Coren laughed sharply. "I told you I made an appointment with my doctor. You didn't answer my question."
"Nor did you." She stood, his shirt in one hand. "But you will have that looked at."
He shook his head. "I need to talk to Jeta. Tresha. Whatever her name is. Where is she?"
"Three floors down, under guard. She'll wait."
He tried to stand. "Then I have to go to Nova Levis."
Ariel frowned. "The colony?"
"No, the lab."
She pressed down on his shoulder. He winced but sat back down. "Don't bother. It really was dismantled." She turned toward her robot. " Jennie? Who's working the infirmary now?"
"I don't suppose I can reason with you," Coren said.
"Dr. Jerios," the robot replied.
"Of course you can," Ariel told Coren. " Just do what I say. Thank you, Jennie. Let her know I have a patient for her-we'll be right down. And bring me a robe, please."
Coren let his head fall back. "Can't she come here?"
"She can; her equipment can't. Come on. Up. One more trip before you can sleep."
"Make up your mind, will you? Up or down." Coren grunted as he got to his feet. He stumbled. "Oops. One stim too many, I think. What do you mean, Nova Levis was dismantled?"
"What I said. After it was closed down, the facility was gutted and converted to its present use. There's nothing there." Ariel took his right arm and guided him toward the door. " Jennie, route my calls to the infirmary."
"What about Wenithal?" Coren asked.
"He's fine. Same floor, separate quarters, under guard."
"Guard?"
"Infirmary first. "
"I need to talk to Tresha first. "
"No, first-"
"She's not Jeta Fromm." Coren disengaged from Ariel. "The police identified Jeta's body in Lyzig. We need to speak to Tresha now."
Ariel regarded him for a moment. "All right. We can stop there on the way. "
"Fine."
They continued on down the corridor to the elevator.
"Ambassador Burgess?" he said.
"Yes."
"Thank you. "
"For what?"
Coren smiled. "The list is too long. Just say 'you're welcome."'
"You 're welcome. "
The elevator let them out on the guest floor. Ariel led the way to the rooms.
A tall, uniformed Auroran stood outside each of two doors along the corridor. Ariel led Coren to the nearest. The guard bowed slightly and stepped aside.
Tresha sat on the bed, pillows behind her, watching the subetheric across the room. Ariel glanced at what was being broadcast-it was a very old hyperwave drama; she remembered it vaguely, something based loosely on the first modern Terran permitted to visit a Spacer world after the long quarantine of Earth-and stepped in front of the set, blocking the woman's view.
"I hope you're here to apologize," Tresha said as she touched the remote to switch off the subetheric.
"For what?" Coren asked. "Not recognizing you sooner?"
The woman laughed. " Just who is this 'Tresha' person you keep talking about?"
"You tell me," Coren said. "I'd like to know why she killed Jeta Fromm."
"Tresha shook her head. "Look-"
"Jeta's body was found…and identified."
Tresha stared at him, eyes narrowed. Finally, she shrugged.
"Why kill her?" Coren asked. "She was just a data troll."
"Why worry about her?" Tresha returned. "She was, as you say, just a data troll."
"Did Mikels order it?"
Her eyes widened briefly. Then she shrugged again. "If you know so much…"
Ariel said, "We have both Kyas Vol and Yuri Pocivil in custody. Your cyborg is dead-it's being dissected even as we speak. So, if you want to play guessing games, it's all right with me, but we don't have to participate."
Tresha pursed her lips. "You 're talking to the wrong person, gato. I don't know anything."
"Nonsense," Coren said. "You were the contact for Damik and Wenithal. You handle all the legwork on the ground."
"So the messenger is supposed to know what the message is?"
Ariel waited for Coren's move. He said nothing. Tresha looked at him, then at Ariel, her eyes no longer so certain.
"Ask," Tresha said.
"Why'd you kill Jeta?"
"She was nosy. She poked around into the wrong places."
"How'd you pass for her in Lyzig?"
"They didn't know her. I moved in there shortly after we terminated Fromm."
"Why take her place?" Ariel asked.
"Common sense. If one commission for that data had come her way, more might. I wanted to find out how many vectors there were leading to that information. "
"And the baleys?" Coren asked quietly.
Another shrug. "I don't think I'll answer that."
"Do you think you're getting out of here without answering it?" Ariel asked.
Tresha smiled thinly in response, then looked at Coren. "I understand your ex-lover died on that last run. For what it's worth, I apologize. It wasn't personal."
"That's very comforting," Coren said tightly. "You've been tidying up, haven't you? Closing things down. Were you going to kill Wenithal when you showed up at his apartment?"
Tresha touched the remote again and turned up the volume. Music swelled.
"Your cyborg is dead!" Coren shouted.
Tresha looked at him and shook her head. "We're done." She smiled briefly, then ignored him.
Coren stalked out of the room.
"Who's the Solarian in charge?" Ariel asked. When Tresha continued to ignore her, she spun around and jabbed the OFF on the subetheric. The sound died instantly. "The Solarian in charge," she repeated. "Who is it?"
Tresha sighed. "You 're not as bright as I thought. "
"Do you have any idea what it is you're playing with?"
Tresha snorted derisively. "Oh, please! Is this going to be an appeal to my naivety, or just my conscience?" She sat forward. "It's all power, Ambassador-raw, absolute, overwhelming, carnal, irreducible power. Do I know what I'm playing with?" She grinned. "I'm not playing, Ambassador."
She stabbed the remote again, once more filling the room with sound.
Ariel found Coren waiting in the corridor, his back to the wall.
"Do you want to talk to Wenithal?" she asked.
"No. Let's get my shoulder looked at first." He said no more till they arrived in the embassy infirmary, where two robots placed him on a gurney and pushed him into a diagnostics bay.
"What's the problem, Ariel?" Dr. Jerios asked as she tapped commands into her console. "He looks like he needs about three days' sleep." Jerios frowned at her. "So do you, by the way."
"That would be a good start. But I need him up and alert by morning. He's been running on stims and painblock for about four days now. His left shoulder is-"
"Cracked," Jerios said. "My word, how did this happen?"
"He was grabbed by a very strong hand."
Dr. Jerios shook her head skeptically, gazing at the scan image. "Some hand. I can see why he's in pain. All right, I can pump healant and accelerant into this. Actually, the stim saturation will be harder to deal with. He should be allowed to sleep it off."
Ariel shook her head. "No time."
"Then he's going to be very grumpy."
"As long as he's alert."
"Oh, he'll be alert. I hope you get along well if you have to work together tomorrow."
Ariel looked at Coren through the transparency separating them. He looked asleep now, his face relaxed as the robots carried out Jerios's instructions.
"I think we get along well enough, " Ariel said. In a whisper, she said to the sleeping Lanra, "You 're very welcome. " "Ariel, there is an emergency comm message for you," R. Jennie said.
Ariel opened her eyes. For a moment, she did not remember where she was; then realization came. She was in her own apartment, still fully dressed. Coren was asleep in the guest bedroom. She blinked at her robot.
"A message from…?" she asked groggily.
"Security."
Ariel snapped to her feet and crossed the room. She slapped the ACCEPT on her comm. "Ambassador Burgess here."
"We've had a break-in, Ambassador," the security officer said. "Two guards have been found unconscious, a third dead. We're sealing the embassy grounds and alerting staff. Please stay in your apartment-"