Vacuum Flowers by Michael Swanwick

Rebel could not see. “You’ve been careless. You should have realized there are few enough groups of dyson worlders in the Kluster that they all would be watched. If we hadn’t reached you first, you’d be dead now.”
    The scene shifted, and she was looking down on Fanchurch Prospekt. From above, the jostling zombies blended together like a sluggish flow of mud. Bright circles appeared around three faces, and she saw that they were moving through the crowd in formation, searching among the faces for something. One by one, the image zoomed up on them: A heavy woman with fanatically set face and a black slash across her left eye. An unblinking sylph of a girl with a black slash across her left eye. And then a third with that same paint, a red-haired man with a face like a fox.
    Jerzy Heisen.
    â€œYou know him?” the man asked. The assassins passed by the doors of the bank Rebel was in. Each carried a cherry-red cryogenic storage device in one hand. “Why did you start like that if you didn’t know him?”
    â€œHe used to work with Snow.”
    â€œAh.” The man made a small gesture, cocked his head. “Interesting.” The crowd scene faded. “Of course. He’s clever, he’s serving time, and he’s actually met you. Of course he’d be one of your assassins.” Again he paused. “No matter. We have generated a chart of those places in the System you can flee to, and with them the probabilities of your being assassinated by Deutsche Nakasone within a Greenwich month of arrival. I suggest you study it carefully.”
    The chart scrolled up.
Location
P ROBABILITY OF A SSASSINATION (+/- 1 PERCENT )

E ROS K LUSTER
97%
P ALLAS K LUSTER
95%
O THER K LUSTERS ( WITHIN BELTS )
91% (range 88–93%)
T ROJAN K LUSTERS
90%
L UNAR H OLDINGS
90%
M ERCURY S CIENCE P RESERVES
90%
N EPTUNE /P LUTO S CIENCE P RESERVE
90%
J OVIAN S YSTEM:
70%
N ONGALILEAN S ATELLITES
89%
G ANYMEDE ( P ORTED C ITIES)
65%
( W ILDERNESS)
44%
C ALLISTO ( P ORTED C ITIES)
65%
( W ILDERNESS)
41%
I O , E UROPA , A MALTHEA , J UPITER O RBITAL
65% (range 63–68%)
M ARS O RBITAL , D EIMOS
63%
M ARS S URFACE
59%
S ATURNIAN S YSTEM :
58%
L ESSER S ATELLITES
75% (range 74–75%)
R INGS , S ATURN O RBITAL
72%
T ITAN ( P ORTED C ITIES)
30%
( W ILDERNESS)
23%
E ARTH O RBITAL
17%
E ARTH S URFACE
0%

    â€œVery cute,” Rebel said. The list brought back some of the spirit the last half hour had kicked out of her. “I especially like that last bit. I guess I should hop the first transit to Earth, huh? Or maybe I should just walk out an airlock without a suit. Then I could swim there.”
    Her sarcasm had no visible effect. “We won’t advise you what to do. We only reassure you that within the limits of game theory this chart is reliable.” The man knelt, raising his hood. The chart faded and the pierrette reappeared at Rebel’s side.
    â€œOne more thing. You have a new friend. The tetrad.”
    â€œYes?”
    â€œDon’t trust him.”
    The leash was waiting for her. Wyeth and Ginneh still had their heads together in conference, apparently oblivious to her absence this past hour. The same views of weapons platforms and of the Comprise assembling machinery hung in the air beyond the desk. The crescent fraction of the transit ring was a shade longer than it had been. Rebel sighed and slipped the leash back on her wrists.
    There was no place she could go that was not dangerous, and no one she dared trust. She had to play hunches. And so far the only testimonial for any direction of action was that Snow’s whatever-he-was distrusted Wyeth.
    â€œWell,” Ginneh said. “Will you take the position?”
    Wyeth glanced over his shoulder at Rebel, and for a flicker she thought he looked surprised to see her. Then she was not sure. “Ginneh, you knew I’d take it when you first brought it up. Let’s not kid each other.”
    Ginneh’s