“Team Hector’s assassin knew about Petane for a couple of decades. He obviously resisted the temptation to kill him,” the priest pointed out logically.
“Team Hector’s assassin was told Petane was alive and was ordered not to kill him,” the doctor said.
“If I recall correctly, you had advised us that we could not reliably expect Miss O’Neal to obey such an order and that she had to be protected from the knowledge of his status,” Aelool said.
“Yes, I did. She owed a personal debt of honor to Team Conyers, or believed she did, after they attempted to save her life when she was the target of an assassination attempt, and after they fought in battle beside the O’Neals when the Posleen attacked the O’Neal house. I wasn’t certain she would disobey the order, but I was certain the stress of having to obey it would have done substantial damage to some of the very qualities that protect her basic mental stability despite her very demanding profession.”
“While we are always mindful of the great debt our people owe to Clan O’Neal, one of our concerns is that this particular problem has happened within that clan before. Even though there have been only two such incidents, the size of the clan is such that concern has been raised among the nonhuman associates of the Bane Sidhe that we may be seeing the beginnings of a pattern. Much as we regret to even broach the subject, we must wonder if we are beginning to see a flaw in the line.” If anything, Aelool’s eyes were even more firmly fixed on the floor.
“What are your people seeing in terms of your interpretation of this possible flaw? It would help us to look for evidence that could either confirm or refute it, or to otherwise address your concerns, if we had more detailed specifics about the nature of those concerns.” Father O’Reilly suppressed a wince at Aelool’s facial expression. “Please, Aelool, I’m not saying that there’s no cause for concern or that we don’t have some understanding of why you’re concerned. I’m saying that it would help us if you’d detail your people’s concerns so that we can be sure we aren’t missing any of the subtleties and finer points, so that we can do a better job of finding remedies together that will fix the problems to the satisfaction of all clans in the Bane Sidhe alliance.”
“This is hard to explain in human terms. It is not that an act for an individual or small set of individuals’ good, but against the interests of the clan as a whole, strikes my people as dishonorable and disloyal, although there are overtones of that, so much as that it strikes us as… I suppose your best word for it would be insane. It comes across to us as having taken violent, crazed, uncontrollable carnivores into the very hearth of the clan itself.” He held up a hand placatingly. “This is not how I see humans, but you must realize that… you have a saying about something that ‘pushes your buttons.’ It would not be an exaggeration to say that this one act pushes every button my species has about dealing with carnivores.”
“Okay. I can understand, given your species’ culture and biology and social structure, why you would feel that way,” Vitapetroni said, “but I’d make a couple of points that maybe we all need to keep in mind here. First, she is not uncontrollable. In this case the systems of control failed because they were not followed. Second, her readiness to kill is not natural human behavior. Each of our assassins has been very carefully manipulated to create a human who is both sane and able to kill on orders. That manipulation has to be done with precision. Third, she had a rational reason for not perceiving her act to be against the actual interests of the Bane Sidhe as a whole. The only actual harm it did was to embarrass the people who failed to revisit the decision to keep Petane alive. Fourth, she is still acting entirely consistently within designed control parameters, and has over thirty years done the Bane Sidhe far, far more good than harm. If the Bane Sidhe was willing to keep and use Petane for pragmatic reasons, how much more willing should it be to continue to make use of Cally O’Neal’s training and talents.”
“That last point is one I can use to convince my people to go ahead with the next scheduled mission, given the importance of the mission and if you can assure me that Miss O’Neal is highly, highly unlikely to kill the wrong person or people on this mission. It doesn’t address the long term issue of standards of loyalty,” the Indowy said.
“With respect, Aelool, we aren’t going to have the same outlook as your people because, well, we aren’t you. If your people expect us to be, well, Indowy that can be used for the violent missions, you’re going to be disappointed. Any resolution is going to have to take into account the differences between the psychology of our species,” Vitapetroni said.
“Al, you’re supposed to be helping make things better,” O’Reilly sighed.
“I am. I’m not an expert at xenopsychology, but I do understand and appreciate that Indowy loyalty is one way. Totally. From the individual clan member to the clan. That won’t work with humans. If the Indowy can’t find some way to come to terms with that about us, this alliance will not work. They cannot think of human members of the Bane Sidhe as members of their clan. It would lead to… unrealistic expectations,” he insisted.
“We are quite aware that humans are not Indowy, thank you.”
“But not aware enough. Had you been, your people would have understood that loyalty down the chain from the organization to the individual is not some eccentric detail of etiquette, but is vital to dealing with humans in an organization. Petane’s status would have been reviewed. I take some of the blame that it was not. I shouldn’t have assumed more understanding on both sides than there was. I should have explicitly informed you of the organizational hazards of not periodically reevaluating the Petane decision to see if it was still justified to let the man live. That part, that I didn’t make sure you understood that necessity, or that our base commander here didn’t understand that he had to bring it up. That’s my fault.” The psychiatrist tapped his chest with a hand.
“And you would then say that not understanding you was our fault?” Aelool’s grip on his glass tightened.
“Not at all. I’d say we learned to understand each other better. How we found out wasn’t exactly pleasant.” He grimaced. “Not to sound too much like a shrink, but I think both sides need to think a bit about how this knowledge affects our policies.”
“Or the arrangement itself,” the alien sighed.
“We understand that. At the same time, it is possible that we could use this understanding to revise our policies to pursue our mutual goals without having this kind of thing happen again,” the priest interjected.
“Yes, that is possible. I would like the doctor’s assistance in exploring the ramifications and details and looking for anything related we may have missed. Meanwhile, I think I can make the case, given how critical the need for this particular mission is, and how good a body type match Miss O’Neal is for Miss Makepeace, for continuing with this mission. After that…” he trailed off.
“I agree. We can discuss the other issues after we get Team Isaac in the field,” O’Reilly nodded.
“I think we must all hope that that mission goes well,” the alien’s expression was the Indowy equivalent of a deep and troubled frown.