Regenesis (68 page)

“If I can’t make sense of it,” he said, “I may come back to you.”

“You’re good.” she said, and oh, those eyes flickered like the activity-LEDs on a processor. She was. Processing. “If you do need me, ask. But it’s all yours.”

“You’re a—”

“Justin, if you say ‘good kid,’ all bets are off.”

“A good human being,” he amended that, unspoken. “You are.”

“I like that.” She smiled somberly. “I take that one. Grant, am I a good human being?”

“You’re a fine sample of the born-man sort,” Grant said, not too somberly. “Or you seem so to me. It’s beyond me to critique, beyond that.”

She smiled. The moment passed. She finished off the cooling coffee, and rotated her chair and poured herself another cup. “It’s a two-cup morning. I’ve been so damn busy with the move I haven’t got a thing done on the last set. I read the last of it this morning. But I’ve got one I want you to look at.”

“It wouldn’t be Jordan’s, would it?” Justin asked.

She had her sip. “Actually, it is. He told you about it?”

“He mentioned it. I was going to ask, actually.”

“So we’re doing a Jordan morning,” she said, and pulled out a convenient keyboard and touched the voice button, called the file, which was beta, and correspondingly large. “That’s it. Shall I store to Projects?”

“Do it,” Justin said. “Do you have some particular questions?”

“I don’t,” she said. “It’s a management tape, the type’s capable of an accurate memory and a strong work ethic. It’s just typical Jordan: I’ve looked at his work, at least skimmed through several, and it’s not old stuff—it’s using the modern interlinks, using them very appropriately. It’s a nice nested set of calls that play off secondary sets, don’t conflict with deep sets… I’m not finding a—”

Com went off. A worried look crossed her face.

“Not supposed to—” she began, which meant it was her Urgent list, the handful of people who could call her at any hour, and about that time there was a knock at the office door.

Grant started to get up. But Florian came on through.

“Sera,” Florian said, and the buzz from Ari’s com continued. “Sera.”

“Report,” she said, and Florian said,

“Spurlin is dead.”

Ari froze just a heartbeat, then located the phone, thumbed it on and said, “Ari.”

“Sera.” It was Catlin’s voice.

“Florian told me. Details?”

“Found by the maid this morning”
Catlin’s voice came through.
“Cause of death uncertain. Last contact yesterday night by the night staff at his residence. That’s all that’s known currently. Possible natural causes.”

“Possibly not,” Ari said. Her face was just a little pale. “I’m coming home,” she said.

Spurlin. Candidate in Defense. Khalid’s opposition. The one the polls said was in the lead by a wide margin. It wasn’t good news.

“Justin, I’m sorry,” Ari said, and set down a mostly full cup of coffee and snatched up her jacket.

She left with Florian, leaving Jordan’s file up on the computer. Justin shut it down, and looked at Grant.

“This is bad,” he said, and tried to think what the constitution said about a candidate dying after the vote was taken. “If he wins—does it go to his Proxy-designate? Or what?”

“Don’t ask me, born-man. It’s your system. I certainly hope it has an answer.”

“I don’t even know if he’s got a Proxy-designate.
God
, I don’t want that bastard in. This is one time I wish the Nine were elected by general ballot.” He turned to the console, keyed Voice, said, “Search: Constitutional law: elections: Council of the Nine: candidate death.”

The computer didn’t take long. It flashed up a lengthy piece of legal language.

“Search in document: if an elected candidate dies; second condition: before official announcement of results of election: question: who succeeds?”

The computer took about a heartbeat. The answer flashed up:

1. ) Current office-holder may hold office for entirety of vacated term.

2. ) Current office-holder [a] may appoint Proxy Councillor [b]. service of [b] to run concurrent with [a]’s term of office.

3) Current office-holder [a] may leave office at end of [a]’s previously elected term, in which case the runner-up [b] in the election may succeed to office and serve for the two-year term.

4) In the case of death of all candidates and the incumbent, the office settles on the Secretary of the Bureau, to run for the elected term.

