“I think he’s under sedation.”
“Get to him. Wake him up. Talk to him. Convey my extreme sympathy for his situation and make him believe it. Suggest it was some underworld agency, hitherto unsuspected, which probably covers the situation entirely. I’ll send a personal letter to him and another to the ship out there, expressing my outrage at this situation, my intent to cooperate with them through your office, my intention to preserve peace and tranquillity on the station, all the appropriate phrases. Which also happen to be the truth, if they’re listening. Find out what the ambassador’s really been tracking. Why he came here. Our key to what we’re facing is very likely in that.”
A small silence. Then: “Antonio. Antonio, I confess I may already have your answer. Gide said—Gide told me he was tracking the possibility of banned information escaping the planet. Via the taps.”
Brazis drew a deep breath. The universe reconfigured itself. “Well, that’s an old one. What makes him suspect so? What information does he have?”
“Apparently something about First Movement tech and the Ila, something about nanoceles getting off the planet.”
“ Notthe case, I can tell you.” He was disappointed. Frustrated. “You knew this was the nature of it? And didn’t say? Setha, Setha, I’d hoped for more honesty.”
“I knew it only after I led Gide to his apartment. I didn’t count on it becoming critical information, at least…at least yet, and by no means after this fashion. I believed your young man could get through the interview if he was innocent. A misjudgment on my part. A complete misjudgment. I hope you can understand, Antonio. I thought we had time to work this out. At this point—I can only apologize for the situation.”
He could understand Reaux’s holding back information at Gide’s request. A man with a constituency to protect was honor-bound to protect those core interests against his allies as well as his enemies. Reaux had believed if he kept things quiet, he might find out something, and have a chance to sort this out.
But now he had a crime on his doorstep and the real possibility of a major blowup in international politics.
Maybe it was an intended outcome. Gide wasn’t the only Earth-based interest that might have an agent or two loose in the governor’s territory. He hesitated to suggest Earth as the culprit in assassinating its own representative, but the high-priced tech involved suggested very ample funding and concealment, far beyond the usual underworld operation.
“Setha, my friend, I understand your reticence. But now that we’re in this very delicate situation, believe me absolutely on this one: there is no First Movement tech, informational or otherwise, that has ever escaped the planet—not to my knowledge, and I sit on all the conduits. If there is anything loose, I don’t think it originated here. Whydid Gide pick this particular tap to interview about this problem? Does Earth particularly suspect him of passing information?”
“The Freethinker connection. He was a Freethinker. They don’t like that.”
“Is that where they think the problem has its base? Among the Freethinkers?”
“You know his sister visited him last night. Clandestinely. I think Gide could have found that out. I know that contact would be suspect.”
“I knew. You know. They know. I’m sure any interested party alive knows by now she went there. It wasn’t the brightest damned thing Procyon’s ever done, but it didn’t seem to be his idea. He threw her out and kept his conversation more or less honest, and I know precisely what they said. Do you?”
A pause. “My intel isn’t that specific.”
“Mine is, I assure you. I’ll go over that transcript again, but I don’t recall any part of it that could implicate him or her in any nonsense among the taps. Gide could have asked for the Ila’staps if they’d thought something underhanded was going on.”
“I don’t think they’d want to touch her off.”
“Touch off is a fair description. But do they think bothering Marak’sis without consequence? Tell Gide that the Outsider Chairman is as interested as they are, if they’ve got any solid information about a breach of security regarding First Movement tech. But I doubt it. It’s the oldest crock in the book. It surfaces periodically. I strongly doubt it.”
“I’ll relay that if I can. If I can find a politic way.”
“You say you’ve heard from Kekellen this morning?”
“He’s asking what Gide wants and about activity in the systems.”
“Their damned probes.” He wiped his face, trying to think. Dealing with Kekellen required an extreme mental shift, a maze of do’s and don’ts, and consequences far more alarming than an ambassador in a hospital bed. “I trust you to handle it. You’re the associated party.” Coldly put, meaning he didn’t want his own administration in any way dragged into question. Let Earther authorities answer Kekellen’s queries about these goings-on. “Meanwhile, get all your people off my man’s trail. He’s got orders to report to me to debrief. He will as soon as he can. But it’s very likely he’s going to run if you’re behind him. And, not to cast a pall on our working partnership, but I have to assure you, just for the record, that you don’t want the trouble that will follow if you do lay hands on him and don’t tell me. That’s not a threat. It’s a fact of my administration. I can’t stress enough how serious that is. If anyone has laid hands on him, I willtake action.”
“The law moves under its own direction. He’s a material witness, at very least, in something that impinges on our constitutional authority. He has to give us at least a statement to satisfy procedures. That ship out there—”
“That’s all well and good, you and your constitution. But don’t arrest him. We’ll get the truth out of him. We’ll share it, and you’ll get your statement. Chasing him is a waste of your police time, while the actual perpetrators may be running loose up there in your areas, armed. If they’re not our domestic sort, I’ll be frank about it, I’m concerned you’re the next likely target on their list.”
“I take that as a friendly wish.”
“It is. I assure you, we did not do this. We would never put a tap in reach of your authority if we had arranged this. There are people we would risk. Nota Project tap. That’s a fact you can rely on.”
A pause. “Antonio? I think I know what Gide is. A theory…a theory that I can’t support. I think Gide is from the Treaty Board.”
“The Treaty Board?” That ancient body, bestir itself out of its torpor?
Credible, though, if there actually was a security breach, and there actually were First Movement tech in question.
Reaux had reason for his hesitance to breach Gide’s confidence.
“Setha, fear of data transmission from the planet—that crock’s as old as Concord itself. I admit the Treaty Board’s not going to involve itself on a whim, but whatever Gide came here for didn’t come up through the taps, I’ll just about swear to it.” He trusted Jewel to assure her surroundings, not to tap in where she hadn’t checked for bugs or eavesdroppers, but he didn’t want to lean that hard on Jewel’s ability. “This discussion in depth isn’t appropriate for your present location. Just take extreme care for your own safety. I’m ending, now.”
“I’ll get back to you. I’ll try to talk to Gide in the next few minutes. Can this lady stay available to me?”
Meaning Jewel.
“Jewel, stay with him, wherever he wants you to be. I’m going out.”
“Yes, sir.”Jewel herself tapped out.
So Reaux wanted the tap-courier with him. He likely realized she might have other mods, too, mods in Jewel’s instance that gave her extraordinary hearing and other perceptions. Reaux wasn’t that worried about what Outsiders might overhear. He wasworried about what the ship would hear.