“One will not ask to know further,” Bren said, “and one will cease all levity regarding the detested vest, nadiin-ji. One will not wish to make your job harder.”
“One is gratified by that, Bren-ji,” Banichi said.
“One is, from this side, gratified to have this much information,” Bren said, “and one assures you of confidentiality, unless you signal me that you wish me to pass along certain things.”
“Leave that to the Guild itself, Bren-ji,” Algini said, “on Guild channels.”
“Will you need to leave us during this, Gini-ji?”
“No,” Algini said. “No, nandi. I shall not leave your service. I have made that clear in the Guild. But information to this household will never be deficient again, unless Tano and I go missing, and it will get to the aiji’s guard if wehave to deliver it. We have established our own checks to make a silence detectible in certain quarters. We shall know. And should a signal come, that there is an assault on that system—we shall inform you, you will inform Tabini-aiji, we shall track it, and we will act. Enough—before we rouse more questions.” Algini gave one of his rare gentle smiles. “One is beyond glad to stay in this aishid, Bren-ji. Fortunately your position on the target list makes that possible for us.”
“Then one is glad to be a target,” Bren said with a definite nod, and rose and left his bodyguard to discuss things they might not say in his hearing.
Tatisiegi was likely one topic of interest. He was sure his bodyguard would tell him if there were the least whisper of a response from Tatiseigi. But there still was apparently no answer, no query, no action. Yet. And one could only worry.
The old man could do several things with the porcelain. He could refuse the gift. He could refuse the meeting. One would think, in that event, the crate would turn up back at his door fairly expeditiously, with or without an explanatory note. Tatiseigi had not done that—so he had, at least temporarily, accepted it.
Tatiseigi might be, at this moment, meeting with his own associates and deciding what to do about the itemcand the paidihi-aiji.
His bodyguard might know that answer. But inquiring into that sort of knowledge was like lifting the lid on something cooking: the intervention might ruin what mighthave worked itself out, given time, given the passing of delicate, unofficial hints. There were things one should not know until it was time to know.
It might have been a thorough mistake, sending that gift. Now that the deed was done, he had no dearth of second thoughts, and more of them since he’d talked to Tabini. The old man simply detested humans, on a visceral level, never mind that they’d had to deal with one another, and there was no sign of that opinion shifting. That was a problem, not only dealing with Tatiseigi but in dealing with any of the conservatives. By the very nature of what they believed, they detested humans and never wanted to deal with one, or the effect humans had had on the world, and that was that.
But the world was the world, and there was no changing what had happened. They’d tried living side by side. They’d tried ignoring one another. Now—
Now they had to try living side by side again. Ultimately.
If Tatiseigi didn’t declare war on him. PossiblyIlisidi could get him out of it, if it went utterly bad. But Tabini had said it: he was in it, he had started something, and that was that.
He had a little lunch in his office. He answered a few letters between bites of sandwich and sips of tea.
He had had the meeting he had most dreaded. He did not yet have the one he wished for.
But he faced a much more pleasant one in the afternoon.
Far into the other wing, downstairs, was the paidhi’s office. It had started out as a quiet little office, answering schoolchildren’s questions about humans and the paidhi’s job, when the paidhi’s job had entailed explaining the aiji’s new technological programs.
Then it had fielded anguished queries from village lords wanting more industry and other district lords irate that they had a factory upwind of their gardens.
The space program had brought letters from the certifiably confused, who were convinced that the atmosphere could be punctured, letting all the air out, and it had also brought more thoughtful letters asking such things as, if herewas what there was everywhere, what was out there?
A good part of the paidhi’s job—the part that wasn’t translating for Tabini or representing his programs, or considering the social and economic effects of human technology proposed to be given out to the continent—was serving as an information office and trying to scotch rumors before they acquired passengers. Rumor management had become nearly a full-time job for part of his staff before the coup, and it had resumed it after Tabini had come back to office. They were good at what they did—the letter they could not answer reasonably and fairly convincingly in his name was a rare one.
Since the restoration of Tabini-aiji, too—that was to say, for the last half year—he had gotten a gratifying number of letters of support and also queries about jobs—
It at least balanced a new flood of angry accusations and death threats, persons who charged his influence had brought about the coup and misled the aiji. Those he took quite seriously—and likewise a scatter of less rational letters blaming him for all manner of ills, including the spread of radio waves through buildings.
He could have had recourse to the Guild for the threatening letters, considering that credible threats of bodily harm outside Guild action were in fact illegal. He had not reported most of them, as general policy. A few more serious and likely threats, yes, had been investigated, but so far as he knew, no investigation had yet turned up anything serious or organized; at least that was the case before he had gone off to the Marid and dealt with Machigi.
The regular complainants (and he had a list of those) were going to have an apoplexy when they heard about peacemaking with the Marid and about the Edi and Gan acquiring seats in the legislature. Death threats were going to come out of the woodwork. He could only think about Algini’s warning.
Years, Algini had said, of not knowing if the noisy ones were the problem. He personally bet on the ones who said nothing at all.
“Nand’ paidhi!” he heard whispered as he entered the office, and the head secretary, elderly Daisibi, one of Tano’s remote kin, came down the aisle between desks in all haste, with a happy expression on his face.
“Nandi! One is so happy to see you safe!”
“One is very pleased with the work from this office,” he answered, bowing in turn. “One is very grateful for your handling the inquiries—and one hopes to make your work a little easier, nadi-ji. Is there anything extraordinarily urgent since my return?”
“Nothing extraordinary, nandi. Of course the children write. People from the remote districts do ask about the cell phone issuec”
God. He could not have his office out of step with him on that.
“ca few direct threats, which we have referred to the Bujavid officesc”
That was normal.
“cforecasts of doom from certain ‘countersc”
Normal. The paidhi attracted lightning. The number-counters who worked up fortunes and predictions and declarations of felicity or infelicity for various believers tended not to give any innovation good numbers. In this case, he was going to agree with them.
“crecommendations for policyc”
Some would be sane, and many would not.
“cqueries about the aliensc”