5) Announcement of results irrelevant. Delivery of all precinct results to Cyteen Station data storage constitutes valid election. Exception: conditions of war or natural disaster preventing the transmission of or timely arrival of precinct results to Cyteen Station will, after one month, disallow those precincts from the result tally. The tally of results at Cyteen Station will proceed on that date and results will he official as of 0001h on the expiration of the deadline for receipt of ballots. Exception: a quorum of precincts [66%] must arrive by one month after the expected date. Failure of a quorum of precincts to report by one month after the expected date will invalidate the election, in which case current officeholders will continue in office as if re-elected.

Precedents: no dates, no instances available.

“It says,” Justin began.

“I have it,” Grant said grimly. “A first in Union history, it seems.”

“Jacques is all prepared to resign,” Justin said. “But the proxy can only be valid if he stays in office.”

“Is that actually a problem?” Grant asked.

“I don’t know,” Justin said. “It’s certainly better than the alternative.”

A light flashed on the screen. Ari. He keyed it. It wasn’t a message. It was the arrival of the manual he’d requested. The universe was tottering, peace and war possibly at issue, and she remembered his document. He understood that mind. She probably didn’t even strongly register doing it—it was just on her agenda and it went, probably with three and four other things and the staff requests, because that mind was clearing chaff, fast, not for an emergency response, but for a policy consideration.

Call to Yanni was next. He’d bet on it.

J
ULY
22, 2424
0911
H

“Yanni?” Ari said.

“I have the report.” Yanni’s answer came back to her. Yanni was already in his office, ordinary day begun. It wasn’t an ordinary day.

“Natural causes?”

“Still in question.”

“I’m questioning it. This isn’t good.”

“Understatement,” Yanni said. “Listen, I’ve got a call in to Jacques. Hicks has people on the way to Jacques, who’s still at home.”

“Have we had contact with him?”

“He knows.”

“Thank God he’s alive. Keep him that way.”

“We’re working on that. I’m ordering up Reseune One.”

She drew a deep breath. “Yanni, what you need to do you can do from here.”

“Impossible.”

“Not impossible.”

“Appearances, Ari. I have to get to the capital. There’s no question of it.”

“I want agents with Lynch. Fast.”

“I’m ahead of you on that one. Hicks has got a team headed for his office, too. They’ll do all driving, all transport, all meals.”

“
Hicks
. Yanni, I’m not that confident in Hicks. He makes mistakes.”

“It happens to all of us.”

“I’m saying I don’t trust him, Yanni! If we lose Lynch, you lose the proxy, and we revert, God, where
do
we revert? The Secretary for Science?”

“That would be it,” Yanni said, “who would immediately reappoint me Proxy Councillor and I’d be back in. I’m damned hard to get rid of, so don’t worry too much.”

“Not if you’re not in Novgorod, I don’t need to worry too much, and I don’t want you to go.”

“The man could have had a heart attack.”

“And you know he didn’t. Yanni, I can’t lose you. I
can’t
. You want me trying to figure things out day to day and running everything into the ground. You’re risking too much. Easier to send
me
, for God’s sake. I’m duplicatable. Your knowledge isn’t in databanks.”

“Bad joke, young lady, and you’re not going. I need to talk directly to Jacques and to Corain
and
to Lynch: there’s no substitute in virtuality for a face-to-face. You know
that
or you don’t know anything.”

“Don’t read me lessons, Yanni Schwartz. And don’t be a damned fool. You know what I
can
do if you push me, and I’ll do it!”

“Don’t be a child. And that is being a child, Ari.”

“Fine. You’re not going.”

“Ari, do I have to come there and have this out?”

“Don’t bother. Reseune One isn’t going to budge off the strip, so you might as well release your call on it. How is it going to look if you go flying in there to consult with the election results not even read yet? We may have to deal with Khalid. Let’s not start it off with a media show and get caught in statements before we even know what the man died of. And let’s
not
be caught negotiating with Corain before the man is buried. Or shot into the sun. Or whatever he wants done with him.”

“Fine. And when they read the results, and it’s Spurlin, then what do you think we’re going to do? I’ve got to talk to Jacques, and I can’t call him here to do it, because we can’t have him step down. The man has a lucrative job lined up, he wants it, we bent his arm and
got
him that job to get him out of the post, and now he’s got the offer, he wants it. He wants to be rich and comfortable and safe, and the man who’s supposed to replace him just fucking died, pardon my language, but he
died
, he may have been murdered, and that’s not going to dispose an old man ready to retire to stand his ground.”

