Cyteen

"Son, " Ya

"I'm fine, " he said, two syllables, carefully managed, damn near stammered.

"I raised hell when I heard, " Ya

"Yes, ser. "

"Petros put that as a mandate on your charts. They better have. I'll tell you this, they didrecord it, not on the Security recorders, but it exists. You can get it if you need it. That's Giraud's promise, son. They're sane over there this morning. "

He stared at Ya

"Is this another voice-stress?" he asked Ya

The line between Ya

He drew easier breaths, told himself it was still a trap, but at least the business assumed some definable shape, a calamity postponed to the indefinable future.

"Do you have any word, " he asked Ya

"I called him last night. He said he was all right, he was concerned for you. You know how it is, there's so damned much we can't do on the phone. I told him you were fine; I'd check on you; I'd call him again today. "

"Tell him I'm all right. " He found himself with a deathgrip on the right chair arm, his fingers locked till they ached. He let go, trying to relax. "Thanks. Thanks for checking on him. "

Ya

He did not answer that.

"Listen to me, son. I'll put up with a lot, but I know something about how you work, and I knew damn well you hadn't had anything to do with the kid, it was Giraud's damn bloody insistence on ru

"Yes, ser, " he said after a moment, because he had to say something. The most dangerous thing in the world was to start trusting Ya

"Go on. Take a break. Go. Get out of here. "

"Yes, ser. " He levered himself up out of the chair, he got himself out the door past Marge without even looking at her, and walked the hall in a land of numb terror that somewhere Security was involved in this, that in the way they had of getting him off his guard and then hitting him hardest, he might find something had happened to Grant—it was the most immediate thing he could think of, and the worst.

But Grant was there, Grant was in the door waiting for him and worried.

"Ya

Breaking schedule, being anywhere out of the ordinary, could win them both another session with Giraud. Nothing was safe. Anything could be invaded. It was the kind of terror a deep probe left. He ought to be on trank. Hell if he wanted it.

He told Grant what Ya

"You trust it?" he asked Grant. Desperately, the way he had taken Grant's word for what was real and what was not. He was terrified Grant would fail him finally, and tell him yes, believe them, trust everything. It was what it sounded like, from the one point of sanity he had.

"No, " Grant said, with a little lift of his brows. "No more than yesterday. But I think Ya