Crane turned back to the mirror and washed the dried foam from his beard. 'Fifty-six.'
'Thank you. So you've been a spy for a long time, and you're likely to be of high rank. Besides you're a doctor, and that in itself would make you important to your city's government. They wouldn't just send you off to Blood's by yourself. Hyacinth's Vironese. I know that because I've spoken with someone who knew her when she was younger. But my driver is from your own city, or so I would guess. Was he your second in command?'
'That's right.' Crane was lathering his beard for the second time, plying the big boar's-hair brush with sweeping strokes.
'Blood told Musk to have a driver bring a floater around for me; but you had anticipated that, and when you left us you told your second in command to be ready. You'd brought me the azoth, of course, and there was a chance that whoever drove me might see it.'
'You're right.' Crane scraped a little hair from one cheek. 'I also wanted him to get a look at you and become acquainted. I thought it might be useful later. I could say now that it has been.'
'I suppose I ought to be flattered.' Silk leaned out of the window, peering upward. 'The important point, I'd say, is that in order to act as he did-I mean today-your second in command must have known not only that you had been captured, but that you had been taken to the lake. It would even appear that he knew precisely where the Ayuntamiento's underwater boat was when we were swept out of it, since he had your fishing boat so accurately positioned that he and the fishermen were able to pick you up as soon as you came to the surface. You can't have gotten out of the underwater boat much before I did; nor can you have reached the surface much faster. I wasn't in the water very long, yet you were already in the boat when I was rescued, and there had been time for your second in command to pass you some money. He would have been prepared for that, because he would've known that your possessions had been taken from you. Even if he was the person who brought your medical bag to Lemur-'
'He wasn't. He'd left Blood's earlier. In a way that was too bad. He might've been able to slip something useful past them.'
'I was about to say that even if he had learned that you were at the lake because he brought your bag, or overheard the order that another driver do it, he had to have had some further means of locating you. I've been trying to imagine what that means might be, and the only things. I can think of are that he can send forth his spirit like Mucor, or that you're carrying a very small glass, or at least some device of that kind. You promised to answer my questions. Will you tell me whether I'm correct, and how they failed to find it?'
'Because it's in here.' Crane tapped his chest. 'Eight years ago I had bypass surgery. We took the opportunity to implant a gadget that sends a half-second signal every two minutes. It tells anyone who's listening how my heart's doing, and the direction of the signal lets them find me. So if you're ever in need of rescue again, just kill me.'
He grinned. 'While I'm still among the living, can I ask why you're so interested in that window?'
'I've been wondering whether we could get out of here if we had to-if the Guard began breaking down the door, for example. I could re-ach the edge of the roof and pult myself up, I believe.'
'I couldn't. When I was your age I might have.' Crane went back to his shaving.
'Can't you fly?'
Crane chuckled. 'I wish I could.' 'But that's what you reported to the prince-president, isn't it? That shape Lemur showed us? How fliers fly?'
'You're wrong there. I didn't.'
Silk turned away from the window. 'A secret with so much military value? Why not?'
'I wish I could tell you, I really do. But I can't. It wasn't included in our agreement. I hope you realize that. I swore I'd tell you everything you wanted to know about my organization and our operation. I can tell you what was in my report. My report was a part of the operation, I admit.'
'Go on.'
'But it didn't go to the prince-president of Palustria. Did you really think I'd tell that maniac Lemur the truth? You did, I know. But I'm not you.'
'I hope you're not about to say that you're not a spy at all, Doctor.'
'No, I'm a spy all right. What do you think of this? Or should I shave it all off?'
'I'd remove it all.'
'I was afraid you were going to say that.' Reluctantly, Crane pared away another patch of beard. 'Aren't you going to ask who I spy for? It's Trivigaunte.'
'The women?'
Crane chuckled again. 'In Trivigaunte they'd say, 'The men?' Viron's dominated by men, like most other cities. Do you think the Ayuntamiento's got no female spies? It's got all it wants, I guarantee you.'
'Naturally our women are loyal.'
'Admirable.' Crane turned to face Silk, gesturing with his razor. 'So are men in Trivigaunte. We're not slaves. If anything we're better off than your women are-here.'
'Is this the truth?'
'Absolutely. The truth, and nothing over.'
'Then tell me what was in your report.'
'I will,' Crane wiped his razor. 'It was pretty short. You saw me write it so you know that already, or you ought to. I reported that the Ayuntamiento was onto me, that I'd been picked up and had killed Councillor Lemur while making my escape. That they'd brought down a flier but lost the PM in the lake. That I'd found their headquarters, a boat in Lake Limna that sails under the water. I claimed the reward our Rani's offered for that.'
Grinning more broadly than ever, Crane continued, 'And I'll get it, too. When I go back to Trivigaunte I'll be a rich man. But I said I wasn't going to leave yet because I thought there was a good chance that Silk might unseat the Ayuntamiento. I'd rescued him from them, he had reason to be grateful to me, and I thought a change in government here was worth any risk.'
'I am grateful to you,' Silk said. 'Very much so, as I've told you already. Was that all?'
Crane nodded. 'That's the lot, pretty much exactly as I wrote it down. Now I want you to explain to me how you knew Hyacinth was working for me. Did she say so?'
'No. I looked at the engraving on this needler.' Silk look it from his pocket. 'It has hyacinths all over it, but here on the top there's a tall bird-a heron, I thought- standing in a pool; when I realized that it could be a crane instead of a heron, I knew you must have had it engraved for her.' He opened the breech. 'I hope that the water hasn't ruined it.'
'Let it dry out before you try to shoot. Oil it first, and it should be all right. But the fact that I presented Hy with a fancy needler can't have been the only thing that tipped you off. Any old fool with a crush on a beautiful woman might have given her something like that.'
'That's true, of course; but she kept the azoth in the same drawer. Do you still have it, by the way?'
Crane nodded.
'So it seemed likely that it had been given her by the same person, since she wouldn't want you to see it if you hadn't given it to her. An azoth's worth several thousand cards; thus if you'd given her one, you were clearly more than you seemed. Furthermore, you passed it to me while you were examining me in Blood's presence. I didn't believe the man you were pretending to be would have dared to do that.'
Crane chuckled again. 'You're so shrewd, I'm beginning to doubt your innocence. Sure you're not of my trade?'
'You're confusing innocence with ignorance, though I'm ignorant in many ways as well. Innocence is something one chooses, and something one chooses for the same reason one chooses any other thing-because it seems best.'
'I'll have to think about that. Anyhow, you're wrong about me giving Hy the azoth. Somebody'd searched my room a couple of days before. They didn't find it, but I asked Hy to keep it for me to be on the safe side.' 'When you put it in my waistband-' 'I said that there was a goddess up there who liked you, sure. She brought it to me and said we had to figure out a way of getting it to you, because she thought Blood was going to have Musk kill you. When she came in she thought she'd find me patching you up, but I'd finished with you and sent you in to Blood. Musk came to get me while we were talking it over, so I tipped Hy a wink and took the azoth with me, figuring I'd have a chance to slip it to you.'
