Cherryh, C J - Alliance-Union 08 (105 page)

"Sera?" Catlin said, and sat down in the interview chair and put her hand on her sera's knee. "Florian and I will go on trying to find things out, if you don't tell Denys about us knowing. That's the best thing. That's what we need to do."

Sera's eyes seemed to focus. And looked at her. "There's not a damn thing Justin knows about it."

"They're going to let him talk to his father, sera. They're going to monitor that—very closely. They're going to give his father a lot of room, actually let up the security—"

"To trap him, you mean. God, Catlin, to
push
him into it, what do they think people are made of?"

"Maybe they will," Catlin said. "I'm not worried about that. I'm worried about Justin being
here.
I'm worried because he's going to be upset when he can't go to his father. Sera, —" This was terribly hard to say. She had it in her hands of a sudden, the whole picture that had been worrying her and she made a violent gesture, cutting sera off, before she lost the way to say it. "The trouble is in Novgorod. With people who hate you. And Jordan Warrick was with these people a long time ago. It doesn't matter whether it's his fault or their fault—what matters is they're making him a Cause. And that's power. And when he's got that—"

"He's got to do something with it," sera said.

Catlin nodded. "And Justin's real close to you, sera. Justin's inside. And his father's a Special in psych—and he's your Enemy. That's real dangerous. That's terribly dangerous, sera."

"Yes," she said, very quiet. "Yes, it is." And after a moment more: "Dammit, why didn't Denys
tell
me?"

"Maybe he thought you might talk to Justin, sera."

"I could
fix
this," sera said. "I could fix this— Damn, I'd—"

"What would you do, sera?" That sera might have an idea did not surprise her at all. But it disconcerted her to see sera's shoulders fall, and watch sera shake her head.

"Politics," sera said. "Pol-i-tics, Catlin. Dirty politics. Like our friends who aren't speaking to each other. Like
fools,
Catlin, who won't tell anyone the truth about what they want—like people want Reseune destroyed for a whole lot of reasons, and some of them are sane and some of them are crooked as hell. Like crazy people who blow up subways for peace. What does reason matter?"

Catlin shook her head, confused.

"I want to know who these people are," sera said in a hard voice. "I want to know, Catlin, whether any of them are of azi ancestry. Whether any of them are azi or whether this is a CIT craziness Reseune didn't have anything to do with." And a moment later: "I've got to think about the other. I've got to think about it, Catlin."

"Sera,
please
don't go to Justin with this. Don't tell him."

A long silence. "No," she said. "No. That's not the thing to do."

AE2: Base One, what data do you have on: keyword: assassination: keyword: Ariane Emory: keyword: death
?

B/1: Ari senior has a message.

Stand by.

Ari, this is Ari senior.

You've asked about assassination.

This program will assess your current security problems while this message plays.

Most of all, beware the people you know. The others you would in no wise allow to approach you.

You've asked about death. First, don't mistake my limits for your own.

I don't know how much time there is as I write this. I know, at least, that rejuv is failing. So does Petros Ivanov, who is sworn to secrecy.

How do I face death? With profound anxieties. Anxieties because I know how much there is yet to do.

God, if I could have another lifetime.

But that's yours, sweet. And I'll never know, will I?

Base One has completed its assessment.

You are 17 years old. You are legally adult.

The indices this program uses in Security records indicate a troubled period. Do you think this is an accurate statement?

AE2: Yes.

B/1: Is your life in danger?

AE2: Yes.

B/1: Is the threat internal or external to Reseune?

AE2:1 don't know.

B/1: Do you think you can trust the Science Bureau?

AE2: I don't know. I need more information. I want my clearance raised, Base One.

B/1: Working.

Describe the things you want to know.

AE2: Everything. I want this program to do everything it did for Ari senior and I want it to do it without leaving any flags in the system.

B/1: Your request is being processed.

Ari senior has a message.

Stand by.

Ari, this is Ari senior.

You've asked for Base One to assume full operation. The program is assessing your psychological profile, your current test scores, the state of House offices and departments.

Have you considered that the security wall this will create in the House system may be detected by other Bases? Are you knowledgeable enough to create cover?

AE2: Yes.

B/1: I can't foresee your situation when you make this request. I can't advise you in specific. The program, however, is biased to grant this expansion on your request, on a complex weighting of: the length of time you have held your legal majority, the amount and nature of covert activity in other bases, your own test scores and psychological profiles, and a number of other factors you may explore at your leisure.

I had thought about dividing the power of Base One, making it possible for you to acquire information first—without giving you the power to take certain actions through Base One's accesses, this for your protection, and Reseune's.

I decided against that . . . simply because I could not foresee your circumstances. But the program is running as it is because you are asking for a House system rating exceeding that of the present administrators of Reseune.

This may be necessary. It may be a grievous mistake.

Before you proceed, consider that the larger your real power grows, the more it makes you a danger to others. This move of yours, if detected, may increase the number and energy of persons working against you.

Do you still wish to proceed?

AE2: Yes.

B/1: I earnestly advise you, don't use Base One's interactive functions beyond the limits you have used already, until you have a political base to back you: I mean specifically covert actions on a level shutting out Denys Nye, Giraud Nye, Petros Ivanov, Yanni Schwartz, Wendell Peterson, or John Edwards, because they are very likely to catch you at it real-time, in ways that have nothing to do with the House system. You may be brilliant as I was, young Ari, but you are inexperienced at this level. Consider whether a 17-year-old is a match for the experience and political savvy of these people.

