"Yes," he said, in the atevi mode, unadorned, the sort of thing Jago was wont to do to him. "Quite frankly speaking, Deana, I'm sorry about the phone. I hadn't meant that, but it is my fault. If it were possible for us to ignore the politics that divide us —"
"Mosphei'," she said sharply.
"No, Deana-ji, I don't think our hosts can make sense of us without that critical point of information. I've made it clear we have political differences, I've some hope that after all our interests are the welfare of Mospheira andthe Western Association, and I hope that we can manage to do some work together. As long as you're here, I'd like to offer you the chance to patch up our differences."
"Of course."
"I'm quite serious."
"So am I."
He looked down the table at a very nice human face with a very reserved and inoffensive expression, the sort you practiced along with the language.
"Fine. Doyou know anything about the ship that I don't know?"
"I'm sure I don't."
"Deana."
"Bren, I don't know. I know you're in contact with them."
"Your sources keep you well posted?"
"I've no sources. Just occasional contacts."
"Like hell, Deana. But let's be pleasant. And let me tell you, if you embarrass the people who are dealing with you, you can make very, very serious consequences for them, not to mention yourself."
"Don't talk to me about dealing against regulations."
"I hadn't mentioned regulations. Regulations aren't what's at issue here."
"Damned right youdon't want to talk about regulations. Let me make a proposition to you, Mr. Cameron. You get me contact with Mospheira and we'll see what we can work out. You get the guard taken off my hall. You get me a meeting with Tabini."
"I'd be lying if I said I could get that. You've offended the man, and there's no patching that without action on your part, not mine. I might relay a message of apology."
There was no greater friendliness. There was, however, sober thought.
"Tell him I regret anything that may have offended him. I was afraid he might have done away with you."
"I'm touched."
"Which is the truth, damn you. I didn't know when I came over here whether you were dead, delirious with fever, or held hostage. I did the best I could under the circumstances. I talked to people who might give me other than official information. I triedto get you out of whatever you'd gotten into, in addition to doing your job."
That was at least plausible. Even a reasonable answer. He stared at her, unable to figure if it was something she'd only just thought of or actually the course she'd followed.
"Meaning," he concluded, "you wanted to be a damn hero. The service requires the job, Hanks-paidhi. Just the job, adequately done, nothing flashy."
"So where in hell were you? Malguri? Hunting in the hills with the dowager? Playing the damn hero?"
Nailed him. He didn't flinch from her level stare, but he didn't find anything to say, either, but, "Yes."
"So?"
"Point taken."
A tone of contrition. "I'm terribly sorry I tried to save you."
"I have it coming. Thank you for trying. Now can I persuade you to fly home? I might be able to get you a travel visa."
"I don't think you can, point one. I think the aiji is keeping me in reserve in case things blow up with your negotiations, or in case the next assassin is on target. And, point two, I'm no use there to anyone."
"It's a fairly accurate assessment. I still think I could get you out as a personal favor."
"Don't use up your credit on my account. There's still point two. I'm not going."
In Mosphei': "It's your funeral."
In Ragi: "Funny. Very funny, Cameron."
"If you'd make yourself just halfway useful —"
"Oh, tell me how."
Assign Hanks the mail. Let her affix hername to it, as if she had the office he was bound and determined to see her out of? Not likely. There wasn't damned much else she could touch without being a security risk to Tabini.
"You could write the everlasting reports."
"I could make the television speeches."
"I'm sure you could. But you do have areas of expertise —"
"I write them, you put your own gloss on them and look good."
"You write them, I delete the nonsense and the speculation and if they're useful I may moderate the report I've already sent in on your actions."
"Son of a bitch."
"That's ruder in Ragi than in Mosphei'. You really should watch the cultural contexts."
"You just can't say a pleasant word."
She was quite serious. He had to laugh. The servants took that for a moderately safe cue to refill the teacups.
"I tell you," Hanks said, in Mosphei', after a mouthful of pate and wafer, "high scores and all, I think there's a reason you're such a miracle of linguistic competency. I think you dream in Ragi."
It happened to be true, increasingly so. He found no reason to say so. Hanks was heading for some point of her own choosing.
"Did you know Barbara was going to marry?" Hanks asked in Ragi.
"No. It wasn't one of those things we discussed."
"What did you think? She was going to be there whenever you chanced in, for the rest of her life?"
"Actually, we'd raised the question. But that's Barb's business, not yours."
"I'm just curious."
"I know you are." He had a sip of tea. "You'll have to stay in that condition."
"You know your face doesn't react? Even when you're on Mospheira, you're absolutely deadpan."
"You lose the habit."
A tone of amazement. "You've really adapted, haven't you?"
Nothing Hanks meant was complimentary, he had no doubt. He didn't like this sudden pursuit instead of Parthian retreat, but he had a notion he was about to get an opinion out of Hanks, and maybe an honest one.
"What are you going to do, Bren-nadi? When are you going to come home? Or areyou going to come home?"
"I'll come home once I'm sure some fool isn't going to screw things up, Ms. Hanks."
"How do you define fool?"
"I don't attempt it. I wait for demonstrations. They inevitably surpass my imagination."
"Oh, you've done more than wait." Hanks propped her chin on the heel of her hand and looked at him. "You're just so good. Just so fluent. Just so damned perfect. Look at you. You don't even question your ethics, do you?"
"Continually. As I trust you question yours."
"You're slipping, you know it? Going right over the edge. What happened to you in Malguri? What happened to the arm?"
"It broke."
"Who broke it?"
"A gentleman who didn't like my origins. That's always a danger."
"You'd rather be atevi, hadn't you?"
They were down to what she'd been stalking, he decided that: it was a tactic, it was no more sincere than the rest, but it still worked a little irritation — there were the servants in earshot, the woman's associations were closet bigots from the outset, and he didn't want Saidin or the staff exposed to that human problem.
"Ms. Hanks, you're a guest. Try courtesy. You'll like the result."
"I'm perfectly serious. I'm asking what happened at Malguri. What they did to you."
"Ms. Hanks —" He was exasperated. And halfway began to suspect the woman was serious. "They were courteous, sensible, and generally but not universally careful of our small size. I'm sorry to disappoint your well-intentioned though prurient curiosity, but I enjoyed the hospitality of an atevi estate, I made the acquaintance of a very gracious lady, we had to run like hell when rebels hit the place, and doubtless my fluency and my riding and my grasp of atevi numerical philosophy improved under fire, but I don't view myself as other than conscientiously human, irrevocably dedicated to the same objectives of technological parity that Wilson and paidhiin before me pursued, and thoroughly convinced that parity will through no fault of our planning occur in our lifetimes. Speak to the ship up there about the schedule if you don't like it. It's given us no damned choice but accelerate and given us a damnably difficult balancing act not to disrupt our economy or the atevi economy. I recall you did your thesis on economic dualism, Ms. Hanks. Let's see you do some creative work on real numbers, real provinces, real production figures. I'll give them to you. Plug those into your computer, produce some changes, and let's see if you're as brilliant without Papa's research staff as you are with it."