Crossover (12 page)

"And the Opposition ..." she paused uncertainly, "... the Progress Party, are going to give the President trouble for allowing the CSA to harbour me?"

"No," a vigorous shake of the head, "no, Cassandra, that's not the point. That would be manageable. Progress don't have the numbers in the House anyway. And Progress are League-inclined anyway ... they don't like the biotech restrictions much at all. In fact, if you were going to find support within any major party in Tanusha, you'd find it in Progress." Sandy blinked, not liking the implications of that.

"You mean the Union Party factions ...?"

"Exactly. The President's own Party, Cassandra. Cultural conservatives. Religious groups. Anti-biotech in general. Probably the essence of what makes the Federation different from the League..."

"That Judge." As the connection quickly came clear in her head. "The big guy. Which group is he?"

"Oh, oh, wait, wait, wait ..." waging both hands with an exasperated smile, "... no, really, Cassandra, you don't want to get into that territory now, that's judicial appointments, the bureaucracy's all different, the Judiciary's a whole 'nother cricket match. No, the important thing to focus on here is that it's out now, and there are officials and bureaucrats who are alarmed. They're figuring it's only a matter of time until this whole thing becomes public, in which case they'll be answering to their various constituencies at the next election ..."

"No, wait, hang on a moment," Rafasan interrupted for the first time. "I think she has a point." Sandy raised her eyebrows at the legal advisor, surprised at the decisiveness of the interruption. From the delicate appearance and nervous fidgeting, she hadn't figured Rafasan for the decisive type. "I mean, Judge Pullman is at issue here, and the Judiciary, at least to some extent..."

"Sure," Thiaw said with exaggerated calm, "but I'd like to keep us focused on the key question here ..."

"Oh enough with the constant
spin
, Thiaw, let's tell it to the woman like it really is." Thiaw shrugged defeat and withdrew defensively. Rafasan recrossed her legs and turned her dark-eyed attention upon Sandy, the fingers on her right hand playing with the bangles on her left wrist. "Judge Pullman — that is the man who showed such displeasure toward you at the hearing — was elected to the bench on the advice of the President's attorney-general as a sop to the various vociferous mouths in the Union Left who felt they were underrepresented in the Judiciary. I, of course, advised her against the move ... ," with a self-conscious tilt of her head, and a vague motion of manicured fingers, "... but, for better or worse, the President is not always inclined to accept the more pragmatic advice ahead of the purely political."

She sounded, Sandy reckoned, somewhat miffed. Her accent was perhaps more Indian than many Tanushans. Sometimes, she'd gathered, accents became institutionalised within certain professions and colleges, further reinforced by educational tape-teach. Perhaps law was one of those culturalised institutions within Tanusha.

"So you are right in your assumption," she continued, hurrying through the sentence on nervous energy, "Judge Pullman was merely pleasing his constituency before the cameras as any politician would — more of the pervasive politicising of the Judiciary that I and some others have been campaigning against most strenuously ... but, well," she coughed briefly into her hand, "now the Senate Security Council are onto your case, and certain of their members are closely connected to the aforementioned Mr Pullman, and that is basically why we are here." In a rushed, nervous finish. Sandy frowned. Turned that frown upon Thiaw. Thiaw took an exasperated breath.

"As I was about to say, Cassandra," he said, "the Senate Security Council are charged with the broad purview of all Callayan security matters. They have an investigatory branch, the Special Investigations Bureau, or SIB, directly attached to them and answerable only to Security Council review. Now," he cricked his neck, with emphasis, "this is the Senate, Cassandra, not the Legislature. They're elected by different means, proportional representation, which means ..."

Sandy raised her hand. Thiaw stopped, hands frozen in mid sentence. When she was sure she had their complete attention, Sandy spoke. "The mindless, headkicking grunt portion of my brain just lost you. How does any of this affect me and my situation?" Rafasan, she noted, cocked her head in curiosity at that turn of phrase. As if impressed, and surprised to be so. Thiaw took another deep breath and threw Rafasan a brief, reproachful look. It had all fallen apart since her interruption, obviously, all his carefully planned explanation. The technocrat and the spin-doctor. Not a good match. But they seemed to know each other well.

