Inheritor

The whole speech was laced with codewords. If he’d had any concern that Mospheiran cooperation was still a possibility, he’d have expected a following and angry phone call. But they knew. He knew. Jase wasn’t even taking pains to bury them too obscurely in ordinary conversation. He was just delivering the words and all of them could hope they were the right ones.

“ Do you want to talk to your mother?” the captain asked, after hearing all of that with no comment.

“Absolutely no need to, sir.”

“ I’m here anyway,” another, female voice cut in. “ I miss you.”

“Good to hear your voice, mom.” This time there was a little shakiness. “I’m fine. I really am. How are you?”

“ Worried about you. When am I not? How are you doing?”

“A lot better. I can’t talk too long. I’ll call when I get back to the city. I’m on what they call a vacation. You’d be amazed. I was rained on by a weather system and I’m sore from riding. And it’s beautiful down here. But I’ve got to sign off now. I love you. You take care, mom. And you can take a call from me orfrom Bren.”

“ You take care.— Jase? Jase?”

“Yes? I’m here.”

“ Jase, are you keeping your hours regular?”

Jase ducked his face and wiped a hand over his mouth as if that last was some unexpected and embarrassing item. “Fine, mom. I’m doing fine. You just take care. All right? I’ll call you maybe in three or four days. Tell the captain solid fix and green lights on the report and pleaselook out for Yolanda. Whatever you hear from this side, rely on the people I’ve been dealing with to tell you the truth. Good night.”

“ Good night, Jase,” was the signoff, and Bren stood there, the most fluent listener to the exchange, on whom all the others most relied.

And hecouldn’t tell. There wasn’t a way to crack a verbal code, no way but fluency and a specific knowledge of the situation.

“So?” Ilisidi asked.

“I take no alarm, aiji-ma. Codewords were certainly all through it, which I expected. There’d have to be to make assurances valid. He seemed to want his captain to pressure Mospheira to get his partner out. He also asked his captain to listen to his associates down here as reliable people.”

“A very good thing,” Ilisidi said, leaning on her cane. “A very wise thing.”

And they waited, while technicians revised settings and threw switches and consulted checklists.

Jase took out a folded sheet of paper that had already seen a great deal of crumpling, and spread it out on the console in front of him—Jase’s own writing, but two paidhiin had collaborated on it to eliminate infelicitous remarks; and Banichi and Cenedi had read it, with one good suggestion, but Ilisidi by her own choice had not.

The director cued Jase, and Jase, smoothing his piece of paper flat on the counter, perhaps because his momentary attempt to hold it in his hands did not produce a steady view of it, began:

“Nadiin of the aishi’ditat, this is Jase-paidhi with news of the current situation—” Risky word. Jase pronounced it with only a slight stammer. “I have spoken with the ship and have learned that Mercheson-paidhi on Mospheira has concluded that the unsteadiness of the Mospheiran government and haphazard management make it impossible to continue there. She has appealed to the ship to leave Mospheira and to come to the mainland. The Mospheiran government is attempting to prevent her from doing so and has attempted to stir up political rivalries among atevi of the aishi’ditat to cover their own failures. The ship however, on the advice of Mercheson-paidhi and of myself, has concurred: the ship is withdrawing Mercheson-paidhi from Mospheira and calls on the Mospheiran government to allow her to join me on the mainland. The ship is continuing its association with Tabini-aiji and will deal solely with Shejidan. It sends good will to the aishi’ditat, and to the aiji, and to the aiji-dowager, who has stated she will take Mercheson-paidhi under herprotection, to preserve the felicity and the wisdom of the arrangement that has established threepaidhiin, myself, Bren-paidhi, and Mercheson-paidhi, as representatives. Thank you for your kind attention. I shall now repeat this message in Mosphei’ for the information of Mospheiran listeners on the other side of the strait.”

Technicians scrambled in the silence of a broadcast area. Coughs were smothered. Switches were thrown off, others were thrown on, and a tower aimed at Mospheira punched out the next message at a power level reserved to a

Jase got his next cue.

“Citizens of Mospheira, this is Jase-paidhi with news of the current situation—”

Atevi stood very still throughout the whole length of the message. Technicians jumped at one point, and made adjustments. Jase was speaking rapidly and it inevitably took Mospheiran technicians a moment to respond to an electronic provocation.

This version, however, was going up to the ship as well. And ifthey received the ship’s support and that message came back down from the sky, there would be receivers tuned to it, and if they jammed every broadcast on the island, someonein an island full of various-minded and argumentative humans was going to get that message recorded and passed out hand to hand on faxes and copy machines.

This time there was a consequence and a crisis George Barrulin couldn’t head off from the President’s door.

The President’s morning golf game might not take place tomorrow.

Jase finished. A technician cut off the microphone and shut down his console and spoke to him. Then everyone dared talk—and take a breath. Small coughs broke out, held until now.

“He did it exactly,” Bren said to Ilisidi. “And the University will knowhe damned Hanks’ numbers in what he said.”

“Hanks’ numbers andDireiso’s.” Ilisidi was very pleased.

Jase meanwhile had gotten up and left the console. He looked very solemn and pale as he came down the aisle between the long rows of consoles.

He looked very lonely.

Atevi might not understand two humans embracing in a crowded room. They did understand an offered hand.

Jase took it like a drowning man. Squeezed it hard.

“Just a little shaky,” Jase said. “Sorry. Did I do it?”

“You did it.”

Jase’s voice sank to near-nothing. “Codeword, for the ship: ask to speak to Constance.” And sadly, desperately, “Is there anyword, Bren?”

As if information might be forthcoming from them now that Jase had done what he could on their side—and made Mercheson-paidhi suddenly a very valuable piece in a very deadly game. Bren reluctantly shook his head. “I wish I could tell you yes.”

“We may not get her out,” Jase said quietly.

“If she comes ashore anywhere from Dur southward, the aiji’s people will bring her in, no question.”

Or, the unspoken possibility, Direiso’s people might try to lay hands on her if they had any inklingshe might be attempting a crossing. If Hanks’ people were holding her, a possibility he didn’t discount, he was sure they’d hear from them, maybe claimingto hold her, after they’d held their meetings and managed a decision about it.

“How long does it take to cross?” Jase asked.

“Varies. Depends on the weather. Freighters, about two days.”

“If she was out there during the storm—”

“You just point the bow at the waves and keep the engine ru

“The captain’s gotten the word from me to apply pressure to get her over here. I didn’t get anything from him on what she might have told him about her situation and, most of all, the captain didn’t cue me at any time that he knew where she was or that she’s safe.—What’s going on? What’s happening?”