Part 34 (1/2)

Soz didn't switch anything. Instead she rose to her feet, her gaze hard on the Trade Minister. She had business with this particular Highton. So this was the Aristo who had dared to abuse her husband, to use him as a provider under the guise of being his ”mentor.”

Quaelen watched her with chillingly perfect arrogance. ”The Ministry of Trade greets the Imperator of Skolia.”

Protocol spoke over Soz's comm. ”This is a severe break with procedure! Switch the line to me. Either break the link or leave the dais.”

Soz stayed put, intent on Quaelen. ”This Office hasn't acknowledged you as the voice of Qox, Minister Quaelen.” In her side vision, she saw Tikal freeze, his gaze fixed on her now.

Quaelen spoke with smug arrogance. ”As Imperator, you appear to be acknowledging it quite well.”

”Imperator Skolia,” Protocol said. ”Leave the dais!”

Soz smiled at Quaelen. ”I'm coming after you, little Trade Minister. All you Hightons. Take warning. Your days are numbered.”

Quaelen stiffened. ”Indeed. Your efforts at diplomacy leave rather much to be desired.”

Tikal was gesturing at his aides, saying something, swearing, it looked like. In her ear she heard someone say, ”I don't care if the line is secured. Cut the d.a.m.n transmission.”

”Diplomacy has to be earned,” Soz told Quaelen.

His hand jerked at his side, just barely, as if he intended to strike her. ”'Earned'? You should be groveling at my feet.”

”Saints almighty,” a voice in Soz's ear said. Tikal looked as if he were going apoplectic. Then Roca's voice came over her ear comm. ”Soz, are you out of your flaming mind? Cut the line.”

”Got it!” the telop across the room called. The hum of the screens around Soz stopped, cutting her off from Quaelen. She heard a buzz of voices as Protocol replaced her in the link.

Tikal was striding across the room, surrounded by aides. A telop rattled off data in her ear, something about simulations predicting the effect of what had just transpired. As she left the dais, Tikal intercepted her.

”What the h.e.l.l was the purpose of that?” He almost shouted it at her. ”Quaelen is the one who broke protocol. All you had to do was walk away.”

Soz kept going. ”I wanted to hear what he had to say.”

Protocol strode through the doorway, intercepting them. ”At what price? Our relations with Eube are already strained enough.”

”Strained?” Soz stopped in the doorway, flanked by her bodyguards. ”We're at war, Councilor.”

”All the more reason for tact,” Tikal said.

”What?” Soz said. ”You want me to say, 'Excuse me, do you mind if I kill you today'?”

Tikal scowled. ”It would have been a h.e.l.l of a lot better than that slugfest back there.”

”He pushed,” Soz said. ”I pushed back.”

”To what purpose?”

”'Know thine enemy.'”

”Marvelous,” Tikal growled. ”And now what do you know?”

”Kryx Quaelen has a weak point,” Soz said. ”He's afraid of losing position within the Aristo hierarchy.”

”Right,” Tikal said. ”You exchange five sentences with him and you're an expert on his psychology.”

”Their position is ensured by their caste,” Protocol said. ”It's inviolable.”

”That may be,” Soz said. ”But he has a problem with it.” She paused. ”I will be in the Solitude Room if you need me.”

Tikal clenched one fist, then made himself relax it. ”Very well.”

She found the Solitude Room already occupied. Her father was sitting in the chair. She came up to him, and he watched her, his face guarded. ”I wondered if you would come,” he said.

”I remembered how much you liked it here.” She ached at the sight of him. She could tell he wanted to hug her, but she also felt his uncertainty with this daughter he hadn't seen for so long. As a child, she had always been generous with affection, but adulthood had brought distances that became harder to bridge as their lives grew ever more complex. She hesitated now, trapped in her own reserve.

Then she thought of the fragility of their lives, and she reached out to him, across the blocky arm of the chair.

”Ai, Soshoni.” He embraced her then, his love and relief enfolding her mind. When they let each other go, he spoke in a subdued voice. ”Emperor Qox looked exhausted.”

”We did our best.” Her voice caught. ”Sometimes that's not enough.”

”What will you do now?”

Activate shadowmaker, Soz thought.

Activated, her node answered. Vertigo swept over her, the same sensation that came with her cyberlock. She didn't care. She had much to protect.

”I'm going to get him,” she said.

”How?” her father asked. ”Short of full-scale invasion, there is no way to penetrate to Glory.”

”I know that.” Her words sounded m.u.f.fled. Subdued. Belying their import.

He watched her for a long time, absorbing that. Then he said, ”ISC hasn't the resources.”

”ISC has more than it knows.” Softly she said, ”I'm going to get him, Father. Whatever it takes.”

”You let her needle you.” Viquara walked with Quaelen along a glittering diamond hall in the emperor's wing of the palace.

”She's angry,” Quaelen said. ”It's useful to know. Anger can impair judgment.”

”It's no wonder she's angry, if what my operatives say is true, that she's been pursuing him for fifteen years.”

”A compelling scenario,” Quaelen commented.

Compelling indeed, Viquara thought. That a Ruby Dynasty heir would pursue the Highton Heir with fanatical obsession for fifteen years-this was a tale the Hightons could believe, revel in even, given how their emperor had triumphed in the end. It sounded too convenient to Viquara. She alone knew the rest. Jaibriol and Soz Valdoria were both Rhon. On the same planet? And Jaibriol had at least one child? It didn't take a genius to put the pieces together.

Viquara had used her best people to find Jaibriol. After a ma.s.sive search among the Eubian, Skolian, and Allied webs, one of her hackers discovered a brief note deleted from an Allied network fifteen years ago, a cryptic mention of ”Gamma IV.” Her people followed up the lead, as she had them follow every lead, however small. And this one bore fruit. An ESComm dreadnought found Jaibriol-and the child. Jaibriol's b.a.s.t.a.r.d son? That the boy wasn't Aristo made it an inconsequential matter, earning heatbar sterilization as a routine precaution. When Viquara ordered them to go back to the planet and do it again, she knew her command appeared excessive. She didn't care. Let them think she was obsessed with Jaibriol's safety. It was, after all, acceptable for an empress overwhelmed by the return of her long-lost son.

Could anyone have escaped that inferno? No. Yet Sauscony Valdoria had been on the planet. If she had been searching for Jaibriol in another region, the sterilization would have missed her. Then who was the boy's mother? Although the reports said the child had yellow hair, the monitors hadn't recorded a good image of him. Sauscony Valdoria had dark hair, only yellow at the tips, but her mother and brothers had gold hair.