"Not yet."
Blessed shot her five times.
Two stepped off the stair and stood beside the passenger elevator, hairsplitter held loosely at her side. Lupo said, "That's all for now, Blessed. Though I'd like to see Shike's brother sometime."
Turtle watched Provik descend the stairs and move to the front door, where he stood relaxed while the woman made the last leg of her withdrawal. "That's a dangerous man, Blessed."
"I know."
"I mean more dangerous than you think. I don't think he can be killed."
Blessed was in a foul mood. He wanted to argue. Turtle refused. "He left that tape in the machine. I want to see it again."
But there was no tape there when he checked.
The woman must have gone back while he and Provik were chasing the survivors.
Maybe they were right when they said Provik made no mistakes.
— 82 —
There was a caution waiting at the lower watchpoint with Goshe. Lupo called One. He listened briefly. In the privacy of a lifter, he told Two, "A couple of Valerena's Others, from her office, turned up asking for protection. One's been putting them off hoping we'd get back and handle it ourselves."
"Sarcastic, are we?"
"He could have handled it."
"Then got bitched at because things were happening and you weren't being kept informed."
"Probably. I reserve the right to be unreasonable, inconsistent, and arbitrary in an unreasonable, inconsistent, and arbitrary universe. What did you think of Blessed's new bodyguard?"
"Deadly. And smart, maybe. He never stopped studying us."
"We'll keep him in mind. Now let's worry about our Valerena trouble. I can't help recalling that she left three of them on that Guardship. What mischief are they up to out there?"
A minute later, still smelling of fight, they stepped into the office where the Valerenas waited. Lupo questioned them only long enough to get a glimmer of what had happened. He signalled One. "Call Blessed. We need him here. Use your imagination if you have to. Then get T. W. up here. I'm going to check on Valerena."
He hammered on the door. "Valerena! It's Provik."
Muffled, "It's unlocked."
He eased the door open, spied the shredded corpse, the demolished furniture. He went in slowly.
He found himself facing a cutter.
"It is you."
"I think so."
"You took long enough."
"I was in the High City keeping Blessed from getting killed by your Others."
"Blessed too?"
"All of us. They tried me this morning."
"A clean sweep."
"Except for T.W. Come down to my office. They don't know they didn't get you, either."
"Of course they do. Two got away when I did that." She indicated the corpse.
"Those two are all right. They came straight down to let me know you were in trouble. If they'd been on the other side there would have been another try."
"Unless I'm not Valerena Prime."
"I'll know about that after I get you to my office."
T.W. got through so quick her call had to have been expected. "T.W. Trice!" the Simon Other boomed. "How the hell are you? I haven't seen your ugly puss since..."
"Can it. I'm not in the mood. Lupo got himself killed this morning." She had been Provik's lover once and was well known as his designated heir.
"Killed? Lupo Provik?"
"Lupo. I know. It sounds unlikely. Since Valerena took over, I've had orders to get with you if anything happens to him. Can you come down?"
"Why don't you come up? More private here."
"I can't. Somebody tried to burn Blessed and got the bad side of his bodyguards. I'm riding monitor on the cleanup."
Pause. "I'll be right down."
"Use the freight lift. I'm back in the big office." She secured. "That good enough, Lupo?'"
"Perfect. He'll be foaming at the mouth, worrying."
Two came in. "Blessed is on his way. He brought the Ku instead of Shike."
"He knows we wouldn't let him in armed."
Blessed arrived moments before the guest of honor. There was no time to brief him. The Simon Other came out of the freight lift booming, "T.W! Where the hell are you, woman?"
"In here."
The bell came sailing in. "What's this shit about somebody trying to... Hell."
T.W. said, "I'll leave now, Lupo."
"You don't have to."
"I want to."
"Go ahead." Provik faced the bell. "You and Simon wondered how it would come out if we went head to head. Now you know. You were clumsy, hasty, sloppy, overconfident, and your communications and reserves were inadequate. You defeated yourself. I didn't see it coming."
"I had one throw of the dice. I took it. And you know damned well victory don't always go to him with the most resources. I don't have any regrets. Do what you have to do."
Lupo allowed time for Valerena or Blessed to comment. Neither spoke. He wished he could read the Ku. The alien seemed amused.
"You've overlooked your value to the House. Or maybe you didn't. Maybe you were counting on it."
The Simon Other did not respond.
"You're the Chair, Valerena. What do we do with him?"
"What do you think we should do?"
"You're the Chair. It's your job to decide. Mine is to carry out your decisions. I never let Simon duck responsibility for the unpleasant things we did, and I won't let you, either."
"You're a bastard."
"I know." He watched Blessed obliquely. The boy remained a cypher. "But this does have to be resolved."
"Can we deal with the Outsiders without him?"
"Probably. It may take longer."
"I don't need the aggravation of always having to watch for a next time."
Lupo smiled thinly. How often had she tried to get to her father? "Blessed. You have an opinion?"
"No."
Just here. Just watching. Just learning what it meant to be a Tregesser. "Go home, then. My people will come clean up. Don't relax. There could be a few severed limbs of this thing flopping around still."
Blessed left without a word, his alien drifting behind him.
"What was that thing?" Valerena asked.
"A Ku warrior. His bodyguard. Ready to talk about your Others?"
"Yes. But I have a problem with it."
"What?"
"After what happened in my office I realized there're several of them I can't account for."
"That'll be my next project. After we dispose of this body and equipment."
Two had shut the Simon Other down while Blessed was leaving, before it could leave a legacy of distrust by mentioning its suspicions about the circumstances of Simon Tregesser's death.
— 83 —
It took four days to clean up the station. Haget put together a long-winded report and entrusted it to the Horigawa Hauler. Then he ordered the Traveler on to M. Shrilica.
"He didn't even mention how well you handled the station, Jo," AnyKaat said.
"He's busy."
"Stop making excuses. You know what he's busy doing? Using that station as a median point to develop a descriptive probability from which to predict which other stations might have been infiltrated."
"It has to be done."
"At Starbase. We got a job. Catch the runaways."
Jo did not want to argue. Especially since AnyKaat was saying what she was thinking.
Haget was having trouble handling an ongoing relationship. He was evading by burying himself in work.
They visited M. Shrilica station. They made the locals nervous for two days. But the more sure Jo, Degas, and Vadja became that there was something worth finding there, the more perfunctory became Haget's attitude. Fifty-three hours in he decided to go after the phantom phantom.
Five strands anchored on M. Shrilica. One led toward Starbase, one back to the station already policed. Haget presented a search program moving outward from the next anchors of the remaining strands.