Then the others were piling in, Kit first, then Olli in her walker, and at last Solace, in her uniform coat. She sent Kris a glance that pleaded Is he really all right, then? and Kris sent her a nod.
‘Oh wow,’ Olli observed. ‘You look really, really ill.’
‘Thanks,’ Idris said sourly, then blinked. ‘You look ropey yourself.’
The specialist’s exposed skin was blotchy with broken blood vessels and the whites of her eyes had gone a solid red. ‘That’s because Trine’s a shitty mechanic,’ she accused.
‘You’re still alive, are you not, my dear ingrate?’ Trine retorted. ‘And, I would add, I’ve been performing a mechanic’s work on your ship—’
‘Poorly!’
‘。 . . Work on your ship. And yet, I am the only one not drawing some manner of recompense,’ the Hiver finished haughtily.
‘All contracts to be negotiated ahead of performance,’ Kit chimed in merrily. The Hanni seemed to have come through the whole ordeal better than any of them.
‘Perhaps I should start charging you for the use of my embassy,’ Trine suggested darkly.
‘Open to negotiation!’ Kittering announced.
‘So . . .’ Idris looked from one to the other. ‘Fill me in. The Architect went away. As we are where we are, I assume it hasn’t come back yet. What happened next?’
‘It’s been two days since then,’ Kris told him. ‘Mostly what’s happened is we’ve been dancing around your bed – because everyone is very deeply interested in you.’
‘Kris has been running interference,’ Olli noted approvingly. ‘What’s that you said, Trine?’
‘Telling people to go to hell in such a way that they enjoy the trip,’ the Hiver supplied. ‘It’s been a privilege having you on the diplomatic staff.’
‘But . . . tell me they’ve been making preparations beyond that?’ Idris said weakly.
‘I think the consensus is that we’ve all had a nasty scare, but the Second Architect War has been headed off before it began. Thanks to you.’
Something buzzed in Idris’s chest, just at the edge of hearing, as Trine’s severed components did something to modulate his heartbeat.
‘But it really hasn’t ended. It hasn’t been headed off at all,’ he told them, and at their collective blank looks, he explained, ‘They’re coming back. They have to. They don’t even want to, but they will . . . Do people seriously think this is over? And they’re back to the politicking – already?’ A louder buzz then, as he tried to prop himself up in bed.
‘Idris, you can’t just—’ Kris started, but he was shaking his head, wild-eyed.
‘I need to speak to people. I need to tell them. Borodin, Tact, anyone. Get them, call them – Trine, do ambassador stuff, do something.’
Havaer
Chief Laery was not much of a proponent of the ‘walk and talk’ meeting, for obvious reasons, but this time, she’d decided to take the scenic route with Havaer Mundy. They were walking along a viewing gallery set into the satellite that was the Intervention Board, hence the de facto new Mordant House. She’d donned a humanoid frame, just a subtle one beneath her robe. If you didn’t listen out for the whine of servos or note the odd shifting of struts about her hips, you’d almost miss it. Havaer shortened his own long stride to match her pace.
‘You’ve allowed yourself quite a lot of leeway on this one,’ she told him, staring out at the starry immensity beyond. Berlenhof’s blue horizon was just starting to show itself beneath their feet.
‘I’m aware that there’s a disciplinary with my name on it, Chief, waiting in the wings,’ he confirmed, stoically. He had crossed several lines to extract Telemmier from Hugh custody and it had paid off. But that didn’t mean those lines magically moved to just beyond the toes of his sandals.
‘Ah, drama . . .’ she said dismissively. ‘Not right now, Havaer. It’s on your record. It’s circling above you, ready to drop its payload, but we need every good agent we can get. Even those with a distressing tendency to think outside the box. Perhaps especially those. Why did you do it, in the end?’
‘Because I’d spoken to him, he’d been right about the Architects returning and he had more information than any of us.’
‘Those are usually the sorts of people we detain, rather than letting them go,’ she observed drily. ‘But in this instance, the results certainly speak for themselves.’