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tuition is due with the next lesson! The poor old tutor has to be able to buy bread, after all.”
    There were some giggles at that, there were uncoordinated salaams, and the children ran from the room, waving their homework as they pattered away through the house. The game pieces retracted slowly into the tabletop and an inlaid panel slid into place above them. Suleyman turned his attention to Victor.
    “It’s China, this time,” said Victor. “Nangjing.”
    “I was afraid of that,” Suleyman replied. “Sit down, won’t you?”
    Victor sat. The servant brought the tea. The mortal knelt a respectful distance away as the immortals drank tea and chatted about weather, global politics, the investment market. He watched, fascinated, as the white man sipped from the cheap disposable cup. Had Lord Suleyman intended an insult to his guest? But they seemed on the best of terms.
    Victor finished his tea and crushed the cup in an easy gesture. The mortal stared when Victor withdrew a little roll of transparent chlorilar bags from an inner pocket and tore one off. He tucked his used cup inside, sealed it with fastidious care, and set it on the tray. The mortal knit his brows in comprehension. Some biohazard? Perhaps the white man had been ill. That would explain why he was still wearing his gloves. The servant made a mental note to tip the bag down the fusion hopper without touching it.
    When they had refreshed themselves, Latif gestured for the tea things to be removed and the servant departed with them. Victor leaned forward and in a low voice related the events of the previous thirty-six hours.
    “Damn,” said Latif, when he’d finished. “How long does Aegeus think you’ll put up with this, anyway? He’s got to know
you
know they’re working together.”
    “He knows I have no choice, so my opinion doesn’t matter,” said Victor wearily. “And they aren’t allies at all. Aegeus will let Labienus do his dirty work until the day of the Silence, and then he’ll have him arrested and condemned, with sincerest outrage, no doubt. Labienus is perfectly aware theCompany is allowing him to lay waste to the mortals. He despises Aegeus for a hypocrite. And he’ll make damned sure he takes out Aegeus’s faction before they can arrest him.”
    “If we’re lucky, they’ll be so focused on getting each other they won’t pay attention to the rest of us,” said Latif.
    “Oh, they have their plans for the rest of us,” Suleyman told him.
    “Me, at least,” said Victor with a bitter laugh. “I stumbled across the memo. Probably a good idea, in my case, but it really would be a shame about the rest of you.”
    “We’ll do what we can, Victor,” Suleyman said, and reached out to thump Victor on the shoulder in sympathy. Victor flinched at his touch.
    “Careful, for God’s sake,” he murmured. “You never know.”
    There was a brief awkward silence and then Latif said: “So what was that you said about finding somebody?”
    Victor sighed. He explained what he’d seen in Labienus’s correspondence files. The other two men listened closely. Before he had finished, Latif was groaning and putting his face in his hands.
    “That would be just like poor old Kalugin,” he said, leaning backward. “To be so clueless he’d go to
Labienus
, of all people, with whatever it was he’d found! It had to have been some big smoking gun about the Sattes virus, wouldn’t you think? Since it was hitting where he was working right about then? And Labienus must have had him taken into custody as soon as he’d finished his job. Maybe even invited him up to MacKenzie Base to make a full report. Kalugin would have gone, too.”
    “But Kalugin’s not in any of the storage bunkers,” said Suleyman, stroking his beard. “If we knew where he’d gone after his mission—”
    “Where do you go on leave that’s near the Arctic Circle?” Latif wondered. “What the hell is there to do? I know Russians don’t mind it up there, but