“I’m glad they’re with him, though,” Maddy said.
“I have a question,” Tommy said. “Are we sending ReseuneSec all this info we’re gathering?”
“Not,” Ari said, “until they give us better results than they have in the last two weeks.”
“You don’t have confidence in Hicks,” Amy said.
Ari shook her head. “I don’t know if it’s malfeasance,” she said, “but it’s not total competence. This is what bothers me. Uncle Giraud was a demanding sort. Hicks is making mistakes, jumping on Justin was one. We’re not getting things he promised us. We know we’re not. So, no, I’m not trusting him.”
“But Yanni’s all right,” Maddy said.
“I think Yanni’s all right,” Ari said. “But, so you know, yes, we’re running down all the civil police reports and university police reports on the Patil case. We’re having a little trouble getting at Planys. Thieu’s had a lot of tendrils that go under Defense doors, and we can’t get everything we’d like from there.”
“Same trouble in Novgorod?” Amy asked.
“To a certain extent,” Ari said. “Patil’s ties to Citizens and Defense are a problem, where it comes to access. The fact Patil was actually registered in Science opens up a lot of files to us that we otherwise couldn’t get. But most of her scientific research is classified, and not just anybody can get at it. Yanni being Proxy Councillor, he technically can. He’s got a lot; I’ve got that; I’ve asked for more–and if he gets it, I can get it. But what we’ve gotten so far is a complete disappointment. I hoped I’d find keywords and names that might be useful, but there’s nothing. A lot of correspondence with Councillor Corain–we can get her side of it, and it’s nothing startling. She complained significantly about crazies at her lectures this last winter. One letter to the Dean of Science asked that enrollment in her courses not be available in virtuality–it already wasn’t–and that enrollment be interview‑only, with a background check, and no auditing her classes, which they did implement for the next session…that was before she agreed to take the job on Fargone. I tried to get the actual interview‑lists, of people she’d enrolled, but that wasn’t available. Corain could get it, and I might write to him, or get Yanni to, but I don’t think it’s too likely the people we’re after would be in any way up to her coursework.”
“Sounds as if she was worried, at least,” Will said.
“Well, she was being made an icon for the Paxers,” Maddy said. “I don’t blame her. But her restricting who got to her classes didn’t help her much, did it?”
“Anything on that name?” Mika asked.
“On Anton Clavery?” Ari said. “Almost a hundred percent it’s a pseudonym, maybe a shared identity. And here’s another place we don’t have all we want from Hicks. We know there’s undercover work going on, and Yanni’s dragging his feet about getting Hicks to divulge what’s out there.”
“Undercover?” Mischa asked.
“Infiltrating the Paxers,” Ari said, “but that’s a deep secret, supposedly. There’s no report I’ve been able to ferret out. Hicks has it stored somewhere, and I’m wondering if it’s in a disconnected computer. I’m going to corner Yanni on it and insist. What generally bothers me, since the big bang at Strassenberg, is that there’s nothing wrong in Novgorod. The Paxers have been uncharacteristically quiet for the last two weeks. Likewise the Rocher crowd. Just silent. When something that disorganized suddenly does–or doesn’t do something–all together, that’s worrisome. Somebody may have pushed a button. And we didn’t think anybody had that much control.”
“Anton Clavery,” Tommy said.
Mischa dug an elbow in his side, saying, “You’re making a bogeyman.”
“Maybe we’ve got one,” Ari said, and the little flurry of laughter died. “I just don’t like any signs of coordination in that lot.”
“Who could get them all to face the same direction?” Amy asked. “ Howcould they do it?”
“Fear,” Catlin said. “A few might die. The rest would understand.”
The whole gathering got quiet for a breath or two. Catlin dealt in things like that, in a level of seriousness that had never quite gotten to the group, not even when they’d brought down Denys.
“There’s reason to think some have died,” Ari said. “People have accidents in Novgorod. That statistics always there. But the number of crazy letters on certain boards we monitor has fallen right off. It’s just a silence. That’s all we can finger. And I want information out of Yanni, and I’m hesitant to press for it, because I don’t want alarms to go off in any system watching me. So I’m not making a great fuss. And, no, I’m not easy about Sam being where he is, but I have a code arranged that will bring him back fast, if we have to.” She sighed and leaned back in her chair, ankles crossed. “I don’t want to move yet. I don’t want to until I have enough information. I don’t want to call Sam back on a just‑in‑case, because it’s important what he’s doing. It’s his job with Fitzpatrick that’s at issue here.”
“All the same, somebody killed the first Ari,” Amy said grimly, “and we’re not going to lose the second.”
“I appreciate that vote,” Ari said with a little laugh.
“Was it Denys that did it?” Amy asked, and that didn’t deserve a laugh. “Did we get them all? Or do we have to worry about Hicks and Yanni now?”
“I hope not,” she said, “but I think about it. I do think about it.”
“What matters,” Catlin said, “isn’t all who. It’s why. Does the whystill exist?”
There was another small silence.
“Power,” Amy said. “It was about power. The question is on what scale. Jordan wanting out. Or Denys wanting in.”
It was a little creepy, sitting and listening to your best friends figuring who’d want to kill you. “There’s a long list,” Ari said. “Power’s one. Revenge, in her case, maybe. But no, I don’t count it solved. I’m quite sure Jordan didn’t do it.”
“You moved him into Wing One.”
“Justin did, actually. And Jordan’s behaving himself pretty well. He wrote a tape‑set that’s driving me crazy, because I think there isn’ta bug in it. I’m sure he’s laughing. And if there is and I just fail to find it–” She let her voice trail off and gave a shrug. “Better in Wing One, which is watched, than over in Ed with all the traffic. Construction’s starting in Wing One. Remodeling all over the Wing. It’s not going to be very active for the next year. But by the time we’re through, it’ll be up to the standard we hope to set. So, for that matter, will Strassenberg. Every place we build, we do it right the first time.”
“Are we sure about that company?” Will asked.
“Fourstar, which is doing Wing One? They got a good contract and don’t have to live in bunkers. Soft job, comparatively. They shouldn’t be discontent. But we’ll just have a deeper look, as Catlin says.”
“So are you going to go after remodeling Ed, next?”
“It’s not as bad as Wing One,” Ari said, and shifted in her seat, thinking, I won’t have that much time, that much budget. “We’re going to have to earn our way into the next major project, though.”
“We cost a lot.” Mika said. “A whole lot. This place is incredible.”
“You earn it.” Ari said. “You’re important. Whatever you’re doing, you see things, you hear things, you say things. Just never, never forget you’re tied to me, more conspicuously than ever in your lives. Be careful. Just be very, very careful about getting into situations, going places alone…that’s the price you pay for this place. Don’t be alone down at the docks, down in the town, down where the security is just a little less. Let my staff know where you’ll be, when you’ll be, just a convenience for Florian and Catlin, Wes and Marco. They track you, in case you’ve never noticed.”