More than a few of the ba’sibs scowled, while others traded glances. Dark glances would have made sense, angry glances, chill, even hurt, but these were nothing so familiar, strange glances with something off about them, timed wrong, shifting wrong, something in the muscles of the cheeks, heads semiturning but not fully following the motion of the eyes. Perhaps you can see it best in tiny Hiroaki, how her arms—as thin as sticks within one of the sleeveless sweaters Dana? hand-knit to let her children boast their ‘unnatural’ Brillist numbers—don’t quite move like arms which have climbed and roughhoused under Nature’s summer sun.
Julia gave a sympathetic smile. “I know it means a lot to you, getting back at the Cousins for ruining your training, but I warned you, revenge is dangerous. Revenge has motive dripping off of it, and when your motive is obvious, people will link things to you even without evidence, and more when there is evidence.”
“There is no evidence!” Masami protested. “Hiroaki didn’t actually leak anything, or break any law! They were just an observer!”
Julia did not feel like feigning patience. “You’re not a Gag-gene, Masami, and anyone with half an eye for body language can spot from how you move that your senses are half remapped. I’m sure the Brillists have guessed for ages, plenty of others too, but everyone held off while Minor’s Law protected you; now that three of you are legal adults, any snoop worth their salt can find the records of your training bash’, and who was behind the attack that broke it up. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone warned Kosala and Lorelei Cook the very day you passed your Adulthood Competency Exam.”
What leaked from Masami’s throat was almost a growl. “It’s Felix Faust, isn’t it? They told Darcy Sok we’re set-sets, told the Big Seven too, and now they’re leaking it to the public.”
Julia shook her head. “Felix Faust is a voyeur, not a player. They don’t have to destroy you, they can sit back on their sofa and watch you bring this down upon yourselves. You should have been subtler. I understand going after Lorelei Cook; as Minister of Education Cook is practically keeping Nurturism alive by themself.”
“And Kosala!” Masami interrupted. “Kosala’s been covering Cook’s part in the raids for years! Kosala’s just as guilty!”
Julia nodded indulgently. “But Darcy Sok wasn’t one of your enemies before this, and by destroying the Hive on their watch you’ve made an unnecessary enemy, one you can’t unmake so easily. If Sok doesn’t kill themself, they’ll devote themself to revenge on the lot of you, with an undying, single-minded fervor, just as you have against Cook and Kosala. That’s not the kind of enemy you want to make at a young age. Never create a personal enemy. Always keep layers of minions between yourself and someone you destroy, it’s safer that way.”
Frail Hiroaki frowned at the Cousins’ wrap around her knees, as at an old cast overdue to be removed. “I never lied to Darcy Sok. I told them I wanted to join the CFB to fight corruption. They were the one stupid enough to assume I meant only other people’s corruption, not their own. Or yours. Frankly, Julia, if Darcy really thinks you’re the lesser of two evils they need to reread Faust.”
Julia smiled at the compliment. “I’ve been too gentle on you kids. We’ve been playing games with no real risk, but bringing down a Hive is deadly dangerous, and I’m not just talking to Hiroaki. The lot of you have been very reckless in this, Toshi especially.”
“Me?” The Censor’s analyst sat forward. “I haven’t done anything. Really I haven’t.”
“That doesn’t matter. You have access to the secrets of the Censor’s office. You could have leaked them to your ba’sibs, and people hunting for conspiracy will assume you have, whether it’s true or not.” Julia played with the long black coil of her hair. “Just because you’re innocent doesn’t mean you don’t need to prepare an alibi. Innocence needs to be proved.”
Self-conscious Toshi tugged at the fluffy twists of her own hair. “Do you really think that’s necessary?”
“Revenge heeds instinct, not evidence. Besides, you did know what your sibs were doing, and you could have stopped it. That’s complicity enough for blame to fix on you.”
