Laldasa (34 page)

“Varaza,” repeated Jaya. “Yes. He seemed ... unsettled by my visit.”

Gar shifted in his seat—his leathers voiced a protesting creak. “There is more. I heard about the attack on you. In view of your visit—what I had discovered—I wondered if the two things might not be connected. I went to the Sun Crescent Headquarters intending to visit the prisoner myself. He was dead when I arrived. Just. I was there, Nathu Rai, when the forensics team removed the poison ampoule from his mouth.”

“Suicide?”

Gar's lips twitched. “That was suggested as a possibility by the Asvin in attendance, but he said it was by no means certain. The ampoule was of a soft, gelatinous substance. It was caught on one tooth.” He paused again, then said, “You ask if it was suicide. I think not. The guards I interviewed claimed to have searched the man thoroughly and found nothing on his person. The man died while eating his dinner, Nathu Rai. I don't think he took that capsule voluntarily. I think it was in his food.”

Jaya stood and paced toward the hearth. He could just see Ana behind the door, listening. Not wanting to give her away, he turned his face toward the fire.

“There is yet more,” said Gar. He sounded like a man who had just bitten into a sour fruit. “Division Chief Varaza paid a visit to the Sun Crescent Headquarters less than an hour before the time of the prisoner's death.”

Jaya returned to his chair. “He visited the prisoner?”

Gar shook his head. “That is not a matter of record, but he was seen entering the cell block by at least two patrolmen.”

“Are visits to the cell block normally a matter of record?”

Commander Gar looked as if the fruit had become suddenly more sour. “Normally, yes.”

Jaya's mind raced. Varaza. If Varaza was the one who planted poison in the thug's food ...

“It is a hard thing for me to accept, Nathu Rai, that such corruption has seeped into the ranks of the Sarngin. That a man—even such a man as that—should be murdered for the sake of petty greed.”

Jaya glanced up at the Commander's face. Did he dare trust him—let him in on the larger implications of this? Or did he let him believe that it was as simple as that? He shifted his eyes from the brooding Gar to Ana, half-hidden behind the Parlor door.

She nodded. Trust him, her eyes said.

“The greed may be a good deal more than petty, Commander,” Jaya said. “You're assuming I was attacked because I inquired into the corrupt dealings of some Sarngin officers and their men. I imagine you suspect Varaza of master-minding that attack.”

Gar nodded.

“Are you familiar with the dispute between the Avasan Miner's Guild and the Kasi-Nawahr Consortium?”

“One hears and reads of nothing else.”

“As a member of the Vrinda Varma, I was to vote on that issue. As a Sarojin, my vote carries ... an undue amount of weight. I suspect that someone would have liked to influence that vote.”

“The Consortium?”

Jaya nodded. “A possibility.”

“But you speak in the past tense. You were to vote-“

“The case has been remanded to the Inner Circle. I'm no longer a deciding factor.”

Gar's brows disappeared under over-hanging fringe of dark hair. “Are you not? Let us assume that the attack on you was motivated by the desire to affect your vote. Did it?”

“No.”

“The report states that these men claimed to be KNC wharfers in fear of being let go—members of a Worker's Coalition. Do you believe that?”

“I'm not sure. I've ... received some pressure from another quarter. From someone I know, without doubt, is connected at a high level to the KNC.”

“Can we assume this person is aware of your suspicions?”

Jaya recalled the expression on Duran Prakash's face when he'd mentioned the KNC in the same breath with the word “attack.” He nodded. “I think we can assume that.”

“Can we not also assume that your testimony is critical to proving coercion?”

Jaya nodded again.

“And that a substantiated charge of coercion would end or severely damage the Consortium's political aspirations?”

The implications sat in Jaya's mind like huge cold blocks of stone. It had never occurred to him that the Consortium's aspirations were anything more than big business.

“You are very much a deciding factor, Nathu Rai—and very much in danger, if all this is so. But I wonder: Are these two things linked, or is Varaza simply a man of varied interests?”

oOo

“Do you know what this is?” Kareen Devaki shook her fist in Ashur Badan's face, a chain dangling from her fingers.

“Off-hand, I'd say it's a necklace. Gold, by the look of it.”

Kareen tossed the chain down on her partner's highly polished desk. It glinted in the light of the chandelier hanging just overhead. “Look at it. Closely.”

“Ah!” he said. “Yes, it's leaf isn't it? The old etched style. We see enough of that around here, I'd say, not to get so excited about it.”

“You fat toad,” hissed Devaki. “Read it!”

Frowning, Badan picked up the delicately incised medallion and peered at it. “Anala Nadim—Onan. Dated: 5523-Pausha-9.
 
... Nadim,” he repeated. His eyes met Devaki's. “You don't think-“

“I most certainly do think. Nadim is not a common name—except in Onan.”

“Kareen, you're jumping to conclusions.”

“Am I?” She pointed to the leaf. “Don't you think we'd better find out? We'll have to access the census records.”

Ashur Badan's face was suddenly less jovial than usual. “You know what he'll say.”

“Oh, he'll say we're every kind of idiot known to God. He'll say we've let an incredible opportunity slip through our fingers. And it's all thanks to that idiot Rishi. He had this for the better part of a week before he turned it over to us. This may be the end of everything, Ashur.”

Badan shrugged. “You exaggerate. Our network is too valuable to him. He's not likely to toss it aside when things are going so well. He's too greedy and he enjoys our ...
 
arrangement. Besides, how could we have known? Ah, we still don't know! She might not be any relation to Rokh Nadim at all.”

“Or she might be in his immediate family. We need to let him know, Ashur. Now.”

