Invader by C. J. Cherryh Read Free Book Online Page A

faithfully and accurately rendered. I don't believe they consider me corrupt, or incompetent. Logically speaking, aiji-ma, if you choose to deal with me rather than with her, what can they do, if they wish to continue to receive your communications?"
    "They can ignore my communications."
    "No, aiji-ma. They can't. What atevi do and think is vastly important."
    "Then why send this Deana Hanks in the first place? And why is she listening to unacceptable people?"
    He temporized. "She is my legitimate successor. If I was gone —"
    "She's a fool."
    "Aiji-ma, the presumption on Mospheira clearly was that I wasn't on the job, for whatever reason, in what they knew was a very touchy situation. Possibly they sent her with absolute good will to you, as the best stopgap they could manage if some accident had befallen me — such as assassination at the hands of some opposition movement —"
    "They needed to select a fool?"
    "There are very, very few humans who speak the language, only three who can think in it."
    "There are
two
. You and Wilson-paidhi. This woman does not
think
."
    Tabini was damned mad. Clearly. And there was far more at issue than Hanks' life. Or his.
    "Possibly — possibly, aiji-ma, once the State Department is sure I'm well enough to carry on my office, they may indeed recall her. And if they don't, I'll urge they do. I assure you."
    "This woman is interfering in our politics. Where is their intelligence, nand' paidhi? Is this a deliberate act to violate the Treaty? Or is some other, perhaps ignorant, party now directing human affairs?"
    It was a very frightening question, at depth — even confining the implications of that question to the State Department, which he knew wasn't Tabini's entire concern, considering that ship in the heavens.
    More, the paidhi didn't have the definitive answer to give. The Foreign Office called talks with the ship
touchy
. "I'll make your displeasure very clear to the responsible parties, aiji-ma. In the meantime, please, no move to remove her by force. Let me arrange it, in my own way. I believe I can do it without disturbance."
    "You're asking a great favor, Bren-ji."
    "I know I am."
    "And favors have returns."
    "I know that too, aiji-ma."
    "So what
is
the momentary thinking inside the President's office?"
    God, his wits were hazed. He should have seen that coming.
    And he did from time to time take chances on Tabini, monumental chances, once he'd felt out the ground underfoot — once they were both sure of the extent and purpose of the question.
    And especially when the honest answer might give Tabini a reassuring insight into human mental processes.
    "Aiji-ma, nothing I've learned on Mospheira inside or outside official channels has changed my initial impression: Mospheira is disturbed — not alarmed, but disturbed, for exactly the same reasons atevi are disturbed. No one planned for this. I agree: no government likes to be surprised. Mospheira was surprised. You were surprised. And I think that ship is surprised. It left a functioning station. It came back to a situation it can't have counted on finding, and a complexity of political arrangements it can't readily unravel."
    "So what does this mean? Are there two human associations now, or one? And is the authority in our sky — or on Mospheira?"
    Critical questions. Urgent questions. From a ruler who couldn't conceptualize geographic boundaries as valid. "Aiji-ma, my answer from my own understanding is — they're two authorities which once were one, not hostile to each other, each now with separate interests to protect. You've been monitoring transmissions. You surely have recordings."
    "Such exist."
    "Do you find them encoded?"
    "Numbers and names are quite clear. I assume that you can translate the rest of the voice segments for us."
    That it wasn't code was reassuring. He was entirely uneasy about an agreement to translate — but Mospheira
knew
he had that capacity, as they knew Hanks had when they'd sent her here: they