Hiroaki gave frowning Toshi a sisterly shoulder-squeeze. “Anyway, Julia, Darcy Sok is your parishioner. Can’t you deflect them? Calm them? Redirect their anger someplace else? You could call them for a session right now. It would mean a lot to us. Please?”
Julia frowned. “Why doesn’t your mother take care of Darcy Sok? Or your father? They have means enough.”
Glances not-quite-right passed among the ba’sibs once again.
“You’re ashamed to tell them, aren’t you?” Julia’s chuckle grew smug. “Afraid of a chewing out? This won’t do, children. If you start keeping secrets within your own bash’, things will fall apart faster than you can say Seven-Ten list.” Her eyes narrowed. “Or are you afraid of something more serious than a chewing out? You told me and your mother that you didn’t plan the Seven-Ten list theft. Was that the truth?”
“Yes!” the ba’sibs answered all together in a chorus.
“Do you know who stole it?”
“No.”
“Really?”
“Cross my heart.” Masami made the gesture with dark fingers stained darker by the archaic inks used at Black Sakura. “I wrote the list but didn’t think to pull a stunt like the theft. I wish I did know who it was. I’d congratulate them on a plot well laid, then deck them.”
Julia smiled sympathy. “I hear Papadelias is on the edge of learning to trace the Canner Device. I’m sure there will be sufficient decking when the time comes.”
“Do you know who has it?”
“What?”
“Canner’s prototype.” Again they all said it together: Masami, Hiroaki, Toshi, Jun, Ran, Sora, Michi, Harue, Naō, Setsuna, all one crisp, inhuman chorus. “We have to find it.”
A narrow smile. “Perhaps I do know who has it, but that’s the kind of information you buy from an opponent, you don’t get it out of the kindness of my adversarial heart. As for Darcy Sok, go to your parents. You made this bed, you get chewed out in it.”
“Please, Julia.” Hiroaki huddled adorably within her Cousin’s wrap. “You could do it so easily, and so quickly!”
“We aren’t asking this for nothing,” Masami added. “We’ll owe you, help for help.”
“Mmm? Anything concrete to offer? Or do I get an open-ended boon?”
“We can help with a certain enemy you’ve made in the last days.”
Julia half rose from her sofa, her oil-black hair unwinding down her back like a waking serpent. “An enemy? Intriguing. Who?”
“Carlyle Foster.”
Julia stared for a frozen moment. “Have you been spying on my little Carlyle?” Her voice grew sweet and ominous at once, a teasing disapproval.
“Not more than normal,” Toshi answered. “But nobody can fly that far out of pattern and not be conspicuous.”
Julia stretched her shoulders. “Good spotting, bad interpreting. I’ve given Carlyle to Dominic as a present.”
The ba’sibs exchanged looks, which a stranger might have read as nervous or questioning, but Julia knows that one who reads too much into the curve of a dog’s inhuman brows gets bit.
“How long ago was it visible?” she asked. “Carlyle going out of pattern.”
“I didn’t spot it first,” Toshi answered. “Jun, you did, right?”
Jun Mitsubishi only now looked up from the Go board. The would-be Brillist member of the brood is always quiet, with little smiles and little shrugs, as if constantly apologizing to the others for being the only one who looks classically Japanese, and drawing an unfair portion of great Andō’s affection. “Who are we talking about?”
“Cousin Carlyle Foster.”
“Who?”
“C-CF-003035.”
“Oh, yes!” Jun cried. “Spectacular acceleration. There was some erratic behavior Monday, but it didn’t get acute until two days ago, full swan dive yesterday.”
Julia’s fingers twitched as she mapped out the calendar in her mind. “Yes, that’s about right.”
Jun looked up. “Is 3035 not there yet?” she leaned back, eyelids sagging as she lost herself in the flicker of her lenses.
Julia perked. “Oh, is Carlyle coming to see me? Good. Perhaps I can ease the swan dive.”
“They want to destroy you.”
“Carlyle?” Julia laughed.
“I know what kind of dive I’m seeing.”