Intruder

“If this should happen, Bren-ji,” Tano took up the statement, “rest assured our partners will advise you. Andprotect you.”

Now he wasupset. Extremely. “Nadiin-ji. One is not willing to accept this. One is not willing to be protected when those persons I highly value, nadiin-ji, are put at risk! Is there anything you can tell me? Are you attempting to stand between me and a Guild action, nadiin-ji? Have I crossed a line, somewhere?”

Tano looked at Algini.

Algini said, “The Guild has been trusted for two hundred years. I have had representations made to me that, if they are carried through, will satisfy me. One begs pardon, Banichi.”

Banichi wore a very solemn expression. So did Jago.

“This visit to the representative, then,” Banichi said, “was a risk.”

“The guards near Machigi are not the problem,” Algini said.

“The guards near the aiji-dowager are not the problem,” Bren ventured to say. Unthinkable to him that there should be any breach of security under Cenedi’swatch. “Nor the aiji’s, one hopes.”

“No,” Algini said. “Specificallyc” Algini got to his feet, walked a few paces across to the galley bar and used his communications for a moment, saying something Bren did not hear, but the others might have. Jago put out her arm a half second before the train began to slow.

It stopped. They sat dead still, with their train obstructing one of the two parallel tracks that ran up to the Bujavid’s most secure station.

And in that relative silence, with only the idling engine sound, but nothing from the wheels, Algini turned to look at all of them.

“Specifically, nandi, it is the Kadagidi.”

Murini’s clan, a Padi Valley clan, next-door neighbors to Lord Tatiseigi and longtime collaborators with problem lords in the northern Marid—including Murini. It made a sudden, thoroughly unwelcome sense that if there was going to be a problem involving the Guild, the Marid, and a prospective peace—the Kadagidi, as old and as influential a clan as Tatiseigi’s Atageini, were very likely to have their fingers on it, no matter that the Kadagidi had distanced themselves from their own clansman, Murini, disowned him, repudiated his actsc

Would one not repudiate a failure?

“As—infiltrated, Gini-ji? Or infiltrating?”

Algini said, solemnly, “Bren-ji, if one were surer of that matter, or exactly how one relates to the other, one would have more confidence in a good many things. This—this, Bren-ji, is my opinion—that the last Kadagidi lord to have anyauthority in Kadagidi clan was Murini. And that after him, much as Lord Aseida claims to have opposed Murini inside Kadagidi clan, he is a liar, and he has been a liar from before Murini overthrew Tabini-aiji. This man argued with Murini on trifles. Oh, yes, he withstood Murini. He distanced himself. He did all these things. He is served by an aishid led by one Haikuti, who has never yet misstepped in terms of Guild regulations, who came to Aseida from the Guild hierarchy, as I came to you, but I am not sure who sent him.”

“Can you be clearer, Gini-ji?”

“Haikuti is, in fact, one of the Guild that I personally would not have trusted. He is now, in this matter in the Marid, at odds with his lord, with Aseida, in supporting Guild action and arguing forsupporting Machigi; but one has observed that Haikuti also argued with Lord Aseida in his initial support of Murini and later supported Aseida in backing the return of the old Guildmaster.”

“You think it is a show?”

“One believes, Bren-ji, that we have been witness to the longest, most elaborate machimi play that ever took the stage, and I do not think the players are yet wearing their true colors.”

There was silence still. Then Banichi said, “This is news to us as well, Bren-ji. You mean Haikuti is giving the orders.”

Algini said, “I mean exactly that, nadi-ji. I think there are so many layers to this that one could peel it to the core before one ever got to a single truth—and then it might prove poisonous.”

“Haikuti should be taken out,” Tano said. “But if we remove him, we scatter the problem. We do not know all his subordinatescand we are not utterly sure he has no superior.”

A very cold feeling crept over the little gathering in the car. From far, far away in the tu

Questions occurred to him. Of Tano and Algini—when did you learn this? And of Banichi and Jago: What should I do?

But the one he asked was: “Gini-ji. How informed are others? Does Tabini-aiji know this? Do his bodyguard? What of the aiji-dowager and Lord Geigi? Or Lord Tatiseigi?”

“As of this moment,” Algini said, “no one of those persons knows. Not even Cenedi. Only you, Bren-ji.”

Next question, in terrible, terrible silence. “Will you tell any of them?”

Algini took his time about the answer. Finally: “This is my suspicion. My search. My conclusion, which Tano shares. If I am wrong, I have made a correct deduction but misassigned the fault.”

“You are sure, however, about the situation.”

“I am verysure, nandi. And—” A little nod of respect toward Banichi. “By Banichi’s good grace—and with his cooperation—we should inform Cenedi and consult with him about informing the aiji’s bodyguard. As for Lord Geigi’s bodyguard, they are good men, but in my opinion, too little informed on too much on this earth to bring in this at this stage. We should inform them the night before the shuttle leaves. They may know, in the heavens, and there they will keep their secrets. As for Lord Tatiseigi, being the neighbor to this situation, and Lord Keimi of Taiben, likewise—Tatiseigi’s bodyguard is not up to this; Lord Keimi’s bodyguard is, and should be brought current before Tabini-aiji or his bodyguard oryoung Cajeiri’s Taibeni bodyguards next visit that territory. This is a danger difficult to make any map. But controlling absolutely the flow of information is one of the few means we have to judge suspicious behavior. The web of triplines we have set, in that sense, is very scant, but it encompasses all of us here present. If we move against Haikuti—one hardly knows what it will set off. Right now, with information absolutely restricted, there is absolutely no reason Haikuti would move against you,Bren-ji; in fact, though Aseida would wish to, he will not, because Haikuti will wish not to call attention to himself. From the Kadagidi, you are as safe as you could possibly be. But once the information about my suspicions spreads into one mistaken cha

“What do you advise us to do, Gini-ji?”

“If Tano and I disappear, it might worry them, but they will not necessarily know it for a time. Tano and I often run internal operations and do not appear. Doing so puts an extraordinary burden on Banichi and Jago, especially in this season, when the public has access to the Bujavid, when the legislature is meeting, when you are on your way to meetings the schedule for which may be read on any bulletin board in the servants’ hallways and every committee. If we disappear, we have a staff of very young, occasionally silly persons, country folk who do not remotely construe the danger, who might tell their mothers, their associates back homecthey are not trained in security, they do not always think, and they are an extreme danger in this situation. One hardly knows whether to tell them, or what to tell them, that will not then become news to tell their families in Najida.”