troubled. He knew her well enough to suspect that she feared her performance before the Council may have triggered or catalyzed the kaze’s attack. For her it must have been easy to believe that the men who’d sent a kaze against the GCES would not have felt compelled to go so far if they hadn’t been surprised or frightened by her declaration of the UMCP’s neutrality in the debate over a Bill of Severance; her declaration of Warden Dios’ independence from Holt Fasner.
Hashi knew better. Earlier he’d been uncertain: now he was sure. Her performance may in fact have been a catalyst. Nevertheless it was essentially incidental. The men responsible for Clay Imposs né Nathan Alt could not have known that Sixten Vertigus, Senior Member for the United Western Bloc, would introduce a Bill of Severance. In addition, Imposs/Alt had been moving past Captain Vertigus toward Cleatus Fane when Hashi had accosted him. Therefore Captain Vertigus wasn’t the intended target. The motivations behind the kaze’s attack operated independently of the UWB Senior Member and his bill, as well as of Warden Dios’ neutrality.
Hashi said nothing to reassure Koina. She hadn’t asked for anything of the kind. And she would hear what he’d learned soon enough.
In contrast Chief Mandich studied Hashi narrowly while he spoke to Lane. Clearly Mandich was waiting for a chance to talk to the DA director.
A pox on the man, Hashi thought with unwonted vexation. The Chief of Security’s rectitude was as ironclad as Min Donner’s, but he lacked her flexibility of intelligence, her capacity to acknowledge concepts which violated her personal reality. For example, Hashi didn’t doubt that if Mandich were suddenly exalted to the position of UMCP director, the man wouldn’t hesitate to fire Hashi for having done things which disturbed the Chief’s scruples. Min Donner, on the other hand, might well retain Hashi in DA, even though she knew far more about his actions arid policies, and therefore had experienced far more outrage to her peculiar sense of honor.
Still Hashi did nothing to fend off Chief Mandich. Instead he made himself accessible as soon as he’d finished his interchange with Lane.
The Chief took the opportunity to move to a g-seat beside Hashi, belt himself down. “Director Lebwohl,” he began without preamble, “I need to know how you knew that man was a kaze.”
Hashi’s blue eyes glittered dangerously behind his smeared lenses. “Do you?” he countered in a tone of false amiability. No doubt Mandich meant, How were you able to spot him when we couldn’t?
“I do.” Chief Mandich was a blunt man with a blunt face; stolid as bone. His nearly colorless gaze had the dull tenacity of a pit bull’s. “And then I need to know why you didn’t do anything to stop him sooner.
“Something about him made you suspicious. You left your seat and moved around the hall specifically so that you could get close to him. But you didn’t say anything.” Mandich spoke with undisguised bitterness. He hated his own failures. “We’re just lucky nobody in the hall was killed. If you’d bothered to warn us, a GCES Security guard would still be alive. Ensign Crender would still have his left hand.
“With respect, Director Lebwohl,” he sneered, “what the hell did you think you were doing?”
A tremor ran along Hashi’s frame. His own reaction to the danger and indignity of the past few hours seemed to shrill inside him. “Very well.” He folded his thin hands in his lap to conceal their indignation. “You answer my questions, and I will answer yours.
“To use your phrase, Chief Mandich, what the hell did you think you were doing when you assigned a whelp like Ensign Crender to take my orders?”
Mandich’s eyes widened.
Wheezing sharply, Hashi sent his words like wasps into the Chief’s blunt face. “I made my needs known explicitly to Deputy Chief Ing. I informed him that I desired him and his men to stand ready to carry out my requests and instructions.
“He replied that he could not comply without consulting you.
“I did not consider that adequate. ‘If I ask you to “do something,” I will need it done without the delay of applying to your chief for permission.’ Those were my exact words. I told him plainly that I did not know what to expect, but that I wished to be prepared for whatever might transpire.
“Still he hesitated. I answered, ‘Then kindly inform Chief Mandich that I require him to assign personnel to me who have been given his authorization to