Undercity by Catherine Asaro Read Free Book Online Page B

excelled at business as well as architectural design. He knew how to make money, and I had no doubt he was doing it in buckets for Majda.
    Nor was Paolo the only one. The general’s consort, Izam, had lived in seclusion his entire life, but that didn’t change his genius for finance. His name was associated with the boards of a good fraction of their corporations. Vaj might be rigid in how she expected her consort to live, but she was too savvy to ignore his prodigious business acumen.
    “What about Ahktar?” I asked. “Dayj’s father. Does he do finance?”
    “I see no indication of such,” the EI said. “However, I have almost no data on him.”
    “Can you connect me to the EI at the palace called Jan?”
    “Yes, I can create this link.”
    “Good. Set it up.” I made sure my security fixes were in place. I didn’t want any Majdas eavesdropping on my talks with Jan, either.
    A mellow voice came out of the console, the same EI that I had spoken to about Dayj’s holo landscapes. “My greetings, Major Bhaajan. What can I do for you?”
    “Hello, Jan.” I settled back in my chair. “What do you have on Prince Ahktar’s education?”
    “He has none.”
    “He must read.”
    “He rarely uses the library.”
    “Does he involve himself with Majda finances?” His wife ran the corporations, after all.
    After a moment, Jan said, “I find no indication that he has either an interest or the talent for such an involvement.”
    I tapped my chin. “Almost no rank, money, or skills. He’s not handsome. No business sense. Why did Corejida marry him?”
    “You wish me to offer a theory?”
    “I wish.”
    “She loves him.”
    I blinked. “What?”
    “She loves him. This is an acceptable reason to marry.”
    “Sure, for the rest of us. Majdas live in another reality.”
    “I have no records of any aptitude tests for him. Informally, however, I can offer conclusions based on his behavior.”
    “Go ahead.” This was fascinating.
    “He nurtures. He probably has a great aptitude for nursing or social work. It also makes him a good parent.”
    “Oh.” Was I that cynical, that I hadn’t believed Majdas could feel love?
    In my youth, I had feared, envied, even hated the Majdas, who lived in their stratospheric world of privilege. I’d been born in the undercity and left at an orphanage in Cries, what we called the above-city. I’d lived for three years before I ran away with an older girl, a “mature” orphan all of five. She had lived in the aqueducts until the city inflicted one of its periodic sweeps on us, rounded up a handful of undercity kids, and dumped them in an orphanage. We always ran away as soon as we could, back to the aqueducts. Back home.
    Unlike most of my people, I had always wanted out, but on my terms, not those of some Cries authority. The day I reached my sixteenth birthday, I enlisted, and after that, I’d worked like a fanatic to qualify for officer training. People said it was impossible for an enlistee with no connections to win a place in that program, but I’d done it, more out of sheer, cussed determination than because I was better qualified than the other applicants. I had resented those cadets with the advantages of a privileged birth that made it so much easier for them to advance. With Dayj’s parents now, however, I only saw two desperate people who loved their son. I couldn’t forget their haunted expressions as they entreated me to find him.
    “Jan,” I said, “do you know any reason why one of the Majdas might help Dayj escape?”
    “Escape implies he was in prison.”
    I didn’t bother to deny it.
    After a pause, Jan said, “I can think of no reason why any member of his family would facilitate his departure.”
    “Has anyone connected to the Majda family or the palace staff ever shown any indication they might sympathize with Dayj if he wanted to run away?” I thought for a moment. “Have any of them donated to a cause that supports ideals consistent with