Protector: Foreigner #14 (19 page)

“That’s too bad.” Yolanda had served as paidhi-aiji, translating directly for Tabini, during the time he, and Jase, had been away on the ship, settling the Reunion mess. She’d been there—when the coup came.

The world she’d tended had blown up. At least the atevi side of it had, and stayed in chaos for most of two years, until the ship had gotten back from its mission and Tabini had retaken Shejidan. “You think she blamed herself for what happened?”

“She wasn’t you. She knew that much. It’s my understanding that she made some mistakes.”

The world she was trying to deal with had blown up. She’d failed, while Jase had been coopted into a captaincy, on a mission that succeeded brilliantly. So Yolanda was retreating into old records, which didn’t have ticking bombs in them. Another paidhi could somewhat figure that reaction. His own predecessor had come back from the mainland completely shut down, close-jawed. A very unhappy and strange man.

“Suppose
I
could talk with her?”

“Maybe,” Jase said. And again: “Maybe.”

He put it on the agenda. When he found a way. Granted the world didn’t explode again, because of three human kids.

“So . . . who
does
handle the protocol explanation?” he asked.

“You know the twists and turns. I’m a student.
You
do it. I’m interested in not offending the other end of this bench.”

Truth—Ilisidi had found humans an unexpectedly interesting experience, and
enjoyed
her position among ship-humans. Tatiseigi was a man
atevi
rated as difficult and volatile, a proud old conservative with no good opinion of human-induced changes in the world. . . . But now the old man seemed to be undergoing a sudden and strange transformation in his attitudes—inviting the human paidhi to dinner. Having his collection televised. Inviting human
children
under his roof and accepting Jase’s appearance with two armored, other-worldly bodyguards, all without a visible flicker of dismay.

Something had changed in the old man’s attitude. Bren didn’t know whether it was Ilisidi’s doing, through persuasion, or the events of last spring, when Tatiseigi’s beloved Tirnamardi had taken shellfire in Tabini’s cause, and the people in villages and towns had turned out cheering Tabini’s return and all of them that had helped bring him back, all the way to Shejidan. That had been an event. Tatiseigi had never been exposed to popularity.

Tatiseigi had generously lent Bren his apartment in the Bujavid during Tirnamardi’s repairs—until Tabini could find an excuse to throw a last nest of interlopers out of Bren’s own residence. And certainly Tatiseigi had been overjoyed to get Ilisidi back in the world—was happy beyond measure to have Cajeiri back safely—and he was delighted this year to know his niece Damiri was going to produce another baby.

A daughter that wouldn’t inherit the aishidi’tat. Cajeiri would.

But there was Tirnamardi. And Tatiseigi, heirless, had become downright
reckless
in his support of the dowager’s adventurism in the Marid, in Cajeiri’s, regarding his shipboard associates—

One saw a glimmering of logic in it all. The old man had a sudden wealth of prospects.

“Tatiseigi seems quite happy,” he said, “happy to have Ilisidi home safe, happy to have the aiji back, happy with the way things are going. The one thorn in his side got pitched out of the aiji’s court with no likelihood of coming back any time soon.”

“The way things are going? Seems to me you’ve still got some troubles rattling about the continent.”

The sense of ease grew just a little less. There were things he probably needed to explain to Jase. But they could wait.

“We have some serious ones,” he said. “But we’ve hardened the security considerably. Very considerably. Kaplan and Polano—” He shifted a glance over to the seats across the car. “I hope they get to enjoy their visit. I hope they won’t need to use that gear. Actually—I hope this visit leads to others. Maybe we can arrange that fishing trip.”

“I’d enjoy that,” Jase said. “I’d really enjoy that. You keep the world quiet. I’ll work on calming down the station.”

“We’ll get through this mess. Maybe the
next
birthday.” A dark figure approached. Bren looked up, finding Algini in front of him. “Gini-ji?”

Algini squatted beside the bench seat. “There
is
a small security concern, Bren-ji. We have moved in some additional Taibeni assets, with the cooperation of Lord Tatiseigi’s aishid. He may not be entirely pleased, but we prefer to be safe.”

Damn. “Ajuri?” Bren asked. No need to translate for Jase. Jase could understand it.

