"Inside. Only silently, and inside." They were quiet for a moment, and Little Victory wished that she had lost her recon game with Gokna. But when Mother spoke again, her voice was more normal. "We both screwed up on this." She keyed open her travel case and picked out some papers. "Over the next year, ‘The Children's Hour' was to introduce the virtue and the possibility of life in the Dark, on schedule with the first construction contracts. Someday, we knew there would be military consequences, but we didn't expect anything at this stage."
"Military consequences now?"
"Deadly maneuvering, anyway. You know this Pedure cobber is from Tiefstadt."
"Sure. Her accent is unmistakable."
"Her cover is good, partly because it's mainly true. Honored Pedure is Cleric Three in the Church of the Dark. But she's also midlevel intelligence with Action of God."
"The Kindred."
"Indeed. We've had friendly relations with the Tiefers since the war, but the Kindred are beginning to change that. They already have several minor states in their effective control. They're a legitimate sect of the Church, but—"
Far down the corridor behind Little Victory, someone turned on a hall light. Mom raised a hand and stood very still.Oops. Maybe she had noticed a faint silhouette, familiar grooves and armored fluting. Without turning, Smith extended a long arm in the direction of the eavesdropper. "Junior! Shut the door and get yourself back to your room."
Little Victory's voice was small and abashed. "Yes, Mother."
As she slid the utility door closed, she heard one last comment: "Damn. I spend fifty million a year on signal security, and my own daughter is running intercepts on me—"
Just now, the clinic under Hammerfest was a crowded place. On Pham's previous visits, there had been Trud, sometimes another technician, and one or two "patients." Today—well, a hand grenade would have caused more turmoil among the Focused, but not by much. Both the MRI units were occupied. One of the handlers was prepping Xopi Reung for MRI; the woman moaned, thrashing against his efforts. Over in a corner, Dietr Li—the physicist?—was strapped down, mumbling to himself.
Reynolt had one foot hooked over a ceiling stay, so that she hung down close to the MRI without getting in the way of the techs. She didn't look around as they came in. "Okay, induction complete. Keep the arms restrained." The tech slid his patient out into the middle of the room. It was Trixia Bonsol; she looked around, obviously not recognizing anyone, and then her face collapsed into hopeless sobbing.
"You've deFocused her!" Vinh shouted, pushing past Trud and Trinli. Pham anchored and grabbed, all in one motion, and Vinh's forward motion reversed, bouncing him lightly against the wall.
Reynolt looked in Vinh's direction. "Be silent or get out," she said. She jerked a hand at Bil Phuong. "Insert Dr. Reung. I want—" The rest was jargon. A normal bureaucrat would certainly have kicked them out. Anne Reynolt really didn't care, as long as they didn't get in her way.
Silipan drifted back to Pham and Vinh. He looked subdued and grim. "Yeah. Shut up, Vinh." He glanced at the MRI's display. "Bonsol's still Focused. We've just detuned her linguistics ability. It'll make her easier to...treat." He glanced at Bonsol uncertainly. The woman had bent in on herself as far as the restraints would permit. Her weeping continued, hopeless and inconsolable.
Vinh struggled briefly in Pham's grasp, and then he was still except for a tremor that only Pham could feel. For a second it looked like he might start bawling. Then the boy twisted, turned his face away from Bonsol, and screwed his eyes shut.
Tomas Nau's voice came loud in the room. "Anne? I've lost three analysis threads since this outage began. Do you know—"
Reynolt's tone was almost the same she had used with Vinh: "Give me a Ksec. I have at least five cases of runaway rot."
"Lordy...keep me posted, Anne."
Reynolt was already talking to someone else. "Hom! What's the story on Dr. Li?"
"He's rational, ma'am; I've been listening to him. Something happened during the radio show, and—"
Reynolt sailed across the room to Dieter Li, somehow missing techs, zipheads, and equipment. "That's bizarre. There shouldn't have been live crosstalk between physics and the radio show."
The tech tapped a card attached to Li's blouse. "His log says he heard the translation."
Pham noticed Silipan swallow hard. Could this be one of his screwups? Damn. If the man was disgraced, Pham would lose his pipeline into the Focus operation.
But Reynolt still hadn't noticed her AWOL technician. She leaned close to Dietr Li, listened for a moment to his mumbling. "You're right. He's stuck on what the Spider said about OnOff. I doubt he's suffering from real runaway. Just keep watching him; let me know if he starts looping."