“Do we? Why can't we exploit this thing ourselves? Why not use it to retrieve our autonomy?”

“Why not? We're not big players in this game, Ashur. We're mice. Attractive, expedient, useful mice.” She leaned across her partner's desk. “What if we try and fail? It's not just him we'd have to face. Remember that. This is not a game for small players anymore.”

Ashur nearly pouted. “It was.”

“Was, was—I'm talking about what is. We will not be let go easily. We are deeper in this every day and with this-“ She snatched the id from his fingers. “With this, we are in over both our heads.”

Ashur Badan shuffled the flimsies on his desk. “All right. I concede that an attempt to get out from under would probably ... ”

“Kill us?”

He glanced at her uneasily. “You don't think he'd-“

Devaki laughed brittley. “Him? No, not him. But his puppet-masters might. Don't judge others by yourself, Ashur. You wouldn't kill someone for the sake of maintaining our little kingdom, but they are different people playing in a different dimension and I suspect they have an Empire at stake.”

oOo

“Jaya?”

Jaya barely glanced up from the buffet at which he filled his plate. “Ah, mother! It's been ages.”

“It's been two days,” said the Rani, moving to pour herself a cup of channa. She scooped a segmented asok from the buffet and put it on a plate. “And in two days, you have managed to turn this house completely upside down. When I got home last night I found armed guards at every entrance, men patrolling the grounds and a team of journalists preparing to storm the front gates. Can you explain any of this?”

Jaya turned to look at her and she found her hands could no longer hold her plate and cup. She put down the channa with a clatter, spilling it. Asok wedges rolled onto the sideboard.

“What happened to your face?”

“The same thing that happened to my ribs—a little bit of campaigning on the part of ... some people in favor of crushing AGIM.”

“What?” The Rani's breath stopped in her throat. “What are you saying?”

“More than I should. Excuse me.” He literally fled into the gardens.

Melantha Sarojin stared after him. She was at the point of giving pursuit when Jivinta Mina entered the room.

“Well, good afternoon,” said the older woman dryly. “You've been conspicuously absent. Sleeping late or were you ... out?”

“I was visiting my family in Mohan. Can you tell me what's been going on around here? What happened to Jaya?”

Mina raised her brows. “He didn't tell you?”

“He mumbled something about a campaign against AGIM and then said he was telling me more than he should. What is going on?”

“Maybe you should ask that fine man-friend of yours.”

The Rani's brow furrowed. “Duran? What do Jaya's injuries have to do with Duran?”

Mina shrugged. “Maybe nothing, maybe everything. But he does have an interest in Jaya's vote.”

“So does AGIM. So, probably do the Avasans living under our roof.”

“Neither AGIM nor the Avasans living under our roof have dispatched a clutch of thugs to lobby the House Sarojin.” Mina shrugged again and moved to sit at the dining table. “But, thankfully, lobbying—or threats—are futile now. Jaya's vote no longer figures in it.”

“What does that mean?” Melantha gathered her channa and fruit and moved to the table.

“The Deva Radha has relieved the Vrinda Varma of the issue.”

Melantha's felt weak with relief. “Then Jaya's involvement with this thing is at an end.”

Mina made a moue with her lips. “Well, except for the small matter of the threats made to his life.”

“Surely the Sarngin can handle that.”

“The Sarngin!” snorted Mina disparagingly. “They've already managed to lose the one suspect they had in custody. I wouldn't expect too much of them, if I were you.”

“How does one lose a suspect?”

“In this case, death by poisoning. Ah, but I've said too much.” Mina smiled into the Rani's face. “The biscuits are very good, Melantha. You must try one.”

oOo

“So. He will testify.”

Duran Prakash snorted. “Of course he will testify. And we have no way to stop him—short of killing him, that is. In view of everything that's happened, that would be exceptionally stupid.”

“Not if it's done correctly.” Nigudha Bhrasta extracted a jellied leaf from the appetizer tray and put it into his mouth, obviously savoring the minty flavor.

Prakash bared his teeth in nothing like a smile. “Do you trust any of our ‘associates' to do anything correctly? Besides which, any action against the Saroj would be immediately connected with us.”

“Not necessarily.” There was a flash of light from the wall monitor as it came to life. “It's the server.”

They discussed inconsequential things until the domestic had served them and left. Then, Prakash's host picked up the thread of their previous conversation along with a forkful of seafood.

“Our young Lord has been pursuing certain other unhealthy avenues of curiosity. He seems to have noticed an upsurge in the number of muggings in the Port Zone that target Avasan tourists. He also noticed that those tourists are then subject to immediate arrest by our fine Sarngin.”

Prakash's eyes widened. “Sarojin made that connection?”

He was favored with a grim smile. “You underestimate him, Duran. He is Bhaktasu Sarojin's son, after all.”

“Hmm. But he is also Melantha Sarojin's son. With her predilection for the trivial and shallow-“

“I thought the beautiful Rani had quite captured your heart. Shallow, you call her?”

Prakash snorted indelicately. “She's captured only my lust, my friend. She has enough depth to satisfy that, if only she was willing.”

“Tsk. Still not admitted to the Sacred Chamber, eh?”

“No, but at the door. You are familiar with the Bogar rites?”

“Vaguely. I have nowhere near the ... fascination with it that some do. You are considered a master, are you not?”

“I am. I find the satisfied female is willing to express gratitude if a rite is well-performed. And I do perform them well.”

“Ah, and the Rani was grateful for your performance.”

“Oh, yes. But not grateful enough. Still, I've gotten farther than any of her previous suitors. I interviewed them, you know. They all lied terribly.”