Algini said: “There is a movement of Ajuri Guild forces toward their perimeter. Lord Komaji is with them. We have not yet warned Lord Tatiseigi. We see no reason, at present, to concern him. We are working with his aishid.” Tatiseigi’s bodyguards were midway down the aisle, with, he saw, Banichi and Jago. “We have prepared for this eventuality, nandi. We are simply putting contingency plans into operation. Everything is prearranged, and the lord’s aishid is in full agreement. They will talk to him.”

Ajuri making a move toward Atageini territory put Ajuri Guild, give or take the small territories of two very small affiliated clans, right adjacent to Atageini territory.

“So our cover is not holding,” he said to Algini.

“Possibly,” Algini said. “Or possibly the move has relevance to Lord Tatiseigi’s exhibit in Shejidan. It may be designed to get Lord Tatiseigi’s attention. Lord Komaji remains technically within his associational territory and within his rights. It is possible this is wholly designed to annoy Lord Tatiseigi and embarrass him while he has public attention. But Komaji is not serving himself well by this move, if that is the case. He may have no idea that the dowager and the heir are in the path of his actions. That is one interpretation. Of course there is the chance he does know and is making a deliberate move to interfere.”

“Is there danger in continuing this trip, Gini-ji? Should we reassess it?”

“In my estimate,” Algini said, “the risk is much greater in going back to Shejidan, and moving assets to cover us there. We have people and equipment positioned to protect us in Tirnamardi. If we rearrange things, our positions may become evident, and it might expose Lord Komaji’s move in such a way as to bring far more tension to this situation.”

“I hate to nudge the Kadagidi, either.”

“If they should make any gesture of hostility toward the Atageini while we are there, it would be a serious mistake on their part. They have no motive to be that foolish—granted no change in circumstances. I told you once about the Kadagidi lord’s aishid. About the Guild senior.”

“Haikuti.” There was no forgetting that. High-level, dangerous, and possibly a holdover from Murini’s regime, serving the current lord, Aseida.

“Aseida is taking his advice from Haikuti, and Haikuti cannot benefit from making a move toward Tirnamardi. With the aiji’s son and grandmother at issue, Tabini-aiji would have absolute justification to act without Filing. Once they do find out the nature of Lord Tatiseigi’s guests, they should worry that we are setting up exactly such a situation.”

He felt a chill. Algini rarely looked anyone straight in the eyes. Algini didn’t, at the moment, head down, as he kept the conversation very, very low. And Algini just didn’t blurt out extraneous information. He had to ask. “Would Haikuti be
right
?”

“Say that we have already hardened the defenses at Tirnamardi,” Algini said. “And are about to assume an outward posture of alert, which should warn the Kadagidi that we are
completely
serious, and that the openness of Tirnamardi to their threat is ended. More, that preparedness will not go away when we do.
We
are not attempting to provoke a situation with either clan, Bren-ji.” A slight hesitation, a shift of the eyes, gesturing toward Ilisidi. “One does not, however,
know
that that statement extends to all of us.”

Cenedi? More, the dowager.

Did he mean—?

Damn.
The cold feeling hadn’t gone away. It grew, with a fast mental sort through prior discussions of the Kadagidi, and Ajuri, and a very prime target they were going to deal with one of these days. Eliminating Murini had just been clipping the head off a poisonous weed. The roots remained—buried deeply, they believed, in the Kadagidi.

And they had, on this train, the highest-value targets in current politics, except Tabini himself.

Ilisidi was capable of a dice-roll like that. She was
entirely
capable, if the stakes were high enough.

“One understands,” he said, and as Algini got up and went back to Tano, down the aisle:

“Jase, did you follow that?”

“Most of it,” Jase said, and then, after a deep breath, and very quietly: “Geigi and I had a conversation.”

Geigi. Whose aishid had had a
personal
briefing before he went back to space.

“What did Geigi tell you?”

“I know the Kadagidi, from my own experience. I know that relationship. I know there’s some trouble in the aiji’s household. I know about the grandfather. And I know there’s a problem inside the Guild that’s ongoing, and that it’s a matter of great concern. Geigi asked me—personally—to advise the captains this is going on.”

Geigi would not have done that uninstructed. There were two people who could give Geigi that kind of instruction. “What did they say about it?”

