A pause. “Actually, excellency, I have. But I will grant that it was not a simple proposition, nor a spur-of-the-moment thing. Still, your own military likely has methods for doing exactly that.”
“Garal was never military,” Ingray pointed out. “E’s a vestige keeper. I’m quite sure e’s never done more than the kind of mech-piloting anyone does for fun. And even if none of that were true, why use the knife? The marker spike did the job.” She felt a tiny shiver at the back of her neck that wanted to spread further but somehow didn’t. “If the goal was to falsely accuse Excellency Hevom, then the knife only muddied things. When the Uto is the murder weapon, Excellency Hevom is the first, obvious suspect. And Garal had no reason to kill Excellency Zat.” She thought of pointing out that Garal would certainly not be working for eir father. But, she realized, there was no true statement she could make that Commander Hatqueban couldn’t dismiss as deception by some means or another. And, she remembered, Chenns had said that the commander was Hevom’s cousin. She wasn’t sure how close a relationship that might imply, but Chenns had seemed to think it would mean that Hatqueban wouldn’t want to think Hevom was a murderer. That probably also meant the commander wasn’t pleased with how Zat had treated Hevom. “You probably had more reason to wish Zat dead than Garal did. In any event, this business with Excellency Zat can’t have been part of your orders when you started out. If they were you wouldn’t be asking me any of this, because you’d know it was set up.” But that wasn’t a useful direction to go. Commander Hatqueban was no na?ve child, she was an experienced soldier with orders to follow, and she would surely follow them, no matter what she might privately think of those orders. “You were already on your way here, with orders to do this,” or something a lot like it anyway, “long before Zat died. So all this concern about who killed Zat and all these questions, none of it makes any sense.”
“And so you know what it is to be a soldier,” replied Commander Hatqueban. “Orders often make no sense, or not good sense. One follows them regardless, the best one can.”
The best one can. This operation had clearly not gone according to plan and Commander Hatqueban was likely trying to salvage as much of her original orders as she could.
Commander Hatqueban said into Ingray’s silence, “Tell me why the Geck are here.”
“They’re here looking for a former citizen of theirs.” Citizen couldn’t possibly be the right word. But Ingray wasn’t sure what other word would do. “Someone the Geck ambassador knows personally. She was concerned about this person’s welfare.” Maybe Tic was here, even now, watching. Waiting for some reason to act.
“You’re not speaking of Pahlad Budrakim,” said the commander. Not a question. “Or, excuse me, Garal Ket.”
Ingray frowned. And then realized that the specifics of what the ambassador had wanted had never been discussed on any of the news services. “No, not Garal. Someone else.”
“The Geck don’t leave their homeworld,” argued Commander Hatqueban. “Not unless they absolutely must. And they aren’t human, so a Geck could hardly pass unnoticed anywhere else.”
“There are humans who are associated with the Geck,” Ingray said. “They count as Geck under the treaty. The person the ambassador was looking for is one of these. Or was at one time.”
“And the Geck have claimed that Pahlad … excuse me, Garal Ket, is also one of these? Why?”
Ingray gave a small careless wave of one hand. “You’d have to ask the Geck. But it doesn’t really matter. Garal didn’t kill Excellency Zat. Believe what you want about Hevom, but it wasn’t Garal.”
“It might have been you,” suggested Commander Hatqueban. “After all, the knife came from your mother’s house, and you could easily have put it into the body when you came up the hill.”
Ingray blinked in surprise. “Now, why would I have done that?”
“No reason that makes sense,” replied Commander Hatqueban. “It would muddy the water, as you have already pointed out, but not in any way helpful to you or your mother. Or Garal Ket.”
“Who is beyond our reach now,” added Chenns.
Commander Hatqueban said nothing, only turned and strode away, back toward the case that held the Rejection of Obligations.
Chenns looked at Ingray and gave an apologetic smile. “The commander has a lot on her mind right now.”
“Does she.” Ingray was not disposed to be sympathetic.
Chenns crouched down, so that his face was more on a level with Ingray’s. “She doesn’t understand Hwaeans. Or Hwae. She’s disgusted that the parents of the children we were holding didn’t demand their release.”
“But they …” Ingray stopped.
“I know.” Chenns looked over his shoulder at the commander, and then back. “I wasn’t … sure about the wisdom of explaining who those children were. It probably wouldn’t have made a difference. The commander isn’t the sort to shoot children.” Ingray considered asking why, if that was the case, Chenns had neglected to mention just how few people would care very personally if anything happened to these particular children. “And actually, between you and me, she’s relieved to be rid of them. It’s just that she wonders why you troubled yourself over them, when no one else did and they’re no relations of yours. And it’s difficult for her to think that your mother allowing you to take her place makes any kind of sense, but Netano went with the children immediately, with no hesitation or even any sign that it might trouble her. Even though the commander agreed to the switch, she’s very suspicious of your presence here, for that reason.”
“But Mama hadn’t named her heir yet,” Ingray protested. “And it wasn’t ever going to be me anyway.” Behind her, Prolocutor Dicat snorted.
“I know,” said Chenns. How he stayed squatting the way he was, not quite all the way down, in that armor, Ingray didn’t know. Unless it was supporting him somehow. “I’ve explained, and she trusts that explanation, or you wouldn’t be here, but she doesn’t really understand it. She might understand better if I told her you were a foster-child, but she would understand better in the wrong way. I don’t know if that makes sense.”
“Not really.”
He gave that apologetic smile again. “I didn’t think so. At any rate, there were good reasons for agreeing to the exchange, but the commander is still not sure it’s not some kind of trick. I’m here because I speak fluent Bantia. Translation utilities can only do so much. And when you don’t understand a language or a culture very well, it’s easy to make simple mistakes that undermine what you’re trying to do. That much the commander does understand. She also understands just how unlikely it is that the Geck have come into this system at all, let alone at this particular moment. Add their interest in … in Garal Ket, and it becomes perhaps a bit too much to accept as mere coincidence.”