He left the council chambers as more animated chatter broke out. This wasn’t his decision to make. The council needed time to argue.
Emperor Yu and the Factor of the Lesser Gods were in the outer chamber, along with the media and support staff who were locked out when a closed council was in session.
Yu paced. The man was always pacing. The Factor was speaking with two well-dressed officials. His body language was eloquent. The horror, the shame, the sense of betrayal. It wasn’t hard to surmise they were talking about the attempted theft of Scout Ship Three.
If Michelle did marry the Factor, they’d be able to converse in body gestures alone. Michelle and Abram could hold silent conversations, too. Only they hadn’t needed grandiloquent gestures. They’d held whole conversations with a raised eyebrow or a twist of lips.
Yu stopped pacing when he saw Ean. Ean was glad of Bhaksir and her team, who fell in around him and marched him out, looking straight ahead. They exited the gallery before the media descended.
“We should stay and see what the Factor says,” Ean said.
“No.” Bhaksir took him straight to the roof. “We’ve orders to get you back on ship as quickly as we can.”
To be honest, he was glad. Here on world, he was blind and deaf. He didn’t know what was going on. How easily one got used to having access to the lines.
“Can we watch the council meeting?”
Bhaksir nodded, and Ean listened to the regular business until it was time to call the Factor.
The Factor stood before the councilors, tall and imposing. “Council of the New Alliance. I come to you with this plea. The Worlds of the Lesser Gods are vulnerable. Our former ally, Redmond, has deserted us. We stood alone. Then, out of the goodness of your hearts, the New Alliance is considering us as potential allies. You have adopted us and made us feel welcome. And how do we repay you?”
He paused, long enough to let the message sink in but not long enough for Admiral Carrell to interject.
“With treachery. A traitor from my own party. A man I trusted. A man working with my enemy, our enemy, to steal what is yours.”
He was a mesmerizing speaker. By the time he got to the end, Ean wanted to applaud.
Some members of the council did.
“What will happen to those traitors? To this man I trusted with my own life? Will they receive the punishment that is due? No. They will languish in a prison for the rest of their life. I ask you, councilors. Isn’t that too kind?”
Another pause.
“Will they even give us the information we require? On the Worlds of the Lesser Gods, we deal with betrayers as they deserve. We take them, we break them. We get our answers. And then we destroy them.
“I, the Factor of the Lesser Gods, ask this of you. Let us take these people and find out what they know. Let us treat them with the contempt they deserve. Allow me to salve a small amount of the harm that was done to my worlds, to the reputation of my betrothed’s world. Grant me this means of making amends.
“I will escort them personally. I will ensure the correct questions are asked. I will share this knowledge with you. With all of you.”
It was a measured dig at the Department of Alien Affairs.
He got applause, and Ean heard Carrell’s “Well said.”
Afterward, when the noise had died down, Abram asked the first question. “So you are proposing to take these thieves back to your world and torture them?”
That question raised a chorus of complaints. “Come, Galenos,” Admiral Carrell said. “You can’t tell me Lancia never tortured anyone.”
“I’m not even trying,” Abram said. “But I question whether it is necessary. We have efficient questioning techniques of our own. Humanitarian ones. Can we trust that the Worlds of the Lesser Gods will pass the information they receive back to us? If we allow them to take these people and question them, how do we know what results we will get back? How do we know they will be questioned?”
It was the closest anyone had come yet to accusing the Worlds of the Lesser Gods outright of being involved.
Ean couldn’t see what Michelle thought of that.
“If you are so concerned about their not doing the right thing,” Carrell said, “why don’t you send someone with them to oversee that it is done properly.”
“Hear, hear,” another councilor said. And a second, then a third.
“I propose we vote on the Factor’s request that he be allowed to take the criminals back to the Worlds of the Lesser Gods,” Admiral Carrell said. “With the proviso that we are allowed to send two observers. One from Lancia, another chosen by the council by vote.”
The vote went seventy-one to sixty-nine, the Factor’s way. Michelle voted for the Factor’s proposal; Abram voted against. It was the first time Ean could recall that Michelle and Abram hadn’t voted the same way.
Emperor Yu, from the visitor’s gallery, volunteered Commodore Bach as the Lancastrian to accompany the prisoners.
“After all,” he told Michelle when they were back on the Lancastrian Princess, “we need someone we can trust to oversee the operation.”
Ean eavesdropped unashamedly.
“You honor us all.” Michelle looked cool and composed, but through the lines Ean could hear how utterly weary she was, could taste the bitterness and the exhaustion. She looked over to Commodore Bach. “I would appreciate it if you would go. I have the utmost trust in you.”
Bach bowed low. “Thank you. Be sure that everything I do, I do only for Lancia.”
Ean was on Confluence Station when the shuttleload of prisoners boarded the ship Lancia had provided for the trip back to the Worlds of the Lesser Gods. He waited with Sale and Orsaya while it jumped.
How had the Factor gotten a jump so quickly?
“One hopes Commodore Bach’s team is enough to cope with whatever the Worlds of the Lesser Gods puts forward,” Orsaya said.
Ean wasn’t sure he trusted Bach yet.
Renaud Han hadn’t called from Baoshan Barracks, either, so he didn’t know what was happening with Radko.
He had other things to worry about right now, for Abram, Katida, and MacClennan arrived at Confluence Station. All four admirals from the Department of Alien Affairs. Here to talk about the “incident” at line training yesterday.
Ean, Rossi, and Sale joined them.
Orsaya’s staff got them sandwiches and tea. Sometimes, Ean thought the only thing working soldiers ate was sandwiches.
No one talked about what had happened that morning at the council meeting. Instead they talked about the Factor’s initial visit to the Confluence. And about the visitors’ line knowledge in general.
“The Factor was fishing,” Orsaya said. “He’s heard stories about Lambert.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t keep it a secret anymore,” Abram said. “Enough people know or suspect by now. We also have Sattur Dow asking questions about things he shouldn’t know. Someone is feeding him information.”
“I thought you ran a tight ship, Galenos,” Orsaya said. “I can’t imagine your staff giving out information like that.”
Abram blew out his breath but didn’t say anything.
“Everyone on the Lancastrian Princess is reliable,” Sale said, her voice cold.
Orsaya smiled. “Well-spoken, Group Leader. We all know that. But Galenos is as aware as we are that someone is passing information to people like Dow. There is a high probability that someone is Lancastrian.”
It wasn’t anyone on the Lancastrian Princess.
“So we come now to yesterday’s problem,” Katida said. Ean didn’t know if it was a deliberate attempt to change the subject.