“You need me to translate,” Jase said in Ragi. “I am already in this. My bodyguard will get no blame for following my orders. And their suit systems can communicate with others, if they have to. One asks we operate as much within my watch as we can . . . and my time is running out.”
“Let us identify the tunnel accesses in question,” Banichi said. “And memorize the maps.”
“In that matter, search teams may use this unit,” Geigi said, handing the unit with the schematic display over to his own Guild-senior. “It is not dependent on transmission.”
“Are you going into the tunnels?” Irene asked from beside Cajeiri, a young human voice, in Ragi. “Please let me go. The boys will answer me.”
Unconscionable—under other circumstances; but finding one boy—or three—who wanted to stay hidden, in a tunnel with countless machinery installations and storage . . . Irene’s was the one voice they would believe. “Yes,” Bren said, and saw Cajeiri start to speak. “You, young gentleman, know your responsibilities. No, you should not.”
Lips closed. Hard.
“Nor can I go,” Bren said. “In some situations my presence is an advantage. In this one I would endanger everyone. You, young gentleman, have a mission with the kyo, the same as I do.” He wanted to go. It was always hard when he had to send his aishid into harm’s way, and wait. And wait.
But there were things he could do meanwhile.
“Get permission from your great-grandmother to go with me. I shall oversee this operation from the vantage of atevi Central, where there will be information. If you wish, you will be able to see everything there.”
“Yes!” Cajeiri said, and hurried.
“Nawari and I claim Braddock,” Cenedi said quietly, having attended something coming through his earpiece. “Sidi-ji will very likely come to Central, to answer any questions of authority.”
“One would be grateful,” Bren said fervently. Treaty law, and a step toward removal of the Reunioners, was the only thing that might quiet Ogun’s objections. “Banichi-ji, the search of the likeliest tunnel. Can we undertake that, simultaneously with the move on Braddock?”
“Your aishid can undertake it,” Banichi said sternly. “Irene-nadi, however, will be an asset.”
“My workers,” Geigi said, “will gladly assist.”
“We shall need a translator in the other searches,” Jase said. “If we get nothing from Braddock, my personal bodyguard and I will move into the tunnels with Banichi.”
“Let us go, then,” Cenedi said. “Time is running. It will take half an hour to position ourselves, with the workers’ assistance.”
“On your signal,” Geigi said. “I shall call senior workers to meet you. Service tunnels penetrate the divisions at certain points, and you will be able to go and come as you wish, with their help.”
“Call them,” Cenedi said. “And let us move quickly. Sidi-ji will arrive in Central with an escort. Nandi, how soon can you lock the doors?”
“Within a few moments after I reach Central, nadi. I have written down the sequence of commands in a manual I keep. I wish to be sure of them.”
“Let us go, then,” Cenedi said. “Sidi-ji and the young aiji will arrive as she pleases.”
“Sakeimi,” Geigi said to the fourth of his aishid, “you will stay to escort the aiji-dowager. Let her meet no inconvenience.”
“I’m signaling my bodyguard,” Jase said, “to armor up and meet me at the interface. Best we hurry. Once Riggins starts asking for my handoff, he’s going to be highly frustrated.”
Bren translated that for the others, rose and put a hand on Irene’s slight shoulder. “Irene?”
“Sir?”
“Go with Banichi, stay with him wherever he goes and if there should be trouble, hide in a dark place and trust we’ll come back for you. We absolutely will come for you. Captain Graham’s going along to be sure your mother is safe. And if you and Banichi can’t find anybody in the tunnels, our next step will be the addresses you gave us. And if they’re not there, we’ll keep on ’til we find them. Got it? If you get separated from my bodyguard for any reason, don’t call out, don’t try to catch up. Get into one of the maintenance shelters, get into a cold-suit, and wait. If you absolutely have to, exit on the Mospheiran side and ask for Gin Kroger. Understood?”
“Yes, sir,” she said in a small voice, and got up from the table. Everybody did, and Hanidi said quietly, “Wherever we can be of service, nandi.”
“We shall be searching in two sections,” Cenedi said quietly. “Attend Jase-aiji. His bodyguard does not speak Ragi, and they will be guided by atevi workers once he leaves us. Stay with him wherever he goes, and be sure he understands his guides.”
· · ·
Jase, Cenedi and his men, and the Observers took the first lift, Banichi, Jago, Tano, and Algini, with Irene, immediately took the second, and Geigi’s man Haiji pushed the button to call a third.
“The dowager is coming,” Geigi said then, just as the car arrived.
“Hold for her,” Bren said. Ilisidi was coming, and with her, Cajeiri and Cajeiri’s young aishid, at the dowager’s pace. They held long enough for the lift to advise them, in a mechanical voice, that long holds inconvenienced others.
The clock was running on Jase’s shift. Distances and procedures—a simple traffic condition in the lift system—could run their margin closer. Not to mention what happened to their timing if Ogun woke up and wanted to talk to Jase.
Promise me asylum, Jase had said. It was Jase’s sort of levity. But it was also dead serious. Ogun could well cast blame on Sabin if the operation against Braddock failed. Ogun could take over the operation if it worked.
But if it failed, if it came to a contest between Sabin and Ogun, with Jase’s future in the balance . . .
Riggins would have been negligible in the whole game—except Riggins sat out there, Ogun’s man, in possession of the ship . . . and ultimate ship-folk power.
At his own suggestion, that was the hell of it. It had seemed a sensible idea at the time.
Ogun certainly wouldn’t have Gin’s assistance if Ogun went against Sabin. And Ogun damned sure wouldn’t get the aiji-dowager’s approval.
But that sort of standoff was by no means the situation they wanted to get into.
Ilisidi arrived at the lift, with her company, and Cajeiri and his. She leaned heavily on the cane as she walked, not her habit, and gave a deep, discontented sigh as she joined them.
“Go in, go,” she said with a wave of her hand. “We understand there is an urgency.”
She hurt like hell, he guessed. The long trip and hiking about the long halls had been hard on her. But she knew exactly what she was doing, and she well knew what her presence was worth, in politics, representing the government that was the station’s major source of critical supplies. Be damned to those who thought an atevi request for compliance was of minor import.
God, he loved this woman. Loved. He had been thinking human for hours.
Tillington was down, having crossed Geigi.
Braddock had had the bad judgment to cross the dowager’s great-grandson.
Would Ilisidi order Cenedi summarily to remove the man from further troubling them? On Earth, that required a Filing.
Up here, under the Guild Observers’ direct witness?
One had no idea what sort of signal she might have passed to Cenedi.
And, though he had a little twinge of conscience, he conscientiously didn’t ask.