The Administration Series (211 page)

It took him a few seconds to manage any response at all. "What the hell happened to 'I have a lot to thank him for'? Some fucking repayment."

"Keir will be devastated, naturally. A regrettable side effect, should you remain intransigent. But in the long run, his psychological profile indicates that he will recover with limited damage." The vicious, vindictive smile again. "Perhaps I will be able to bring a little, ah, comfort to him — I've always admired him, you know."

Now he knew why Carnac had brought the guards, because for the rest of his life he couldn't understand how he managed to stop himself lunging across the desk and breaking the bastard's neck. Somehow he did stop himself. Somehow he managed to force himself to shut out the idea of Warrick and Carnac and try to react intelligently, try to keep the plan intact.

But the truth was that he couldn't see a way out. Buy time, that was all he could do.

"It will . . . " He swallowed. "It will take time to undo everything. If you want me to make it look as if it never happened. Two days." If Carnac had acted, then the inspection must be close.

"You have until this afternoon. Or let us be generous — you have until nine tomorrow morning. You will sleep here, since you doubtless have much to do." He gestured to the guards outside. "These gentlemen will act as your escorts until then."

Fuck. "Fine."

"Cooperate fully, and I give you my word that you will be permitted to resign from I&I and no further action will be taken against you. You may ask what guarantee I can give of that." He smiled thinly. "All I can say is — what choice do you have?"

Toreth didn't dignify that with an answer.

"Where is Sara?" Carnac asked.

Toreth had expected the question, so even when it was asked so abruptly he didn't hesitate. "No idea."

"Really, you are the most — " Carnac sighed. "No matter. She will be found and returned here. If you require assistance from her then she can perform her functions from your office. Now I suggest you get to work. Goodbye."

There must be something he could do. To start with —

"Oh, one more thing." Carnac paused in the doorway. "Kailynna was arrested this morning, so don't think that you could get to her before I did."

Fucking spook mind-reader.

Carnac shut the door, leaving a deafening silence in the room.

He tried to think about what Carnac had said. To think it through carefully, looking for a flaw in the plan, unlikely as it seemed that there would be one. Carnac wasn't a magician. He did what he did by understanding people and predicating reactions, and so far Toreth had obviously been too fucking predictable by half. Just think about the damn problem. Go through it carefully — there had to be something he could do.

Even in small pieces, his mind shied away from it. All he could think was that Warrick would believe it.

Warrick would believe it.

The coincidental way they'd first met, the investigation at SimTech . . . God, he'd been the one who'd initiated things, pursued things. It was all too fucking convincing. He'd be in prison, unable to tell him the truth, and Warrick would watch him die, hating him. And then afterwards . . .

Easy to say Warrick would never touch Carnac, but that supposed Carnac was stupid enough to let his name be connected to the arrests. He imagined Carnac assuring Warrick he was doing his best, then taking him the news. Kate betrayed you. Toreth — no, Val, he'd call him Val. Val betrayed you. Here's a fucking shoulder to cry on.

Forcing the image away, he circled the problem for a while, looking for a solution, and found nothing.

He could run, or try to run, and at least he'd leave a hell of a mess for Carnac to clear up. But it was scant comfort. The socioanalyst would win — had already won, during all this time when Toreth had thought he was being so fucking clever.

Maybe Sara could come up with something; he wished now that he hadn't sent her away. Calling her back was a risk in itself, because the only slight advantage he had was that the changes had already happened. That was about the only thing Carnac hadn't had perfectly mapped out, the only thing that had surprised him, and that had been down to blind luck.

He couldn't risk leading the guards down to Systems in case there'd been a delay and Sara hadn't put the changes in place. On the other hand, it was safer to have her back up here than to have Carnac's people hunting for her and stumbling over God knows what. He'd just have to use the comms and be careful.

It took four transfers between offices before he found her. "Sara? When you've got a moment, I'd like to see you in my office."

To his relief, she merely said, "I'll be another couple of minutes, if that's okay?" She sounded as calm as if she was doing nothing more clandestine than chasing up errant files for him.

