She loved Catlin. And Catlin helped her, finally, get it all in perspective. Her own reaction was all gauzy wisp, pure emotion, evaporative on a breeze, and nothing to do with rationality–unless you started taking your own rattled assessment for solid and factual, and that was a mistake that launched your whole universe into mythology, especiallywhen it was a love‑hate reaction. Catlin dealt purely in substance, and found real substance in that latter bit that she herself didn’t see as alarming, or at least didn’t see as at all surprising–so she wasn’t fluxed by it, just analytical, and that was that, and she could tell herself calmly, yes, she’d hear the request and she’d think about it and she’d probably say no. When Justin actually asked her.
It was interesting, however, to hear that first scene as Catlin, and realize that, if she were Catlin, she just couldn’t be fazed by any assessment of her age–Catlin was just Catlin, and knew what she could do, any other judgement was, in Catlin’s view, just mistaken.
Catlin did, however, worry about Justin’s mental engagement with Jordan’s frustration, and possibly the vector it would take, entangling her and trying for sympathy.
And it would involve Justin going right to Yanni’s door, at a sensitive time in her own relations with Yanni. There was that little question.
That wasworth a slow rethinking, in Catlin’s way of looking at born‑man behavior. In Catlin’s view, a born‑man following his emotions was apt to do any damned thing, not necessarily prudent, or successful, or even in his own self‑interest.
This request certainly wouldn’t be in Justin’s interest. That was the thing about realself‑sacrifice, unlike Jordan’s martyrdom: it knowingly gave away bits of itself, trying to make the environment saner, and better.
On the other hand, another inquiry about Jordan could, coming from her, constitute a very interesting probe into Yanni Schwartz’s motives.
She thought about it a moment. And she was surer and surer about her course of action.
She wrote a note to Justin, and sent it. It said:
Don’t go to Yanni with your fathers situation. The Patil investigation is going to have Yanni’s office in an uproar, ReseuneSec is conducting the investigation, and I don’t want Hicks’ office to sweep you and Grant up for questioning. Then I’d have Hicks getting all upset and bothered because I’d have to go over his head to Yanni to get you out. I would do it, understand, but that would just complicate things and you still wouldn’t get your answer out of Yanni and I’d have Hicks mad at me, which would just make matters worse. I have to talk to Yanni anyway. Let me approach Yanni about Jordan’s getting some work to do. I’d be happy to. I want things to work out, the same as I know you do. You and Grant just be careful about going out of the wing, even to restaurants, and don’t send Grant by himself. I don’t want trouble with ReseuneSec.
Justin had a strong tic, where it concerned ReseuneSec. And it wasn’t altogether the most honest thing she’d ever written, but its purpose was. And there was stillthe question of who had put Jordan on to Eversnow, and who had dropped that card into his pocket–if they could believe a word of what he’d said.
I won’t critique his work,she said at the end of that note. I won’t say a word. I know he’d like me to so he can have a fight. So I’ll just pass/fail it. Tell him he’ll have to write it well enough to get it past me and I’m going to be hypercritical. Bet he can’t do it. Tell him that.
BOOK THREE Section 2 Chapter vi
JUNE 13, 2424
0802H
“ God,” Justin said, and then laughed, outright laughed.
“That’s good,” Grant said.
“I hope she can convince Yanni,” Justin said, and Grant:
“I want to seethis one.”
BOOK THREE Section 2 Chapter vii
JUNE 13, 2424
2310H
Pajama conference. That was what they’d used to call it, back when the Enemy was Denys, and they did it now that they ruled the Wing and had a force of their own. Florian and Catlin sat on Ari’s big bed–Ari in her nightgown and Florian and Catlin in their gym sweats; and Ari tucked her knees up with her arms around her ankles and Florian and Catlin sat cross‑legged. They played the oldest Game, Who’s the Enemy?
“Paxers are easy,” Florian said. “They’re always out there.”
Ari asked: “But have they got a leader?”
“We have names,” Catlin said. “But there’s no one single leader that anybody knows.”
“Anton Clavery. Is that one?”
“A new name,” Catlin said. “Anton Clavery doesn’t show on any records. There is no CIT number.”
“An alias, then.”
“Or a nonperson,” Florian said. “Births happen off the record. Particularly Paxer children. And children from the outback don’t always get logged in.”
That was a small revelation–though not a huge surprise. She saw it could certainly happen, if parents opting for natural birth didn’t go to a hospital or register a birth for weeks–or months. Or never got around to it. “They’d have to intend to do this long‑term. Motive?”
“Secrecy from the authorities,” Florian said. “No registry of DNA, fingerprints, retinals, nothing of the sort. Hard to track a nonperson.”
“Hard to find a job, too,” Ari said. “How do they manage?”
Catlin hugged her knees up. “They borrow. Their job is being off the records and out of the system. They borrow cards, to ride public transport. People steal for them: they use a stolen card, then dump it before they get caught. They always have jobs. They’re employed by clandestine groups. They’re greatly prized for employment in some circles.”
“Do we have data on the parents of these individuals? Do we try to track pregnant people that don’t register a child?” She was instantly interested: a subset of the Paxers, likely of other dissident groups. And she’d about bet they were all CIT, not azi, in origin. Azi‑descended weren’t inclined to plots, and they’d prize that CIT registry for their children: but CITs were inclined to be argumentative. People who’d opted to leave where they were and emigrate to Cyteen hadn’t been the happiest where they were, or they’d have stayed. They’d either been hungry for something they didn’t have, or they’d been at odds with where they were. Maybe a certain segment was at odds with the status quo again.
“There are names and numbers,” Catlin said. “Some are known. It’s a felony to fail to register a child–crime against person.”
Mark a new element. Novgorod had existed at the outlet of the Novaya Volga since Reseune had existed near its headwaters. Her predecessor’s mother, Olga, had seen the first days. So they weren’t that many generations into Novgorod’s existence. The Paxers had organized around opposition to the War, which had pretty well been going on since before Cyteen existed, in its cold war phase. But malcontents had been there probably since the second batch of people got to Cyteen Station in its pioneer days and complained about some regulation the first batch of colonists had voted on.