it and examined its mother-of-pearl face.
'We talked to Lars almost an hour and a half ago, lieutenant, but you're still in here wrangling with this
Exalted Forlore. When did you plan to send somebody to question the other?'
Amcathra's pale blue eyes narrowed, but instead of answering, he waited. Knowing that Demicans could sit in silence for hours, Taya tucked the watch back into her pocket.
'Decatur Forlore says he had nothing to do with the theft,' she reported, 'but he may know who set it up. He also said that it could be an Alzanan plot. He has a list of Alzanan spy names and code words that he found in Decatur Neuillan's personal possessions last year that he's willing to hand over in exchange for a deal.'
Cristof muttered under his breath.
'He'll tell the lictors everything he knows if the Council agrees to change his sentence from execution to exile,' she finished.
'The decatur believes he can blackmail the Council?' Amcathra sounded offended at the thought of such effrontery.
'I guess he does.'
'It's not an unreasonable demand.' Cristof turned to the lieutenant. 'Not if he can help us get the engine back in one piece.'
'You are not without bias in this matter, exalted.'
'That's true, but I also want to find the engine before they get it out of the city and damage it on the mountain trails. Put me on the case. Alister will work with me.'
'I will send a message to the Council, asking for its decision.'
'They could argue for days.'
'I will impress upon the decaturs the need for haste.'
'Janos!' Cristof leaned on the desk. 'We don't have time for that!'
'I can neither speed nor slow the march of the sun across the sky, exalted,' Amcathra observed. 'Nor will putting you on this case convince your brother to reveal his secrets. He will keep them until he is promised his life. Your presence on the case cannot affect that outcome.'
'But—'
'Come. You may accompany me while I search the engine room.'
Cristof growled.
'What about Taya? She's working as my assistant while she's grounded.'
'Is she?' The lieutenant gave them both a dispassionate look. 'Wait outside for me. And tell Mr. Wycomb that he will come with us.'
'Mr. Wycomb?' Taya looked puzzled.
'Lars,' Cristof explained, holding the door open for her.
Lictors guarded the door of the Science and Technology Building, ignoring the abuse Isobel and Emelie were heaping upon them. Dark-bearded Victor, on the other hand, was standing to one side, gazing down the building's steps and across campus. He saw the small group approach and raised a hand.
'What's going on?' Lars asked, bounding up the stairs.
'It would be a straight walk from here to the university gates if they carried the engine out in crates,' Victor observed. 'But that would take dozens of men. On the other hand, a wagon couldn't be brought to the bottom of the stairs without going around Froshcourse.'
Lars turned from him to Isobel. 'Iz? What's going on?'
'They won't let us in.'
Taya worked her way up the broad, shallow steps. Cristof paced himself, walking next to her. She appreciated his thoughtfulness; she knew he was impatient to reach the top.
Amcathra jogged up the steps past them.
'Is this the entire team?' he inquired of Lars. He looked at Victor. 'Ah, Mr. Kiernan. I thought I recognized your name.'
'Lieutenant,' Victor greeted the lictor, looking uneasy.
'This is Isobel Vidoc and Emelie Wilkes,' Lars said, introducing the two women. 'They're on the team, too.' He turned to Isobel. 'Where's Kyle?'
She shrugged.
'I stopped at his flat and he wasn't there.'
'Em?'
'I haven't seen him.' The smaller woman frowned, giving the lictors a nervous glance. 'What's going to happen now? Are we under arrest?'
'Vic? Any sign of Kyle?'
'The stripes already asked me about him.' Victor scratched his beard. 'I haven't seen him, either. That makes him suspect number one, doesn't it?'
'Kyle?' Lars recoiled. 'Kyle's no thief!'
'I know that. But the stripes don't. And until he shows up….'
The programmers looked at each other, crestfallen.
'You're all suspects,' Cristof informed them, as he and Taya reached the top of the stairs. 'Lieutenant, why not have them accompany us, too? They know the area and the engine. They might spot something we'd miss.'
'You will all walk behind me,' the Demican directed, then turned and passed through the doors.
Black-robed students gathered to watch as the group walked through the hall. Lictors had been stationed at the top of the stairs down to the AE labs, and a warning chain had been strung across the head of the stairs with a lictor's seal dangling from it. More students leaned over the banister of the stairs above, watching as the chain was unhooked and the small procession headed down to the basement. Taya could hear them gossiping about Alister and speculating that the lictors were collecting evidence from the labs.
'It seems strange that the University is still in session,' she murmured to take her mind off the increasing annoyance of negotiating stairs on crutches. 'I feel like the whole city should be in an uproar.'
'The Council may be shaken, but Ondinium remains untouched,' Amcathra said, overhearing her. 'It is the strength of the city. And the weakness.'
'Why do you think it's a weakness?'
'I feel sometimes there is nobody in Ondinium who cannot be replaced. We are like the gears in one of Exalted Forlore's clocks. That is a strength, because the clock will keep running even after every gear inside it has been replaced. But it is a weakness because it is impossible to respect a man when one thinks of him as nothing more than a replaceable part. ‘We must have a dedicate here. Go, send a lictor there.’ A man's name and spirit become unimportant.'
'Maybe that's why terrorists throw bombs,' Taya suggested. 'So people will remember their names.'
'Yes, that is why terrorists throw bombs,' Amcathra agreed. 'They have not been taught to respect life. How can a man learn to respect life in a city of clockwork castes?'
'You're a philosopher, lieutenant.' Taya reached the bottom of the stairs and leaned against a wall, rubbing her shoulders. 'But a grim one.'
'I do not understand how a philosopher in this city could be anything but grim.' Amcathra paused in the hallway until the rest of the group joined them.
''The hawk sees the meadows and streams that lie beyond this dark forest,'' Taya quoted, in Demican.
''Let the sun shine upon the mountains; their peaks remain encased in ice, and my heart, also,'' Amcathra countered in the same language.
'Good one,' Taya said with appreciation, reverting to Ondinium. 'You win. I haven't read enough Demican poetry to compete. I just liked that line about the hawk.'
'Perhaps an icarus, whose eyes are fixed upon the horizon, cannot be other than optimistic. Those of us