"Cassandra," Thiaw resumed with long-suffering patience, "the Senate Security Council are concerned at your presence. You are a GI. Right?" Eyebrows raised expectantly. Inviting revelation. Sandy frowned. "Cassandra, you're in the Federation now. People here don't like GIs much. We fought a war about it with the League, precisely to stop the spread of Gl-oriented technology. In many ways it's the fundamental ideological split between the Federation and the League ..."

"No it's not," Sandy replied calmly, "it's just the most obvious manifestation. League progress-or-bust triumphalism goes all the way to the bone. GIs are only the main area of dispute ... if not for that, there would be others."

"Fine, right, sure, whatever." Rafasan, Sandy noticed, was eyeing her colleague with increasing bemusement, some of the nervousness fading. "The point is, Cassandra, that the President's own party are putting pressure on her, since that courtroom hearing, to hand you on to the Feds. Over Director Ibrahim's objections. If you don't prove more cooperative than you have, then we're going to run out of excuses to keep you here on Callay, and then you'll get handed over to some Federal party who'll take you to Earth, where old mentalities are strongest, and where the FIA has most power, and where you're no damn good to Callay or the CSA in trying to find the bastards who've penetrated our security and could easily do so again. Does that make sense to you?"

It did. She stared at Thiaw for a moment, perched on the edge of his chair, eyebrows raised expectantly, looking pained. Rafasan, too, looked subdued, glancing at her lap with a resumption of bangle-fiddling.

"I've already given you a whole stack of information from League Intel on the FIA's own biotech research," she challenged half-heartedly. "Mr Naidu was very impressed."

"Yes, and I thank you for that, Cassandra, that's valuable background information ... much of it we already knew, but it certainly filled in the gaps. But we need operational detail. We need to know the specific operational details as to how the League is infiltrating local biotech firms, how the FIA are doing it, and on the possibility that they might be working together on this. And you've refused any detailed questioning on those matters, haven't you."

Sandy gazed back at the TV. A tennis ball spun backwards and forwards over the net. She
had
refused it. Repeatedly. And if they were speculating on complicity between the League and the FIA, supposedly the worst of enemies ... then they were evidently quite advanced in their research. She sent the TV a mental signal, and the screen went blank. But still, she had her reasons.

"Okay," she said, quietly. "How do I know that if I help you, I'll get something for it? That I won't just get carted off to wherever as soon as you've milked me of everything I know?"

"We're working on getting you a firm guarantee from Justice Guderjaal," Rafasan said. "If you cooperate, we can ..."

"You're working?" Fixing Rafasan with a firm, hard gaze. Rafasan looked desperately at Thiaw.

"Cassandra," Thiaw said earnestly, "it's the best we can do under the present circumstances. There are legal precedents for services rendered to Callay. Asylum of sorts has been granted under those circumstances, right?" At Rafasan. The legal advisor nodded quickly.

"Of course, absolutely. There are numerous cases, most of them regarding far less vital information than we presently require from you ..."

"You'd grant asylum to a GI?" Staring very directly. The lawyer met her gaze with commendable conviction.

"Legally ... well, it would, um ..." flick at one elaborate earring, "... it would be an adventure. But Callayan law on the recognition of artificial sentience is actually very advanced. I'm ... I'm actually quite confident, in all honesty, that if the process went to trial, you could definitely achieve asylum. Of some kind." Rearranging bangles on the other wrist. Despite the fidgets, Sandy nearly believed her. Nearly.

"And that," she said dryly, "is of course why all the cultural conservatives are so scared of letting me stay on that long, isn't it? They're scared I might win."

Dead silence from them both. Evidently not having expected that much insight. She didn't know the details. But she could think. And she could guess. It had always been her strong point. Now, a whole range of unpleasant possibilities were opening up before her.

"Do I really have a chance?" she asked, into that silence. "If I cooperate?"

"If the information you provide leads directly to the capture of some of the FIA infiltrators," Thiaw said, and shrugged, "of course, definitely, your chances then are extremely high."

