“We don’t know that the task force itself is corrupt,” Razine corrected. “We only know that at least one member is. Mor is the most easily tracked of the two men, since he operates within the law most of the time. Hallwell will be more difficult, but he’s our best connection with the real traitor.”
Aldirk shook his head. “This must be handled with extreme delicacy. I believe Donvall’s suspicions are correct: our traitor is almost certain to be on the Council and very well connected. One false step and our investigation would reach a sudden dead end.”
“I have faith in Colonel Razine’s abilities,” Tal said. “She has a great deal of experience in silent investigations.”
“Thank you, Lancer Tal. It will be a pleasure to find this traitor and put him or her so far down into the Pit that they’ll have to dig up to find Level Five.”
“We think alike. Corruption is one thing. Disrespect and dishonor are something else. While I’d be delighted to round up and punish everyone involved, I care far less about the unimportant players. If we have to let some of them go to get the one we want, that’s a trade I’m willing to make.”
“Understood,” Razine said. “This may not be resolved immediately. We’ll have to watch and wait.”
“I know. Take the time to do it right, and keep me updated.” Tal turned to Aldirk. “Your knowledge of the Council members is an invaluable resource. Give the colonel whatever she asks for. And it should go without saying that anything we discuss regarding this case is not to go beyond the three of us, except for any investigators you may need to bring in, Colonel.”
“Of course,” Aldirk said as Razine nodded. “I’ll assist in any way I can. I know you see this as a betrayal of your caste, but it’s also a betrayal of the Council. As a former Councilor, I take that personally as well.”
Tal stood, indicating the end of their meeting. “Then our traitor has just made three new and powerful enemies.”
CHAPTER 75
Which Opah
Spinner had to give the Lancer credit: her recovery after the economist coalition’s report had been swift and unexpected. He had spent several moons and quite a few cinteks nudging the right people into the right places to make that report happen, and Lancer Tal had undone most of the damage in less than a nineday. It was an impressive display of her capabilities. Much as he hated her, he had to admire her skill.
Most of all, he looked forward to the day when all of that charisma and talent would be under his control.
At least his efforts were not a complete waste. Damage had still been done; she had not come out of that unscathed. The war criminal fringe was louder than ever, and many people were still deeply unsettled about the matter printers. She could not afford to make a mistake. She was in a corner, and while that corner wasn’t quite as small as he had hoped, it was good enough.
She had wasted no time starting her investigation. Colonel Razine and Chief Counselor Aldirk had flown out to Hol-Opah the day after her trip to the Pit, and he knew the end game was in motion. The key now was to wait just long enough before pushing his final tile in place.
Perhaps four more days. Hol-Opah would have finished its horten harvest by then, and all of the adults would be home. It would have far more impact, and he was enough of a showman to enjoy a little theater.
He picked up his reader card and tapped out an encrypted message. It was time to take out one of the Opahs.
CHAPTER 76
The target
The last days of Tal’s challenge were a whirlwind of harvest duties in the mornings and Lancer duties in the afternoons. She had started the nineday with every intention of putting in at least one full day working the horten harvest, but soon had to give it up. Her duties simply wouldn’t allow it.
Public opinion was shifting in her favor. The demonstrations had stopped, and the articles and vidfeeds that Aldirk sent to her reader card showed a marked difference in tone. At the urging of Communications Advisor Miltorin, she flew to the State House for a rare media conference. There were a few unfriendly questions, but Tal had fielded those and worse many times before. She dispatched them with ease, brevity, and on one occasion, a cutting humor that had most of the media members laughing. Naturally, the stories the next day featured that comment as well as a replay of the now-famous Whitemoon exchange between her and the little girl. Tal thought she could be excused for feeling just a bit smug as she went through the highlights on her reader card.
Herot was now up to four and a half lengths, and she was secretly rooting for him to make five before she left. She planned to cut her last run short and invite him to accompany her, as a way of showing respect for his determination. He was working hard at his transport duties, which Salomen took as a source of hope that he was growing out of his self-centered, self-pitying phase. Tal was more cautious. His overt resentment of her was undiminished, and he still left the house most evenings to drink with his friends in town, rarely returning until long after everyone else at Hol-Opah had retired for the night.
Jaros continued to walk half a body length off the ground. His bruises and black eye had earned him the awed respect of his classmates, and that was before they learned about his arrival at school with a fully uniformed, decorated Lead Guard—or the fact that the Lancer herself had whisked his tormentors to the Pit. Tal guessed the story in the sixth-level classes might be a bit different, a suspicion which was confirmed when Shikal ran into Pendar and his uncle during a trip to town. According to Pendar, Nilo had transformed himself into the fearless guest of the Lancer, touring the Pit with his friends as a voluntary penance for getting into a fight with a member of her host family. The half hantick he had spent alone in a cell had become a test worthy of an early Rite of Ascension, the implication being that Pendar and Silmartin hadn’t had the courage for it and had shared a cell instead. Tal had a good laugh when she heard the story and told Shikal that Nilo was clearly headed for a sterling career in politics.
