Chapter 12

Qi stood in a queue outside of the patriarch's door. The line had been ten deep and was now down to just one more. She was Gidjrath and was chewing a wad of gum as if her lower jaw was semi-detached from her skull. At one time Qi had cultivated a reservoir of patience but that time had long since dissipated. He was jumpy and itchy and anxious and barely able to stand still. At least he was not sweating and batting at biting insects like the old days. He hated waiting.

Then Chemung passed by with his permanent scowl on his face. Qi automatically projected an air of nonchalance when he caught sight of the man. When Chemung returned Qi stared at his face, waiting to see if the weapons man had the backbone to look him in the face. He did.

"Safe-be," Qi said in greeting. Chemung always seems to be ready to strike at anyone or anything he deemed a threat.

"Safe-be," Chemung said with a slight rise of his eyebrows as he continued past. He always seemed surprised that Qi was not intimidated, which Qi had noted early. Just as enforcers in the Shadowlands relied on intimidation to keep their targets in check and their territories docile, so did Chemung. The game of dominance by intimidation must have some universal human element in Qi's assessment.

The door opened and the presenter scampered out of the room red in the face with final shout of "idiot!" following him. The little scene dropped Qi's expectations down several levels. He had submitted an analysis of probable digital infiltration with documentation to Kay and the next shift he was ordered to appear before the Patriarch with supporting materials. Kay left orders to ping her when he was at the front of the line.

The Gidjrath woman stepped inside and Qi pinged his boss. A moment passed and the door opened again. The Gidjrath woman was still chewing like a dumb animal. With a shrug of disbelief that his boss was not at his side, he stepped into room and approached the desk. Benni stared at him with a questioning look.

"I'm Qi" he said.

"Ah, the 2Q couple," Benni said. "Too Cute or however the double entendre works. Why did I summon you here?"

"Digital espionage," Qi said. "Kay received it yesterday. I thought she was supposed to be here with me."

Benni did not acknowledge his statement. He was already buried in a digital display that spread out across his desk that Qi could not read upside down. No matter how barbaric one considered the Families, they had a knack for using the best of the best technology as if money did not matter. Qi was impressed and pleased. His own desk comp was over-the-top, complete with a stylus for maximum speed and flexibility.

"Ah, my question," Benni said, "I found it. More to the point: you found it. How did you manage to locate their penetration?"

Qi shrugged. "I made of list of the obvious, and then constructed a tiered outline of the less obvious all the way out to the absurd. Every item in the first three tiers had been examined by Volentin and confirmed. I started in the fourth tier, looking for anomalies in routine systems."

"And?" Benni prompted.

"A heat venting regulator on Level 142 had a sophisticated comp for the measurement of various temperatures throughout the industrial level and the various scenarios for cooling overheated areas, pipes, ducts, and materials. Someone sent in a leech to attach itself to the comp and broadcast a data dump every time the vacuum vent was used. The vacuum facing vent wasn't used on a regular schedule but usually opened once if not twice or three times a day."

"They are getting smarter," Benni said.

"Not really," Qi replied without thinking. When Benni's eyebrows shot up with a matching grimace, Qi blanched. "Broadcasting requires energy whose usage can be traced, which is how I found it. If they had used nano-data nodules encased in 'spaceflex', they could have attached a spring loaded catapult, a micromechanical device, instead of an antenna and we never would have found it. This is old school, corporate espionage."

Benni leaned back in his chair, lost in thought. The dark rings around his eyes made his face look craggy and brooding, Qi decided. The man had an air about him as if he had once been powerfully strong and time had taken its toll.

"Where is Kay?" Benni asked suddenly.

"I don't know. I thought she was supposed to be here with me," Qi repeated. Was the patriarch distracted or was he slipping? Qi calmed himself and waited for clarification.

"We are too few and there is far too much to do," Benni said. "Kayetti is up to her eyeballs in administrivia and Chemung is running from situation to situation like a fireman hyped on stimsticks. I cannot keep up. Did you know I should have been dead ten years ago?"

"No," Qi said, trying to keep a neutral tone. "Did you survive an attack?"

"No," Benni said with a shake of his head. "People of the Temperdis didn't live long lives. I should have been dead a decade ago but freedom and proper medicine have retarded my decline. Nonetheless the Temperdis is deep in my bones and will not release me."

Benni sighed and then seemed to make a decision. "Quiyo has welcomed you to her mat. Kay speaks well of you and Chemung has no complaints about you. You will join my personal staff. You are not Volentin. I need you especially because you are not Volentin and cannot compete for my seat as patriarch. Your job is to keep me from slipping at this crucial time. You will be my data holder, my data seeker and my data analyst. I am slipping on the details, where slips matter the most."

"Why would you trust me with such responsibility?" Qi asked. "Would it not be easy for me to betray you?"

"To what end, Shadowlands?" Benni said with his eyes boring on Qi. "I explored where you came from. The pictures are wretched and the descriptions are sickening. You escaped and how did humanity welcome you? A man of talent and resourcefulness is forced to scrounge for marginal jobs with no merit. Here you have everything to fight for: a future. Quiyo is a future. If I was three decades younger, I'd be nailing her to the mat every night without respite.