"At my expense."

"Anyway I can, son, anyway I can."

"Oh, poor Jordan. Poor Jordan. I never thought you were a sympathy sponge. But that"s what you want. You want me to feel so sorry for you I"ll ask you what I can do to help you out. Well, h.e.l.l!"

"You could ask Florian in for a drink."

"Somehow I don"t think he will. He"s here to protect us both. And there will be guards. I"ll be real d.a.m.ned surprised if there aren"t guards d.o.g.g.i.ng you down the halls, after this. So that"s what you won with this stupid stunt."

"What stunt? The card? Did I pull the bandage off Reseune"s old sores"? Maybe they deserve airing."

"Twenty years ago! Normal people don"t carry on a feud with a dead woman for twenty years, normal people don"t blame her daughter, normal people don"t try to get their own sons arrested for a d.a.m.n joke!"

"You live with her. You never leave her."

"She"s just a nice kid. You don"t give her a chance. No, you"ve got to play politics, and dead politics, at that. What have the Paxers got, since the War ended? Their war stopped, we"ve got the peace they wanted, and they"re still running around in back halls pa.s.sing cryptic notes to each other and pasting up posters, what time they"re not blowing up children. The Centrists, h.e.l.l, the law won"t let them mess up this planet" Air went rarified. He didn"t do real-time work, but a woman had died tonight while she was talking to him, and he and Jordan were going to be closely guarded for the rest of their natural lives. So what the h.e.l.l did it matter if Jordan got a year"s jump on what was going to go public anyhow? "You want the truth, Dad? I"m going to breach security right now and give you a name. Eversnow."

"Actually no surprise. I know about your little secret."

"Knew about it when you gave me that d.a.m.ned card?"

"I don"t think I want to tell you. Let ReseuneSec figure what to do about it."

"Patil was your source."

Jordan shrugged. "Or not."

"So you know about it. All right. And certain Centrists know, but that doesn"t make them happy, because they"d have to go off in the deep dark and actually build their new Earth, which means no nice, warm offices and no influence in Novgorod, doesn"t it, so some of them aren"t as happy as they could be."

"That could be true."

"And then there"s the Abolitionists, oh, ask Grant about them. They know what"s moral for everybody but them. The world is going along pretty much on course, and the War"s over, so it"s unemployment for radical types & everybody"s too comfortable. They"re sending Patil out to handle Eversnow, and now somebody"s killed her. You know, but you don"t want to say how you know, and that doesn"t look d.a.m.n good, Jordan, it doesn"t. You had your little fling with the Paxer element, which d.a.m.n near got Grant killed & So what in h.e.l.l are you involved in this time?"

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing."

"Dad. Talk to me."

"So how do you know?"

"You can figure how I heard about it. From Ari."

"From the little dear. Who keeps you from unemployment until the bills come due and your pretty, safe world blows up in your face. You know what your precious Ari is, son of mine? The same as the first one a d.a.m.n self-contained genius with the power to run mindsets on the whole human species. You get all bothered about terraforming a planet we weren"t born to, oh, the poor microbesthe d.a.m.n stupid megafauna that"s been turning this planet to desert for twenty million years: we"ve got to save them so they can go on desertifying the planet. We get all worked up about that, and never mind this one woman is imposing her mental design on the whole human species, dictating the social ratios from one end of s.p.a.ce to the other, dictating the att.i.tudes, the thoughts, the philosophies, of every single azi that gets his CIT status and turns into a breeding, proliferating citizen of this planet and everywhere else we reach! Every freedman on every station in Union s.p.a.ce is teaching his kids the sacred dogma Ari Emory embedded in their psyches. Every planet we ever occupy and every station in Union s.p.a.ce is going to be populated with just the right ratio of brilliant to moderately stupid that Ariane Emory decided is just fine and right for humanity. We don"t need a G.o.d. We"ve got one!"

"The Bureau of Defense was the one that landed a colony on Gehenna. The first Ari modified it so as not to create a human timebomb."

"Do we know that?" Jordan fired back. "Seems it did pretty well at being a bomb. Alliance is still trying to figure out how to get the locals out of the bushes."

