Текст книги "Betrayer"

Автор книги: C. J. Cherryh

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Текущая страница: 9 (всего у книги 19 страниц)

“You must get ready, Bren-ji. Lord Machigiis here.”

“ Here?” He shoved himself to his feet. “What time is it? Jago-ji. Clothes. Please.”

“It is still dark out,” she said, and started for his closet, but Tano came in from the other door, and without a word Tano went straight to the closet and started pulling clothes out– shirt.

Trousers. Jago diverted over to the dresser, and laid out linens.

Machigi. Here. In his rooms. Before sunrise.

That was not necessarily bad, but it was probably not good, either. Machigi would not be patient about whatever it was. And it was probably something he didn’t want a lot of publicity for.

Either that, or Machigi had been up all night reading those papers and decided the human should share the misery.

He made a fast trip to the bathroom. Shaved. Slapped feeling into his face.

If he were atevi, he would have had to sit down on the bath bench to have his hair combed and queued. Tano did it in the bedroom while he was standing and tied the ribbon of his queue as carefully as he could, while Jago was helping him on with his shirt, not even protesting that he should wear the cursed vest. She just reached for the coat while he did the buttons himself.

Between the two of them, they had him dressed in record time—no tea, no time to get his wits in order, but at least his collar was straight. The half-buttoned coat somewhat hid the lack of a vest.

Banichi and Algini were, presumably, holding the fort in the sitting room. He walked in, where, indeed, Machigi was standing glumly by his fireside, with two bodyguards darkening the doorward side of the sitting room. Banichi and Algini were on the left.

“Aiji-ma,” Bren said quietly, with a little bow.

“You have caused me trouble,” Machigi said.

“One is distressed to hear so, aiji-ma. Please inform me.”

Machigi swung around toward a chair and slouched down into it, leaning back and staring up at him like a predator at his prey.

“Throughout my administration we have had at least courteousrelations with Senji Clan and the Dojisigi. Now we do not, and it is not on my timetable.”

He could do one of two things. One was to plead he was innocent, and the otherc

“If one has inadvertently shined a light on something already moving in the shadows, one would not count that a disservice, aiji-ma.”

“Tell me you have nothing of personalbias! The matter of an apartment in the Bujavid, we are told, is well-known in the Marid.”

“The Farai of Senji Clan have offended me, yes, aiji-ma. But an honest person does not advance a personal cause and paint it as advantageous to one’s lord. I have never done so, nor do I now.”

“ Brazenfellow!”

He was directly challenged. He was insulted. His integrity was questioned. All of a sudden he was convinced there was nothing for it but go straight ahead with this no-nonsense young lord. He found his center, win or lose, all or nothing, for all of them. “I am often frank but never shameless, aiji-ma. I will own any action I have taken, personally, to your disadvantage. But I do nottake responsibility for the underlying character of the Farai or for the unfortunate necessity yesterday for an action which I am certain your guard undertook advisedly– and not by myadvice.”

A short breath. That might have been a laugh. Or absolute frustration. “You walk into my city, you lodge under my roof, and in less than two days, you have destabilized a third of the Marid, paidhi. Is this how you usually work?”

“I would rather urge I have only been here two days, and your enemies have lost no time trying to bend yourpolicies in theirfavor. One could have no doubt they are annoyed with me.”

“As are mypeople, seeing one of your agents has attacked them!”

Bren lifted a careful brow. “One of my agents, aiji-ma?”

“That boy you allegedly lost.”

“The lame one.” God, as if he didn’t know. Hell, what hadVeijico’s brother gotten into?

More to the point—had he killed anybody? Shot up a Taisigi village?

“ Thatone, yes, paidhi-aiji. How many agents do you haveloose in our territories?”

“Only that one, that I know, aiji-ma.”

“What are his orders?”

“To find his sister and Barb-daja, aiji-ma. He has evidently not heard they are back safely. If I could reach him, I would convey that news, but unfortunately neither he nor his sister left the house with Guild equipment.”

“Stupid,” Machigi said, “and inconvenient. Are we expected to believethis?”

“Something has happened beyond the incident you name, aiji-ma. Please inform me.”

“You have issued no orders?”

“Unfortunately, no one is in contact with this young man, aiji-ma, not that I am aware, and not that my aishid is aware. He and his partner are young and inexperienced. At one point I had recovered the boy, but I let him off the bus before we entered your land. One hoped he would have the sense to contact senior Guild at Targai. May one inquire the nature of the provocation?”

