Different Senses (67 page)

“No. I’ve given some thought to
what you said today, and spoken and prayed with Roshni-ji about it.
You understand my problems with helping the Kelons.”

“I don’t blame you for loyalty
to your own. Just don’t hold it against me.”

“I don’t. But you’re right to
say this outbreak of violence hurts our people more than yours. We
want it stopped too, but we want it done in a just manner. Can you
guarantee that?”

I shook my head. “It’s a dirty
business, chasing terrorists. Worse when the bad guys and the good
guys look exactly the same.”

“
To us too, don’t forget.
Our community is tearing itself apart over this. The death of a
child, the attack on your family—especially
your
family,
Javen—revolts people. But so does what the police have done since.
It has to stop, and like it or not, your father can
help.”

My temper rose again, but this
time I clamped down on it before I said something hurtful. “I’m not
going to ask Dad to go easy on the indigenous for you, Shardul. I
can ask him to make sure the police are behaving in a moderate
manner but if he tells me not to interfere, I won’t blame him. The
best answer is for the Nihan to give up the killers.”

“We would if we could. You
don’t understand—there is no appetite for protecting these people.
But we already see how many innocents are being hurt as collateral
damage.”

“So help us catch them.”

In the dark, he was silent. I
felt his ambivalence, even fear. He wanted to help me—to make
amends according to his honour code if nothing else—but he
distrusted my people. For which I didn’t blame him at all, however
angry he’d made me.

“What do they want me to do?”
he asked finally.

“I really can’t discuss it with
you here.”

“They could have just asked me.
There was no need to arrest me.”

“Yeah, they could. Look, I’m
sorry how it went down. But I’m not sorry they need you. If you
want to talk to them about it, I can arrange it. Otherwise, this
part of the conversation is over.”

Again he fell silent. I waited.
This was a big deal, not an easy decision. And being with me
couldn't have helped. Being around him roused up all kinds of
feelings in me, and I did the same for him. Whether for the same
reason, I had no idea and wouldn’t ask. That boat had sailed a long
time ago.

“I was going to call. I never
found the courage.”

“I wish you had,” I said. “I
wasn’t angry. I would have listened.”

“It wouldn’t have been fair.
Not to you.”

That was the first time I’d had
any inkling he’d listened to what I’d said that night, or realised
what it meant. “Doesn’t matter,” I said roughly. “Do you want me to
set up a meeting with the security people or not?”

He sat up straighter in
response to my abrupt question. “I’ll
talk
to them. No more. And
I’ll agree without duress, or not at all. Make them understand
that. My family and friends are all prepared for whatever might be
thrown at them. The Kelons won’t use them to force me to do a damn
thing.”

“I’ll make that clear. I
already have. That’s why they let you go.”

“Typical. I’d been saying that
since I was arrested, but you, they listen to. I’ll await a
call.”

“Okay. Thanks, Shardul.”

He hesitated. “No. I’m not
doing it for you. Be clear about that.”

“Got it. No favours for
Javen.”

“Not on this, at least.”

He opened the door, and Agent
Tordwel came to attention with an abrupt shuffle of his feet.
Shardul ignored him as he looked back at me. “Perhaps...when this
is over, we should talk properly.”

“I’d like that. But only when
you’re ready.”

He nodded sharply and left the
vehicle. Tordwel stayed on alert until he drove away, and then got
into the auto beside me. “So, was that a waste of time?”

“‘
Sir’
,” I reminded him. “Not at
all. We need him. Medele needs him, Hegal needs him. So don’t piss
him off, please.”

“
As you wish,
sir.
”

Prick
. “Let’s go,” I told the
driver. I’d contact Commander Reoda in the morning. Whether Shardul
would actually agree to work with him, I had no idea. But at least
this was a start.

Chapter 4

The commander didn’t exactly
propose marriage out of sheer delight, but his tone was slightly
friendlier than it had been when I last spoke to him. “We’ll bring
him in this morning.”

“I want to be there, sir.”

