When the dawn came she had dozed for an hour or so, the gun still resting in her hand. She thought about barricading herself in until Vikram went away. But it was light. He had let her live. She put back the gun. This morning Vikram was uncommunicative; both the strange intimacy of last night and the nightmarish tension in the kitchen had all but vanished.
Adelaide reached behind her neck and unclasped a string of onyx beads. She arranged the necklace in a half circle. Then she took a ring off her middle finger and placed it under the arch.
“Here we have the Council, and here-” She touched the ring. “Is the Speaker. You probably stood on the podium just in front of him, right?”
Vikram nodded.
“The Council is like any other group. It has factions.” She unhooked an earring and put it at the left end of the beads. “Here sits my illustrious father Feodor, and his cronies.”
“Yes, I remember your father. I think he might remember me too.”
Abruptly Adelaide recalled the day she had gone to see Feodor. Hadn’t he said something about a westerner? The idea gave her a turn, almost as if they had met before, unwittingly. She tapped the earring with her forefinger.
“Feodor doesn’t like anything to disturb the perfect order of his world. And he has to think about saving face. When the Council first established the border, Feodor was one of the Councillors who spoke out strongly for it. Any step towards unification, however small, will be an admission that they, and he, made a mistake.”
Vikram’s eyes were watchful. She knew that he wouldn’t miss anything.
“Why did they do it?”
“What, divide the city?”
“Yes.”
Adelaide kept her tone brisk. “You know why, Vikram. The west got too violent. After what happened at the Greenhouse, the City didn’t have a choice. Harvests decimated, working citizens stabbed-I mean, there were children in there for stars’ sakes. Only three of them came out intact.”
Vikram scowled. “Conveniently.”
“What do you mean, conveniently?”
“I mean it’s convenient that when the ’seventy-seven riots started, the Council decided it was a great idea to let school parties wander round public buildings. Don’t you think?”
She stared at him. “You can’t accuse-”
“I’m not accusing.”
“What are you saying then?”
“I’m saying that it was a long time ago. You can’t know what really happened at the Greenhouse.”
“And I suppose you can’t know what really happened at Osuwa University, either. Perhaps that was allowed to happen too?” She strove to keep the anger out of her voice. Who was he to be lecturing her?
“No,” he said. “That was a few individuals in a militant group called the New Western Osiris Front, which got out of hand. But I can tell you exactly what happened afterwards. The sk-the Home Guard let Citizens into the refugee camps. They even loaned them some guns. And your people used them. Like toys. I don’t suppose anyone noticed if there were children around then.”
She picked up the onyx beads and let them clatter back, pointedly.
“Well, as you so rightly pointed out, I wasn’t there. You can’t blame me for what other people did. You asked me why the border was created and I told you.”
Vikram’s expression was almost mocking now.
“I know the official line. I’m interested in why your father came to that decision.”
“That depends upon who you ask,” said Adelaide. She was happier discussing her father. Feodor was easily culpable. “According to my brother Linus, there was a huge debate over the issue and Feodor felt some glimmer of guilt about it-they were refugees, after all, it wasn’t like the Council could ship them off somewhere else. But if you ask me, it was easy for Feodor. He was doing what he always does-protecting his interests. Now I’m telling you this, Vikram, not because I care, but so you know what you’re up against.”
“We’re,” he insisted. “What we’re up against.” He grinned. The expression was slightly startling. “You’ll be the next Grete Kaat.”
She dismissed this as too idiotic for words. “Grete Kaat was a criminal. She conspired to assassinate Alain and Helene Dumay. The parents of my compatriots.” Not that she had anything to do with the Dumay offspring, but Vikram did not know that.
“Grete Kaat was never proved guilty.”
“You believe she was innocent?”
“Do you really believe she was guilty?” he countered.
Adelaide gave him her blandest look. “Kaat is celebrated every year in the west for what she did.”
“I’m sure that’s what they tell you. Actually she’s celebrated for what she didn’t do. Kaat died in jail of pneumonia. The only reason she was locked up in the first place is because she’d expressed sympathies with the west in the past-the perfect scapegoat. That was the so-called evidence.”
Adelaide decided not to comment. She had better weapons at her disposal.
“I’ll tell you something ironic, shall I Vikram? My grandmother was a refugee. Second Grandmother that is. The first one died when Feodor was a child.”
Vikram’s face contracted. She had rattled him at last, although she was not sure now that it had been her intention. This kept happening with him, she thought. Things slipping out that she had not meant to say at all.
“Is that some kind of secret?”
“I’d hardly tell you if it was a secret. Don’t forget, west and City wasn’t an issue then. But imagine when Grandfather’s son grew up and joined the segregation movement. I think it broke his heart. Having said that, I didn’t see him jumping to live on the other side.”
“Didn’t he contest it? Your grandfather? Surely when his own wife-”
“No, no. My grandfather is the Architect, he was never on the Council. Feodor started that little dynasty. And besides, I don’t suppose Grandfather felt there was much choice, if they wanted to preserve anything of Osiris. Quite funny, really, isn’t it?”
She was speaking faster. It must be lack of sleep. After all, she had spent the night with a gun in her hand, it was hardly surprising if she was a little on edge.
Vikram looked at her straight on.
“Answer me something,” he said. “Do you honestly believe the border is right?”
“It doesn’t matter what I believe.”
“Humour me.”
“I’m helping you, Vikram, because you helped me. But I’m not getting into discussions about morality with you.” She conjured her best mocking smile. “That’s not my style. Now, moving on from Feodor’s section-”
She slipped off a bracelet and laid it further along the beads.
“Here we have what I call the Executors-the departmental heads. Always look at the second row. That’s where the Board of Four sit, the top Ministers. First Security-supervises the Home Guard and the ring-net and the civilian police. Then Finance-responsible for maintaining the credit system, including the anon cash chips given to westerners, seeing as you’re not properly registered. After all, you can only get so far on peng.”
“Which is another thing that could be sorted out if the border went.”
“Are you listening to me or not?”
“I’m listening. I was just wondering how long you’d last if you had to barter for your fancy jewellery, that’s all.”
If he was trying to rile her, he was succeeding. But she refused to show it, and replied in her sweetest voice. “Luckily for both of us, that’s unlikely ever to be an issue, is it? Getting back to the Executors-after Finance comes Resources, who looks after greenhouse production, parts manufacture, and the mining operations.” She had an uneasy flashback to Linus’s speech, cast it quickly aside. “And then there’s Health and Science-self-explanatory. But also responsible for the meteorological facility up there.” She pointed to the ceiling. “You’ll notice that these four Ministers always get the people in the front row to speak for them. They don’t like getting their hands dirty.”
Vikram raised his eyebrows, pointedly.
“What?”
