"The wind must have covered them over," said Solly.
They were quite clear here, his large prints, her small; and they were simply missing there. They turned on their lamps. Incredibly, it was as if the two of them, earlier in the evening, had simply materialized out of the air. Materialized with his left footprint, her right, behind which there was only virgin snow.
She looked behind them, playing her light against the trees and along the trail. Nothing moved. "Yes,"
she said. "Must have been the wind."
They hurried forward, expecting the tracks to show up again momentarily. The lamp beams bobbed in front of them. Neither spoke now, and Solly picked up Kim's habit of looking behind at regular intervals.
"I remember this oak," she said. "We came right past here. I know we did." But the snow was deep and apparently undisturbed.
Eventually the path divided and they hesitated.
"Which way?" she asked.
"The lake's on the left," whispered Solly. "Stay close to the lake." Solly seemed unsettled and that positively terrified her.
They got lost, as was inevitable under the circumstances. At one point Kim caught her jacket on a dog- rose bush and tore it.
They broke finally into the glade with the tumbled shed and the footprints began again. She should have been glad to see them, but they were simply there, appearing in the middle of the glade, nothing on this side of them except unbroken snow, as if their earlier selves had stepped off the world. The sight chilled her.
"Keep going," said Solly.
That part of the mind which withdraws from fear and watches emotional eruptions with dispatch now suggested she was in a VR scenario, that what she was experiencing could not happen in the real world.
Or that Sheyel had been right.
They came out of the tree line and saw the lake and the flyer. Kim fought down an urge to run for it. They walked deliberately across the beach, moving with comic swiftness.
Behind them, the forest remained dark and quiet. Far off to the east, a string of lights moved against the sky. The train from Terminal Island bound for Eagle Point. Solly keyed the remote and the flyer's lights came on. The hatch opened and the ladder dropped.
Out on the water something glimmered. A reflection. A lamp. Something.
Kim paused long enough to make sure the backseat was empty, and climbed in. Solly followed her and shut the hatch. Ordinarily her first thought would have been to get out of her wet shoes and socks. Instead she sat still while Solly inserted the key card into the dex and punched the GO button.
"Solomon," the AI said. "What is our destination?"
"Up," Solly said. "Up."
5
Those who rise to the top of organizations, who live to direct others, to wield power, are inevitably afflicted by weak egos, by a need to prove themselves. This explains why they are so easily frightened and so easily manipulated. And why they are so dangerous.
-SHEYEL TOLLIVER,.
Notebooks, 482 "You really weren't rattled?"
Solly's eyes closed and he shook his head sadly, as in the presence of unlimited ignorance. "No, I really wasn't rattled. I was cold."
They were seated over coffee, salad, and fresh fruit in the hotel restaurant, Dean's Top of the World. The mountains were crisp and clear in the morning sun, and the skyways were already crowded with vacationers. A train had just rounded Mount White and was gliding in over the treetops.
"Okay," she said. "Me too."
In the daylight, it was hard to believe she'd been so fearful. She'd learned something about herself that she didn't know, didn't want to know: She was a coward.
"It was odd about the tracks, though," he said.
"Yes, it was."
He frowned and waved it away. "Where are you going to hang the Kane print?"
"I don't know. It's a little somber for my tastes."
"Then why didn't you get something else?"
"I should have," she agreed.
They took almost an hour to finish eating. Kim's thoughts wandered while they admired the mountains and gorges visible through the window. She felt relieved to be rid of her obligation to Sheyel. We went out and inspected the woods, she would tell him with a clear conscience, and nothing untoward happened.
Absolutely nothing. He'd be disappointed, of course. But maybe a dose of reality was what he needed.
Solly was saying how he'd never learned to ski and was asking whether she knew her way around a pair of poles. She didn't, and was surprised when he suggested they should come back when their schedules permitted and learn. "There's a school out on the slopes where they give lessons," he added.
She thought she was too old to pick up skiing. But-"I'd be willing to try if you are."
He rewarded her with a smile.
Back at the hotel room, Solly packed while Kim decided to get the call over with. She punched in Sheyel's code and sat down on the sofa. The AI answered, asked who she was, and put her through immediately.
"Kim." He sounded pleased to hear her voice. "It's good to hear from you so quickly." He left it on audio only.
"I'm at Eagle Point," she said.
"You're going into the valley?" he asked.
"I was there last night."
"Wonderful. Oh, by the way, please forgive me. No picture; I'm not dressed."
"It's okay, Sheyel."
"Did you see anything?"
"Like what?"
"Anything. Anything unusual."
