IX

Professor Wei'To's office was the only convenient one with a long range communications module built into the deskcom. I got Uzume to let me in again and give me the password for it. This was one conversation I did not feel like conducting over a small screen or with everyone else listening in.

Viking Weapons Systems, Ltd was a Free Mars defence manufacturer. It was run by a retired army officer, Colonel Abraham Thor, who had been a guest at the Time Traveller's Ball. While we were there investigating the prince's murder, he had revealed himself to me as a member of the Cult of the Hierophants.

Time travel - and its conclusive evidence of cause and effect - had largely killed off most traditional religions in the early 25th century. Most people in the Solar System now turned to the High Church of Evolution, in its orthodox or reformist branches, for spiritual solace, but in the early days, there were people who had gone in the opposite direction and started worshiping time itself. The Cult of the Hierophants - though tiny in terms of membership - was the largest and longest lasting of the groups that had appeared.

Thor had actually taken a serious personal risk in revealing his religious affiliation to a ChronOps officer. Due to the number of times members of the Cult had been caught misusing time engines to try to experience famous time loops and paradoxes in person (though thankfully they'd never tried to create their own like the Cult of Infinity) I could have revoked his time ship license on the spot. However, I hadn't and, as Thor had produced what turned out to be a key piece of evidence for the investigation, I had mentioned him in my own report, but advised there was no need to take any action against him. But now that one of his company's products had turned up in a time and place it was not meant to be, that was no longer the case.

The Professor's deskcom was easy to use, but it still took nearly fifteen minutes of being passed around between secretaries and junior management executives - during which I enjoyed the pleasure of sitting in a dead man's office and knowing that I could be next if I didn't get back to HQ soon - before Colonel's Thor grey and grizzly, but very civilised face appeared on the screen behind his own desk.

"Detective Midgard," he said. "How good to see you. Though I'm sorry to say I had a feeling you might be calling."

"Really?" I said. If he did - somehow - know something about the murder already, Free Mars's special circumstances treaty with ChronOps was not going to protect him this time.

"You have my condolences, of course," said Colonel Thor. "This must be a difficult time."

"What?" I said. "What are you talking about?"

"The incident at ChronOps headquarters this morning," said Thor. He frowned. "You are aware of it, Detective?"

"Oh, for the love of Darwin!" I rested my forehead on my hand, fighting down the urge to put my fist through the screen.

"Detective?"

"Yes, I'm aware. I was in the middle of it," I said. "How do you know about it?"

"My brethren in ChronOps, of course," said Thor.

I sighed outloud this time, as I should have guessed. Another thing Thor had revealed to me at the ball was that there apparently members of the Hierophants inside ChronOps. If it was true, they could only be there because they'd found a way around the recruitment screening process. We did not need officers who believed time was alive and conscious and had plans of its own working to enforce the solar system's temporal travel laws.

After the ball, when I had revealed this part of Thor's disclosures to the chief, Commander Horus had discreetly, but immediately called in the head of internal security and ordered him to run a full check of all personnel. A week later, the head of internal security had come back to report he couldn't find anyone with even the slightest suggestion of secretly being a hierophant. Horus had immediately had him and his entire team confined to quarters on suspicion of being the Hierophants themselves and had called in an independent investigative team from the Tranquillity City police to run full checks on them. It had taken them less than a day to conclude the head of internal security and his team were all innocent. Horus had then detained the Tranquillity team on suspicion of being another group of hierophants, but they had complained to the Solar Union authorities, the ChronOps officers union had also complained about the internal security team being detained without charge and Horus had been forced to release all of them. We finished the exercise no closer to finding the cultists than when we started and Horus had spent the last three months yelling at anyone who so much as mentioned the cult in his presence. He was going to be delighted to learn the genuine hierophants were apparently still inside ChronOps, with impenetrable cover stories, and were passing information on our worst ever security breach to their fellow religionists.

"I'm sorry to say we don't have a clue who the perpetrators were," said Thor. "Or why they wanted your... item."

"Oh, great. Welcome the club," I said.

"You're not making progress either?" said Thor.

