Garinn turned the monitor off. “Go ahead.”
“You told me you could change my son Sejal so he would not be Silent,” Vidya said flatly. “You lied. My son is Silent, a powerful Silent.”
“He’s the one the Unity was looking for?” Dr. Kri said, astonished. His voice was rich and mellow. “And you’re his mother?”
“Yes.”
Wild anticipation mixed with amazement and…hunger? on Dr. Kri’s face. Prasad could almost see the wheels turning in the man’s head.
“I told you I had an experimental process,” Garinn corrected, still twirling his mustache. Prasad wanted to snatch his hand away from it. “I told you my viruses would change him right down to his stem cell DNA. I made no promises, and I gave you money. The process obviously worked. Your son came up negative on both scans for Silent genes, so there must have been enough change made to fool the Unity. What are you complaining about? No one came to take him when he was ten years old.”
“But he is still Silent,” Vidya insisted, her voice a cold, deadly calm. “Did you do that on purpose? I need to know.”
Garinn shook his head. “No. It was an unanticipated side-effect.”
He turned the readout monitor back on. Beyond him, one of the Nursery children abruptly went limp just as another went into another fit of spasmodic behavior. Vidya looked like she wanted to say more, then apparently thought the better of it.
“You’ll join us, then?” Dr. Kri’s eyes gleamed and he clapped his hands once under his chin. “That’s wonderful! What we could do-it boggles the mind. I mean, Prasad’s DNA alone gave us this.” He gestured at the twitching bodies in the Nursery, and a wave of shame swept over Prasad. “If we combine it with yours, well-we may bring this project to conclusion in only a few more years.”
“I will, of course, require compensation,” Vidya said thoughtfully. She leaned against a desk. “I will have the same benefits you are giving Prasad, plus a salary twenty percent higher than his and a twelve thousand kesh signing bonus.”
Dr. Kri smiled. “Oh dear. We aren’t made of money, you know. Our…sponsor does well by us, but still-”
“Yes, I see,” Vidya said, waving a hand. “Very well. I shall gather my things, then, and leave you to arrange my transportation back to-”
“Now, now,” Dr. Kri interrupted, his rich voice taking on a silky edge. “I didn’t exactly say no.”
Vidya finally settled for a salary twelve percent higher than Prasad’s and an eight thousand kesh bonus. Prasad shook his head. Why was she bargaining? They were going to leave, weren’t they? He knew he couldn’t stay. Now that he could see the place through Vidya’s eyes, every moment spent in the Nursery made him more and more uncomfortable, more and more ashamed.
After the dickering ended, Vidya turned to Prasad. “Perhaps my husband will help me unpack?”
She took him firmly by the elbow and all but towed him away from the Nursery. The moment they had cleared the labs, Prasad turned to her.
“What was that about? Why did you say you would stay? I thought-”
“We are staying,” Vidya said in a voice that brooked no argument, “until we can figure out what to do about those children.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
PLANET CONFEDERATION’S CORE PALACE OF HER MOST AUGUST AND IMPERIAL MAJESTY EMPRESS KAN MAJA KALII
People who are [s]ilent are dangerous. -Bolivar I of the Independence Confederation in a speech Whether Bolivar meant silent as a proper or a common noun is a matter for conjecture.
“War?” Ara exclaimed.
Empress Kan maja Kalii nodded. The jewels hovering about her head bobbed like confused fireflies for a moment before settling back into their normal orbits. Although it was early morning for Ara, it was night on this part of Confederation’s Core, and the Empress was holding audience in a great alabaster hall with a cathedral ceiling and white marble floors. The Empress herself sat on a simple gray throne on a raised platform. Lamps glowed with cold light, and the windows were shut tight against darkness and spies. The only people in the room were Ara, Grandfather Melthine, and the Empress herself, though Ara and Melthine were actually possessing the bodies of a pair of Silent slaves. They currently knelt on large pillows near the base of the Empress’s platform.
“Premier Yuganovi’s personal Silent delivered the ultimatum moments ago,” the Empress said. “The Empire of Human Unity resents the kidnaping of Sejal Dasa on the Confederation’s behalf. If Sejal is not returned immediately, the Unity will declare war.”
“Over Sejal?” Ara said incredulously. “He’s powerful and valuable, certainly, but full-blown war?”
“There are other factors,” the Empress said. “I am also dealing with a boundary dispute and the fact that two favored slipship routes for Confederation ships brush Unity territory. A trade agreement we negotiated ten years ago needs to be reworked due to changes in the availability of the goods concerned, but the Unity refuses to discuss the idea. Another Unity spy was caught in my court and we’re trying to see if we can arrange a trade for one of our operatives found in their territory, even though neither side is officially supposed to be spying on the other.”
The Empress paused to rub a hand across her forehead. “Relations between the Confederation and the Unity are a keg of powder. You can probably guess how I would describe Sejal’s supposed kidnaping.”
Melthine cleared his throat. He currently wore the body of the muscular male slave Ara had possessed all those weeks ago when Pitr had been alive and the Empress had put Sejal’s life into Ara’s hands. Ara had taken the body of a heavy-breasted human woman nearing middle age. The weight of the woman’s chest dragged continuosly at Ara’s back and shoulders.
“Have you sent the Unity an answer about Sejal, Imperial Majesty?” Melthine asked.
“I have not.” The Empress crossed her ankles beneath her simple sky-blue robe. “The situation is delicate. If the Unity goes to war, we will, of course, call on the Belmare Planets and the Five Green Worlds as allies. The Confederation would appeal to the Koloreme Senate and the Micha Protectorates, but the Prism Conglomerate could go either way. If I persuade the Conglomerate to proclaim it would side with the Confederation, the Unity might back down without bloodshed and with only small financial cost to the Confederation. If war actually breaks out, the price for the Congomerate’s aid would go up. The Unity, of course, has probably already sent a delegation to the Conglomerate, and we must move quickly to match it.” She sighed. “Mother Ara, what is your assessment of Sejal’s position?”
Ara shot a sideways glance at Melthine. “I have no opinion at this time, Imperial Majesty. The matter requires…further study.”
“What matter?” Melthine asked. “Is this the subject you declined to discuss in our meeting in the Dream?”
“Yes,” Ara replied simply.
“You may tell him of the duy I laid upon you,” the Empress put in.
Ara did. Melthine met the news with an impassive face. “I see.”
“I can stall the Premier for some time, of course,” the Empress said. “This sort of thing does not move quickly. Look how long it took the Unity merely to admit that young Sejal had slipped through their fingers.”
She leaned forward and the jewels bobbed again. “Practicality says I should give Sejal back to prevent many lives from being lost in a stupid skirmish. I do not think it wise, however, to hand someone with Sejal’s power over