“The conclusion was that you could handle it. Go ahead with the visit. Bring my own protection. They know your bodyguards prioritize.”

“I’m glad of their confidence, but—”

“In their view, there’s a risk if this isn’t dealt with. In their view, Tabini, and you, and the dowager, and the boy—are irreplaceable. I agree with that.”

He
worked
with risks. He dealt with cold equations day in, day out, and the concept that an eight-year-old boy could be a target was a given.

But there were bits and pieces of this he began to think were missing.

“You could have postponed this and let us handle it.”

“We had an invitation,” Jase said. “An excuse to have a look down here. To talk, as we’re doing. Tabini got caught by surprise once. Not twice, we think. But we don’t intend to end up with another situation as bad as Murini in charge down here.”

“You
had
an invitation. I’ve asked you down here. Fishing, I said. If you think it’s all going to hell down here, you could have kept the kids and just sent us reinforcements!”

“We have our reasons, Bren. Internal reasons, which really don’t affect the situation Algini was talking about. The kids are here because it suits our purposes. I’m here to show the Reunioners we care about those kids, enough to put one of the four captains at risk . . . should there be a risk.” A tilt of Jase’s head. “Seriously, Bren, I’m here to assess the situation.
We
have communications methods that don’t need to go through Mogari-nai. If you really need Geigi to drop one of his relay stations onto the Kadagidi’s doorstep, he’s prepared to do it.”

And scare hell out of the general population. My God. “That’s a joke.”

A faint smile. “Of course it’s a joke. But not the fact we’re serious about your survival. If we sent a force down here—Geigi didn’t have to tell me it would upset things. Upset a lot of people. Kids, however. Not so threatening. A ship-captain? Of course I have a bodyguard.”

It made a sort of sense. It apparently made sense enough that even Tatiseigi hadn’t been that upset.

It didn’t reassure him, however, about the underlying situation.

“I don’t know if you caught all of what Algini just advised me. He hints that
she
may be pulling the strings on this whole business. If that’s true—she’s using this the same way you are. She’s positioning assets. She won’t
want
to upset the boy’s birthday. But she’s preparing something. If it can stay quiet, we get through this and get all the kids back where they belong with no problem. If it doesn’t—you understand this matter is reaching inside the Guild itself.”

“I’m right with you.”

The hindbrain was working, assembling pieces.
Now
he began to get a grasp of
why
Tatiseigi had so amazingly volunteered to take in a flock of human children. Tatiseigi probably didn’t know exactly why he’d been asked to fling himself into the breach—Ilisidi’s
last
recourse to him had entailed the whole last year repairing Tirnamardi—but he’d bet anything that the old man had gotten a flattering, urgent, and desperate appeal from Ilisidi to do it for Cajeiri, on whom Tatiseigi doted above all things.

“All right,” he said. “These kids. Geigi said there were problems.”

“I have a dossier on each of them.”

He wasn’t entirely surprised. “So.”

“Basically good kids,” Jase said, shot a look to the rear of the car, then said. “Irene’s our problem. Not the kid. Her mother. She was very upset about Irene’s association with Cajeiri. I won’t say what she said, but it got to the net. Then the Reunioners figured out who Cajeiri was. That changed things. Fast. Some of the people we trust least have become good friends of this woman. When the invitation came, Irene’s mother said yes with not one question about the conditions, the safety, anything. The kid was scared of the trip. Scared of the landing. Scared of her mother is my guess.
Artur’s
parents asked every question they could think of. Sabin talked to them, and they were still reluctant, but the boy wanted it. This is the boy that wrote a letter every week. Of course the letters weren’t getting through. But he said he was always sure Cajeiri would answer when he could.”

“And Gene?”

Jase let go a slow breath. “Gene—Gene’s mother’s another story. Gene got swept up by security. Guess where? The atevi section. Turned out he’d been missing three days prior and his mother hadn’t reported it. When the invitation came, he reported himself to admin, real scared that that detention record was going to stop him. A kid, solo, going up into admin. His mother had to sign. That’s
all
she did. The other parents turned up to see their kids board. If you want my guess, Gene had four, five people for one year of his life who actually cared where he was. We reached port. The group broke up. That was it. He’s waited for this. Probably more than any of them.”