'Extraction team?' Sergius's lips formed the unaccustomed syllables, and then his face relaxed into the face he probably wore at home, a face that was still, in truth, frightening enough.
'I suppose you'd better tell me about this plan of yours,' he said.
There were three sets of people who had the authority to move prisoners from one location to another. There was the prison bureaucracy itself, which housed the prisoners, shuttled them to and from interrogations and trials, and made use of their labor in numberless factories and agricultural communes. All those with the authority to sign off on prisoner transfers now consisted entirely of Naxids. Sergius apparently hadn't yet gotten any of these on his payroll, otherwise Julien would have been shifted out of the Reservoir by now.
The second group consisted of Judges of the High Court and of Final Appeal, but all these had been evacuated before the Naxid fleet arrived. The new administration had replaced them all with Naxids.
The third group were Judges of Interrogation. It was not a prestigious posting, and some had been evacuated and some hadn't. Apparently Sergius didn't have any of these in his pocket, either.
Lady Mitsuko Inada was one of those who hadn't left Zanshaa. She lived in Green Park, a quiet, wealthy enclave on the west side of the city. The district had none of the ostentation or flamboyant architecture of the High City – probably none of the houses had more than fifteen or sixteen rooms. Those buildings still occupied by their owners tried to radiate a comfortable air of wealth and security, but were undermined by the untended gardens and shuttered windows of the neighboring buildings, abandoned by their owners who had fled, either to another star system or, failing that, to the country.
Lady Mitsuko's dwelling was on the west side of the Park, the least expensive and least fashionable. It was built of gray fieldstone, with a green alloy roof, an onion dome of greenish copper, and two ennobling sets of chimney pots. The garden in front was mossy and frondy, with ponds and fountains. There were willows in the back, which suggested more ponds there.
Peers constituted about two percent of the empire's population, and as a class controlled more than ninety percent of its wealth. But there was immense variation within the order of Peers, ranging from individuals who controlled the wealth of entire systems to those who lived in genuine poverty. Lady Mitsuko was on the lower end of the scale. Her job didn't entitle her to an evacuation, and neither did her status within the Inada clan.
All Peers, even the poor ones, were guaranteed an education and jobs in the Fleet, civil service, or bar. It was possible that Lady Mitsuko had worked herself up to her current status from somewhere lower.
Sula rather hoped she had. If Lady Mitsuko had a degree of social insecurity, it might work well for Sula's plans.
Macnamara drove Sula to the curb before the house. He was dressed in a dark suit and brimless cap, and looked like a professional driver. He opened Sula's door from the outside, and helped her out with a hand gloved in Devajjo leather.
'Wait,' she told him, though of course she knew he would wait, because that was the plan.
Neither of them were looking at the van that cruised along the far side of the park, packed with heavily armed Riverside Clique gunmen.
Sula straightened her shoulders – she was Fleet again, in her blonde wig – and marched up the walk and over the ornamental bridge to the house door. With gloved fingers – no fingerprints – she reached for the grotesque ornamental bronze head near the door and touched the shiny spot that would announce a visitor to anyone inside the house, then removed her uniform cap from under her arm and put it on her head. She now wore her full dress uniform of viridian green, with her lieutenant's shoulder boards, glossy shoes, and her medals.
Her sidearm was a weight against one hip.
To avoid being overconspicuous, she wore over her shoulders a nondescript overcoat, which she removed as soon as she heard footsteps in the hall. She held it over the pistol and its holster.
The singing tension in her nerves kept her back straight, her chin high. She had to remember that she was a Peer. Not a Peer looking down her nose at cliquemen, but a Peer interacting with another of her class.
That had always been the hardest, to pretend that she was born to this.
A female servant opened the door, a middle-aged Terran. She wasn't in livery, but in neat, subdued civilian clothes.
Lady Mitsuko, Sula concluded, possessed little in the way of social pretension.
Sula walked past the surprised servant and into the hallway. The walls had been plastered beige, with little works of art in ornate frames, and her shoes clacked on deep gray tile.
'Lady Caroline to see Lady Mitsuko, please,' she said, and took off her cap.
The maidservant closed the door and held out her hands for the cap and overcoat. Sula looked at her. 'Go along, now,' she said.
The servant looked doubtful, then gave a little bow and trotted into the interior of the house. Sula examined herself in a hall mirror of polished nickel asteroid material, adjusted the tilt of one of her medals, and waited.
Lady Mitsuko appeared, walking quickly. She was younger than Sula had expected, in her earlier thirties, and very tall. Her body was angular and she had a thin slash of a mouth and a determined jaw that suggested that, as a Judge of Interrogation, she was disinclined to let prisoners get away with much. Her dark hair was worn long and caught in a tail behind, and she wore casual clothes. She dabbed with a napkin at a food spot on her blouse.
'Lady Caroline?' she said. 'I'm sorry,' she said. 'I was just giving the twins their supper.' She held out her hand, but there was a puzzled frown on her face as she tried to work out whether or not she had seen Sula before.
Sula startled Lady Mitsuko by bracing in salute, her chin high. 'Lady Magistrate,' she said. 'I come on official business. Is there somewhere we may speak privately?'
Lady Mitsuko stopped, her hand still outheld. 'Yes,' she said. 'Certainly.'
She took Sula to her office, a small room that still had the slight aroma of the varnish used on the light-colored shelves and furniture of natural wood.
'Will you take a seat, my lady?' Mitsuko said as she closed the door. 'Shall I call for refreshment?'
'That won't be necessary,' Sula said. 'I won't be here long.' She stood before a chair but didn't sit, and waited to speak until Lady Mitsuko stepped behind her desk.
'You have my name slightly wrong,' Sula said. 'I'm not Lady Caroline, but rather Caroline, Lady Sula.'
Lady Mitsuko's eyes darted suddenly to Sula, and then she froze with one hand on the back of her office chair. Her mouth parted slightly with surprise.
'Do you recognize me?' Sula prompted.
'I… don't know.' Mitsuko pronounced the words as if they belonged to a foreign language.
Sula reached into a pocket and produced her Fleet ID. 'You may examine my identification if you wish,' she said. 'I'm on a mission for the secret government.'
Lady Mitsuko pressed the napkin to her heart. The other hand reached for Sula's identification.
'The secret government…' she said softly, as if to herself.
She sank slowly into her chair, her eyes on Sula's ID. Sula sat and placed her overcoat and hat in her lap. She waited for Lady Mitsuko's eyes to lift from the ID, and spoke.
'We require your cooperation,' she said.
Lady Mitsuko slowly extended her arm and held out Sula's identification.
'What do you – what does the secret government want?' she asked.
Sula leaned forward and took her ID. 'The government requires you to transfer twelve hostages from the Reservoir Prison to the holding cells at the Riverside police station. I have a list ready – will you set your comm to receive?'
Speaking slowly, as if in a daze, Lady Mitsuko readied her desk comm. Sula triggered her sleeve display to send the names of Julien, Veronika, nine prisoners chosen at random from the official posted list of hostages, and – just because she was feeling mischievous when she made the list – the Two Sticks' Cree cook.
'We expect the order to be sent tomorrow,' Sula said. She cleared her throat in a businesslike way. 'I am authorized to say that after the return of the legitimate government, your loyalty will be rewarded. On the other hand, if the prisoner transfer does not take place, you will be assassinated.'
Mitsuko's look was scandalized. She stared at Sula for a blank second, and then she seemed to notice for the first time the holstered pistol at Sula's hip. Her eyes jumped away, and then she made a visible effort to collect herself.
