Текст книги "Regenesis"

Автор книги: C. J. Cherryh

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Текущая страница: 23 (всего у книги 45 страниц)

“And Theo ended up in authority over Jory on the domestic staff,” Grant said. “ Iwouldn’t have advised that. Jory’s brighter. But they’ll manage. He’ll take advice.”

“You know, Ari is far more social than her predecessor,” Justin said, envisioning that crowd in Ari’s living room–probably being served refreshments and urged to relax–which would make the lot almost comically uncomfortable. No, she actually wouldn’t do it. She knew better. She’d do what wouldmake them comfortable–like brief them, give them information. Those mindsets would like that far better than teacakes, all things considered. But sociality…she’d encourage that, far more than those mindsets had ever seen. “She has a strong inclination to go for company. Not with that lot, but in general.”

“I’ve observed,” Grant said.

“Right from the start. She visited our office. Whenever she got bored, she went looking for people. Cultivated a set of friends. Still does. Denys really didn’t like that habit in her. Of course, Denys didn’t like people in the first place.”

“Neither did the first Ari,” Grant said. “Deviation from the model. Maybe an improvement. Maybe not. I can’t imagine that the first Ari ever had that bent in early years.”

“Our Ari lost Jane Strassen, but she never grew bitter, just took to chasing us. Maybe she’s more people‑oriented because shedidn’t spend her early years wondering if her dear mother would kill her if she disappointed. That’s what they say about Olga Emory.”

“A relationship I can’t imagine,” Grant murmured. “But then, I can’t imagine a mother.” A tilt of Grant’s head. “Just you.”

“I don’t qualify.”

“You absolutely don’t. Which suits me fine.”

They were lovers. They made no particular fuss over it. It was just who they were. There was nobody they trusted more than each other, nobody they loved more than each other. That had been true for years. For a time, in his growing up, if there hadn’t been Grant, he wouldn’t have been sane. If there hadn’t been him–it was equally sure Grant wouldn’t have been what he was.

And if not for the first Ari’s intervention, Grant would have been Jordan’s work, entirely.

And if not for the first Ari’s intervention, so, almost undoubtedly, would he.

“I wonder what she’s building out there behind the wing,” Justin said hours later, when he and Grant were in bed, after a long evening and an entertainment vid. The only light was the clock face on the minder. The security force had, as predicted, departed after a precise hour and forty‑five minutes. Headed for the lift. Assigned, signed, and delivered–

And that gave Ari as much protection as any other agency in Reseune.

“Building behind the wing?” Grant asked, half asleep. “What brought that up?”

“She’s accumulating an army–counting service people, that’s a large staff.”

“You think?” Grant rolled over and managed a half‑awake interest. “What are you thinking?”

“I think it’s not a building to replace the old Wing One Lab. I think it’s a huge extension of this whole wing.”

“You can’t really see it on the monitors.”

“Lot of earthmovers going back and forth, makes the ground floor shake. A lot of stuff landed down at the dock and brought up in that direction. It’s going to be big. Everybody’s saying labs to replace the old one they shut down. I’m saying–I don’t know why Ari wants huge labs attached to this wing, unless she’s setting up to do some work.”

“Makes a certain sense she would,” Grant said.

“Physical labs? She doesn’t need it. She’s theory. She’s computers. She doesn’t really need that kind of thing. I’ll bet you–mark me–I’ll bet a month’s pay the lab story is a blind.” He cast a look up at the ceiling in the dark, not sure they were monitored, never sure they weren’t. “Just a guess.”

“So–if it is–does she move out and we stay here?”

“Would she leave her favorite neighbor behind? Dammit, something in me wants to go take back our old digs, with the worn carpet and the balky green fridge, all of it. I miss the place.”

“I don’t know why. We weren’t safe there.”

“We were, for a while.” He let go a long slow breath, and remembered. “No, I suppose we were just ignorant.” He stretched, hands under the pillow, under his head. “Maybe that’s what I want to get back to. Blissful ignorance.”

“I’ve found little blissful about ignorance. Besides, it’s not in my mindset to tolerate that condition.”

“I’m afraid it’s not in mine, either, ultimately” Two or three slow breaths. “Too big a staff, even for a palace. She’s got staff packed into that apartment. And thirty guards? That’s a lot even for Wing One. I think we’re witnessing an expansion. She’s going to move. Get the whole wing into something that wasn’tshot all to hell by a handful of her staff. Make sure it can’t happen again.”

“It’s a lot of building. That’s certain.”

“If she moves us, at least we’ll be rid of the decor.”

