It wasn’tall his mail, not, at least, his ordinary mail—nothing from Barb or his mother. No communication from his office, messages like, Where are you? Are you alive?
Jago surely knew what was missing. She had to know, she wasn’t that inefficient. And what did he say about it? She stood there, waiting, probably in curiosity about Tabini’s letter.
Or maybe knowing very well what was in it.
He began to be scared of the answers—scared of his own ignorance and his own failure to figure out what the silence around him was saying, or what of Tabini’s signals he was supposed to have picked up.
He ran his thumbnail under the seal on Tabini’s letter, hoping for rescue, hopingit held some sort of explanation that didn’t add up to disaster.
Tabini’s handwriting—was not the clearest hand he had ever dealt with. The usual declaration of titles. I hope for your health, it began, with Tabini’s calligraphic flourish. I hope for your enjoyment of Malguri’s resources of sun and water.
Thanks, Tabini, he thought sourly, thanks a lot. The rainy season, no less. He rested a sore backside against the table to read it, while Jago waited.
Something about television. Television, for God’s sake.
… my intention by this interview to give people around the world an exposure to human thought and appearance far different than the machimi have presented. I feel this is a useful opportunity which should not be wasted, and have great confidence in your diplomacy, Bren. Please be as frank with these professionals as you would be with me, privately.
“Nadi Jago. Do you know what’s in this?”
“No, Bren-ji. Is there a problem?”
“Tabini’s sent the television crew!”
“That would explain the people on the flight. I am surprised we weren’t advised. Though I’m sure they have credentials.”
Under the circumstances which have made advisable your isolation from the City and its contacts, I can think of no more effective counter to your enemy than the cultivation of increased public favor. I have spoken personally to the head of news and public awareness at the national network, and authorized a reputable and highly regarded news crew to meet with you at Malguri, for an interview which may, in my hopes and those of the esteemed lord Minister of Education, lead to monthly news conferences…
“He wants me to do a monthly news program! Do you knowabout this?”
“I plead not, nadi-ji. I’m sure, however, if Tabini-aiji has cleared these individuals to speak to you, they’re very reputable people.”
“Reputable people.” He scanned the letter for more devastating news, found only I know the weather in this season is not the best, but I hope that you have found pleasure in the library and accommodation with the esteemed aiji-dowager, to whom I hope you will convey my personal good wishes.
“This is impossible. I have to talk to Tabini.—Jago, I need a phone. Now.”
“I’ve no authorization, Bren-ji. There isn’ta phone here, and I’ve no authorization to remove you from our—”
“The hell, Jago!”
“I’ve no authorization, Bren-ji.”
“Does Banichi?”
“I doubt so, nadi-ji.”
“Well, neither do I. I can’t talk to these people.”
Jago’s frown grew anxious. “The paidhi tells me that Tabini-aiji has authorized these people. If Tabini-aiji has authorized this interview, the paidhi is surely aware that it would be a very great embarrassment to these people and their superior, extending even to the aiji’s court. If the paidhi has any authorization in this letter to refuse this, I must ask to see this letter.”
“It’s not Tabini. I’ve no authorization from Mospheira to do any interview. I absolutely can’t do this without contacting my office. I certainly can’t do it on any half-hour notice. I need to contact my office. Immediately.”
“Is not your man’chito Tabini? Is this not what you said?”
God, rightdown the predictable and unarguable slot.
“My man’chito Tabini doesn’t exclude my arguing with him or my protecting my position of authority among my own people. It’s my obligation to do that, nadi-ji. I have no force to use. It’s all on your side. But my man’chigives me the moral authority to call on you to do my job.”
The twists and turns of a trial lawyer were a necessary part of the paidhi’s job. But persuading Jago to reinterpret man’chiwas like pleading a brief against gravity.
“Banichi would have to authorize it,” Jago said with perfect composure, “if he has the authority, which I don’t think he does, Bren-ji. If you wish me to go down to the airport, I will tell him your objection, though I fear the television crew will come when their clearance says to come, which may be before any other thing can be arranged, and I cannot conceive how Tabini could withdraw a permission he seems to have granted without—”
“I feel faint. It must be the tea.”
“ Please, nadi, don’t joke.”
“I can’t deal with them!”
“This would reflect very badly on many people, nadi. Surely you understand—”
“I cannot decide such policy changes on my own, Jago! It’s not in the authority I was given—”
“Refusal of these people must necessarily have far-reaching effect. I could not possibly predict, Bren-ji, but can you not comply at least in form? This surely won’t air immediately, and if there should be policy considerations, surely there could be ameliorations. Tabini has recommended these people. Reputations are assuredly at stake in this.”
Jago was no mean lawyer herself—versed in man’chiand its obligations, at least, and the niceties on which her profession accepted or didn’t accept grievances. Life and death. Justified and not. And she had a point. She had serious points.
“May I see the letter, Bren-ji? I don’t, of course, insist on it, but it would make matters clearer.”
He handed it over, Jago walked over to the window to read it, not, he thought, because she needed the light.
“I believe,” she said, “you’re urged to be very frank with these people, nadi. I think I understand Tabini-aiji’s thinking, if I may be so forward. If anything should happen to you—it would be very useful to have popular sympathy.”
“If anything should happen to me.”
“Not fatally. But we have taken an atevi life.”
He stood stock still, hearing from Jago what he thought he heard. It was her impeccable honesty. She could not perceive that there was prejudice in what she said. She was thinking atevi politics. That was her job, for Tabini and for him.
“An atevi life.”
“We’ve taken it in defense of yours, nand’ paidhi. It’s our man’chito have done so. But not everyone would agree with that choice.”
He had to ask. “Do you, nadi?”
Jago delayed her answer a moment. She folded the letter. “For Tabini’s sake I certainly would agree. May I keep this in file, nadi?”
“Yes,” he said, and shoved the affront out of his mind. What did you expect? he asked himself, and asked himself what was he to do without consultation, what might they ask and what dared he say?
Jago simply took the letter and left, through his bedroom, without answering his question.
An honest woman, Jago was, and she’d given him no grounds at all to question her protection. It wasn’t precisely what he’d questioned—but she doubtless didn’t see it that way.
He’d alienated Banichi and now he’d offended Jago. He wasn’t doing well at all today.
“Jago,” he called after her. “Are you going down to the airport?”