Reclamation

He swirled the liquid in the glass meditatively. "She must be unique in some significant way." He smiled at Iyal again. "If we knew how, we, you and I, Cousin, could give Kethran what the rest of the Quarter Galaxy would sell their lives to have, a step up on the Vitae."

"Well, it's not like we haven't been trying to work on it, Zur-Kohlbyr," Iyal reminded him.

"We've been trying within very strict boundaries." He swallowed the last of his drink. "I suggest that the importance of speed in this matter removes those boundaries."

Iyal felt the blood drain out of her cheeks. "What do you want me to do, Cousin Director? Take a sapient woman apart to see how she ticks?"

"Zur-Iyal." Zur-Kohlbyr rested his hands flat on the table. "We need this. Things are building quickly in the Quarter Galaxy. The Unifiers are becoming a real force, and we don't know how power will go to their collective heads. The Shessel are beginning to colonize and spread in their own right and we don't know what they will do either. The Vitae are pulling back to this little world they've found, perhaps permanently, perhaps not. Without some leverage, Kethran, this world our parents built from a dead rock, is doomed to be tossed around the political storm like a feather in a stampede."

Iyal said nothing.

"Cousin, I know you have limited your considerable talent for intrigue and manipulation to the occasional interaction with contraband runners. Since it was proper to your postmarriage status and beneficial to the labs, I've never said anything about it. Now I'm asking you to remember your birth family and your place in the soul-politic and do not make me force you to hand this artifact over to me after I've seen to your arrest.

"Where is Aria Stone now?"

Iyal gripped her wrist until the edges of the portrait bracelet dug into her palm. She saw Aria in the lab, reading. She saw her, narrow-eyed and plainly frightened, as she arrived by Perivar's side. She heard her own voice talking to Perivar: And I'm not crazy about the idea you'd think I'd get her in here and put her in a processor…

And she heard Basq promising to leave as soon as they had Aria, and she saw Kethran forced to crawl back to the Parent World because they couldn't manage on their own. And she heard Cousin Director's threat again and she knew, she knew, that he meant it. And she saw Aria in the lab.

Iyal stood up. "Aria Stone is on field assignment, Cousin Director. I'll have her recalled immediately. You'll have to give me eleven hours, though."

He nodded. "I think I can give you just that, Iyal. Remember, we need her alive, but I'm sure we can explain away any other…aspects…of her physical condition." His smile grew conspiratorial. "I knew, I knew, you would hold true on this."

"We will also have to talk further, Cousin Director," she said with what she hoped was a knowing leer.

She let him walk her to the door and salute her as she left.

Back out in the corridor, she used her torque to call Allenden.

"Where is she?" she asked under her breath as she skirted two interns who were deep in their own discussions.

"Sweeping the attic, actually," came Allenden's reply, "Iyal, what…"

"I'll tell you later. Just sit still for now, all right?"

"All right, Iyal, all right." There was a peeved note in his voice. Iyal swallowed. She couldn't risk getting Allenden angry right now. There was too much she might need him for later.

"Allenden," she said. "We need to move with extreme caution on this. It could shape up into a family war if we don't."

She could tell by the length of the pause that she had gotten to him.

"I'm waiting on the news, Iyal," he said, and shut the connection down.

In no mood to wait for the service lift, Iyal ran up three flights of stairs.

The attic was actually a lab that had been shut down three years ago when the Vitae had finished implementing their plans for controlling the genetic engineering industry on Kethran. The loss of business had forced Amaiar Gardens to cut its staff. The unused lab had never been officially converted into storage, but unused equipment, broken furniture, and anything else that anybody wanted to get out of the way turned up there. Every now and again some intern in trouble with his supervisor would be sent up there to clean it out and organize it.