“Shall we arm?” Banichi asked.
“Yes,” he said, and added, “but only in an ordinary fashion.”
Chapter 15
Kaplan appeared, kitted out as usual, electronics in place, opened the section door himself at the door with a beep on the intercom to announce his presence, and just came inside unasked.
Narani bowed, the servant staff bowed. Bren saw it all as he left his room.
Banichi, the security staff, and Kaplan all stared at one another like wi'itikiin over a morsel. The door to the security center was discreetly shut, good fortune having nothing to do with it, Tano and Algini were not in sight, and Bren didn’t miss the subtle sweep of Kaplan’s head, his electronics doubtless sending to something besides his eyepiece as he looked around.
“To the islanders, sir?” Kaplan asked.
“That, for a start,” Bren said, and went out, sweeping Kaplan along beside him, Banichi and Jago walking rear guard down the faded yellow corridors that looked like something’s gullet.
And he asked a flood of questions along the way, questions partly because he wanted to know, and partly to engage Kaplan: What’s down there?he asked. What’s that way?
“Can’t say, sir.” For the third or fourth time Kaplan said so, this particular denial at what seemed to be a relatively main intersection in the zigzag weave of corridors.
“Well, why don’t we just go there and find out?”
“Can’t take you there, sir. Not on the list.”
“Oh,” Bren said, lifting both brows. “There’s a list.”
At that, facing him and with Banichi and Jago looming over him, Kaplan looked entirely uneasy.
“Can we see this list?” Bren asked him.
“I get it from the exec, sir. I can’t show it to you.”
“Well” Bren said, and cheerfully rattled off in Ragi, “I think we might as well nudge gently and see what will give. Kaplan-nadi’s restricting what we see, but he’s not in charge of that decision himself. He’s getting his orders from higher up.—What would youlike to see, Nadiin?”
“Where does the crew live?” Banichi asked.
“Excellent suggestion,” Bren said, and looked at Kaplan, who did not look confident. “Nadi, where is the crew?”
“Where’s the crew, sir?”
“What do you do when you’re not on duty, Kaplan?”
“We go to rec, sir.”
“Good.” In some measure, despite the ferocious-looking equipment and the eyepiece, Kaplan had the open stare of a just-bloomed flower. “We should see rec, then, Kaplan-nadi. Or is that on the list of things we definitely shouldn’t see?”
“The list goes the other way, sir. It’s things you can see.”
“Well, that’s fine. Let’s go look at all of those, and then when you’re tired, we can go to this recreation place. That’s rec, isn’t it?”
“Yes, sir. I’ll ask about rec, if you like.”
“Why don’t you do that while we tour what we’re supposed to see? Take us to all those places.”
“Yes, sir,” Kaplan murmured, and then talked to his microphone in alphabet and half-words while they walked. “Sir, they’re going to have to ask a captain about rec, and they’re all—”
“In a meeting.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, tell them we just walked off and left you. All of a sudden I’m very interested in rec. I suppose we’ll find it. Are you going to shoot us?”
“Sir, don’t do that.”
“Don’t overreact,” Bren said in Ragi, “and above all don’t kill him. He’s a nice fellow, but I’m going to walk off and leave him, which is going to make him very nervous.”
“Yes,” Jago said, and Bren walked, as Banichi and Jago went to opposite sides of the corridor.
He’d give a great deal to have eyes in the back of his head. He knew, whatever else, that Kaplan wasn’t going to shoot him.
“Sir?” he heard, a distressed, higher-pitched voice out of Kaplan. Then a more gruff: “Sir! Don’t!”
Bren walked a few paces more, down a hall that showed no features, but the flooring of which had ample scuff on its sheen, leading right to an apparent section door.
He heard an uncertain scuffle behind him, and he turned, quickly, lest mayhem result.
Kaplan, going nowhere, had Banichi’s very solid hand about his arm.
“Sir!”
“He’s distressed,” he translated for Banichi. “Let him go, nadi-ji.”
Banichi did release him. Jago had her hand on her bolstered pistol. Kaplan didn’t move, only stood there with eyes flower-wide and worried, and rubbed his arm.
“Kaplan,” Bren said, “you’re a sensible man. Now what can we do to entertain ourselves that won’t involve your list?”
“Let me talk to the duty officer, sir.”
“Good,” he said. “You do that. You tell them if we’re going to repair this station, we have to assess it. Why don’t you show us one of the not-so-good areas?”
“I can’t do that, sir. They’re cold. Locked down.” He gave an upward glance at Banichi and Jago. “Takes suits, and we can’t fit them.”
“We have them. We could go back to the shuttle and get them. Or we could visit your ship. We’re supposed to build one.”
“Build one, sir. Yes, sir. I’ve got to ask about that.” Kaplan had broken out in a sweat.
“Come on, Kaplan. Think. Give us somethingworth our while. We can’t stand here all day.”
“You want to see the rec area, sir, let me ask.—But you can’t go in there with guns, sir.”
“Kaplan, you’re orbiting an atevi planet. There will never be a place an atevi lord’s security goes without guns. And you really don’t want them to, because if you have twoatevi lords up here at any point, without the guns, the lords are going to be nervous and there might not be good behavior. Banichi and Jago are Assassins’ Guild. They have rules. They assure the lords go to the Guild before someone takes a contract out on one of the captains. Think of them as law enforcement. There’s a whole planetful of reasons down there that took thousands of years to develop a peaceful way of dealing with things, and I really wouldn’t advise you to start changing what works. Why don’t we go somewhere interesting?”
“Yes, sir, but I still have to ask.”
“Do,” he said, and looked at a sealed, transparent wall panel with a confusing lot of buttons. “What do these do?”
“Lights and the temperature, sir, mostly, and the power, but don’t open that panel, sir, some of the sections aren’t sealed, sir.”
“Relax,” he said with a benign smile. He began to like Kaplan, heartily so, and repented his deliberate provocations. “Let’s go. Let’s go to rec. You’re a good man, Mr. Kaplan, and a very sensible one.”
“Yes, sir,” Kaplan said, still breathing rapidly. “Just let me ask.”
Kaplan was nothing if not dutiful. Kaplan engaged his microphone and did ask, passionately, in more alphabet and numbers, and nodded furiously to whatever came back. “Yes, sir,” he said finally. “They say it’s all right, you can go to rec.”
“Let’s go, then,” he said. “And do you have a cafeteria? The mess hall? Shall we see that?”
“That’s on the list, sir.” Kaplan sounded greatly relieved.
“Good,” he said. “Banichi, Jago, we’ll walk with Kaplan-nadi. He’s an obliging fellow, not wishing any trouble, I’m sure. He seems a person of good character and great earnestness.”
“Kaplan-nadi,” Banichi said in his deep voice, and with a pleasant expression. “One would like to know what he does transmit to his officers.”