"How long have you been there?" Joat asked.
"A few minutes."
"And you just stood there?" she demanded in disbelief.
"Watching you, as long as you were winning," Joseph said. "Mr. Sperin is, in a sense, our employer… and has valuable information. About a man who may well have dealings with the Kolnari."
"Right," Joat said. "You can tell-"
The com chimed and the three of them looked up in quick surprise at the forward screen. The respond yes/no blinked on for a second, then the screen went to two-way in a manner supposedly impossible.
A thickset man in late middle age was staring back at them. I've seen corpses with more expression, she thought.
"Good evening Mr. Sperin," the stranger said in a mellow, cultured tone. The small hairs bristled on the back of her neck.
"Good evening," Bros said pleasantly. "Joat, this is Chief Family Enforcer Vand Yoered."
Vand nodded, his heavy face wearing a neutral expression.
"Captain," he said quietly. "And Mr.!T'sel. I'm a great admirer of your work, sir," he told the young Sondee. "It's a pleasure to have you as our guest."
Seg turned to Bros and whispered, "See! I told you I'd be recognized."
Vand stared at him for just a moment, as though put off his stride by that simple statement, then he turned to Bros and Joat.
"You're all friends, I take it?" he asked with a raised eyebrow and a sardonic glance at Alvec's club and Joseph's sliver gun.
Joat blushed and shrugged, moving herself out of Bros's vicinity.
"I've never met Mr.!T'sel before," she said, "but Bros and I are well acquainted and any friend of his, as they say."
"Mr. Sperin broke into your ship, Captain. With a device so illegal that I believe CenSec is the sole owner of the remaining few. We don't allow that on Rohan."
"That's a sort of challenge we've made to each other," Joat said, laughing nervously. "He, uh, breaks into my place, I break into his and we try to keep our security arrangements ahead of our creativity."
She couldn't seem to figure out what to do with her hands when she was through speaking. She wanted to cross her arms, but was afraid that would look too defensive. She dropped them to her hips, then settled for clasping them behind her back.
Oh, Ghu, a Family Enforcer. No, make that the Chief Family Enforcer. Sperin had been back in her life under ten minutes and already she was looking death in the face and lying like a trooper on his behalf.
CenSec Intelligence was building up a heavy account of favors owing.
"That's fascinating," Vand said slowly. "My information reports that you two had no contact prior to a meeting on New Destinies."
"Actually," Bros said, "we've known each other for some time. I first met Joat on SSS-900-C, just after we drove off the Kolnari."
The Enforcer's eyes lit. "Ah!" he said, "how very interesting. The Kolnari."
That was a clear request for information, one to be denied at Bros's peril. He decided to take a chance and ignore it, offering only part of the truth.
"I'm here on a personal mission," he said. "I heard about Joat's trouble on New Destinies and came to offer her my assistance. I'm hoping she'll go back there with me so that we can get this thing straightened out."
"And… the presence of Joseph ben Said on her ship…? This is an accident? The Bethelite head of security comes to Rohan, visits Nomik Ciety, this is unrelated to you in any way."
"That is between Joat and Mr. ben Said," Bros said grimly. "I assumed he'd returned to Bethel as I had strongly urged him to do."
"What about this evening's attempt to break into Nomik Ciety's comp?" Vand asked, his face closed now.
"That is personal," Joat declared vehemently. "Very. A family matter." She stressed the word "family," and the Enforcer raised a brow.
"I'm inclined to believe that at least," he said smoothly. "Only family can provoke that degree of bitterness." He paused and sat considering them for a time. "All right," he said at last. "I'll let the matter drop. For now. But I warn you, do not interfere with our respected citizens."
Only a slight pause drew a line of irony under the phrase. "Nomik Ciety enjoys the Family's protection while he is our guest on Rohan. None of you will in any way interfere with his business here."
He looked directly at Joat. "There will be no further attempts to break into his comp. Is that understood?"
The three of them nodded. And be good children, Joat thought to herself sarcastically. It was a while since she'd been scolded; she'd forgotten how unpleasant the sensation could be.
"Excellent, then this interview is at an end. Don't stay on Rohan too long, Mr. Sperin. You're liable to prove too great a temptation to some of our more impulsive guests. And frankly, as my staff is somewhat overextended at the moment, we might not be able to adequately protect you." He reached out and cut the contact.
The three of them drooped as though someone had cut their strings. Breath went out in a communal sigh.
"Rand!" Joat called.
"Sssshhhhh!" Seg whispered, waving his hands, palms out, at her and Bros. "Ssshh, ssshhh, ssshh!" Then for good measure he placed one upraised finger against his suckerlike mouth and turned to the com. His fingers flew over the controls and then, following a graceful whirl of his wrist, he pressed his forefinger with dramatic finality on the cutoff switch.
"Now," he said, "we may talk."
Joat stared at him for a moment, then turned to Bros.
Bros was staring at Seg with a speculative glint in his eye. "You're sure he's gone?" he asked.
"Oh, absolutely," Seg said comfortably. "And locked out too. That is until the next time we access the com… or someone calls in. But then, we can just lock 'em out again." He folded his arms across his chest and looked smug. "Can't we?"
"Rand?" Joat called, her voice tight with anxiety.
"Present." Its voice was flat and abstracted.
Joat frowned. "Are you all right? You sound different."
"Regrettably, I am different. Several sections of my memory were infected by the worm program and partially destroyed. I decided to simply erase those sections and reboot them from storage. I've lost a great deal of my personality and a small amount of vocal inflection. On the plus side, I was able to erase the infected sections without tripping any eggs. A worm program this aggressively vicious often leaves a small bundle of encryption that can start the whole business over again."
"I took care of that," Seg volunteered, raising his hand.
"Thank you," Rand said. "Joat, I was able to find and hold onto a transmission from Ciety's files before the worm's attack became too overwhelming. If you like, I can concentrate on decoding it before repairing my other programs."
"Yes," she said fervently, "please." Then Joat turned to Seg, where he still sat at the com. She took his hand in both of hers and looked him in the eyes, two of them anyway. "I'm in your debt," she said softly. "If there is ever any way that I can be of service to you, you have only to ask."
Seg's face and ear whorls suffused with color and he began to stammer in embarrassment.
"You-yer-you're p-perfectly welcome, Captain. I'm a uh, a weapons specialist and as an adjunct to m-my usual interests, I-I-I sometimes develop worm programs like this one. That one rather, since it's gone." He laughed inanely and hurried on. "I helped to develop it, in fact. That's how I recognized it so fast and knew how to neutralize it."