The report was bogus. Tomas would understand that the moment she pointed it out to him.
A chime sounded in her ear. "Ezr, hello." Damn. Her call to him had just been a cover, an excuse to download a big block and look at Luan's records. But here he was. For a moment, he seemed to be sitting next to her in the taxi. Then the image flickered as her huds figured out they couldn't manage the illusion, and settled for putting him in a fixed position pseudo-display. Behind him were the blue-green walls of the Hammerfest attic. He was visiting Trixia, of course.
The picture was more than good enough to show the impatience in his face. "I decided to get right back to you. You know I go off-Watch in sixty Ksec."
"Yes, sorry to bother you. I've been looking over the personnel stats. For that planning committee stuff you and I are stuck with? Anyway, I came up with a question." Her mind raced ahead of her words, searching madly for some issue that would justify this call. Funny how the least attempt at deception always seemed to make life more complicated. She stumbled along for a few sentences, finally came up with a really stupid question about specialist mixing.
Ezr was looking at her a little strangely now. He shrugged. "You're asking about the end of the Exile, Qiwi. Who knows what we'll need when the Spiders are ready for contact. I thought we were going to bring all specialties out of coldsleep then, and run flat out."
"Of course, that's the plan, but there are details—" Qiwi weaseled her way toward credibility. The main thing was just to end the conversation. "—so I'll think about this some more. Let's have a real meeting after you get back on from coldsleep."
Ezr grimaced. "That will be a while. I'm off for fifty Msec." Most of two years.
"What?" That was more than four times as long as his usual off-Watch.
"You know, new faces and all that." There were branches of his Watch tree that had not had much time. Tomas and the manager committee—Qiwi and Ezr included!—had thought everyone should get hands-on time and exposure to the usual training courses.
"You're starting a little early." And 50Msec was longer than she expected.
"Yeah. Well, you have to start someplace." He looked away from the video pov. At Trixia? When he looked back, his tone was less impatient but somehow more urgent. "Look, Qiwi. I'm going to be on ice for a big fifty, and even afterwards I'll be on a low duty cycle for a while." He raised a hand as if to forestall objections. "I'm not complaining! I participated in the decisions myself....But Trixia will be on-Watch all that time. That's longer than she has ever been alone. There'll be nobody to stand up for her."
Qiwi wished she could reach out and comfort him. "No one will harm her, Ezr."
"Yeah, I know. She's toovaluable to harm. Just like your father." Something flickered in his eyes, but it wasn't the usual anger. Poor Ezr was begging her. "They'll keep her body working, they'll keep her moderately clean. But I don't want her hassled any more than she already is. Keep an eye on her, Qiwi. You have real power, at least over small fish like Trud Silipan."
It was the first time Ezr had really asked her for help.
"I'll watch out for her, Ezr," Qiwi said softly. "I promise."
After he rang off, Qiwi sat unmoving for several seconds. Strange that a phone call that was an accident and a scam should have such an impact. But Ezr had always had that effect on her. When she was thirteen, Ezr Vinh had seemed the most wonderful man in the universe—and the only way she could get his attention was by goading him. Such teenage crushes should vape away, right? Occasionally she wondered if the Diem massacre had somehow stunted her soul, trapped her affections as they were in the last innocent days before all the death....Whatever the reason, it felt good that she could do something for him.
Maybe paranoia was contagious. Luan Peres dead. Now Ezr gone for even longer than they had planned.I wonder who actually specified thatWatch change? Qiwi looked back through her cache. The schedule change was nominally from the Watch-manager committee...with Ritser Brughel doing the actual sign-off. That happened often enough; one Podmaster or the other had to sign for all such changes.