But the best part of every day was when she and Salomen were alone in her room, talking about anything and everything, sharing what kisses they dared, and continuing Salomen’s training. Tal knew their original excuse of discussing delegate business had long since worn thin, and everyone in the house was certain they were a joined couple doing much more than talking behind that closed door. She took quite a bit of teasing from Micah for that and even some sly little pokes from Shikal and Nikin. But until Salomen spoke with her family about her powers, Tal would do nothing to jeopardize her cover—though it killed her to be teased about something she fervently wished were true.
She had crossed the line. Her frustration at being held apart from Salomen had overwhelmed her fear of the consequences, and she was ready to complete their bond.
Salomen was not. The aspect of a permanent empathic connection was frightening enough, but she was also facing sudden exposure to the most public of all lives. There would have to be an announcement and eventually a state ceremony, and Salomen would become the Bondlancer of Alsea—a public figure second only to Tal herself. She would have her own Guard unit and need to think of her security at all times, when she had never considered it before. Tal had only to adapt to a loss of emotional privacy, but Salomen was being forced to adapt to that and the loss of her general privacy as well.
And she was struggling with it. Tal’s own acceptance did not help; now she felt left behind and alone in her decision. The sexual tension made it worse, as did the recent increase in their empathic sensitivity. Light kisses became a real danger, and on the fourth night after their kitchen date, they experienced a flash from nothing more than holding hands. It was a minor one, but for Salomen the implications were dire: the time for control of the decision was running out. Soon it would be made for her whether she was ready or not. She was so distressed, and Tal so helpless to comfort her, that they ended the training session early. Salomen couldn’t concentrate, and Tal couldn’t stand being confine
d to her window seat, looking at the woman she was not allowed to touch.
The horten harvest was finished just before midmeal the next day, three days before the challenge ended. As Herot flew the last transport out, Salomen and all of the field workers shouted their glee to the rainy skies. There was even an impromptu jig or two, and for the first time since Tal’s arrival at Hol-Opah, Salomen was home by midmeal with nothing pressing to do. They took advantage of her newfound free time by sitting on the back porch, listening to the rain bounce off the roof, and emptying a bottle of spirits between the two of them. Every now and again Shikal, Micah, or Nikin would poke their heads out the back door, inquire as to whether they would like to join the far warmer party in the parlor, and retreat muttering about mutually reinforcing insanity.
For Tal, the joy of simply being with Salomen on a relaxing, rainy afternoon transcended any other offer. She could not remember feeling quite this peaceful and happy. Of course, she paid for it later, having to force her spirit-relaxed brain to pay attention as she tackled the pile of work that was waiting for her. And since she had put it off earlier in the afternoon, she had to take time after evenmeal to go to the Opah office and call Aldirk on the vidcom. When she finally dragged herself back upstairs, it was ten ticks past the usual time that she and Salomen met for their training sessions.
She opened the door to her room and stopped. Salomen was lounging in her window seat, reading the book Tal hadn’t quite finished the previous night.
“I didn’t think you’d mind if I waited here.” Salomen held up the book. “How can it possibly take you this long to finish? It’s not exactly high literature. But your marker is still thirty pages from the end.”
Tal crossed the room and plucked the book from her hand. “Because I have very little time to read for fun,” she said tartly, tossing the book on her bed, “and what little time I do have is taken up by a certain producer who is currently occupying my seat.”
Salomen stretched luxuriously. “And a very nice seat it is, too. I forgot how comfortable this is.”
“It’s quite comfortable, and it’s mine. Would you care to relocate to your normal seat so we can begin the training that I’m already late for?”
Salomen waved that off. “Harvest is over. This is a holiday; you can’t be late on a holiday. And I think I’ll be staying here this evening.”
Tal had half a mind to pounce and drag her from the seat, but last night’s flash had made her cautious. She didn’t want a repeat, and she especially didn’t want to see Salomen so distressed again. So she regally retreated from the battlefield and took up a fallback position in the chair.
“Suddenly, it all becomes clear,” Salomen said. “No wonder you love this seat—you’re higher here. It’s a seat of power, just like your State Chair.”
“I love that seat because, unlike my State Chair, it has a comfortable cushion for my overworked backside.” Tal tried to keep a straight face, but the snort of laughter from Salomen made it impossible.
“That too, I’m sure. But you cannot sit there and deny that a power imbalance was built into this seating arrangement from the very beginning. The student sits in the chair that literally looks up to the instructor.”
“In the beginning, I thought it was the only way I’d ever get you to look up to me. But in truth I love that seat because it’s comfortable and I’m surrounded by books and a beautiful view. And I should probably warn you that when I return to Blacksun, I’m taking that seat with me. It’s the best thing about this house.”
“I thought I was the best thing about this house.”
“No, you’re the best thing about Hol-Opah.” Tal paused. “And about my life, come to think of it.”
Salomen’s teasing mood shifted. “I really want to come over there and kiss you for that. But after last night, I don’t dare.”
“I know.” Tal’s amusement was gone as well. “I’m sorry.”
“Me too. Shall we get on with the training, then? I need something else to think about. And not long-range broadsensing, please. Not yet.”
