Protector: Foreigner #14 (29 page)

And Yolanda Mercheson had run for her life. He had heard the account before, but from a very different perspective.

“Within an hour of the announcement of Tabini’s death, six of the conservatives
and
the traditionalists declared man’chi to Murini,” Algini said. It was a set of facts they all knew. But Tano and Algini had seen it all play out.

Banichi and Jago had been with him, the dowager, Cajeiri—and Jase—on the starship, headed out to try to deal with the Reunion situation.

“We do not see now,” Algini said, “that this situation will repeat itself. We have not changed our recommendation to the aiji and we have removed the one vulnerability we think gave the aiji’s enemies access to his schedule and his apartment.”

“It is the aiji’s belief, Bren-ji,” Tano said quietly, “that Damiri-daja’s staff, knowingly or unknowingly, supplied information to the conspirators. Tabini-aiji’s staff died. Certain of Damiri-daja’s escaped.”

“And returning with Komaji,” Banichi said, “came Damiri’s aunt, her cousin, and her childhood nurse. The nurse, oldest in the consort’s service, stayed on when the others went back to Ajuri. When we recovered the records from the situation on the coast, and began to peel back the layers of the Shadow Guild, when we began to realize that Murini was more figurehead than aiji, and when Komaji had behaved as he had, we bypassed the aiji’s guard to advise Tabini-aiji to discharge the consort’s staff and bodyguard immediately. We wanted them detained. Unfortunately—and we have not had a clear answer about the confusion in the order, they were simply dismissed.”

Damn.

“At the moment,” Algini said, “we have asked Tabini-aiji to observe a restricted schedule, do business by phone and courier, and that he and Damiri-daja stay entirely within the guard we have provided. The aiji has confidence in the consort’s man’chi. She was with him through his exile, her bodyguards were all assigned to her service—by the process you now understand—on their return from exile, and they were all Ajuri folk, as a particular favor to her. Afterward, the night of the reception for Lord Geigi, she told the aiji-dowager that she was close to renouncing her connections with Ajuri.”

That walk about the reception all. And a private tea the next morning.

“She has also, under strong advisement from her husband, accepted staff from the aiji-dowager.”

Advisement from
Tabini.

“Assignments had a very close call with Komaji,” Algini went on. “He could take the dismissal as the aiji’s displeasure with his wife. He knows that Komaji did not get to the Atageini. He may believe he has averted that threat. We do not believe Shishoji would make an attempt on Tabini-aiji at this point. His organization has been disrupted. We did, however, separate the heir from the household to compartmentalize our problems. We had a choice: to go to Malguri, which would better protect the heir, the aiji-dowager, Tatiseigi,
and
these young guests—but which would have us remote, reliant on transcontinental communications which are extremely risky, and put us in a position where assets such as Tirnamardi could be peeled away from us or damaged, which we cannot allow. We decided to strengthen Tirnamardi, and at that point, we had to put our own plan into motion and be sure we could keep Tirnamardi safe. We decided to involve Lord Geigi, and see if he could assist with equipment which we are—one apologizes, nandi—not supposed to have. Not weapons, but communications methods independent of our Guild, and protective equipment.”

Apologize? He could only be thankful for his aishid’s foresight. Profoundly thankful.

“We did not expect nand’ Jase and his guards to arrive with the equipment,” Algini added, “but we accept the assistance. We do not expect a move against us yet. We think our opposition has made one necessary move, in stopping Lord Komaji. They are surely looking us over and finding out that Tirnamardi is no longer an easy mark. They are surely finding out that the Taibeni and the Atageini have made an alliance beyond a signature on a piece of paper. They are surely aware that the situation immediately surrounding the aiji has changed. They might naturally expect, given the foreign visitors, that there
will
be precautions taken and personnel shifted about, and of course we gave out that we are all at Malguri. How soon they penetrate that story will tell us something about their sources and their capabilities. We are unashamedly using the presence of our young guests to make those changes. And we
hope
our adversaries will believe that everything we are doing is just a temporary change and that things will go back to their former vulnerability, once the shuttle returns these children to space.”

