Read Online Cyteen: The Betrayal by C. J. Cherryh - Free Book Online Page B

triumph for Reseune?
    A political disaster? Something lost?
    It was not Ariane’s habit to consult back during the sessions in Novgorod except in dire emergency, certainly not by phone, not even on Bureau lines; but there were staff couriers and planes always available.
    That she had not sent-meant a situation under control, despite that precipitate adjournment-one hoped.
    The social schedule had been thrown into utter confusion, the Councillors had canceled meetings right and left, and the Councillors from Russell’s and Pan-paris had sped back to Cyteen Station to make passage on a ship bound for Russell’s Star, departure imminent. Their Secretaries had been left to sit proxy, one presumed, with definite instructions about their votes.
    It was more than protocol that brought Giraud Nye and his brother Denys to meet the small bus as it pulled up in the circle drive at the front of Reseune.
    The bus door opened. The first one down was, predictably, the azi Catlin, in the black uniform of Reseune security, her face pale and set in a forecast of trouble: she stepped down and reached back to steady Ari as Ari made the single step-Ari in pale blue, carrying her briefcase herself as usual, and with no visible indication of triumph or catastrophe until she looked straight at Giraud and Denys with an expression that foretold real trouble.
    “Your office,” she said to Denys. Behind her, exiting onto the concrete with the rest of the staff, Giraud saw Jordan Warrick, who was not supposed to be with that flight, who had flown out five days ago on RESEUNE ONE and was supposed to come back at the end of the week, on a RESEUNEAIR special flight.
    There was trouble. Warrick arriving in Ari’s company was as great a shock as Centrists and Expansionists suddenly bedding down together. Warrick’s staff was not with him, only his azi chief-of-Household, Paul, who followed along with a sober, anxious look, carrying a flight-kit.
    Abban might collect gossip from the staff, the ones who were Family, and free to talk. Giraud gave Abban the order and fell in with Ari and Denys, silent Florian heading off to the left hall the moment they cleared the doors, Catlin walking along behind with Denys’ azi Seely.
    Not a word until they were inside Denys’ inmost office, and Denys turned on the unit that provided sound-screening in the room. Then:
    “We’ve got a problem,” Ari said, opening the briefcase very carefully, very precisely on the expensive imported veneer of Denys’ desk.
    “Hope’s in trouble?” Denys asked, accepting the fiche she handed him. “Or is it Jordan?”
    “Gorodin is promising us unanimous approval for Hope-if Jordan gets a liaison post at a Fargone military psych facility we’re going to have hidden in our budget.”
    “God,” Giraud said, and sat down.
    “You tell me how you buy Mikhail Corain’s vote, and why Jordan Warrick’s transfer has to be part of Gorodin’s bargain.”
    Giraud had no doubts. It was certain that Ari had none.
    “He’s become a problem,” Ari said.
    “We can’t touch him,” Giraud said. Panic welled up in him. Sometimes Ari forgot she had limits, or that prudence did.
    “He’s counting on that, isn’t he?” So, so quietly. Ari settled into the remaining chair. “It still has to be voted. It doesn’t need to be voted until the facility exists. And we just got the appropriation.”
    Giraud was sweating. He resisted the impulse to mop his face. The sound-screening tended to make his teeth ache, but at the moment the discomfort was mostly in his gut.
    “Well, it’s not that bad,” Denys said, and tilted his chair back, folding his hands on his ample stomach. “We can map this out. Jordie’s being a fool. We can merge his wing right back into Administration, absorb his staff and his records, that for a start.”
    “He’s not a fool,” Ari said. “I want to know if we’re missing files.”
    “You think he’s left something in Novgorod?”
    “What’s ever