Since their first effort five nights ago, Salomen had found it difficult to fully focus on emotions out of her normal close range. She could sense the more distant emotions and she could get near them, but she hadn’t yet mastered the skill necessary to pick them out of the background and bring them into sharp focus. Being accustomed to more rapid progress, she was finding it frustrating.
“All right,” Tal said. “Let’s start with blocking a probe.”
They worked for a quarter hantick, building up Salomen’s confidence as she easily repelled one probe after another. Tal gradually increased their strength, marveling at how far Salomen had come in this area. Her blocks were now so strong that only the more energetic probes got through, and even those were requiring more effort every time they practiced.
By the time Salomen had fended off the last probe, she was ready to try long-range broadsensing again. They took a break, enjoying a companionable silence as she rested from her earlier efforts. When Tal judged that she had recovered enough, she said, “Let’s begin. Find your place of serenity. Expand your senses beyond the walls of this house and tell me what you feel.”
Salomen closed her eyes. Though she was much more proficient at centering herself, she still found it easier with her eyes shut, and Tal shamelessly enjoyed these opportunities to observe her. She had come to love that little frown of concentration, but more than that, she loved the moment when Salomen achieved whatever goal she was chasing. It was so visible on her face, in the fine motions as the frown smoothed out and a slight smile appeared.
This time the smile was nowhere to be seen. Salomen had not found what she was looking for, and Tal extended her own senses to guide her toward the emotions that were within their range.
There was Micah, next door—she had known him so well and for so long that she could pick out his emotional signature instantly. Judging from the happy and slightly anticipatory color of his emotions, she guessed he’d just come upstairs to get something and was looking forward to rejoining the others below. Farther down the hall, Jaros was frustrated and put out, no doubt because the adults were enjoying a holiday and he still had to do homework. In the parlor she found Shikal and Nikin. Herot, of course, was long gone to his night of celebrating elsewhere.
Now she opened wider, testing the area outside the house, locating four of her Guards by the house and three more on the near grounds. The others were patrolling farther out and registered more faintly on Tal’s senses. She knew Salomen didn’t have the skills to detect them yet and was just about to dismiss them when something else tugged at her. Another person was on Hol-Opah land, well past her outer Guards and at the extreme range of her abilities. She focused all of her senses on that distant entity and quickly ruled out her first guess, which was that Herot was returning early. This was someone else. Male, she knew that much, and jittery with a combination of fear, anticipation, and excitement.
As if he was preparing to do something dangerous.
Her awareness snapped back as the horrified realization fired every nerve in her body. Salomen was sitting in her seat.
Salomen’s eyes flew open, panic flooding her in reaction to Tal’s terror. “What—?”
But Tal was already in motion. She launched out of her chair and threw herself toward the window seat, swinging her legs beneath her to hit the base wall feet first. While her knees bent to absorb the impact, she seized Salomen around the waist.
Salomen jerked in her grasp, crying out in surprise, but Tal tightened her grip and pushed off again, putting every bit of her strength into powering them both away from the window. As they fell, the window exploded inward, shattering into hundreds of razor-sharp pieces and taking part of the wall with it.
Tal’s back hit the floor with the combined weight of two bodies, the impact making stars dance in front of her eyes. But no, the
y weren’t stars, they were broken shards of glass, now edged in fire and falling toward them—falling toward Salomen’s unprotected back. With a grunt of effort, Tal rolled them over and mustered all of her mental discipline to brace herself.
It was not enough.
She screamed as the molten glass rained down around them, burning her clothes, searing her back and legs, sizzling against her scalp. Frantically she shook her head, ridding herself of the pieces that flew off with patches of flaming hair, but she could not defend against the shards landing on her body and melting through her skin. The pain was unbearable.
“Andira!”
She heard Micah’s shout and felt hands brushing against her, sending molten chunks of glass and burned skin flying to the sides. It felt as if he was tearing her back apart. In desperation, she struggled to her knees, straddling Salomen’s body as she ripped her shirt over her head. More patches of skin and glass were torn off with it.
“It’s off, it’s all off.” Micah’s words sounded strangled. “You’re going to be all right.”
She wasn’t all right. It hurt so much that she was already starting to dissociate, her training kicking in to tell her this wasn’t her body that had been so grievously harmed. She struggled to keep the separation from going too far, to stay in control just a few ticks longer. The would-be assassin was still out there, but her senses had been overwhelmed by the shock to her body and the pain she was trying to hold at bay. He was too far out; her Guards were not in empathic range. She needed Salomen’s strength to find him. There was no other choice.
She fell back to cover Salomen, bracing herself on her forearms and looking into eyes wide with disbelief and horror. “I need you,” she managed, her breathing harsh with the effort. “I can’t feel him anymore!”
Salomen nodded as she reached out. Their hands settled instinctively on the energy points that would allow the Sharing, and Tal closed her eyes as she rested her head against Salomen’s. Their forehead ridges fit together, creating the final physical bridge for their empathic powers. She had thought there would be no flash this time, not for her, but the sudden white-hot flare as their minds joined was so powerful that she could still feel it even through her numbed senses.
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