Suddenly she couldn't bring herself to lie to him. "I'm not sure," she said, throwing her planned response overboard. She described the missing footprints. And she almost told him about the moving shadows she'd seen behind Sclly, but that sounded downright paranoid so she let it go.
"Yes," he said. "That is precisely the sort of thing that seems to happen regularly out there. Or used to, when there were people in the area." He recommended a couple of books on the subject and finished by asking if she was still convinced there was nothing strange going on.
"I think the wind did it, Sheyel."
"You really think that's possible? Well, never mind. What are you going to do next?"
"What's to do?" She listened for his answer, but only heard the silence draw out. "Maybe you can do something for me."
"If I can."
"Do you think you could find out Yoshi's shoe size?"
She listened to him thinking about it. "Not easily," he said at last. "She's been gone a long time. I doubt any of her shoes were kept."
"Was she a clone?"
"Yes. Oh yes, I see what you mean. Of course."
"When you find out, leave the information with Shep."
"Very good. I'll do it today." Solly came back into the room, ready to go. "May I ask why?"
"I'll tell you if it amounts to anything."
Kim couldn't resist suggesting they fly back over the Severin valley. Solly complied and they followed the river south again, this time in broad daylight. It was a bright, cloudless morning, already unseasonably warm. They watched a train come out of the Culbertson Tunnel, southwest of the city. At twenty-six kilometers, the Culbertson was the longest mag-lev tunnel in the world.
They stayed low so they could observe the countryside, gliding over canyons and through rifts. The previous night's snow had coated everything. Just before passing the dam, they saw a pair of deer strolling casually through a glade. At Kim's insistence, Solly took the Starlight around, but they were gone.
They came down low over the lake. Just offshore from Cabry's Beach, they saw a raft, left from the days when Severin was alive with swimmers. It was. bobbing gently, as if waiting for someone to return.
They zeroed in on Tripley's villa and spent several minutes inspecting it from the air. It looked even more bleak by day.
The surrounding area was lonely and beautiful, adorned with its fresh coat of snow, its spruce and oak trees, its towering peaks. The surface of Lake Remorse gleamed in the sun. The skeletal houses provided a grotesque mixture of transience and majesty. Kim wondered what it was about desolation that inevitably seemed so compelling.
"Seen enough?" asked Solly, for whom flying in circles held no charms.
She nodded and he directed the AI to take them back to Seabright.
They rode in silence for the first several minutes. Then Solly reached behind him for the coffee, poured two cups, and handed her one. "How did we get the spot with the Star Queen?" he asked.
Her mind was picking again at the missing footprints, trying to construct an explanation, anything that was possible. Channeled wind. Local hoaxers. Solly's question consequently didn't immediately register and she had to replay it. "Matt has friends everywhere," she said. "There'll be a lot of VIPs on hand, and he thought it would be a good PR spot for us." The old liner was being converted into a hotel. The grand opening was Saturday.
"Have you reconsidered my suggestion?"
Lake Remorse drifted off the scopes. "What suggestion is that?"
"Talk to Benton Tripley. Since you're going to Sky Harbor anyhow, it should be no trouble. And he might be able to tell you something about his father and about the Hunter."
"You think he'd consent to talk to me?"
"Sure. Why not? He has a reputation for being pretty open to people."
"Yeah," she said. "What's to lose? I'd have to leave a day early, but I'll try it." She looked up the number for Interstellar executive offices and punched it into the commlink.
A male voice answered: "Interstellar. General Administration."
"Hello," she said. "My name's Dr. Kim Brandywine. I'm with the Seabright Institute. I'm going to be at Sky Harbor next Friday. Would it be possible to speak with Mr. Tripley? If he has some free time."
Solly rolled his eyes.
"And what would that concern, Dr. Brandywine?"
"I'd like to talk with him about the Mount Hope incident."
"I see. And you say Friday?"
"Yes."
After a pause: "I'm sorry. That really won't be possible. His schedule is booked for quite a while in advance. I can pencil you in for August eleventh."
"August?"
"Yes. That's really the best I can do."
"Let it go." She disconnected, turned and glared at Solly. "What?"
He shrugged.
"No," she continued. "You have something to say, say it."
"Kim, he is a CEO. You have to do better than suggest that maybe if he's free, you'd like to see him. If possible."
"What would you suggest?"
"Be a little less tentative. And have a better story than Mount Hope. You're writing a book and you need his input."
She pointed at the link. "Talk's cheap. You want to try your luck? See if you can get me in?"
"It's too late," he said. "You've blown it. You're going to have to take another tack."
She looked at him, waiting.
"Give him an award," Solly said.
"What?"