"That'll be fine."

A couple of minutes to finish, and the time to walk back up again. In an absolute sense it meant little, but every second wasted felt desperate. However much he tried, he couldn't stop playing and replaying scenarios in his mind. They all led to the same place, with variations in the detail but never in the essentials.

Carnac and Warrick. Warrick and Carnac. Would Carnac play the game? Probably. He liked games, and he'd seemed interested in the gear the time he'd seen it. He'd know what Warrick wanted, what he needed — that was his job. He imagined Warrick kneeling for Carnac, obeying his velvet voice, shivering at his touch, begging for him . . . and somehow none of that was as bad as the idea of weekends, Sunday fucks, Carnac and Warrick in bed and happy together and —

The door opened, and Sara entered, looking over her shoulder at the guards, who thankfully stayed outside.

"What's the story?" he asked when the door closed.

"Everything went off without a hitch." She sat down, looking so pleased with herself that it seemed a shame to tell her the bad news. "If you look at the screen, the new systems are in place and running. The seniors are telling their teams. Chevril says the interrogators are taking it pretty well, considering. The only thing is — " She looked at him more closely. "Oh, shit. What's wrong?"

He outlined Carnac's blackmail plan to her. By the time he'd finished, her eyes were the size of teacups.

"I don't believe it," she said finally.

"Yeah. I had trouble with it myself."

"I don't . . . and Carnac meant it? He'd really do it?"

"Looking forward to it. There's probably a damp patch on the floor by the desk where he was drooling at the thought of me in prison. Practically came on the spot when he started talking about telling Warrick all about what I'd supposedly done." The thought froze him again. Warrick would believe it. Warrick would —

"Jesus." She rubbed her arms, as if trying to get rid of something unpleasant stuck to her skin. "Jesus Christ. I can't believe it. Warrick's
mother
?"

"It's true. Carnac had the fucking file. And I never told you, but his father was some kind of Int-Sec agent. Citizen surveillance, probably, but I don't know for sure. I am sure it's true about Kate — it makes sense."

She shook herself, then said, "You've got to tell Warrick."

"Tell him? What, you mean . . . ?" The one thing that simply hadn't occurred to him. Everything he'd considered had been about making sure Warrick didn't find out. "I can't."

"It's blackmail, and that's the only way to beat it." He'd never heard her sound so determined, which was saying something. "Tell him everything about Kate and about what Carnac's going to do. I know it'll upset him — okay, more than upset him — but he might be able to do something, out there. He won't believe it's true about you now, but if Carnac gets to him first with Kate's file and a m-f'd confession . . . " She shrugged.

"I can't tell him." And he meant 'can't'. He couldn't imagine saying the first word. The breath knotted in his throat at the idea of even seeing Warrick now. "If you can't think of anything else, I'll have to do what Carnac wants — cancel everything."

"Don't be stupid," she said flatly.

He stared at her. "There's nothing else I can do."

"Then you might as well go over to his office and shoot yourself. Save him the trouble." She pulled her chair closer. "Toreth, he's going to do it anyway. If he wants you dead, if he wants Warrick — what's to stop him? Think about it."

He did think about it, unwillingly and with increasing horror. She was right. There was nothing to stop Carnac simply going ahead with his plan. There was nothing, in fact, to stop him adapting the plan to use any other Int-Sec agent, but it only mattered because it was Kate. She would make it convincing: her relationship to Warrick, her existence as a deep cover agent. The indisputable evidence in her file would damn him.

The more he thought about it, the more sure he was, because if Carnac wanted Warrick there would never be a better opportunity to get him.

Which all left him with only one course of action, impossible as it was. "I can't do it. I mean . . . he won't fucking believe it anyway."

"Yes he will. He'll believe it from you. He trusts you."

That was almost funny, even at this moment. "Trusts me?"

She rolled her eyes. "For God's sake, of course he does. For the important things, anyway. He trusted you with Marian Tanit, didn't he? That was back when all you were doing was fucking. And what about the chains and all the other stuff? What about the cabinet? Dillian might think he's mad, but he isn't. He has to trust you, to let you do that to him."