After the official birthday celebration. Back in the Bujavid . . . with all the danger it might entail, including exposure to
other
Guild, who would have been put in place by Assignments.

“At that time,” Algini said, “there will be the option to send Cajeiri to the station with them. Temporarily. Possibly the aiji-dowager as well. At that point—we will go after Haikuti, and we will go after Shishoji. There will be no Filing. We will otherwise observe the law. If
you
wish to go up to the station with the aiji-dowager and the young gentleman, Bren-ji, it will be safer, and we will be free to do what we must do.”

He took in a breath, instantly sure. “No. No, I
will not
leave you, nadiin-ji. Where I have influence, where I have any authority, I shall use it in whatever manner you need, and if
I
am present in any situation, you are protecting
me.
What you do then—is legal.”

Banichi said, quietly, warmly, “We are not surprised, Bren-ji. We only ask you keep your head down. Literally.”

God. So it
was
coming.

One
hoped
Tabini was right to trust Damiri. The coming operation, their lives, the security of the whole atevi world relied on that one emotional judgment.

But couldn’t he say, lacking the hardwiring to feel atevi emotions, and going solely on his human senses, that he trusted the four people who were telling him this?

When push came to shove, he bet
everything
on them. And had no doubts.

They’d just had, perhaps, a trial of Tatiseigi’s new security arrangement, this morning.

From
inside,
as it looked to be.

They’d chosen to be separate from the Bujavid—but to have as short a distance as possible to the spaceport; now he knew why
that
was; and as short a distance as possible between them and the capital—and Guild Headquarters.
He’d
been anticipating trouble from Komaji.

Scratch that, as of this morning.

“The Kadagidi,” he said. Murini’s clan. Tatiseigi’s next-door neighbors. “This bodyguard of Lord Aseida’s. Haikuti. Is
he
the force we’re imminently worried about?”

“Yes,” Banichi said, from across the room. “He is a
significant
problem.”

Algini said, just a flick of the eyes toward Banichi, “Very significant. —Lord Tatiseigi, Bren-ji, has been a somewhat special case in the matter of out-clan assignments. He supports the rule. Officially. But he is very inclined to prefer Atageini Guild be assigned here to him—and he has occasionally, on personal privilege, put pressure on the Office of Assignments. Assignments never complained, you may be sure. Shishoji inserted a few Atageini with kinship to the Kadagidi—and beyond that, assigned some Atageini personnel who, frankly speaking, were not the caliber that a man in Tatiseigi’s position should have gotten. Conversely, where there has been
extraordinary
promise in an Atageini candidate who might have come in and identified these people, that person has been shifted to other service, and made unavailable to Tatiseigi’s house.”

And in just such a way, one at a time . . . or in this case in twos and fours . . . the balance of power throughout the aishidi’tat had been shifted—for forty-two years. Forty-two years of lethal man’chi being slipped into key positions. It wouldn’t even take special training or instructions, nothing that could be traced directly to some individual. A time bomb with a purely instinct-driven trigger, right out of the machimi plays. Instincts that would, at some key instant, jump the wrong way. Silent. Nearly untraceable. Shadow Guild, indeed.

Algini continued: “Tatiseigi’s clan has bled talent into the system and consistently gotten back less. Rusani and his team, the senior bodyguards—are not much younger than Tatiseigi. They are too old to keep up with training in the way of younger men; and ironically, when we approached them, with Lord Tatiseigi’s permission, they were convinced the general quality of Guild training has sadly declined over the years. We cannot at this point tell them the truth of the situation, but we told them the aiji-dowager herself would send them help. Tabini himself told Lord Tatiseigi that he must accept, for the safety of the aiji-dowager and the heir. That is the situation. We have a few remaining of the old staff. And now we have to ask if we have somehow
missed
one. If we have, that individual may be desperate to try to get word to his control. And we are equally determined he should not get that word out, either who is here, or how we are configured. Alternatively,
we
may have a source of information we can lay hands on.”

