Invader (49 page)

So now Banichi cared about stars, and suns, and people from them.

"Landing at dawn," he said to Tabini. "Day after tomorrow, at the Taiben site. They want one of them possibly to go immediately to the airport after landing and on to Mospheira, but I proposed a slower schedule and an overnight at Taiben, and they're going to present that idea to their authorities. They could well, referring to the information I sent you, aiji-ma, have agreed to deal with Mospheira. And haven't, so far as what the young man just said."

"This suits very well," Tabini said. "Well done, Bren-ji. This young man — Jase Graham — Jase, is that the name?"

"Yes, aiji-ma."

"A long way from fluency. But comprehensible."

"Aiji-ma. Also — I promised him I'd be there to meet him. Knowing I hadn't your confirmation, I told him it might not be possible, but that it was my hope to be at Taiben when the pod touches down… I want very much to do this, aiji-ma, in spite of events tonight. If security is going there — I'd like to be with them."

It seemed all unreal to him. With the breakfast room in ruins. With Hanks — alive or dead or God knew where, in the proceedings of atevi and human politics. And the lander coming down in a game reserve he'd hunted in not .so long ago.

He feared he was, at least in Tabini's reckoning, far too protected a piece, if shooting had begun. But — damn, to see events to change all their lives, and to try to make sure there was no glitch in understanding —

"What does the paidhi's security think?"

"No question," Banichi said. "Nai-ma. One could much easier guarantee security there than here."

"Certainly less breakage," Naidiri said wryly.

"More range of operation," Banichi said.

"Though," Naidiri said, "those who've kidnaped Hanks-paidhi certainly haven't made their last move. Best we secure Taiben tonight. One assumes they've attempted to intercept communications."

"See to it," Tabini said, with a wave of his hand. "Our
man'chi
will already have taken whatever precautions they deem necessary, if they're not deaf and blind tonight. — Miri-ji, Bren and I will spend the next few days in retreat at Taiben — fishing, I think that should be pleasant. I leave it to you to maintain the residence during the interval. Will you appoint suitable staff out of your household, for a gentleman guest?"

"Saidi-ji," Damiri said. "See to it." A wry twist of the mouth. "And arrange for the restorationists to survey the breakfast room. There will be
no
cleaning until they've approved. Have them get at it tomorrow, if the paidhi is determined to leave us; have them get their measurements, collect what they want and get out. If not my bedchamber, I expect the paidhi lodged in suitable comfort at Taiben, if you please. And I expect his return to very quiet, very quick repair."

"Daja-ma," Saidin said, "nand' paidhi. Sixteen staff, I recall, is correct for a guest at Taiben, four more with the paidhi's appropriate numbers of his personal staff — and expecting the paidhi's single guest, would seem to be a fortunate number, even if this additional woman were to stay. But in her interest, three more, which in no event is unharmonious."

On Mospheira no one would have made sense of it. On the mainland, it added five to sixteen to get twenty-one, a three-number of the unbeatably felicitous seven times three union with the three entities correctly represented: the paidhi, the aiji, and the ship; a union which with each participating entity subdivided in twos, as he saw it, let the aggressive Ragi mode of accounting deal with the temporary presence of an additional guest, owed to Mospheira, which made a fourth estate, whose numbers were clearly made transitory in the situation. A transitory influence of less felicitous numbers was acceptable if you could foist them off on an opposition — such as Mospheira. But Saidin gave him the option of shifting the numbers to a five of indivisible fives, likewise fortunate.

And a man could worry about his sanity that he really understood her question.

"One thinks — yes, three more servants to attend the Mospheira-bound paidhi," Bren said, "if one would, nand' Saidin."

"Gods greater and lesser," Tabini said, "just so the armed ones exceed the numbers of the opposition."

Tabini was not a superstitious man.

Nor were those closest associated with him, nor did Saidin seemed shocked at the official irreverence: she was clearly expert in gracefully observant appearances, and would, one could lay odds, never have it reported of her arrangement that things were less than proper.

