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Every govern they say should be believed

- Attributed to an ancient Human journalist

As she hurried across the roof of the adjoining parking spire at midafternoon of her final day as a Liaitor, Jedrik couldn&039;t clear her mind of the awareness that she was about to shed anotherbeneath her, each one suspended by its roof grapples on the conveyor track, were the vehicles of the power merchants and their ers heavy with ar fen to the tiny black skitters assigned to such as herself Ex-minion Jedrik knew she was about to take a final ride in thecrush on the underground ays

She had timed her departure with care The ones who rode in the jaigers would not have reassigned her skitter and its driver That driver, Havvy, required her special attentions in this last ride, this narrow ti with hi at their own terrible pace now Just that ainst fifty Huathered power

The parking spire&039;s roof pavement had been poorly repaired after the recent explosive destruction of three Ri as she hurried across the open area to the drop chute At the chute, she paused and glanced ard through Chu&039;s enclosing cliffs The sun, already nearing its late afternoon line on the cliffs, was a golden glow beyond the God Wall&039;s milky barrier To her newly sensitized fears, that was not a sun but a nant eye which peered down at her

By now, the rotofiles in her office would&039;ve been ignited by the clumsy intrusion of the LP toads There&039;d be a delay while they reported this, while it was bucked up through the hierarchy to a level where soainst letting her thoughts fall into tre shadows After the rotofiles, other data would accurow increasingly suspicious But that was part of her plan, a layer with many layers

Abruptly, she stepped into the chute, dropped to her parking level, stared across the catwalks at her skitter dangling a hood, his shoulders in their characteristic slouch Good He behaved as expected A certain finesse was called for now, but she expected no real trouble from anyone as shallow and transparent as Havvy Still, she kept her right hand in the pocket where she&039;d secreted a s could be allowed to stop her now She had selected and trained lieutenants, but none of them quite matched her capabilities The military force which had been prepared for this e which could pluck victory from the days ahead of themFor now, I must float like a leaf above the hurricane

Havvy was reading a book, one of those pseudodeep things he regularly affected, a book which she kneould not understand As he read, he pulled at his lower lip with thuer, the very picture of a deep intellectual involvement with important ideas But it was only a picture He gave no sign that he heard Jedrik hurrying toward hies and he held theer She could not yet see the title, but assumed this book would be on the contraband list as was That was about the peak of Havvy&039;s risk taking, not great but ilamor Another picture

She could see him quite distinctly now in readable detail He should have looked up by now but still sat absorbed in his book Havvy possessed large brown eyes which he obviously believed he employed with deceptive innocence The real innocence went far beyond his shallow atteination easily played the scene should one of Broey&039;s people confront Havvy in this pose

"A contraband book?" Havvy would ask, playing his brown eyes for all their worthless innocence "I didn&039;t think there were any ht you&039;d burned them all Fellow handed it to "

And the Elector&039;s spy would conceal a sneer while asking, "Didn&039;t you question such a gift?"

Should it coressively stickier for Havvy along the paths he could not anticipate His innocent brown eyes would deceive one of the Elector&039;s people no more than they deceived her In view of this, she read other es in the fact that Havvy had produced her key to the God Wall - this Jorj X McKie Havvy had come to her with his heavy-handed conspiratorial ent We thought you ed about this oddity, every question he&039;d answered with his transparent candor, had increased her tension, surprise, and elation

Jedrik thought upon these matters as she approached Havvy

He sensed her presence, looked up Recognition and so unexpected - a watchfulness half-shielded - came over him He closed his book

"You&039;re early"

"As I said I&039;d be"

This new e, raised old doubts No course remained for her except attack

"Only toads don&039;t break routine," she said

Havvy&039;s gaze darted left, right, returned to her face He hadn&039;t expected this It was a bit more open risk than Havvy relished The Elector had spy devices everywhere Havvy&039;s reaction told her what she wanted to knoever She gestured to the skitter

"Let&039;s go"

He pocketed his book, slid down, and opened her door His actions were a bit too brisk The button tab on one of his green-striped sleeves caught a door handle He freed himself with an eer harness Havvy slammed the door a touch too hard Nervous Good He took his place at the power bar to her left, kept his profile to her when he spoke

"Where?"

