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“No evidence that Mao-Kwik knehat the equipen was exposed, Mao-Kas one of the first to turn over inforation committee If they—and by ‘they,’ I mean ‘he’—hadn’t turned over a terabyte of confidential correspondence, Gutht never have been implicated”

A silver-hairedthe other way in the hall looked up from his hand terminal and nodded to her as they drew near

“Victor,” she said “I’m sorry about Annette”

“The doctors say she’ll be fine,” the Andean said “I’ll tell her you asked”

“Tell her I said to get the hell out of bed before her husband starts getting dirty ideas,” she said, and the Andean laughed as they passed Then, to Soren: “Was he cutting a deal? Cooperation for clemency?”

“That was one interpretation, but eance for what happened to his daughter”

“She was on Eros,” Avasarala said

“She was Eros,” Soren said as they stepped into the elevator “She was the initial infection The scientists think the proto her brain and body as a template”

The elevator doors closed, the car already aware of who she was and where she was going It dropped smoothly as her eyebrows rose

“So when they started negotiating with that thing—”

“They were talking to as left of Jules-Pierre Mao’s daughter,” Soren said “I mean, they think they were”

Avasarala whistled low

“Did I pass the test,his face empty and impassive except for a small twinkle in the corners of his eyes that said he knew she’d been bullshitting hirinned

“No one likes a smart-ass,” she said The elevator stopped; the doors slid open

Jules-Pierre Mao sat at her desk, radiating a sense of calm with the faintest hint of a in the details: well-tailored silk suit that straddled the line between beige and gray, receding hairline un blue eyes that he had probably been born with He wore his age like a statees of time and mortality was beneath his notice Twenty years earlier, he’d just have been devastatingly handsonified too, and her first, animal impulse was that she wanted to like hi to hiovernment before,” he said He had a European accent that would have melted butter “I understand the constraints What can I do for you, Assistant Undersecretary?”

Avasarala lowered herself into her chair The Buddha smiled beatifically from his place by the wall The rain sheeted down the , shadows giving the near-subliers

“You want soet me some tea”

“Yes, ma’am,” the boy said

“Soren”

“Ma’am?”

“Don’t hurry”