"Good question. I"m sure I don"t know what she"s thinking and I don"t know what your Ari thought. But I"m even more sure the Defense Bureau doesn"t know what they"re doing from one campaign to the next, and if you want somebody to blame for this mess, Jordan, blame the people you were dealing with when it all went wrong. They wanted a weapon. A poison pill. they didn"t care how it got mopped up so long as Alliance had to do it, and now we"re not at war with Alliance, avid you"re right when you ask what do we do now, sterilize the planet? It"s not going to happen, Dad. It"s what we"ve got to live with. It"s going to be this Ari"s problem."

"We"ve got a whole new branch of the human species out there, thanks to her. What are we going to do with that, when it wants off its planet? Is it going to like us? We don"t f.u.c.king know, do we?"

"We"ll learn from it. And we"ll deal with it."

"Oh, I"m sure we"ll learn. And I hope your little dear keeps her hands the h.e.l.l off it before it gets worse. That"ll come back to make us sorry, no way it won"t."

Deep breath. "So Gehenna worries you. Fine. Meanwhile your precious Centrists want to play G.o.d with Cyteen"s ecosystem. Populate the world. Turn it into Earth. And Eversnow"s not going to be good enough for most of them and now Patil"s dead. What do they want, Dad?"

"Well, tonight they haven"t got Thieu and they haven"t got Patil. I wonder how that benefits them. I don"t think it does."

He shut his mouth. For several seconds. He really didn"t want to know the next answer. "So who does it benefit? Do you know?"

"The short answer is, it doesn"t benefit them. Ergo it wasn"t the Centrists who did it."

"A split in the Centrists? Centrists who were willing to have Eversnow be the projectversus those that aren"t? Yanni just made a deal with their leadership. I think you know that. I think maybe you"ve even discussed it with him."

"So let these mythical asymmetrical Centrists all go play at Gehenna. There"s a nice lab. It bites back. They can"t make it worse than it is."

"You gave me Patil"s card, Dad. What in h.e.l.l was I supposed to do with it?"

"Take it to the little dear. What else would an upstanding lad like yourself do, who wants to keep his precious career spotless? Mine"s done. What do I care?"

"Your career isn"t done. It doesn"t need to be done."

"My own son won"t work with me! What"s left?"

"For G.o.d"s sake don"t try pity, Jordan. I"ve got my own problems. You want my help, take it, or quit whining!"

Silence on the other side. Jordan spread his arms along the back of the other couch, feet extended and crossed. "Dear boy. Whining, is it?"

Somehow that posture conveyed threat. Justin became just a shade cautious. "I"d help you, Dad, I would. But everything I try to do for you is a risk. Not from her. From you. Every time I try to make a gesture, you slap it down. Every time I try to do anything for you, you do something to make me sorry I even tried."

"Now who"s whining?"

"You dodged the question."

"Ask it."

"What was I supposed to do with Patil"s card? What were you doing with it? Why involve yourself with her? And why is she dead?"

Jordan sat unmoving for a moment, then leaned forward and took a sip of the vodka. "Shoved her out a window, you say? That would account for it."

"Don"t take that tone with me."

"The little dear can"t question me under drugs, so you volunteered."

"I"m worried about you, dammit. Cooperate! You"re not guilty of anything."

"Thank you," Jordan said, with a salute of the gla.s.s. "Thank you. I appreciate that."

"Well, then don"t act the part. Tell me what in h.e.l.l you meant with the card."

"Thieu talked a lot about her. A lot. Brilliant woman. Going to save the Centrist cause. Ad nauseam. Nothing"s going to save the Centrist cause. Never was a chance of it from the moment they pa.s.sed the law that put Cyteen off-limits for terraformingof course, that was after we had ReseuneLabs and Novgorod and PlanysLabs already down here, not to mention Big Bluehere we were in the middle of a war, and with the no-terraforming law that hampered us protecting ourselves, it got downright dicey trying to keep civilization going down here. But on-world settlements suddenly seemed a good backup in case somebody got a strike in at the station. Military ne-cess-i-ty. So we enacted the Habitation Zones Actincidentally what I a.s.sume the little dear is relying on for this spurt of building I hear she"s indulging in upriver. Turns out she"s the best ally the Centrists have got. One little slip, one breach of quarantine, and they"ll have to designate another big slice of land into the Zones & wouldn"t that be ironic?"

"Do you know some specific threat? Somebody planning"

"h.e.l.l if I know. Construction here. Construction upriver. Accidents happen. So Patil"s dead. Thieu"s dead. And Thieu wanted me to call Patil, as if I was a total fool. No, he didn"t give me the card. I didn"t even get it there. Turned up in my coat pocket the day I gave it to you."