The room…if the lights had been on…or even when they weren’t…was a horror of modern decorating, stark white, stark black, and some mitigating grays. Grant avowed he didn’t mind it much. But Grant, being azi, lived more in his mind than he did in his physical surroundings. For himself, having grown up attached to textures and physical sensations, it was absolutely appalling. Admittedly it was a place to be safe. It was a place to be monitored by reasonably friendly agencies, and to maintain an absolutely incontrovertible record, capable of proving to any inquisitive authority that they hadn’t been up to anything, and couldn’t possibly deserve to be arrested. Again.

Warm, soft place to be, however, it was not–only in this bed, with the lights out, with Grant there, safe. Insulated from the world–and Ari. And from whatever she was doing, filling the hall with a godawful lot of Reseune Security.

Making the place echo with boots.

Advancing power. He could hear it coming.

The phone rang.

“Damn.” He jumped. He couldn’t help it. Nothing good made ever made a phone ring at this hour. He shot an arm out, felt after the phone‑set on the nightstand. Didn’t find it, and it was still going off “Minder? Minder, answer the damn phone!”

“Complying.” the robot voice said; the clock face over on the wall brightened as the room light came up a little. A telltale beside that clock went green, and a new voice came through.

“Ser Warrick?” Female. But not Ari.

“This is Justin Warrick.” He never had blocked off calls after midnight. He’d never needed to. But here it was, after midnight. And he didn’t even know any women outside this wing and Admin. “Who is this?”

“Sandi Patil. Dr. Sandi Patil.”

He sat straight up in bed as Grant lay there a heartbeat, then levered himself up on an arm.

“What do you want?” He was rude. He knew it. But so was Patil, calling him out of nowhere at this hour, on business that couldn’t be good.

“Are you alone?” Patil asked.

“I’m as alone as I choose to be.” He didn’t want any part of this. He waved a hand at Grant, mimed recording the conversation, which took a keypush on the console. He got up to do it himself, on the wall panel near the door, but Grant, starting on that side of the bed, beat him to it, and then turned the room lights up full. “Why don’t you call my father?”

“I can’t reach him. Listen to me. Dr. Thieu is dead.”

Dead. Dead wasn’t a metaphor. Not from this source, at this hour. And he didn’t want to ask, but not getting information could be as bad as hanging up, outright, for the monitoring that went on in this place.

“Dead? How?”

“They’re saying heart attack. But I don’t believe it. They’re monitoring my phone, they’re questioning my friends…”

“Look, if you deal with my father it’s a dead certainty they’ll do that, whoever ‘they’ are…”

“Not Reseune,” Patil said. “It’s not Reseune. They have people inside.”

He made a furious gesture at the other wall, in the direction of next door, Ari’s apartment. Grant understood, grabbed a robe on his way and left, running, wrapping the robe about him like a bath towel.

“What do you mean?” he asked meanwhile, trying to keep the tone even and the conversation going.

“They’ve gotten to Dr. Thieu in the heart of Planys, on the other side of the world. They can get to anyone.”

“Look, somebody gave me your card, I haven’t a clue why, I don’t know who ‘they’ are, and I don’t know why you’d be calling me. What are you into, what do you want with my father, and where in hell did you get my number?”

“I got it from Thieu. Look, I’m in the middle of selling my apartment. All my belongings are in boxes, my physical files are in a mess and I can’t find anything. I’m supposed to be going up to the station, and now everything’s stalled, I don’t know why, and I can’t get an answer out of the Director’s office! Thieu said to talk to your father, now Thieu’s just died and I can’t reach him, your number works, you’reon the inside of the agency that’s hiring me and now not talking to me, so here you are, Ser Warrick, and welcome to my situation! Can you just go down the hall or wherever you are and tell your father I urgently need to talk to him? There’ve been people coming through to look at this place I don’t like the look of, they say it’s sold, but someone arrives today and just walks through, and I didn’t know whether to let them in or not. I don’t want to deal with this, and someone I don’t know phones me to tell me Thieu is dead and hangs up. So what am I supposed to do? When I get hold of Schwartz, he’s going to tell me it’s all fine, I don’t need to worry, and just let them handle everything, but that’s what he said the last time. I need to talk to someone who knows what’s going on.”

“Well, it’s not going to be my father. I think you should call Planys Security tonight and ask them what’s going on. You get a call in the night and you assume it’s even true…”

“Oh, it’s true. It’s true he’s dead. I have no doubt of it. I have no doubt I’m targeted and your father is, and Planys Security can’t even take care of its own, let alone protect me here. These aren’t reasonable people.”

