Reyes hooked back around to stare. Something amusing you, pendejo?"

Gutierrez got up off the table. He straightened his clothes. Nodded, as if he' d just had something entirely reasonable explained to him. His ear, Sevgi knew, must still have been singing like a fire alarm.

Only the dialogue." His English was lightly accented, otherwise flawless. You say you got me down here indef. Okay, I' ll bite. Nicki, you want to put a leash on your dog?"

Reyes tensed, but the woman made another barely perceptible motion with her head, and he slackened off again. Gutierrez lowered himself gingerly back into his chair, wincing. He patted his pockets for the pack of gills, found them, and fit a new one into his mouth. He twisted the end till it tore open, puffed it to life. Breathed the fumes out of his mouth and up his nose. Sevgi made it for buying time. The datahawk shrugged.

So what do you want to know?"

Horkan' s Pride," said Reyes evenly.

Yeah, you mentioned it. Big spaceship, went home last year. Crashed into the sea, they say." He plumed pale smoke So what?"

So why' d you do it?"

Why' d I do what?"

The two Colony cops swapped a glance of theatrical exasperation. Reyes took a couple of steps forward, hands lifting.

Hold it," said the woman. It rang staged, patently false after the imperceptible signals the two cops had exchanged before.

Yeah, hold it," agreed Gutierrez. You' re going to tie me to some systems crash on another fucking planet? I mean, back in the day I was good. But not that good."

That' s not what we hear," growled Reyes.

So what do you hear, exactly?"

Why don' t you tell us, pendejo?"

Gutierrez cocked his head. Why don' t I tell you what you' ve just heard? What am I, telepathic now?"

Listen, fuckwit... "

Marsalis groaned, a little theatrical exasperation of his own. It was hard for Sevgi not to sympathize.

Colony were fucking it up beyond belief.

They sat it out, nonetheless. The interrogation cycled a couple more times, reasonable to third degree and back again, but spiraling downward all the way. Gutierrez drew gill fumes and strength in the soft spel s, weathered Reyes' s brutality when it came around. He didn' t give a mil imeter. They took him out limping, broken-mouthed, and bruised around one eye, nursing a sprained wrist. He gave one of the cameras a bloodied smile as he was led away. The vital signs monitors collapsed as he left the room; the ranking officer signed off formally. Fade to black.

Marsalis sighed. Happy now?"

I will be when you tel me what you think."

What do I think? I think short of professional torture with electrodes and psychotropics, Gutierrez isn' t going to tel Colony anything worth knowing. How long ago did this happen?"

Couple of days. Norton put in the arrest order the night we flew out to Istanbul."

They worked on him since?"

I don' t think so. This is all we have. I don' t think they' l go to the next level with him until they get something solid from us."

Yeah, and they' l probably still be wasting their time. Earth or Mars, the familias have too much invested in guys like this. They get in early on with the good ones, give them the same synaptic conditioning you see in covert ops biotech. Stuff where the brain' l turn to warm porridge sooner than give up proscribed information."

You think he' d really be wearing something like that?" Rovayo asked, slightly wide-eyed.

If I were running him, I' d have had it built in years ago." Marsalis yawned and stretched in his seat.

Plus, you want to remember Gutierrez is a datahawk. Those guys live for the virtual, they spend their whole lives switching off exactly the kind of physical realities torture involves. If they' re good at one thing, it' s distancing themselves from their own bodies. Back in the early days, back when the technology was fresh and the hookups were a lot more jack-and-pray than they are now, lot of ' hawks died from stupid shit like dehydration or burning to death because they missed a fire alarm. I remember Gutierrez telling me once, Hey, pain, that' s just your body letting you know what the thing you' re doing is going to cost- just got to get in there and pay the bil , soak. At that level, he' s as tough a motherfucker as you' l ever see walk into an interrogation chamber. And with the familias behind him, he' s not much scared of physical damage, either, because he knows it can be repaired."

Scared of dying, though, I guess," Sevgi said snappishly.

Yeah, and that' s part of your problem. See, Colony are a real bunch of thugs, but they can' t actually kil you, except maybe by accident. But the people Gutierrez works for, the familias- now, that' s a whole other skyline. If they think he' s talked, or even that he might talk, then they got no problem putting him away. None at all, and he knows that. So yeah, Gutierrez is scared of dying, just like anybody else. But you' ve got to be able to deliver on the threat."

They sat for a couple of moments, facing the dead LCLS screen. Sevgi looked across at Rovayo.

You mind giving us a couple of minutes?" she asked.

" No," he said, as soon as they were alone.

I' m not saying- "

I know exactly what you' re saying, and you can just fucking forget it. They' re on Mars, Ertekin. You saw the footage. You think I can scare Gutierrez any worse than that from two hundred fifty million kilometers out?"

