"You were expecting something more impressive, weren't you?" Ry Oyu said. "Not the Wizard of Oz, I hope." He extended his hand to her, eyes narrowed in amusement. "I am deeply honored."

Patricia shook his hand, her thin black eyebrows drawn together.

Ry Oyu patted her hand paternally and glanced uneasily at Olmy. "Now this branch of the conspiracy is gathered. My researchers are at the first-quarter location now; they'll join us in a few hours. They have no idea what's happened here. I'm not sure how I'll explain it to them—a person in my position, engaged in petty intrigues. Miss Vasquez—"

"I prefer Patricia," she said, voice still small, subdued.

"Patricia, do you have any idea what we've brought you here to discuss?"

"Some idea," Patricia said.

"Yes? Tell us."

"It involves my work on the corridor—the Way. And it somehow involves Konrad Korzenowski."

"Very good. How did she discover these things, Olmy?"

"I arranged for a rogue to visit her."

Patricia stared at him in shock, eyes square, touched with anger.

"I see. And?"

"The rogue revealed certain facts to her."

"Something of a risk, don't you think?"

"A very minor one," Olmy said. "She has the Mystery, after all."

"Does she, now." Ry Oyu approached Patricia. "Do you know what he's talking about—the Mystery?"

Patricia shook her head. "No."

"Do you know how important this might be to us? No, of course not. Too many questions. . . Patricia—"

"Olmy knows where a complete record of Korzenowski is," Patricia said abruptly. It was a wild guess—but she hated appearing completely ignorant.

"Actually, I doubt that," Ser Oyu said. "There are no complete records—not since the assassination."

Olmy tied together what she had already heard bits and pieces of: the story of Konrad Korzenowski. Called the Engineer, he had designed the inertial damping systems for the Thistledown, and had overseen the in-flight maintenance of the Beckmann drive. Working from inertial damping theory, he had then designed the sixth chamber machinery that created the Way.

That project had taken thirty years, and had been accomplished by forging an alliance between the largely Geshel governing bodies of the Thistledown, and the orthodox Naderites inhabiting Alexandria in the second chamber. Korzenowski himself—like Olmy—had been a Naderite by birth, and had given his word that Naderite wishes would be carried out. What the Naderites demanded was that the creation of the Way not alter the original mission, which was to find an Earth-like planet circling the distant star Epsilon Eridani. The Naderites believed their principal mission of settling distant worlds in the name of Earth was a sacred obligation, the only truly acceptable reason for venturing beyond the Solar System.