Miles-san himself blew in then, his step brisk, with Armsman Roic in tow.  Oki still didn't look up, and Jin was reminded that you couldn't hear anything in those booths.

"Ah," said Roic, smiling at Jin and giving him a friendly wave.  "You're awake.  Good."

Jin scowled back, not quite able to get that new picture out of his mind's eye of Roic looking through him like he wasn't there while he aimed the stunner.  Roic's face fell, a little, though he then tried his smile on Mina to better effect.  Was it all a fake, that smile?  Which was the real Roic, the big smiling man or that cold, intent, scary one?

"You're all here, excellent," said Miles-san to the room at large.  He hopped up on a chair like a teacher about to give a lecture, commanding everyone's attention, and making himself quite as tall as Roic.  It should have looked silly, and Jin wasn't sure why it didn't.

"The Northbridge police will be here in minutes to start recording statements, and to take delivery of our NewEgypt guests," Miles-san went on, with a wave at the jail-booth.  "We should be getting a couple of sleepy lawyers by then, too.  Madame Xia has categorically insisted she has no expertise in criminal law, but we've woken up a couple of associates from her firm's criminal department.  We'll have the senior partner in later today, when we're all back at the consulate and have rested up a bit."

Jin's mother stiffened.  "We never had good luck with lawyers before."

"This time, they'll be on your side," Miles-san promised.  "Meanwhile, Raven, Dr. Leiber, Consul Vorlynkin, we have just time to get our stories straight."

Raven-sensei looked interested, Leiber-sensei alarmed, and Consul Vorlynkin resigned.

Miles-san went on, "This whole chain of events is too complex and interlocking to adjust much, but on the whole I'd prefer to be less prominent in it, for reasons having to do with the other half of my investigations on Kibou.  Which do not concern and should not impinge on your affairs, Madame Sato, so don't be alarmed.  Fortunately, Raven and Dr. Leiber, here, are well positioned to be the local heroes."

Raven-sensei's brows rose.  Leiber's stare at Miles-san grew glumly suspicious.

"Short version is, when Raven and I visited you that first day, Dr. Leiber, it was because Raven was headhunting a top cryo-preservatives chemist for the Durona Group's proposed new expansion to this Northbridge facility.  Which is a position you will in fact be offered, by the way, assuming we can keep you out of jail."

"Oh!" said Leiber-sensei, sitting up, his sudden smile surprised but gratified.