“No can do, sergeant. Your
involvement has to be kept quiet.”

“Too late for that, sir.
Shardul has already been mishandled, and his cooperation is by no
means guaranteed. You need him, so let me help. He’s too smart to
fool, and he’ll work out what’s going on anyway.”

“
If he gets stroppy, I’ll
lock him up again. I won’t put up with any nonsense from a
bloody
banis
.”

“Sir, with respect, you do that
and I’ll bring my father into it. Shardul has an interplanetary
reputation as a lawyer and jurist. You got away with a brazen abuse
of the law once. You won’t again. I won’t let you. I won’t let you
make us into what we’re fighting.”

“You’re a pain in the arse,
Ythen. If you weren’t the governor’s son, I’d have you removed from
the police register with the blackest of black marks, and your
security rating would be so low you wouldn’t get a job cleaning
toilets.”

“
Well, I
am
the
governor’s son, sir,” I said, pushing my fucking luck. “And I’m
Shardul’s friend. I want to be there to help him and you both. I
was right about him yesterday. Trust me to be right
again.”

“Screw this up, sergeant and
your daddy won’t help you because they won’t find all the
pieces.”

“Sir. Shall I ask him to attend
the meeting?”

“I’ll handle that, sergeant.
You’ve done more than enough.”

Fuck you
too
, I thought as I closed the call. I
was seriously going off the guy.

But give him credit, he’d
learned something from the mess he’d made of handling Shardul first
time around. This time he arranged a meeting in a regular, if
anonymous, office hired for the occasion, and greeted Shardul with
respectful politeness. “Sri Rishabh, we really appreciate you
giving us a second chance. I want to apologise personally for the
way we went about this.”

“Thank you, commander. I’ll
accept your apology, and a personal donation to the Indigenous
Education Fund of a thousand dolar.”

Commander Reoda’s lips thinned
and I felt the blast of his anger, but he only nodded. “Of course.
That’s more than fair. Do please, take a seat. Chai?”

“No, thank you.” He turned to
me and nodded formally. “Good morning, Javen.”

“Hello, Shardul. Appreciate you
coming.”

Commander Reoda tapped the desk
with restrained annoyance. “Sri Ythen asked to be here to assist in
this matter. Naturally I agreed. We want cooperation, not
coercion.”

“
Now
,” Shardul said, raising his
eyebrow. Sanity, I’d missed that sardonic look. “I’m still at a
loss to understand why my involvement in your plans is so
crucial.”

“You understand that telling
you about this introduces a possible breach in our security. Before
I explain, I will need you to sign an official undertaking not to
reveal anything of this conversation, on the pain of a lengthy
prison sentence.”

He handed over a form on a
clipboard. Shardul sat back to read. Commander Reoda tried not to
show the impatience he felt, but he was an idiot if he’d expected
Shardul to sign without checking every clause. Still, I held my
breath as Shardul put the form back on the desk, unsigned.

“I can’t sign that. It’s asking
me to agree to concealing information which may be detrimental to
the state.”

“It does not!”

“It says I can’t reveal
anything I learn under privilege. However, that doesn’t exclude the
possibility of me learning, for instance, the identity of the
arsonists. Or those who plot to murder the governor and his
family.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. That’s
obviously not intended by the form.”

Shardul raised his
eyebrow again. “I can only go by the wording, commander. I
am
a
lawyer, after all. And traitors have been uncovered from within the
establishment in many regimes over history.”

This was all going to shit, and
at high speed. I held up a hand as Commander Reoda drew breath to
yell. “Excuse me, sir. He does have a point.”

“Be—”

“But you’re both forgetting
something.”

The commander exhaled, and
Shardul turned to me with a curious expression. “What’s that?”

“You’re a sworn officer of the
court. You’re already bound by an oath not to breach government
confidentiality....”

“Except when not doing so
constitutes a violation of state security or a breach of existing
law.”

“Yeah. So, you don’t need to
sign anything. You’ve already agreed to do what Commander Reoda
wants. Correct?”