"I don't know. I hope so," I said. "I'm not on the investigation."

"You're not?" said Thor. "But you are... Oh, I see. Of course."

I turned my eyes to the ceiling. Even a man who'd never met Horus was agreeing with him.

"My condolences again," Thor continued. "I can imagine how you must be feeling."

"So everyone keeps telling me," I said.

"It must be hard," said Thor. "But remember, the time stream gives many gifts. But very few of them come wrapped as birthday presents."

"Thank you," I said. "But you genuinely don't know who they might have been?"

"No," said Thor. "The time stream has been peaceful recently. There had been nothing to indicate this, or anything else, was coming. But that may have just been the calm before the storm."

I raised my eyebrow slightly at this and I was glad I had my visor down. There were rumours - persistent enough that ChronOps's intelligence department had a file on them - that the Hierophants had specialised technology of their own design that somehow allowed them to view the flow of time. I was also glad my Helmcom would be auto-recording the conversation, as this was the closest we'd ever come to a cult member admitting to it.

"We're conducting our own investigation right now," said Thor. "We have brethren in places that would surprise you. Everyone who can help is pitching in. Anything we find, we will share with ChronOps. You have my word as a servant of the time stream."

"Thanks," I said. For the first time, it was possibly a good thing I'd been excluded from the investigation. I would not want to be anywhere near Horus - particularly not within grabbing distance - when the Cult of Hierophants called to offer evidence we hadn't found ourselves.

"We're happy to help," said Thor. "Though, if you weren't calling about that, I imagine this isn't a social call."

"I'm afraid not," I said.

I explained the situation and the other investigation, my investigation, as concisely as possible, laying out only the necessary details of the Professor's murder and the rifle recharger we'd found in present day Tutal Xiu, made by Thor's company.

"What was the serial number?" Thor said, reaching for his own keyboard as soon as I was finished. He was retired, but he was still a soldier. Faced with a situation, he wasted no time panicking and went straight to finding a solution.

"753951852645," I read to him off my wristcom. "We're still waiting to learn how long it was buried for."

"...2645," muttered Thor, staring at a part of his desk screen I couldn't see. "I can't check those records from here. I'm sorry, Detective. I'll have to call you back."

"Fine," I said. "Do it to my wristcom." I was not going to hang around in Wei'To's office waiting for him.

"As soon as I can," said Thor. He looked at me again. "And, incidentally... You're at the Lost Libraries Archive?"

"Yes," I said.

"Oh, splendid. I'm planning to visit it once it's finally open," said Thor. "It's a fantastic use of gifts of the time stream. My brotherhood approves. We've donated anonymously to it in the past."

"I'll tell the staff," I said, though I didn't imagine Oxbridge Luna would be keen on having the Hierophants on their donors list.

"Thank you," said Thor. "Oh, and please give my regards to Dr. Zeus. We've met once before and I really enjoyed his last series."

Thor signed off and the screen went black. I stared at my own hazy reflection in it for a long moment as, very slowly, something connected at the back of my mind.

_ _ _ _ _

"Miss Uzume!"

Megan Uzume started and turned around as I hurried back into the main room.

"Yes, Detective?" she said.

"Sorry if I startled you," I said as I reached her. "You mentioned you handle the staff's emails. Can I see them?"

"Oh. Yes, of course," said Uzume. She went to fetch her boardcom.

"I take it he didn't have anything useful to say?" said Mirabi.

"Not directly," I said. I quickly told her what we'd discussed, including the news that the hierophants were apparently trying to help. "Indirectly though, he said something interesting."

"Here you are, Detective," said Megan, handing me the boardcom.

I quickly opened the sent folder and scanned through the messages until I found one with Zeus's name. I tapped this and opened the folder of all he had sent recently. Three emails that Uzume had readdressed to his producer - a Nathan Eros on Earth - were halfway down the list. I opened the first one. It was a fairly ordinary, informal message between two men who were clearly friends as well as colleagues, in which Zeus thanked Eros for his offer to speed things up, but said that he needn't bother because it was pointless trying to get started with their new documentary until he'd persuaded Professor Bartholomew Themis from Venusian Harvard, to appear as the show's guest expert. But he'd be doing that as soon as possible. Before Uzume had sent the email on to Eros, Zeus had accidentally sent it to Professor Gertrude Vesta at Europa Imperial University.

