Microdifference, in the scheme of things. Ari forced herself to have a sip of water and waited as the minute counter ran. Florian and Catlin, Marco and Wes, and Theo and Jory all watched the big screen. n.o.body said anything.

She had contingencies in mind. She hadn't said what they were, because she didn't want even her most intimate staff knowing what she'd do in certain instances, in case that what-she'd-do changed someday, putting staff at disadvantage.

Second sip of water.

The seconds ticked down. Two minutes and fewer. She put a call through to Amy's apartment, where all the gang was. "Amy? Ari here."

Amy answered, nearly instantly. "Ari?"

"Listening, I take it. If it's Spurlin I'll send champagne down there. If it's Khalidyoure on your own. In either caseI'm going to be busy for a bit. Hang on."

"We're with you," Amy said. Amy said.

Twenty-one seconds. Fifteen. Ten. Five.

The flasher came up, computer-generated, the actual tally of votes, and the result.

Spurlin by 65 percent. by 65 percent.

"We elected the dead man," she said, and let go a breath as her staff visibly relaxed and as cheers erupted in Amy's apartment. "Just a second." She punched in Yanni's office while the gang celebrated. "Yanni."

"Told you" Yanni said. Yanni said.

"I told you you," she said. "Go have a party. I have my own to go to."

"Not a tear for poor old Spurlin."

"What for? We got his revenge for him. Just carry on what we're doing."

The autopsy had come in. Delicate death. A scarcely detectible drug, administered in the morning coffee. Murder. Council hadn't wanted to announce that before the election. Now it was going to break, and occupy the news.

" & inc.u.mbent Councillor Jacques," the news channel was saying, introducing its next speaker, and the staff paid absolutely silent attention. the news channel was saying, introducing its next speaker, and the staff paid absolutely silent attention.

"Jacques is on," she said to Yanni. "Let him finish. Then go get some sleep."

"I'll wait to hear all of it," Yanni said, and was silent while Jacques said & Yanni said, and was silent while Jacques said & "The Bureau of Defense mourns the pa.s.sing of elected Councillor Spurlin, in which sentiment I know I am joined by candidate Vladislaw Khalid. The const.i.tution provides that if a candidate for a Council seat dies between the closing of the polls and the reading of results, the inc.u.mbent Councillor for that bureau may, at his discretion, remain in office for the next term. I am opting to remain as Councillor for Defense. I will at a future date name a Proxy Councillor &"

Ari frowned. "Yanni."

"I heard."

" & as I see fit. Let us all join in paying tribute to a man &"

And so on.

"Did he agree? Is he still going to name Bigelow?"

"I don't know what game he's playing," Yanni said. Yanni said. "I'm going to find out, but, dammit, this isn't something for phone calls. Release the d.a.m.ned plane." "I'm going to find out, but, dammit, this isn't something for phone calls. Release the d.a.m.ned plane."

Jacques, if Spurlin won posthumously, was supposed to have immediately named Gorodin's long-time aide, Vice Admiral Tanya Bigelow, as Proxy Councillor for Defense. All Jacques had to do then was warm that chair until they could organize another election, and Khalid, defeated, had to wait two years. It had all been handled.

Jacques had just gone sideways.

"Ari?"

"Khalid got to him," she said. "Khalid got to him. G.o.d, this isn't looking like Paxer business, Yanni. This isn't."

"I've got to get down there," Yanni said. Yanni said. "I'm taking plenty of security, but I have to get there. I have to talk to Jacques directly. Dammit, Ari, either take over right now, or don't. Don't try to steer from the pa.s.senger seat." "I'm taking plenty of security, but I have to get there. I have to talk to Jacques directly. Dammit, Ari, either take over right now, or don't. Don't try to steer from the pa.s.senger seat."

She didn't want to agree. She saw the situation, however, just the same as Yanni. And he was right this time. Jacques was under threat, or he'd been paid off, and she'd guess the former.

"Yanni, I'll clear the flight. Protect Lynch. Above all, take care of yourself."

Florian and Catlin had come over to her, where she sat with the mini, linked into the minder. They had a much quieter manner than a few moments ago. Marco and Wes joined them, just stood and waited.

"Yanni's going to Novgorod," she said, "to talk to Jacques. Someone's gotten to him. Maybe Yanni can supply enough security to give him a little backbone. Khalid's people killed Spurlin, I'll bet on it. All of a sudden I'm wondering about Patil and Thieu."

"Khalid is still up on the station," Catlin said.

"And out of reach. Out of our reach. But he has fingers down here. We need to know where, and into what. We need to know why Jacques changed his mind. Yanni's going to ask that question personally. He's relying on Hicks's men to protect him. I'm not liking this. I'm not liking this at all."

"We'll keep informed," Florian said.

"Inform me," she said, "at any hour of the day or night. If anything happens to Yanni, under Hicks's protection" She thought about it, about the danger of a man with that many keys to the systems & when the source of the danger might lie well within the impenetrable heart of another Bureau. "Get ready to take Hicks down, dead or alive, I'm imposing no conditions. Just don't risk yourselves. Remember I can axe his accesses. If I hear anything untoward out of Novgorod, Hicks is gone."

