened slightly in the wash of heated air. “Truly, honored ssir, I have assked for no help and have received none! No one elsse iss aware of what I have been doing. It iss wholly mine, carried out entirely on my own time and out of view or quesstion of any of my coworkerss.”

Takuuna gestured understanding. “Naturally, having done all the work, you dessire all the credit. That iss as it sshould be. You have taken sstepss to enssure that it remainss sso?”

The junior administrator gestured with his tablet. As he did so, the images of charts and graphs that had occupied the air between them vanished. “It would be foolish to sstore the relevant information anywhere else lesst it be open to possible access by the curiouss. Think of what thiss will mean to your own divission, Ssecondary Adminisstrator! The sspecial unit that hass been created to ssearch for the Vsseyan radicalss can be dissbanded, at a conssiderable ssavings to general adminisstration and to the Imperial budget here on Jasst. Though the nowidentified perpetrator doess move around, it sshould be a ssimple matter for a few of your people to locate and capture a ssingle native.”

“I concur. In the abssence of a large consspiracy among the Vssey, the sspecial unit will no longer be needed. For
your information, there
iss
a human active here on Jasst. The factss you have jusst laid before me are more than enough to clear it of any wrongdoing.” He moved closer to the junior bureaucrat, who rose proudly at his superior's approach. “Tomorrow you musst come with me to pressent your material to the ssenior adminisstrator, who will undoubtedly resspond as eagerly as mysself to the fruitss of your demanding effortss.

“But now, it iss quite late. Your revelationss have sspurred me to act on them immediately.”

“I am only glad to have been of ssome ssmall sservice,” Joofik replied with appropriate modesty.

“Time now for both of uss to get ssome resst.” Preparatory to bidding his visitor good night, Takuuna approached and turned his head to the side. Joofik politely did the same, reaching out with his right hand, claws retracted. Takuuna responded in kind, with one small but notable exception.

He did not retract his claws.

T
he highly active AAnn had higher blood pressure than that of the average human and considerably higher than that of the average thranx. As a result, when the suddenly lunging Takuuna tore out the junior bureaucrat's throat, there was a great deal of blood. Though a stunned Joofik instinctively tried to fight back, kicking out and clawing wildly at his attacker with both hands, his initial vulnerability had already sealed the outcome of the contest. He did not die quietly, but die he did.

As the junior worker's life fluids seeped into the sterile sands that comprised the flooring of the lounge, Takuuna moved quickly to the single entranceway. No alarm had been raised, the waiting room beyond was still dim and deserted, and there was no sign that another living being anywhere within the compound was aware of the brief instant of shocking violence that had occurred in the relaxation zone. Returning to the still-bleeding body, a thoughtful Takuuna picked up the dying Joofik's personal work tablet. After carefully tucking it away among his own belongings, he pondered how best to deal with the corpse.

The in-built mechanisms with which the self-cleaning, self-sanitizing lounge was equipped would deal as efficiently with the copious amount of blood as it would with any other volume of spilled liquid. Within a few time
parts, it would once again be as dry and sanitary as when the administrator had first entered it. The physical remnants of the innocent subordinate who had been on the verge of crashing down in ruins everything Takuuna had worked to build up presented a greater problem. It was highly unlikely the administrator would be able to smuggle so sizable a burden out past the night watch, all of whom had been placed on heightened alert ever since the first of the incidents against the AAnn presence.

That meant that the body would have to remain within the administrative compound. That was not a potentially grave problem. What mattered was how, where, and under what circumstances it would eventually be found. Takuuna was confident he could find a solution to the conundrum. Setting his mind to the task, it was not long before he did so.

Hauling the body from the lounge, he placed it on a small cart used for transporting local supplies and covered it with an assortment of items taken from the lounge area that were unlikely to arouse suspicion in anyone who might happen to see them. Returning briefly, he restored the lounge itself to as natural an appearance as possible. The lounge machinery was already beginning to clean up the mess he had left behind.