“He has disrupted a delicate sitution.”

Better and better. And dared one guess it had to do with Machigi’s opening complaint this morning, relations with the Senji—who lay north of Targai and in a geographical line with the road they had taken in here “Unfortunate, aiji-ma.”

“Who isthis fool? What are his orders, nandi?”

“The boy, with his partner, was set to guard Tabini-aiji’s son. He went out with his partner after Barb-daja, and he did report to me at Targai. He was injured, he was on another mission, once I was ordered here, and I put him off the bus before we crossed into your territory—

hoping he would search discreetly and report back to Targai.”

“ Gods less fortunate, paidhi!” Down went Machigi’s arm on the chair arm, and security twitched. Bren didn’t. “The timing of this is all yours! You have stirred up a resting situation, antagonized the Senji and the Dojisigi, and given us a situation far more complex than a search for your missing staff!”

“One has no idea what this boy has done. Might one hear the offense?”

There was a moment of sullen silence. Then Machigi said, “He noisily discovered an outpost we have been attempting to ignore. He escaped. Nowit becomes impossible officially to ignore its presence.”

“Senji?” Bren asked. “The base from which operations have been conducted toward Najida?”

“Do not suppose yourself the sole object of offense, paidhi. Do not be so flattered.”

“Senji. Operating in Taisigi territory. You are uncharacteristically patient with this situation, aiji-ma.”

“And you are impertinent!”

“One merely seeks to understand, aiji-ma. You have observed this situation. You have done nothing against it. One is astonished.”

“Do notbe! You come in under the aiji-dowager’s auspices, bearing a peace flag from the Guild, no less, and loosing a man from your expedition to sabotage an operation, asking meto use forbearance in apprehending him. Oh, I am notpleased, paidhi.”

They were in danger. Serious danger. “One hardly has knowledge what operation this boy may have disrupted, aiji-ma, but there wasno advance knowledge. You were in danger, and the aiji-dowager, notthe Guild, intervened to offer an alliance. In point of fact, you arein a difficult situation or you would not have tolerated Senji intrusion onto your land. You have already moved against potential assassins. Your guard has successfully protected you this far, but they have been unable to rid you of a situation in your territory that has, one takes an unsupported guess, infiltrated your operations at Kajiminda and attempted to put you in the worst possible light. Whoever has done this is not your ally, and yet you have tolerated this presence in your land, observing but not moving to obliterate it. Is it that strong? I would think Senji, rebuked by your destruction of such a base, would simply pretend it had never existedc rather than go to war with you. War was neverSenji’s choice.”

“Speak your mind, paidhi. We invite it. We longfor plain argument.”

“You know that the Guild that came back from Murini’s regime is tending out of control.”

“This theory of yours!”

“You assumed control lay in Senji or Dojisigi. But say it does not. Say control lies within the renegade Guild itself, and you are notcontesting your accustomed rivals. Say it is not a Senji operation this boy has disturbed, and you have, since the events preceding my arrival, begun to suspect the nature of this base. It is no longer your neighborsyou have to deal with, aiji-ma. Another enemy has targeted the Taisigin Marid, on a schedule hastened by my presence on the coast. And why? Because they can manage the leadership of the Senji and the Dojisigi.

But you are far too intelligent, too active in administration, and too little inclined to take orders from anyone.”

Machigi gazed at him, hard-faced but notout of control of his temper. “Go on, paidhi, and cease to flatter me. I am immune.”

“It is, I think, fact, not flattery. Did the aiji-dowager approach your neighbors? No.”

“Did she approach me, uninfluencedby the Guild in Shejidan? I think not, paidhi! Their deliberation was calculated to force us to negotiation. And the aiji-dowager, equal to her reputation for high-handed intervention in government, has stepped in.”

Shocking thought. And entirely possible. He gave a little bow. “If your theory is true, aiji-ma, still, it is a better offer than that the Guild itself is giving you. Theiroffer would simply be a diversion—to prevent you cooperating with Guild from any other district.”

“Oh, you are fast, to be so ignorant as you claim.”

“One is conversant with your situation, aiji-ma, and what you propose as the dowager’s motive is an interesting interpretation.”

“Which makes every offer you have made us a lie!”

