“Where’s Yanni?”
“Still in Novgorod. Hicks is under arrest and we’re on shaky ground with ReseuneSec. The department heads are all mad at me because I’m insisting on security drills and upsetting their routine. Somebody murdered Patil, somebody murdered Thieu, they probably had you on their list to make sure that what you knew didn’t get out–but didn’t want to stir up the old murder case and get questions asked. They were doing just fine as things were–until you came back here. They lost the election and they murdered Spurlin before he could take office in Defense–never mind they hadn’t read the results yet, they had the polls. They could work math. And they moved. That’s a faction at work. Somebody blew up a tower upriver, and it wasn’t the Paxers. It was a diversion of our energies. Or a signal to somebody. Lao’s dead. Khalid’s trying to force martial law. He’s getting very frustrated by now, because Council can’t muster a special decrees quorum if it wanted to, and I don’t know at what hour he’s going to get tired of reporters down at our airport sending out bulletins about Councillors’ families taking shelter here, which is what’s happening. Pretty soon he’ll figure out he’s got to do something about the reporters, and me, and maybe you. I’m due down at the airport in a few hours to talk to them so Councillors in Novgorod know their families aresafe, and more to the point, so Khalid can’t lie to his own Bureau about what’s going on here. But if we make a mistake here at Reseune, the whole of Union is in for Khalid in charge of the government, and that’s not going to be good, so, no, ser, Yanni isn’t here, I’m doing the best I can with not too many people left alive who know what’s going on or even what it’s about, and I need you to tell me what your deal was with Defense, because you’re the cause the Paxers have taken up, while they’re bombing subways, and because you’re the one the first Ari hauled home because you’d been dealing with Defense. And you’ll notice Defense moved fairly fast once you came home to Reseune.”
“My dealwith Defense was to get me the hell out of Reseune.”
“They didthat part of it,” Justin muttered, and drew a black scowl from Jordan.
Then that stare snapped back to her. “If Kyle was theirs, I never knew it. I absolutely never knew it.”
“Who were you dealing with in that Bureau? Was Khalid any part of that group?”
“You want me to come clean? Then I’ll tell you my conditions. My name cleared. Cleared. Freedom to leave. Freedom to write and say what I want– anything. And I’ll tell you about Khalid. Yes, I knowKhalid. There are questions I’ve got, too, with this azi you’ve got, plentyof them.”
“We’ve got a few days,” she said, “maybe a few days to figure out how to get through to him. And I want bothof you working on this.”
“The hell,” Jordan said. “He can stay out of it.”
“Jordan and I will talk about it,” Paul said quietly.
Curiously, then, Jordan glanced aside, didn’t look at any of them, shrugged, and walked back into the inner apartment.
“In the morning,” Paul said to them. “We’ll talk.”
Family, she thought. Family more complicated, in its way, than her dealings with Denys. But it was somehow functioning. She had the feeling something was moving. Maybe it was something Jordan had finally believed. Maybe there’d been some other change in the atmosphere. Paul. Paul had never said a word before. And now Paul had an opinion.
And Justin had asked about Paul’s manual. Hadn’t he? She’d been distracted. Nowshe knew what the latest fight was about.
She walked with Justin and Grant back to Alpha Wing and back to their mutual parting, all their security in attendance, and didn’t say anything but, “Thank you, Justin. Thank you, Grant. Try to work with him. Please.”
“I intend to,” Justin said. “I fully intend to.” After which he and Grant went inside.
She went into her own place, with Jory, with Florian, and felt like asking for a vodka, but she still had to go down to the airport. She still had to talk to the reporters.
She went into her office. Only Florian went that far with her.
She turned then, and looked at him.
“Please don’t do that again,” he said.
“It wasn’t fair of me. I thought I was saving you having to run back here. I didn’t intend to go farther than Justin’s apartment. Then it seemed safe. I think it was.”
“It scared us.” Florian said. Very few things did, but she saw that that was very much the truth.
“The first Ari made that mistake,” she said. “I’ve asked too much, sent you this way and that, asked you and Catlin to do more than you ever ought to have to. I won’t send you apart from me again.”
“We’re not tired,” Florian said. He didn’t lie often. He didn’t do it particularly well, no more than Justin ever did.
“I love you,” she said, and hugged his shoulder, which was solid and sure as he was. She rested her head against it for a moment. He put his hand on her head, and stood there.
A long, long time. Until she grew tired of standing.
BOOK THREE Section 5 Chapter xix
AUGUST 24, 2424
1421H
“…we will continue to support the Council as elected by the people of Union, and we will continue to provide for family and relatives of the Council who have appealed to us for a safe haven, this in the wake of the murder of one elected Councillor and threats against families of living ones. Two Councillors are with us at Reseune.
“We support the people of Novgorod in resisting the threats of those elements who create civil unrest and we call on them to use their creative energy to sustain the city and its services. Those of you who hold public service jobs, count them of extreme importance and consider your duty critical to the safety of all citizens. Those of you who have sworn or Contracted to defend Union, support the Council in its determination to uphold the law.
“The Council has designated a date for assembly and will act. We call on all citizens and azi to support the Council in the face of bullying and threat of bodily harm. We call on the loyal armed services of Union to support the Council and to refuse unlawful orders. We call on every citizen to document every act of intimidation, every unlawful demand on the rights of the public, with numbers and vid records where you can secure them safely. These unlawful acts will come to trial and the people of Novgorod will have their day in court.
“Long live the Union.”
The little minx, Yanni thought, and shut down the vid. She was that. She’d just appealed to Khalid’s own Bureau. She hadn’t told the whens and wheres of the Council plan, just that Reseune sheltered two Councillors’ families, a Councillor and a Proxy Councillor…she didn’t mention that one of the two was herself.