The Causal Angel (Jean le Flambeur) by Hannu Rajaniemi Read Free Book Online Page A

somebody from Pixil’s zoku, aren’t you?’
    ‘Yes and no. We have sleepers in every zoku.’
    ‘But why are you doing this?’
    The shadow fidgets with its hands. ‘Because we have to protect you. We keep things stable. We keep things sane.’
    Isidore stares at him. ‘It was you , whoever you are. You caused the Spike. You interfered with what the Kaminari were doing. That’s what destroyed Jupiter. That’s what broke this poor man’s mind. And you have been covering your tracks ever since. Why would you tamper with data from Chen’s attack on Earth? Who are you?’
    ‘It doesn’t matter. Look, Isidore, if you don’t cooperate, we will have to take more drastic measures. If we can’t edit the exomemory, we’ll have to … erase it. The situation in the System is too unstable to risk the information you have falling into the wrong hands. Please, it’s just a few edits for the greater good, you won’t even notice it.’
    ‘No.’ Suddenly, Isidore is full of a righteous fury. ‘The Cryptarch deceived us long enough, with the zoku’s help, no less. We are not doing that again.’
    ‘You don’t understand.’ The shadow’s metallic voice is almost desperate. The q-gun brightens. ‘I don’t want to do this, you understand, but I have to follow the zoku volition, I don’t have a choice. I’m going to take the Key from your mind, Isidore. I’ll try to make this painless.’
    ‘Pixil said you always have a choice, that you are always free to leave.’
    The shadow sighs. ‘She is too young, not entangled enough. She’ll learn. It’s no use trying to distract me, Isidore. Your tzaddikim won’t make it here in time. We built their technology, remember? I can control what they see. And afterwards, their memories will change, too.’
    Isidore blinks. One more piece falls into place. ‘You’re one of the Elders. You’re Sagewyn.’
    The shadow explodes into a zoku trueform, a swirling mandala of foglets and jewels, with Sagewyn’s face in the middle, still wearing a lopsided, pointy-eared mask. ‘One more thing for you to forget,’ he says.
    Isidore takes the thief’s Watch from his pocket. It is cold and heavy in his hand.
    ‘Wait.’
    ‘You can’t flee into the Quiet, Isidore,’ Sagewyn says. ‘I have blocked your access to the exomemory. Just close your eyes. It will be over soon.’
    ‘It’s not my Watch,’ Isidore says, ‘although it was Justin the Watchmaker who modified it for me. We of the Oubliette are not zoku or Sobornost, but we have our own crafts. I have known for a long time that someone would come for the Cryptarch Key, so I took precautions.’ There is a knot in his belly, and his hand shakes, but he holds the blazing trueform’s gaze. ‘It has a Mach-Zehnder trigger, coupled to my brain. And a microgram of antimatter. It should be enough to take out us both. Certainly enough to burn the Key.’
    Sagewyn swirls back into the form in which Isidore first met him, a heavyset man in a blue cape with a ragged edge. His shoulders sag, and he looks tired. He smells faintly of stale sweat.
    ‘I was worried there would be something like that. I like you, Isidore. I like all of you. I wanted to give you a chance.’
    ‘We’ll stop you,’ Isidore says. ‘Whatever you are planning, it won’t work.’
    Sagewyn sighs and clasps his hands behind his back, rocking back and forth on his heels.
    ‘We already did it, thirty-five minutes ago.’
    The zoku Elder smiles wistfully. ‘I’ve always wanted to say that.’ He turns to look at the sky. ‘They’ll blame the Sobornost for it, of course. It’s all part of the game. Nothing is without purpose.’
    Sagewyn becomes a black ragged silhouette against a white light outside. The silence disappears, and the exomemory is back in Isidore’s head. Phobos arcs down towards Hellas Planitia, a sharp, sudden sunset. A chorus of panic and fear echoes through the exomemory, rushing into Isidore like a tsunami. A white pillar rises in the