time, even without the safeguards built into our military security protocols. And partly because someone who's been adjusted knows he has. On some level, he's aware of the fact that he's not fully in control of his own actions. In fact, I made a quick flight out to your parent's house on Sphinx with Samantha and had her consult the Bright Water memory singers about the attempted assassination of Queen Adrienne.'
'You know, I'd actually forgotten about that,' Honor said in a chagrined voice.
'You've been under a lot of stress,' Hamish told her. 'But Samantha got the memory song of the entire episode. She says the assassin knew what was happening to him from the moment he came into Seeker of Dream's mental reach. It wasn't like... turning on a switch. Seeker of Dreams picked him up before he ever got into visual range of the Princess, and he knew there was something badly wrong the instant he tasted the assassin's mind- glow. That wasn't the case here.'
'No, it wasn't,' Honor agreed. 'He was perfectly cheerful when he stepped through the hatch. Everything was normal, exactly the way it always was. And then, suddenly, he went for Simon's pulser.'
'So he wasn't adjusted,' Hamish said thoughtfully, 'but he was programmed.'
'I suppose you could say that. But how could that be done?' Honor shook her head. 'That's what I keep coming back to, again and again. How in the name of God could someone program another human being that way without the human in question even being aware it had happened?'
'I don't know the answer to that one,' Hamish said grimly, 'but here's another one. Why did it happen now? Why not before this?'
'You're suggesting whatever was done to him was done during his last trip to Manticore?'
'It seems likely, although CID's been over his entire visit with a fine tooth comb without finding anything out of the ordinary. And leaving that point aside for the moment, why that moment, in that place? Why not in a staff meeting, or when you invited him to dinner?'
'Opportunity, maybe,' Honor said thoughtfully. He looked at her, and she shrugged. 'I think it was the first time he and I and a single armsman were in the same place at the same time. Or, at least, when there was a single armsman he had a legitimate reason to come within arm's length of so naturally that not even a Grayson armsman would think it was anything out of the ordinary.'
'And why would that be significant?'
'Because,' she said grimly, 'my armsmen are the only people constantly in my presence who're armed. To kill me, he first had to have a weapon, and, secondly, he had to... disable my bodyguard. By taking Simon's weapon the way he did, he accomplished both.'
'I see.' Hamish frowned, then shrugged. 'You may be onto something there. I don't know. But I do know where something like this happened before.'
'Where-Oh! Colonel Hofschulte!'
'Exactly. Pat Givens has already sent a message to the Andermani requesting all their case files on Hofschulte, because it sounds like exactly the same thing. A totally trusted, totally loyal, longtime retainer who just suddenly snapped and tried to kill Prince Huang and his entire family. My understanding is that they very carefully considered the possibility of adjustment, but that Hofschulte was never out of sight long enough for that to happen. Which, again, sounds exactly like what happened here.'
'But why should the Havenites have tried to kill the Andermani Crown Prince?' Honor asked in puzzlement.
'That I can't tell you,' Hamish admitted. 'I just know the modus operandi appears to be extremely similar. I can see some possible advantages for them, I suppose, in killing him now that they're at war with the Andies as well as us, but then?' He shook his head. 'Of course, StateSec was still running their entire intelligence machine at that point. Maybe they did have some sort of motive we just can't see from here.'
'That's hard to imagine,' Honor said thoughtfully. 'I wonder....'
'Wonder what?' Hamish asked after a few seconds.
'What? Oh!' Honor gave herself a shake. 'I was just wondering if there's someone else out there, someone who's developed a technique that would let them do something like this, and made it available on a hire basis?'
'Possible.' Hamish considered. 'Quite possible, really. Because I can't think of anyone besides the Peeps who'd have both the motive and the resources to pull something like this off.'
'I can't either,' Honor agreed, but her expression was troubled.
Yes, assassination had always been a favorite tactic of the People's Republic, whether it was being run by InSec or StateSec. But it wasn't the sort of tactic she would have associated with Thomas Theisman. On the other hand, Eloise Pritchart had come up through the Havenite Resistance, and her Aprilists had been credited with several dozen assassinations of key Legislaturalists and InSec personnel. And however Honor wanted to look at it, she, as the commander of the Allied fleet which had done the most damage to the Republic's civilians, as well as its military, was clearly a legitimate military target.
And assassination didn't kill anyone deader than a bomb-pumped laser.
'Well,' Hamish said finally, 'one of the reasons I came out was to tell you that, although Pat would appreciate it if you'd go through channels next time, if you want Mandel out of the picture, he's gone. And she intimated to me that if he'd gotten out of line, instead of simply being dumb as a post, she'd see to it he was for the long drop, as well.'
'No.' Honor shook her head. 'No, as much as the nasty side of me would like to see that happen, it really was just a matter of his being... unresponsive to novel hypotheses.'
'My, what a diplomatic way to put it,' her husband murmured. Then he grinned crookedly. 'Her second question was whether or not this Commander Simon was acceptable to you?'
'She is. Just speaking to her is like prodding a wound with your finger, because of her name, but she's much more open-minded then Mandel. I don't say she agrees with me-yet, at least-but she hasn't ruled the possibility out. And she hasn't already wedded herself to some theory of her own. And she apparently does believe what the xenologists have been saying about the 'cats and their abilities for the past few years.'
'Good, because in that case, I want Samantha to talk to her. I don't suppose we're lucky enough that she reads sign?'
'No, she doesn't.'
'Pity. In that case, I'll just have to translate, I suppose.' Hamish shrugged. 'It may be an interesting conversation, especially when Samantha tells her about the memory song about Queen Adrienne. And at least I'll feel like I'm actually doing something about the bastards who tried to murder my wife.'
His voice hardened on the last sentence, and she felt the fury-and fear-behind it.
'They may've tried, and they may have killed a lot of other people, but they didn't kill me, and they aren't going to,' she promised him, reaching up to touch the side of his face with her right hand.
'Not with assassins, anyway,' Hamish said with a slightly strained smile. 'Not with both you and your furry shadow watching out for them.'
Honor smiled back, then stiffened.
'That's it,' she said softly.
''It' what?' he asked when she didn't say anything else immediately.
'It's just that if there is some new assassination technology out there, something they used to get to Tim without his disappearing long enough to be adjusted, then they could do it to anyone. Which means literally anybody could be a programmed assassin, without even realizing it.'
'Talk about your security nightmares,' Hamish muttered, and she nodded grimly.
'But at the moment whatever the programming is kicks in, they do know someone or something else is controlling them,' she said, 'and no treecat could miss something like that.'
'Like food tasters,' Hamish said slowly. 'Or canaries in coal mines back on Old Earth.'
'More or less,' she agreed. 'It wouldn't be much warning, but at least it would be some. And if the security types guarding the intended target knew to take their cue from the 'cat, it might be enough.'
'Palace Security and the Queen's Own have been paying attention to treecats for centuries now,' Hamish said. 'They, at least, won't have any problems with the idea.'
'No, and you need to get Dr. Arf and her commission involved in this. It's exactly the sort of thing she's been looking for, and she's already in position to coordinate with all the 'cat clans to come up with volunteers. We can't put treecats everywhere-there aren't enough of them, even if they were all prepared or mentally equipped to work
