“ Whatarea of inquiry?”
“Into the Freethinkers. What did Governor Reaux have to say?”
Was he querying the agent, or the agent querying him? Magdallen was quick to provide an excuse for knowing about Procyon’s past.
“What contacts?” he asked Magdallen sharply. “What contacts does Procyon have that possibly concern your investigation?”
“His sister, whose contacts are numerous, some low, some high. I looked him up, sir, for the Freethinker connection into high places. He is an anomaly.”
“He can’t avoid being that.” Brazis considered the question Magdallen had posed to him, considered the source and the set of motives, none of which he quite trusted in this man who didn’t work for him. Tell him? Encourage confidences? Or slips? “As for Governor Reaux, who just had an interview with young Procyon, we talked. We shared nothing but the basic information. We’re left to assume Gide is putting his nose into Outsider affairs—and through Procyon, possibly into planetary affairs, more critical still. If not into this Freethinker interest of yours.”
“That is a question.”
“Can you answer it?”
“No, sir, not yet.”
“I don’t take such an intrusion into our affairs matter-of-factly. But yes. What about this Freethinker connection?”
“I have numerous inquiries going on. None that bear fruit. May I observe, sir,—you had to consent to this interview.”
Brazis rocked his chair slightly, irritated by the stone wall, increasingly not liking that diversion—or the implication of fault. “Yes. I did.”
“Clearly you have a reason.”
“Curiosity.” Deliberate cold answer to the authority this agent represented. And to any report he might be drafting. “Tell me, Agent Magdallen, what is Earth doing here? Who is Andreas Gide, and does he represent anything legitimate or changing, back on Earth? Unless you have some direct information on that score, which would surprise me and gratify my curiosity, and make me change my mind in a heartbeat, yes, the interview is granted. What in hell do Freethinkers have to do with it all?”
“I don’t know that they do. If I knew anything at this point, I assure you I’d say it, to prevent this. I’m very uneasy about your consent to this meeting.”
Magdallenwas uneasy, as if Magdallenhad an opinion of his own that overrode his authority. Forget the Council, if he’d ever suspected it. Magdallen wasn’t a Council spy. This was one of the CG’s personal agents, one trying to find something very specific. Hell, yes,it was political. “Procyon is a trained observer with a good memory. An extraordinary memory. I will expect your support in protecting him, Agent Magdallen.”
“I’ve said I wouldn’t have recommended your agreement. I can’t promise…”
I, I,and I.Deeper and deeper. And this wasn’t a fool: Magdallen surely saw what the other side of the desk could read into it, the implication of a real authority backing him, on Apex. He meantto convey that impression.
“Frankly, Agent Magdallen, I can’t see letting Gide leave this station without knowing what he represents and what he’s going to report, and I can’t see letting him draw more extravagant conclusions from what he wasn’t allowed to see, to fester at distance. I say again, if you have more information on the precise reason he’s here, if it has any connection to anything you know, my decision can be modified. The young man can break a leg. Develop acute heat rash. But talk fast, or stand back and keep quiet, and don’t tell the CG that Iwas the stubborn one, holding back information that could have bearing, because I’m recording this session, and I’m not hesitant to bring it and you and himbefore the Council.”
“I don’t have more information,” Magdallen said. “Clearly what Gide represents has force, transport, and finance at its disposal. That’s allI can say.”
Confront the man? Demand under threat of arrest to know what he was and what he was investigating?
He wasn’t ready for that. This day’s disaster had gathered passengers enough. “It’s all I can judge by, either, and I take decisions as I can, with what information I have. Earth is Earth. It organizes itself, and then it fragments and shoots its own citizens for centuries on end. One last appeal to reason. Does this request of Gide’s possibly, remotely agree with anything untoward that you know, Agent Magdallen? Any scrap of a scrap of a rumor down on Blunt or even far off in Council halls on Apex that you really ought to tell me at this point?”
“I’m not convinced this arrival does involve Blunt—at this moment. About the other I’m not in a position to say.”
Damn him. Damn him.
“So we have Gide. And the visible anomaly in Procyon is, as you say, his youth and his former affiliation…down on Blunt Street. Tell me, Agent Magdallen, might you yourselfbe an item of their interest?”
“I would very much doubt it, sir.”
“Is smuggling illicits actually your concern down there? Or the Council’s? Or do I draw conclusions that Council might somehow have foreseen this ambassador’s arrival and sent you here? Might I hazard the remotest guess that your business here was alwaysthe chance something like Mr. Gide might show up?”
A moment of hesitation. Magdallen looked at his own hands. “I will confess that Mr. Gide has suddenly become a concern to me, sir. What motivates his interest, and who sent him, I do intend to learn if I can, since I’m here. I report to the Chairman General personally. I’m sure you know that by now. I’m sure if there are issues surfacing on Earth that we haven’t picked up—I’d be very glad to pick them up, if I can, and I’m sure the CG would be grateful if I can. These I would report to you, if I knew them, but no, that isn’t my mission here.”
“Don’t stir the broth, Agent Magdallen. Get your information on Gide directly from me and tell me what you hear from other sources. This business is delicate enough without your personal intervention to complicate my life. Let’s minimize the number of vectors in this mess.”
Eclipse of the remarkably green gaze, a downward glance. And glance up. “I’m a model of discretion. No one in my line of work ever wants to create issues, I assure you, Mr. Chairman. My job is simply to report them where I’m scheduled to report.”
There. He’d thrown out a rational appeal for cooperation and Magdallen’s answer was a standoff. He restrained his temper. “I’ll share information with you as it becomes clear. Stay out of the collection business in Gide’s vicinity.” Conversation with Magdallen had to be bounded by prudence—defense of the Project’s prerogatives as independent from Apex governance, even while the general conduct of civil and international affairs he handled as Chairman wasanswerable to the Council at Apex.
He was increasingly uneasy in his dual role. Second-guessing said he might have made a mistake in his decision to allow Procyon to take the chance, that he ought to have hammered Magdallen for information before he ever agreed to send the boy into either interview, little as he’d gotten from the Council ferret before now or in this interview.
And still—still he hadn’t learned anything he hadn’t expected from Magdallen. He hadn’t yet had Magdallen’s complete cooperation, and he still very much wanted the benefit of knowing what Gide was after…which might well be what Magdallen himself was after.
Sitting back, letting Earth affairs develop without learning what was going on—Apex wouldn’t thank him or respect his authority for letting events slide on their own. Politically immune he might be, at least as director, but revolutions on Earth and in the territories involved untidier and more dangerous situations than orderly elections and quiet political cabals: assassinations had happened, covert removals had happened. Untidy political actions notoriously annoyed the ondat,who were always an issue. He didn’t intend to be removed—for the good of the Project and the health of humanity he didn’t intend to be removed.