“This is Defense! He’s a Marine officer!”

“He did his fighting mostly behind a desk, if you recall.”

“Well, I
don’t
personally recall the whole War, and you do, and that’s just one of the reasons why I need you not-dead at the moment, Yanni. Call Jacques: tell him hold pat. Get them to hold the job for him. If anybody killed Spurlin, it’d look really peculiar if Jacques drops dead next, so he’s safe. Tell him that. Maybe that will encourage him.”

A silence on the other end. “I’m not sure it’s quite illegal to bribe Jacques with a job, but it’s not the sort of thing we want on the news, Ari.”

“Well? We already have, haven’t we, to get him not to run again? So now we change our minds and we bribe him to keep it until somebody besides Khalid can organize another challenge. Send Frank to tell him so. Frank doesn’t get the attention you do.”

“I’m not sending Frank.”

“Why not? Because it’s
dangerous?
”

“Ari, you’re taking up my time and I’ve got business to do.”

“That plane’s not moving. Think of other ways to do it.” She hung up on him. And immediately used Base One to put an executive hold on Reseune One, and to forbid fueling.

Then she put in a call to Amy and Maddy, and told them individually, but they’d already gotten the news, Amy had called Maddy, Amy and Maddy were both taking the morning off and stood ready to come back home. So did Tommy Carnath, Maddy said, who’d told Mischa, and most everybody else must be getting it on the news by now. Sam—Sam was still out on site. “Come here,” she told Maddy. “Bring everybody.”

And she called Rafael, and briefed him, with orders to stand by. Florian and Catlin were more than briefed: they were in the security station with Wes and Marco, pulling up Novgorod data as fast as they could and monitoring police reports, which was all they could get out of Defense. Military Police were investigating, standing off the Novgorod authorities, Military Police currently under Councillor Jacques’ direction…
that
was a damned uneasy arrangement. But there was one other investigative authority, and that was the Council of the Nine itself, with its Office of Inquiry, which
could
cross jurisdictional lines, and which reported straight to the Council.

She called Hicks. Personally. “We’ve heard the news,” she said straight off to Hicks. “We want every whisper out of that situation, as fast as you get it. Route it to my security office. No matter if it’s raw.”

“I understand you, sera,” Hicks said. “You’ll have it as fast as we can produce it. Councillor Jacques has requested a Council inquiry, seconded by Councillor Lynch.”

Lynch hadn’t made a move in months—notoriously didn’t act, deferring consistently to his Proxy, namely Yanni, who was Councillor in all but name: but Lynch had waked up this morning and made an actual motion to get at the facts, fast, and locally.

“Lynch is probably scared,” she said disingenuously. “I’ll imagine Yanni is moving to protect him.”

“He is, sera,” Hicks said.

“Yanni is in charge,” she said. “I’m holding Reseune One ready, but it’s staying grounded. Security concerns. Protect Yanni. He’s not looking at his own safety. I’m looking at it for him.”

“We’re in agreement,” Hicks said. “I’ll trust if you hear anything, I’ll get that advisement.”

“I trust I’ll hear it from you fastest,” she said, and let him figure out what
that
meant, whether it was a compliment or an order. “Thank you, ser. I’ll let you get on it.”

She broke the contact. Sat staring at the police report. The Novgorod Police had the body; the Bureau of Defense wanted it; the Office of Inquiry demanded it be sent to the University, its usual recourse for scientific questions, and it was going on two hours since a frightened housemaid had found the body. By the minute, evidence was being lost.

At least the Bureau of Defense wasn’t investigating it as an internal matter, and the Office of Inquiry was going to win. Nobody trumped them; and currently they’d sent a hearse to the District Coroner’s office to collect Spurlin’s remains. The COI had also put a lock on the potential crime scene, and taken steps to secure all computer records and recent communications. She drew part of that from the news and part from the Office of Inquiry itself, which she could get to by passive inquiry, just riding Yanni’s authority. She didn’t lodge any requests. She just read.