“Not a lie, aiji-ma. Not even empty. The task she set me was to come here, assess the situation, and make proposals to ensure your safety, since the aiji-dowager will notbe made an instrument of anybody else’s policy. You understand her reputation correctly. She will seek her own advantage. I am personally aware of the solution she proposed for the west coast and its troubles long before I was born, a solution the legislature declined. Ihave proposed it again in a configuration of alliances over which the legislature has no power, and which in my own opinion is likely to please her andserve you. More, I propose a context for that alliance that makes political and economic sense because I see a leader capable of carrying it out. Am I guilty of extravagance? Perhaps, but I have captured the aiji-dowager’s interest in an outcome that will accomplish everythingshe originally proposed for a political solution and that will go a long way toward dealing with inequities between districts in the East, which I know has long been a concern of hers. Far from betraying your interests, aiji-ma, I have handed you a possibility unavailable to your predecessors and to your neighbors, and if the action of a random boy has disturbed a dangerous situation in your district, one offers personal regret, but it does notindicate a plot against you, not from the aiji-dowager’s side. The situation is precarious because your enemies number more than your traditional rivals, and one fears there will be bloodshed, but not of the aiji-dowager’s planning.

Association with her is your bestcourse.”

Machigi’s eyes flickered, following every point. “And your arrival on the west coast, paidhi, so swiftly followed by hers, was at whoseinstigation?”

“In truth,” he said, “the Farai’s. Theypossess my apartment. Lord Tatiseigi of the Atageini, who had lent me his apartment, decided to come to Shejidan for the legislative season, and for his convenience, Itook a vacation on the coast. The aiji’s son decided to pay me a visit, and in consequence, the aiji-dowager turned her plane about in midair and came to deal with her great-grandson. It was quite a ridiculous set of circumstances, entirely unrelated to anything now proposed.”

“So it wasan accident,” Machigi said, a muscle jumping in his jaw.

“It was absolutely an accident, nothing plotted, nothing planned.”

“This is likely a Guild question,” Machigi said.

“If it is, aiji-ma, it is beyond my scope.”

Machigi sat glowering, showing, in the rate of his breathing, agitation. Bren sat absolutely still, watching every tick, every cloud that scudded through those golden eyes, for a weather forecast.

And Machigi looked up, and past him, to the left corner of the room.

Where Algini stood.

Bren’s heart leaped. He slowed his breathing. Tried to give no outward sign at all.

“The assassinations in the Township were excessive,” Machigi muttered. “And your first hypothesis is correct: I did not approve. We are both, paidhi, within a chain of fortuity and accident.”

So was he right? Right in the whole chain of logic? He fought to keep his own demeanor icy calm, but he feared he was readable. Machigi’s face was grim, then showed a curious—of all things—amusement.

“You think you understand us. Yet you fear you do not.”

“I apply such wisdom as I have to questions difficult to ask– and I am aware I may be mistaken.”

“You are too well informed to be mistaken, paidhi.” The fist arrived under Machigi’s chin, a prop. “Well, my wise paidhi, let me inform you. This random boy has created a shooting incident between my watchers and something with which we have maintained an uneasy quiet. We, who have generally preserved the Taisigin Marid from the intrusion of this element, have now appeared directly to challenge it. The chain of fortuity and accident has added one more link. Suppose we take your word that this is notintended, and nota Guild operation. We have citizens at risk. We have the likelihood that what this boy has disturbed will be reinforced and that Senji in particular will take extreme measures to assure any conflict takes place in ourterritory—with the help of the Dojisigi.”

It was not an incursion of thousands Machigi was talking about: it was a Guild-style operation, highly skilled individuals spreading out to remove key individuals, conduct sabotage of communications and resources. Most of all—to remove individuals. Machigi. His loyal guard. His staff. His unscheduled guest. And any lord backing Machigi.

Total collapse of the Taisigi authority and all their allied lords. A coup in the South.

“The Guild will by no means allow it.”

The fist went down hard against the chair arm. “You say! You say your services are at my disposal.”

“They are, aiji-ma.”

“Then whatdo you propose?”

That took more than a heartbeat to assemble. And Machigi’s patience with the situation was understandably on the wane.

“Access to a phone line.”

“Let me advise you what your bodyguard will advise you. Phone lines between here and Shejidan run through Senjiterritory.”

It was old thinking. And there were things neither the Messengers’ Guild nor the Assassins’

Guild in Shejidan had not made public.

“One can manage if you will give us access. Lord Geigi can reach the station.”

“Ah. So now Geigiwill become our ally. We are little encouraged to believe this.”

