That was going to take time. Chemistry took time. they didn"t have that much time, but it was a test overdue, if they were going to try to crack what Kyle had done, and pin down who had had him do it.

She put in a call to Justin, meanwhile.

"Ari?"

"Can you possibly call your father and set up both of you working on a file I"d like a.n.a.lyzed? I really need to ask you two some questions."

A moment of silence on the other end. Long silence. Justin said, quietly, "I don"t think I can talk him into anything at the moment. I"m sorry. I take it this isn"t part of the lessons." "I don"t think I can talk him into anything at the moment. I"m sorry. I take it this isn"t part of the lessons."

"It"s not. It"s pretty important."

"I thinkI don"t know. He"s not speaking to me. I don"t think he"ll even open the door to me at the moment. You might actually get more out of him."

That bad? she thought. "Is he speaking to Grant?"

"I don"t think so, honestly. He tossed us both out."

"Well," she said. "Thanks. Thanks all the same. Would you and Grant look over some files for me? I"m going to shoot it over to you. I really need it. I need it fast."

"Sure. I"d be glad to."

She sent AK-36"s basic manual over, sent over AK-36"s personal manual with it, which had Giraud"s annotations, and Hicks" marks.

She called Chi Prang, and had her run an a.n.a.lysis.

And she thought a moment, and then she did a little file manipulation, recast the date, created a new timestamp, and called up Jordan.

"Jordan? Jordan, this is Ari. I have a problem."

Long, long wait.

"This is Paul AP, sera. Jordan"sJordan"s in the shower at the moment. Can I help?"

"Actually, yes. I"m going to send a file over. I want your opinion on it. Both of you, if Jordan wouldn"t mind. It"s a set with a problem. I"d really like an a.n.a.lysis."

"You can send it over, sera, of course. I"ll advise him when he gets out of the shower."

"It"s an alpha file. We"ve had a criminal act. It"s fairly urgent. Thank you so much, Paul."

Name was erased. Date was erased. It was all couched as current work. Which it certainly was & in the emergency sense.

She leaned back in the chair, wishing the processes of chemistry ran a little faster or that the processes of polities ran a little slower.

A lot slower.

"Sera." Catlin said. She had her handheld, but she stooped, picked up the wand from the table and popped the main display over to the news channel.

Councillor Jacques was on camera. Jacques of Defense. was on camera. Jacques of Defense.

"After much deliberation," Jacques said, Jacques said, "and thought." "and thought." The man had an unfortunate delivery. He never sounded altogether bright. The man had an unfortunate delivery. He never sounded altogether bright. "I have reached a decision on the Proxy appointment, bearing in mind a sensitivity toward the Spurlin family, friends, and supporters, to whom we extend our most profound and heartfelt condolences &" "I have reached a decision on the Proxy appointment, bearing in mind a sensitivity toward the Spurlin family, friends, and supporters, to whom we extend our most profound and heartfelt condolences &"

Get on with it. for G.o.d"s sake!

" & but we are constrained by considerations of the welfare of the nation to make an appointment representing the will of the electorate as expressed in the recent election. I am therefore retaining the seat, but will appoint as Proxy Councillor Vladislaw"

"Good loving G.o.d!"

"Khalid, who will serve starting immediately. This decision has been reached after, of course, considerable"

"Cut it off." she said to Catlin. The headache was back. And Catlin just stood there, seeming sure there would be some order to come. "I wish I could think of something," she said to Catlin. "Thank you. Thank you for turning that on. I wanted to hear it. The man"s a fool."

"He will likely die very soon," Catlin said, the same a.s.sessment she"d reached, even contemplating it. "Khalid will succeed him. Am I right about the law?"

"Khalid got some hold on him." she said. "Yes. You"re right about it. And he"ll last just long enough for the media attention to cool down about Spurlin, or until he objects to something Khalid does. Monitor Rafael. See if he"s getting any news from ReseuneSec in Novgorod or elsewhere."

"Yes, sera," Catlin said, set the wand on the table, and was off like a shot. Florian would be likewise engaged, might already be hauling in information via ReseuneSecwas probably doing that from the apartment security station: Wes and Marco were, she hoped, getting their rest: it was going to be a long twenty-four, thirty-six hours.

They"d just lost Defense as an ally and gained a bitter enemy. Yanni was still in Novgorod, so was Amy: they"d at least be aware what had just happened.

Meanwhile, having found out what she knew about their internal problem, she was, herself, stalled out and making no progress on the ReseuneSec situation, and didn"t know if they had a greater threat inside Reseune or out. They"d taken in thirty-odd alphas in the batch they"d recovered from the military. Most of them were retired, now, only ten, counting Kyle, still serving, and all others of those were in esoteric fields, unsocializedso concentrated on their specialities it was likely immaterial to them what planet they were on or whether the rest of the human species existed.

