Reynolt was obviously not surprised by the contents of the carrier. She sniffed at the delitesse with the expression of a bactry technician assessing slime ferment. "Very aromatic. Candy and junk food are not on the allowed diet list, Mr. Vinh."
"I'm sorry. I just meant it as a treat...a little reward. I don't do it often."
"True. In fact, you've never done it before." Her gaze flickered around his face, then moved away. "It's been thirty years, Mr. Vinh. Seven years of your own life-time on-Watch. You know that zipheads do not respond to such ‘rewards'; their motive system is primarily within their area of Focus and secondarily attached to their owners. No...I think you still have your secret plans to waken love in Dr. Bonsol."
"With a dessert confection?"
Reynolt gave him a hard little smile. His sarcasm would have gone right past an ordinary ziphead. It didn't deflect Reynolt, but she recognized it. "With the smell, perhaps. I imagine you've been into some Qeng Ho neurology courses—found something about olfactory pathways having independent access to the higher centers. Hmm?" For an instant her gaze skewered him like a bug in a collection.
That's exactly what the neuro courses said.And the delitesse was something that Trixia would not have smelled since before she was Focused. For a moment, the walls around Trixia's true self had thinned to barely more than a veil. For a moment, Ezr had touched her.
Ezr shrugged. Reynolt was so very sharp. If she ever thought to look, she was surely bright enough to see all the way through him. She was probably bright enough to see through even Pham Nuwen. The only thing that saved them was that Pham and Ezr were at the edge of her Focus.IfRitser Brughel had a snoop even half as good, Pham and I would be deadnow.
Reynolt turned away from him, for a moment tracked phantoms in her huds. Then, "Your misbehavior has caused no harm. In some ways, Focus is a robust state. You may think you see changes in Dr. Bonsol, but consider: Over the last few years, all the best translators have begun to show synthetic affect. If it hurts performance, we'll take them down to the clinic for some tuning... .
"However, if you actively attempt manipulation again, I will keep you out of Dr. Bonsol's way."
It was a totally effective threat, but Ezr tried to laugh. "What, no death threats?"
"My assessment, Mr. Vinh: Your knowledge of Humankind's Dawn Age civilization makes you extremely valuable. You're an effective interface between at least four of my groups—and I know that the Podmaster uses your advice as well. But make no mistake: I can get along without you in the translation department. If you cross me again, you won't see Dr. Bonsol till after the mission is complete."
Fifteen years? Twenty?
Ezr stared at her, feeling the utter certainty in her words. What an implacable creature this woman was. Not for the first time, he wondered what she had been like before. He was not alone in that. Trud Silipan regaled the patrons at Benny's with the speculations. The Xevalle clique had once been the second most powerful in the Emergency; Trud claimed she had been high in its ranks. At one time she might have been a greater monster than Tomas Nau. At least some of them got punished; crushed by their own kind. Anne Reynolt had fallen far, from being a knowing Satan to being a Satan's tool.
...Whether that made her more or less than before, she was dangerous enough for Ezr Vinh.
That night, alone in the dark of his room, Ezr described the encounter to Pham Nuwen. "I get the feeling that if Reynolt ever transferred to Brughel's operation, she'd figure out about you and me in a matter of Ksecs."
Nuwen's chuckle was a distorted buzzing sound deep in Ezr's ear. "That's a transfer that will never happen. She's the only thing that's holding the ziphead operation together. She had a staff of four hundred unFocused interface types before the Ambush—now she'sbuzz zzzt. "
"Say the last again."
"I said, ‘Now she's depending for much of her support on untrained help. ' "
The buzz that was not quite a voice faded in and out of intelligibility. There were still times when Ezr had to ask for three or four repetitions. But it was a big improvement over the blinkertalk they had used in the beginning. Now, when Ezr pretended to go to sleep, he had a single millimeter-long localizer pressed deep in his ear. The result was mostly buzzing and hissing, nearly inaudible, but with enough practice you could normally guess the speech behind it. The localizers were scattered all around the room—all around the Traders' temp. They had become Brughel and Nau's primary security tool here.
"Still, maybe I shouldn't have tried the delitesse trick."