It's perfectly safe, however, to use the information-gathering functions of the new level: use that to learn what's going on in the House, by all means, just don't do anything about it until you know damn well you can keep your actions completely covert or until your position is overwhelmingly stronger than any opposition inside Reseune—or the Bureau, or wherever. I am not at all convinced that an inexperienced person can conceal actions within this system.

I am, as you have detected, extremely uneasy about this step. In my day Reseune knew secrets that could mean war or peace.

I did not wield Base One fully until I was 62. I estimate that I had the ability to have handled it when I was 30. But I would have taken it up then with precisely the same caution and by the same degrees I advise you to use at 17. If you cannot survive on wits and knowledge alone, either the situation is worse than mine, or you are not as clever as I was.

Do you wish to proceed, against all these cautions?

AE2: Yes.

B/1: Be aware that this request will begin your assumption of authority over Reseune. Consider the situation inside and outside Reseune, and ask yourself what could result and whether you are ready and able to handle it.

Be aware that others may have anticipated this move and covered their traces. But until you order it to take actions—or until, mark me well, you let slip that you know something you could only have known through a higher Base, you will not create traces. Use that secrecy as long as you can.

Study carefully how others lie to the system, so that when you do it, you will be too good for them to catch.

I have taken only one precaution which will remain in the system until you have control of Administration. Base One will read-only information with no additional prompt, and advise you which information would have been inaccessible to you prior to this expansion.

It will advise you where lies have been planted in the system and show you both sets of information.

I have installed a fail-safe specifically for you, if you should request this power before assuming the administration of Reseune. The system will stop and ask for a special prompt before acting on any level possible as a result of this expansion . . . in plain terms, it will go on acting as it did before, but it will identify and tag certain kinds of information to make you aware what other people think is hidden from you; and it will prevent your accidentally taking actions that would overrun the parameters they believe exist. The key to release the system for action is: Havoc. You may re-set the keyword to suit you. But you should also think about that word—and the consequences of ignoring my advice, no matter how hot the fire gets under your feet.

Second thoughts can generally be amended with judicious action; injudicious actions can seldom be recovered with second thoughts. Do you understand me, Ari?

AE2: I understand, Base One.

B/1: Your access has been upgraded. This Base is now fully operational. Base One now outranks all other Bases in all Reseune systems.

AE2: Retrieve all previously hidden medical and security records on all individuals under my surveillance.

B/1: Working.

Warrick, Justin.

Estim(ated) Res(ner Index of) 180 + comp(ares) favorab(ly) w(ith) pat [father] (but) lo(w) aggr(e)s(sion level) reference to) presence dominant) g(ender)-i(dentical)-p(arent) ergo [I ordered production of] G(rant)ALX [as Justin Warrick's companion]. . . .

Warrick, Justin.

Ref: psychogenesis.

On every evidence I've found in files so far, Justin Warrick was a test case from his conception.

Ari I claims she psyched Jordan into having a PR done. She said things like: "I'm not temperamentally suited to bringing up my own"—I think she meant her own PR. And she said: "Jordan's a loss." Meaning something I don't understand, either that she couldn't work with him, or that she didn't think his slant on his work was what she wanted. I think it was more of the second. But there was ability there, complementary to her own. I think that's what she saw.

She used to work with Jordan. They worked real well at first. But Jordan's upbringing made him a dominant, and she was, and the two of them had a lot of problems which bounced off a sexual encounter they had had when he was 17 and she was 92. That was his only heterosexual relationship, and what went wrong with it had more to do with the fact that he was not hetero to begin with and he had, at 17, begun working with Ari as a student—the whole pattern identical to what happened with Justin.

But in Jordan's case, he had applied to work with Ari, probably because of a genuine admiration for her work. He was young, he was attractive, and Ari's proclivities and his admiration led to a disillusioning experience.

But here's the thing no one's looking at: Jordan Warrick's index increased 60 points during the next ten years. He already had a respectable score. But no one knew what he was until he was working with Ari—because of the publicity and the chance to work
with
her, is the general opinion these days. But the fact is he wasn't Jordan Warrick SP then. He was just damn bright and he was Ari's student.

So I looked back at Jordan's parents. Jordan's mother didn't want him after he was born. She was a researcher. She wanted the bonus you got back then to have a baby in Reseune. But she didn't want a baby. She just picked its father, got pregnant about as clinically timed as you can and still have sex, birthed Jordan and handed him to his father to bring up. His father was an Ed psych specialist who practiced every theory he had on his kid. Pushed him into early learning. And tended to give him things—lots of expenditure on things for Jordan. Doted on him.

Anyway, that was Jordan Warrick—not to leave out his companion, Paul, whom he requisitioned a year after his encounter with Ari, and while he was still working with her—but after he had moved out of his father's residence.

After that, his scores came up a lot.

I think Ari intervened with him continually. Ari helped him requisition Paul. Ari claims she talked him into having a PR done when he was about 30, the year after his father died in a seal failure—which was the only family Jordan had except an aunt. So she certainly worked with him. She certainly was dealing with a man who'd just lost someone he loved a great deal, and it's true that the same week they started Justin Warrick,
she
started Grant ALX. Things were pretty good between her and Jordan during that period, and she told Jordan a couple of years later that she had an Alpha test subject she wanted socialized, and would he like to do it and incidentally provide a playmate for his own son.