Worth investigating, when she had time.

Spurlin death Lao dying. Lao"s Proxy still missing. And Yanni had had a meeting with Corain, which gave her a better opinion of Corain than she"d ever had. But at the moment. Council was not in session, couldn"t go into session until three Councillors showed up in the Council chamber and formally called for a session to occur: it wouldn"t be legitimate to do business until five showed up, and the numbers available to show up were getting scant.

That news feed would have gone all over Reseune, down to the town and the port. It would have gone just about everywhere.

And should she get on the air immediately after and tell everybody it was all right?

That would be a lie. It wasn"t all right. Anybody above the age of eight had to have figured that out; but all right, it was a psych question: people wanted to hear from the people they trusted to make decisions, and right now, that had to be her.

She decided, however, not to go to the media at large. A full-blown media event, down at the airport, the usual venue for such press conferences, wouldn"t help Yanni in his situation; and her appearance, and a declaration of challenge, might push Khalid just one step farther than she liked at the moment.

She had, however, to figure what she said and how she appeared might leak out.

So she brushed her hair, put it up in the skewered twist she lately favored, even if it hurt like h.e.l.l. She put on a little rouge, put on a blue, high-collared jacket over the black jersey tee she was wearing, zipped it up and took a seat at the desk that had the vid camera.

She punched in. "Base One. Activate Channel One, override Channels Two through Two Hundred."

"Done," Base One said. Her own image appeared on the screen in front of her, but she didn"t look at that. She looked into the camera, somber, but perfectly relaxed, the way she"d practiced that expression.

"This is an informative bulletin. This is Ari Emory, acting Director of Reseune. You may have noted the outcome of the Defense Proxy appointment. I am in communication with Director Schwartz in Novgorod, and I"ll be working with him during this period, opening communication with the new Proxy Councillor for Defense. We aren"t sure how long this process will take. Let me state we are both appreciative of the response of Reseune CITs and azi to the recent domestic upheavalwhich I am glad to say is fairly well along in process of resolution. We request that everyone keep on doing as you have been doing, conducting business as usual, but we also suggest that places of public a.s.sembly review their emergency procedures and be sure that storm tunnel accesses are clearly lighted and in good working order.

"Bear in mind that we are now in August, approaching the fall storms, so this is the semi-annual announcement in that regard. What is not routine is the incident upriver, and what happened recently in a security breach. Please bear in mind that should an area evacuation emergency occur during an otherwise routine weather alert, all residents and workers should not risk outside exposure;. Use the tunnels, not the outside exits, to reach a secure area, and tend away from any area of disturbance, as you will be advised to do. Sequence flashers will indicate appropriate direction. Please review these procedures with your employees and with members of your family, and arrange several meeting places as contingencies in case one is unavailable. This in no way signals a cause of imminent danger. We have dealt with and arrested the known problem. We have no immediate reason to antic.i.p.ate another such alert, but we will be in a state of heightened awareness until that matter has been investigated to a conclusion. Until Director Schwartz returns to a.s.sess the situation, I am erring on the side of caution and placing Reseune on a moderate level of alert. Thank you."

Chapter xiv.

Aug 7, 2424 1300 H.

"Ser," Ari said politely, visiting Adam Hicks, who"d spent the last number of days in a very restricted part of Alpha Wing Behind the Alpha Wing security office, in fact.

It wasn"t a bad little suite Hicks occupied: there was a dining table, there was a comfortable chair, there was a wide selection of books available via reader. There was a bed, and unlimited access to crossword puzzlesTommy"s idea. Hicks had been a cooperative inmate. He kept the place neat, the bed made. He could send out for coffee and food as desired, and the restaurant pa.s.sed things to his guards. There was a used disposable cup waiting on a small table by the doorthat was the only disorder in the place.

"Sera," Hicks said with a little nod. And as she took a seat at his dining table. Florian and Catlin arranged themselves, both standing, nearby. I licks quietly took a seat at that table within the corner, opposite her, insulated from Florian and Catlinshe marked that.

She had her handheld in her coat pocket. She took it out, set it on the table facing Hicks, and played the short bit from Yanni: "If he"s not innocent he"s not a friend of mine. You can tell him that. Tell him I said cooperate with you or I"ll break his neck." "If he"s not innocent he"s not a friend of mine. You can tell him that. Tell him I said cooperate with you or I"ll break his neck."

Hicks"s brows lifted. Drew down again as his stare locked with hers.

