And Nojana was a member of the Assassins’ Guild, members of his staff knew Nojana very well from before this: it was a small and very well-placed Guild, and generally supportive of the aiji, with rare and balanced exceptions. Into Guild politics the paidhi had no entry, and he thought it wise to seek none, as the aiji himself sought none.
He certainly had a healthy appetite.
“How long will you stay?” Bren asked, and reserved What in hell is Banichi up to?for a moment with his own staff.
“One isn’t sure, nand’ paidhi.”
That was a fairly broad answer, warning the habituated that the ateva in question was hedging, and if pressed, would hedge more creatively… being too polite to lie unless cornered.
One took the answer and shut up, and asked Jago later, pulling her within his room.
“I don’t know,” was Jago’s response.
“All right,” he said. “But I don’t know if I’m going down with the next flight. That’s within my judgment.”
“One worries,” Jago said. “Staff can manage this. Someone less valuable can manage this.”
“Less valuable to the aiji because such a person might do less. If I can secure a meeting with the captains, I shouldsecure it. If I can hold Ramirez to agreements personally, even if there’s dissent, I should do it. If I can free Jase, I should free him. In the meantime, Jago-ji, I will prepare dispatches, if I have more than a few hours.”
“One has more than a few hours. I should say quite a few hours, nadi.”
“What is he doing?”
“One can’t say.”
“Well,” he said distressedly, “well, show Nojana what he has to know and I’ll prepare the dispatches. Give me at least an hour’s warning when he leaves.”
“I don’t know that I can do that,” Jago protested.
“I know you can work wonders,” he said. “I believe that you will.—And you’re not to risk yourself, Jago-ji! You’re not to leave this place unless I say so.”
“I can’t take such orders,” Jago said, but added quickly, “but I see no reason to go at the moment.”
“An hour’s warning,” he insisted, and went off, precaution against surprises, to give the same instruction to Nojana, that he had dispatches that had to go to Tabini, and that Nojana should carry them.
That meant putting his notes in order and some sort of coherency, and more, committing them to an ephemeral card, which he habitually carried since the bad old days of Jase’s descent and Deana Hanks’ attempt to land on the mainland. It had a button that simply, physically, with a caustic element, destroyed the media beyond reading, not something he liked using—he had a dire image of the thing going off while he was producing it; and his scenario for needing it involved a situation in which he might want to destroy his whole computer storage, but this was a good deal less dire, simply to hand Nojana the record and to instruct him to give it personally to the head of the aiji’s security.
“Only to him,” Bren said emphatically. “This tab, do you see, must remain intact unlessyou think there’s a danger of it falling into other hands. Once you tear it off, this record will be destroyed. If an unauthorized machine attempts to read it, the result will be bad for both.”
“One understands,” Nojana said fervently. “The record will reach the aiji’s guard.”
“Very good” Bren said. “There’ll be another if we have time. These are the essentials.”
“Does the paidhi have concerns for security here, or on the ground?” Nojana dared ask.
“Here, primarily. But take care, and ask for immediate escort once you land; I don’t fancy you’ll have to ask twice.” He said that and asked, sensing a man who might have secrets, “Do youhave concerns about which my security should know?”
“I have informed them of essentials, nadi.”
“Inform us all,” he said. “I want to hear it directly, and ask questions.”
“Yes, nandi,” Nojana said, and over at least three cups of tea which Algini made himself, not asking the servant staff, and within the security post, Nojana informed them of what he knew.
“Certain of the crew have become familiar with us,” Nojana said, “and we do speak outside the bounds of our duty. We share food with them, some small extra sweets which they greatly favor, and we gain their goodwill. They mention their recreation and their associations, which we know, and which I can tell you.”
“Do so,” Jago said, and Narana did, mapping out all those individuals whose names or work they knew, and every name associated with them, and where they had complained or praised someone: Narana had a very good memory of such things, second nature to atevi… significant among humans, but not by patterns Narana might suspect.
“Very, very good,” Bren said, having a clear picture from that and from Jase, a tendency to form families of sorts, even lineages and households, all with the tradition of marriage, but without its frequent practice. “You know Jasi-ji. You met him.”
“Yes, nadi, I had that honor.”
“His mother is resident here, perhaps other associates. We’ve been unable to contact him: the captains have given orders to the contrary. If I send word, might you use one of your more innocent contacts to slip a message to her to contact us? I think it might come much more easily from the other direction. They’re routing all our communications through a single channel; we don’t seem to have general access to communications as I suspect others might.” An idea came to him, and he asked the question. “How do you reach the authorities?”
“Cl for communications and Ql for dock communications; but we know a few more numbers.”
“You’ve had no difficulty reaching them.”
“None that I know. I speak enough Mosphei’, nandi, that if a worker needs to reach us, I often receive the call, and if one might be late he calls, and on occasion we provide them small excuse, as if they were at work, but not so.”
“You mean they ask you to conceal their tardiness and absences.”
“They make up deficits quite willingly. We’ve never found it a detriment, nandi. Are we wrong?”
“Not at all,” Bren said. “By no means.” That the crew found occasion to play off on duty was within human pattern; that they made up the work was the pattern of a crew that understood the schedule and would meet it, all of which the atevi working with them had learned. And it might be unwise to use that route to reach Jase’s mother… yet. It might trigger suspicion of malevolent intent, the contact might be rejected at the other end, and there was not quite the urgent need to do it. “But which human would you ask to contact someone outside your area if you had to do it?”
“Kelly. A young woman.” Nojana had no hesitation. “She has a lover. She meets him at times. She knows Jase very well.”
“Has the subject arisen? We’ve been unable to establish contact with Jase; I’m somewhat worried, nadi. Has she expressed concern?”
“She has tried to tell me something regarding Jase, but the words elude me. She seems to express that Jase is associated with Ramirez-aiji.”
“He is. That much is true. Ramirez functions as hisaiji, or his father.”
“Indeed. Kelly has said Jase-nandi is withRamirez.”
Nojana had used the Mospheiran word.
“ Withmeans very many things. Ask if Jase is in danger.”
“I know this word. Shall I ask nadi Kelly?”
“If you can do so discreetly.”
“One will attempt discretion.”
“Report the result of that inquiry to Tabini-aiji when you take him the dispatch. I doubt it would be safe to send word to me, unless I make the flight… as my staff seems to believe I should. I remain doubtful.”
“I shall,” Nojana said. “Indeed I shall, nand’ paidhi.”
They conversed; Nojana slept and waked with the servants, another day, received more files, enjoyed meals with them.