So far the threat of showers had been enough.

They had Maddy, 'Stasi, Amy, Tommy, Sam, and a handful of new kids, 'Stasi's cousins Dan and Mischa Peterson, only Dan was Peterson-Nye and Mischa was Peterson—which was one brother set, whose maman would have killedthem if she smelled alcohol on them, but that just made them careful; and two sets of cousins, which was Amy and Tommy Carnath; and 'Stasi and Dan and Mischa. Dan and Mischa were fifteen and fourteen, but that was all right, they got along, and they did everything else but drink.

In any case they were even, boys and girls, and Amy and Sam were a set, and Dan and Mischa both got off with Maddy, and 'Stasi and Tommy Carnath were a set; which worked out all right.

Mostly they were real polite, very quiet parties. They had a little punch or a little wine, the rowdiest they ever got was watching E-tapes, mostly the ones the kids' mothers would kill them for, and when they got a little drunk they sat around in the half-dark while the tapes were running and did whatever came to mind until they had to make a choice between the Rule and finishing the tape.

"Oh, hell," Ari said finally, this time when Maddy asked, "do it on the landing, who cares?"

She was a little drunk herself. A lot tranked. She had her blouse open, she felt the draft and finally she settled against Florian to watch the tape. Sam and Amy came back, very prim and sober, and gawked at what was going on next to the bar. While 'Stasi and Tommy were still in the sauna room.

Mostly she just watched—the tapes or what the other kids were doing; which kept Florian and Catlin out of it.

"You have a message,"the Minder said over the tape soundtrack and the music.

"Oh, hell." She got up again, shrugged the blouse back together and walked up the steps barefooted, down the hall rug and into her office as steadily as she could.

"Base One," she said, when she had the door shut and proof against the noise outside in the den. "Message."

"Message from Denys Nye: Khalid won election. Meet with me tomorrow first thing in my office."

Oh, shit.

She leaned against the back of the chair.

"Message for Denys Nye," she said. "I'll be there."

The Minder took it. "Log-off," she said, and walked back outside and into her party.

"What was it?" Catlin asked.

"Tell you later," she said, and settled down again, leaning back in Florian's lap.

She showed up in Denys' office, 0900 sharp, no frills and no nonsense, took a cup of Denys' coffee, with cream, no sugar, and listened to Denys tell her what she had already figured out, with the Silencer jarring the roots of her teeth.

"Khalid is assuming office this afternoon," Denys said. "Naturally—since he's Cyteen based, there's no such thing as a grace period. He moves in with all his baggage. And his secret files."

Uncle Denys had already explained to her—what Khalid was. What the situation could be.

"Don't you think I'd better have vid access?" she asked. "Uncle Denys, I don't care whatyou think I'm not ready to find out. Ignorant is no help at all, is it?"

Uncle Denys rested his chins on his hand and looked at her a long time as if he was considering that. "Eventually. Eventually you'll have to. You're going to get a current events condensation, daily, the same as I get. You'd better keep up with it. It looks very much as if we're going to get a challenge before this session is out. They'll probably release some things on your predecessor—as damaging as they can find. This is going to be dirty politics, Ari. Real dirty. I want you to start studying up on things. Additionally—I want you to be damned careful. I know you've been doing a lot of—" He gave a little cough. "—entertaining. Of kids none of whom is over fifteen, at hours that tell me you're notplaying Starchase. Housekeeping says my suspicions are—" Another clearing of the throat. "—probably well-founded."

"God. You're stooping, uncle Denys."

"Security investigates all sources. And my clearance still outranks yours. But let's not quibble. That's not my point. My point is— ordinaryfourteen-and fifteen-year-olds don't have your—independence, your maturity, or your budget; and Novgorod in particular isn't going to understand your—mmmn, parties, your language—in short, we're all being very circumspect. You know that word?"

"I'm up on circumspect,uncle Denys, right along with security risk.I don't have any. If their mothers know, they're not going to object, because they want their offspring to have careers when I'mrunning Reseune. There are probably a lot of mothers who'd like to shove their kids right intomy apartment. And my bed."

"God. Don'tsay that in Novgorod."

"Am I going?"

"Not right now. Not anytime soon. Khalid is just in. Let him make a move."

"Oh, that's a wonderfulidea."

"Don't get smart, sera. Let him draw the line, I say. While you, young sera, do some catch-up studying. You'd better learn what an average fourteen-year-old is like."

"I know. I know real well. I might know better, if my friends hadn't Disappeared to Fargone, mightn't I?"

"Don't do this for the cameras. You think you're playing a game. I'm telling you you can really lose everything. I've explained nationalization—"

"I do fine with big words."

"Let's see how you do with little ones. You're not sweet little Ari for the cameras anymore, you're more and more like the Ari certain people remember—enough to make it a lot more likely you'll get harder and harder questions, and you don't know where the mines are, young sera. We're going to stall this as long as we can, and if we can get you another year, it's very likely you'll have to apply for your majority status. That's the point at which some interest will get an injunction to stop the Science Bureau granting it; and you'll be in court again . . . with a good chance of winning it: the first Ari did at sixteen. But that won'tsolve the problem, it'll only put the opposition in a bad light, taking on a fifteen-year-old who hasto handle herself with more finesse than you presently have, young sera."

"I learn."

"You'd better. Age is catching up with us. Your predecessor's friend Catherine Lao, who's helped you more than you know—is a hundred thirty-eight. Giraud is pushing a hundred thirty. Your presence—your resemblanceto your predecessor—is like a shot of adrenaline where certain Councillors are concerned, but you have to have more than presence this time. If you make a mistake—you can see Reseune sucked up by the national government, and Defense declaring it a military zone, right fast. They'll have a pretext before the ink is dry. You'll spend your days working on whatever they tell you to do. Or you'll find yourself in some little enclave with no access to Novgorod, no access to Council or the Science Bureau."

She looked at Denys straight on, thinking: You haven't done that well. Or how else are we in this mess?

But she didn't say it. She said: "Base One only lets me go so fast, uncle Denys."

"Let me try you on another big word," Denys said. "Psychogenesis." That wasa new one. "Mind-originate," she said, remembering her Greek roots.

"Mind-origination. Mind-cloning. Now do you understand me?"

She felt cold inside. "What has that got to do with anything?"

"The resemblance between you and Ari. Let me give you a few more words to try on your Base. Bok. Endocrinology. Gehenna. Worm."