"That"s Yanni"s opinion," she said mildly, repossessing the unit. She dropped it into her jacket pocket. "For the record, I"m increasingly sorry for the roughness in the takeover. Yanni tells me you"re to be trusted. So I"m very sorry for the contusion, and I"m sorry I had to take the measures I did, but I had reason for concern. I don"t know if you know: I"m a.s.suming you don"t: Kyle was our target."

"Kyle?"

"I"m sorry to say, his axe code never did work: he"s been reporting to Defense for years. For about six decades, in fact, going way back into Giraud"s administration."

Hicks looked numbly shocked. Shook his head. "I can"t accept that. That"s just not so. You"re wrong."

"Giraud got you your provisional precisely so you could have a legal partnership with him. I take" it this represents a strong friendship."

"Is he all right?"

"He"s fine, or as fine as he can be, considering the contradictions he"s carrying inside, which I suspect involves a real attachment to you. He"s on a suicide watch. We"re worried about that."

"G.o.d. This is complete nonsense."

"I"m sorry it"s not."

"It"s a d.a.m.n trick!"

"Not that, either. He got past Giraud, he got past the first Ari, for that matter: she relied on Giraud and she shouldn"t have, in his case. She was busy at the time". It"s very likely that Kyle was the" agent in turning Abban. It"s at least certain he was reporting to Defense every time vein were in the building. I am very, extremely sorry for the situation."

"I don"t believe this!"

"I do believe," she said quietly, "that you honestly don"t believe it."

"I don"t."

"This isn"t about fault. The fact is, very likely Defense, or someone in Defense, ordered my predecessor murdered, and that Kyle was how it happened."

"No."

"Jordan didn"t do it. Abban may have, but would Giraud order it? I don"t think so. I don"t think you thought so, at the time."

"Warrick"

"That was Giraud"s bias. He was dead sure it was Jordan who"d done it. by some means or another. And he was wrong. It was Abban. We thought Denys might have accessed Abban to do it, but here"s the" stinger: Denys" certificate was a fake. He couldn"t do it. That leaves Giraud. who I don"t think had the motive. And it leaves Kyle. I don"t say Kyle had a personal choice in the matter, understand. And we could solve his situation in one sense by packaging him up and sending him off to Defense to finish his career there. But he knows a lot that we"d rather Defense didn"t get the rest of. And I"m not sure they"d be kind to him, no matter how well he"s served thembecause I"m not sure all of Defense is behind what he did, and I don"t think some of Defense would like him to answer questions."

"You"re not making sense."

"There"s a lot of vulnerability he could have created. I"m sure Defense now has the building plans for much of Reseune, and we"re going to have to do some major revisions. Worse, I"m sure they"ve got some keys; and codes, anything Kyle could reach; so Base Two is going to have to change some codes. That makes a very messy situation, since Yanni is still off in Novgorod, and I can"t get him new codes that easily: so if I don"t change how you access Base Two, I expose him to problems, and if I do, it"s another kind of risk, of his not being able to handle all the programs he might need to. I appreciate that it"s not exactly your problem at the moment, but it is a problem, and I know you"re a friend of Yanni"s. At least he thinks you are. He"s in serious danger, where he is. Spurlin"s dead; you do know that. We think Jacques will be soon. Lao"s in hospital. We"re having a real crisis in the Council."

"What are you saying?"

"Khalid"s got Defense again. Jacques just named him Proxy." Hicks" face didn"t react much; but he just seemed to wilt a bit, physically.

Ari said: "You"ve dealt with Khalid."

"I have."

"Did you like him?"

A slight shake of the head. Hicks looked a little pale, lips tightly compressed. "Didn"t."

"What kind of feeling did he give you?"

"That"s subjective. It doesn"t matter."

"I think you may record impressions a lot better than you think you do. How did Kyle react to him?"

"Kyle was just business, that"s all. I didn"t like Khalid. It wasn"t my job to judge him, just negotiate with the man."

"Did Khalid ever propose anything you thought unethical?"

Hicks shook his head.

"Possibly Kyle told him in advance what you"d agree to. And what you wouldn"t."

Eyes dilated. Contracted. Dilated again. "That"s a d.a.m.ned fish."

"It must have been particularly hard to negotiate with him. I hope you"ll think about that issue. Try to recall specific incidences where he seemed to know exactly how far you"d go. It may help us dealing with this man. It seems were going to have to, unfortunately."

"I"ll think about it." Hicks didn"t look cooperative, quite the opposite; but he was retreating a little, accepting some arguments, or acting as if he did. He was actually very smart on a beta level. He wouldn"t buy any whole package. He knew tricks, and he kept things in reserve, and he knew she was Working him to get hooks on an azi he regarded as a brother.

"You know I"m going to have to do something with Kyle," she said. "I willbecause, unfortunately, I"m about the best Alpha Super alive right now, and I"m only eighteen."

He just stared at he:".