She sat down at the keyboard and tapped into the secure, local net. It wasn’t my order, she typed, which was the truth. But I think it’s a good idea. He can have the office all to himself. It was bugged anyway. –Ari.
Justin might think that was funny.
Or maybe he wouldn’t.
She sighed.
And typed a postscript: Justin, don’t be upset with me. Phone, if you have a problem with this.
Not that she was going to back down from what Florian had done. It was only moving the schedule up, regarding the move to her wing for both residency andoffice space. Justin didn’t know that, but it was the truth.
She went back to the console and keyed one more message. Yanni didn’t do it either.
Then she put on her boots and went to gather up Florian and Catlin.
Straight to Yanni’s office, over in Admin, before she did anything else, and she did that, with Florian–Catlin was busy with some research. By the time she got there it was 0840h, and Yanni’s foyer was already full of problems.
She didn’t go through the foyer. She took the side entry, the one Yanni himself used, and Yanni’s secretary, Chloe, looked up in startlement.
“Sera?”
“Tell Yanni take a restroom break. I need to talk to him.”
“Sera,” Chloe said respectfully, and pushed a button on the console. Chloe didn’t even talk to Yanni. Yanni came through the door fairly promptly.
And stopped cold.
“I need to talk,” Ari said. “Now.”
So Yanni immediately opened the door behind Chloe, and went in. Florian walked in, to stand behind her, while she sat down at one end of the conference table–it was a big one–and Yanni did, at the other end.
“A problem?” Yanni asked. “I had a report this morning–that there was some goings‑on involving Justin. That you moved him out of the Education Wing altogether, fired his staff, and gave Jordan an office. Is thisthe sudden problem?”
“Jordan is the problem. Jordan wants an office of his own.”
“And you apparently gave him one.”
“I did, ser,” Florian said, behind her. “It was done at my level.”
“I stand by it,” Ari said, “if it doesn’t actually hurt anything. It didn’t seem to me it does.”
Yanni remained as he was, just looking at her, and thinking–clearly thinking. “Jordan asked me for an office before I left. Evidently he thought he could get away with going around me.”
“He didn’t ask me. He said he was going to move in on Justin. So Florian moved Justin to my wing.”
“Except his staff, ser,” Florian said.
“Are you going to talk at me from two different levels?” Yanni asked, looking from her, seated, to Florian, standing.
“Sorry, ser,” Florian said.
“If you want Jordan out of that office,” Ari said, “you can tell him that. Meanwhile Florian says he had no place to put Justin’s staff, but they’re good people and Florian promised they’d be taken care of. Admin should hire them.”
Yanni was silent a moment. Then nodded. “All right. It can happen. I’ll make a note for Chloe.”
“Good. Justin will feel a lot better about it.”
“Oh, I’m sure he will. And Jordan’s got what he wanted…this week. Hell if that’ll content him for two days. Damn the man!”
“That’s not all he did,” Ari said. “He dropped a business card into Justin’s pocket. Justin didn’t like it. He gave it to Florian. I have it in my apartment. It was from a Dr. Sandur Patil.”
“Patil.”
He didn’t say anything but that. Not after a long wait.
So she said, “I brought Jordan here from Planys. It seemed a good idea at the time. I hoped he’d do better than this.”
“He’s a damn maniac.”
“I thought you were his friend.”
“With Jordan? Being Jordan’s friend requires fireproof gloves.”
“So did this Patil figure somehow with why you’re mad at him? I’ve read your transcript. I know who she is. Is Jordan somehow connected with this?”
“Not exactly.”
“So what doesit mean?”
“Let me drop another name,” Yanni said. “Thieu. Dr. Raymond Thieu.”
It didn’t ring any bell. She was genuinely puzzled, and shook her head. “I don’t know him.”
“Nanotech,” Yanni said. “Biologicals. Former head of the Planys remediation project.”
So. There. Biological nanisms, living nanomachines, anathema on Cyteen, except under strictest conditions. Patil’s expertise. Beta Station was where they worked on that, where you had to have all sorts of clearance to get in, and where nothing could escape. Nanobiology applied in the remediation areas out in the Planys death zones, where Cyteen microbes met Terran ones. But when they loosed something into the biosphere they did it with great, great caution–not the wholesale dumping the terraforming plan had involved; not the extent of what they were likely to do at Eversnow.
“So he’s no longer head of that program? Why?”
“Retired. He’s lived at Planys since the War was at its height. He’s elderly, came from Beta labs, was head of Research in that discipline, taught at the University in Novgorod for two years, moved to Planys when the terraforming project got canceled, managed the remediation program there until he retired, five years ago. Distinguished career, bit of a prick.”
“He knows Jordan, I take it.”
“They were socially acquainted at Planys. Understand, the Planys lab doesn’t have the facilities to have done anything of an anagenetic nature, not in the most esoteric sense.” That was the ten‑cred word for terraforming, where there was already life. “Let’s just say terraforming has been a hot topic behind certain closed doors, including Denys’, including the military’s, and it’s been hot for months. ReseuneSec is currently taking the whole Planys lab apart, and using Jordan’s departure as a plausible excuse to look into every nook and cranny of Planys operations–which has made Thieu madder than hell. Thieu and Jordan socialized–only twenty‑three primary researchers in the place, off and on, so everybody socializes, you can figure that. But Thieu has retained very close ties to the military at Planys and to the University in Novgorod. Terraforming Cyteen was going to be his big program. He spent decades laying out all the details for his project, right along with Patil–and Council vetoed it just before it launched, then shifted him out to Planys, threw him the sop of an applied project out there, because he was madder than hell and not keeping his mouth shut, frankly. When the nanolabs shifted their focus to remediation, it was mostly to maintain the careers of people who specialized in that field–Defense didn’t want to lose them: but it also gave us the chance to get Thieu away from the media.”
“Because we stopped terraforming in its tracks,” she said, shaken out of any sort of complacency. “But the military kept the research going. And the crazier Centrists still want it applied here.”
“We’re giving them Eversnow. But a lot of old business exists out there at Planys. Part of the black projects in the military wing we can’t get at, and we don’t like, are nanistics of a nature I don’t like. Officially the nanistics program slowed to a stop when he retired, no other personnel was brought in out there, and what remediation uses is very carefully regulated, but lately, with the Eversnow matter–it’s back, this time in Novgorod. There’s an inherent problem with research labs, you know. They contain knowledge you’d like to have just in case your enemies have it, but that you’d just as soon not have on the public market. And when people who know military things retire, they still know things and they have opinions–unless you want to mindwipe a Special, which wouldn’t attract too many people into the program.”
“So you think he’s been talking to people? Including Jordan? It’s not Jordan’s field.”