“Can Kandana do it? Will he know his way?”
“There, quite well, I’m sure,” Banichi said. “And Nojana needs no instruction.”
“Then do it,” Bren said. At certain times a prudent, reasonable man simply had to trust his security was right and dismiss the alarms clenching up his own stomach as far less important, not deserving of panic.
He was afraid, nonetheless. He was altogether afraid, and it was as hard to send Banichi and Jago out on their risky ventures as it was to send Jase off to his hiding place.
“You tell them,” he said last to Jase, “that if they harm you, the aiji will take a very hard line with them, and that the aiji has a firm alliance with Mospheira, no matter what they think; tell them you’re highly regarded in the Mospheiran government as well, and if they harm a hair on your head they’ll have no cooperation.”
“I never was as convincing as you,” Jase said, in a laugh a little short of desperate.
“If they harm you,” Bren said, “in any way, I’llfile Intent. I’m not joking. I’ll take them down, personally, under the legitimate provisions of atevi law.”
Jase had started to laugh, obedient good will, but then he seemed to understand that it was indeed serious. Jase understood Banichi’s Guild very well, by all his experience on the planet.
“I’m not worth that,” Jase said.
“If they deal badly with one of their own, who wishes them nothing but good” Bren said, “then damn them to hell, and we’llgovern, the aiji will govern this whole solar system, by atevi law. The aiji will tolerate all sorts of provocations, but you think about it, Jase. Chaos is the absolute enemy of the aishidi’tat, and he won’t have it, he won’t have the abuse of his own associates up here. I told you that you have power. Use it!” He took Jase by both arms and lightened his grip on the left as Jase winced. “You get back here, hear me? Make it unnecessary for me to do anything so rash. I set that on your shoulders, because if anything happens to you, I’ll take this place apart. Hear me?”
“I do,” Jase said. “I’ll be careful.”
“Fishing trip,” Bren said. “Promise.”
“Deal,” Jase said. “I’ve got to go. I’ve got to go now.”
“Get out of here,” Bren said. “Banichi.”
“I am with nand’ Jase,” Banichi said. “Jago-ji, instruct Kandana.”
“Yes,” Jago said, and on that, Banichi hurried Jase out the supposedly locked door, with no fuss or delay at all.
“It’s not supposed to do that,” Bren said, feeling that things were not at all going according to his preferences. Half an hour ago he’d thought he was bound down to the planet where he could present Tabini apologetically with a negotiation gone to hell and ask his brother whether he’d been able to find his wife and children.
That was not the state of affairs he had. He had just been coopted into the very thing he least wanted, and the very thing that might giveTabini what he demanded, if they could keep Ramirez alive… if he could get his security team back alive, and Jase back alive.
Someone was in deadly earnest, some eruption of factional violence within the crew, and he could only look to their defenses and hope his security had foreseen the control of heat, light, and air being in hostile hands up here.
He could not permit the situation to degenerate. He had his meeting scheduled with Sabin, sure as he was she would break the appointment. He had Ramirez within reach, and the means, perhaps, perhaps, to get word to the crew—if he could get to the one almost-friendly officer in C1…
He sat down with his computer and drafted an announcement:
Captain Ramirez, having suffered an attempt on his life, has taken shelter…
Sometimes one could see things more clearly in draft. And if that message went out, the immediate counter-rumor would be that outsiders had done it; if Ramirez died, they would be left with that accusation hanging over them.
But if Ramirez died, Jase would be the scapegoat, Jase who had tiesto the foreign power, Jase who could no longer be trusted.
He saw the net drawing about them. He saw absolute chaos developing in the prospect of Kroger going down and him staying and his crew running about the corridors in various small teams.
He really wanted an antacid.
He wrote: A dissident faction on the Guild Council has attacked and wounded Captain Ramirez. He appeals for support among the crew. The crew must demand the return of Ramirez and the support of his agreements…
Who? he asked himself in despair. Who would support those programs?
And he remembered Ogun’s face, Ogun’s handshake, the fact that Ramirez had chosen Ogun to sit with him, the whole changing body language of that meeting that indicated to him that Ogun, too, had reached a like decision.
He cleared that draft and wrote, a third time:
Captain Ogun, Captain Ramirez needs your help. Jase Graham saved his life from an attack from someone who wanted the agreements nullified. I think you know better than I who that would be. We will stand by you and Ramirez and the agreements, and we have rejected the chance to go down to the planet. During this crisis, we offer whatever support you may need, including secure quarters.
He opted not to rouse help from Cl just yet. But he wrote:
Aiji-ma, things are going as optimally as in any machimi of homecoming.
And in Mosphei’, to his mother:
Please let me know how things are going.
He wanted to write: I’ve not been sure my messages are reaching you, but he dared not give so strong a hint that he suspected the majority of his messages were going straight into a black hole, and that the ones he had been getting were old messages recycled.
Instead he wrote: I’ve had a great deal of time to think how very much the family has arranged its affairs and its expectations around me, and I think this has always been a strain on everyone. Trust that I’m well, Mum, and that I’m happy where I am. My brother’s grown up into a remarkable man, and I hope you see that and give those great kids of his a hug for me. We’re both your successes. I just turned out a little different, that’s all, and I’m very content with that difference and with the choices I’ve made. I’ll never stop loving you and Toby, and no matter where I am, I’ll always be with you in mind and heart.
It was one of his better letters. He hoped it survived to get to her.
He wrote to a few of the councillors as well, the usual assurances that he remembered them. He did. He wrote to his staff, bidding them take privilege as they could and rest, since more work seemed imminent.
He hoped that would be the case.
He waited until near stationside dawn, and was still waiting when Nojana turned up, quietly.
“Nadi,” Narani said, “Nojana has arrived safely. What place shall I assign him?”
“Kandana’s, for now,” Bren said, and heaved a breath of relief, hoping now that the shuttle made schedule. “Thank him. I’ll speak to him after breakfast.”
In a very little more, Jago slipped into the section.
“How did they take it?” Bren asked her first of all. “How was it out there?”
Jago gave a delicate shrug. “Banichi isn’t back yet?”
“Not yet.”