Part 5 (1/2)

”The h.e.l.l!”

Ari laughed gently and took another sip of coffee. ”Jordie, dear, I know you'd like to have upstaged me with this; but as it happens, Gorodin came to me, me, and I'm going to give you everything you asked for, on a platter. You'll and I'm going to give you everything you asked for, on a platter. You'll get get that long-awaited transfer, you and anyone in your wing who wants to go to Fargone, just as soon as the official request for military liaison comes down the tubes.” that long-awaited transfer, you and anyone in your wing who wants to go to Fargone, just as soon as the official request for military liaison comes down the tubes.”

”What is this?” Yanni Schwartz asked.

”I don't say it'll be a bad thing,” Ari said quite honestly, still smiling. ”I'm not pulling surprises on you, Yanni-Jordan pulled this one on me. I think everyone should think about it, those who'll prefer to go out to the frontier, those who'd rather stay with the comforts of Reseune-G.o.d knows, knows, some of us would miss ham and fresh fruit. But the opportunities out there are worth thinking about.” Another sip of coffee, slow and thoughtful, watching Jordan's eyes like a fencer. ”The Educational wing here will continue, of course. There are some of you we can't transfer, you understand that. We'll have to restructure here, rather well replicate the whole wing-” A little wider smile. It was a joke. Suli Schwartz woke up, a quick look around to see if people were supposed to laugh. ”Jordie, you'll have to lay out some recommendations.” some of us would miss ham and fresh fruit. But the opportunities out there are worth thinking about.” Another sip of coffee, slow and thoughtful, watching Jordan's eyes like a fencer. ”The Educational wing here will continue, of course. There are some of you we can't transfer, you understand that. We'll have to restructure here, rather well replicate the whole wing-” A little wider smile. It was a joke. Suli Schwartz woke up, a quick look around to see if people were supposed to laugh. ”Jordie, you'll have to lay out some recommendations.”

”Of course,” Jordan said. ”But I'm sure you'll use your own list.”

She laughed, to keep it polite. ”You know d.a.m.n well I will. But I really will respect your choices wherever I can-after all, I'll a.s.sume anyone on your list wants wants to transfer, and I'll a.s.sume you want them. Yanni, you can deal with Jordie on that.” to transfer, and I'll a.s.sume you want them. Yanni, you can deal with Jordie on that.”

There was a growing wariness behind the attentive faces. Young Suli finally seemed to have understood what was going on, perhaps to have figured out for the first time in his life what it was to sit in this room on Family Occasions, and not with the juniors down the hall. No one moved, not the Family, not the azi at the tables round about.

A sonorous clearing of the throat from Denys. ”Well,” he said, ”well, Ari, after all-” Another clearing of the throat. ”I don't suppose we could have some of those little cookies we had last night, hmmn?” Wistfully.

”Yes, ser,” a server said, close by the door, and slipped out, while Denys ladled sugar into his coffee.

”Hum. The essential thing is Reseune, isn't it? Ari, Jordie, Yanni, really, we all have the same thing at heart, which is the freedom to do our work. We all hate these administrative messes, we all do, it's such a d.a.m.ned waste of our time and there's so much more important on our desks than a lot of little regional authorities bickering away in Novgorod. I'm sure it's important whether station administrators can or can't hold stock in their own stations, but it's just not the kind of thing that we we ought to have to sit through- I mean, the whole idea of the Bureaus was never meant to take valuable people completely away from work. Council's certainly no great inconvenience to Corain, or Chavez, or, G.o.d knows, Bogdanovitch, but it's not really productive to have Gorodin on a short string, and Science, my G.o.d, Science is an absolute tragedy-I mean, really, Ari, it's a dreadful waste of your time and energy-” ought to have to sit through- I mean, the whole idea of the Bureaus was never meant to take valuable people completely away from work. Council's certainly no great inconvenience to Corain, or Chavez, or, G.o.d knows, Bogdanovitch, but it's not really productive to have Gorodin on a short string, and Science, my G.o.d, Science is an absolute tragedy-I mean, really, Ari, it's a dreadful waste of your time and energy-”

”I don't know why,” Jordan said from his end of the table, with a wry lift of his wine-gla.s.s, a rivalry old as their existence in Reseune, dinner witticisms, ”since Ari just considers the whole d.a.m.ned universe her province.”

