Nobody should be willing to go that far. But the moment—the moment—you engage a lawyer without consulting Her Majesty, you are setting yourself up in opposition to the Emperor. She has the legal system, the police, the secret agencies, and to some extent Parliament under her command. What political base do you have?”
Kiem automatically took a gulp of his floral coffee. It was syrupy and tasted of dead plants.
“Exactly,” Vaile said. “The only advice I can give is this: sit tight and don’t make waves. It will sort itself out. If you want to do something, get Count Jainan to write down everything he remembers. He may need it for his defense.” A discreet chime came from her wristband. “Bother. I have to go to Council.”
“Ugh. Okay, okay, I get the point.” Kiem felt rather like he’d just been slashed up with an ornamental hatpin, but he had asked for it. He swung his legs
back to the floor. “No dramatics.”
“I’m not sure you could get by without dramatics,” Vaile said. “But be careful, Kiem. The water gets deep very fast.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to make trouble,” Kiem said. He got to his feet as Vaile’s aide poked his head around the door to end the appointment. “I just want some answers, and nobody’s given me any yet.”
CHAPTER 13
There were fifteen days before Unification Day, and Jainan was sleeping badly again.
He was aware he was a liability, though Kiem was polite enough not to voice it, and he was also painfully aware he could do nothing about it. Internal Security would continue to investigate him whatever happened. Until they cleared him, the Auditor presumably wouldn’t instate either of them. He could only imagine the Emperor had discussed the possibility of replacing him, replacing Kiem, appointing a whole new couple—but that would change nothing. Prince Taam was dead, and Thea was unhappy, and until Iskat produced some answers, the Auditor wouldn’t instate anyone.
Jainan still had the College project to complete, and part of him held on to the vain, quixotic hope that showing Operation Kingfisher an easy way to fix their mechanical problems might calm some of the tensions between Iskat and Thea.
And Kiem had indicated it was good social capital for him personally: at least Jainan could be useful there. The day after the disastrous quarterstaff practice, when Kiem and Bel were out, Jainan moved his research into the main room.
He’d spent long enough on the pure mathematics. It was time to go into the Kingfisher files.
The data coin Gairad had handed him at the embassy contained an absurd amount of raw material. Professor Audel had asked Operation Kingfisher for their unclassified materials, as the Imperial College was traditionally permitted to do, and the military had responded by burying them in a mountain of largely useless information. Jainan knew this was Empire politics. The military didn’t like to be questioned.