"What is it?" said Mirabi, reading over my shoulder. "Aside from boring?"

"An inconsistency," I said. I quickly read through the other two emails. "Doctor Zeus!"

Zeus was talking to Ishtar and Chernobog, but he immediately turned around and came over.

"Yes, Detective?"

"Just one question, Doctor," I said, showing him the email folder. "I can't help noticing that you're looking for a lot of guest experts. Bartholomew Themis from Venus. Professor Samantha Ninurta from Corporate Mars. Professor Arstan Veles from Earth."

"Ah, yes," said Zeus. "My production team and I have got three very exciting new documentaries on the drawing board. We're hoping to get all three of them to help and start filming them in two months."

"Really?" I said. "I thought you weren't doing any TV work at the moment because of the Project."

Zeus paused. I saw the glimmer of uncertainty at the back of his eyes as he realised I might be onto him.

"Ah," he said. "Yes. About that..."

"And hasn't your Wells prize entry been eating all your free time?" said Mirabi.

"Yes. But I'm still..."

"What on earth do you need Ninurta and Themis for?" said Baldr. "Since when does Channel H want to do programmes on wool weaving techniques in pre-industrial Japan or early sugar refining methods? Those are the historical areas those two specialise in."

"Seriously?" said Mirabi.

"Yes, I know. They're both brilliant researchers, but dinner parties with them are torture."

"And you've done the history of alphabets before," said Ra. "That's Arstan's area of expertise."

"Yes. Well, we're thinking of doing it again," said Zeus, shifting his weight awkwardly. "In more detail."

"I see," I said. "And how did you manage to send this same message to three different people instead of to your producer? Professor Gertrude Vesta, Professor Felix Ptah and Professor Augustus Lazarus..."

"WHAT!?!"

Baldr snatched the boardcom out of my hands. Ra leapt over to examine it with him. Zeus squirmed and grit his teeth at the same time.

"You lying, underhanded, cheating, dishonest son of a Martin!" said Baldr.

"What is going on?" said Mirabi.

"Vesta, Ptah and Lazarus are the judges who will be awarding the Wells prize this year," said Ra, who was also glaring daggers at Zeus. "Professors Ninurta, Themis and Veles just happen to be their biggest academic rivals."

"They're always writing papers disparaging each other's papers," said Baldr. "Themis and Lazarus once had a fist fight at a debate on Neptune."

"Let me guess, David," said Ra, folding his arms. "Each judge "accidentally" receives an email from you to your producer, saying you're about to hire their biggest rival as an expert on your upcoming documentary, in the hope that they'll give you their vote for the Wells Prize and then casually mention afterwards how they've heard on the grapevine that you need an expert in their field for your next show. Is that what you're trying to do?"

"... More or less. Yes," said Zeus.

"Holy Darwin!" said Bernard Baal.

"You despicable son of a...!" said Baldr.

"Look, you're the one who keeps pointing out that I've presented more than I've published!" said Zeus. "And as much as I hate to admit it, you're right. But it's an elitist prejudice. Never mind that TV attracts more students into history than print does. It is going to count against me in the selection. So yes. I thought I'd see if I could give myself a small edge. And it is not technically against anything in the rule book..."

"Never mind what is technically in the rule book!"

"And you needn't have bothered," said Ra. "Three legendary early libraries that you've proved existed would have been more than enough. But now - or rather, once the judges have heard about this..."

"Whoa! Hold on, Julian."

"How much money comes does this prize come with?" said Mirabi.

_ _ _ _ _

The annoying part of this - amusing example though it was of the staff of Oxbridge Luna's high personal and professional standards - was that it hadn't brought us any closer to finding the rifle recharger. That had to take priority over everything else, including the Professor's murder, Zeus and Ishtar's cheating and my own situation. I didn't need to worry about my cloning tube if someone else was going to change the past and cause a paradox reaction that would end part of the universe.

