“We’re with you,”Amy said.

Twenty‑one seconds. Fifteen. Ten. Five.

The flasher came up, computer‑generated, the actual tally of votes, and the result.

Spurlinby 65 percent.

“We elected the dead man,” she said, and let go a breath as her staff visibly relaxed and as cheers erupted in Amy’s apartment. “Just a second.” She punched in Yanni’s office while the gang celebrated. “Yanni.”

“Told you”Yanni said.

“I told you,” she said. “Go have a party. I have my own to go to.”

“Not a tear for poor old Spurlin.”

“What for? We got his revenge for him. Just carry on what we’re doing.”

The autopsy had come in. Delicate death. A scarcely detectible drug, administered in the morning coffee. Murder. Council hadn’t wanted to announce that before the election. Now it was going to break, and occupy the news.

“…incumbent Councillor Jacques,”the news channel was saying, introducing its next speaker, and the staff paid absolutely silent attention.

“Jacques is on,” she said to Yanni. “Let him finish. Then go get some sleep.”

“I’ll wait to hear all of it,”Yanni said, and was silent while Jacques said…

“The Bureau of Defense mourns the passing of elected Councillor Spurlin, in which sentiment I know I am joined by candidate Vladislaw Khalid. The constitution provides that if a candidate for a Council seat dies between the closing of the polls and the reading of results, the incumbent Councillor for that bureau may, at his discretion, remain in office for the next term. I am opting to remain as Councillor for Defense. I will at a future date name a Proxy Councillor…”

Ari frowned. “Yanni.”

“I heard.”

“…as I see fit. Let us all join in paying tribute to a man…”

And so on.

“Did he agree? Is he still going to name Bigelow?”

“I don’t know what game he’s playing,”Yanni said. “I’m going to find out, but, dammit, this isn’t something for phone calls. Release the damned plane.”

Jacques, if Spurlin won posthumously, was supposed to have immediately named Gorodin’s long‑time aide, Vice Admiral Tanya Bigelow, as Proxy Councillor for Defense. All Jacques had to do then was warm that chair until they could organize another election, and Khalid, defeated, had to wait two years. It had all been handled.

Jacques had just gone sideways.

“ Ari?”

“Khalid got to him,” she said. “Khalid got to him. God, this isn’t looking like Paxer business, Yanni. This isn’t.”

“I’ve got to get down there,”Yanni said. “I’m taking plenty of security, but I have to get there. I have to talk to Jacques directly. Dammit, Ari, either take over right now, or don’t. Don’t try to steer from the passenger seat.”

She didn’t want to agree. She saw the situation, however, just the same as Yanni. And he was right this time. Jacques was under threat, or he’d been paid off, and she’d guess the former.

“Yanni, I’ll clear the flight. Protect Lynch. Above all, take care of yourself.”

Florian and Catlin had come over to her, where she sat with the mini, linked into the minder. They had a much quieter manner than a few moments ago. Marco and Wes joined them, just stood and waited.

“Yanni’s going to Novgorod,” she said, “to talk to Jacques. Someone’s gotten to him. Maybe Yanni can supply enough security to give him a little backbone. Khalid’s people killed Spurlin, I’ll bet on it. All of a sudden I’m wondering about Patil and Thieu.”

“Khalid is still up on the station,” Catlin said.

“And out of reach. Out of our reach. But he has fingers down here. We need to know where, and into what. We need to know why Jacques changed his mind. Yanni’s going to ask that question personally. He’s relying on Hicks’smen to protect him. I’m not liking this. I’m not liking this at all.”

“We’ll keep informed,” Florian said.

“Inform me,” she said, “at any hour of the day or night. If anything happens to Yanni, under Hicks’s protection–” She thought about it, about the danger of a man with that many keys to the systems…when the source of the danger might lie well within the impenetrable heart of another Bureau. “Get ready to take Hicks down, dead or alive, I’m imposing no conditions. Just don’t risk yourselves. Remember I can axe his accesses. If I hear anything untoward out of Novgorod, Hicks is gone.”

“Understood,” Catlin said, and then: “Sera?”

She looked up at Catlin.

“We know Hicks used to accompany Director Giraud to Novgorod. There were many meetings with Defense in Gorodin’s administration and in Khalid’s. He went a few days ago. For Yanni.”

Bureau heads met. Their representatives met. Hicks had indeed gone there a few days ago, talking to Jacques, carrying Yanni’s offer to Jacques; it went on all the time.

“Sera?” Florian asked, in her long silence.

“Jacques is going to name Khalid as Proxy Councillor. He may be hoping we’ll raise the bet and bid him back. But we have to be able to guarantee his life. That executive position doesn’t help him at all if he’s dead. Or if his family is. Estranged daughter?”

Catlin whipped out her handheld. She said, memory refresher, “Solo. No minor dependents. No relationships since 2421. Uncontested division of household. Estranged daughter, grandchild, great‑grandchildren, affiliated with former partner, not genetically related to Jacques.”

Solo fit a pattern, of people who made it to directorships and Council seats. Including Yanni. “Whereabouts of next‑ofs and former partner: Novgorod.”

“Novgorod,” Catlin confirmed.

“Too available. Relay that info to Yanni, not to Hicks. TellYanni we’re not relaying it to Hicks.” Yanni would say to her, What do you expect me to do about it, without Hicks? “Tell him he’s got to get some meaningful security around Jacques’s family and friends. And Jacques. And damn it, it’ll look like hell if we pull ReseuneSec in to guard him. Tell Yanni that Spurlin was murdered. That’s proof enough. Let the OCI request Stateto get agents in to guard Jacques, and our bloc will back him in Council for doing it. Andtell Yanni I say keep Hicks in the dark on the whole move.”

“Yes, sera,” Florian said, and got on the phone. She heard him talking to Yanni’s office manager, Chloe. “Sera’s orders. Urgent message for Yanni.”

Yanni was going to spit if she kept interfering and nagging him step by step, but she was about two jumps short of voicing the code to override Base Two as it was, and blood was rushing through her veins, pushing her to do something, take action, go withYanni to Novgorod. She’d crippled Khalid politically before. Her appearance would remind audiences all over Cyteen and Union how that had played out.

But that wasn’t highly prudent to do. Something about all their eggs in one basket and notdeclaring war on Khalid until they’d gotten Jacques back in line.

Damn Jacques for not following the script. But Jacques sat in the middle of the Defense Tower, where there were abundant holdovers from the Khalid regime, people who could deliver a message. It didn’t matter that Khalid was on the station. His agents were clearly in Novgorod.

Tell Yanni I’ll be there if I have to, she almost added, but she bit her tongue on it. Yanni was the one who’d been dealing with Jacques, Yanni had made the deals with Jacques andCorain, and she hoped she hadn’t enabled this mess by refusing to let Yanni fly down there the day Spurlin died and start running from one to the other making sure the deals he’d made held. He hadn’t accused her in that regard. But there could be some connection.

There could equally well have been a bad outcome to her letting Yanni go there too soon and check into the hotel across the park from the hotel that had blown up and caught fire the month Denys died. There were crazy people in Novgorod. Worse, there was something very, very high‑level behind Spurlin’s death, and maybe behind the rest of it, and Eversnow–God knew what it had to do with anything, but it was a question.