Read Fool's Run (v1.1) for Free Online Page B

hulls. But all the ghosts stayed hidden beneath the surface of the sea.
    He turned, made his way to a hatch in the earth, and disappeared underground. The cliff edge seemed to him a ridiculous place to build a nuclear shelter, but a hundred years ago there must have been more earth between the shelter and the sea. A few more rainy seasons and the remaining wedge of cliff, bomb shelter and all, would slide soggily into the sea. But for now, it suited his needs.
    A secondary shield opened to his voice, and triggered the ceiling lights. As he stepped inside, he saw the message-light flashing on his console. He took a sandwich out of the freezer, put it in the microwave, then read the messages.
    There were two reports: one from Eastcoast Sector, and one from the asteroid colonies. He took the colony message first.
    He sat silently, studying the list of recent applicants for various colony jobs. Seven had made the long journey from Earth, eighty had been refused. The reasons for refusal were theoretically private information, but in the FWG’s eyes, a citizen who demanded privacy was probably up to something. Aaron had disguised his own deep instinct for privacy with the uniform of an FWG employee. No one questioned him and he had access to endless amounts of confidential information.

    Age, physical description, work experience, family background, medical and psychological profiles: he ran through the records of eighty-seven strangers, then sat back with a sigh.
    Nothing. She wasn’t in the mining colonies, nor had she applied to go there. His sandwich had grown cold again in the microwave, but at least it was thawed. He ate it mechanically.
    Then he talked to Raymond Takuda, Sector Head of Eastcoast Patrollers.
    “Aaron, give it up,” Takuda groaned. His face was lined, hard and polished as a walnut after fifty years of patrol work. “You’ve been on that conspiracy theory for years without a nibble.”
    “I can’t give it up,” Aaron lied. “I’m still on assignment. Besides, she’s still missing.”
    “Maybe she had a sex change. Maybe she’s dead.”
    “I’ve checked hospital and morgue records all over the world.”
    Takuda grunted, looking interested in spite of himself. “No traces? That’s highly inefficient of us, to lose a private citizen.”
    “You didn’t find anything.”
    “She’s not in any Eastcoast Detention Centers, she hasn’t been arrested, she hasn’t registered to vote in Sector elections, or been hospitalized at FWG expense, or got a docking or a speeding fine, she hasn’t even got a registered vehicle or a credit account at this end of the world. Maybe she drowned or fell off a mountain.”
    “Maybe.”
    “Sometimes when you’ve torn your hair out trying to find something, you find it right under your nose—you’re just not seeing it.”
    “Is that the best you can give me?”
    “Are you obsessed?”
    Aaron paused a moment, to give the question the consideration it warranted. “Maybe,” he said slowly. “I hadn’t thought about it. It’s just—I guess I’m obsessed about how anyone could do that. Just walk out of sight. She’s the sister of a mass murderer. The question of conspiracy, given the political climate of Desert Sector at the time, is certainly valid. Even if she’s totally innocent, if she can disappear like this, so can other people. I want to know how she’s doing it.”
    The walnut-lines merged as Takuda grimaced. “You’re right. I don’t like that, either. But, Aaron, we were given that Conspiracy to Disturb, Undermine or Destroy as a blind to absolve the FWGBI of any intent to use a madwoman as a scapegoat. Everybody knows that.”
    Aaron smiled. “They will now.”
    “Ah, nobody cares anymore. Yours is the only Sector still working on it.”
    “It looks better that way. Besides—” He shrugged. “Who knows? It might be true. We still can’t find her. And I’m beginning to wonder who we’ll find with her if we do.”
    “There’s