GR: Assisting in investigations? A few years.
AS: You go to school for that? How does a person get into that line of work?
GR: Fair question. I was spinning my wheels, if we’re being honest here. I had a job in hotel security. It was fine. I just stood around a hotel lobby, staring at people. But then, well, I saw an opportunity. Something came up that really interested me, in a way I’d never been interested in anything. I spent five years in training, studying linguistics and psychology and history.
AS: I understand the history part, but why psychology and linguistics?
GR: Well, linguistics because people speak differently, at different points in history, and if you’re dealing with old music that has a spoken-word element, it’s helpful.
AS: Makes sense. And psychology?
GR: Personal interest. It wasn’t relevant. It wasn’t relevant at all. I don’t know why I mentioned it.
AS: Methinks the lady doth protest too much.
GR: Wait, did you just call me a lady?
AS: That was Shakespeare, son. Come on, now. Didn’t you go to school?
11
“Smooth,” Zoey said, when she reviewed the recording. “Real sophisticate there.”
Ephrem, who was sitting with us in her office, suppressed a smile.
“I know,” I said. “Sorry.”
“No, look,” my sister said, “we didn’t cover Shakespeare in your training.”
“Zoey,” I said, “Ephrem, what would happen, just theoretically, if I messed up?”
“Don’t mess up.” Ephrem glanced at his device. “I’m sorry,” he said, “I have a meeting with my boss, but I’ll see you in my office in an hour.” He left us then, and I was alone with my sister.
“What were your impressions of the violinist?” Zoey asked.
“He was in his eighties,” I said, “maybe even nineties. He had a slow way of talking, like his accent kind of dragged everything out. He’d done that thing to his eyes, that color-change thing? His eyes were this strange shade of purple. Violet, I guess.”
“Probably all the rage in his youth.”
She looked back at the transcript, rereading something. I rose and went to the window. It was night, and the dome had gone clear. Earth was rising on the horizon, a vision in green and blue.
“Zoey,” I said, “can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
I turned back to her, and she looked up from the transcript.
“Do you remember Talia Anderson from the Night City?” I asked.
“No. No, I don’t think so.”
“She was in my grade for a while in elementary school. Her family lived in the Olive Llewellyn house, and then I ran into her again when she hired me for that hotel security job.”
“Wait,” Zoey said, “are we talking about Natalia Anderson at the Grand Luna Hotel?”
“Yes.”
Zoey nodded. “She was on the list of people we interviewed when you were being cleared for this position.”
“How do you remember a name on a list from five years ago?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I just do.”
“I wish I had your brain. Anyway. She kind of warned me off coming here, to be honest.”
“So did I,” Zoey said.
“I guess her parents worked here,” I said, ignoring this. “A long time ago. She said her dad was indiscreet.”
Zoey was watching me closely. “What did she say?”
“She said, The traveler’s presence itself is a disruption—”
“Those exact words?”
“I think so. Why?”
“That’s from a classified training manual that went out of circulation ten years ago. I wonder if she’s telling anyone else about it. What else did she say?”
“She said that when the Institute was done with me, it would throw me away.”
Zoey looked away. “It’s not always the easiest place to work,” she said. “Staff turnover is high. You’ll remember that I tried to dissuade you.”
“You were afraid I’d get thrown away?”
She was quiet for so long that I thought she wasn’t going to answer. When she spoke again, she wouldn’t look at me, and her voice was strained. “I was close with someone, a long time ago, another traveler who was investigating something else. She messed up.”
“What happened to her?”
Her hand drifted to the necklace she always wore. It was a simple gold chain, and I’d never really noticed it before, but from the way she touched it, I understood that the lost traveler had given it to her.