Banstegeyn stared forward at the dark material covering the privacy panel, then looked away, to the side, out of the dull outward-mirrored windows of the aircraft. He watched the city sliding past. They crossed the river. The lowest tier of the parliament gardens rose walled above the troubled surface of the waves. The first few buildings and pavilions would appear in a moment. What had she been thinking of? What did she think she’d been doing? Had she gone completely mad?

“Why would she—?” he said, then – suddenly realising – stared at the physician general. “Has it – the embryo – has it … do you know who …?” He was babbling. This was not him. He pulled himself together. “Has it been … analysed?”

“The products of conception have been removed,” Locuil said, his voice barely more than a whisper. “Privately, as it were. So that these do not presently form part of the judicial or evidential material held by the security forces. And they have not been analysed. Of course, they would need to be, for the identity of the—”

“It might be best if it was … that is, if it … it might be for the best for all concerned if it was … if all that disappeared.”

The physician general sat back, nodded. “I’ll see what I can do, Septame.”

He thumbed the privacy screen down again.

Banstegeyn felt his stomach lurch. The aircraft began its steep descent.

xGSV Contents May Differ

oLOU Caconym

oGCU Displacement Activity

oGSV Empiricist

oGSV Just The Washing Instruction Chip In Life’s Rich Tapestry

oUe Mistake Not …

oMSV Passing By And Thought I’d Drop In

oMSV Pressure Drop

oLSV You Call This Clean?

The avatar of the Passing By And Thought I’d Drop In reports that the president of Gzilt, Sefoy Geljemyn, is dead and may have been assassinated.

∞

xLOU Caconym

Just looking at the feeds and the official in-system signal streams available, it looks pretty damn certain she was assassinated. One might have expected that our colleague the Passing By And Thought I’d Drop In would know and be able to confirm this by its own direct channels, rather than still be speculating like some out-of-the-loop news concern consisting of a couple of dodgy float-cams and a single reporter hopping round their apartment trying to get their pants on and brush their teeth at the same time, while staring goggle-eyed at the breaking news screens of the big boys.

∞

xMSV Passing By And Thought I’d Drop In