Ari laughed, pro forma. Everyone was relieved. Everyone laughed, because to do other than that was an Incident, and no one wanted it, not even Jordan.

”Well, you'll have your chance, won't you?” she said. ”The whole Hope route right off Fargone, and you'll be working with old friends, so it's not like you'll be out there alone. If I were younger, Jordie, d.a.m.ned if I wouldn't jump at it; but Denys is right. The politics is done, the whole course is laid, and I'm sure I'm anxious to get on about my work, you're anxious to get yours underway. I hate like h.e.l.l to drop another administrative job in your lap, but I really want your expertise. You've got to set us up another Educational wing here, really, really an opportunity for you to hand us on a legacy, Jordie, I'm very serious-”

”I left that in cryogenics,” Jordan said. Another small round of anxious laughter. ”Do you want another sample?”

Ari chuckled and took a sip of her coffee. ”What? Jordie, I thought you went the other way. But we do have a second source.”

Justin blushed. People turned to see if he had. There was another laugh, much too thin.

”I'm sure Jordie will cooperate,” Denys said, intervening before the knives came out: it was the ancient rule in this room-nothing unpleasant. One retaliated with wit here, nothing else, and not too far.

”I'm sure,” Ari said. And seriously: ”We do have restructuring to do. I'm going to be doing some of my Council work by proxy, figuring it's going to be a little tamer now we have the major projects mapped out. There really shouldn't be any difficulty. I suppose I can fly down if they need me, but Denys is very right: I'm a hundred twenty years old-”

”You've got a few more,” Denys said.

”Oh, yes, but I see the wall-true.” The room was quiet again. ”The Rubin project will take a great deal of my time. I'm not getting morbid. But you know and I know that there's not an infinite amount of time for getting this thing moving. I'll leave most of the Fargone set-up to you, Yanni. I'll be asking data from this department and that. I'll be wanting to oversee the process myself-just a desire to have hands-on again. Maybe a little vanity.” She chuckled softly. ”I'm going to be writing on my book, doing a little side research-preparation. Retirement, I suppose.”

”The h.e.l.l,” Jordan said.

She smiled, covered her cup with her hand when the server wanted to pour more coffee. ”No, dear, I've caffeine enough to see me to my rooms. Which is where I ought to go, figuring that the floor is still going up and down-we had a b.i.t.c.h of a lot of turbulence over the Kaukash, didn't we? And I don't think I really slept in Novgorod. Catlin?”

A chair moved, and Catlin was there, and Florian with her. Catlin drew her chair back for her.

”Good night, all,” she said; and to Florian, quietly, as chairs went back and people began leaving: ”Tell Grant I'm reclaiming him.”

”Sera?”

”I need him,” she said. ”Tell him I've filed a new a.s.signment for him. Jordan never did have legal custody of him. He surely realizes that.”

iii ”A moment,” the azi Florian said, when Justin and Grant started out the door after Jordan and Paul, in the general mill of family and azi headed their separate ways.

”Later,” Justin said. His heart began to pound, the way it did anytime he came near Ari or her bodyguards on anything but coldest business, and he took Grant by the arm and tried to get him out the door as Florian blocked Grant's path.

”I'm very sorry,” Florian said, looking as if he were. ”Sera has said she wants Grant. He's a.s.signed to her now.”

For a moment Justin did not realize what he had heard. Grant stood very still in his grip.

”He can retrieve his belongings,” Florian said.

