Cuckoo’s Egg by C.J. Cherryh

“Who asked for it?”

Duun was silent for a long time. “The government,”

“Asked a hatani solution?” The enormity of it washed over Thorn like a flood. Duun’s stare never gave him up.

“You are one of my principals. I gave you all I could give. I’ll go on giving that. It’s all that I can do.”

The stars glittered on, awash. “I wanted to love her, Duun.”

“I know.”

“I want to die.”

“I taught you to fight. Not to die. I’m teaching you to find solutions.”

“Find this one.”

“I’ve already been asked.”

Thorn shuddered. All his limbs shook.

“Come here,” Duun said. Held out his hands. “Come here, minnow.”

Thorn went. It was a pathetic thing Duun offered, shameful for them both. Duun took him in his arms and held tight till the shuddering stopped. After that he lay still against Duun’s shoulder for a very long time, and Duun’s arms cradled him as they had done before the fire, in Sheon, when he was small.

He slept. When he woke Duun had fallen asleep over him, and his back ached, and it was all still true.

* * *

* * *

IX

“Well,” Ellud said, “we’re still tracing the files as far as we can. When official channels decide to fake a record they can do it with remarkably few tracks.”

“No matter.” Duun kept his back straight. The cracked rib and a twisted night put slowness in his movements; and he sat cross-legged on the other riser in Ellud’s office with a cup of herbal tea in his hands. He savored the warmth and the quiet. “I congratulate the council. The security service background-true or false- accounted for the way she held herself.”

“Young and bright and probably indebted as hell to someone.”

“Try Dallen Company. Trace it and make as much noise as you like. It ought to keep Shbit prudent awhile.”

“I’m embarrassed about this.”

“She cost them. A lot of years forging that identity. What worries me is how she got out of the building untracked. Dammit, how did they foul that up?”

“We’re trying to find that out too.”

Duun stared at Ellud a moment and poured himself another cup of tea from the vessel which sat at his left knee. He lifted the cup and looked at Ellud again, making his face expressionless, his eyes uninformative as glass. “He’s growing to be a man, all fine points aside; the matter was bound to come up. Betan was a solution when I picked her. I sensed she had the nerve to deal with him. That was understatement, at least. Thorn, gods know, could take care of himself-up to a point. But at least she was bent on creating an incident. That’s likeliest. And at worst case, she would do that and kill him in the process. If she could. She had nerve for it. Pity the Guild didn’t get her.”

“Free-hatani?”

“I’ve thought of that. I don’t think so. Free-ghota, maybe.”

“Good gods, if you thought that-”

“Hindsight. She might be the same vukun as Shbit’s own bodyguards. They’re capable.

Maybe even one of Dallen Company’s guilded hire-ons. She botched it up if killing was what she intended, but she wasn’t bad. And I doubt it was all that simple.” Another sip of the tea. “You won’t find her, not now, I think. She likely did clear the building. Look for old friends in Security.”

“I’m doing that.”

“She’ll probably suicide after she reports. I embarrassed her, and not in her youthful modesty. Shbit will see the body disappears. I’ll be glad to see her go to him, frankly. It’ll make solutions a lot neater.”

“I don’t like this kind of thing.”

“I don’t like it either. I may yet visit Shbit. But this discomfiture ought to slow him down a while. He can’t bring his witness to light now. That’s all spoiled–the charges of assault and ravishment-” Duun drew a deep breath. Ellud’s distress was evident. “Well, it’s over. For a while. I put him to work in the gym this morning, refused all further questions, and poured a sedative down him afterward. Right now he’s sleeping and Hosi’s standing over him. Tomorrow, well, we’ll change that school situation. I think it’s best. With thanks to your staff. I’d like to pull him out, get him out to the country-“

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