He didn’t like it. His heart had picked up the old familiar heavy beat. On one hand it felt like a trap. On the other…this woman might be inone, and in possession of information ReseuneSec was going to want. And if he could stay on the line and get a record down of this little playlet, naming names, it was safer for him and everyone attached to him.

“I don’t understand why my father has anything to do with this. And if you want protection, I can get ReseuneSec to go wherever you are–”

“Thieu,” she interrupted him, and somewhere in the background there was a noise, a thump, of some sort. “Oh my God,” she said. “Warrick, tell them! Tell them!”

“Tell them what?”

“Clavery! The name is Anton Clavery! Just–”

Something thumped. The phone quit. He grabbed his own robe, shoved his arms into the sleeves and headed past the end of the bed, out of the bedroom, taking down the small, useless table next to the door as he headed down the hall. Lights in the living area had come on, where Grant had passed.

He got that far before the front door opened and black‑uniformed security came bursting in–Marco and Wes, specifically, night shift, with Grant’s conspicuous red head just beyond that tall blot of black uniforms.

“Her phone went dead,” he said, out of breath. “I recorded it, as far as it went.” In that moment Catlin arrived, in a black tee and workout pants, unarmed, to all appearances, and probably straight from bed, while Marco walked over and took a look at the house minder unit. He didn’t know which one to address, or which, Marco or Catlin, was technically in charge. And he had a shaky moment of realizing he, ReseuneSec’s main target for years, had been babbling in that call, urging a woman’s cooperation with ReseuneSec, anxious to keep himself and Grant safe from whatever damned fool thing Jordan had brought on them in his eternal feud with Admin–and too sure, maybe, that his father hadn’t had anything to do with whatever was going on in Novgorod. He felt a vague sense of shame about turning coat on his father. But not enough. That collection of ReseuneSec in the hall–that had been Ari, young Ari, taking real power over a segment of that organization that had repeatedly arrested him. And he had urgently to deal with them–for Grant’s sake. “Catlin, it was Patil on the phone. Something’s wrong. She needs help. Security. Fast. She’s saying Thieu was killed. Someone interrupted her on the phone. Apparently violently.”

Catlin didn’t waste a breath. She had her com unit, and delivered a fast message somewhere that consisted of, “Information on Patil. Code 10. Her residence?” The last was a question aimed at him.

“I think it was,” he said. “Residence.” Second thought. “Maybe her office. I don’t know.”

“Residence andoffice,” Catlin said into the com. “Stat, find her, wherever she is.” She broke the contact. Grant, meanwhile, had gotten past building security at the door, still with the robe held like a towel, and Florian showed up behind him in the bottom half of a workout suit, dark hair in its usual curling disarray.

“Sera’s awake,” Florian said. “Ser Warrick. Did you call Dr. Patil?”

He shook his head. “She called me, out of nowhere. Said Thieu was dead.”

Up went the com unit, same fast contact. Florian said, into it: “Planys‑Sec, report on status of Dr. Raymond Thieu, researcher, retired.”

There was perhaps a brief silence on that contact. Grant made a quiet move toward him. Building security moved to restrain him. Catlin simply lifted a hand, on the phone with someone else, and security stood down, letting Grant through.

He grabbed Grant by the arm, in no mood to have them separately questioned. Gone over. Drugged. Any of those things. “I’m worried about my father,” he said to Florian. “She said someone was inside. On the inside.”

“Thieu is dead,” Florian said. It was a measure of trust that someone of Florian’s nature gave a piece of information to an outsider. And Florian immediately thumbed buttons on the com and called someone else. “Guard alert, Jordan Warrick’s residence. See to his safety. Report.”

“Thanks,” Justin said quietly. Two more individuals in security uniform had shown up at the door, and found their way in, people Justin had seen at Ari’s door this evening, people with the com rig and armament of personnel on duty. Her people. He stood there. He didn’t know what to do. He was in the middle of the mess, as clued in as anyone could be without that vital comlink. Meanwhile Grant, unflapped, dropped half his hold on the robe, calmly sorted out the top of it and put it on, tying it this time.

“Young sera, I believe, is more than awake,” Grant said, indicating it wasn’t all a case of Catlin and Florian running things at the moment.

“Your father has answered his phone, ser,” Florian said, “and agents are on their way to his door.”

That was a relief. He hadn’t known how much relief. He was scared for Jordan. He didn’t know why he was. Jordan hadn’t earned it, giving him that card. But he was glad to know Ari’s version of ReseuneSec was between Jordan and anything else stupid. He moved quietly over to the sideboard, out of the way, his own foyer and his living room having become security central in the last few moments. Feigning calm, he started to ask Grant to pour them both a vodka and orange, but at just that moment Ari showed up in the foyer, in a night robe, and with her dark hair in a pigtail.

