“At 14:01 UT,” Ockham began, “nine hours thirteen minutes ago, I met with our three Commanders. Prime Minister Perry said that the press investigations incited by the Black Sakura theft are now targeting the Cousins’ Feedback Bureau, and they think this will expose an important secret, whose nature they did not specify, but which is likely to result in the dissolution of the Cousins. The Prime Minister called for a hit—”

“¿Now?” Sniper interrupted. “You must be joking.”

“No joke. They want us to trigger the retirement of Bureau Chief Darcy Sok, to deflect the investigation away from whatever the CFB is hiding.”

“¿And what’s supposed to deflect the investigators that are after us? ¡A hit right now is insanity!”

Ockham’s sigh agreed. “Perry stated that they had violated protocol and already made direct contact with Sidney and Eureka, to have them pick a target.”

<that’s true,> the set-set confirmed, <the p.m. called direct. we thought it was weird, but the world is weird lately, so weird things coming are normal.> Will you be more comfortable, reader, if we decide this is Eureka Weeksbooth, not Sidney who attends? Eureka you know, and the two are as interchangeable as two ants, whom only Mushi Mojave could differentiate as they trundle by. They are not the same, though, in the eyes of a tribunal. Eureka Weeksbooth was born to this bash’, sent to set-set training for this purpose, and their parents baptized them in the transit computers as soon as their young set-set eyes had opened enough to gaze in proper wonder at their digital universe. Sidney Koons, on the other hand, was sent for set-set training by an enterprising bash’ in expectation of a fat check when someone hired their living little nest egg, much as the bash’es that sold Madame the source genes which made Ganymede and Danaë are doubtless still living off the proceeds. Sidney had several fatter offers when hiring day came; they chose O.S.

“¿Weird how?” Lesley pressed, bending to help Sniper retrieve a dropped ball. “¿How is the world weird lately?”

<you wouldn’t understand.>

“Try me. Perry’s saying the Cousins are in danger. ¿Can you tell from what?”

<¿you see the sea?>

Lesley gazed out the window at the bird-speckled waves afire with sunset. “Yes.”

<in my sea, the currents are getting violent enough to grind against each other. human earthquake.>

“¿How bad?” Lesley asked. “¿How bad compared to… what’s the worst we’ve had, when that Anti-Mitsubishi Land Bill went up in 2449?”

<this is five times as salty.>

Fear rose on faces that rarely show it.

Not Ockham’s. “Then O.S. will steer it back again. The question is precisely how. The President and Chief Director indicated that they had intended this leak to occur so the Cousins would be dissolved, but both agreed with the Prime Minister that if this occurs now, while Mitsubishi and Humanist popularity is low, it could cause a disastrous swing toward the Masons. They talked about a real population majority. The President asked my advice, and I advised against O.S. taking any action while Martin Guildbreaker’s investigation is ongoing. The President—reluctantly—ordered that we prepare this hit, but said we are only to prepare, and to do nothing further without orders.”