The formal part of the ceremony was over quickly. The Auditor dealt with all the representatives exactly the same, from Eisafan’s twenty-person entourage to Jainan and Kiem, unaccompanied, and didn’t show a flicker of recognition. The presence of the remnants was much worse when you were close; all of the representatives kept giving little starts at nothing and glancing at thin air as if they’d just seen someone they knew. The Auditor’s staff took the keys, opening boxes and running handheld scanners across the remnants inside.
“Now what?” Kiem said under his breath. “What does he do with them? They make my skin crawl.”
“It was in the briefing,” Jainan said, then realized his mistake when Kiem took on the embarrassed, sidelong look of someone who hadn’t read it. “Ah. The tests take several days. When they’ve finished, they’ll be put in cold storage on the Resolution ship. The Resolution apparently uses an ice planet to store them
Chapter 10
—it’s a strategy for long-term neutralization.”
Kiem looked doubtful, but at that moment Bel muttered something under her breath and tapped Kiem’s elbow. “Look over there,” she said. “That’s quite a special guest.”
“Who?” Kiem said. He scanned the far end of the stateroom, which was crowded with knots of commercial moguls and their guests. Bel indicated a heavyset man in spacer fashion of a style that wasn’t Iskat or Thean.
“That man is Evn Afkeli.” Bel turned so her back was to the knot of people.
“He runs one of the big raider congloms—the Blue Star. He’s the one who spaces merchants whose companies don’t pay ransoms.”
Raiders. Jainan had to think for a moment before he recognized what Bel was talking about: the organized crime gangs that hopped among the asteroid belts and outer worlds, hijacking ships on minor routes and running their tendrils into planetside businesses. He remembered reading that they found an open harbor in Sefala, where the Empire struggled to keep order.
“Someone invited a Sefalan pirate to lunch?” Kiem said in a murmur no louder than Bel’s. “How does that work?”
“Evn Afkeli’s a legitimate businessman,” Bel said. “The Guard doesn’t have anything on him.”
“What a chance,” Kiem said. He was starting to grin. “Think I’ll go over and say hi.”
“Don’t,” Jainan said. He didn’t realize how sharply it had come out until he saw Kiem’s sideways look. Jainan was on edge: the buzzing of the remnants behind his shoulder seemed to be trying to materialize into some kind of presence. “Sorry,” he said, making an effort to cover it up. Kiem would do what he liked. “Of course. Would you like me to come?” He couldn’t even put words to the flood of repulsion that welled up in him.
“You know what,” Kiem said, “I changed my mind.”