“Aiji-ma. For me and for the aiji-dowager he will—”

“You say!” A second slam of the fist against the chair arm. “No, paidhi. We shall play this out for the audience wechoose, under terms we choose. First of all, yes, call Tabini-aiji. Tell him we have a problem. Tell him loose the Guild. Then call his grandmother—and inform her what you have done.”

Damn, Bren thought.

They had none of the resources they would have had even in Najida, and no access to the gear Geigi carried quietly about his person. And he was less moved to trust Machigi’s motives than he had been yesterday.

He said, quietly, thinking– stall. Consult with Algini. And: Damn it, his bodyguard has told him what Algini is. Possibly more than I know on that issue. “One will do one’s best, and no, aiji-ma, one does not set out to fail—but let me think on this. Grant me half an hour to arrange my information.”

A hesitation. Then, to his vast relief: “Granted.” And not to his relief: “But I shall stay here.”

11

« ^ »

It was hard to get up and be bright in the morning, but when one had just scored a number of good marks with mani, one had to keep performing for a while or see the score dive below previous low levels. Cajeiri had learned that fact aboard the ship. Mani was suspicious of sudden changes.

And after doing an adult’s job and getting Barb-daja back– well, he had not personally gotten Barb-daja back, but at least things had turned out well, involving being able to talk to her and translate for nand’ Toby, so at least the glow of success settled on him—he figured he had to continue on good behavior.

For a start, he had to put on his better clothes for breakfast with mani. It was the first such breakfast he had attended in days, but he figured to invite himself, knowing the hour mani would be up.

So he dressed, with Jegari’s help, and heard from Jegari that Veijico had been very polite to both him and his sister. She had expressed her hopes to fit in and just gone straight to bed last night, which was good, too.

If he could just stay awake this morning, and bring mani into a good moodc

But then came a knock at the bedroom door, which was a warning, and a moment later Antaro put her head in. “Nandi! The bus is coming back. They say Lord Geigi is aboard, but nand’ Bren is still not! Veijico-nadi has gone out into the hall trying to find out.”

Right at breakfast. And from Targai, over in Maschi territory and near the Marid. Cenedi had immediately sent the bus back to be near Tanaja, ready there if nand’ Bren needed it in a hurry. But apparently it had turned right around again and brought back Lord Geigi instead.

So something this morning was not going well.

“We shall be at the door,” Cajeiri said. That was where the news would be, that was certain, news about the situation that was surrounding Najida and threatening all of them; and Cajeiri did not intend to be left ignorant again.

***

It was not a simple matter, to call Tabini-aiji, personally, in the first place. From a phone in the heart of Tanaja, it took the local operator talking to security and then to the Bujavid operators in Shejidan, then operators talking to Tabini-aiji’s majordomo and his bodyguards.

It involved also Tano and Jago coming out from the rear of the suite and taking station with Banichi and Algini, all of his guard now visible and engaged, and doing their part to verify for this and that person, yes, it was the paidhi-aiji himself, yes, he was calling from Tanaja, under Lord Machigi’s auspices, and he wished to speak to the aiji personally.

And doubtless the delay in getting to Tabini both let Tabini have a cup of tea or two and let Tabini’s office set up and trace the call to be sure it was coming from where it said it wasc

from all the persons apt to be listening in, it was a wonder if one side could hear the other.

Bet that Tabini’s bodyguards would get every bit of information they could at the other end.

They would also note every tap along the way, from here to Senji and God knew where—

that went without saying.

But once they had Tabini’s senior bodyguard on the line, Banichi talked to him personally, said several words of no sense whatsoever, and then handed the phone on to Bren.

During all of this Machigi sat and had tea—Tano’s management—by the fireside.

Machigi had run out of tea by the time they got through to Tabini.

And Machigi sat listening while Bren took the phone, standing right next to him.

“Aiji-ma?”

“ Paidhi-aiji. One finds you, we hear, in uncommon circumstances.”

“Aiji-ma, Lord Machigi has invoked the ancient rule of negotiation. At this moment one must inform you I represent him.”

“ Has he, now?” Tabini asked, and there was absolutely no need to warn Tabini every word was going to Machigi, in one way or another. “ Advise him we expect your return in due course, in good health.”

“One is honored by your expression, aiji-ma. Lord Machigi has expressed interest in the gesture the aiji-dowager has made in sending me here.”

“ We are aware of these gestures and her opinion.”

Thatshortened the list of items he had to cover.

“Aiji-ma, there is a complication. May one explain further?”

“ Explain.” Cold. Quite disturbingly cold. Tabini wanted information, but there was no ready belief on the other side. And conveying the situation—

“Understand that I have dismissed your force, which I brought here from Targai—”

“ We have had the report.”

