Read The Terrorists of Irustan for Free Online Page B

with such things?”
    Zahra sucked in her breath. The verge over her mouth clung to her lips, and she slowly blew it out again. Careful. She must be careful.
    Very deliberately, she raised her head to meet Qadir’s eyes. “Chief Director,” she said. Her voice trembled slightly. Would Qadir think he had frightened her? “I, Medicant IbSada, would like to lodge a protest with the directorate as regards the treatment of one Maya B’Neeli by her husband.” “Diya, send a message for the medicant,” Qadir said coldly. “Add it to her other protests. You may go and do that now.”
    “Thank you, Chief Director,” Zahra said evenly. She heard Diya cross the room, and close the door behind him.
    Qadir pursed his lips and leaned back in his chair. His hands were relaxed now on the table, and his eyes held hers for a long moment. Then he began to smile. “Now, now, Zahra,” he chided. “Was all that necessary?”
    For answer, Zahra lifted her rill across her eyes and deftly buttoned it. Qadir sighed. “I have real problems to deal with, Zahra, that go much deeper than the marital troubles of one couple. Pi Team is going to punish a thief today. I have to muster an audience, make it count for something.” Zahra said softly, “So a thief is going to lose his hand. What if Maya B’Neeli’s daughter loses her mother?”
    Qadir shook his head. “Zahra, Zahra.” He pushed back his chair and stood. “Come now, you know the law as well as anyone.” He came close to her and ran his hand down her back, smoothing the folds of her drape. “You are, after all,” he said softly, “the smartest of all women. My clever little medicant, Irustan’s best medicant! The Maker knew in whose hands to place you!”
    Zahra stood without moving, suppressing a faint shudder as his hand passed over her. He patted her familiarly. She wanted to shriek at him. She almost groaned with the effort of controlling herself. It seemed he might even reach beneath her veil, but a light tap on the door signaled Diya’s return. “Chief Director, the husband of the medicant’s patient wants to take her home.” Diya stood waiting, his eyes on Qadir as if Zahra were not in the room. Zahra ground her teeth in fury.
    Qadir’s anger was spent. He lifted his hand to Zahra. “We must ask the medicant,” he said. “The patient is hers.”
    “She’s had ...” Zahra stopped herself. They didn’t want to know what Maya’s treatment had been, or how ill she was. They only wanted an answer, so that they could go about their business. Real business. “She can’t go home for at least another day,” she finished.
    Qadir nodded to Diya. “You heard the medicant,” he said. “Tell the husband to go home, and come back tomorrow.”
    Diya cleared his throat. “Um—he—this B’Neeli—insists he can take care of his wife at home.”
    Qadir frowned and turned away. “Well, then. If he insists, then he takes her, that’s all there is to it. I can’t force him.”
    “Qadir!” Zahra cried. “He can’t—she cannot go home yet!”
    He stepped to the table to pick up a slim, Earth-leather case. He snapped it shut with a decisive snick of metal against metal. “Do I need to quote the Book to you, Zahra?”
    “She could die, Qadir!”
    Qadir tucked the case under his arm, finished his coffee in a long swallow, and set his cup down. “Zahra,” he said edgily. “If the rhodium doesn’t get mined, the ships will stop coming. I don’t want my people subsisting on olives and psar. I have one crisis after another in the mines and the offices, and I can’t spend energy on one clerk and his wife! That’s your job.” He nodded again to Diya. “Get the car, will you?”
    The matter was closed.
    Zahra spun about in an untidy cloud of veil, and stalked out. She slammed the door to the dayroom, and again the door of the surgery. Lili looked up, alarmed, at her noisy entrance.
    “Lili, go to Ishi. She’s with Cook. I’ll come when I can.”
    Lili