Tennal stopped pacing. “Which brings us to four: What if Oma has been using a remnant to fuck around with people’s minds on this station? Maybe that’s what the project was doing before Marit shut it down. What if Oma took that research and waited until she could use it?”

The way Tennal just said things out loud. Surit would have spent months quietly turning over those thoughts in the dark recesses of his brain. Tennal talked like he had stumbled into an armory and decided to explode every bomb at once.

Surit shut his eyes. “Let’s say that’s true,” he said. “Oma took the confiscated remnants to use on people’s minds. How can she do that? The only thing the army ever used them for was to make people into readers and architects. How is Oma using them for her own purposes?”

“I don’t know,” Tennal said. “I know brainwashing is a dirty word, but that’s the logical extension of architect abilities, right? It’s just writing you can’t feel. What if Oma found out how to use the remnants to amplify her own architect powers?”

Brainwashing. It had been a fear, back in the early days of modification, before everyone had known exactly what architects and readers could do and that architect commands were obvious and temporary. The idea of architect commands and compulsions with no limit was terrifying. But if you wanted power, you couldn’t do it on a one-to-one basis. “If I were brainwashing people,” Surit said, “I’d brainwash the strongest architects I could. Then they’d be able to write anyone I couldn’t reach.”

“Would you,” Tennal said. “Good to know one of us could take over the world if we wanted to. That explains why all her officers are strong architects.”

That was a wild accusation, now that Tennal said it out loud. Oma couldn’t possibly be brainwashing all her officers. Surit had never heard of anyone able to do something like that. His brain spun, trying to backtrack. “I’m a strong architect,” Surit pointed out. “She hasn’t done it to me. I wouldn’t be working for you if she had; I’d be working for her.”

“Maybe she doesn’t know you’re strong,” Tennal suggested. “No—that doesn’t track. It must be in your paperwork, since you synced me. And she knows I’m strong; I should be on that list myself. Readers would be useful too, if what you want is power. And I’m bloody sure she hasn’t brainwashed me.” He brooded for a moment. “Maybe we’re up the wrong tree entirely.”

“I suppose she could just keep you as a prisoner,” Surit said. “She may not need to brainwash you.”