”Tell her no.” no.” They were blocking the Schwartzes from exit. Justin moved confusedly into the hall, drawing Grant with him, but Florian stayed with them. ”Tell her-tell her, dammit, if she wants my cooperation in anything, he stays with me!” They were blocking the Schwartzes from exit. Justin moved confusedly into the hall, drawing Grant with him, but Florian stayed with them. ”Tell her-tell her, dammit, if she wants my cooperation in anything, he stays with me!”

”I'm terribly sorry, ser,” Florian said-always soft-spoken, soft-eyed. ”She said that it was already done. Please understand. He should get his things. Catlin and I will watch out for him the best we can.”

”She's not going to do this,” Justin told Grant, as Florian slipped back into the dining hall, where Ari delayed. He was cold through and through. His supper sat uneasy at his stomach. ”Wait here.” His father was waiting with Paul a little down the hall, and Justin crossed the distance in a half-dozen strides, face composed, showing no more, he hoped, than an understandable annoyance; and please, G.o.d, not as pale as he was afraid it was. ”Something's come up with a project,” he told Jordan. ”I have to go see about it.”

Jordan nodded, had questions, perhaps, but the explanation seemed to cover it; and Justin walked back again to the doorway where Grant stood. He put a hand on Grant's shoulder in pa.s.sing, and went inside where Ari lingered talking to Giraud Nye.

He waited the few seconds until Ari deliberately pa.s.sed her eye across him, a silent summons; she seemed to say something dismissing Giraud, because Giraud looked back too, then left.

Ari waited.

”What's this about Grant?” Justin asked when he was face to face with her.

”I need him,” Ari said, ”that's all. He's a Special geneset, he's relevant to what I'm working on, and I need him now, that's all. Nothing personal.”

”It is.” He lost control of his voice, seventeen and facing a woman as terrible as his father. He wanted to hit her. And that was not an option. Ari, in Reseune, could do anything. To anyone. He had learned that. ”What do you want? What do you really want out of me?”

”I told you, it's not personal. Nothing like it. Grant can get his tilings, he can have a few days to calm down- You'll see him. It's not like you're not working in that wing.”

”You're going to run tape on him!”

”That's what he's for, isn't it? He's an experimental. Tests are what he pays for his keep-”

”He pays for his keep as a designer, dammit, he's not one of your d.a.m.n test-subjects, he's-” My brother, My brother, he almost said. he almost said.

”I'm sorry if you've lost your objectivity in this. And I'd suggest you calm yourself down right now. You don't have your license to handle an Alpha yet, and you're not likely to get it if you can't control your emotions better than this. If you've given him promises you can't keep, you've mishandled him, you understand me? You've You've hurt him. G.o.d knows what else you've done, and I can see right now you and I are due for a long, long talk-about what an Alpha is, and what you've done with him, and whether or not you're going to get that license. It takes more than brains, my lad, it takes the ability to think past what you want, and what you believe, and it's about time you learned it.” hurt him. G.o.d knows what else you've done, and I can see right now you and I are due for a long, long talk-about what an Alpha is, and what you've done with him, and whether or not you're going to get that license. It takes more than brains, my lad, it takes the ability to think past what you want, and what you believe, and it's about time you learned it.”

”All right, all right, I'll do what you want. He will. Just leave him with me!”

”Calm down, hear? Calm down. I'm not leaving him with anyone in that state. Also-” She tapped him on the chest. ”You're dealing with me, me, dear, and you know I'm good at getting my own way: you know you always lose points when you show that much to your opposition, especially to a professional. You get those eyes dry, you put yourself in order, and you take Grant home and see he comes with everything he needs. Most of all you calm him down and don't frighten him any further. Where are your sensibilities?” dear, and you know I'm good at getting my own way: you know you always lose points when you show that much to your opposition, especially to a professional. You get those eyes dry, you put yourself in order, and you take Grant home and see he comes with everything he needs. Most of all you calm him down and don't frighten him any further. Where are your sensibilities?”

”d.a.m.n you! What do you want?” want?”

”I've got what I want. Just go do what I tell you. You work for me. And you'll show up polite and respectful in the morning. Hear me? Now go take care of your business.”

”I-”