"Who fed this data into your computer?"
The aide was startled at the interruption, but Jedrik turned to him, waiting.
"I think it was Holjance," the aide said. "Why?"
"Get him in here."
"Her."
"Her, then! Make sure she's actually the one who fed in that data."
Holjance was a pinch-faced woman with deep wrinkles around very bright eyes. Her hair was dark and wiry, skin almost the color of McKie's. Yes, she was the one who'd fed the data into the computer because it had arrived on her shift, and she'd thought it too important to delegate.
"What is it you want?" she demanded.
He saw no rudeness in this. It was Dosadi directness. Important things were happening all around. Don't waste time.
"You saw this assessment of the surrender offer?" he asked.
"Yes."
"Are you satisfied with it?"
"The data went in correctly."
"That's not my question."
"Of course I'm satisfied!"
She stood ready to defend herself against any charge that she'd slighted her job.
"Tell me, Holjance," he said, "if you wanted the Gowachin computers to produce inaccurate assessments, what would you do?"
She thought about this a moment, blinked, glanced almost furtively at Jedrik who appeared lost in thought. "Well, sir, we have a regular filtering procedure for preventing . . ."
"That's it," Jedrik said. "If I were a Gowachin, I would not be doing that right now."
Jedrik turned, barked orders to the guards behind her.
"That's another trap! Take care of it."
As they emerged from the elevator on Jedrik's floor, there was another delay, one of the escort who'd been with McKie at Gate Eighteen. His name was Todu Pellas and McKie addressed him by name, noting the faint betrayal of pleasure this elicited. Pellas, too, had doubts about carrying out a particular order.
"We're supposed to back up Tria's move by attacking across the upper parkway, but there are some trees and other growth knocked down up there that haven't been moved for two days."
"Who knocked down those trees?" McKie asked.
"We did."
McKie understood. You feinted. The Gowachin were supposed to believe this would provide cover for an attack, but there'd been no attack for two days.
"They must be under pretty heavy strain," Jedrik said.
McKie nodded. That, too, made sense. The alternative Gowachin assumption was that the Humans were trying to fake them into an attack at that point. But the cover had not been removed by either side for two days.
Jedrik took a deep breath.
"We have superior firepower and when Tria . . . well. You should be able to cut right through there to . . ."
McKie interrupted.
"Call off that attack."
"But. . ."
"Call it off!"
She saw the direction of his reasoning. Broey had learned much from the force which Gar and Tria had trained. And Jedrik herself had provided the final emphasis in the lesson. She saw there was no need to change her orders to Pellas.
Pellas had taken it upon himself to obey McKie, not waiting for Jedrik's response, although she was his commander. He already had a communicator off his belt and was speaking rapidly into it.
"Yes! Dig in for a holding action."
He spoke in an aside to Jedrik.
"I can handle it from here."
In a few steps, Jedrik and McKie found themselves in her room. Jedrik leaned with her back against the door, no longer trying to conceal her fatigue.
"McKie, you're becoming very Dosadi."
He crossed to the concealing panels, pulled out the bed.
"You need rest."
"No time."
Yes, she knew all about the sixty-hour deadline - less than fifty-five hours now. Dosadi's destruction was a reaction she hadn't expected from "X," and she blamed herself.
He turned, studied her, saw that she'd passed some previously defined limit of personal endurance. She possessed no amplifiers of muscles or senses, none of the sophisticated aids McKie could call upon in emergencies. She had nothing but her own magnificent mind and body. And she'd almost run them out. Still, she pressed on. This told him a great deal about her motivation.
McKie found himself deeply touched by the fact that she'd not once berated him for hiding that ultimate threat which Aritch held over Dosadi. She'd accepted it that someone in Aritch's position could erase an entire planet, that McKie had been properly maneuvered into concealing this.
The alternative she offered filled McKie with misgivings.
Exchange bodies?