Tomas let the Peddler rattle on. He listened, nodded, asked the reasonable questions...and watched the analysis that spread across his huds.Lordy. The localizers in the air, on Vinh's chair, even on his skin, reported to theInvisible Hand, where programs analyzed and sent the results back to Nau's huds, painting Vinh's skin with colors that showed galvanic response, skin temperature, perspiration. Standard graphics around the face showed pulse and other internals. An inset window showed what Vinh was seeing from his place across the desk, and mapped his every eye motion with red tracks. Two of Brughel's snoops were allocated to this interview, and their analysis was a flowing legend across the top of Nau's vision.Subject is relaxed to tenth percentile of normal interview level. Subject isconfident but wary, without sympathy for the Podmaster. Subject is not currently trying to suppress explicit thought.

It was more or less what Nau would have guessed, but with a wealth of added detail, better than the best instrumented soft interrogation, since it was invisible to the subject.

"So the strategic politics are much clearer now," concluded Vinh, blissfully unaware of the dual nature of the interview. "Pedure and the Kindred have some real advantages in rocketry and nuclear weapons, but they've consistently lagged behind the Accord in computing and networks."

Nau shrugged. "The Kindred are a strict dictatorship. Haven't you told me that the Dawn Age tyrannies couldn't cope with computer networks?"

"Yes."Subject reacts, suppressing probable feeling of irony. "That's part of it. We know they're planning on a first strike sometime after the sun goes out, so that accounts for their overspending on weapons. And on the Accord side, Sherkaner Underhill is justso enthusiastic about automation that Pedure can't keep up. Frankly, I think we're headed for a crunch, Podmaster."The subject is sincere in this statement. "Spider civilization only discovered the inverse square law a couple of generations ago; their mathematics lagged behind our Dawn Age accordingly. But the Kindred have made solid progress in rocketry. If they show one-tenth the curiosity of Sherkaner Underhill, they're going to detect us in less than ten years."

"Before we can completely control their networks?"

"Yes, sir."

That's what Jau Xin had been saying, reasoning off of his pilot zipheads. A pity. But at least the shape of the end of the Exile was becoming clear... .Meantime:

Subject's guard is down.Nau smiled to himself. This was as good a time as any to shake up Manager Vinh.Who knows, maybe I can actually manipulate him. Either way, Vinh's reaction would be interesting. Nau leaned back in his chair, pretended to gaze idly at the bonsai floating over his desk. "I've had years to study the Qeng Ho, Mr. Vinh. I'm not under false illusions. You people understand the different ways of civilization better than any sessile group."

"Yes, sir."Subject still calm, but the comment brings sincere agreement.

Nau cocked his head. "You're in the Vinh line; if any in the Qeng Ho really understand things, it should be you. You see, one of my personal heroes has always been Pham Nuwen."

"You've...mentioned that before." The words were wooden. In Nau's display, Vinh's face was transformed by color, his pulse and perspiration spiking. Somewhere over on theHand, the snoops analyzed, and reported:Subject feels substantial anger directed at the Podmaster. "Honestly, Mr. Vinh, I'm not trying to insult your traditions. You know that Emergents hold much of the Qeng Ho culture in contempt, but Pham Nuwen is a different matter. You see...I know the truth about Pham Nuwen."

The diagnostic colors were shading toward normalcy, as was Vinh's heart rate. His eye dilation and tracking were consistent with suppressed anger. Nau felt a fleeting incongruity; he would have read a tinge of fear in Vinh's reaction.Maybe I have some things to learn from all this automation. And now he was frankly puzzled: "What's the matter, Mr. Vinh? For once, let's be frank." He smiled. "I won't tell Ritser, and you won't gossip with Xin or Liao or...my Qiwi."

The pulse of anger was very stark on that one, no disagreement there. The Peddler was hung up on Qiwi Lisolet, even if he couldn't admit it to himself.

The signs of anger receded. Vinh licked his lips, a gesture that might have been nervousness. But the glyphs across the top of Nau's huds said,Subject is curious. Vinh said, "It's just that I don't see the similarities between Pham Nuwen's life and Emergent values. Sure, Pham Nuwen was not born a Peddler, but more than anyone he made us what we are today. Look at the Qeng Ho archives, his life—"

"Oh, I have. They're a bit scattered, don't you think?"

"Well, he was the great traveler. I doubt he ever cared much about the historians."

"Mr. Vinh, Pham Nuwen valued the regard of history as much as any of the giants. I think—Iknow —your Qeng Ho archives have been carefully gardened, probably by your own Family. But you see, someone as great as Pham Nuwen attracted other historians—from the worlds he changed, from other spacefaring cultures. Their stories also float across the ages, and I've collected all that passed through this end of Human Space. He is a man I have always tried to emulate. Your Pham Nuwen was no lickspittle trader. Pham Nuwen was a Bringer of Order, a conqueror. Sure, he used your Trader techniques, the deception and the bribery. But he never shrank from threats and raw violence when that was necessary."

"I—" The diagnostics painted an exquisite combination of anger and surprise and doubt across Vinh's face, just the mix that Nau would have estimated.

"I can prove it, Mr. Vinh." He spoke key words into the air. "I've just transferred some ofour archives to your personal domain. Take a look. These are unvarnished, non–Qeng Ho views of the man. A dozen little atrocities. Read the true story of how he ended the Strentmannian Pogrom, of how he was betrayed at Brisgo Gap. Then let's talk again."

Amazing. Nau had not intended to speak so bluntly, but the evoked effects were so interesting. They exchanged a few meaningless sentences, and the meeting was over. Red shimmered around Vinh's hands, symptoms of an invisible trembling, as he approached the door.

Nau sat quietly for a moment after the Peddler was gone. He stared off into the distance, but in fact he was reading from his huds. The snoops' report was a stream of colored glyphs against the landscape of Diamond One. He would read the report carefully...later. First, there were his own thoughts to get in order. The localizer diagnostics were almost magical. Without them, he knew he would have scarcely noticed Vinh's agitation.More important, without the diagnostics I wouldn't have been able to guidethe conversation, zeroing in on the topics that needled Vinh. So yes, active manipulation did appear feasible; this wasn't simply a snoop technique. And now he knew that Ezr Vinh had some substantial portion of his self-image bound up in the Qeng Ho fairy tales. Could the boy actually be turned by a different vision of those stories? Before now, he never would have believed it. With these new tools, maybe...

THIRTY-SEVEN

"We should have another face-to-face talk."

"...Okay. Look, Pham. I don't believe these lies that Nau dumped on me."

"Yeah, well everyone gets to write their own version of the past. The main thing is, I want to give you some drill about handling that sort of ambush interview."

"I'm sorry. For a few seconds, I thought he was on to us." The boy's voice was faint in Pham's ear. Ezr Vinh had become quite good with their secret comm link; good enough that Pham could hear the stunned tone in his voice.

"You did okay, though. You'll do better with some feedback training." They talked a few moments more, setting up a time and a cover story. Then the tenuous link was broken, and Pham was left to think on the day's events.