And with that question of appearances in Saidin's hands, Tabini and Damiri and their security set out to the foyer, declaring they were, for which the paidhi thanked God, going home to Tabini's residence next door, and the police were going to their office after collecting the tape, and the whole commotion was rapidly dying away to a numb, bruised quiet.

"Nand' paidhi?" Saidin asked, when the door had shut on the last formalities. "Will you care to see the list of accompanying servants before I issue it to the staff?"

The tremor that had manifested while he was dealing with Jase on the phone threatened to become thought absorbing. "Nand' Saidin, nadi-ji, I leave everything to your discretion. Please pack what I'll need, for myself and my personal staff. Send only people of discretion, flexibility and good sense. I'd have you along, foremost, except I know the lady needs you here."

"Nadi," Saidin said, with a bow, "please come back safely."

"I promise you I'll try to do that, nadi-ji. Not least to please you."

"You are a scandalous flatterer, nand' paidhi."

"Nadi-ji, never. You're a treasure. Please, rest early. I'll see myself to bed. I've two hands now."

"Nadi," Saidin said, and not least among her virtues, understood when a man was tired enough to fall on his face, and withdrew quietly.

Banichi lingered, speaking with Algini in the small secuity office — and Bren eavesdropped, wanting most of all to know Jago and Tano were all right. "Any word?" he asked. "Where's Jago and Tano? Do you know, Banichi?"

"We're in contact," Banichi said.

'They're safe."

"Separately. They're safe. — Are you all right, Bren-ji?"

'Tired. Quite tired. That's all right. I can walk."

"Nadi," Banichi said, and left the office and the com to Algini, and took him by the arm.

Which was probably a good idea, considering the wobble in his legs.

He took off the coat. He gave the gun to Banichi, and Banichi said he would take charge of it, which was altogether agreeable to him.

"You know," Banichi said, tucking it in his pocket, "it was very foolish, what you did."

"I didn't know where you were. I thought Algini was alone by the front door. I had a gun. I didn't leave it to the servants to check the back balcony because I stood a better chance to stop someone if there should have been a problem…"

"Then it was, over all, well done. Well you were armed, but I admit to extreme anxiousness when you aimed at me, Bren-ji: you presented a disturbing quandary for your own security."

"I apologize, Banichi."

"Well done, too, that you waited to confirm your target; one hopes you recognized me. But one fears that you simply hesitated, which is not good. Besides, I must teach you about doors, nadi-ji. Due to their size, and the design of the building, those were not, obviously enough, bulletproof."

"Banichi, as my life's become, I'll pay closest attention to anything you can teach me, and, no, I didn't recognize you. I knew it was a possibility of it being you."

"Far easier for me to tell it's you, paidhi-ji. Anyone can. If you perceive presence, assume they won't fire if you don't seem to see them. Dangerous, but less so to your security."

"I'll remember that."

"Word from Tano. The scene downstairs indicates a likelihood of Guild members operating without Guild sanction. Despite the evidence of the breakfast room, these are professionals, Bren-ji. This is not the sort that assailed you in the legislature."

"Professionals acting under
man'chi
."

"Evidently so."

"Does every association have such high-level professionals? I assume they are, since Hanks' guards —"

"Not every association has such professionals, and that's a very likely assumption. Such as guarded Hanks-paidhi were not careless."

"Do you then
have
suspicions?"

"Four or five."

"Names known to me?"

"All."

"Then
who
, Banichi?"

Banichi hesitated. "Cenedi is a remote possibility."

"No. Surely not. Not with such lack of finesse."

"A possibility, I say. One believes the breakfast room itself was a target."

"And not me?" He wasn't sure whether to be relieved or insulted.

"Possibly. The other names… you would not know the Guild members involved, but the second possible instigator is Atigeini: Tatiseigi. Another is lord Geigi. A fourth is Direiso, who, for the Kadigidi, carried the Filing against your name to the Guild. I'm ordinarily restrained from telling you that, but there's been an action which makes it needful for you to know. That the proposed contract was voted down, if she has pursued it, would place her and her
man'chi
in dire opposition to the Guild; but she is constitutionally capable of that, and if the action tonight is on the part of an association of which Ilisidi herself is a part, it would involve Direiso. Likewise another of close association with the Kadigidi — Saigimi of the Marid Tasigin, which is the center of an unwholesome sub-association of suspicious interests. Oil is their unifying interest. Oil. And Talidi province."

