The girl cadet raised an eyebrow. “Should we just ask them?” Clearly she did not mean the question seriously. Tal stepped out of the lift, and his cadets emerged behind him. The girl said softly, “If you weren’t a gathrid, I would have overruled you for your own good. I hope you know what you’re doing.”
Yes. One did hope that. He went to the desk, motioning with a slight inclination of the head for them to fan out inconspicuously through the room. They did so. He thought briefly that they did seem very good at picking up his instructions with almost no explanation; perhaps there was something to the apparent mysticism surrounding the tarethi-din relationship after all. He also noted that somehow each Graykey ended up rather near an EP. He approved.
He listened to the admins behind the desk as they talked. They were being brought new prisoners and notified of the release of old ones. One prisoner was being reclassified with a higher security rating. The admins handling the processing checked link-screens behind the desk as they spoke, but from what they said it was clear that they were familiar with most prisoner movements already.
Good. They were efficient. He hadn’t hoped for that. He glanced around for the female cadet, met her eyes, and motioned for her to come over. Then Tal approached an admin at the end of the desk who was writing on a long piece of paper; there was no line waiting to speak to him.
“Excuse me,” said Tal.
The man looked up. He had circles under his eyes that looked as though they’d been there since birth. He said, ‘The lines are over there.”
“This is a special matter. Confidential.”
“The lines are still over th—”
“It concerns you personally.”
He was surprised into giving Tal his full attention; Tal had the impression it was not something he regularly did for anybody.
“Yes?”
Tal pulled a sheaf of papers from his inside jacket pocket. “See these papers?”
“Yes …”
He lifted a comer of them. “See the Keith pistol inside here? It’s pointing at your head.”
The man froze. Tal said, “My companion here does not have his hands inside his jacket because they’re cold. He’s also armed.”
The man said, “Listen to me. This is impossible. You can’t get out of here. You’re both very young—”
“Shut up. Don’t babble and don’t look upset, or we will have to shoot you. All right?”
“All right.” The man was pale now, and one hand shook.
“And I’m glad to see you haven’t set off any alarms yet, because if you make one move of any kind—”
“No! I mean, I’m not.” His foot had, in fact, been moving, but it stopped.
“We want you to locate a prisoner for us. Keylinn Gray, an Outsider tech from the Diamond—entered within the last few days. Push any buttons with you?”
“I’d have to consult my records—”
He made a move toward the link, and the cadet said, “Wait.” She’d lowered her voice, but it still sounded female. The admin didn’t look surprised, though—no doubt he put it down to youth and nerves. “He’s lying,” said the cadet.
Tal glanced at her. She seemed very sure. He said to the man, “You don’t need to consult your records, do you.” It was a statement.
“I do! You don’t know how many people come through here—”
“It’s a lie.” Her voice was firm. “He knows about this prisoner. May I shoot him, sir? We can try someone else.”
“All right! She’s been in the POW suite, but she’s not there now. An order came through an hour ago to take her to a questioning room by the Lord Cardinal’s offices.”
Tal had no idea at all whether this was a lie. He looked at his cadet and she nodded, satisfied. “It’s true.”
Tal said to the admin, “Where are the Lord Cardinal’s offices?”
“Level five. First left.”
He seemed eager to see them go. “You’ll show us,” said Tal.
“I can’t leave,” he said.
“You’ll have to,” said Tal. “Look around the room. Do you see some young admins in brown whom you don’t recognize? They’re all armed, too. They won’t hesitate about killing you, your friends, and anyone else in the room. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
He saw the man’s eyes move as he looked around the room. Tal turned his head slightly and ran a glance over the other Graykey; all were looking this way. All had interested, funny smiles that could only be called feral. Like a circle of wolves moving in on their prey. He hadn’t told them to do that, but they seemed to slide almost into a gestalt—a spooky lot, the Graykey. He looked back to see the effect on their admin.
The man’s eyes grew larger and more despairing. He tried to talk, and stopped, knowing it was hopeless. The lines of his face looked as though they might collapse at any time into shapeless dough … the fear reactions of humans were so physically based. Tal very rarely felt fear, certainly not as this ravening thing the humans did, though his survival drive was imperative. Interesting. Worth later thought. He said, “Now, please. Get up and walk to the door as though you were on business. Remember that these weapons are still pointed at you, and if anything goes wrong, you’ll be the first to die.”
Clearly he was in no danger of forgetting that. The cadet said, more gently, “Nothing will happen to you if you cooperate. We’re not interested in you at all; why should we want to hurt you?”
This was pointless, thought Tal. Why try to reassure him? Anything they said could be a lie. And yet the quiet words seemed to help the man to rise and walk toward the exit. The other four Graykey in the room glanced discreetly toward them; the girl motioned with her hand and they made their way casually to the lift bank.
The seven of them crowded into the lift, and as it rose, the girl hummed a short line of music
