Inheritor (55 page)

Then at Jase.

"Damn lot of choice you've given us."

"I'm giving you a choice, Bren. The people at the other station didn't have any."

"What in hell provoked it?"

"We don't know. We just don't know. Maybe they're just that way. That's always a possibility, isn't it?"

"Not one I accept!"

"That's what I count on."

What Jase had already said began to sink in. Unwelcomely. "Don't you lay
that
on me! Good
God
, no."

"Let me call the ship. We have armed atevi and probably armed humans and airplanes and boats and mechieti and no one knows what else. None of us may get out of this. Yolanda's already told them don't rely on Mospheira for anything. If you don't want to leave the matter of the atevi to blind luck, baji-naji, Bren, let me talk to them. I'll give them codewords to tell them I'm not compelled and I'll tell them first to trust you, to trust the aiji and the aiji-dowager and whoever they recommend. And if it comes down to Direiso and the rest of them, maybe they'll give the outsiders indigestion if they come here, I don't know. But if we die here, everything is left to chance. They could end up trusting this Direiso person."

"You're not inept, yourself, Jase."

"I've tried to learn from you. Will you let me do it?"

«
^
»

"B
anichi,"
Bren said at the door of the little room in which the Assassins held private consultation and, having drawn Banichi a little out of earshot of the guard the Guild had placed on the meeting room, he tried to tell a man who last year hadn't known his sun was a star that aliens were hunting in the neighborhood.

"There are other suns," was the way he put it to Banichi, "and one of them is a very bad neighbor. Jase is an officer in the Pilots' Guild and he's made up his mind we're preferable to Hanks."

"A man of good taste," Banichi said calmly. "What about these bad neighbors?"

"They fly in space," he said, and Banichi said, "I think Cenedi should hear this."

Banichi called Cenedi and Jago out of the room. After three more sentences, Cenedi said, " 'Sidi-ji needs to hear this."

Jago went to wake the dowager, and in a very short time indeed Ilisidi herself had come out of the office she had chosen as her retreat, immaculate, stiff-backed, and frowning.

"More foreigners," Ilisidi said, then. "With bad manners, is it? And Jase-paidhi wants us to ally with his people, who provoked them?"

"I think we can avoid alliance," Bren said, with a hollow feeling in his stomach. "Or manage it to our advantage. But I do think the call to his ship would open options otherwise at risk should he — or I — be unlucky tonight."

"The risk seems on his side," Cenedi said, "aiji-ma, since we could then remove him from consideration were we so inclined."

"He is very well aware of the hazard," Bren said, "and has expressed the wish that the aiji-dowager take Mercheson paidhi under
her
personal protection as he himself is under the aiji's."

Banichi gave him a look. So did Jago, at this yielding up of rights Tabini might have contested. But contest was the operative word. There was no option without extensive negotiation if Ilisidi was the leader in the field, as she was, and there was a certain advantage in having Ilisidi step in. Having her as protector of one paidhi created a new position of authority if somehow they should fail and if Ilisidi had to contest with Direiso.

And for all persons concerned in the transaction including Yolanda Mercheson it brought
paghida sara
, mutual leverage. It meant negotiable positions.

Meant a place, a man'chi, a salvation — if they could stop the slide toward unreason.

A message had come in. A white paper went from an operator to one of Ilisidi's junior security to Cenedi, to Ilisidi.

And to Banichi.

Banichi picked up a sandwich from the table. And pocketed it. And another.

That, Bren thought, that was the action of a man who didn't expect a regular breakfast.

"We've just had an indication from Dur," Banichi said, "that the boy did get down safely. One thought you would wish to know. Whether he'll be safe when his parents lay hands on him is another matter, but we do at least have a confirmation that they're being met by his father's staff. Tano and Algini report movement, however."

That was worrisome.

"The fortress hears at some distance," Jago said.

"Not far enough to give it another hour," Cenedi said. " 'Sidi-ji."

