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An axe code was rough, emotionally rough, physiologically rough on an azi. And without operators like AK‑36 to manage it, the military couldn’t do that anymore, and when AK‑36 was sent home, he certainly couldn’t do it for himself, could he?
So he’d have held the last secrets the military hadn’t erased. And he’d have waited, waited four years for somebody to do it for him. Giraud didn’t even try to do it–for several years of a miserable limbo, and finally did, maybe with help from Prang.
Nice safe azi after that. So Giraud must have thought. An alpha, recovered from the military, and so helpful that Giraud had him doing things he’d used to do, skilled things. She’d bet on it.
Or maybe Prang hadn’t been in on the actual operation…because of Giraud’s own paranoia. She wouldn’t be allowed that much window into security psychsets.
Did the creation of the B‑28’s fit into Kyle AK’s term of service? One of them had arrived on the first Ari’s staff, young, good‑looking–the first Ari liked good‑looking young men, no fault, as her successor saw it.
And that one, Regis, had arrived, oh, some two decades on. So had the one in what was, at the time, Giraud’s office, in ReseuneSec. And others, elsewhere.
Not Giraud’s doing. Kyle’s. Reporting to him, just conceivably; or, in the case of those outside Reseune, reporting to anybody who had the key.
Oh, Uncle. You created me a hell of a mess. Was AK‑36 actually doing all the work with alphas that I forever was a little surprised you could really do?
And when the B‑28 went into your own staff and the other into Ari’s, was it AK‑36 who was ru
Spying on Ari. Spying on your own staff. On people outside Reseune, out at Beta, up on Alpha Station. That would be like you. And you left ReseuneSec, and left the B‑28, and AK‑36 was still ru
Maybe for the same reason, you let AK‑36 go with Hicks every time he went to Novgorod, every time he visited. Defense, just the silent presence, your nice, trustable azi who remembered things like a human recorder.
And of course he was all yours, all the time, all yours.
Did you run the axe code without Prang’s help? Maybe you did. And it didn’t damned well work, Uncle, and you didn’t spot it–because you weren’t that good and you shouldn’t have been operating like that on an alpha. Terrible thing, vanity. Your mother wanted to make you a genius. Maybe it still stung–that you weren’t all that good, never mind the license.
Who killed my predecessor? You did. You didn’t ever plan it. Yon didn’t want it to happen. You really loved her. But it didn’t take Abban going to Novgorod to have his head restructured. You could have been as careful as you liked where Abban was when you were visiting Defense–but you weren’t so careful where AK‑36 was, or what he was doing at home, were you?
Defense planted Kyle on you. A Trojan horse. An axe code that didn’t work, possibly because they’d messed with it, or possibly because they’d just forged the personal manual…and everything in it was right except that code. Is it possible–is it remotely possible you didn’t crosscheck that manual with the original set, or look up that axe code in archive? That would have been unconscionably careless, Uncle. Maybe you did everything right, and somewhere in the military system they messed with that code and somehow kept him sane.
With you, he had total office access, access to Abban’s personal manual, probably Seely’s, too, since I’ll bet you were supervising Seely; definitely to as much kat as he needed, on any day of the week. Abban might have made one mistake in his life, just one mistake, and taken a cup of coffee in the lunchroom. Easy at certain hours to have a little seclusion–and if AK‑36 was really good, he wouldn’t have, conflicted Abban at all, would he, or taken too long to do the job? Nothing you could spot. Just one hell of a deep initial dose, reassurance, need to contact him again regarding a problem. Then verbal work. Everything couched in benefitting Giraud. Doing good. Giraud being secretly threatened by spies inside the office… Abban could help. Abban could protect him. Abban could get Seely’s manual. They could go on protecting Giraud if they just worked together.
Who else, besides you and Denys, could operate Base Two with authority? Abban. Abban could tiptoe through System with not a trace left. Azi could he created. Setted. Records forged without a trace. Any of those things. When Hicks took over, and when Hicks went with Giraud to Novgorod, AK‑36 went with Hicks–and ultimately got more specific instructions, didn’t he?
AK‑36’s still in Hicks’s office, the whole reason Hicks has a provisional alpha certificate. AK‑36 is 122 years old.
Kinder if we killed him. A hundred and twenty‑two is old to be given an axe code. Real old. And especially if the military messed with it and put a block in that we’ll have to break.
If we give it, he could die on the table. Then we lose all he might know.
It won’t be pretty, what needs to be done. We can try to be kind.
But we have to move on it, don’t we?
God, all that, all that, because the first Ari pissed off Defense…was that it? She’d gotten power enough to start calling the shots, not just with azi–with a lot of the things where Reseune cooperated with Defense. The terraforming of Cyteen she got voted down. The Eversnow business, that Ya
Ari was powerful in Council, and she d gotten Trade and Information on her side, and there was no real way Citizens was going to set up a Bloc with Defense: they’re not natural allies. So she was getting passed just about anything she wanted passed; she was creating the Arks; she was negotiating with Earth at times when State couldn’t even get a message through…
And Jordan… Jordan made a deal with them. He wanted to bring Reseune down, but it wasn’t Reseune they wanted to bring down at all: it was Ari. They’d found out she was dying. They’d found out about the psychogenesis project, and they weren’t appalled about Ari being reborn–they were interested. Her genius was an asset to Union. But her political power was hurting them. They made their deal with Jordan to get more information–they were using him all the way. And they got the notion they could have a tame Reseune, under a more amenable leadership, and still have an Ari, who could go on being born, and dying, unless the system really, really needed her brain again…while tamer people ran Reseune and didn’t have her power in the legislature, and Defense got its way again.
But here I am growing up, and I’m not easy to get at, and oh, they’d like to run me. They’d like to. But they can’t do that, where I am. I’ve fortified myself inside Alpha Wing. I’ve controlled all access. I’ve gotten my own azi staff, my own circle of CIT advisors. I trust very, very few people, and some people can’t get close to me anymore. Rafael was their best try, and I have him.
So who are “they”?
Who’s the Enemy?
It wasn’t Gorodin. I don’t think it ever was Gorodin. Maybe it wasn’t even Azov, though I never knew him–maybe it was some force inside Defense that we never even saw. Not Jacques, who’s just a chair‑warmer, and more a symptom of how Defense can’t come up with leaders, past its own internal politics.
And then there was Spurlin–he was clearly on somebody’s bad list. He put his head up: he nearly got into control of Defense. And now he’s dead.
Say there’s two factions in Defense, at least. And one of them is the side Spurlin was on, which is pro‑Reseune; and moderate; and then there’s Khalid and his backers.