Time's Chariot Read Online Free Page B

doorway.
She shot Rico a curious glance before addressing
the other two.
    'Acting Commissioner, Secretary, I thought you
should know the autopsy report is in.'
    'And?' Orendal said quickly.
    'Commissioner Li Daiho died of an aneurysm,
ma'am. An artery in his head must have burst and
killed him immediately. He was probably dead
when he fell off the balcony.'
    'It was definitely him?' Orendal gave the impression
of a woman desperately clinging onto
hope.
    'The body was smashed badly but we got residual
brain patterns. It was him.'
    Orendal's shoulders sagged. 'The poor man.'
    'It could have happened at any time,' said
Asaldra, nodding wisely.
    'So why didn't the agravs stop his body falling?'
Rico said to the Security Op. 'Someone would have
to turn them off.'
    'The agravs haven't been touched since their last
routine maintenance . . . who are you?' the Op said.
    'Someone who shouldn't be here,' Asaldra said.
'Kindly see that this man is escorted off the
premises. Now.'
    'You're Su! Su Zo!' Orendal exclaimed suddenly.
She was looking past Rico and Su, who had been
trying to lurk in the background, reluctantly came
forward.
    'Marje?' she said.
    'You know this woman, Commissioner?' Asaldra
sounded somewhere between disapproving and
disappointed.
    'We did our basic induction together,' Marje
said. 'How are you, Su?'
    'I'm doing OK,' Su said.
    'You went into Fieldwork, I heard?'
    Su nodded. 'Senior Field Op. I heard about your
promotion, Marje, I'd say congratulations, but . . .'
    'I know.' Orendal pursed her lips but managed a
smile. 'Thank you.'
    'I'll take my partner and leave, if that's all right
with you?' Su said. She plucked at Rico's sleeve and
didn't let go.
    Orendal's smile grew slightly less forced. 'It
might be wise. I'll see you around, Su.'
    'That went well,' Su said as they stepped into the
courtyard. It was the first time she had trusted
herself to speak since taking their leave of Orendal
and Asaldra.
    Rico grunted.
    'It's not often you get the chance to be rude to
one of the most senior people in the organization
that employs you,' Su went on.
    'She was Acting and I wasn't rude to her.'
    'Her friend seemed to think you were.'
    'Yeah, well, her friend was another matter.' Rico
thought back to those pale eyes, the hostile tone,
and decided he could live with the knowledge that
he had made an enemy. 'Pair of tossers anyway. Wait
here.'
    'Now what are you—' Su said, but Rico had
already scooped up two handfuls of pebbles from
the gravel that surrounded the fountain. He walked
back to the balcony and the drop down the
mountainside, held out his left hand and opened
his fingers. The pebbles fell three inches, then
stopped in mid-air, spinning gently. They floated
back over the stone parapet and fell at Rico's feet.
    'Yup, the agravs work all right,' Rico said. Then
without warning he drew back his right hand and
flung the other handful as far as he could into the
abyss. The pebbles flew out in a scattered arc and
plunged into the depths below. Rico followed them
with his eyes, leaning out over the stonework as far
as he could.
    'Aha,' he said.
    'Just what are you doing, Garron?' Su
demanded.
    'Just testing a theory.'
    'And?'
    'It works but it doesn't make sense. Come on.'
They walked back across the courtyard to the recall
area, and thirty seconds later were back in the
Home Time.
    The time display set into the wall of the spherical
transference chamber showed it was 15 minutes
after they had left – precisely the time they had
spent in Commissioner Daiho's apartment. The
apartment had a constant and timed stream of
transmit and recall fields going under the control
of the Register, the artificial mind that governed
transference, and this was the Register's arbitrary
way of handling the flow of cause and effect. It
could have bought them back a second after they
had left, but the rules were that however long you
spent upstream, that was how long elapsed before
you were back in the Home Time. One of the tenets
of