He knew the Kadigidi, one of the perpetual annoyances Tabini tolerated both as contentious neighbors and opposition leaders in the tashrid, in the name of, Tabini swore, the value of peaceful opposition —

And though he didn't know Saigimi by direct experience — Saigimi didn't occupy a seat in the tashrid — he knew the Marid Tasigin and most of all he knew the business of Talidi province.

Certainly Banichi did.

'Talidi," he said to Banichi, "is your province."

"Bren-ji. Don't doubt
me
."

"Banichi," he began to say, and then knew salads didn't remotely cover it, and the language didn't really have a word for lonely. You could substitute. But it didn't communicate. And neither could the paidhi, on what the paidhi felt Banichi's loyalty to be.

"Bren-ji," Banichi said, "I am
not
the one."

"I know that, Banichi. I'm capable of being deceived, of course. But if I were —" A knot had arrived in his throat, and he flashed on that painful darkness as Banichi carried him to the floor. "— if I were, Banichi-ji, it's hardly necessary for you to go to such trouble. I've no association outside Tabini's but to you and Jago."

He'd disturbed Banichi. Clearly. "Not to
us
, paidhi-ji."

He was in a dark, self-destructive humor all of a sudden — emotional, and not knowing why. "To Tabini, oh, yes. And to you. I stick like glue. You'd have to kill me to get rid of me, you know. We're like that."

He'd never seen Banichi show such a troubled expression. "Nand' paidhi, one has no such intention. I assure you. But you have
no man'chi
to me
or
to Jago. Which I'm assured you don't feel, anyway, nadi. So this is nonsense. Is it not?"

"Who knows what we feel? Maybe I do feel it, Banichi. If I'd shot you, I'd have been very upset."

"One is certainly glad to know you'd wish otherwise, nand' paidhi. And I would have been professionally embarrassed. You scared me."

That, from Banichi, of the Guild he was from, was an intimate confidence.

"But you are
not
," Banichi insisted, as if it still troubled him, "of my
man'chi
. Nor, I hope, physically attracted to me — which is your other choice. Jago, on the other hand — does not entail necessary loyalty to me. — Or does it, among humans?"

They were entering far too deep a subject for a man as tired as he was, as emotionally frayed as he was — and as guilty as he was, on that touchy private ground between Banichi and his partner. He was getting in well over his head, and suddenly Banichi, whom few secrets eluded, seemed to be implying a suspicion and questioning an event he couldn't forget, couldn't altogether ignore, and had no wish ever to admit had happened.

So he ignored the question at least, in favor of what he most wanted to know. "Where
is
Jago right now?"

Ordinarily neither Banichi nor Jago answered such questions of whereabouts, except obliquely. He realized by now that it might be the policy of their Guild or of Tabini's service, to say nothing about business in progress, and that therefore Banichi would never give him a straight answer. But Banichi seemed to consider a moment, perhaps noting the sidestep he'd done on Banichi's question.

"At the airport, at the moment. No planes got away. No rail left the Bu-javid underground."

"Then Hanks can't have left the premises."

"One wishes that were the only conclusion. It's almost impossible to move fast enough to guarantee about rail on the perimeters, unless one is at least anticipating a movement or a direction. The damned hotels down below are a security sieve with connections to the rail."

"Hard to conceal a human."

"Less so a willing one."

"You do strongly think she knew them."

"One suspects so."

"Banichi, in my hearing, Hanks called out to her own security. She was distressed and concerned for their danger as well as her own. I heard it in her voice."

"That's a very great deal to hear in a voice."

One couldn't overgeneralize with Banichi. "Say — I know the woman personally, and I know my species and my culture. I recognized her concern and by the tone of her voice the concern was for them — she was warning them. Hardly logical for a conspirator — though humans have certainly been known to fail in logic."

"This one more than most."

"But not unwilling to fight for them, Banichi. That was in the voice. Take my word it was there."