Part 62 (2/2)

Remember that a negative or a positive result in any single question itself means nothing. You have to interpret your own situation. Remember a person with a higher security clearance than yours can install false information in the House system.

Florian and Catlin have survived to be here with you. Good. Are they physically and mentally well?

AE2: Yes.

B/1: Do you believe their loyalty to you is absolute and without exception?

AE2: Yes.

B/1: Is there any condition under which they would disobey you?

AE2: No.

B/1: Beware of absolute answers. Would you like to reconsider?

AE2: No.

B/1: This program accepts them. Security 10 can revise any estimation. Do not permit Florian or Catlin to take tape outside your personal supervision, not for two seconds, outside your direct observation. You can obtain their drugs with your supervisor's clearance. Advise them of this. Under no circ.u.mstances must they take any drug you do not provide or permit any intervention without your presence. You must run an intervention to do this. You are not yet qualified in this procedure. A routine will print. Follow instructions meticulously. Read the cautions and observe them. So much as a chance sound could do them great harm.

Their instruction is the most necessary security measure you will take.

Now name the individuals at Reseune or elsewhere you would like investigated by the Security accesses of this program. I urge you begin with your closest friends and your known enemies, and add anyone else whose behavior is not ordinary. You may amend this list by Security 10. The program will provide you the security status of these individuals.

Name as many as you wish.

AE2: Florian and Catlin. Amy Carnath. Sam Whitely. Dr. John Edwards. Denys Nye. Giraud Nye. Madelaine Stra.s.sen. Tommy Carnath-Nye. Julia Stra.s.sen. Dr. Petros Ivanov. Dr. Irina Wojkowski. Instructor Kyle GK. AG tech Andy Andy GA. Mikhail Corain. GA. Mikhail Corain.

Dr. Wendell Peterson. Victoria Stra.s.sen.

Justin Warrick. Grant, Justin Warrick's Companion. I don't know his prefix.

B/1: Immediate security flag on Justin Warrick, Grant ALX, Julia Stra.s.sen. Your clearance is not adequate to access those records.

AE2: Ari, wait. Define: security flag.

B/1: Security flag indicates person with limited accesses in area queried.

AE2: Ari, go on.

B/1: Persons with security clearance exceeding yours: Denys Nye; Giraud Nye; Dr. John Edwards; Dr. Petros Ivanov; Dr. Wendell Peterson; Dr. Irina Wojkowski; Mikhail Corain.

You will be messaged at any change in relative clearances.

Now before I finish I will tell you one other thing I did not then understand. My guardian Geoffrey Carnath behaved badly, but he did not intend me personal harm. He knew my value. Whoever has caused your birth surely must know yours. Geoffrey and I were cold but cordial and did not publicize our differences even within the House, certainly not outside, because it could harm Reseune.

Base One can now contact one point outside Reseune: are you now in any danger you yourself cannot handle?

AE2: No. I don't think so.

B/1: Base One can call House Security or the Science Bureau Enforcement Division through Security 10. It will call both if it detects your voice raised in alarm on the keyword Mayday. The consequences of a false alert could be considerable, including political ones endangering your life or status. Never p.r.o.nounce that word unless you mean it. You may set various emergency responses through the Security 10 keyword function.

If absolutely no other means is available to you to reach the Science Bureau to apply for legal majority, use the Mayday function. Under ordinary circ.u.mstances a quiet note to Security or a phone call should be adequate and Reseune should a.s.sist you. I reached my legal majority at 16, by a tolerably routine application to the Science Bureau. You may apply at any time you think this has become advisable. I do not advise doing this before 16, except if your life or sanity is threatened. The ordinary age of majority is, as you should know by now, 18.

Cast off all emotional ties to Denys Nye.

Protect Reseune: someday it will be in your hands, and it will give you the power to protect everything else.

You are 14 years old. Time itself will bury any enemy you do not yourself make-as long as you don't make a mistake that lets them bury you.

I am your safest adviser. You are the successor I choose; I aim for your mental and physical safety from interests that may have gained power since my death, or who might want to profit from your abilities. You would not be wise to believe that of everyone in Reseune.

CHAPTER 10.

i Uncle Denys was right. It was a huge place. It was very quiet, and at the same time filled with strange noises-motors going on, expansion of metal in the ducts, or small sounds that might have been a step, or a breath, though the Minder would surely sound an alarm if there were a living presence.

If it had not been tampered with. If Base One itself was reliable.

Ari knew which bedroom had been the first Ari's. The closets were full of her clothes. The drawers had more clothes, sweaters, underwear, jewelry, real jewelry, she thought. And the smell of the drawers and the closet was the smell of home-the scent she she wore. The same smell as permeated her closet at home-at uncle Denys' apartment. wore. The same smell as permeated her closet at home-at uncle Denys' apartment.

There was a room which had belonged to the first Florian and another which had belonged to the first Catlin. There were uniforms in their closets which were a man's and a woman's. Which bore their numbers. And party clothes in satin and black gauze.

There were things in the bureau drawers-there were guns, and odd bits of electronics, and wire-as well as personal things.

”They were Older,” Catlin said.

”Yes,” Ari said, feeling a chill in her bones, ”they were.”

There were, constantly, the sounds, the small whisperings that the rooms made.

”Come on,” she said, and brought them out of the first Catlin's room.

She kept telling herself the Minder would react to an intruder.

But what if one had already been there?

What if the Minder were in someone's control?

She took them back to Ari's bedroom, back at the far end of the house They brought the guns that they had found, even though Catlin said they ought not to rely on charges that old. They were better than nothing Stay with me,” Ari said to them, and sat down on the bed and patted the place beside her.

So they got beneath the covers in their clothes, because the night seemed cold, and she was in the middle of the huge bed, Ari's bed, and Florian and Catlin were on either side of her, tucked up against her for warmth, or to keep her warm.

She s.h.i.+vered, and Florian put his arm around her on the right side and Catlin edged closer on her left, until she was warm.

She could not tell them the things they needed to know, like who the Enemy was. She did not know any longer. It was ghosts she imagined. She had read the old books. She was afraid of things she reckoned Florian and Catlin did not even imagine, and they were foolish to name.

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