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“What he means to say is, don’t worry about me. I can protect my own head. It’s Mutex
I’m concerned with.” And the Cornerstone. Mostly the Cornerstone. But Mutex had
killed her friend, and for Lao Tsung’s memory—and because it coincided with her other
goals—Marla would make sure he was stopped.
“I can’t make you leave,” Dalton said. “Well, I could, but it’s not worth the effort. As
for Mutex, he’ll be caught. We might have trouble finding the Cornerstone, but once we
capture Mutex and dissolve whatever safeguards he’s created, we should be able to find
it by divination. There are lots of built-in safeguards against that, since the Cornerstone
isn’t something we want apprentices and cantrippers to find, but I know a few
techniques that should work. Once we get the big rock back…well, I can’t promise to
honor whatever agreement you had with Finch, but we can discuss things, and maybe
reach an agreement. We’ll have to investigate first, and find out what, if anything,
Mutex did with the stone, see if any damage was done, but after that, perhaps you can
make use of it, under supervised conditions, for a suitable price. It might be a while, but
I’ll be serving out the rest of Finch’s term, so I’ll be in charge for a few years.”
“Years,” Marla said. “I see. What makes you think you’ll be able to catch Mutex
anytime soon?”
“My mirror-selves are out in force, Ms. Mason. Every half hour, I get an update on their
status. On my last ping, which happened shortly after you arrived, I learned that Mutex
is only a dozen or so blocks from here, being pursued by my mirrors. They coordinated
on that ping, and now they’re closing in on him en masse. He’s just meat, and his little
poison frogs can’t do anything to help him. My mirror-selves don’t get poisoned.
They’re in meatspace, but not of it. You can knock them down, maybe, but you can’t do
any real damage to them.” He thumped his chest—a rather grotesque gesture, Marla
thought, given the greater context of heart-stealing—and said, “As long as I’m still
operational, so are they.”
“You’re bringing him here?” Marla said. “Are you sure that’s wise?”
Dalton smirked. “Don’t worry. He won’t be conscious when he arrives. And my mirrorselves
will make sure no biological contagions make it into the office.”
Was Dalton exhibiting stupid overconfidence, or merely a healthy sense of his own
capabilities? Time would tell. Probably a very short time.
Something on Dalton’s desk buzzed. He frowned, leaned forward, and tapped a key.
“Odd,” he said finally. “That was the door alarm, but it’s closed, and I don’t see anyone
on the monitors.”
“Shit,” Marla said. “Could it be someone invisible?”
Dalton rolled his eyes. “I’ve got up-to-date decryption applications running all over this
place, so unless they’re using an all-new spell, I don’t think that’s likely. I’ve got
infrared sensors, too, of course. More likely it’s just a false positive on the system. Let
me run back the video…. Nope. The door didn’t even open. See?”