Yes," she said steadily. I think you can."

He shook his head. Voice creased with irritation. Oh, based on what?"

Based on the fact you and Gutierrez have history. I' m a cop, Marsalis. Eleven years in, so give me some fucking credit, why don' t you. I saw the way you were when his name popped out of the n-djinn scan. I saw the way you watched him up on that screen just now." She drew a deep breath, let it go.

Gutierrez wired you to wake up midway home on Felipe Souza, didn' t he?"

Did he?" Now there was nothing in his voice at all.

Yeah, he did." Gathering certainty, the way he sat like stone. It' s too much of a coincidence, you and Merrin. The way I figure it, you did some kind of deal with Gutierrez for the lottery win, but Gutierrez didn' t like his end when it paid off. He sent you home with a little farewell kick. Fuck with your head, wake you up out there and hope you maybe go insane before recovery can get to you. That how it was?"

He rolled his head toward her on the back of the seat, looked at her, and suddenly for the first time in days she was afraid of him again.

Well, you' re the cop," he said tonelessly. You got it all worked out, what do you need me for?"

She threw herself to her feet, paced toward the screen and turned to look back at him. Told herself it was not a retreat.

What I need you for is to look at Gutierrez like you just looked at me. Look him in the eye and tell him you' l kil him if he doesn' t tell us what we need to know."

That standard operating procedure for the NYPD these days, is it?"

She was back in the field, upstate New York at dawn and the gagging stench of disinterred flesh. The speculative stare of the IA detectives.

Fuck you."

See. I can' t even scare you. And you' re right here in the room with me. How am I going to scare Gutierrez on Mars?"

You know what I' m talking about."

He sighed. Yeah, I know what you' re talking about. Talking about the mythos, right? You think that because Gutierrez was a thirteen aficionado, he bought in to this whole implacable gene-warrior bullshit that goes with it. But it' s Mars, Sevgi. It' s hundreds of millions of kilometers of empty fucking space and no way to cross it without a license. Don' t you understand what that does to all those fucking human imperatives Jacobsen goes on about? What it does to love and loyalty, and trust, and revenge? Mars isn'

t just another world, it' s another fucking life. What happens there, stays there. You come back, you leave it behind. It' s like a dream you wake up from. Gutierrez helped send me home. He isn' t going to believe in a mil ion years that I' d go back there just to kill him for what he did, let alone just to shake him down for you people."

He might believe you' d order it done. Pay for someone else to do it at the other end."

Someone who isn' t scared of the familias?"

She hesitated a beat. There are options that- "

Yeah, yeah, I know. I don' t doubt COLIN could rustle up a hit squad for me if your pal Norton makes the right cal s. But I do my own kil ing, and Gutierrez knows that. I can' t fake him out on that one. And Sevgi, you know what? Even if I thought I could do it- I won' t."

The last word grated in his mouth, like braking on gravel. Sevgi felt her expression congeal. Why not?"

Because this is bul shit. We are being led around by the dick here, and it' s got nothing to do with what may or may not have happened back on Mars. We are looking in the wrong places."

I am not going back to Arequipa."

Well then, let' s start closer to home. Like maybe looking a little harder at your pal Norton."

Quiet dripped into the room. Sevgi folded her arms and leaned against the back of a chair.

And what the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

He shrugged. Work it out for yourself. Who else knew where I was sleeping in New York the morning the skaters jumped us? Who called you the same time we were getting hijacked on the way to Arequipa?

Who dragged us all the way back here to look at a fucking four-month-drowned lead when we were just about to start getting somewhere?"

Oh," She gestured helplessly. Fuck off, Marsalis. Coyle was right, this is pure thirteen paranoia."

Is it?" Marsalis came to his feet with a jolt. He stalked toward her. Think about it, Ertekin. Your n-djinn searches have failed. They didn' t find the link between Ward and Merrin, they didn' t find Gutierrez.

Everything we' ve found since I started shaking the tree points to a cover-up, and Norton is ideally placed to pul it off. He' s fucking perfect for it."

You shut the fuck up, Marsalis." Sudden rage. You know nothing about Tom Norton. Nothing!"

I know men like him." He was in her face, body so close she seemed to feel the warmth coming off it.

They were all over the Osprey project from as young as I can remember. They dress well and they talk soft and they smile like they' re doing it for the society pages. And when the time comes, they' l order the torture and slaughter of women and children without blinking because at core they do not give a shit about anything but their own agenda. And you, you people hand control over to them every fucking time, because in the end you' re just a bunch of fucking sheep looking for an owner."

