Темное, кривое зеркало. Том 3 : След на песке - [38]

It was Lethke, former head of the Brakiri Trading Guild here on Kazomi 7, and now Minister for the Economy.

"Delenn," he said, his flawless politeness the result of both years of diplomatic experience and a genuine liking for Delenn, "we have received the documentation from Ha'Cormar'ah G'Kar of which you wished to be kept informed. It contains the details of the Babylon Four station he has built, as well as certain…. confidential matters to be shown only to you."

She sighed softly. "Of course, Lethke. Thank you for informing me. I will be with you in a moment." A tremor passed through her, a memory of the past, and the not-too-distant future.

She looked at Taan Churok, and then at Valen, and sighed softly as she left the presence of the most beautiful spirit she had ever known, to dwell on what his — and her — future might be.

* * *

Catherine was in a strange mood for the rest of the day, not altogether surprisingly. Her ambiguous meeting had raised more questions than it had answered concerning the G'Kar mystery, and the fact that she had been ordered to forget all about this only puzzled her the more. The order to prepare the report which had led to her discovery of the G'Kar Files had come from Zento's own office.

An hour or so after her return from the 'meeting' two men she did not recognise but with appropriate IDs had taken all her copies of her unfinished report. She had spent the rest of the day in a fugue, working idly at various sundry items she had neglected during the investigation of the G'Kar problem.

For the first time in months she had left work on time. She made her way home, her mind still engulfed by the events of the day. Nothing about this made any sense. Nothing.

The hovertransports were busier than she remembered, and being surrounded by the chatter and bustle only deepened her dark mood. Far too many of the conversations were about war. With the Minbari crushed, where now? Some people seemed to think the Narns, or perhaps the Centauri. Maybe even a few of the Non-Aligned Worlds. The economy was on an upswing at last and a continuing war was thought to be the means to keep it that way.

She arrived home almost without realising it, her feet taking her to the door of her apartment on autopilot. As she stepped inside, she heard the sound of the news reports from the vidscreen and realised Dan must be home.

Sure enough he was, lounging in front of the vidscreen. Catherine caught a snatch of the report — "…. for a quick summary of the news today. Rumours from the Resistance Government suggest that President Clark may be considering relaxing some of the Wartime Emergency Measures which have been in force for the past thirteen years. Foremost among the initiatives are believed to be reductions in rationing, and the repeal of certain interstellar travel restrictions.

"Also, the new Warlock class vessel the Marten has been officially launched today. Captain Walker Smith commented only — 'It's a fine ship, with a fine crew. We're going to do well.'

"And finally, the memorial service for former President Marie Crane was held today. She was President of the Resistance Government for eight years, retiring due to ill-health last January. She never recovered from the multiple ailments attributed to the stress of her time in office. President Clark praised her sacrifice and promised to continue in her memory…."

Dan suddenly noticed Catherine's arrival and switched off the screen. "Hi," he said, looking puzzled. "You're early. Cracked that big mystery you were on about?"

Catherine sighed. "That's…. one way to put it." She sank down on to the chair next to him and let him wrap his arm around her. "It's been a…. weird day."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Ah…. maybe when I've got it sorted out in my head. How's your research going?"

He grimaced. Dan Randall had once been an investigative journalist. Quite a famous one, too. But after a particularly…. unpleasant report had aired about the way human miners were being treated on the Narn-run colony of Vega 7, the furious Kha'Ri had been on the verge of having him executed. In an effort to stave off an incident, ISN had fired him. He now worked as a freelance researcher for various companies, currently compiling statistics for the Department of Public Information.

"Ah, you caught me," he confessed, a guilty smile on his face. "I've been lounging around watching the sports all day." Catherine sighed, and shook her head. The first football tournament since the beginning of the war was being aired, and some of the teams were discovering certain…. intriguing possibilities with the Proxima gravity.

"Comes of not having you around to bully me into working."

"I'll bet," she smiled.

"How's about I make you some re-caff and you can persuade me to get some work done."

"That would be perfect."

As he went to the kitchen, Catherine found her mind coming back again to the mystery surrounding her. She had not spoken to Dan about it before — and her gentle questions by way of research had been carefully chosen to elicit as few suspicions as possible. Of course Dan was always suspicious, but Catherine had tried to make her questions seem routine. Sharing classified IPX information with unauthorised personnel would lead to major trouble, but it was getting to the stage where her curiosity was outweighing her good sense.