The Consuming Fire (The Interdependency #2)(15)

“On Amit, yes.”

“Is there anyone to corroborate any of your claims?”

“My brother Ghreni,” Nadashe said. “The two of them were very close.”

“Ghreni, also at End, and thus also unable to be called to corroborate your claims here.”

“Yes. Unfortunate.”

“Quite,” Dorick said, in a tone that was maybe two degrees off from being entirely sincere. Nadashe was glad her lawyer was quick on the uptake. “Well, this is certainly an alternate theory of the case, isn’t it.”

“Yes,” Nadashe agreed.

“One that will take some time to investigate. Weeks, certainly. Months, probably. Years?”

“You should take all the time you need,” Nadashe said. “I am willing to wait for justice.”

“I’m sure you are,” Dorick said, and paused. “This won’t be cheap. And to put this indelicately, the House of Nohamapetan is up in the air about whether to fund your defense.”

Nadashe nodded. “Write this down.” She rattled off a long string of numbers. “Take that to the ImperialBanc in Hubfall. The branch across from the Guild House.”

“If this account’s in your name it may have already been seized.”

“It’s not in my name. It’s in yours.”

“Well,” Dorick said. “I wish I’d known about my windfall earlier.”

“I’d have preferred you never knew about it at all,” Nadashe said. “And yet here we are.”

Dorick nodded and stood. “The next time we meet will be at the arraignment.”

“I want bail,” Nadashe said.

“Let me remind you that you are to be charged with the attempted assassination of the emperox,” Dorick said. “Getting bail is optimistic.”

“Try anyway.”

Cal Dorick tried, arguing, not entirely unreasonably, that as an accused but entirely innocent attempted assassin, one of the other inmates might try to hurt or kill her out of a desire for notoriety, or a misplaced hope that murdering an attempted assassin of the emperox might better their own chance at a pa role or commutation. The arraigning judge was, to put it mildly, not convinced. But he grudgingly admitted the need for extra security for Nadashe. After offering solitary confinement for the duration of her pretrial stay, the judge instead gave Nadashe her own cell in the medium-security wing of the Emperox Hanne II Secured Correctional Facility, thirty klicks outside of Hubfall.

The correctional facility was deemed “secured” because there was no underground passenger rail in or out of the facility. The only way in or out was overland. As Hub was a tidally locked airless planet where the temperature was either 300 degrees or -200 degrees centigrade, depending which side of the planetary terminator line one chose to wander off from, the overland route was not, shall we say, a pleasant drive in the best of circumstances. Only approved vehicles were allowed to approach. Unapproved vehicles approaching the facility were warned at three thousand meters, targeted at two thousand meters and destroyed one klick out. No one was going to go up to the surface of the planet for alone time.

In the month after her arrival Nadashe kept to herself, stayed out of everyone’s way and avoided trouble. This was aided by the fact that she was ordered to take meals by herself, which were brought to her cell, and that her shower time was taken in the infirmary area, which had stalls and secured bathing facilities. Once a week she met with Dorick, who kept her up to date on the outside world, informing her of how the House of Lagos was given administration of Nohamapetan businesses in-system, how Grayland II had sparked a social and political crisis by warning about the upcoming collapse of the Flow streams, and more recently how the emperox had begun to claim religious visions, like Rachela in the early days of the Interdependency.

Nadashe, who had more context than nearly everyone else in the universe for these last two actions, said nothing to her lawyer about her thoughts and instead focused on the House of Lagos taking over the House of Nohamapetan’s administration. “Who’s their point person?” she asked.

“Lady Kiva Lagos,” Dorick said.

“Oh. Her.”

“You two know each other?”

“She used Ghreni as a boy toy when we were in college. How is she running the house’s business?”

“From the outside, she seems to be doing fine.”

“And from the inside?”

“No one from the inside is talking that much to me at the moment.”

“Well, that’s rude.”

Dorick shrugged. “You are accused of murdering the head of the company and destroying its newest and most expensive ship. For which, incidentally, the insurance policy has been voided. Since you were an officer of the company at the time of the alleged incident, the insurers are arguing attempted insurance fraud.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“Given the cost, that would normally make the House of Nohamapetan have a vested interest in you being found not guilty. But since you are trying to pin everything on Amit…” Dorick shrugged. “It’s not inclined to participate. Especially now that Kiva Lagos is running things.”

“For now.”

Dorick nodded. “It seems likely your mother will dispatch one of your cousins and a phalanx of lawyers from Terhathum to wrest control back. But they haven’t arrived yet, and considering that Grayland suggests that the Flow stream to Terhathum may be on the verge of collapse, that adds another level of … drama to the situation. I’ll be subpoenaing people and documents soon enough, but as you’ve said, we’re not in a rush.”