"All right, think about it like this," said Mirabi. "It's going to be taken to the past; yes. But maybe it hasn't been taken back to the past yet. If so, where is it right now?"

"It could be nearby, you mean?" I said.

"Unless there's another group of mad scientists' backstepping to ancient Mexico, it must be," said Mirabi, tapping on her wristcom. "So let's try what we tried earlier."

She held out her wristcom where I could see it. Colonel Thor hadn't gotten back to us about who the rifle recharger had been sold to yet, but he had taken the time to send us the full specifications and schematic of his company's VAX-217 infantry personal weapon system recharger. I'd made a mental note to find out later how he knew both of our personal hypermail addresses. Mirabi tapped the part of the blueprint that listed the recharger's components.

"Another elements scan?" I said.

"AG. There's more than enough rare silicates and polymers in here," said Mirabi. "The university's systems won't have them. They don't need to be used on a battlefield. If it's here, this'll find it."

"That's the problem. It is here," I said, pointing to the rifle recharger - the one Hades had dug up in the ruins of Tutal Xiu - sitting on the table next to us. The system was probably not designed to tell it apart from its past - or technically present - version.

"Don't worry. I'm accounting for it," said Mirabi, typing.

I nodded and let her get on with it, but there was another problem. Even if we did find the rifle recharger here in the present, I wasn't at all sure what we going to do with it. We couldn't stop it from going to the past, and in fact, we might even have to make sure it did. Otherwise Hades wouldn't dig it up, we wouldn't learn about it in the first place and look for it here in the present, and half the moon would probably be turned to atomic dust by the paradox reaction. We were orbiting close enough to Earth that the planet would be affected too.

I broke out of my thoughts as Mirabi suddenly stopped. "What the hax..."

"What's wrong?" I said.

"I can't set do an elements scan," said Mirabi. "Because it's already doing one. Someone else is searching for..."

The details of the element scan the environmental system was running popped up on her wristcom screen. Mirabi and I recognised the elements it was searching for instantly. They were same ones I'd last seen on the screen of Isabel Chernobog's palmcom.

"J.I. girl," said Mirabi.

We both looked up and scanned the room. Chernobog had once again managed to slip out of the room while our attention was elsewhere.

"Dax it!" I said. I started to move, but Mirabi stopped me.

"It's my turn," she said. "Give me one minute."

She strode out of the room, through the door towards the doctors' offices. Whatever her future bosses on Io were ordering, Chernobog was going to tell us exactly what this prototype she was looking for was this time. I was not going to have my investigation disrupted any further.

On that note, I glanced over my shoulder to check if Zeus and Baldr had properly calmed down. Both men were still glaring at each other, but it didn't look as if they'd be coming to blows any time soon. Baldr was doubtlessly composing his letter to the Wells Prize judges and Zeus was probably planning to call his lawyer.

"They're not usually like this, Detective," said Megan Uzume, who'd come up quietly beside me. "It's just... Well. It's the Wells Prize."

"The big rewards always bring out people's ugly sides. I know," I said.

"Of course. You're a police officer," said Uzume, looking quickly down at the floor. "And... Detective? I'm sorry. Again. And about earlier. I didn't mean to upset you."

She turned and quickly hurried away towards Baal and Ishtar without looking back, before I could tell her - again - that she hadn't.

_ _ _ _ _

Mirabi returned, with Chernobog in an elbow lock, just under a minute later.

"Welcome back," I said. "I warned you about this, Miss Chernobog"

"Would you let go of me?" said Chernobog. She tried to twist out of Mirabi's grip and failed. It was nice to know that she still had things to learn in terms of unarmed combat. "The situation's the same as it was earlier, Detective. You're not the only person here with a job to do."

"Ah, yes. This mysterious stolen J.I. prototype," said Mirabi. "What made you think it might be in Dr. Baldr's office?"

"What?" said Baldr, turning around. "What in Darwin's name do you think you're playing at, Isabel? We have privacy rules here..."

"That's exactly what I wanted to ask you," said Chernobog. She pulled out her palmcom and thrust it at me. "The elements scan led me there.