Anden used the phone in the room to dial the front desk of the Capita View Hotel and ask if he’d received any messages. He’d explained the situation to Shae yesterday evening as soon as he learned what he would be facing, and he wanted to know if his cousins had any further instructions for him. The receptionist at the hotel told him that he had indeed received a message; she patched him through to the voicemail system. To Anden’s surprise, Hilo’s voice said, “Andy, call me at the house when you get this message. Call the family line. Use a pay phone. Don’t worry if it’s late over here, call anyway.”
There were pay phones inside the building, but Anden was not sure they would count as secure enough. He made an excuse to go outside, saying he needed a smoke to calm his nerves, which was not entirely untrue. There was a phone booth a block down the street. Anden called collect to a number that went straight to the Pillar’s study. He looked at his wristwatch; it was nearly midnight back in Janloon. Hilo picked up on the third ring.
“How’re things going over there, cousin?” Hilo asked. Anden gave the Pillar a succinct report of what had happened. Hilo said, “Shae has people digging into this man, Gilspar. He takes a lot of money from the pharmaceutical companies. Also, he has at least two mistresses. If we have to shut him up, we can do it, but you’ve been doing a good job, so let’s wait and see what happens.”
Anden couldn’t help venting a little. “Hilo-jen, I’m ashamed to have any Espenian blood.”
“Don’t say that, Andy,” Hilo scolded. “You’re going to let the words of some water-blooded spenny bureaucrat make you feel bad about yourself? Haven’t I always said that in your case, some foreign blood made you better? Hasn’t it been good for us that you can go around in that country looking like one of them?” Hilo paused and Anden heard the phone go muffled for a moment, perhaps held against Hilo’s shoulder as he said, with mock severity, “Hey, you’re not too old to hug your da good night, are you?”—no doubt speaking to Ru, the only one of his children still living at the Kaul house since Jaya had gone off to the Academy this year. Seconds later, Hilo came back onto the line. “Anyway, you’ve done everything you can there. I need you to go to Resville. Tomorrow, if possible.”
“Resville?” A city in the far south of Espenia, a three-hour flight away. “Why?”
“That’s where the Mountain is trying to get its hooks into Espenia,” Hilo said. “We knew they’d make a move, and Resville is where they’re doing it. They know we’ve got too much strength in Port Massy, so they’ve gone somewhere else, hoping we won’t notice. We’ve got to wipe them out. I need you to meet with someone, to set it up for us.”
Anden looked at his watch again. Thirty minutes had gone by and he was supposed to be inside, waiting to hear if he would be called back in front of the panel for further questioning. He’d already been in Adamont Capita for sixteen days. As a jade-wearing Kekonese citizen, he was only allowed to remain in the ROE for twenty days at a time, and he’d hoped to use his last few allowable days in the country to visit Port Massy and see Mr. Hian, who was in his eighties now. With Mrs. Hian gone—let the gods recognize her—who knew how much longer Mr. Hian had to live? Resville was nowhere near Port Massy.
“I have to go back inside, Hilo-jen, I’m late,” Anden said. “I might still be stuck here for a while, I don’t know yet. Of course, if we have a chance to destroy the Mountain in Resville before they get a foothold in this country, we should take it, but I can’t leave without any warning, it’ll be suspicious. I’ll call you again tonight, first thing in the morning your time.”
After he hung up the phone, Anden hurried back into the building, arriving ten minutes late and out of breath, apologizing to an anxious Dr. Martgen and saying he’d gone to the wrong entrance and gotten lost in the corridors. As it turned out, he needn’t have rushed; it was another forty-five minutes before he was called back into the room before the panel.
Gilspar appeared flushed and deeply sullen. He did not speak or get a chance to ask any further questions. Assemblyman Sonnen cleared his throat and said to the room, “A majority of this panel has moved that the proposed legislation to legalize the use of bioenergetic jade for medical purposes proceed to a vote in the National Assembly tomorrow morning. We’ve heard enough from both sides of this debate, and despite some fiercely dissenting opinions, the evidence gathered is incontrovertible.”