Profiteer

Which made it all the more troubling to feel the edges of his mouth twitching toward a frown.

 

He stroked his beard to conceal the effort he made to maintain his smile. “What are you asking me?” he said.

 

There was no real reason for him to dislike Dimitri. The old Russian was only another professional trying to do his own job. But for some reason Vashniya was finding it difficult to maintain his good humor, something that usually never took a second thought.

 

For the first time in quite a long while, Vashniya was annoyed.

 

The two of them, Vashniya and Dimitri, were sitting in Dimitri’s office. Surrounding them was bedrock, and the monolithic foundation of the Confederacy tower. They were deep in the bowels of the Confed bureaucracy, both literally and figuratively.

 

“I would like a straight answer, Vashniya.”

 

Dimitri looked weary. Vashniya understood, but he didn’t sympathize. Every decade, right before the Congress, things got hectic in the intelligence community. That was a given. Water was wet, deep space was a vacuum, and every ten years Confed politics reached critical mass.

 

It was no excuse for Dimitri to be so unsubtle.

 

“Am I now to abase myself and admit to all the imagined crimes of the Indi Protectorate?”

 

Dimitri rubbed his forehead. “I’m not accusing you of anything.”

 

“I am relieved.”

 

“You can’t deny what happened on Mars.”

 

“Nothing denied, nothing admitted.”

 

Dimitri slammed his hand on the desk. “Damn it! I’ve been playing this game for twice as long as you’ve been alive. I am supposed to run the Security apparatus for the entire Confederacy.”

 

Vashniya stood up. He felt his smile leave. “Thank you for inviting me, but I think I’ll go now.”

 

Dimitri sank back in his chair. “I’m sorry. Forgive the outburst.”

 

“I don’t think we have anything more to say.”

 

“Don’t you understand this at all? My job is to hold the Confederacy together. It’s delicately balanced, and any change in the power structure is my business.”

 

Vashniya did not sit down and he did not repair his smile. “What could possibly change?” He made no effort to withhold the irony in his voice.

 

“We both know the potential of planetary promotions in the next Congress. Especially now that you have the Seven Worlds here backing you—”

 

“I understand. Perhaps from where you sit any shift in power may seem too destabilizing. A threat.”

 

Dimitri was nodding.

 

Vashniya sighed. “So much for the TEC’s much-lauded independence. You’ve admitted that you are nothing more than an agent for the interests of Sirius and Alpha Centauri.”

 

“Have you ever thought that any substantial shift in the Confederacy might erupt into something less desirable?”

 

“Everyone in power must fear change.”

 

“I don’t say that the current system is perfect, but there’s a process in place—”

 

Vashniya stepped toward the door. “I deeply resent the implication that the People’s Protectorate intends to violate the Charter. If you do so again, I will lodge a formal protest.”

 

“I told you, I’m not accusing you of anything. Would you please sit down and listen to me for a minute?”

 

Vashniya sat down, thinking clean thoughts to calm himself. He felt his frown weaken a little. “Perhaps I overreact. But please, let us expedite this. We are both busy men. Ask me something I can answer, and I will.”

 

“Okay. No specifics—but, Sim, I am going to have to deal with whatever happens afterward. Should I be worried?”

 

Vashniya sat back, stroked his beard, and felt the smile return.

 

“Perhaps, Dimitri. Perhaps you should worry.”

 

* * * *

 

Sim Vashniya’s mood had returned to normal by the time he arrived back at the Indi Consulate. There was time left in the day for the more normal burdens of his duty, even this far from Shiva. Not the least of which was an appraisal of the Protectorate’s intelligence operation on Earth. He was doing well on that, even if the local people took offense at being outranked by a non-Chinese—

 

Racism was an unhappy thought; he banished it.

 

The Consulate was part of the diplomatic sprawl that surrounded the spire of the Confederacy tower. Each building dotting the parkland at the tower’s base represented another planet, or group of planets. Each building claimed a portion of land in the name of its own government—which was the reason why none of them was housed in the tower itself. Even though the kilometer-tall building could easily house all of them just as well as it housed most of the governmental bureaucracy that ran the Confederacy.

 

The only planet that housed its diplomatic function with the building itself was Earth.

 

The main Indi Consulate was central to a dozen lesser buildings that housed diplomatic staffs of various member planets. It was hard to tell just how many buildings there were because of the extensive landscaping. If Vashniya stuck to the path, he could pass buildings twenty meters on either side of him and never see anything but trees, gardens, and the occasional pond.

 

That’s why he didn’t notice the man until he was upon him.