A Blink of the Screen

been a human he might have wondered why the man had aimed the gun to scare, not kill. If he had been an animal he would have hightailed it away and never returned. But he was no longer one and not yet the other, and the brain behind the red-lit eyes entertained a mixture of emotions that he would not be able to name for at least three million years. So he waited.
    The woman opened her eyes. She had in fact been conscious for over an hour, Linsay knew. He admired the self-control.
    She sat up slowly.
    ‘Where’s this?’
    ‘You don’t sound French,’ said Linsay.
    She hesitated. If her head had been transparent, one would have been able to see the gears mesh.
    ‘I see,’ she said.
    She was small, and on the skinny side. That was an advantage for a
mover
– less weight meant more speed. She didn’t look like a mass murderer, but Linsay recalled that mass murderers never did.
    ‘Like to hear my side?’ she said.
    ‘I know it,’ said Linsay. ‘You were a security guard at Forward Base. You were on duty – why didn’t you get poisoned?’
    ‘It was in the water. He put it in the purification plant. But I only had milk and sandwiches.’
    ‘Okay. And then?’
    ‘He was off duty. That meant he was able to sneak up to the spring and tip the stuff in. A nerve poison, I think. He came down a few hours later. He didn’t expect to see me, but I’d got some extra batteries together and I snuck up behind him and I would have got him if he hadn’t turned. And then there was the chase – I expect he’s told you about that.’
    There was a snort from Valienté, who was sitting just inside the tent. Moths did Zimmerman turns around the solitary, low-wattage bulb overhead.
    Linsay sat back.
    ‘You could have jumped him.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘Moved down one world, gone to his position and jumped back behind him. Don’t they still call it that these days? It was a favourite with muggers.’
    She grinned, weakly.
    ‘You mean upducked him? The Base is on piles. You can’t rely on getting the levels right.’
    Linsay nodded. If the levels weren’t right the minimal safeties in the belt wouldn’t allow you to come out, for example, knee deep in concrete. Even a basic belt would only allow you to
move
if there was nothing at your destination. Air didn’t count – air got out of the way quick enough.
    ‘Well, now,’ he said. ‘Neat, isn’t it?’
    ‘You don’t believe all that?’ shouted Valienté. ‘I’ve been—’
    Linsay ignored him. He looked at the security card.
    ‘Says here your name is Anna Shea. How long have you been in this business?’
    ‘A year.’
    ‘Not long.’
    Shea nodded. But that was how it was. Anyone with any expertise in anything was rushed into service. Mankind was eating worlds faster than he could digest them. What he normally wanted was matches and machetes, but security guards were hot property in a civilization where nothing was secure.
    ‘Tell me about Forever France,’ said Linsay.
    She glanced from him to Valienté.
    ‘What do you think you already know?’ she demanded.
    ‘They’re fanatics. They won’t suffer anyone else to colonize a sideways France.’
    ‘He tell you that?’
    ‘Yes. But it fits. I recall five, ten years ago, there was all kinds of weird nationalism.’
    ‘Well, not now.’ She stood up, noting how Linsay’s barely perceptible movement revealed the pistol by the chair. Her pistol. She’d been told about him. He must be a madman – he could have been richer than Croesus. But he’d left it all, and hidden up here in the high meggas.
    ‘It was true in the old days,’ she said. ‘Life’s tougher now. There’s still some jockeying among politicians, though. That’s what lies behind Forever France. They’re just mercenaries. A political lever. Everyone can deplore them, but at bottom they’re useful to have around. You know what I mean? The politicians can have them say “Of course we would not dream of using violence, but unfortunately public feeling is running so high that—”, and so on.’
    Valienté laughed bitterly. ‘Yeah, sure. You’re probably right.’
    ‘Ask him about Qom 23,’ said Shea.
    ‘I don’t know anything about Qom 23 … except what I heard,’ Valienté ended, slightly lamely.
    ‘He led it,’ she went on relentlessly. ‘Twenty of them upducked a bunch of peaceful colonists. I can’t even remember why it was supposed to be important, but what they did was, they put them all in—’
    ‘Qom 23 was a