Broey crossed to the head of the conference table, flipped the toggle which activated his communicator, addressed the screen which only he could see.

"Assemble the Council and link for conference."

The response came as a distorted buzz filtered through scramblers and suppressed by a privacy cone.  Gar, standing across the room, could make no sense out of the noises coming from the communicator.

While he waited for the Council members to come on the conference link, Broey seated himself at the communicator, summoned a Gowachin aide to the screen, and spoke in a low voice masked by the privacy cone.

"Start a security check on all Humans in positions where they might threaten us.  Use Plan D."

Broey glanced up at Gar.  The Human's mouth worked silently.  He was annoyed by the privacy cone and his inability to tell exactly what Broey was doing.  Broey continued speaking to his aide.

"I'll want the special force deployed as I told you earlier . . .  Yes . . ."

Gar pointedly turned his back on this conversation, stared out at the night.

Broey continued to address his aide in the screen.

"No!  We must include even the Humans in this conference.  Yes, that's the report Gar made to me.  Yes, I also received that information.  Other Humans can be expected to riot and drive out their Gowachin neighbors, and there'll be retaliations.  Yes, that was my thought when I saw the report."

Broey turned off the privacy cone and scrambler.  Tria had just come onto his screen with an override, interrupting the conversation with his security aide.  She spoke in a low, hurried voice with only a few words intelligible to Gar across the room.  But Broey's suspicions were becoming obvious.  He heard Tria out, then:

"Yes . . . it would be logical to suppose that such a killing was made to look like Gowachin work for . . .  I see.  But the scattered incidents which . . . Indeed?  Well, under the circumstances . . ."

He left the thought incomplete, but his words drew a line between Human and Gowachin, even at the highest levels of his Advisory Council.

"Tria, I must make my own decisions on this."

While Broey was speaking, Gar brought up a chair and placed it near the communicator, then sat down.  Broey had finished his conversation with Tria and restored the privacy circuits, however, and even though he sat nearby Gar could not penetrate their protective screen.  He was close enough now, though, to hear the buzzing of the privacy system and the sound annoyed Gar.  He did not try to conceal his annoyance.

Broey saw Gar, but gave no indication that he approved or disapproved Gar's nearness.

"So I understand," Broey said.  "Yes . . . I'll issue those orders as soon as I've finished here.  No . . .  Agreed.  That would be best."  He closed the circuit.  The annoying buzz stopped.

"Jedrik means to set Gowachin against Human, Human against Gowachin," Gar said.

"If so, it's been a long time in secret preparation," Broey said.

His words implied many things:  that there was conspiracy in high places, that the situation had achieved dangerous momentum without being detected, that all of the inertial forces could not now be anticipated.

"You expect it to get worse," Gar said.

"Hopefully."

Gar stared at him for a long period, then:

"Yes.

It was clear that Broey wanted a well-defined condition to develop, one which would provide clear predictions of the major consequences.  He was prepared for this.  When Broey understood the situation to his own satisfaction, he'd use his own undeniable powers to gain as much as possible during a period of upset.

Gar broke the silence.

"But if we've misunderstood Jedrik's intent -"

"It helps us when the innocent suffer," Broey said, paraphrasing part of an old axiom which every Dosadi knew.

Gar completed the thought for him.

"But who's innocent?"

Before Broey could respond, his screen came alight with the assembled faces of his Council, each face in its own little square.  Broey conducted the conference quickly, allowing few interruptions.  There were no house arrests, no direct accusations, but his words and manner divided them by species.  When he was through, Gar imagined the scrambling which must be going on right then in Chu while the powerful assembled their defenses.

Without knowing how he sensed this, Gar felt that this was exactly what Jedrik had wanted, and that it'd been a mistake for Broey to increase the tensions.

After turning off the communicator, Broey sat back and addressed himself to Gar with great care.

"Tria tells me that Jedrik cannot be found."

"Didn't we expect that?"

"Perhaps."  Broey puffed his jowls.  "What I don't understand is how a simple Liaitor could elude my people and Tria."

"I think we've underestimated this Jedrik.  What if she comes from . . ."  His chin jerked ceilingward.

Broey considered this.  He'd been supervising the interrogation of Bahrank at a secure post deep in the Council Hills when the summons to headquarters had interrupted.  The accumulating reports indicated a kind of trouble Chu had known at various times, but never at this magnitude.  And Bahrank's information had been disappointing.  He'd delivered this Rim infiltrator named McKie to such and such an address.  (Security had been unable to check this in time because of the riots.)  Bahrank's beliefs were obvious.  And perhaps the Rimmers were trying to build their own city beyond the mountains.  Broey thought this unlikely.  His sources in the Rim had proved generally trustworthy and his special source was always trustworthy.  Besides, such a venture would require gigantic stocks of food, all of it subject to exposure in the regular accounting.  That, after all, was the Liaitor function, why he had . . .  No, that was not probable.  The Rim subsisted on the lowest of Chu's leavings and whatever could be wrested from Dosadi's poisonous soil.  No . . .  Bahrank was wrong.  This McKie was peculiar, but in quite another way.  And Jedrik must've known this before anyone else - except himself.  The paramount question remained:  who'd helped her?

Broey sighed.

"We have a long association, Gar.  A person of your powers who has worked his way from the Rim through the Warrens . . ."

Gar understood.  He was being told that Broey looked upon him with active suspicion.  There'd never been any real trust between them, but this was something else:  nothing openly spoken, nothing direct or specific, but the meaning clear.  It was not even sly; it was merely Dosadi.

For a moment, Gar didn't know which way to turn.  There'd always been this possibility in his relationship with Broey, but long acceptance had lulled Gar into a dangerous dependency.  Tria had been his most valuable counter.  He needed her now, but she had other, much more demanding, duties at this juncture.

Gar realized now that he would have to precipitate his own plans, calling in all of the debts and dependencies which were his due.  He was distracted by the sound of many people hurrying past in the outer hall.  Presumably, things were coming to a head faster than expected.

Gar stood up, stared vaguely out the windows at those dark shadows in the night which were the Rim cliffs.  While waiting for Broey, Gar had watched darkness settle there, watched the spots of orange appear which were the Rim's cookfires.  Gar knew those cookfires, knew the taste of the food which came from them, knew the flesh-dragging dullness which dominated existence out there.  Did Broey expect him to flee back to that?  Broey would be astonished at the alternatives open to Gar.

"I will leave you now," Broey said.  He arose and waddled from the room.  What he meant was:  "Don't be here when I return."

Gar continued to stare out the windows.  He seemed lost in angry reverie.  Why hadn't Tria reported yet?  One of Broey's Gowachin aides came in, fussed over papers on a corner table.