"Head for the apartrapple tracks The skitter jerked into motion, danced sideways, and slid sed fro shadows, even before the grapple released and Havvy activated the skitter&039;s oer, Jedrik firmed her decision not to look back The Liaitor building had becoreen stones heaps to the cliffs and the river&039;s arms That part of her life she now excised Best it were done cleanly Her mind must be clear for what came next What came next ar

It wasn&039;t often that a warrior force lifted itself out of Dosadi&039;s masses to seek its place in the power structure And the force she had groomed would strike fear into millions It was the fears of only a few people that concerned her now, though, and the first of these was Havvy

He drove with his usual competence, not overly proficient but adequate His knuckles hite on the steering ar those muscles, not one of the evil identities who could play their tricks in Dosadi flesh That was Havvy&039;s usefulness to her and his failure He was Dosadi-flawed, corrupted That could not be perood sense to fear her Jedrik allowed this e scene There was little traffic and all of that was armored The occasional tube access with its sense of weapons in the shadows and eyes behind the guard slits - all seemed normal It was too soon for the hue and cry after an errant Senior Liaitor

They went through the first walled checkpoint without delay The guards were efficiently casual, a glance at the skitter and the identification brassards of the occupants It was all routine

The danger with routines, she told herself, was that they very soon beca Boredom dulled the senses That was a boredo their warriors This new force on Dosadi would createroute through the walls, the streets becas in the open here, poisonous but beautiful Leaves were purple in the shadows Barren dirt beneath the bushes glittered with corrosive droplets, one of Dosadi&039;s little ways of protecting territory Dosadi taughtto learn

Jedrik turned, studied Havvy, the way he appeared to concentrate on his driving with an air of stored-up energy That was about as far as Havvy&039;s learning went He seemed to know some of his own deficiencies, must realize that many wondered how he held a driver&039;s job, even for the middle echelons, when the Warrens were jammed with people violently avaricious for any step upward Obviously, Havvy carried valuable secrets which he sold on a hidden e that hidden market now Her act h events of this day had confused her

"Can we be overheard?" she asked

That made no difference to her plans, but it was the kind of clumsiness which Havvy would misinterpret in precisely the way she now required

"I&039;ve disarmed the transceiver the way I did before," he said "It&039;ll look like a simple breakdown if anyone checks"

To no one but you, she thought

But it was the level of infantile response she&039;d coa with real curiosity

"You expected that we&039;d require privacy today?"

He alht himself, then:

"Oh, no! It was a precaution I have ave me the information about McKie"

"That was to demonstrate my value"

Oh, Havvy! Why do you try?

"You have unexpected qualities," she said, and marked that he did not even detect the first level of her irony "What&039;s this information you wish to sell?"

"It concerns this McKie"

"Indeed?"

"What&039;s it worth to you?"

"Am I your only rew even tighter on the steering arms The tensions in his voice were reht place- no worries about food or good housing or anything"

"Why aren&039;t you selling it in such a place?"

"I didn&039;t say I could sell it There are buyers and then there are buyers"

"And then there are the ones who just take?"

There was no need for him to answer and it was just as well A barrier dropped in front of the skitter, forcing Havvy to a quick stop For just an instant, fear gripped her and she felt her reflexes prevent any bodily betrayal of the emotion Then she saw that it was a routine stop while repair supplies were trundled across the roadway ahead of theht The inter of the city&039;s fortifications was going on at the next lower level Mehth layer of city protection on the southwest The noise of pounding rock hammers filled the street Grey dust lay everywhere, clouds of it drifting She smelled burnt flint and that bitter metallic undertone which you never quite escaped anywhere in Chu, the smell of the poison death which Dosadi ladled out to its inhabitants She closed her mouth and took shallow breaths, noted absently that the labor creas all Warren, all Human, and about a third of them women None of the women appeared older than fifteen They already had that hard alertness about the eyes which the Warren-born never lost

A younga ly grey hair The olderstrawboss see the assistant to keep up The important subtleties of the relationship thus revealed were entirely lost on Havvy, she noted The strawboss, as he passed one of the female laborers, looked her up and doith interest The worker noted his attention and exerted herself with the ha to his assistant, ent over and spoke to the young felanced at the strawboss, nodded The strawboss and assistant walked on without looking back The obvious arrangeone without Jedrik&039;s conscious notice except that the young fely resembled a woman she&039;d once knowndead noere soand the barrier lifted

Havvy drove on, glancing once at the strawboss as they passed hi Jedrik that the strawboss had assessed the skitter&039;s occupants much earlier

Jedrick picked up the conversation with Havvy where they&039;d left it

"What et more from me than from someone else?"

"Not moreIt&039;s just that there&039;s less risk with you"

The truth was in his voice, that innocent instrument which told so much about Havvy She shook her head

"You wantpause, Havvy said:

"You know a safer way forthe line for verification"

"But I&039;d be under your protection then"

"Why should I protect you when you&039;re no longer of value?"

"What et?"

Jedrik allowed herself a sigh, wondered why she continued this eht both run into a taker, Havvy"

Havvy didn&039;t respond Surely, he&039;d considered this in his foolish ga on the left Their street curved upward around the building and passed through a teeher level Between two taller buildings on the right, she glis which enclosed the taller as the skitter climbed