"Understood," Catlin said, and then: "Sera?"

She looked up at Catlin.

"We know Hicks used to accompany Director Giraud to Novgorod. There were many meetings with Defense in Gorodin's administration and in Khalid's. He went a few days ago. For Yanni."

Bureau heads met. Their representatives met. Hicks had indeed gone there a few days ago. talking to Jacques, carrying Yanni's offer to Jacques; it went on all the time.

"Sera?" Florian asked, in her long silence.

"Jacques is going to name Khalid as Proxy Councillor. He may be hoping we'll raise the bet and bid him back. But we have to be able to guarantee his life. That executive position doesn't help him at all if he's dead. Or if his family is. Estranged daughter?"

Catlin whipped out her handheld. She said, memory refresher, "Solo. No minor dependents. No relationships since 2421. Uncontested division of household. Estranged daughter, grandchild, great-grandchildren, affiliated with former partner, not genetically related to Jacques."

Solo fit a pattern, of people who made it to directorships and Council seats. Including Yanni. "Whereabouts of next-ofs and former partner: Novgorod."

"Novgorod," Catlin confirmed.

"Too available. Relay that info to Yanni, not to Hicks. Tell Yanni we're not relaying it to Hicks." Yanni would say to her, What do you expect me to do about it, without Hicks? "Tell him he's got to get some meaningful security around Jacques's family and friends. And Jacques. And d.a.m.n it, it'll look like h.e.l.l if we pull ReseuneSec in to guard him. Tell Yanni that Spurlin was murdered: that's proof enough. Let the OOI request State to get agents in to guard Jacques, and our bloc will back him in Council for doing it. And tell Yanni I say keep Hicks in the dark on the whole move."

"Yes, sera," Florian said, and got on the phone. She heard him talking to Yanni's office manager, Chloe. "Sera's orders. Urgent message for Yanni."

Yanni was going to spit if she kept interfering and nagging him step by step, but she was about two jumps short of voicing the code to override Base Two as it was, and blood was rushing through her veins, pushing her to do something, take action, go with Yanni to Novgorod. She'd crippled Khalid politically before: her appearance would remind audiences all over Cyteen and Union how that had played out.

But that wasn't highly prudent to do. Something about all their eggs in one basket and not declaring war on Khalid until they'd gotten Jacques back in line.

d.a.m.n Jacques for not following the script. But Jacques sat in the middle of the Defense Tower, where there were abundant holdovers from the Khalid regime, people who could deliver a message. It didn't matter that Khalid was on the station. His agents were clearly in Novgorod.

Tell Yanni I'll be there if I have to, she almost added, but she bit her tongue on it. Yanni was the one who'd been dealing with Jacques, Yanni had made the deals with Jacques and Corain, and she hoped she hadn't enabled this mess by refusing to let Yanni fly down there the day Spurlin died and start running from one to the other making sure the deals he'd made held. He hadn't accused her in that regard. But there could be some connection.

There could equally well have been a bad outcome to her letting Yanni go there too soon and check into the hotel across the park from the hotel that had blown up and caught fire the month Denys died. There were crazy people in Novgorod. Worse, there was something very, very high-level behind Spurlin's death, and maybe behind the rest of it, and EversnowG.o.d knew what it had to do with anything, but it was a question.

She folded the mini and set it aside on the couch, knowing it would turn up again on her desk the minute she left the room. She decided she'd call the gang down. Tell them bring the pizza with them: her place was focused down on staff, on a minimal dinner and Cook's service for all the staff she had staying up and taking care of business.

So she did that. Or she told Theo to do it, and told Jory leave the computer: she might need it.

What she needed at the moment Florian was too busy to provide. And she didn't want anybody else. Not the way she was now. She found herself pacing, looked down at Sam's river underneath her feet, glowing with light, the rest of Sam's river reflecting the blue fish wall, reminding her of a tranquility that didn't exist in the world.

So Jacques had the reins in his hands and wasn't going to do what he'd promised Reseune he'd doretreat quietly as Lynch had done and leave a Proxy in charge of Defense; draw his salary for two years and then go take his nice posh executive post. They'd had it all set up for Jacques, a do-nothing Councillor, to do nothing another two years and still know his job was waiting for him. And Hicks had flown down there to get that agreement. Well, that hadn't gone outstandingly well, had it?

Maybe Jacques just wanted Yanni to come down there in person and hold his hand through the process. Maybe he wanted face-to-face a.s.surance. She doubted that was the game.

She paced. She walked up to the fish wall and watched the fish. She'd gotten rather fond of the little pearly jawfishthat was their real name: opistognathus aurifronsgolden-browthat made their home in the substrate, right by a rock. They came half-out to see her, tails still in their burrow. They were white, with a blueish opal look to their fins, pale yellow head. Little jewels. Their world was on that side of the gla.s.s, hers on this one; and this evening their world was running much more smoothly than hers.

