Dimitri slammed his hand on the desk. “Damn it! I’ve been playing this game for twice as long as you’ve been alive. I am supposed to run the Security apparatus for the entire Confederacy.”
Vashniya stood up. He felt his smile leave. “Thank you for inviting me, but I think I’ll go now.”
Dimitri sank back in his chair. “I’m sorry. Forgive the outburst.”
“I don’t think we have anything more to say.”
“Don’t you understand this at all? My job is to hold the Confederacy together. It’s delicately balanced, and any change in the power structure is my business.”
Vashniya did not sit down and he did not repair his smile. “What could possibly change?” He made no effort to withhold the irony in his voice.
“We both know the potential of planetary promotions in the next Congress. Especially now that you have the Seven Worlds here backing you—”
“I understand. Perhaps from where you sit any shift in power may seem too destabilizing. A threat.”
Dimitri was nodding.
Vashniya sighed. “So much for the TEC’s much-lauded independence. You’ve admitted that you are nothing more than an agent for the interests of Sirius and Alpha Centauri.”
“Have you ever thought that any substantial shift in the Confederacy might erupt into something less desirable?”
“Everyone in power must fear change.”
“I don’t say that the current system is perfect, but there’s a process in place—”
Vashniya stepped toward the door. “I deeply resent the implication that the People’s Protectorate intends to violate the Charter. If you do so again, I will lodge a formal protest.”
“I told you, I’m not accusing you of anything. Would you please sit down and listen to me for a minute?”
Vashniya sat down, thinking clean thoughts to calm himself. He felt his frown weaken a little. “Perhaps I overreact. But please, let us expedite this. We are both busy men. Ask me something I can answer, and I will.”
“Okay. No specifics—but, Sim, I am going to have to deal with whatever happens afterward. Should I be worried?”
Vashniya sat back, stroked his beard, and felt the smile return.
“Perhaps, Dimitri. Perhaps you should worry.”
* * * *
Sim Vashniya’s mood had returned to normal by the time he arrived back at the Indi Consulate. There was time left in the day for the more normal burdens of his duty, even this far from Shiva. Not the least of which was an appraisal of the Protectorate’s intelligence operation on Earth. He was doing well on that, even if the local people took offense at being outranked by a non-Chinese—
Racism was an unhappy thought; he banished it.
The Consulate was part of the diplomatic sprawl that surrounded the spire of the Confederacy tower. Each building dotting the parkland at the tower’s base represented another planet, or group of planets. Each building claimed a portion of land in the name of its own government—which was the reason why none of them was housed in the tower itself. Even though the kilometer-tall building could easily house all of them just as well as it housed most of the governmental bureaucracy that ran the Confederacy.
The only planet that housed its diplomatic function with the building itself was Earth.
The main Indi Consulate was central to a dozen lesser buildings that housed diplomatic staffs of various member planets. It was hard to tell just how many buildings there were because of the extensive landscaping. If Vashniya stuck to the path, he could pass buildings twenty meters on either side of him and never see anything but trees, gardens, and the occasional pond.
That’s why he didn’t notice the man until he was upon him.
Vashniya was crossing the ornamental stone bridge that led to the front courtyard of the Indi Consulate when a voice addressed him.
“Mr. Vashniya?”
Vashniya turned and saw a furtive figure step out from behind a tree. The man addressing him had appeared from out of nowhere, and Vashniya’s first thought was he was about to be ambushed. The feeling faded. The trees around him concealed more security than anywhere else on the planet. The man could not be a threat and be within a kilometer of here.
“Yes?” Vashniya asked.
“I was told you may be able to help me.” Now that Vashniya had a good look at the man, he began to wonder. The man had the unsure fumbling gait of a new arrival, unfamiliar with the gravity. Heavier than he’s used to, Vashniya thought. The man’s hair was bleached from heavy UV, but the stranger’s skin showed no sign of burning. The clothes he wore were new—very new.
An enigma from off-planet.
“What can I do for you?”
The man raised his hand to brush through his hair, and Vashniya noticed that it was a rather crude biomechanic, scarred and pitted in contrast to the polished image the rest of the man was trying to portray. The man noticed Vashniya looking and put the hand in his pocket.
“There’re no offices for the Seven Worlds here.”
Vashniya nodded. “I believe they only maintain one embassy out of their own sphere, on Mazimba.” The man had gone considerably out of his way to chase a shadow.
“But there’s a Tau Ceti delegate here for the Congress.”
“Actually, she’s from Grimalkin.”
“I need to talk to her.”
Vashniya chuckled. “I am not a secretary. I don’t make appointments for other diplomats. You have to talk to her.”
The man looked exasperated. “If I knew where to find her, I would.”
“Ah, I see the problem.”
“Can you tell me how to get in touch with her?”
“Why?”
The man only hesitated for a fraction of a second, but Vashniya noticed it. “I’m tracking down relatives on Dakota.”
It was a lie.
Vashniya decided to let it rest. He could question Hernandez about it if this man’s meeting with her ever took place. “Francesca Hernandez, she’s staying at the Victoria. They can ring her from the desk, and if she’ll talk to you, she’ll talk to you.”
“Thank you.”
The man turned to go, and Vashniya said, “Be prepared. She isn’t human.”
He turned, raising the metal hand to his cheek. “In that sense, neither am I, Mr. Vashniya.”
“Can I have your name?”
There was another brief hesitation before he said, “Jonah. My name’s Jonah.”
Jonah disappeared into the woods as suddenly as he had appeared. Vashniya stood watching where he’d been for a long time.
A trivial incident, really, Vashniya thought.
Vashniya returned to his duties. However, try as he might, he was unable to put the “trivial” incident out of his mind. That and the phrase he had spoken to Dimitri: “Everyone in power must fear change.”
Of course, his worries weren’t warranted. Vashniya was in control of the powers he was unleashing. But for some illogical reason, his meeting with Jonah made him doubt himself, and he didn’t understand why.
* * * *
APPENDIX A
