Up Against It - M. J. Locke [100]
“I’ll call you back,” she said. The prime minister needed to know.
Benavidez hung suspended in his office, perched in his webworks and switching through various views in his waveface, studying the workers and machinery beginning repairs within Zekeston and without.
He looked up as she materialized. “Well?”
Jane straightened. “We were successful in removing the threat from the system, and critical life-support systems are back online. We won’t be fully operational for a few days—”
“But we’re a hell of a lot better off than we might have been.”
“Yes, sir.”
“The sapient?”
She shook her head. “We didn’t have enough time to finish mapping it before it launched an attack.”
He was silent, but she sensed his deep disappointment.
“Tania is trying to find out what went wrong,” she went on. “It’s possible they can salvage something useful. I’ll know more by our meeting tomorrow morning.”
He sighed and rubbed at his eyes with the fingers and thumb of one hand.
“I’ve gotten word,” he said finally, “that Reinforte plans to summon you before the Joint Resource Committee.”
Jane forbore from mentioning that she already knew this.
“According to my sources,” Benavidez went on, “Councilor Reinforte has set his people to try to dig up dirt to use on you, but your people have all remained loyal, so far. It appears you have powerful allies.”
Chikuma, he meant. He himself treated Jane rather more gingerly than he might, if not for Sensei.
It troubled Jane that Benavidez had sources in her organization that she did not know about. She wanted to know where all the lines of communication in her organization were—whom they flowed to, and why. She made a mental note to do some checking. Not that she did not trust Benavidez, but—well, she didn’t. In this business she dared not trust anyone completely, except perhaps Chikuma-sensei. And as the old woman had once told Jane, Don’t trust even me. Rely on multiple sources for your information, and always keep something in your pocket for later use.
All Jane had in her pockets this time was lint. “I’m glad to hear it.”
The real question mark was Benavidez himself. If he remained loyal to her, she might yet weather this storm. If he had made up his mind to trade her for the ice, nothing anyone else could do would make a bit of difference.
“One more thing you should be aware of,” she said. “During the feral’s attack I assigned my man Sean Moriarty to shut down the wavefeed up to the surface. He deputized four young citizens to help him. They were successful—in fact, they saved the city. But one of them was seriously injured, nearly killed. His prognosis is good, I’m told, but I think it would not go amiss if someone from your office contacted the youths’ families right away and made sure they are getting everything they need. I’m sending you the details now.” She forwarded their contact info. “I’d be glad to do it myself, but I think it would mean more coming directly from your office.
“I’ll have Emily follow up.” He sighed deeply, and rubbed at his eyes. “And now we should both get some rest. I’ll see you first thing in the morning in my office.”
Jane swallowed her worries, her impatience. “Good night, Mr. Prime Minister.”
* * *
On the way to the aerogarden, she got reports. The emergency lines were back up. But several sections of Zekeston had experienced partial decompression or other damage. She located Xuan and his sister Kieu in the corridor outside the life shelter, the one nearest their campsite.
She saw relief in his face. Behind him, Kieu looked tired and worried.
“Where’s the clan?” she asked. “Is everyone safe?”
“Everyone’s all right,” Kieu said. “They’re asleep in the life shelter.”
They peeked in on them: the family had bedded down in the netting over in one nook of the badly cramped shelter. Pham blinked blearily at them when they opened the door; Kieu said good night, and entered the shelter, leaving her and Xuan in the corridor.
Jane turned back to Xuan. “What about everyone’s belongings?”
“Mostly unrecoverable, I’m afraid. I’ll show