Ilisidi gave a wave of her hand. "Whatever one does to make the earth link work," she said, "do. How long does this talking to the ship take?"

It took very little time, the director said. And gave the orders.

Then it was a matter of settling Jase at the console in the communications center. Jase was visibly anxious.

It was disturbing for the workers, too, Bren was sure, a human not only occupying that post, but giving his own protocols and codewords to the ship in a language they had, for one reason and another, no translators here to interpret.

The ship answered. The foreign voice went out over the speakers so all the room could hear.

Then with full knowledge that the conversation was going to be monitored by a very similar center on Mospheira, Jase had to inform his captain that things were both better and worse than the ship might have feared.

"Sorry to call at this hour," Jase said, and his voice steadied. "But I've thought it over and I really need Yolanda over here."

"
Yes
," the answer came back. "
How are you
?"

"Doing very much better, sir. I've received sympathy from the atevi and I've made recommendations to the atevi government which they've accepted. I need Yolanda, though. Everybody means well, but it's hard. I want her here. I'll try to negotiate that myself, but I wonder if you can't explain to the island that I really need her for a while. Urgent persuasion. That kind of thing. Tell Sandra not to worry about me."

The whole speech was laced with codewords. If he'd had any concern that Mospheiran cooperation was still a possibility, he'd have expected a following and angry phone call. But they knew. He knew. Jase wasn't even taking pains to bury them too obscurely in ordinary conversation. He was just delivering the words and all of them could hope they were the right ones.

"
Do you want to talk to your mother
?" the captain asked, after hearing all of that with no comment.

"Absolutely no need to, sir."

"
I'm here anyway
," another, female voice cut in. "I
miss you
."

"Good to hear your voice, mom." This time there was a little shakiness. "I'm fine. I really am. How are you?"

"Worried about you. When am I not? How are you doing?"

"A lot better. I can't talk too long. I'll call when I get back to the city. I'm on what they call a vacation. You'd be amazed. I was rained on by a weather system and I'm sore from riding. And it's beautiful down here. But I've got to sign off now. I love you. You take care, mom. And you can take a call from me
or
from Bren."

"
You take care
. —
Jase? Jase
?"

"Yes? I'm here."

"Jase, are you keeping your hours regular?"

Jase ducked his face and wiped a hand over his mouth as if that last was some unexpected and embarrassing item. "Fine, mom. I'm doing fine. You just take care. All right? I'll call you maybe in three or four days. Tell the captain solid fix and green lights on the report and
please
look out for Yolanda. Whatever you hear from this side, rely on the people I've been dealing with to tell you the truth. Good night."

"
Good night, Jase
," was the signoff, and Bren stood there, the most fluent listener to the exchange, on whom all the others most relied.

And
he
couldn't tell. There wasn't a way to crack a verbal code, no way but fluency and a specific knowledge of the situation.

"So?" Ilisidi asked.

"I take no alarm, aiji-ma. Codewords were certainly all through it, which I expected. There'd have to be to make assurances valid. He seemed to want his captain to pressure Mospheira to get his partner out. He also asked his captain to listen to his associates down here as reliable people."

"A very good thing," Ilisidi said, leaning on her cane. "A very wise thing."

And they waited, while technicians revised settings and threw switches and consulted checklists.

Jase took out a folded sheet of paper that had already seen a great deal of crumpling, and spread it out on the console in front of him — Jase's own writing, but two paidhiin had collaborated on it to eliminate infelicitous remarks; and Banichi and Cenedi had read it, with one good suggestion, but Ilisidi by her own choice had not.