“Indeed. And as a responsible
lawyer with an impeccable reputation, I would never breach my
professional oath or ethics. Not to mention that I’m no fool,
commander, and am not going to put myself at risk of being
imprisoned or assassinated just to pass on some gossip. So can we
please move on?”

I wanted to kiss him, or hug
him, or do something that would probably piss the pair of them off.
I’d missed this—him—so much. Such an annoying, lovable
arsehole.

Commander Reoda had
obviously reached his rank for the ability to hold onto his
impressive temper when he needed to, because he didn’t draw his
weapon and shoot Shardul as I knew he desperately wanted to. “Yes,
let’s. Sri Rishabh, there is an indigenous individual currently
under surveillance. We believe he supplies and supports a group
which is the most likely source of the recent violence. That
individual will shortly be arrested. We want
you
to offer to
represent him, and insinuate yourself into his trust with the aim
of introducing one of our agents to his circle. That agent will
carry out a deep cover operation to determine who’s behind these
attacks, and stop them.”

“So you want me to offer
representation under false pretences to a client, and then betray
my professional ethics in relation to that individual. Am I missing
something?”

Reoda’s lips thinned in a
menacing fashion. “The part about him being in collusion with
terrorists, I think. You won’t really be his lawyer.”

“Oh?”

“You’ll be playing a role, Sri
Rishabh. Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about.”

“I’m not. I’m trying to point
out that you’re asking me to break the law. And as an indigenous
person in this country, forgive me if I don’t believe the
government will offer me the same protection it will offer Javen
when he goes under cover.”

I hissed in a
breath.
Fuck you,
Shardul!

“You told him!” Commander Reoda
bellowed at me, on the verge of bursting into flames.

“No—”

“
You
just did, actually,” Shardul said politely. Smug
little shit. “So can we stop this pretence? Who’s the person you
want me to deceive, and what is the evidence of his
wrongdoing?”

“Not so fast. That’s
need-to-know.”

“And I need to know. Commander,
you don’t have a hope in this galaxy of getting my cooperation
until I know who I’m supposed to be screwing over in the name of
national security.”

“And you don’t have a hope in
hell of getting that information out of me until I know you’ll
cooperate, which you clearly never will.” Reoda slashed his hand in
Shardul’s direction so violently, it came very close to actual
assault. “Sergeant, get this man out of here. He’s wasting my time.
I’ll decide how we’ll deal with the breach of security later.”

Neither Shardul nor I moved.
“Sir,” I said. “At some point, there has to be some trust.
Shardul’s shown good faith turning up today after the, uh....”

“Wrongful arrest, imprisonment
and intimidation,” Shardul supplied in a perfectly polite tone.

“Yeah, that. For all he knows,
you want him to traduce his best friend.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Ythen.
He’s playing a game and playing you for a fool. I’m not surprised,
considering what I’ve heard about you and your preference for white
meat.”

I growled in anger. Shardul
stood. “He’s right, Javen. This is a waste of time. Shall I see
myself out?”

“No, I’ll come with you.”

I stalked to the door, furious
and humiliated. Shardul held it open for me, and we walked out
together.

“Just like old times,” he
murmured, and I huffed in disgust.

“I need a drink.”

“Chai. Too early for booze,
unfortunately.”

“Let’s get out of here. I’m
ditching my fucking bodyguard. Anyone who wants to shoot me today
can have their go.”

We headed to the elevator. I
didn’t know whether to be angry that Shardul was vaguely amused, or
amused that he took Commander Reoda’s anger so lightly. But then he
probably faced bullying authority figures all the time in
court.

I palmed the elevator control
but before the car arrived, Captain Largosen materialised—from
where, I wasn’t actually sure. “Gentlemen, come with me,
please.”

“No,” Shardul said. “Your
superior just threw us out.”

“I know. Please come with
me.”

I nudged Shardul’s arm. “What
can it hurt? They won’t arrest both of us.”

“They don’t need to. You’re too
trusting, Javen.”