Dreamfall by Joan D. Vinge Page B

silently for some clue about what I was
doing here, until their combined gaze reached my face, registered my eyes. Then
they knew. The man shook his head. The woman’s mouth made a silent oh.
    In the space behind them I noticed five or six other people
watching, waiting—friends, or family, maybe. One of the women came forward,
touched Perrymeade’s arm, spoke to him. He nodded, distracted, and she moved
away again. She was small and dark-haired, with the same upslanting eyes as the
mother. I wondered if she was the woman’s sister, Perrymeade’s wife.
    “This is Cat,” Perrymeade said. “He’s with the xenoarchaeology
team. He was the last person to see the kidnappers last night.” I realized that
what he meant was the last human “I thought I should bring you together
to ... share what you know about what happened.”
    Sand gave me another hidden elbow; I had to move or fall
down. I took one painful step and then another into the home of the people
whose child I’d helped kidnap. I groped through my memories of last night in
Borosage’s interrogation room until I found their names. I seemed to remember
Ling and Burnell Natasa. Their son was Joby. I wondered whether Perrymeade had
forgotten to introduce them to me because he really was as worried about their
child as they were, or whether he was just being an inconsiderate shit. I
supposed it didn’t matter either way.
    “Cat—?” the woman said dubiously, the way people usually
did.
    I nodded, still not looking directly at either of them.
    They led us into a large open room that looked out on sky
and parkland. Their other visitors didn’t follow. Everything in the room was
expensive, spotless, and perfectly matched to everything else. I settled into a
modular seat with its back to the view. The sight of so much open space made me
dizzy.
    The parents sat down across from me, under a threedy screen
tuned to the endless drone of the Tau newscast. I wondered whether they
actually believed it would tell them something. The man ordered it off, and
suddenly the wall was a blank slate, white, empty. Sand and Perrymeade were
still standing at the limits of my vision, almost out of sight, but not out of
mind. I hugged my chest and waited.
    “You saw Joby and ... and Miya last night?” the father
asked.
    I made myself look into his eyes and nod.
    “Where?” he asked when that was all I did.
    “In Fre—in the Hydran town,” I said, not sure why just
saying that made my face burn.
    “You have relatives there?” the mother asked me, as if she
thought that was why I could help them, or maybe because that was the only
reason she could imagine for anyone going to Freaktown.
    “No,” I said, glancing away.
    “Yes,” Perrymeade said. “In a sense ...” as I looked up at
him, frowning.
    I looked down again, knowing that it was already obvious to
everyone here that I had Hydran blood.
    “Did you try to stop her?” the father asked. “Did you see
our son? Was he all right—?”
    Looking back at my memories, I realized the boy in her arms
could have been dead, for all I knew. But somehow I didn’t think so. “It was
dark. I saw them for less than a minute. It all happened so fast.” My hands
knotted together between my knees.
    “He helped them get away from Corporate Security,” Sand
said.
    “For God’s sake—” The father half rose from his seat.
    I glared at Sand. “She said it was her child! She said they
were trying to take her child.”
    “So you ... you believed you were helping her, then?” the
mother asked, her voice thready, her eyes intent.
    I nodded, biting the insides of my mouth.
    “Is that what Corporate Security thinks?” the father asked,
glancing from Perrymeade to Sand.
    “They questioned him thoroughly.” Sand’s unblinking silver
eyes glanced off the scabs and bruises that had made half my face look like
some kind of bizarre cosmo job. Everyone’s eyes were back on me then. Suddenly
my face hurt.
    “Joby doesn’t look