“Justin?” she asked.

“It’s the card,” he said. “It’s that damned card. I don’t know what’s going on. Patil called, for no apparent reason, except she found out Thieu’s dead and then something happened when she was calling us. We have noidea. Would you like a vodka and orange?”

“I think I’d love one.”

“Sera,” Catlin said to her, “agents have entered Dr. Patil’s residence. They were on watch. They saw no one. But Patil has fallen out her window.”

“Fatally.”

“Quite fatally, sera. It’s twelve stories.”

“Oh, this is splendid!”

Grant had gone after the drinks. Justin stood frozen, rethinking what Patil had said last.

“Anton Clavery,” he said, then. “She gave that name, before–whatever happened.”

“The name is a new one,” Catlin remarked.

“We recorded everything, from the start. It’s all on the system, fast as Grant could get over and push the button.”

“Why would she call you?” Ari asked.

“I haven’t the least notion,” he began, then: “Hell. Yes, I do. She asked if I could get Jordan down the hall. She had my number, not his. She has–had–no concept of where we live, or the conditions he lives in. She couldn’t get through security to phone him.”

Catlin lifted a pale eyebrow, that was all. He suddenly wondered if that last statement was even true, or if for some unfathomed reason, Patil had specifically wanted to go through him–and just gave a wave of his hand.

“It’s all recorded. It’s what she said. I don’t know if she was telling the truth. She was upset. I guess she had reason.” He wanted to ask if Thieu had died of natural causes, curiosity being as natural to him as breathing; but no, he didn’t want to know that. He didn’t want to know anything about it.

Grant showed up with three drinks, poured the fast way, from the autobar unit. It was rescue. He presented the first to Ari, and only then it occurred to him that Ariane Emory didn’t drink things handed to her by people who’d just occasioned a midnight security alert.

But this Ari did, with only a little lift of her own brow. “Can we sit in your front room? It seems we’re all in the way here. It’s become ops. I do apologize for that.”

“Certainly,” he said, and showed her in, past Grant, at the small bar. “Sorry to have waked the whole house.”

“Thieu and Patil. What do youthink?”

Sideways jolt. She was good at that.

And two new thoughts hove onto the horizon, desperate and little likely. “Maybe someone’s tryingto involve my father. Maybe he thought that card somehow involved me in the first place. I don’t know what went through his mind.”

“Would he be honest with you if you asked?”

Because they couldn’t legally use anything but truthers on Jordan, and Jordan could beat those.

“I don’t know. He’s not speaking to me at the moment. Not since–not since that dinner.”

“I think it’s a good moment for you to talk to him. I think it’s a logical moment.”

One thing Ari had was a sense of timing. He could appreciate it–even if he had rather walk barefoot into the wilderness. “I won’t go there with Grant.”

“Grant won’t stay here,” Grant said.

“Dammit, Grant.”

“I take it I have leave to defend myself.”

“Absolutely,” Ari said.

“Ari.” Justin rounded on her with no hesitation. “If anything happens to him–I will neverforgive it.”

“If anything happens,” she said “Florian will be through, that door faster than you can blink.”

“And if I go there with yourentourage, he won’t say a thing.”

“Try,” she said.

Try. He looked at Grant, not at all liking it. He set the drink down, scarcely touched: he was going to need all his mental resources.

“Sorry to desert you,” he said, pro forma, and went back down the hall to the bedroom, righted the damaged table. Grant followed him.

“Sorry,” Grant said, “but you’re no safer in that apartment than I am. Two of us–”

“My own father,” he said bitterly. “You know, among born‑men, that’s actually supposed to count for something.”

“Two CITs are dead,” Grant said somberly. “And, I repeat, you’re not safe.”

“Damn,” he said, and grabbed random clothes from the closet.

BOOK THREE Section 2 Chapter iii

JUNE 12, 2424

0211H

Press of the button. Possibly the minder was set to ignore commotion at this hour. Justin knocked at the door. Forcefully.

“Ser,” Florian said, and reached past him with a keycard. The door opened, and Florian pushed the door open, but Justin put out an arm, barring his way.

“My father. Let me handle it alone. Please. There’s nothing wrong. Reasonable people are asleep at this hour.”

“Call out to him,” Florian said, not giving an inch.

“Dad?” he called out. “Jordan?”

Lights came up suddenly, throwing the apartment into brightness–an apartment like the one they’d had, once, much the same design, dining counter, kitchen, living area, all together…it evoked nostalgia every time he entered it.

“Go,” he said to Florian. “Wait outside. I’ll get better answers.”

