Palace by Katharine Kerr, Mark Kreighbaum Page B

into the L’Var property, if you ask me, and took it.’
    ‘She’d kill someone for money?’ Rico broke in. ‘That’s really loath.’
    ‘Not just money,’ Barra said. ‘Hatred first. Then money.’
    Rico considered, leaning over the back of his chair. This conversation was giving him different data than the history downloads he’d been assigned on the School Map. Hi was watching him, he realized, as if waiting for some reaction.
    ‘Well,’ Rico said. ‘What if Karlo wanted Nimue down so he could save the day with his Fleet?
    It sure made him a hero, and that made him First Citizen.’
    Hi laughed and pointed at the blackbox on the table.
    ‘Never say that without one of these around, Rico, but you know something? A lot of people have wondered the same thing.’
    ‘Too simple,’ Barra said. ‘Karlo had already seen one planet destroyed by the Lep invaders. He’s not a monster. I don’t see him risking it happening again. All of his ships were Kephalon ships. Every man and woman onboard had just lost their families, their homes - everything. I think they wanted to kill Leps first and worry about politics later.’
    ‘Yeah.’ Hi nodded. ‘And we’re all damn lucky that Karlo was bringing his bunch of orphans our way.’
    Rico felt a cold stripe run down his back. The history downloads had made that part clear enough, that without the Kephalon navy, Palace would have been destroyed once the defence grid went down. Palace had always trusted in its AIs, had never built a navy of fighting ships. With Nimue off-line, the planet floated in space as helpless and fragile as a bubbleflare. No wonder, he supposed, that public opinion had cheered Vanna Makeesa when she rooted out the traitors - or at least, the family that most people considered traitors.
    ‘You don’t think that tape was real?’ Rico said.
    ‘I think it was real,’ Hi answered. ‘I feel that it was a plant, a fake, a send-up, whatever you want to call it. The courts aren’t interested in feelings.’
    ‘Huh. Could I get onto that part of the Map?’
    ‘What?’ Barra broke in. ‘Hell, no! Don’t you go trying to breach the firewalls, either. Rico, we’re talking about military secrets and legal matters here. Planetary security matters. Do you understand me?’
    ‘I was just curious.’
    ‘I know what your "just curious" means.’ Barra was glaring at him. ‘Don’t you remember what I said the last time you got into an unauthorized area? I will not bail you out of trouble again, young man. I mean that. You may be my own blood and genotype, but the guild comes first.’
    ‘Ah, Mum! Don’t worry! Come on! I don’t have any of the metas. It’s way above my level, I bet.’
    ‘Don’t bet,’ Barra snapped. ‘You’ll only take that for a challenge.’
    Rico tried smiling at her, but she merely glowered in return. When he realized that Hi was watching, he did his best to look contrite.
    ‘Well, I promise you, then,’ Rico said. ‘No poking around the Nimue gate.’Barra relaxed. It was a cheap promise, Rico decided. He was certain that security routines of many different kinds had locked the gate to Nimue and the defence grid far beyond his ability to reach it, much less pass through it. The readout down Barra’s sleeves winked and changed. She frowned and punched a couple of transmit buttons, waited, frowned again.
    ‘I’ve got to go,’ she announced. ‘The re-route carrier’s hit some kind of snag. What’s your news?’
    ‘Oh, nothing much.’ Hi got up, yawning, offering her a hand to help her out of the sofa. ‘I’m just going to make Rico my heir, that’s all.’
    Barra stared, then slowly got to her feet. ‘Well, my God,’ she said at last. ‘Why?’
    ‘Why do you think?’ Hi stared down at the carpet. ‘I need someone to leave my collection of crap to, don’t I?’ He looked up, towards his nephew with eyes brimming sadness. ‘What do you think, Rico?’
    ‘I think we should find Arno, that’s what,