Specimen Days

He thought of Marcus's titanium core, cooling by the band shell.

He decided. Go now. It would arouse suspicion if Simon didn't show after his coworker's extermination, but the odds were probably better. If he showed up for his seven o'clock, and if he was arrested, he would be counting on clemency from a council that might have been voted out. He might be breaking new laws in unguessable ways.

There was one other factor. The Nadian.

Did she know what it meant, giving false information to a drone? It was difficult to tell what the Nadians knew. They were not organized. They were not informed.

Simon watched Catareen move off with the children.

The little boy would tell his parents. That seemed certain. Even if Infinidot didn't check the park vids, determine that Catareen had lied to a drone, and immediately inform the Council, she would without question lose her job for having been someone a drone wanted to speak to. Cant entrust our children to someone who... There'd be no more work for her. Nothing better than sweeping up. They'd plant a sensor in her. He had essentially ruined her life by talking to her.

O Christ! My fit is mastering me!

Concentrate.

Simon made another decision. Not technically a decision. His wiring told him what he would do. He would try to protect the Nadian from harm, because his actions had exposed her to harm. It was built into him.

When Catareen arrived at the San Remo, she would be unreachable. Simon's options: to intercept her now, or to wait until she came to the park again tomorrow. Twenty-four hours was too long to wait.

He sprinted off toward the San Remo. If he ran the long way, around the lake, he could still get there ahead of her.

He waited for her at the park's edge, leaning against the stone wall on the far side of Central Park West.

He could not enter the lobby. He could not reasonably wait under the awning. The doorman players would tell him to move along. He kept under the tree shadows. It was fifteen minutes after seven. Would the authorities know already that he had taken flight?

Would Dangerous Encounters have alerted them? It was hard to figure. The authorities were sometimes cleverer than you expected them to be. They were sometimes surprisingly slipshod.

Catareen appeared at nineteen minutes after seven. She was still carrying the little girl, who had fallen asleep. The boy jumped around with his drone in an ecstasy of murder. Simon ran across the street. He had to reach her before she got too close to the entrance.

Twenty yards from the corner, he jumped up in front of her, startled her. She emitted a shrill squeak. Not a pretty sound. Her skin darkened. Her nostrils contracted to pinpoints.

"It's okay," he said. "It's me. The guy from the park. Remember?"

She took a moment to recover. He wondered how difficult it had been for her to refrain from dropping the girl. She said, "Yes."

The little boy gaped at Simon, paralyzed by fury.

Simon said, "I have to ask you. What did you say to the drone back there in the park?"

She hesitated. She must have been wondering if Simon was working for the authorities, if she had made a fatal mistake. Nadians lived in an endless agony of uncertainty about whom to obey. Most found it easiest to obey everyone. This sometimes got them imprisoned or executed.

"It's all right," he said. "I don't mean you any harm. Really and truly. I'm afraid you may have gotten yourself in trouble back there. Please. Tell me what you said to the drone."

She answered, "I tell it you went differently." "Why did you do that?"

Mistake. When a Nadian felt accused, it could go catatonic. One theory: they were playing dead in hope that the aggressor would lose interest. Another theory, more widely held: they decided that they were already dead and might as well make it easier for everybody by just hurrying things along.

She straightened her spine. (She had no shoulders.) She looked directly at him with her bright orange eyes.

She said, "I try to help you." "Why did you want to help me?" "You are kind man."

"I'm not a man. I'm programmed to be something that resembles kind. Do you know how much trouble you're probably in?"

She answered, "Yes."

"Do you?"

"Yes."

"I'm not so sure you do."

"I am ready to go away," she said. "I have no joy."

Then the little boy reached his limit. He screeched. He knew something was up; it probably didn't matter what. He was being neglected. His nanny was talking to a strange man. Clutching his drone, the boy ran screaming to the entrance of his building.

Simon said to Catareen, "Come with me." "Come where?"

"Just come. You're fucked here. We don't have any time."

He plucked the little girl out of her arms. Catareen was too surprised to resist. The girl awoke and howled. Simon ran with her to the building's entrance, got there a second before the boy did.

He handed the girl off to the doorman. "Here," he said. "Take care of them."