The aide was an older woman who reminded McKie vaguely of a Wreave lab worker at BuSab, one who'd always been suspicious of computers, even antagonistic toward them. This Wreave had read every bit of history he could find about the evolution of such instruments and liked to remind his listeners of the misuses of the DemoPol. Human history had provided him with abundant ammunition, what with its periodic revolts against "enslavement by machines." Once, he'd cornered McKie.
"Look here! See this sign: 'Gigo.' That's a very old sign that was hung above one of your ancient computers. It's an acronym: 'Garbage In, Garbage Out.' You see! They knew."
Yes. Jedrik's female aide reminded him of that Wreave.
McKie listened to her worries. She roamed all around a central disquiet, never settling on a particular thing. Aware of Aritch's deadline and Jedrik's fatigue, McKie felt the pressures bearing down upon him. The aide's data was accurate. Others had checked it. Finally, he could hold his impatience no longer.
"Who fed this data into your computer?"
The aide was startled at the interruption, but Jedrik turned to him, waiting.
"I think it was Holjance," the aide said. "Why?"
"Get him in here."
"Her."
"Her, then! Make sure she's actually the one who fed in that data."
Holjance was a pinch-faced woman with deep wrinkles around very bright eyes. Her hair was dark and wiry, skin almost the color of McKie's. Yes, she was the one who'd fed the data into the computer because it had arrived on her shift, and she'd thought it too important to delegate.
"What is it you want?" she demanded.
He saw no rudeness in this. It was Dosadi directness. Important things were happening all around. Don't waste time.
"You saw this assessment of the surrender offer?" he asked.
"Yes."
"Are you satisfied with it?"
"The data went in correctly."
"That's not my question."
"Of course I'm satisfied!"
She stood ready to defend herself against any charge that she'd slighted her job.
"Tell me, Holjance," he said, "if you wanted the Gowachin computers to produce inaccurate assessments, what would you do?"
She thought about this a moment, blinked, glanced almost furtively at Jedrik who appeared lost in thought. "Well, sir, we have a regular filtering procedure for preventing . . ."
"That's it," Jedrik said. "If I were a Gowachin, I would not be doing that right now."
Jedrik turned, barked orders to the guards behind her.
"That's another trap! Take care of it."
As they emerged from the elevator on Jedrik's floor, there was another delay, one of the escort who'd been with McKie at Gate Eighteen. His name was Todu Pellas and McKie addressed him by name, noting the faint betrayal of pleasure this elicited. Pellas, too, had doubts about carrying out a particular order.
"We're supposed to back up Tria's move by attacking across the upper parkway, but there are some trees and other growth knocked down up there that haven't been moved for two days."
"Who knocked down those trees?" McKie asked.
"We did."
McKie understood. You feinted. The Gowachin were supposed to believe this would provide cover for an attack, but there'd been no attack for two days.
"They must be under pretty heavy strain," Jedrik said.
McKie nodded. That, too, made sense. The alternative Gowachin assumption was that the Humans were trying to fake them into an attack at that point. But the cover had not been removed by either side for two days.
Jedrik took a deep breath.
"We have superior firepower and when Tria . . . well. You should be able to cut right through there to . . ."
McKie interrupted.
"Call off that attack."
"But. . ."
"Call it off!"
She saw the direction of his reasoning. Broey had learned much from the force which Gar and Tria had trained. And Jedrik herself had provided the final emphasis in the lesson. She saw there was no need to change her orders to Pellas.
Pellas had taken it upon himself to obey McKie, not waiting for Jedrik's response, although she was his commander. He already had a communicator off his belt and was speaking rapidly into it.
"Yes! Dig in for a holding action."
He spoke in an aside to Jedrik.
"I can handle it from here."
In a few steps, Jedrik and McKie found themselves in her room. Jedrik leaned with her back against the door, no longer trying to conceal her fatigue.
"McKie, you're becoming very Dosadi."
He crossed to the concealing panels, pulled out the bed.
"You need rest."
"No time."
Yes, she knew all about the sixty-hour deadline - less than fifty-five hours now. Dosadi's destruction was a reaction she hadn't expected from "X," and she blamed herself.
He turned, studied her, saw that she'd passed some previously defined limit of personal endurance. She possessed no amplifiers of muscles or senses, none of the sophisticated aids McKie could call upon in emergencies. She had nothing but her own magnificent mind and body. And she'd almost run them out. Still, she pressed on. This told him a great deal about her motivation.
McKie found himself deeply touched by the fact that she'd not once berated him for hiding that ultimate threat which Aritch held over Dosadi. She'd accepted it that someone in Aritch's position could erase an entire planet, that McKie had been properly maneuvered into concealing this.
The alternative she offered filled McKie with misgivings.
Exchange bodies?
He understood now that this was Pcharky's function, the price the old Gowachin paid for survival. Jedrik had explained.
"He will perform this service one more time. In exchange, we release him from Dosadi."
"If he's one of the original . . . I mean, why doesn't he just leave?"
"We haven't provided him with a body he can use."
McKie had suppressed a feeling of horror. But the history of Dosadi which Jedrik unfolded made it clear that a deliberate loophole had been left in the Caleban contract which imprisoned this planet. Fannie Mae had even said it. He could leave in another body. That was the basic purpose behind this experiment.
New bodies for old!
Aritch had expected this to be the ultimate enticement, luring McKie into the Gowachin plot, enlisting McKie's supreme abilities and his powerful position in BuSab.
A new body for his old one.
All he'd have to do would be to cooperate in the destruction of a planet, conceal the real purpose of this project, and help set up another body-trade planet better concealed.
But Aritch had not anticipated what might be created by Jedrik plus McKie. They now shared a particular hate and motivation.
Jedrik still stood at the door waiting for him to decide.
"Tell me what to do," he said.
"You're sure that you're willing to . . ".
"Jedrik!"
He thought he saw the beginning of tears. It wasn't that she hid them, but that they reached a suppression level barely visible and she defied them. She found her voice, pointed.
"That panel beside the bed. Pressure latch."
The panel swung wide to reveal two shimmering rods about two centimeters in diameter. The rods danced with the energies of Pcharky's cage. They emerged from the floor, bent at right angles about waist height and, as the panel opened, they rotated to extend into the room - two glowing handles about a meter apart.
McKie stared at them. He felt a tightness in his breast. What if he'd misread Jedrik? Could he be sure of any Dosadi? This room felt as familiar to him now as his quarters on CC. It was here that Jedrik had taught him some of the most essential Dosadi lessons. Yet . . . he knew the old pattern of what she proposed. The discarded body with its donor ego had always been killed immediately. Why?