"He served Union in the war effort. He did major work on human personality and on memory which is still the standard reference work in his field. He took over the Council seat in the middle of a national crisis, and he represented the interests of the Bureau for two very critical decades—into my generation, the first generation of Union that's not directly in touch with either the Founding or the War.
"He talked to me a lot in this last year: Abban made a lot of trips back and forth—" She looked to catch Abban's eye, but Abban was staring straight forward, in that nowhere way of an azi in pain. "—couriering messages between us. He knew quite well he was dying, of course; and as far as having a replicate, he didn't really care that much. We did talk about it, the way we talked about a lot of things, some personal, some public. He was very calm about it all. He was concerned about his brother. The thing that impressed me most, was how he laid everything out, how he made clear arrangements for everything—"
Never mind the mess Denys made of those arrangements.
"He operated during the last half year with a slate so clearly in order that those of us he was briefing could have walked into his office, picked up that agenda and known exactly where all the files were and exactly what had to be priority. He confessed he was afraid of dying. He certainly would have been glad to stay around another fifty years. He never expressed remorse for anything he'd done; he never asked my forgiveness; he only handed me the keys and the files and seemed touched that I did forgive him. That was the Giraud I knew."
She left it at that.
I have the files.That was deliberate, too. The way she had done with the press.
Not to undermine Lynch, damned sure. Denys refused the seat and someone had to hold it; Reseune was in profound shock. Certain people were urging Yanni to declare for the seat, challenge Lynch.
No, Denys had said, focused enough to foresee that possibility. No challenge to Lynch from anyone. He's harmless. Leave him.
What Yanni thought about it she was not sure. She did not think Yanni wanted that honor.
But Denys' refusal had jerked a chance at Reseune Administration out of Yanni's reach. And that,she thought, however much any of them in Reseune had suspected Denys would refuse the seat, that had to be a disappointment.
She made a point of going over to Yanni after the services, catching his arm, thanking him for his support and making sure the whole Family saw that.
Making sure that the whole Family knew Yanni was not out of the running in future, in her time. "I know what you're doing," she said fervently, careless of just who could hear, knowing some would. "Yanni, I won't forget. Hear?"
She squeezed his hand. Yanni gave her a look—as if he had not believed for a second it was more than a salve to his pride and then caught on that it was altogether more than that, in that subtle way such indicators passed in the Family.
Not a word said directly. But there were witnesses enough. And Yanni was profoundly affected.
Hers, she reckoned, when it came down to the line, in the same way Amy and Maddy and the younger generation were.
And others in the House would see the indicators plain, that she had declared herself on several fronts, and started making acquisitions, not on a spoils system for the young and upcoming, but for a passed-over senior administrator who enjoyed more respect in the House than he himself imagined.
Signal clearly that Yanni was hers and let Yanni collect his own following: Yanni took no nonsense and let himself be taken in by no one. Yannihad stripped his own daughter of authority when she had abused it, and favored no one except on merit: that was his reputation—when Yanni thought of himself as a simple hardnosed bastard.
Yanni had some reassessing to do. Figure on that.
Yanni was not going to be taken in by the bootlickers and the Stef Dietrichs in the House or elsewhere.
He had been one of maman's friends. She thought with some personal satisfaction, that maman would approve.
iv
She took the outside walk back to the House, around the garden wall, toward the distant doors: it was, thank God, quiet, after the pressure of the interviews. Damn Victoria,she thought, and reckoned that Maddy had wanted to sink out of sight.
"Do you wonder why we do such things?" she murmured to Florian and Catlin. "So do I."
They looked at her, one and the other. Catlin said, in Florian's silence: "It's strange when someone dies. You think they ought to be there. It was that way in Green Barracks."
Ari put her hand on Catlin's shoulder as they walked. Memories. Catlin was the one who had seen people die. "Not slowing down, are you?"
"No, sera," Catlin said. " Idon't intend to be talked about."
She laughed softly. Count on Catlin.
Florian said nothing at all. Florian was the one who would have taken in every signal in the crowd; and work over it and work over it to make it make sense. Florian was the one who would worry about the living.
"He's gone," Ari said finally, at the doors. "Damn, that isstrange." And looked at Florian, whose face had just gone quite tense, that listening-mode that said he was getting something attention-getting over the Security monitor. One or the other of them was always on-line.
"Novgorod," Florian said. "Jordan Warrick—has declared his innocence— He says—he was coerced. Reseune Security is issuing orders to place him in detention—"
Ari's heart jolted. But everything came clear then. "Florian," she said while they were going through the doors, "code J Red, go. We're on A; go for Q and we're Con2."
Make sure of Justin and Grant: Catlin and I are going for Denys; get home base secure and stay there; force permitted, but not as first resort.
That, before they were through the doors, while a Security guard whose com would not be set on that command-priority gave them a slightly puzzled look at their on-business split-and-go.
"They're not saying much," Catlin said as they went.
"Out to the news-services?"
"That, first," Catlin said. "Com 14 is loaded with incomings."
Reporters at the airport, at the edge of a major news event and hemmed in by an anxious, noncommunicative Security.
"Damn, is Denys on it? What in hell is he doing?"
Catlin tapped the unit in her ear. "Denys is still in the lab; Base One, relay Base Two transmission? —Affirmative, sera. He's sent word to defer all questions; he's saying the charges are a political maneuver, quote, ill-timed and lacking in human feeling. He says, quote, the Family is returning from the funeral and people are out of their offices: Reseune will have a further statement in half an hour."
"Thank God," she said fervently.
Denys was awake. Denys was returning fire.
Damned well about time.
v
It was a good day to stay home, Justin reckoned—given the situation in the House, given a general unsettled state in Security now that its chief was dead:
I don't want to be alarmist,Ari had said in a message left on the Minder, but I'd be a lot easier in my mind if you and Grant didn't go anywhere you don't have to for the next fewdays— work at home if you can. I'm going to be busy; I can't watch everything; and Security is confused as hell—a little power struggle going on there. Do you mind? Feel free to attend the services. But stay where people are.