The director cued Jase, and Jase, smoothing his piece of paper flat on the counter, perhaps because his momentary attempt to hold it in his hands did not produce a steady view of it, began:

"Nadiin of the aishi'ditat, this is Jase-paidhi with news of the current situation —" Risky word. Jase pronounced it with only a slight stammer. "I have spoken with the ship and have learned that Mercheson-paidhi on Mospheira has concluded that the unsteadiness of the Mospheiran government and haphazard management make it impossible to continue there. She has appealed to the ship to leave Mospheira and to come to the mainland. The Mospheiran government is attempting to prevent her from doing so and has attempted to stir up political rivalries among atevi of the aishi'ditat to cover their own failures. The ship however, on the advice of Mercheson-paidhi and of myself, has concurred: the ship is withdrawing Mercheson-paidhi from Mospheira and calls on the Mospheiran government to allow her to join me on the mainland. The ship is continuing its association with Tabini-aiji and will deal solely with Shejidan. It sends good will to the aishi'ditat, and to the aiji, and to the aiji-dowager, who has stated she will take Mercheson-paidhi under
her
protection, to preserve the felicity and the wisdom of the arrangement that has established
three
paidhiin, myself, Bren-paidhi, and Mercheson-paidhi, as representatives. Thank you for your kind attention. I shall now repeat this message in Mosphei' for the information of Mospheiran listeners on the other side of the strait."

Technicians scrambled in the silence of a broadcast area. Coughs were smothered. Switches were thrown off, others were thrown on, and a tower aimed at Mospheira punched out the next message at a power level reserved to announce impending war.

Jase got his next cue.

"Citizens of Mospheira, this is Jase-paidhi with news of the current situation —"

Atevi stood very still throughout the whole length of the message. Technicians jumped at one point, and made adjustments. Jase was speaking rapidly and it inevitably took Mospheiran technicians a moment to respond to an electronic provocation.

This version, however, was going up to the ship as well. And
if they
received the ship's support and that message came back down from the sky, there would be receivers tuned to it, and if they jammed every broadcast on the island,
someone
in an island full of various-minded and argumentative humans was going to get that message recorded and passed out hand to hand on faxes and copy machines.

This time there was a consequence and a crisis George Barrulin couldn't head off from the President's door.

The President's morning golf game might not take place tomorrow.

Jase finished. A technician cut off the microphone and shut down his console and spoke to him. Then everyone dared talk — and take a breath. Small coughs broke out, held until now.

"He did it exactly," Bren said to Ilisidi. "And the University will
know
he damned Hanks' numbers in what he said."

"Hanks' numbers
and
Direiso's." Ilisidi was very pleased.

Jase meanwhile had gotten up and left the console. He looked very solemn and pale as he came down the aisle between the long rows of consoles.

He looked very lonely.

Atevi might not understand two humans embracing in a crowded room. They did understand an offered hand.

Jase took it like a drowning man. Squeezed it hard.

"Just a little shaky," Jase said. "Sorry. Did I do it?"

"You did it."

Jase's voice sank to near-nothing. "Codeword, for the ship: ask to speak to Constance." And sadly, desperately, "Is there
any
word, Bren?"

As if information might be forthcoming from them now that Jase had done what he could on their side — and made Mercheson-paidhi suddenly a very valuable piece in a very deadly game. Bren reluctantly shook his head. "I wish I could tell you yes."

"We may not get her out," Jase said quietly.

"If she comes ashore anywhere from Dur southward, the aiji's people will bring her in, no question."

Or, the unspoken possibility, Direiso's people might try to lay hands on her if they had any
inkling
she might be attempting a crossing. If Hanks' people were holding her, a possibility he didn't discount, he was sure they'd hear from them, maybe
claiming
to hold her, after they'd held their meetings and managed a decision about it.

"How long does it take to cross?" Jase asked.

"Varies. Depends on the weather. Freighters, about two days."

"If she was out there during the storm —"

"You just point the bow at the waves and keep the engine running enough to let you steer. She didn't come down here knowing, but she could find that out among the first things she'd learn. The wind would be constantly at the back of someone trying to cross. That would save fuel. A lot of it. The storm was out of the west — it would
help
her, not run her out of fuel."

"The captain's gotten the word from me to apply pressure to get her over here. I didn't get anything from him on what she might have told him about her situation and, most of all, the captain didn't cue me at any time that he knew where she was or that she's safe. — What's going on? What's happening?"