"How?"

"I don"t know. How should I know?"

"How do you think it got there?"

A shrug. "Library, restaurantbreakfast and lunchI"d been in public places all day. I found it. I figured it for a set-up like the last set-up. I routinely leave my coat on my chair, all right? Paul"s usually there. At one point we both went to the salad bar. Possibly I"d left it at a table in Library and we were both off at another station. I do it every day. I don"t even know it happened that particular day. I don"t keep things in my coat pockets. I don"t put my hands there, as a rule. I felt something when I straightened the pocket flap. There was that d.a.m.ned card, like a visit from Thieu. But not. And I didn"t the h.e.l.l like it. So I just returned it to ReseuneSec. I knew it would get there."

"You didn"t run it through your computer, did you?"

"No. Am I a fool? I just gave it to you. Maybe your little dear would run it through her computers, if it got to her, precocious little egotist that she is. Maybe it"d just f.u.c.k the whole Reseune computer system and I wouldn"t be to blame."

"My G.o.d, Dad, you"re talking like a teenager with a grudge. You don"t want to bring down the house computers.""

"I"m sure I don"t really care." Jordan lifted his gla.s.s, second salute. "But she might port the business home to the agency responsible, whoever that is. Can I offer my son a drink?"

"Had some already. I need to be sober, dealing with you."

"Excuses. Grant?"

"No, ser, thank you."

"At least you don"t find an excuse."

"No, ser," Grant said, "I don"t. And won"t. You meant for Justin to be arrested. That would have made Justin mad at Admin, and it could have caused trouble for Thieu and Patil, maybe, but more likely you found a way to get rid of the card right under security"s nose, and you did it because they can"t ask you how you got it, and you can play games with them. How does that train of logic apply to the facts of the case?"

"Remarkable. You"ve gotten very deviously CIT, Grant."

"I hope not."

"Certainly you"ve acquired a great imagination. very nice. I suppose I have to credit Ari"s work in you."

"Dammit, Dad, leave him out of this!"

A little smile, cold as ice. "You don"t leave him out of this."

"I chose to be here, ser," Grant said calmly. "Forgive me."

"Oh, I forgive you. I forgive my son. I just don"t forgive her."

"Is it true?" Justin asked sharply. "Is Grant right? Was it what you were after, getting Thieu investigated? Or nailing whoever gave you that card?"

"Some of both," Jordan said. "I"d no desire to have Thieu foul up my life. It turns up in my pocket, and I can only a.s.sume one of two things either it"s some devotee of Thieu"s and I"m supposed to use it, or I"m supposed to be caught with it and arrested; so I pa.s.sed it on in the same generous spirit in which it was given. Youwhat do you care? You"ve got the little darling to protect you. You"re not going to get in trouble. I had no inclination to call Patil, based on it, and carry on Thieu"s social agenda for some third partyif that"s all it was. I didn"t figure it came from her. Thieu has political contacts, or did, when he was functioning. He always a.s.sumed I was what I was sentenced fora.s.sumed I was a poor fellow Centrist, badly done by because I"d murdered Ari. I never disabused him of that notion. It kept him happy, babbling his theories, giving me printouts, all his grand designs for his project that the legislature had axed with the Habitation Zones Act, on and on and on & for twenty d.a.m.ned years. After a while, he didn"t even take the trouble to be clandestine about it. He just rattled on. And so I was supposed to call Patil. I didn"t. So somebody came looking for me to give me a shove. Not my fault."

"Dad, just talk to Yanni. Tell him all this. Talk to him."

"d.a.m.n Yanni. You deal with him. I don"t have to. The law says I"m off limits to their inquiries. Fine. I was off limits when they sentenced me to that h.e.l.lhole with that d.a.m.ned fool and the rest of the s.p.a.cecases. They can come begging, after this. they can d.a.m.ned well give me lab access, access to my work, my license backThey can do that if they want anything out of me! Those are my conditions."

Suddenly a handful of things clicked into place, logic, motive. Jordan wasn"t a fool. He was a man who"d been in a hard, hard spot when the first Ari diedand if he"d quarreled bitterly with Ariane Emory, he"d been at outright war with the Nyes, particularly Giraud. "I"ll present that case," Justin said. "Honestly I will."

