Regenesis

“Thank you. Base One. No further attempt. Method of removing a Defense‑installed block.”

A long pause. “Case record follows.”

“Physical print, Base One.”

“Printing. Transcript is three hundred and two pages.”

Her head hurt even thinking about it. But the print began shooting into the tray.

“Base One, Giraud failed to detect Defense Bureau block on AK‑36 when he used an axe code. Method of concealment of block: check and report.”

“Base One has no record of Giraud failure.”

“Well, he did fail, dammit.” She dropped her head into her hands. “Base One, did Ari ever successfully deal with a Defense Bureau block? if yes, did Giraud ever access that file?”

“First question: yes. Second question: Giraud’s Base insufficient to access Base One record.”

Well, therewas an answer. And he hadn’t gone to Ari. He hadn’t admitted failure. He might not have recognize it. Faced with dealing with an alpha, he hadn’t opened up his files and Denys’ to Ari’s close scrutiny, especially counting that Denys’ certificate was a damned lie. His secrecy would have been compromised if he’d let Ari into the manuals he had. Open one, all might have been of interest. Wasn’t that like Giraud, too?

“Note for Giraud Two: dealing with failure. Tell Base One. Dammit.”

“Recorded.”

She thought a few beats, while the printout flipped into the tray. “Base One, did Ari ever successfully deal with a Defense Bureau block in an alpha subject?”

“ Yes.”

“Print case file.”

“Printing. Transcript is three hundred and two pages.”

“Is that the same file currently printing?”

“Yes.”

Damned stupid computer. “Cancel second print. Continue.”

Same case. At least there were only three hundred two pages to read before she slept.

Catherine Lao was in the hospital with a coronary, a real one, and diminishing liver function. It was likely the tail end of rejuv. Nobody could locate her Proxy, who was either dead in Swigert Bay or hiding out under an assumed name, trying not to be dead, and it was getting chancy whether Ya

She couldn’t swear to it–because it Ya

God, it was a mess. And she, meanwhile, was wasting time trying to figure out who’d been responsible for killing her predecessor twenty years ago, which wasn’t relevant, and trying to make sure Ya

She took a headache remedy. She wasn’t supposed to. She’d do better going to the hospital herself, or just asking Wes to look her over, but her pupils looked the same size in the mirror, and she didn’t want to upset Florian by admitting he’d cracked her head that hard. So she just took the headache remedy and then threw up, and took another, with less water, which staved down.

It might not be smart. But it was what she had to do. Scan the files she had to absorb, make sure they were safe, and then have a long stint with deepstudy.

BOOK THREE Section 5 Chapter xii

AUG 2, 2424

0548H

Breakfast on a su

But after days of short commons, Quentin AQ, the Carnath girl’s Quentin, had showed up with a case of dried fruit, another of oatmeal, four cases of bottled water, five kilos of ground coffee, a case of orange drink, a commercial carton of real eggs, fifteen loaves of bread, a case of precooked bacon, five bottles of vodka, and a large carton of irradiated sandwiches that wouldn’t go bad for the next decade. Thatlot was a gift for which Ya

In the first three meetings it had gone moderately well: Jacques wasn’t sure of Bigelow and said there was some concern because the station Defense people weren’t happy with her, and they wanted to propose another candidate, a Tommy Kwesi, who’d been out at Beta…who would be here in a week.

“We can’t have this dragging on another week,” Ya

“He didn’t winthe election,” Ya

Then the stinger, from Jacques: “There’s a contingent pushing Albert Dean.”

He’d said, “Dean’s a damned fool.” Dean was the one who’d consistently voted with Khalid’s allies on appropriations, trying to get increased military spending at Mariner and Pan‑Paris, which played well politically on the stations that wanted the construction, but infringed on treaties in more ways than they could count. “He’s playing politics, he’s been playing politics, while we’ve spent the last thirty years trying to build trust on that border–the only damn border we’ve got, and he wants to go turning up the heat on it! You want to see two years of absolute stalemate in Council–no. We can’t work with him.”