He shook his head, although he couldn't deny there was some truth in it — he'd said the same thing himself. "It's not the same. Not at all. It's . . . what the hell would I say to him? I can't even think of how to start."

"Well, you've got until you talk to him to come up with something. You don't have any other choice."

Toreth closed his eyes, forcing himself to look at the problem with as much detachment as he could muster. She was right, of course. Even if Warrick reacted in the worst way possible, he'd still be in no more trouble than he was right now. Just do it, don't think about it

His hand was on the comm before he thought of the guards. Outside the door, for now, probably to encourage him to do exactly what he was about to do. The comms would be monitored — he was willing to bet there was a human, not a computer, ready to call Carnac the moment they heard anything amiss.

There was another way — Payne. Payne would take a message, with suitable encouragement. Unless Carnac had left him Payne deliberately, in which case he was as dangerous as the comm.

Thinking about it like this would leave him paralysed in his office for the next day and a half. He made a snap decision — trust Payne. Carnac had tried (or had seemed to try) to get him out of the way. Not the best grounds for trusting him, but he had to do something. Time was ticking away already.

Sara was looking at him questioningly. "I'll do it," he said. "But I can't risk the comm. I'll send Payne."

Relief turned to concern. "Do you trust him? I'll do it."

"Carnac will have you trailed as well as me. Bevan should be able to help, but I have to do it straight away." Before I have time to think about it,

"What about B-C?"

"Over at Justice, which Carnac must know about. I doubt they'll let him back in the building until Carnac gets what he wants." And then Barret-Connor would be arrested along with the rest of them. "Anyway B-C's still one of the team which means he's no safer than you. Payne isn't even supposed to be here. He's perfect."

She shook her head. "I hope you remember this when you're giving him his cards."

What was this thing she had for the little tosser? He decided it wasn't worth going into now. "What about who ratted us out? Did you get any ideas?"

"Doral," she said, with absolute confidence.

"Fuck. I knew we shouldn't have trusted the shit. Why do you think it was him?"

"Nearly everybody said he'd spoken to them, sounded them out about what they thought of the plan. Coming up to people on their own, asking whether they really thought we could put one over on Carnac. Whether there might be another way to talk Carnac into dropping it all. Everyone told me that same thing. 'I didn't think anything about it at the time but now you mention it gosh yes it was a bit funny'. You know the drill."

"Yeah, I know." They'd been sitting on any suspicions about Doral until they'd finally been forced to decide which way to jump. Thank God they seemed to have chosen him — so far. "Nearly everyone?"

"He didn't speak to Chevril. Not at all." She paused. "At least not according to what Chevril says."

Which meant either he'd thought Chevril was too closely involved to risk even hinting to, or it was the other reason. It was obvious enough which of the two Sara thought, and he tended to agree.

"The stupid bastard. Just what we need, on top of everything else."

"We can work round it, though, can't we? Now we know who?"

"Yeah. Yeah, we can. In fact, it might not even be a bad thing, if — " He shook his head. Getting too far ahead of himself. "I'll get it sorted. I've got to get the meeting with Warrick set up and see if I can shift those bloody guards so that I can talk to people."

"Shall I stay here?"

"Yes. Use the comm, just be careful — assume Carnac's hearing everything. Get hold of Chevril, Christofi, Doyle and a couple of the others. Anyone Doral's pissed off in the past will do, which doesn't narrow the field much, given what a bent bookie he is. Set somewhere up — you know what I need." Carnac wouldn't interfere. He'd assume it was Toreth taking his anger out in revenge. "And for fuck's sake, don't tell anyone else about Kate. I don't want any more people thinking that maybe they'd be better off with Carnac than with me."

She set to work, while he took out a pencil and paper and nearly lost his resolve. Listening to Sara with half an ear, he stared at the blank sheet, pretending that he was thinking about what to write. A minute passed, then two, and then that excuse lost the last shred of plausibility, leaving him with the fact that he was afraid. He was afraid of what Warrick would say, of what he would do. That, in the end, he would believe Carnac and —