He took a breath while the phone was ringing, leaned his shoulders against the wall to ease his legs and rest a slightly aching head, waited. HopedHanks wasn't in a mood. And swore that if she was, and if she crossed him, she was going to run into a meat grinder. He wanteda fight on equal terms, near at hand, nothing long-distance. He wanted, dammit, a human conversation, on whatever terms. Hanks at least fought fair and Hanks wasn't a long-distance call.
Obsessive behaviors. Late-evening phone calls. Barb upset his sleep.
Four rings.
"This is Deana Hanks."
In atevi. In polite atevi.
"Good evening, Ms. Hanks. How's the report coming?"
" I'm working on it. Fast as I can. — On my own, Cameron. Using your information."
He dropped into Mosphei'. "A little news I thought you'd like to know. I ran out to a local observatory, talked with the astronomers there on the theory we don't have the full range of concept words we need. I got a report back. I don't know what the whole gist of it is, but I did submit the faster-than-light business to them as a paradox — and there's a gentleman who's been working on something about human origins that at least has the astronomers and the mathematicians talking. I don't know if it has the merit of solving anything — I've a lot of nervousness about it. But it's atevi. And it seems to be on the right track."
A silence. " I thought that was what youdidn't want."
"It's there. Slip or not, what you said, you can't stop it being there, not now. The atevi gentleman seems to have struggled up to a notion of a spacetime environment — a glimmer of an answer maybe waiting for the right question. It's the old speculation: atevi theory finally pulling ahead of the engineering."
Another long silence. " On FTL?"
"Other sciences, all playing catch-up to what we keep throwing at them — that's filled their time. But astronomers haven't hadour input on any scale to occupy their whole attention. Their work's all been vindication of what they missed, and why they missed it. We'vebeen their focus: where we came from. Why they didn't know. No showy engineering. Just wondering if they could trust their measurements. Asking how to know the real distances."
"That's pretty incredible, Cameron."
"And going from there to the hard questions. How old is the universe? How did a ship get here? Is there substance out there? Is there really an ether?"
"You're setting me up. Right?"
"No setup. I just thought you'd like to know what's going on." The adrenaline had run out. He let himself relax against the wall, let a breath go, actually relieved to have a sane, self-protective reaction on the other end of the line. "We can have our differences, but let's be professionals: nothing to the atevi's detriment. We both make mistakes, that's all. We're bound to. We haven't got a damn lot of Departmental help here. We could blow something up. Major. Let's please try not to."
"What's this about, Cameron? What do you really want?"
"The sound of your voice. It's been a day. The ship's still dealing with the atevi andMospheira, so you know. We still haven't got a landing site — I'm still waiting for a call."
"My sources say a lander is the vehicle. An old lander the station didn't use."
"Your sources are right."
"Graham and Mercheson?"
"Right again. Where doyou get your information?"
"Exactly where and when your people let me have it, I'm damn sure."
"Not my orders."
"The hell."
"If I could depend on you taking orders, certain atevi could get some sleep, now, couldn't they? So could we both. I'd liketo, Deana. We've got one job to do, keeping the peace. Neither of us wants it broken. We don't see eye to eye, but at least we agree on what we don't want."
"So what's the news in the great outside?"
"Committee meetings. More committee meetings. Briefings. The mathematicians are holding court." He'd slipped out of Mosphei' and into atevi without thinking, the moment he hit the schedule. "How isthe report coming, seriously? Have you got everything you need?"
" I have some detailed questions."
"Anything I can answer?"
"I need transport figures. What's the month by month availability on tanker-cars and flatcars, age, type, tonnage, that kind of thing, on the northern lines?"
"God, I can get it. I could tell you, roughly."
"Garbage in, garbage out. But it's a plug-in figure if you want me to play with it and give you far-instances."
He weighed the next offer very carefully. But all the Transport members but Kabisu were solidly Tabini's: that committee was an area of minimal potential damage. "I could set you up with some committee time, if you'd like to have a meeting. I'd do setup with aides first, let them know what you're going to want."
"So what's the catch, chief?"
"None. I see no problem. Fix your vocabulary list in advance. Don't embarrass us."
" Cameron—"
"— Or be an ass."
" I didn't say anything."
Definite improvement in the temperature level. "I'll set it up."
"When?"
"I'll see the minister tomorrow, at least I hope to, barring other glitches. A lot of these committees are running on limited sleep these days. But Commerce, Trade, Transport, any and all of them — they're pretty well staffed, and it's an important piece of work. Just no damn politicking, Deana."
"Don't tell me —"
"— Deana. — All right?"
"All right."
He let go a clenched-up breath. "I want to tell you —"
"Yes?"
"Deana, I appreciate the cooperation. You had a damn hard landing on the job, I'm realizing that. I just wanted to tell you —"
"Let's not drown in sentiment, here."
"No danger of that. Can we just —"
" I know — God! — oh, God! — Baighi? Baighi?"
"Deana?"
Something popped, dim and dull. Baighi was security. He heard the phone fall, he heard Deana's voice, muffled — he had the presence of mind to push Record — and to leave the phone open as he ran out into the hall. "Algini!" he yelled, and ran as far as the center hall, with servants staring in shock.
"Nand' paidhi!" Algini met him halfway to the foyer, gun in hand, servants gathering all around. "What's happened?"
"Hanks-paidhi's in trouble. Something's happened. Get security down there. I think it was gunfire. I was on the phone with her. Hurry!"
Algini didn't ask — Algini ran back for the security station and he turned back from the dining room through a gathering of anxious, frightened servants.
"Just stay inside," he said to them. "Doors locked. Where's Banichi and Jago?"