Foreigner

Freely translated—Faced with betraying someone, the aiji or Banichi… which one would you betray, Jago?

Which haveyou?

Fool to ask such a question, when he was alone in a room with her?

But he was alone in the whole country, for that matter, one human alone with three hundred million atevi, and billions around the world, and he was obliged to ask questions—with more intelligence and cleverness than he had just used, granted; but he was tired enough now, and crazed enough, to want to be sure of at least three of them, of Tabini, Banichi, and Jago, before he went any further down the paved and pleasant road of belief. There was too much harm he could do to his own species, believing a lie, going too far down a false path, granting too much truth to the wrong people—

Because he wasn’tjust the aiji’s interpreter. Hehad a primary association that outranked it, an association that was stamped on his skin and his face—and that was the one atevi couldn’t help seeing, every time they looked at him.

He waited for Jago to think his question through—perhaps even to ask herself the questions about her own loyalties that atevi might prefer not to ask. Perhaps atevi minds, like human ones, held hundreds of contradictory compartments, the doors of which one dared not open wholesale and look into. He didn’t know. It was, perhaps, too much to ask, too personal and too dangerous. Perhaps questioning the loyalty atevi felt as a group inherently questioned a tenet of belief—and perhaps their man’chiconcept was, at bottom, as false as humans had always wished it was, longing at an emotional level for atevi to be and think and hold individual, interpersonal values like themselves.

The paidhi couldn’t believe that. The paidhi daren’t believe that deadliest and most dangerous of illusions. He was off the emotional edge.

And, perhaps recognizing that the paidhi was off the edge, Jago declined to answer him. She used the pocket-com again, asking Banichi if he was receiving—and still didn’t look at him.

Banichi still didn’t answer.

Frowning, then, perhaps for a different reason, Jago called headquarters, asking where Banichi was, or if anyone knew where he was—and, no, headquarters didn’t know.

Maybe Banichi was with some woman, Bren thought, although he decided he should keep that idea to himself, figuring Jago was capable of thinking of it for herself if it was at all likely. He wasn’t sure whether Banichi and Jago slept with each other. He had never been completely certain what the relationship was between them, except a close, years-long professional partnership.

He saw the frown deepen on Jago’s face. “Someone find out where he is,” she said into the com.

There were verbal codes; he knew that and he couldn’t tell whether the answer he overheard was one: “ Lab-work, ” HQ said, but Jago didn’t seem to like the answer, “Tell him contact me when he’s through,” Jago said to HQ, not seeming pleased, and shut the contact off on the affirmative.

“You had no sleep last night,” she said, in her smoother, professional tones, and, evading the wire, she slid the glass garden doors open on the lattice, “Please rest, nadi Bren.”

He was exhausted. But he had rather plain answers. And he was far from sure he wanted his garden doors open. Maybe theywere setting up a trap. He was in no mood tonight to be the sleeping bait.

“Nadi,” he said, “have you forgotten my question?”

“No, paidhi-ji.”

“But you don’t intend to answer.”

Jago fixed him with a yellow, lucent stare. “Do they ask such questions on Mospheira?”

“Always.”

“Not among us,” Jago said, and crossed the room to the door.

“Jago, say you’re not angry.”

Again that stare. She had stopped just short of the deadly square on the carpet, turned it off, and looked back at him. “Why ask such a futile question? You wouldn’t believe either answer.”

It set him back. And made him foreign and deliberate in his own reply.

“But I’m human, nadi.”

“So your man’chiisn’t with Tabini, after all.”

Dangerous question. Deadly question. “Of course it is.—But what if you had two… two very strong man’chiin?”

“We call it a test of character.” Jago said, and opened the door.

“So do we, nadi Jago.”

He had caught her attention. Black, wide, imposing, she stood against that bar of whiter hall light. She stood there as if she wanted to say something.

But the pocket-com beeped, demanding attention. She spoke briefly with headquarters, regarding Banichi’s whereabouts, and HQ said that he was out of the lab, but in conference, asking not to be disturbed.

“Thank you,” she said to the com. “Relay my message.” And to him: “The wires will both be live. Go to bed, paidhi Bren. I’ll be outside if you need me.”

“All night?”

There was a moment of silence. “Don’t walk in the garden, nand’ paidhi. Don’t stand in front of the doors. Be prudent and go to bed.”

She shut the door then. The wire rearmed itself—he supposed. It came up when the door locked.

And did it need all of that—Jago andthe wire, to secure his sleep?