“What?”
“I know it is hard for you to see, Carlyle, but the Cousins have to go. The Masons are on their way to a monopoly which will destroy the Hive system. The Cousins are enabling that. You want to know what Darcy Sok was really doing in the CFB? Altering the sorting programs, distorting the data? They were trying to counter the control that’s already there.”
“Dana?’s? No, Madame’s?” Carlyle guessed.
“Neither. There’s one voice dictating the CFB reports, controlling so many of the letters that the trends the computers find are really only ever one person’s voice. Day by day, month by month, the trends the CFB extracts are dictated like clockwork. Darcy Sok was altering the postanalysis reports to try to counter it, fighting control with countercontrol, the closest we could get to freeing the Cousins, but that was just treading water.”
Carlyle’s throat was not yet too hardened to sob. “Who? Who’s dictating the letters?”
“You haven’t guessed?”
“MASON?”
“You really haven’t guessed. Well, I’ll tell you if you earn it.” Julia stretched back. “Meanwhile, better to dissolve the Hive and let its resources spread among the others that at least have some integrity inside.”
Carlyle made fists. “So you won’t do it?”
“What?”
“You won’t save the Cousins? You still can, all you have to do is go public about your battle with Dana?, claim that you two are responsible for all the corruption in the CFB. Do that and no one will look for anything underneath.”
Julia stroked her hair. “No. No, I think it’s time the Cousins went.”
Carlyle took a long breath, wincing as if in pain, so reluctant was she to resort to sin. “How about saving yourself?”
“What?”
“I told you I have recordings, lots of recordings. I can prove a lot of things about you, what you do here that you shouldn’t. If you tell the world you abused your position to manipulate the CFB and fight off Dana?, you lose your license for a year or so, but you save the Hive and become a hero. If you refuse to help, I’ll see to it you lose your license for a much more ignominious reason, and a much longer time.”
Julia’s eyes glittered. “Are you blackmailing me?”
“Yes, I suppose I am. I’ve been gathering evidence for a long time, recordings, tracker logs, videos.”
Julia shook her head. “Carlyle, Carlyle, Carlyle. The kinds of recordings you make by sneaking into places aren’t admissible in court—”
“Unless I take them in specific circumstances and document them in certain ways, I know that. The Commissioner General taught me.”
Julia blinked. “Papadelias?”
“I went to Papadelias a year ago, when I started to doubt what you had me doing. Papadelias was already on to you, but had no proof. I wouldn’t testify then, but I had them teach me how to gather evidence, to build a case so we could take you down if you ever used your resources for something other than good. This is too much, Julia. Even if I weren’t a Cousin I wouldn’t sit back and let you destroy a whole Hive.”
“You’re bluffing, and you’re not good at it.”
“You just can’t see me as a threat, can you?” Carlyle’s inner tumult forced out tears. “I’m not bluffing. This is your last chance, Julia. Save the Cousins.”
“No. I refuse to help a Hive that crows about being morally superior but can’t support itself without lies and blackmail. You’re proof enough in yourself. What’s the point of all the Cousins’ work keeping the other Hives civil if you’re the first to turn into brutish backstabbers when crisis comes?”
Carlyle rose. “I’m serious, this is your last chance.”
“No.”
“Then it’s over, Julia. I’m sorry.” In this world one rarely sees apology unmixed with regret. Carlyle walked to the office door and opened it. “Come in, Papa.”
Commissioner General Ektor Carlyle Papadelias entered with a soft voice, a grave face, and a full squad of backup. “Julia Doria-Pamphili, under the authority of the Universal Free Alliance, I arrest you as an officer of the Alliance Conclave of Sensayers for abuse of the official capacity of your office, and for misuse of official information; I arrest you as a Member of the European Union for willful communication of classified information, for bribery, for receipt of stolen information property, and for sexual exploitation; and I arrest you as a Member of a Hive pledged to respect the legal protections of fellow Members of the Universal Free Alliance for conspiracy to steal information property belonging to Cousins, Humanists, Masons, and Mitsubishi, and for conspiracy to commit espionage against Cousins, Masons, and Mitsubishi.”
Julia smiled at the recitation. “Carlyle, you really did it?”
Centenarian Papadelias no longer bothers to hide his curses under his breath. “You told Julia you helped me, didn’t you, Foster? I told you to say nothing. Should have cuffed you to my car.”
Carlyle stepped forward, bold as a traitor before a tribunal whose verdict is already known. “I’m the one who did this to Julia, Papa. I should have the decency to face them.”
Papa’s raisin-wrinkled brows drew taut.
“Carlyle!” Even Julia’s face can show astonishment. “You really did it? You really are a double agent? You betrayed me? That’s wonderful! I’m so proud of you!”
“What?”
“You’ve become so strong! When I first took you in you were a spineless wreck, just waiting for somebody to tell you how to live and what to think. Now you’ve become your own person. You’re taking initiative, doubting what you’re told, making contacts of your own, and following through on what you believe. It takes a lot of strength to betray your teacher. I’m so proud of you.”
“I did have a pretty good teacher to betray.” The syrup in Julia’s tone had Carlyle smiling. “That didn’t come out right, did it?” Carlyle chuckled. “I mean that you were a good teacher, Julia, you showed me how to do something with my life, and how much the world needs help. And separately you really do deserve to be betrayed.”
She nodded. “That’s fair. And you were a wonderful pupil.” She cupped Carlyle’s cheek gently in her hand, like a proud parent. “Dana? Mitsubishi is your real mother. Twenty-eight years ago Andō promised Ganymede enough resources to make them the Humanist President if Ganymede would get Dana? to marry Andō. Ganymede took the bargain, and ten months later, at a certain house in Paris, you were born. The wedding was right after.”
Carlyle blinked. “What?”
“You betrayed me. You didn’t think there would be consequences, Gag-gene?” Julia’s smile deepened. “It’s thanks to you that a certain person in Paris controls the Humanists and Mitsubishi now, and by giving Dana? to Andō your birth also gave the Mitsubishi everything they needed to destroy the Cousins. So you aren’t personally responsible for the entire world being slaves to you-know-who, just three Hives.”
Carlyle froze, too shaken even to tremble. “Why did you just tell me that?”
“When you start playing grown-up games, there are grown-up consequences.”
“Dana? Mitsubishi?” Carlyle repeated. “Then I was…”
“Carlyle, don’t…” Papa tried to intervene, but knows when done is done.
Still Julia smiled. “I’ve enjoyed sparring with Dana? all these years, but really, the two of us are just scrabbling over leftovers. Thanks to you, someone else already finished conquering the world.”
The Gag-gene teetered as if to fall. “Thanks to me? Then, my mother … and my father? Who is my father?”
“Mmm. Well, now that you know your real birth-bash’, you can go home and ask. I doubt your step-ba’sibs in Tōgenkyō know much, but you can try Paris. Dominic’s an upstanding ba’sib, I’m sure they’ll help.”
Speech abandoned Carlyle, strength too, as she fumbled like one crippled by laughter or fever.
“Foster, don’t!” Papa made a halfhearted grab as the sensayer crashed past him toward the exit, like a hound mad with the hunt’s scent.