Had anyone else even tried?  Jin didn't know.  Miles-san, all dapper and alert and concentrated and never sitting still, was proving an alarming acquaintance.  Jin wasn't sure but what he'd liked the grubby lost druggie better.  Jin had a disconcerting feeling of having set a force in motion that he could not now stop, which wasn't made better by not even knowing whether he wanted to.

"I don't know, Mina," he said at last.  "Be quiet and go to sleep."  He rolled over and hid from it all under his covers.

#

Roic followed Consul Vorlynkin into the tight-room, where m'lord was already deeply involved with the comconsole, Johannes at his side, Raven leaning over and kibitzing.  They all seemed to be examining some engineering schematics for the NewEgypt facility, pulled up from God knew where.  Roic was relieved m'lord had finally decided to involve Johannes, if only by necessity.  Backup at last!  Inexperienced, but not untrained, and judging from his wide eyes it looked as if he was getting a tutorial in covert ops that would have done his ImpSec instructors proud.

M'lord wheeled in his station chair to take in the new arrivals.  "Ah, Vorlynkin, good.  Your clerk, Matson—he'll be back to work in the morning, right?"

"Yes?"

"I don't think we can keep those kids quiet enough to hide them from him in a house this small.  He'll have to be told they are protected witnesses, in some danger.  That should be enough to settle him."

"Is it true?" said Vorlynkin.

"How did someone so reluctant to tell lies become a diplomat?  By the way, I can't believe, with all your training, that you failed to admire Miss Sato's blisters.  What is it about this universal female conviction that medical conditions make one interesting?  Judging from my daughter Helen, it starts younger than I would have believed possible."

"About the danger," said Vorlynkin, winning Roic's admiration by refusing to be drawn into m'lord's flight of fancy.  Judging from the brightness of his eyes, m'lord was as over-stimulated right now as his own kids after one of his bedtime stories, right enough.  "Is it real?  Because it's unconscionable to keep those children from their guardians otherwise."

M'lord sobered.  "Perhaps.  This is an investigation, which means that not all leads pan out.  Or otherwise one wouldn't need to investigate.  But I shouldn't think Lisa Sato would have been removed in that brutal and effective way for any trivial reason.  Which means waking her up could actually increase their hazard . . ."  He tapped his lips, considering this.  "I suspect Jin misjudges his aunt and uncle, actually.  They may not merely lack the resources to fight the good fight for their kinswoman.  They may be seriously intimidated."

"Hm," said Vorlynkin.