The Explorer King sought consultation from the bottom of his glass. ‘They’re getting serious about it, Justin.’
‘Who is?’
‘A good many of them. Our little friend Don Furz, for one. Her lover’s still in that chair, you know. Five years now.’
‘She’s only one person.’
‘There are others.’
‘Not many. Reprogram them onto the amenities issue again. It’s a hell of a lot cheaper to pay for a few additional services employees than it is to ship people to Serendipity and pay for regeneration. Tell them about the progress we’ve already made. There’s minor regeneration already available here on Jubal.’
‘We have machines only for things like eyes, fingers, wiping off scars. Doesn’t mean much if you’re missing a leg or an arm.’
Justin scowled. ‘The Explorer contract is not going to make a damned bit of difference, Hall! Go through the motions.’ The threat in his voice was patent. Tout them onto amenities and don’t worry about it.’
‘So it won’t make any difference,’ the King said. ‘Which means….’
‘Which means you should ask very few questions, Hall, and engage in no speculation at all.’
Justin’s voice was oily with malice, but the King chose not to hear it. ‘The Governor is leaving it perilously late.’
‘Moving against the Crystallites, you mean?’ Justin made a cynical smirk. The Governor was doing what Justin had told him to do. ‘He may want a major incident.’
‘He’ll get it. It’s inevitable.’
‘He may feel that he must have something irrefutable, unarguable. A notorious assassination, perhaps. Something to justify the forceful use of troops.’ Justin tilted the glass and drank the last drop of broundy, then touched the button that would summon one of the mute and deaf waiters who served the Executive Suite.
‘Presumably the CHASE group can’t start hearings until the Crystallites have been moved into the relocation camp?’
‘They’ll be moved in time, just before CHASE is ready to meet. The Governor’s stepson, Ymries Fedder, will be chairman.’ Justin was not quite happy about this, but there had been some necessary favor trading in the ivory halls of PEC. Governor Wuyllum Thonks had friends there, though Justin could not imagine why.
The King mused, ‘I presume the findings are already determined. The commission will find there is no reason to believe any sentience exists in the Presences….’
‘After which event,’ Justin said with a chilly and ruthless smile, ‘I think we would find we have more economical access to the interior than we’ve had heretofore.’
There was an appreciative silence. ‘The Tripsingers are going to be very upset,’ said the King. ‘To say nothing of the Explorers.’
‘Do you really care?’ Justin asked carelessly.
‘Each time I check the balance in my account on Serendipity, I care less.’ He made circles on the table with his glass. Hall felt broundy was an overrated drink. The effect was pleasant, but the taste left much to be desired. He preferred fruit-based liquors, imported ones. ‘The account comes to a very nice sum. For which I should continue to give my best efforts. And that brings me back to Donatella Furz.’
‘You’ve brought her up before. What are you suggesting, Randy? That she has uncovered some cache of secrets? That she has discovered The Password? That she has arrived at some fundamental truth that has eluded the rest of us?’ Justin shook his head and leaned back in his chair, accepting a full glass from a blank-faced servitor.
‘Oh, unload it, Justin. You understand well enough what I’m worried about. If she has learned something basic to do with language, with sentience, we’re slashed off. You, me, all of BDL.’
Harward lifted a nostril. Foolish man to think his little worries had not been anticipated by those both more intelligent and more powerful than he. Foolish little man. Still, he made his voice sympathetic as he said, ‘Has she said anything to indicate that is true?’
The King thought for a time, then shook his head reluctantly. ‘No. I have a man very close to her, and he says she’s got something, but she’s been chary. He has no proof of what it is, not yet.’
‘Well then?’ Harward allowed himself a tiny sneer.
‘She was wounded a few trips ago. A bad slash on her arm.’
‘Not an unheard-of occurrence for an Explorer. Broken crystals are like knives, I understand.’
‘I’d wager it was a knife. Somebody tried to get rid of her.’
‘Ah. And this makes you suspicious?’
‘Wouldn’t it you?’
‘It would make me ask you, Randy, why you take such an interest?’
Randy snarled. ‘The Enigma has been tried and tried again. She didn’t just go out there and solve it all by herself with her little music box.’
‘Erickson did.’
‘Not the Enigma!’
‘I mean that Erickson solved various passwords all by himself with his little music box. Why are you so determined that Furz did not?’
‘I know her. I know how her mind works. She isn’t capable of that. She’s bright, but she’s not Erickson.’
Which was pure jealousy talking, Justin thought. Chase Random Hall was one of the most politically astute Explorers on Jubal, but he was not one of the most talented. ‘Well, as far as that goes, the score may not work. I understand it isn’t even scheduled for testing. It may be a complete boggle.’
The King shook his head, a hungry snarl at the corner of his mouth, elegantly shaped brows curving upward in an expression of disagreement. ‘It’s no boggle. The Prior over at our Chapter House had a communiqué from the Master General of the citadel in Deepsoil Five. The thing works.’
‘So?’
‘Just now would be a bad time for Donatella to come up with something linguistic, wouldn’t it?’
‘A very bad time. If it got out. On the other hand, Hall, it would also be a bad time for anything awkward to happen to her. It’s important that the CHASE report not be subject to question later on. Don Furz is very high on the list of witnesses to be called. A questionable accident might arouse a good deal of suspicion, and we don’t want that.’
‘I just thought …’
‘Don’t.
