Jase reached a chair and sat. “A moment, nadi.”
He gave Jase that moment, sat down, himself, and let Jase absorb the pain, and the facts of his situation, in peace. That Jase remembered Ragi, and the self-control of the aiji’s court, was a wonder in itself, considering the circumstances.
Perhaps indicative of the direction of his thoughts, Jase pushed his hair back, straight back, as he’d worn it until he’d done such a wretched job cutting it.
“You’ve become part of thismission,” Bren said.
“Clothes,” Jase said.
“We have yours being cleaned and pressed. Even that jacket.”
Jase managed a short, pain-clipped mirth. “Narani so wanted to do that.”
“Desperately.”
“You can borrow mine.”
“Can’t wear yours.”
“Funny, you don’t appear to have put on weight. I’d say, in fact, you’d have trouble filling them out at the moment.”
“I need shipclothes.”
“No, Jase point of fact, you don’t.”
“He’s out there; he has no help. I have to do something, Bren!”
“Don’t count that he has no help,” Bren said. It was Ramirez they were talking about, in this coded mode of no-proper-names. “Conspiracy is spreading through the crew. The shuttle’s due back imminently. I’m going to talk to our fellow delegates from the island, fifteen days to wait while they check out the shuttle… we have to get out of here. We have no more reasonable, rational choice. I can’t lose you. Do you hear? If everything’s lost, there’s you. That’s his legacy.”
“I’m not him!”
“No. You’re his project, his program, his hands, and his determination to have his way. Don’tgive up.”
There were several moments’ more silence while Jase thought that over, and the court mask came over his face, despite the pain.
“The aiji’s favorites have a way of ending up in charge,” Bren said, beyond that. “And atevi are coming to this place. The ship has no choice.”
Jase gazedat him, absorbing that thought, that idea, that proposition.
“He will have won,” Bren said, “if you don’tdo the things the captains are prompting you to do. I think the new senior may have great misgivings about all of this. There’san ally, if you can convince him.”
“I have to think about this,” Jase said, and by midday he was limping about the place, talking intensely to Yolanda in private, and then to Banichi and Jago, filling them in, Banichi said, on every detail of the tunnels, where they had been, where they had been discovered, where they had run.
Bren came in on it, and sat and absorbed the information.
“The food has improved,” Kroger said, “but they’re delivering it. They’re being very cooperative; we walk about. There’s no quibble about that. They arrange for us to go as far as we want. One corridor they wouldn’t let us into. They said that was the end of the pressurized section. It may be.”
“You’re close to the boundary,” Jase said.
The dining hall was at capacity. Banichi and Jago took to having their meals with the security team and the staff, with Kate Shugart, who was here for her own turn at translation.
The Merchesons and the Grahams shared the table; it wasn’t until the after-dinner drink, alone with Ginny Kroger, that serious talk went on, quiet discussion of treaty and operational matters as if there were not a thing unusual going on.
“They don’t want us to leave,” Ginny said. “I have had that word. They’re hopeful not to deal with atevi for a month or so, and then maybe to have you back, but not Mr. Graham, I’m sorry to say. I think you might be in some danger.”
“The aiji will send whatever representative he pleases,” Bren said in Ragi, with a clear notion it might well be Jase. Tabini could be contrary as hell when he felt pushed. That statement was to keep Jase on an even keel. But he smiled and shrugged. “They’d be fools to lay a hand on him,” he said in Mosphei’, all but certain there weren’t listeners, but almost hoping there were. “The aiji can be damned stubborn when someone pushes the right button, and this would be one. Same with tomorrow. We’re receiving cargo, I’m very sure, and we plan to be there when the shuttle docks. Tom may well be on it. Want to join us and lay claim to what’s yours?”
Ginny thought that one over. She was anxious about it, that was sure.
“Can we do that?”
They didn’t have Kaplan this evening. They had the old man for a guide. They hadn’t seen Kaplan, Andresson, Johnson, or any of their former visitors, and Bren didn’t take it for coincidence that these people should all be unavailable.
“I’m not going to have their security going over our cargo,” Bren said. “And I’m expecting a crate of candy. And you’re hoping for Tom. We have a vested interest.”
“I can guide you,” Jase said, the very last guide he wanted.
“You have to stay here, nadi-ji,” Bren said in Ragi. “Those were the conditions.”
It didn’t make Jase happy, not in the least, but years in the Ragi court had reshaped some of Jase’s headlong rush at things, redirected that hot temper, once intellect was in the ascendant.
“As long as Yolanda and I are not along,” Jase said, “I imagine you’ll have an easier time of it.”
Chapter 25
“C1,” Bren said. “Progress on the shuttle?”
“ Approaching dock,” Cl reported. “ Nominal.”
He received such advisements, reckoned they had another hour or so of fussing about and fine adjustments before the hatch opened.
There was time for a hot shower before the event, to warm up against the cold.
“If the aiji has sent a reply,” he said to his security, “I don’t wish to see it disappear during any dispute over baggage. We shall escort Nojana back, and perhaps regain Kandana.”
If not, he was certain, Nojana must stay with them until they could arrange an exchange. But that was Banichi’s domain.
He took his hot shower, put on warm silk beneath his court finery, earnestly hoping Kandana had thought to bring gloves as well as fruit candies, and prepared as carefully and in the same ceremony as if he had been going to a court reception.
“Cl,” he said, “please send Kaplan.” He always asked for Kaplan, and had not yet gotten him. “We intend to meet Mr. Lund at docking.”
“ I’ll have to consult about that,” Cl said.
Bren smiled at the faceless wall panel, having no intention in the world of waiting for Cl to consult and take an hour about delivering them an escort.
He adjusted the lace at his cuffs, last detail. “Jase,” he said, “you’re in charge.”
Jase knew procedures, and having had his own education in the aiji’s court, clearly understood that they would not voluntarily drag him past station security’s noses.
“You be damned careful!” Jase said. “I can’t get you out of their hands.”
“I shall be careful, nadi.” His mind was already searching down the corridors, trying to remember what Banichi had remembered effortlessly. “If anything should go wrong, stay in the section.”
“Yes,” Jase said, that flat, Ragi yes. In spite of the others present, he had slipped back into the mode, and even his bearing had stiffened. Court precautions. Security consciousness, in every breath and attitude. “Just be safe.”
“I very much intend to. If our escort does show up, don’t open the door. Talk only via Cl. Get Kroger in here.”
“Understood,” Jase said. It was preparation against extreme disaster.
But they had advised Cl exactly what they were doing, so there would be no startlement. There was no question of them seizing the shuttle. They owned it, and it was going nowhere without service and refueling. It was simply an excursion, one with several purposes.
“One thanks the paidhi for his very kind hospitality,” Nojana said as their small party gathered for the venture.