“Politics is. Jordan’s always been a political animal. And we know there’s been a leak to Corain.”
“One we found,” she said. “You think there’s more?”
“Oh, I think we brought a major item of it here, with Jordan.”
“My fault, you’re saying.”
“Having him sucked up by the military wouldn’t have helped at all.”
It wouldn’t. She’d prevented that. That was true.
“Thieu arrived at Planys during the War,” Yanni said, “quietest retreat he could have. We’d moved a major part of the lab there, in point of fact, because we didn’t want to risk a raid on Beta, and that research falling into Alliance hands. The staff moved back to Beta when the War ended–but he’d already gotten on the wrong side of your predecessor in an absolute fury over the cancellation of his programs. So there he was, just quietly aging, still within the Planys labs, not the man he had been, but still–still within the structure, still doing some work on biologicals for Defense, supposedly doing some side work on the rejuv sensitivity issue–he either wasn’t allowed to work on the remediation as of two years ago, or he refused to work on it any further: it’s not totally clear how that happened, and we’re quietly asking at this moment. The man has a temper that doesn’t always serve him.”
“But he still has his security clearances.”
“He still has some clearance–though he carried on correspondence with a few people in the University in Novgorod, not all of whom we were quite comfortable with: people who’d gotten burned in the program cancellation; people who leaned just a little to the Centrist fringes–ReseuneSec found it useful to let it continue, to see where the lines of communication led, granted nothing classified got out. Meanwhile he met Jordan Warrick…when Jordanmoved out there, not, of course, voluntarily. They weren’t close for the first ten years, didn’t even speak; but in the last few, as Thieu tended toward retirement, they started up a friendship. We can’t prove a damned thing, except our quiet in‑house inquiry about resurrecting a nanistics project–the Eversnow project, which we didn’t say at the time, nor mentioned Patil’s name–got Thieu very exercised. Hebreached security, at least within that close community of academics, and contacted a student of his currently teaching in Novgorod, qualified in the field, security clearance, to be sure, but not a contact he was authorized to make.”
“Patil.”
“Patil. He’d corresponded with her for years, but all those letters were innocuous, two scientists talking about programs, and definitely subject to censors who actually can read in that field. Recall there’s a strong Centrist bent in Novgorod University, through the social studies department and into some very shady nooks of the rebel chic. Patil’s work has a cult following. She doesn’t encourage the radicals. But they get excited when she publishes. When she lectures, they show up at her lecture series. If we revive the old studies for use at Eversnow, I want to be sure it doesn’tget used here on Cyteen by some lunatic with a lab vial. Let me tell you, with Thieu retired and Patil’s whole operation off at Eversnow we’re actually safer–barring something coming back by ship. All of which I mention to you just in the case I shouldfall down the stairs and break my neck–”
“Please don’t!”
“–in case, I say, I’m telling you verbally. There is that one very untidy and roundabout link to Jordan Warrick that we don’t like, the elderly and sometimes erratic Dr. Thieu, who connects with Patil, who’s the person we want to use at Eversnow, partly for very political reasons. But while we’re going ahead with the Patil nomination, we’re also going through the establishment on Planys with a microscope right now on the excuse of investigating Jordan, and it’s why we shouldn’t roundtrip Jordan right back to Planys at first excuse. If fire and fuel canmeet, we just want to be very sure the bottles are secure. Once we ship Patil out to Fargone, we’ll feel a lot safer.”
“But you’re saying it’s possibly all innocent.”
“Patil’s a natural candidate for the Eversnow post. But hauling her from the Centrist party to the Expansionist side of the slate is going to mightily annoy some people. It’s possible certain factions will be more interested in the politics of it than in the actual science, which is years off. Short‑term, it’s very likely to be political.”
“ ‘Rethinking the Theory of Long‑Period Nanistic Self‑direction.’ ”
“God, where did you run across that?”
“It was going to run in Scientialast year. It was pretty thick going, but I read it.”
“I should think it was. You and the censors. How did you get it?”
“The Centrists had made a fuss about it, pre‑publication, said it proved they could do what they wanted to do on Cyteen without killing the rejuv ecology. Uncle Denys was mad about it. He was threatening to have the editor fired if it ran, so they pulled it. I figured I should give it a look. So she was writing up what she shouldn’t have written about?”
“It was an agitation on her part. But a quiet one, the presentation of a theory, not a how‑to. The War’s over. We could enlist any nanistics expert we want out of Beta, and will–but for various reasons–including the fact she’s the darling of the Paxers, the Centrists, and the military, and could get us the votes–she’s our pick for the lab going out to Eversnow. It’s a dream assignment for her. She may be the Centrist intellectuals’ darling, not that they understand half of what she’s about, but she does want to see her theories put into the field, and she’show we got the two Councillors to shift their vote to support mine, notable Defense and Citizens. And just to draw a line under the fact of who’s in bed with whom, our Jordan’s spent the last eight years having lunch with the professor who taught Patil.”
“He doesn’t havea Base in System any more. So how did he know about it? How did he get the card? Maybe he wanted us to have it. Maybe he’s trying to ask a question…in his unique way.”
“That would be an interesting position,” Yanni said. “Or maybe he just wanted Justin to take exception to the ensuing investigation.”
“To drag Justin into it on his side,” Ari said, “but I don’t think he did what Jordan would want him to do.”
“Oh, it probably was within his guesswork,” Yanni said. “I assume Jordan expected the card to be confiscated, and Justin to be involved, and upset, and maybe more amenable to Jordan’s arguments. He’s psych, not nanistics, educational psych, at that. I don’tlike the notion he could have gotten this card from Thieu, and gotten it through our screening. Security’s got to take a look at that. But it’s not much more comfortable a thought that someone here gave it to him…probably with information.”
“It has a reader‑strip, ser,” Florian said. “We didn’t put it into a System‑connected reader.”
“Probably a very good notion,” Yanni said. “Damn it! Damn Jordan to bloody hell.”
“I’d rather not if I can avoid it,” Ari said. “But Justin is staying in Wing One.”
“Granted,” Yanni said. “No question. Good call.”
“ Youdidn’t bring Patil’s name up with Jordan, did you?”
“Hell, no.”
“Just asking,” she said easily. It remained a possibility, all the same. But less likely, perhaps.
So Justin was safe. But Jordan definitely wasn’t.
BOOK ONE Section 2 Chapter iii
APRIL 26, 2424
0855H
Late to bed, late to rise, and not that early to the office.
The morning was definitely off routine, when you had to rack your memory to recall what your own office address was, and it was entirely surreal to walk in and find the set‑up pretty much what you remembered–and you hadn’t put it there.
Justin had expected boxes. The office was–just moved. Things were on shelves in exactly the same order…apparently so, at least. Florian hadn’t exaggerated.
“Well,” Grant said, at his shoulder, “they were neat.”