The big Achilles tang came sweeping past, black, orange-detailed, and elegant, acanthurus achilles. acanthurus achilles. The jawfish dived into their burrows, and the Achilles, ominous shadow, went on to terrify the rabbitfish, who dreaded everything. The jawfish dived into their burrows, and the Achilles, ominous shadow, went on to terrify the rabbitfish, who dreaded everything.

Small wars. Small problems. Everlasting, between species that had been conducting their same business and having the same quarrels since the last ice flowed on Earth.

The more intelligent of old Earth's species weren't doing much better, locally.

A small commotion drew Theo and Jory to the front door, and they admitted Amy and Maddy, Tommy with a stack of pizza containers, and the rest of the gang.

"Are we doing anything yet?" Amy asked in the same cheerful tone she'd used on pranks and schemes against Denys, not so many years ago. It was incongruous. It filled her with an irrational sense of capability. Are we doing anything yet?

But they weren't within striking distance of this problem. Just Yanni was. And it was a two-way strike potential.

"Yanni's going. I cleared Reseune One to fuel. He'll probably go tonight."

"He will, sera," Florian said. "He's called for a car. Ten of ReseuneSec's higher officers are going with him."

"Backgrounds," she said. "Tell Rafael do it."

"Yes, sera," Florian said, and went off to the foyer to do it quietly.

Meanwhile Tommy was laying out the pizza containers on available tables, and Mischa opened them one after the other. The smell wafted through the living room.

"Catlin," she said, "tell kitchen we'd like some wine." She'd have one. She'd earned it. But no other, not tonight. "Call Justin. Tell him and Grant come across. We're having an election party."

"But Jacques didn't name Bigelow," Amy said.

"That's why Yanni's on his way to Novgorod," she said, and shopped among pizzas, finding her favorite, bacon and basil. She took a slice in her fingers. "Jacques has weasled."

"Is that a word?"

"An old word for a slinky little mammal. He's weasled. We don't know if somebody's gotten to him, or if he's just waiting for Yanni to show up in person and ask him nicely. If he does something like name Khalidhe's been gotten to."

"Somebody can file on him in two months," Tommy said. Tommy had probably looked it up.

"They can," Ari said, "and somebody's bound to, Bigelow on one side, and Khalid on the other, and we go another seven months trying to get somebody elected who's competent. Don't talk to me about Khalid. I'm eating."

Wine showed up from the hallway, at one end. And Justin and Grant showed up at the door, at the other.

"Pizza," she said. "Drinks. Call for what you want."

Justin didn't ask a question, but he looked a little cautious. So did Grant.

"It wasn't all good," Amy said under her breath. "Jacques was supposed to name Admiral Bigelow Proxy, and didn't, and Yanni's going to Novgorod."

Justin had looked Amy's way.

"It's not totally good," Ari said. "But we've still got Jacques, and Yanni's going there, with a guard we hope he can rely on, to call in a non-military guard, I hope, to keep Jacques safe. Choose your pizza. It's still warm. We're not celebrating yet, but we're not panicking. Spurlin was murdered."

Justin had been picking up a piece of pizza, sausage and cheese. He let it lie.

"Have your pizza," she said. "Just letting you know it's dangerous out there."

"Had that idea," he said, and took the pizza anyway. Haze offered him a tray, white wine and red. He chose red, and had the pizza in one hand and the drink in the other. Grant had gone for cheese on cheese, and white, and settled on a settee near the fish wall, his long legs a little tucked, given the height of the seat.

"I called you here," Ari said to Justin, "because you're on the inside, same as everybody else. Because if I pull Hicks out of his job, and I may, I may put you in as head of ReseuneSec."

"Don't even joke about it," he said, the winegla.s.s in one hand, the pizza, frozen, in the other. "No. Lock me up, but keep me out of that job."

"I think you'd actually be good at it."

"Realtime work, remember?"

"You just arrest them. You don't cure them."

"I don't want to arrest anybody," Justin said. "Ari, you're joking. Tell me you're joking."

"I'm joking," she said; but she wasn'tshe had a short, short list of candidates she'd trust for the time it took to fill the job permanently. "Your other choice is Yanni's job."

"No," he said, fast.

"If anything should happen," she said. "But it won't, if I can help it. That's why you're here. You'd do it, wouldn't you, a week or two, if you really had to?"

He stood looking at her with the ridiculous pizza and the winegla.s.s, and finally went and laid the pizza piece back with the nearest pizza.

"Ari, if you're anywhere close to serious, I'm asking you, pick just about anybody else in Reseune. Amy, over there, d.a.m.ned near ran Reseune for the duration of the last"

"I trust you," she said, "beyond most people over the age of eighteen. And if things go wrong, I'll owe you and Grant a very, very big apology for all of it, because things will go to absolute h.e.l.l and you're going to get swept up in the fallout. Right now. Base One recognizes Yanni as my guardian if I should die. He's responsible for getting me back. And Base One recognizes you as second in line to run Reseune and to do exactly that."

"No," he said earnestly. "Ari, no. I'm not remotely qualified."