Realms of Light Read Online Free PDF Page B

wasn’t totally closed off; it
had links to the top-level corporate net, and that had links to all
the rest. All those links were heavily screened and firewalled,
though. It would take phenomenal skill and planning to work into
that bedroom com from outside the household.
    It wasn’t impossible, but it came close. That
meant the most likely explanation was that someone inside the
family compound—which meant either a member of the family or one of
their AIs—was responsible.
    The next most likely was someone on the top
level corporate net at Nakada Enterprises.
    And so on, down through all the internal
corporate nets to the intercorporate net and finally the public
net.
    That was from the point of view of
opportunity; if you considered motive, then business rivals jumped
up the scale—but the family and the corporate insiders at Nakada
stayed on it, too.
    And if you considered means—who knew? Someone
who knew a lot about the old man’s personal com habits had designed
that little booby-trap, but that didn’t mean much.
    It could be anybody.
    Anybody, Grandfather Nakada thought, except
me.
    So I was going back to Alderstadt to clean
out my office—I was moving to American City for the duration of
this case. The trip would give Nakada time to start the disks
turning to get ’Chan and my father off Epimetheus. When I got back
to American City and saw some proof that they were coming, I’d
start to work.
    There wasn’t really much to clean out. I
duped my office software, and left one copy in Alderstadt, took one
copy with me. I’d already had my gun with me. I didn’t own all that
much else, in the way of external hardware—mostly just a set of
teacups my mother had left behind when she headed out, and a couple
of changes of clothing. The furniture was rented; it stayed.
    I hadn’t made any close meatspace friends
during my stay in Alderstadt. I’d gotten to know some of the local
software, and I said hello to some of the neighbors when I saw
them. There were a few people I chatted with over tea, and around
the corner, at Steranko’s, I called Ed the bartender by his first
name, but that was about it. No one would be heartbroken if I left.
I didn’t know if I’d be back or not, so I didn’t say any
goodbyes.
    I was on my way out the door when the com
beeped. I wasn’t in that big a hurry; I turned and went back and
sat down.
    “Yeah?” I said.
    “Mis’ Hsing,” said a synthetic voice.
“There’s a problem.”
    “Yeah?” I said again.
    “Details cannot be given here, but you must
return to American City immediately.”
    “I was planning to,” I told whatever it was.
There was no visual.
    “You must go to where you spoke to the
floater.”
    “Got it,” I said, and signed off.
    If whoever it was was being that mysterious,
I didn’t want to ask any more questions. I didn’t need to, either.
It meant that someone wanted to talk to me in private. Either it
was the old man, or one of his flunkies, or else the whole
investigation had already been blown. Whoever it was didn’t want
anything important to get out on the nets.
    So it was back to the dressing room.
    And a couple of hours later, there I was at
the clothier.
    “Number Four,” I said. “I’m
superstitious.”
    The entry clerk said, “I hope you’ll find
something you like this time, Mis’.” I ignored the sarcasm,
but decided this time I’d pick up a little something—maybe a video
scarf. If I was going to keep meeting here, I wanted to keep my
hosts happy by buying a few things. I could even put them on the
expense account with a clear conscience.
    “We’ve coded Number Four just for you,” the
clerk said. “Will you be taking your floater in again?”
    I looked up, and there was the blue and
silver floater, right behind me.
    “Yeah,” I said.
    “I’ll tell the door,” the clerk said. “You
can go right in.”
    We went. The stardust still itched.
“Privacy,” I ordered when we were inside. “And kill the display,