Probability Space by Nancy Kress Page A

you have brought more.”
    “Yes,” Kaufman said. Two years … Gruber’s weapons must have been either extensive or well hoarded. Or else the local warlord had only tried attacking once. “Couldn’t you just take him out?”
    “Yes. But Ann will not let me.” After a moment Gruber added, “Although you, Lyle, could do it with the ship.”
    Kaufman could. Fly over, hit Gofkit Jemloe with a proton beam … No, he could not. The village, if not the household, must be full of civilians, children. Ann was right. These people would have to work out their own means of dealing with the despots they had never had before. If there was one warlord, there would be others.
    Marbet, watching Kaufman, said to Gruber, “You didn’t want us to travel to you because of these marauders.”
    Gruber looked surprised. “No. I know Lyle can take care of himself. It was for another reason. I wanted to warn you, give you time to prepare yourself.”
    “For what?” Marbet said.
    “There is another Terran here,” Gruber said, and even through his surprise Kaufman noted that Gruber used the Worlder word for humans. “She is … Scheisse, here they come! There is no escaping the woman!”
    Another vehicle raced toward them, so fast that Kaufman barely identified it before it was on them. A skimmer, jet-powered, flying an even two feet above the terrain. A huge skimmer, heavily armored, not quite military but the closest civilian analogue that Lyle had ever seen. It jerked to a halt and the door flung open. Out stepped a woman, furious.
    Marbet made a small sound, but Kaufman didn’t even hear her. Not possible . But there was no mistaking her, not that body nor that incredible, ruined face …
    “Marbet Grant,” Magdalena said, “at last. A long way to go to track you down. So tell me, since you seem to be the only one who knows …
    “Where the hell is Amanda Capelo?”
    *   *   *
    Kaufman looked from Marbet to Magdalena, and back again. Marbet looked like nothing so much as a riled cat; if she had had fur, it would all be standing up. Magdalena repeated her outrageous question. “Ms. Grant, what have you done with Amanda Capelo?”
    “I haven’t done anything with Amanda Capelo!” Marbet spat. Kaufman had never seen her this way: agitated, unsure. “I don’t even know what you’re talking about!”
    Kaufman said swiftly, “I didn’t get a chance to tell you, Marbet. Amanda was kidnapped along with Tom. The press didn’t discover that until twenty-four hours later, and you were already sequestered aboard ship, so I…” At the look she threw him, Kaufman trailed off.
    “And you’ve had no chance to tell me since, Lyle?”
    He said nothing. Tom Capelo’s children had never greatly interested Kaufman; he didn’t much like children. During the weeks aboard the Cascade of Stars , he had genuinely forgotten about Amanda. Marbet would not have wanted to hear that.
    “I see,” she said coldly; no point in not telling Marbet something. His minute shifts of body language gave him away. Marbet turned to Magdalena. “Tell me what happened.”
    Magdalena actually seemed amused at whatever she thought was happening between Kaufman and Marbet. The presence of a Sensitive, which made nearly every other human in the galaxy at least mildly nervous, didn’t seem to affect Magdalena at all. All she said was, “The press reported that Amanda was kidnapped also, as ‘Lyle’ here tells you. But she wasn’t. I have contacts in various places who easily discovered that. However, I haven’t been able to discover where she is. She came to your apartment in Luna City, looking for you, in the company of an unidentified man. After that, she traveled to Lowell City as an illegal aboard a Life Now ship. On Mars, however, she vanished. She was looking for you, but by that date you’d already left.”
    Kaufman wondered, how much else does she know about Marbet and me? Probably everything . This was Magdalena, after all, shadowy