He replied, ‘Well, you know that Geroan works for Justin. I think you can assume that the Crystallites also work for Justin. Probably they always have.’
‘The Crystallites!’
‘I imagine Harward Justin had the commission arranged for even before the Jut massacre,’ he said. ‘The massacre was simply the opening shot in the BDL war, the dramatic “incident” he needed to reopen the sentience question.’
‘He’s a monster! All those people….’
‘Do you think Justin cares? After what you told me about him?’
‘Is he the one at the top?’
‘He’s at the top on Jubal, that’s certain.’ And at the top of my particular list, he thought. ‘Which doesn’t help us at the moment.’ He nodded at Jamieson and Clarin. ‘You two did a good job. Don’t look so downcast.’
‘I don’t know what to do next,’ Clarin sighed, then sighed again, patting a pocket, complaining tearfully like a child. ‘And I lost my mouse.’
She looked up at Tasmin, wishing in that instant she could make him respond as Celcy had evidently done. She could use a little comforting, a little protection.
He started to extend his hand toward her, then stopped himself, accusing himself, accusing Donatella. He couldn’t hug Clarin now, not after what Don had said. The whole thing was ridiculous. He had no place in his life for Clarin, not now, not when a world hung in the balance.
Clarin turned away, confused by the expression on his face, a rejection that she had done nothing to provoke. She blinked back tears and walked away from them, barely noticing the ironic twist of Donatella’s lips. Jamieson came after her, standing beside her as she stared back down the valley, the way they had come.
‘You need some sleep, lady.’
She did not see the yearning on his face. She responded only to his words. ‘Amen, Reb. Sleep. And two or three other little things I can think of.’
From behind them, Tasmin’s voice came in its usual matter-of-fact intonation, as though there was no whirlpool of feelings boiling among them, as though there had been no crisis, no imminent threat, no assassins after them, no map of disaster, no anything that mattered at all. ‘Get a little rest, Clarin, Jamieson. There won’t be any for the next few days. Don and I have picked a route out of this valley. With what you’ve told us, we can’t waste any time. We’ll have to head straight for the Enigma.’
14
The office of the Grand Master in the tower of the citadel at Splash One was a disaster area – or so Thyle Vowe thought, looking it over.
‘Can’t we throw some of this stuff away?’ he asked plaintively from among the litter of cube copy, handwritten notes, and files of untidy correspondence.
Gereny Vox looked up from the box she was packing. ‘If you’re not interested in having documents to base a case on later, sure. We could just burn the place down and get rid of it all.’
‘It’s all in the computers anyhow,’ he said doubtfully, not really believing it.
‘You sure? You sure Justin doesn’t have a mouse here in the citadel somewhere, wiping away anythin’ that Justin wouldn’t want to come out later on? Listen, Thyle! If I can find Crystallites workin’ in my own stables, you can find a mouse or two chirpin’ away here in the citadel. Believe me. Anyhow, I’m almost through.’
‘Where did you and Jem decide to put the stuff?’
‘We found an empty brou warehouse near the docks in Tallawag. It’s far enough north of Splash One not to get interfered with, and it’s close enough we can hide out there a while if we need to.’
‘An empty warehouse? That’d be scarce as red meat! How’d you find one of those?’
‘Well, somebody favorable to our side of things boggled a few records is what happened. So far as BDL’s facility files’re concerned, the place is packed with obsolete equipment. So far as the equipment inventory files’re concerned, it’s full of dried brou. So far as the brou shipment schedule files’re concerned, it was emptied last flight out. The auditors might catch up to it in a year or two, but by then it shouldn’t matter. Right now it’s got my mule breedin’ files and Jem’s agridiv files, and anythin’ else he or Rheme Gentry thinks is important enough to hold onto – includin’ at least six copies of all the evidence Rheme’s come up with in the Governor’s office – along with all the stun rifles we could steal from the armory and all the charge cubes we could steal from troop supply. There’s some mighty corruptible folks out there, Thyle. Makes you real sad, seein’ what the world’s come to.’
‘You’re sly, Gereny,’ he said admiringly. ‘That’s what you are. You and Jem are a pair. And you takin’ pay from BDL, too.’
‘Pair of old mules is what we are,’ she said comfortably. ‘Just because BDL fills our feed trough doesn’t mean we won’t kick ’em if they need it. We may not be able to prove sentience, which is what I bet Don’s up to, but we’ll sure as hell prove corruption. You heard anything about Don yet?’
‘Just enough to worry me quite a bit.’
‘That girl of yours get any information back to you?’
‘Not a word. No, I sent a couple of ’Singers up Redfang way the day after we sent Tasmin Ferrence. My ’Singers found bodies, more of ’em than there should have been, but none of ’em people we were worried about. They found tracks, too, headed back into the range. Four sets. I figure that means Don Furz is in good company.’
‘Includin’ Renna.’
‘I do worry some about her,’ he confessed.
‘Well, why’d you send your own daughter off on a fool trip like that?’
‘Because she was with Tasmin and his other acolyte, and because accordin’ to you there were only