"Despite the fact that my revealing League military secrets will attract the attention of all the top Federal military, political and security apparatus, FIA and otherwise, who will all demand access to me and my knowledge, and will use some overriding Federal security law to get past any temporary asylum that Callay might offer me. They do have those kinds of overriding security laws, don't they?" she asked Rafasan. Rafasan glanced distractedly out the broad windows, and the sunny sprawl of the metropolis beyond. Nodded, reluctantly. "Then I'll want something more watertight than what you're offering before I tell you anything. Otherwise, opening my mouth any further is only going to land me in even bigger trouble."

"Cassandra," Thiaw pressed, "your trouble doesn't
get
any bigger. If you don't cooperate fully, Cassandra, then the political implications for you are ... well, they're not good. Right now it only looks like you're protecting someone ..."

"Damn right I'm protecting someone," Sandy cut in, with a hard stare and cooling voice. "Me. I know some basics about Federation security laws. Like Federal security in general, it takes precedence over the security of member worlds like Callay. That means they can declare me a Federal security asset or risk at any time and whip me off to Earth, and there's not a damn thing you or any of your puny local laws can do about it."

"And," Thiaw shot back, "you'll end up there anyway if you don't help us. Your one chance is to help us catch the FIA infiltrators here, and hope that that builds up enough local support for you in the corridors of power that..."

"With all respect, Mr Thiaw," Sandy said coldly, "but you can't be fucking serious." She could feel her stomach tightening, a painful cramping through the bandages. "Politicians here are going to overlook the mass anti-GI panic out there because they feel
grateful
to me?"

She hadn't wanted this at all. To become a political pawn. To get caught up in the doubtless labyrinthine machinations of the Callayan corridors of power, and all the populist nonsense that went with it. To be backed into a corner, forced to tell more of what she knew, knowing this would cause trouble ... so much damn trouble that she didn't want to contemplate it, it went too deep, and stretched too far into matters that she knew far too little about. She was feeling increasingly lost and threatened in the whole calamitous mess ...

Thiaw sighed, oblivious to her growing anxiety, shoulders slumping.

"Cassandra ... why don't you just think about it, huh?" He gave her a wry, winsome smile. "I'll be frank. We need to catch these FIA. The Security Council is increasingly alarmed, as are the President's more predictable opponents ... and we need to catch them soon. You think about it. I'll call on you again soon, once you've had some time to consider your options."

He rose to his feet, looking deflated, and Rafasan made to follow...

"Wait." They both paused. Sandy gazed past them at the far wall. Uncertain of what she was doing. She was confused. Frightened even. But not just for herself. "Sit down." They sat. Sandy gazed at the wall for an indeterminate moment. Wondering if she was about to sign her own effective warrant to bureaucratic hell. But she was running out of alternatives. Had, in fact, run out of alternatives long, long ago. Only now was she starting to realise it. She hated bureaucracy. Here, with its links to alien, populist politics in a society that actively disliked and distrusted GIs and advanced synthetic-replication biotechnology itself, it made her nervous in the extreme. But she was here now. She could not escape it. She was in the game, for good. Once in it, she had to learn to play within the rules. It was a slim chance. But it was the only chance she had. She switched her gaze to Thiaw. Thiaw looked back expectantly. Poor guy, she thought. You're in for it now.

"This is how it works," she said quietly. "The League have an official policy of changing the Federation from the inside. League theory on modern human evolution dominates all policy, including security. Market- and demand-driven forces cannot be challenged, cultural resistance just creates temporary hiccups. They're all convinced the Federation will embrace advanced biotech eventually, it's just a matter of time. They try to push the process along by feeding advanced biotech to various plants within the Tanushan BT industry. But you know all that.

"The FIA benefit from this too — they're pragmatists, they view GIs in particular as the League's primary strategic advantage and thus the Federation's primary threat. Federation biotech restrictions mean they're unable to carry out their own research ... legally. And so, in this case, and several others I've read about on League Intel reports, they've teamed up and are effectively working together — the FIA gains invaluable data, and the League gets to spread the advanced biotech gospel through the Tanushan private sector, which is where all the illegal research is based. Got that?"