The Consuming Fire (The Interdependency #2)(18)

Kiva didn’t think this was a very good way to go. But the more she reflected on it the more she decided there were worse ways. Amit was dead before he knew it, and at least people would be talking about how he died for years. So much more interesting than your basic stroke or heart attack. It was, in fact, the most interesting thing about Amit at all, which Kiva judged was not a great testament to the life he had bothered to live.

The now-dead-and-somewhat-smeary Amit Nohamapetan’s office was roomy, as befitted the head of his family’s operations in the Hub system, tastefully appointed in the manner that strongly implied it was furnished entirely through the preferences of a hired interior decorator rather than Amit’s own inclinations, if he had any, which he probably hadn’t, and lardered with all the technological assistants and innovations that any modern executive could want or need.

All except for a “Hey, your fucking sister is planning to shove a shuttle up your ass” alert, Kiva thought to herself. Which to be fair was admittedly a specialized item.

Kiva had that thought as she was looking out the transparent glass wall of the office, down toward the street below. Aside from the usual street noise of Hubfall—the largest city in the Interdependency, as imperial capitals have historically tended to be—there was an extra layer of volume, coming from what looked like a protest below. Kiva was too far up to see the signs or hear clearly whatever was being chanted, but whatever it was about, the crowd seemed pretty excitable.

“Lada Kiva.” Kiva turned her head and saw Bunton Salaanadon, her and previously Amit Nohamapetan’s executive assistant. Kiva had kept him because it wasn’t his fault he had been employed by an ineffectual traitor to the Interdependency, and also he knew things that Kiva didn’t, and didn’t want to have to wait weeks or months to learn herself. So far he’d been both appropriately grateful he hadn’t been sacked, and actually useful in terms of Kiva trying to run the House of Nohamapetan’s businesses like something other than a carpetbagging asshole.

Kiva motioned with her head to the glass. “What are they protesting?”

Salaanadon walked to his boss and glanced down at the street. “It’s not a protest exactly, I think. The emperox has said that she’s been having visions about the future of the Interdependency. I believe the people below are supporting her.”

“Huh.”

Salaanadon glanced over to Kiva. “Did Her Majesty mention anything about these visions when you met with her, Lady Kiva?”

“No,” Kiva said. “When I met her she was mostly still recovering from your old boss’s sister blowing up a spaceship around her. She didn’t talk all that much. She thanked me for helping uncover Nadashe’s plot, and told me I’d be in charge around here. Then I got shoved off.”

“Still an honor to meet the emperox.”

“It was all right. I think she may be fucking my old boy toy now.”

“Ma’am?” Salaanadon said.

Kiva waved him off. “Not important. You came to see me about something?”

“Yes, ma’am. A lawyer is here.”

“Toss him out a window.”

“Her, actually, I think.”

“So toss her out, then. Equally defenestratable.”

“I would, but this one is from the House of Nohamapetan.”

“Someone who works for me now.”

“I’m afraid not,” Salaanadon said. “This lawyer is here from Terhathum. That’s—”

“I know what and where Terhathum is,” Kiva said. “She’s from the fucking home office.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Does the math even work on that?”

“Terhathum is fifteen days away from Hub by the Flow. So yes, barely.”

“What does she want?”

“I believe she wants to discuss your administration of the local Nohamapetan properties.”

“Then she’d better bring it up with the emperox, since she’s the one who put me here.”

“She suggested there were other issues as well.”

“More for the emperox.”

“I’m afraid she can’t be put off. She is carrying a signet document.”

Kiva frowned at this. “Well, fuck.” A signet document was a legal document that gave the bearer the same standing as the ranking member of a house. From a legal point of view Kiva couldn’t avoid this fucking lawyer, since it would have been the same as avoiding the Countess Nohamapetan, which was not to be done. Technically speaking, and despite the emperox’s dispensation, Kiva in her new role as director was the countess’s employee.

“She’s currently in the waiting area,” Salaanadon said.

“Fine,” Kiva said. “Send her in. Might as well get this over with.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Salaanadon bowed his head slightly and exited. Kiva glanced once more down at the placarded crowd in the street, and wondered briefly how many of them were true believers and how many of them Grayland had paid for. Emperoxs had hired crowds for subjects less weighty than mystical visions, after all. And if the Interdependency was about to come to a crashing halt, then she might as well spend her marks before they were all worthless.

Not bad advice for you, either, Kiva thought to herself.

Right, but the problem with that was, for a rich person, Kiva was spectacularly unmotivated by money. She liked money, and she liked that she had money, and she was aware that a life lived without money would well and truly suck. But having had enough money all her life for literally anything she ever wanted to do—being the daughter of the head of a noble merchant family had its perks—she never thought about money, and her own material needs were fulfilled with a small percentage of the money she had available to her.