“Block the door open until you’re sure,” Florian said, and went outside, leaving him, and Grant, Grant’s foot blocking the door from automatically shutting.

Paul came out first, in his nightrobe, Paul, looking as well‑groomed and civilized as usual. Jordan followed, much the same.

“Dad,” he said, “there’s an alarm on. You know that card you gave me? Patil’s dead. Thieu’s dead.”

Jordan stood there, raked a hand through his hair, didn’t say anything except, “Come in.”

Grant drew his foot from the door. It shut. Jordan was on his way to the couch. Paul was on his way to the bar.

“No drinks, thanks,” he said, and he and Grant sat down.

“I’ll have one,” Jordan said. “How did you get in?”

“Florian,” he said. Leveling with Jordan was the best policy, if it was something that obvious. “Sorry about that, but if they’re killing off people on Thieu’s social list, I wanted to be sure you were all right. What in hell’s going on?”

He had Jordan at rare disadvantage. And with a clank of glasses and two fast jets from the dispenser behind the bar, Paul was rapidly preparing a distraction.

“Dad.”

“Oh, cut the ‘Dad,’ boy.”

“Well, I try. I’m here. Patil called mebefore she died.”

“Florian’s out there?”

“I figured he wouldn’t add to the social setting. Yes, damned right I called security. Dr. Patil was upset. She wanted me to go down the hall and get you. She said she had my number and called me because she couldn’t get through to you.”

“Nice.” Jordan took the drink Paul handed him, had a sip. “So my own appeal couldn’t get you through my door, but you don’t mind bringing the little dear’s guards to burgle my apartment.”

“I was concerned for your safety. She was talking about somebody inside, Dad. Who would that be?”

“The possibilities are endless. Ari, some CIT–getting an azi past Reseune Supervisors wouldn’t be easy, but with inside help, who knows? Are we worried about assassins?”

“I’m worried for your safety. I’m worried for Grant’s and Paul’s. They didn’t ask to get involved in whatever crazy mess you’re in. Planys is a small place. Everybody knows everybody. Who would have killed an old man who didn’t have long to live anyway?”

“A long list of volunteers,” Jordan said, and took a drink of what looked like vodka. “The man was an insufferable egotist.”

Justin sat back against the couch, crossed one leg over the other. “I thought you were friends.”

“Society there is sparse.”

“Come on, Jordan. Tell me. What happened? I know you didn’t kill Ari. Everybody knows it. You were bitter, you wanted to strangle Denys, that didn’t happen, and you spent nearly twenty years in the company of a doddering old guy with an ego. That, I understand. But if this guy had associates that were getting to him past the security screen at PlanysLabs, where were they? How was Patil involved? Why were you carrying her card around? And why in bloody hell did you dump it on me?”

“So Ari’s got you asking her questions, has she?”

“I’m asking my own damn questions. I wouldn’t have, if you hadn’t shoved that card off on me, and if Patil hadn’t called me in the middle of the night a few minutes before someone shoved her out a twelfth‑story window–I call thatinvolvement. I call that a damned mess, and if you’ve got any key to Thieu’s goings‑on at Planys, I want it!”

“What? Afraid your nice career’s getting tarnished?”

“I’m afraid my father’s trying to tarnish it, thanks. I’m afraid my father’s decided to carry on a stupid war with a dead woman and can’t figure out what year it is!”

“Justin,” Grant said, a calm‑down.

Jordan grinned. “Got to you, did I?”

“It’s not a damn game!”

“Isn’t it? I don’t get out much lately. I need some amusement.”

“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, hell!”

“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 damned surprised if there aren’t guards dogging 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 damn 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 deadpolitics, 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 passing cryptic notes to each other and pasting up posters, what time they’re not blowing up children. The Centrists, hell, the lawwon’t let them mess up this planet–” Air went rarified. He didn’t doreal‑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 hell 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 damned 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 damn good, Jordan, it doesn’t. You had your little fling with the Paxer element, which damn near got Grant killed… So what in hell 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 damn 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 microbes–the damn 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 space to the other, dictating the attitudes, 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 space is teaching his kids the sacred dogma Ari Emory embedded in their psyches. Every planet we ever occupy and every station in Union space 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 god. We’ve got one!”

“The Bureau of Defense was the one that landed a colony on Gehenna. The first Ari modified it so as notto 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, and 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 fucking 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 hell off it before it gets worse. That’llcome back to make us sorry, no way it won’t.”

Deep breath. “So Gehenna worries you. Fine. Meanwhile your precious Centrists want to play god 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 thatbenefits them. Idon’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 project–versus 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.”