Then he said, “Bel threatened him?”

“Saffer attempted to get a message out to his raider allies,” Rakal said tersely.

Jainan noticed that despite their ferociously neat appearance, there were shadows of fatigue under their eyes. “We blocked it; I have no idea how she intercepted a copy. It makes it very difficult for me to overlook your aide’s past if she threatens my prisoners with her conglomerate connections.”

Jainan took a moment to arrange his face to reflect an appropriate degree of seriousness. “I can see that,” he said. “I’ll speak to her.”

Rakal didn’t move. “One more thing. I have drafted my resignation.”

“Have you,” Jainan said.

“I have not yet formally tendered it. If you wish to make a preference clear to the Emperor, please do so over the next couple of days.”

Jainan looked at them. “Why?”

There was an unpleasant struggle going on behind Rakal’s attempt at professional neutrality. “My agency failed to handle this as we would ideally have done. In hindsight I should have paid more attention to the … personal angle.”

Jainan felt a distant stab of discomfort. “The personal angle is often irrelevant.”

“You came to the Empire in good faith. Internal Security could have looked more closely, and earlier, at Prince Taam’s activities.” It would have sounded like equivocation except for the way it clearly caused Rakal some pain to get the words out. They seemed determined to do it anyway. “Matters were handled improperly.”

“I don’t think you should resign,” Jainan said.

“I do not require a polite fiction.”

“I think,” Jainan said slowly, “that it’s very possible to spend all your energy doing the right thing but still miss something obvious. I think that doesn’t make your effort meaningless. Does that make sense?”

Rakal’s eyes narrowed, as if this was another piece of an investigatory puzzle.

“I will consider it.” They shook their head as if to clear it and moved aside. “I apologize for taking up your time.”

Jainan gave them a fractional nod and quickened his pace down the corridor.

He was late.

“Jainan!” Gairad hurried to catch up with him outside the meeting chamber.

Her work coveralls were gone, replaced by a semiformal outfit with a jacket in Feria green. “Wait for me. I barely know anyone in there.”

Jainan searched her face for signs she was looking at him differently now that she knew about Taam. He found nothing. She seemed to regard him as a handy clan member who would do as an ally in a pinch, the same as she had before the newslog coverage. It was an odd, refreshing feeling.

Gairad misread his scrutiny, and her expression turned defensive. “Ressid invited me because I know about Kingfisher, as long as I gave my word not to tell any of my friends. Don’t let me look bad in front of her,” she added, with a sudden flash of nerves, leading Jainan to wonder how Ressid overawed younger clan members so easily and how he had completely missed that gene.