Nothing, for a moment. Then a slight response, a leg straightened out of the tuck, folded, knee against the floor.
“This is your Supervisor. Get up, Rafael.”
He moved, unfolded his arms, laid hands on the wall, got a knee under him, and tried to get up.
“Are you all right, Rafael?”
“I can’t see.”
“Yes, you can,” sera said, and Rafael turned his head and stared around him.
“Is that better, Rafael?”
A slight nod.
“I’m your Supervisor,” sera said, in that calm, calm voice she could use–the tone that made Catlin’s own nerves twitch, and brought a silence and quiet from all of the azi present. “I’m your Contract. It’s all right. I have a resolution for you. Are you ready to hear it?”
A nod. “Yes.”
“What you believed true, was true before this. Now something else is true, and I tell you it’s all right. Do you believe me? Do you accept it?”
“I can’t,” Rafael said.
Whatever someone had laid into him, it was a hard block.
Sera said, slightly more sternly: “Rafael.”
“Sera?”
“When I tell you something, it’s true. It will always be true. Do you need to see your Contract, to know that?”
“I want to see it,” Rafael said.
Very high beta, strong‑willed, not easily overcome. Catlin felt it in her own nerves. This azi was Enemy, and resisting, hard.
Sera said, quietly, “Catlin, unlock the door.”
“Sera, show him through the window.”
“Unlock the door, Catlin. It’s all right.”
She was alpha, and her resistance was harder to overcome than any beta ever devised. But she had to, if sera insisted. Florian and Wes were right with sera while she moved back to the console to open the door. If the Enemy went berserk, they’d hit him with all they had. But–
“He’s security, sera.”
“Do it,” sera said.
Sera’s orders, in that tone, were sera’s orders, off her own deep sets, and Catlin moved and did it, watching the subject the while, her heart ticking up another notch as Florian and Wes moved in, right with sera.
“These are your allies,” sera said calmly. “And this is your Contract.” She took a small reader from her coat pocket, and walked toward the subject, whose leaning against the wall could propel him off it in half a heartbeat, and sera was small and fragile in that reckoning, the subject a head taller, bloody‑faced, drenched in sweat, and, at the moment, between loyalties.
Sera calmly held the reader out to him, and he stood away from the wall, took it, and looked at it. Looked for a long time.
It was something, to see one’s real Contract, and read the name on it, for the first time. It was identity, and right, and duty, all those things wrapped up in one. It had to have an effect. Just thinking about it had an effect on every azi in the room, and Catlin moved close to the door, tense as drawn wire, ready to defend herContract if Rafael made a sudden move.
“Do you believe,” sera asked Rafael quietly, “that I’m your Supervisor?”
Nod. Second nod. The eyes flickered. Rafael was processing things. Hard. He shook badly as he gave the reader back. It could go any direction from here. Anydirection.
“It’s all right,” sera said. “You’re one of us. You’re safe. You’re where you belong.”
He felt for the wall behind him. Leaned against it.
“It’s all right. Come here. Come.”
He got his balance. Sera stood there holding out open arms, and that great tall azi came close and let her take his hands. “It’s all right,” sera said. “You only report to me, now and forever. All other claims on you are completely gone. Erased. You don’t have to do the other thing, do you?”
“No,” Rafael said. A huge sigh came out of him, and he said shakily: “I won’t.” Deep breath. “I don’t have to.”
Not a lie, Catlin thought. That had been a Conflict. Bad one. Something in that tape had reached out and presented this azi an irresolvable contradiction, thrown him into a box to which only an appropriate Supervisor had the key.
And sera had come and rescued him, that simply.
Catlin found her leg twitching. She was that wired up. But Rafael was Sera’s now. Safe. She saw the same subtle shift in Florian’s stance, and Wes’s. Three of them might not have been quick enough, strong enough, to take the man out fast enough, as close as sera had pushed it: they had to talk with her about that. But done was done. It was all right. The other three, down the row, they were sera’s, too, peacefully, with no reactions.
This one–this one had been a spy at very least, and sera had found it out.
“You can come up to the Wing with us,” sera told Rafael. “So can the other three. You’ll make things ready for the rest of your command.”
“Yes, sera,” Rafael said. He squared himself on his feet. Gave a little bow of the head.
“My name is Florian,” Florian said then, “sera’s personal security.” A nod over his shoulder. “Catlin.” And left, “Wes. Wes will walk up the hill with you. Everything will be provided for you in the quarters there, including uniforms. You don’t have to bring anything but yourselves. You’ll prepare the place for the others when they come.”
“Yes,” Rafael said. His face had a different look. An azi knew. He was still somewhat in shock, still rattled, the experience having knocked his defenses flat–it was a kind of openness that might never appear in this azi again. Right now he was fragile, entirely, needing protection. When he got where he was going, when he got an official assignment, and knew where he would be and what he was to do, he’d become what he would be, and not until then. Right now he needed help.
“I’ll meet you there,” sera said, “and give you your orders.”
“Yes,” he answered her, and nodded. “Yes, sera.” The waking mind was in fragments. It needed time and quiet to reassemble its boundaries.
“You can go with Wes,” sera said gently. “Go on, now. The others will follow when they wake.”
The door was open. Wes took him by the arm, and steered him out, past John Elway, past the other staff. Sweat stood on Elway’s face…fear forsera, or fear ofhis situation, Catlin was unsure which, and didn’t like that lack of information.
“It’s perfectly all right,” sera said, pausing for a moment to address the man. “I can take care of him. Catlin will stay here and escort the others up the hill. Are we agreed about that?”
Elway nodded slightly, looking pale. Elway might, Catlin thought, be just a little less conflicted than the azi, but sera was going to run Reseune one day, and born‑men in Reseune all knew that. If Elway was supposed to report this, he might decide to be careful what he reported and to whom. He was a very worried born‑man.
And maybe it wasn’t just Rafael sera had Worked, omitting to give Elway any clear indication what he ought to do and what was safe.
Instead sera simply walked off with Florian, behind Wes and Rafael. Rafael was theirs now, very, very little chance he wasn’t.
It was a scary thing to watch. It had been a far scarier moment when sera had walked into that room. But given sera’s work, it was very likely it wouldn’t be the last time sera personally did a thing like that, no matter how they objected.
And her security just had to be in position, and fast. Very, very fast, Catlin thought. And armed with non‑lethals, next time. Sera had surprised her security. It felt wrong to complain about it, but it certainly shouldn’t happen twice, and it was their job to take precautions.
There was another matter. Rafael had come from Hicks, at least by previous Contract.
That was worth talking over with Florian and with sera, on an absolutely urgent basis. For right now, Hicks and all his immediate staff were on her Unreliable list.
BOOK THREE Section 1 Chapter viii
JUNE 7, 2424
1712H
Catlin was back, Ari noted, from the minder link in her office. Florian had escorted herback. Wes was still downstairs, helping Rafael and his three settle into their temporary quarters–Marco had been manning the security station solo the while, and Ari let pass a little sigh, now that everybody was back safely.