"You don"t have to," Jordan said, and drank off the melt in his gla.s.s. "Her faithful shadow"s out there, isn"t he, and we"re bugged as all h.e.l.l. They know what I said. they can weigh it for what it"s worth or call me a liar."

Justin shrugged. Drew in a breath and took a chance. "I might take that drink, Dad."

"Fix it yourself." Jordan waved his gla.s.s toward the bar, toward him. " Fix me another while you"re at it."

"I"ll do it," Grant said, and got up and took the gla.s.s with him.

"Could ask Florian in," Jordan muttered. "d.a.m.n spook. He"s getting to look like the first Florian. Getting to act like him, too."

"He wouldn"t come in," Justin said. He didn"t want the excuse of the intrusion. "And he won"t drink on duty. But don"t be surprised to see Security in your hallway hereafter. They"re upset, two murders on opposite sides of the world, no explanations, and both of us are at risk."

"Just one of those little puzzles Security loves, isn"t it? And we"re two of their favorite subjects."

Grant brought Jordan and him their drinks, and went back to the bar with Paul"s empty gla.s.s.

"Personally, I"m still glad Security"s out there," Justin said, after a first sip. "I don"t want to be getting a midnight call about you."

"Oh, just look at us. We"re caring about each other. Heartwarming."

Too easy to come back in sarcastic kind. Jordan invited it, tried to turn everything to vinegar. Justin took another sip from his gla.s.s. "Mirror into mirror. We"re too apt to fight. But let"s face it, I have a certain position, one that I fought for in Giraud Nye"s time. He didn"t like me much. Didn"t like you, ergo didn"t like me, and I paid for it."

"Sorry." The tone wasn"t.

"Not your fault, particularly. The Nyes knew d.a.m.ned well you were innocent. Maybe that"s why Giraud distrusted me, expecting the wrath of the wronged, maybeor just misliking the fact I got close to Ariher doing, not mine. Ari, outside of being the incarnation you deplore, is a pretty good little kid in her spare time. Always has been. She stood between me and Giraud. I returned the favor, as best I could, with the other Nye, when he decided she had to gobecause, believe me, you and I weren"t well off during Denys" tenure, and we"d have been worse off, still, if it weren"t for that young girl. There"s a lot of history, a lot of history you weren"t here for, but she kept me alive, and ever since she did in her uncle, she keeps me able to work, keeps Grant safe, and that"s a fair debt I owe her. She rescued you, if you don"t know itpulled you out of Planys during the height of the set-to with Denys and got you behind Reseune"s internal security. Whatever you think about it, you"re alive. So I"m not interested in your feud with her. Sorry. You can"t convert me." He took a deep pull at the liquid, felt the previous sips finally hitting his nerves with a deceptive calm. "But I do sympathize with you. It may not have involved getting slammed against the wall by securitynot my favorite moments, thosebut I do understand the sense of restriction. They sent all the problem cases over to Planys during the War. I don"t think it must have been particularly sparkling society, or a particularly happy one."

"They put us under pressure and bugged the place," Jordan said, "and we all knew it. I was innocent of what sent me therein deed, if not in thought. And that put me pretty well on the outs, finally, because everybody but Thieu eventually knew I wasn"t guiltybut they courted me for their various causes and tried to put on sympathy for my plight. G.o.d, it was a b.l.o.o.d.y comedy. ReseuneSec should have put me on payroll. I"d go to venues that supposedly weren"t bugged. I was d.a.m.ned sure they were. And I talked, and they recorded, and sometimes certain particularly obnoxious people just went away."" A small, bitter laugh. "I tell you, I was a valuable resource. ReseuneSec wouldn"t have wanted to give me up. But when Giraud Nye diedafter that happened, I really watched what I ate and drank. I figured there might be orders floating in the system, maybe posthumous ones from himmaybe current ones from Denys, who knows? I didn"t trust it when the little dear declared bygones were bygones and shoved Paul and me onto a plane &"

Chapter iv.

June 12, 2424 0321 H.

"Interesting comment,"" Florian said somberly, when he and Catlin reviewed the record, with Marco and Wes in the room. "If it"s true about the card, possibly someone in ReseuneSec was trying to draw a wrong action out of Warrick. Or maybe it had, as he said, completely different motives, and came from some source that ought not to be inside these walls."

"Pursue it," Catlin said. She looked tired. None of them had gotten a great deal of sleep this night.