Whatever Carter’s current role in the Council might be, the Ambassador had caught him on what was apparently one of his rare visits to Vanaheim. And when Luc tried to find out where Meinhard Carter spent the rest of his time, he found himself blocked at every turn.
It wasn’t long before Eleanor appeared to him as a data-ghost.
‘I’m not even going to start on the fact you’ve been ignoring me,’ she snapped as he shifted uncomfortably in his chair, ‘but I think you should know people have been looking for you. First that whole debacle at the White Palace, then Cripps sneaking into your apartment, and now Lethe’s been asking questions ever since you went to talk to Offenbach. I don’t care if you’re allowed to talk about it or not – were you on Vanaheim?’
He tried and failed to blank from his thoughts the image of a shambling figure climbing into a white-hot furnace.
‘I think that’s probably not hard to guess,’ he admitted.
‘That’s where you were taken right after we arrived inside the White Palace, isn’t it? Where else could you have gone for so long?’ She paced before him, looking tense and harried. ‘Lethe told me about some raid on a building on Kirov Avenue. He knows you were there, Luc – you were seen. It had something to do with a man named Reto Falla, right?’
Luc nodded.
‘Then there’s the way you keep disappearing from sight with no way to contact you,’ she went on. ‘It’s clear you’re involved in something as big as Aeschere – maybe even bigger, I don’t know.’
‘I don’t understand why you’re upset,’ he said. ‘You know how these things are. It’s not like the first time either one of us has been involved in something we can’t talk about—’
‘Because even then I knew at
‘Look, this was a direct request from a member of the Temur Council,’ he said, forcing himself to breathe slowly. ‘Believe me when I say it’s really not something I had any choice in. Why do I have to tell you that, when you know it already?’
‘Do you remember what I said to you?’ she said, rounding on him. ‘That there’s only one of you; but that still didn’t stop you charging into an unknown situation with a bunch of Sandoz who at least had the advantage of backups.’ She shook her head. ‘You still don’t understand how lucky to be alive you are after all that’s happened, do you?’
‘So what do you expect me to do?’ he said irritably. ‘Go marching back up to the Palace and say, “Sorry, I’m quitting because my girlfriend isn’t happy”?’
She sank down onto a chair he couldn’t see, hands clasped above her knees, head slightly bent forward and eyes closed as if in prayer. ‘No. I know you can’t do that,’ she said quietly. ‘It’s just that I nearly lost you once before, and I thought I was never going to have to deal with something like that again.’
He pulled himself out of his chair and reached out to put a hand on her shoulder, momentarily forgetting she wasn’t physically present. Even so, she leaned towards him, acknowledging the gesture.
‘I thought it was all going to be over too,’ he said, letting his hand drop back by his side. ‘But it’s not. Not yet, anyway.’
‘There’s a rumour going around that Falla was connected with some kind of assassination attempt,’ she said, the anger of a moment ago now drained from her voice. ‘Lethe made enquiries after you were seen on Kirov Avenue, and got Offenbach to admit you’d been asking questions about Sevgeny Vasili, who no one’s seen in days. Everyone at Archives knows there’s something big going on, and you’re connected with it.’
‘Anything else?’ he asked.
Her shoulders rose and fell. ‘There are rumours about Father Cheng that have everyone worried.’
‘What about him?’
‘That he might be stepping down as Chairman.’
Luc dropped back into his seat and stared at her in shock. ‘What? Where did you hear this?’
She let out a small, bitter laugh. ‘With the way you’ve been running around between here and Vanaheim or wherever the hell they’ve been sending you, I thought you’d be the one to know something about it.’
‘I had no idea. This isn’t official?’
‘No, it’s not official. But the way I hear it, there’s a faction in the Council demanding Cheng stand down and let someone else become Chairman.’
‘What faction?’
‘Luc, if anyone’s likely to know about something like that, it’s you.’
‘This is the first I’ve heard of any of this, El. Any idea
‘Apparently some members of the Council think he’s out of touch with Reunification. That things have to change, and that if he can’t adapt to the new circumstances then he should go.’