Yeah, wel ." The anger shifted, sluggish in her guts. Intuitive reflex, maybe the years with Ethan, told her how to use it, kept her voice nailed-down detached. If they ran Osprey, then I' d say you people handed over control to them pretty neatly, too."

It was like pulling a plug.

You can feel a good shot, an NYPD firearms instructor told her once, early on in training. Like you and the target and the gun and the slug are al part of this one mechanism. Shoot like that, you' l know you' ve hit the guy before you even see him go down.

Like that. The anger drained almost visibly out of Marsalis. Though he didn' t move at all, somehow he seemed to step away.

I was eleven," he said quietly.

And then he did walk away, without looking back, and closed the door and left her alone with the dead LCLS screen.

CHAPTER 35.

" S he' s not your mother," the pale-eyed uncle in the suit tells him.

Yes," he says, pointing through the chain link at Marisol. That one."

No." The uncle places himself in Carl' s line-of-sight, leaning back against the fence so that it sags, makes a springy, shivery sound as it takes his weight. There' s a careless, hard-buffet wind coming in off the sea, and the uncle pitches his voice to beat it. None of them is a mother, Carl. They just work here, looking after you. They' re just aunts."

Carl looks up at him angrily. I don' t believe you."

I know you don' t," the uncle says, and there seems to be something in his face, as if he' s not feeling very wel . But you will. This is a big day for you, Carl. Climbing that mountain was just the start of it."

Have we got to go up there again?" He tries to ask the question casual y, but there' s a tremor in his voice. The mountain was scary in a way none of the uncles' games so far has been. It wasn' t just that there were parts where you could easily fall and kill yourself, and that this time they had no ropes; it was the feeling he had that the uncles were watching him closely when it came to those parts, and that they weren' t watching to see if he was okay, that they didn' t really care if he was okay, they only wanted to know if he was scared or not. And that was even scarier because he didn' t know whether he should be scared or not, didn' t know if they' d want him to be scared or not (though he didn' t think that was likely).

And besides, now it' s getting late and while Carl' s pretty confident he can do the climb again, he doesn' t think he could do it in the dark.

The uncle forces a smile. No. Not today. But there are some other things we have to do. So you' ve got to come back inside with the others now."

On the other side of the chain link and the multiple razor-wire coils beyond, Marisol has moved across the helicopter landing apron so he can see her past the uncle' s obstructing bulk. She' s staring at him, but she doesn' t raise her hand or call out. She stood and kissed him that morning, he recalls, before the uncles came to collect him, held his head between her hands and looked into his face intently, the way she sometimes did when he' d gotten cuts and scrapes from fighting. Then, hurriedly, she let him go and turned away. She made a soft sound in her throat, reached up and fiddled with the way she' d fixed her hair, as if it were coming loose, and then of course it was coming loose because she' d fiddled with it and now she real y did have to fix it again the way she always...

He recognized the signals. But he just couldn' t see how he' d made her cry this time. He hadn' t been in a fight with any of the other kids for at least a week. He hadn' t mouthed off to an uncle for even longer.

His room was tidy, his schoolwork was gold-starred in everything except math and blade weapons, and both Uncle David and Mr. Sessions said he was improving even in those. He' d helped in the kitchen most evenings that week, and when he burned himself on the edge of a pan the day before, he' d shrugged it off with one of the control techniques they were working through in Aunt Chitra' s pain-management class, and he could see in Marisol' s eyes how proud she was of that.

So why?

He racked his brains on the way out to the mountain, but couldn' t find an answer. Marisol didn' t cry often, and she didn' t cry without reason at al , except that once, he would have been about five or six, he came home from school with a raft of questions about money, how did some people end up with more than others, did uncles get more than aunts, did you have to have it, and would you ever do something you really, real y didn' t like to get some. That time she cried out of nowhere, suddenly, still talking to him at first as the tears rushed up out of her, before she could turn away and hide them.

He knows, knew then as well, that the other mothers cried like this sometimes, for reasons no one could work out, and of course Rod Gordon' s mother had to go away in the end because she kept doing it. But he' d always been vaguely sure that Marisol wasn' t like that, that she was different, the same way he was absently proud of how dark her skin was, how her teeth glowed white in her face when she smiled, the way she sang in Spanish about the house. Marisol is something special, he knows. Discovers it, in fact, for the first time now, wisps of knowledge, taken for granted, taken on trust, coalescing suddenly into a solid chunk of understanding that sits in his chest like damage. She jumps into sudden focus in his mind.

He sees her across the chain link and razor wire, as if for the first time.

She raises her hand, slowly, as if she' s in a class and not sure whether she real y knows the answer or not. Waves to him.

I want to talk to her," he says to the uncle.