Probably an expert and detailed report—including one from Cenedi.

“There has developed, suddenly, a strong threat to Lord Machigi from within the Marid. You will surely know.”

“ We would have an idea, indeed, nand’ paidhi.”

“Lord Machigi would be gratified by your recognition of negotiations now in progress, aiji-ma.” A breath. “He is beside me as I speak. If you have any message for him, I will deliver it.”

“ Are you under duress, paidhi?”

“No. I am not, aiji-ma. I say again, I am willingly representing Lord Machigi.”

A pause. “ Your safe return is a condition of the negotiations proceeding. You may tell him that.”

“Tabini-aiji says—”

“One has heard,” Machigi said, frowning. The phone, though quiet, was amply loud enough, one guessed, for Machigi’s hearing. Machigi snapped his fingers. “The problem.”

“Lord Machigi says—”

“ Let Guild talk to Guild.”

Thatwas an actual offer—that his bodyguard could talk to Tabini’s. That was major. Bren looked at Machigi. And Machigi nodded, scarcely perceptibly.

“Lord Machigi agrees to that, aiji-ma.”

“ Good,” Tabini said, and abruptly hung up.

Click.

“He has—”

“We are aware,” Machigi said, grim-faced. A moment later he said, “Let Guild pursue it.”

“Aiji-ma.” With respect. Machigi had agreed to Tabini’s proposition. Guild channels would exchange information, with coded assurances, and inform the lords on either side. “And you may be sure my bodyguard will talk to yours.”

Machigi got up, headed for the door.

And stopped.

“I am posting a guard on this door,” Machigi said. “They will be myservants, myguards closest to you.”

Increased security–considering the situation? Or was it diminished trust?

“Aiji-ma.” Bren gave a slight bow of appreciation. Machigi nodded shortly, gathered his guard, and left.

Bren gave a long, slow exhalation, then, as the door shut.

He hadn’t had tea. He hadn’t had breakfast. His stomach was upset—matching Machigi’s, he was quite sure.

He glanced at his bodyguard. Their expressions—impassive until that door shut, he was sure—had relaxed into grim concern.

Algini threw a look at Banichi, Banichi looked at Algini and nodded.

Algini immediately went over to the table and got a pad of paper and a pen from among the neatly stacked writing supplies and maps. He sat down, rapidly wrote, the whole room focused on him, then laid down the pen, rose, and brought it to Bren’s hand.

It said,

Nandi:

Machigi’s bodyguard believes, consequent to the exposure of a renegade base last night, that a plot is now in operation to assassinate Lord Machigi. He is, with three elderly exceptions, the last of the Ardami bloodline. Two of them, my information states, are fools incapable of governing– but very apt to be figureheads.

Machigi himself once believed agents of the Dojisigin Marid had infiltrated his operation at Kajiminda, but his aishid informs us that view has shifted overnight. Machigi now concurs with his bodyguard that Tori of Dojisigi is no longer in control of his district, from a period long predating Murini’s coup.

Predating. Longpredating. Hell! What did thatmean?

Guild sanctions and outlawry and the acceptance of the aiji’s filing against him were all screening a Guild operation to invade Taisigi territory, neutralize or remove Machigi with his guard. Guild would then have taken out renegade targets in the district, and then would use Taisigi land as a base to take out their establishment in the Dojisigin and Senjin Mari, and elsewhere.

We provided a keyword in our transmission to Cenedi that reinstated Machigi’s guard. They agree that Machigi did support Murini’s rise to power– that position protected him after the Dojisigi had assassinated his predecessor. His bodyguard does not deny that. They maintain, however, that his entire aim was the west coast– which the renegades were content to allow– while they infiltrated that operaton.

When Murini went down, however, everything changed. The renegade Guild saw the Marid as their safest refuge– and Machigi as a problem, because his guard isnot in their affiliation. The renegades could not control them, and Machigi, as you have seen, nandi, is not easily ordered.

Some of this we came in knowing. We were immediately approached by Machigi’s bodyguard, who wish to have strong assurances of Machigi’s survival if they come under central Guild direction.

Burn this note after the others have read it. These are Guild matters of extreme delicacy, predeliberation matters which I am not supposed to have revealed.

Good God, he thought, and passed the note to Banichi, who began to read it with an expressionless countenance.

It explained a lot. The renegades had penetrated the lower levels of Machigi’s guard, but his personal guard were old-school, Taisigi, out of touch with the Guild but not of the breed that had gone to the renegades.

