A man spoke up. “Ms. Isnia is already in another meeting. She asked me to sit in. I’m Emmet Wlasky, in charge of operations.”
“I’m very surprised she wasn’t able to attend herself.” Baheera om-challha Isnia was deputy head of the Diplomatic Service. It was her memo about the discovery of Iokan that had led to the creation of this committee, and eventually the therapy group. The politics of it all wasn’t supposed to affect me, but Liss’s escape might well end that.
“It was rather short notice. We still have an ongoing situation elsewhere…”
“We all do, Mr. Wlasky. Please ask her to call me after the meeting. So. Dr. Singh.” She looked at me. “We’ve all read the report. The members of the committee doubtless have some questions for you.”
Koggan BanOrishel, the man from Hub Security, jumped in first. “I want to know why a member of the public is sitting in my cells, beaten half to death.”
“I do regret that,” I said. “But we were aiming to reduce the risk as far as possible. I believe if we’d confronted Liss directly, she might have fled and caused a good deal more injuries. Or worse.”
Koggan counted my misdeeds on his fingers. “You could have searched their rooms. You could have questioned them at the centre. But instead — and I’m quoting here — you ‘elected to wait for another escape attempt.’ You waited until someone got hurt, and then you took action.”
“We did everything we could to minimise the risk.”
“And yet you yourself were still injured.”
Koggan indicated my arm. The bruises from Olivia’s attack were almost gone, but the medical staff insisted I keep it immobile for another day. “That’s an unrelated incident. Another member of the group attacked me. A hazard of the job, I’m afraid.”
Koggan barely paused, despite his misstep. “But you didn’t think about the risk to Hub Metro, did you? We weren’t informed. In fact, you didn’t tell anyone. Not even this committee.”
“And what would have happened if she had told us?” This was Mykl Teoth, who headed the counselling section of the Refugee Service — my boss. “We’d have been forced to take action. We’d have had the centre turned upside down, and then we might have had an entirely unknown quantity on the run with who knows what risk. She didn’t even know which one of them it was. Can you imagine what it would have been like to have the cyborg on the run? An admitted killing machine?”
“You’re talking about might-have-beens—”
“Colleagues, we’re not here for recriminations,” said Henni. “We’re here to discuss how to respond to the new situation. I understand Ms. Li’Oul is now in custody?”
“That’s right,” said Koggan.
“Regarding Mr. Dorje, the man who was assaulted: is he pressing charges?”
Koggan replied: “He doesn’t have to. It’s a criminal matter.”
“But he himself has admitted to criminal acts?”
“Which is irrelevant. Assault is still assault.”
“So Ms. Li’Oul will face criminal charges?”
“I can’t comment on that until the prosecutors have looked at the case.”
“We’ll have to see how that progresses. What about the device?”
“Definitely illegal but safely contained.”
“I mean, how was something like this from such an undeveloped world even able to exist here?”
“We’re not entirely sure. Of course, we’re not in charge of security procedures in Quarantine…”
“The technology situation on Liss’s world is rather unusual,” I said. “If you take a look at the background document, you’ll see they often developed artefacts far in advance of what might be expected. I don’t think Hub Security can be held responsible.” Koggan gave me a confused look. He hadn’t expected support from me.
“I see,” said Henni. “And what about security at the centre?”
Pellawanatha Fedissba answered — she ran Facilities for the Refugee Service. “Sensor coverage has already been stepped up, but as long as the centre is as close as it is to Hub Metro, there’s a limit to how much we can do.”
“I’d like to consider a move, if that’s possible,” said Henni.
“Is that necessary?” I asked.
“Ms. Fedissba, if you can prepare a shortlist of alternative sites?” Pellawanatha replied that she most certainly could.
I had to speak up for the group. “Ms. Ardassian, I have to object. The group has just settled in. They’re comfortable, they’re making progress. If they have to move when we’ve only just started, it could have a serious impact on therapy.”
Henni thought about it. “How serious?”
“I’ve managed to get them to trust me. I need that to be able to do my job. If they have to move for reasons they don’t understand, I might lose that trust.”
Henni looked to Mykl Teoth, who nodded. She looked back at me. “Very well. We’ll make preparations but postpone the move until it becomes absolutely necessary.”
“Thank you.”
“And that will be my decision, Dr. Singh.”
“Yes, of course.”
“Do you mind if I ask Dr. Singh a question?” Eremis Ai represented the Interversal Criminal Tribunal, or at least the placeholder body who were gathering casefiles until the IU finally decided whether or not to activate the ICT.
“Go ahead,” said Henni.
Eremis turned to me. “Are you absolutely certain Ms. Li’Oul was looking for the people who committed genocide on her planet?”
“That seems to be the case,” I said.
“Do you think she’ll ask for assistance?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think she trusts us at the moment.”
“Has she said anything about who she suspects?”
“I can’t talk about what we might have discussed in therapy.”
“No, of course… I think we would have to interview her, though. Which means the matter will appear in the public record, at least in headline form.”
“Do you really need to do that?” asked Henni.
“Yes. We do. If she’s investigating a genocide, we have to gather testimony.”
“So this is going to come out whether we like it or not, is that what you’re saying?”
“We’re required to build cases—”
“Like the case for your own job,” muttered Koggan.
Eremis ignored him. “We are required to build cases, even if we can’t do anything else.”
Henni sat back in her chair. “So. Thanks to all this, the existence of the therapy group is likely to become public knowledge. I’m sure that’ll make Ms. Isnia very happy, but for the rest of us it’s going to be a problem, isn’t it? Well, at least we’ll have a little time to prepare. Does anyone else have any questions for Dr. Singh?”
“We’ll need her to make a statement,” said Koggan.
“Does that have to happen now?”
“No. We’ll be in touch.”
“In that case, Dr. Singh, I’ll ask you to leave us while we discuss this further. I’m sure your patients need you more than we do at the moment.”
“Thank you,” I said. Henni touched a control on her pad, and the images of the committee members faded away, leaving me alone in the room. I breathed a sigh of relief; I’d feared far worse. At least I was still in charge of the group.
2. Liss
A few days later, Security finally allowed me to talk to Liss. Since physical presence is important in therapy and they wouldn’t allow me to simulate it with a remote session, I found myself heading to Hub Metro and the headquarters of Hub Security.
Hub is relatively secure by its very nature. The portals to other universes are in orbit, most of them at the L1 point between the Earth and Moon — making it easy to control who and what gets in and out of the universe. Grainger Station has its own separate security force, so Hub Security mainly deals with the everyday policing of a city with a low population density, many of whom are diplomats whose misdeeds are the responsibility of the intelligence and security sections of the Diplomatic Service. The greatest challenges to law and order are biodiversity offences, and the perennial demonstrations against artificial intelligence kept going by certain species who have axes to grind.