“If he uses communications equipment, we will be on him in an instant,” Tano said. “Otherwise, he will have to make a run for it. And getting across the grounds and through the hedges is no small difficulty. He is trapped. Whoever he is.”

“Kadagidi would be the logical direction,” Bren murmured.

“We are watching all directions,” Jago said, “by every means.”

They would find this—hopefully last—infiltrator, he had every confidence. With luck, they’d take him alive and have a chance to extract information. And then, or at least very soon thereafter, they were going to try to fix what was broken.

Forty-two years of problems in the Guild.

That dated from before
his
predecessor, Wilson, had been paidhi-aiji. It dated from the time of Tabini’s
grandfather.

From before there was anyone living on the space station. From before there
had been
significant human technology in atevi hands, and from before there was any real flow of communication between Mospheira and the mainland. An old movement, an
old
resistance to human influence . . . had shifted course radically—with this wild notion of moving into the space station.

Not technophobes, however. The old man sitting in that office had declined computers, which would have opened up his records, a locator bracelet, which would have told other Guild where he was.

But he was seeking control of the highest powered technology available.

While Murini had put himself forward as
opposing
human influence,
opposing
the changes in atevi society,
opposing
the factories and the space program, to get Conservative Party support—until his assassination and intimidation tactics had crossed a line and people realized this was
not
the government they wanted.

Not a repudiation of the space program and human influence. A takeover . . .
using
that technology.

And the one way,
the one way
they could have inserted
their
people into the station was to get Geigi off it. Off it and, preferably, out of the picture completely.

No
wonder
the Shadow Guild had been setting up a trap for Lord Geigi,
hoping
he’d find reason to visit his estate at Kajiminda. They’d hijacked Machigi’s original plot to get his hands on Geigi’s estate. They’d taken over the operation and come scarily close to succeeding in delivering a major blow to Tabini’s year-old second administration.

Until they’d crossed the aiji-dowager.

Geigi had come down from the heavens, however—

And then of all things the Shadow Guild had taken to the field and decided to throw mortars at Najida.

“A question,” he said. “Nadiin-ji.
Why
did the Shadow Guild take it to the field? Why did they blow the cover off?”

“That,” Algini said, “is an interesting question. And a sad situation. The ones most exposed fled south and to the coast when Murini fell. They began recruitment of Marid Guild, whose man’chi was to the region, with a lie: they told these people that the out-clan rule was going to be imposed by northern Guild, who would isolate them and impose northern lords over the Marid. The lie was
too
potent. The Marid recruits slipped control, they took to the field, and they were not coordinated. The action now has evolved to words and reasoned argument, where possible—and the skirmishes that do take place now
are
with those we have no reluctance to take down. Cenedi has had experience in the East. He asked Machigi for names from the Taisigin Marid, called respected persons out of retirement, and set them in positions in the Marid where their influence can be useful. The opposition is feeling more threatened by these influential seniors than by weapons, and local Guild is becoming aware that Murini’s people are, principally, outsiders to the Marid. The remnant of our enemy is resorting once again to
Murini’s
tactics of intimidation and threats, and they continue to spread the rumors, primarily in the more rural areas, that the out-clan rule is coming and the aiji means to take over the Marid—which is still a rallying cry for the misled. It is a district by district struggle, in a region where the Messengers’ Guild does not operate, where there is no television, and radio is often short range and delivering disinformation. We have taken to distributing radios, and broadcasting our own message.”

Communication. A world perspective. Messengers’ Guild. Scholars’ Guild. Get those throughout the Marid and misinformation and truth could at least fight on a level field.

“Ironically, in the past, Assignments has not had the ability to deal with the Marid as well as it has in the north, but that situation is changing. The local Guild has taken a beating they are being told was the fault of their leaders. Machigi—is regarded with great suspicion in the northern Marid.”