Renegade Guild were operating nearby. There might have been records. There might have been interrogations. One had no idea what had gone on in the night.

So Machigi had just been informed, perhaps, under what doors the threads were running. But he might notknow just what deals with the devil his own bodyguard had been prepared to make to keep him alive.

Had Ilisidi known any of it? Some of itc likely.

Ask how long ago the central Guild had decided a Guildsman at a very high level should be guarding the aiji-dowager.

God, that was a cold thought. What hadthey brought back to the planet when they had arrived from space with Ilisidi’s aishid, and with those of his, who had been on the station, absorbing information but incapable of reaching the planet.

The note had gone to Jago and last of all to Tano. Tano glanced over the note, then took the deadly piece of paper to the fireplace, where it quickly became ash.

Bren moved back the chair at the table, took pen and paper himself, and wrote, with his aishid gathered at his shoulders:

One understands.

One fears that Machigi himself will turn in the hand, if used as a weapon. Whatever his real intentions at the outset of our talks, have I offered him inducement enough to consider that his best prospect actually does lie in our direction? Yet if there is a chance of peace in the Marid, the dowager is correct: it lies in this isolated young man.

That also went into the fire. Banichi bent to take a piece of paper and wrote, standing beside him:

Machigi is dangerous in his intelligence and his determination, but his aishid has found in us their only chance of saving him. He stands to win or to lose everything. The question is whether his guard has made him understand that, and whether he sees with your vision.

Bren wrote, in reply:

I have to convince him.

There were sober looks, nods. That note in its turn became ash.

Then Algini took up pen and paper again, and wrote:

I can call on the Guild, using channels available through Machigi’s guard, to protect Machigi, and to operate with immediate prejudice against Lord Tori of the Dojisigi. That will bring Tori’s son Mujita to power. Loss of Tori will drive the Farai back to man’chi with the Senji and restore the former situation, if the lord of Senji survives this.

Operate with immediate prejudice. Assassinate. Within hours.

The paidhi-aijididn’t order assassinations. He tried to stopthem.

Algini had confided in him, an extraordinary trust. Algini had exposed his own position, to get leverage on Machigi’s guard.

All the Guild might be for hire, in a certain sense: its individual members took lifelong service with various lords and fought each other at need, limiting warfare as humankind had known it. But the Guild also took self-interested actions on its own, to preserve its power and even, one expected, occasionally to sway the course of atevi politics in a direction it liked better. It had been directly attacked. A section of its membership had peeled away in a major schismc half for the aishidi’tat, forthe course of spacefaring advances Tabini-aiji and the paidhi-aiji had hammered out, and half dead-set against them.

Could the paidhi then say he had noresponsibility for the fracture of the Guild—or for it now taking extreme action to deal with its problem?

Tori’s whole line had been a problem—his father Badissuni had tried to overthrow the aishidi’tat, Tori had backed the coup that had temporarily unseated Tabini, and incidentally killed very many innocent people. Tori had assassinated Machigi’s predecessor—and his father—and his brothers and sisters. Tori’s hands were not clean, far from it.

There was nothing to say. Exceptc

He took the pen and added his own note of misgiving. Tori’s daughter Tiajo is a child.

Algini wrote: Tori alone will be the target. Better Mujita live to be a problem to his clan, until one of his advisors removes him. Tiajo is unproven, for good or for ill. But she will not be grateful.

God, how did he get into this situation, bargaining for lives? And he hoped to hell his plea for a kid’s survival didn’t have a bloody cost later.

He took paper and wrote: Are we dealing with an organization of these renegades? Is there a leader?

He looked straight at Algini, and Algini just nodded.

He wrote: Does Cenedi know this?

Algini took the pen and wrote: By now he does.

Damn, he thought, certain that Algini had just bent Guild rules a second time. Somethingwas going on between Algini and Tano and Machigi’s bodyguard. God only knew if any information had gotten to Tabini’s men before the bus left.

He didn’t like their situation now—sitting in a target zone, with information coming to them mostly from Machigi’s guard. He looked toward Banichi and Jago, longest with him, closest of his bodyguards, and had an idea they understood the situation to a depth he didn’t, even yet.

Tano and Algini themselves would act for the Guild, when it came down to it—he was becoming convinced of it, and he didn’t begrudge them that loyalty. Banichi and Jago, he was equally sure, would act for Tabini-aiji, who had sent them to him in the first place.