Free Empress of Eternity by L. E. Modesitt

public transit to your town home. That is where you’re headed this evening, is it not?”
    “It is indeed, but I doubt that Minister Hlaansk would trouble himself over it. Others might, as you well know, but why would any concern themselves with the obscure research of an even more obscure lord? Or his brief visit to Caelaarn?”
    “You have always been modest, Maertyn. I’ve never been certain whether it was the modesty of arrogance or the arrogance of modesty.” Ashauer led the way through the arch and past the local tube transit corridor to the covered portico over the small circular drive of the northernmost transport corridor.
    Two vehicles were waiting there, the first a two-seat patrol vehicle with a single hard-faced patroller standing beside it, her dark uniform emphasizing the angularity of her face. She nodded politely but not effusively as the two lords passed and made their way to the second personal transit car, its gleaming finish the dark blue solar-metallic of the Transport Ministry. It was designed to hold but four, the driver/guard and another guard in front, and two in the shielded rear, with a small boot for luggage. The locks clicked open as the guard touched the door plate.
    Knowing that Ashauer would insist he enter first, Maertyn took the cushioned seat behind the driver, noting as he did that the privacy barrier was up. Ashauer took the other seat.
    “You would not have heard that there is dissension in some outlying districts,” offered the older lord once the car pulled away from the station.
    “Doubtless somewhere in Galawon or and especially in Saenblaed.”
    Ashauer nodded. “And in places in Occidenta.”
    “What has the Gaerda found as the reasons for such unrest?”
    “The Gaerda? How would a mere Transport functionary know their judgments?”
    Maertyn smiled faintly. “How indeed?”
    After a moment of silence, Ashauer said conversationally, as quietly as if idly musing about the regularity of the tube-train schedules, “There are reasons why you’ve been recalled to the capital, Maertyn, and not merely for a routine report or because a few ultra-capitalists protest the science behind Unity regulations.”
    “Besides my research? Or besides my charms and non ex is tent wealth?”
    “You’re not so poor as you have let others believe. The Gaerda—rather Gaerda chief Caellins—tasked the Finance Ministry with assessing the holdings of all lords currently serving in the government. Yours are far from the least substantial. They are, however, among the most, shall we say, dispersed, so much so that even the Finance Ministry reported it was unlikely that all of them had been identified.”
    “The Finance Ministry does me far too much credit.”
    “Far too little it would appear. Now…would you like to know why it was suggested to Minister Hlaansk that he request a report in person from you? Or rather that he remind you to come to Caelaarn to make your report in person?”
    “I would be most interested in knowing that.” Not that I’ll trust most of what you’re about to impart.
    “Knowing you, I’m certain you’ll be skeptical, but there are those who would prefer that you succeed in your research. The leadership of the Gaerda is not among them. Any indication of progress on your part will require more attention be paid to you, and, obviously, will leave fewer resources and emphasis on the scrutiny of others. Your recent request for more equipment suggested that your research might actually result in useful information.”
    “As opposed to being a mere cover for a sabbatical for a lord who dabbles in research? Even so, why would our vaunted security forces be interested in my research or even in my nonexistence? I certainly pose no threat to them.” Ashauer’s words and presence definitely confirmed, in Maertyn’s mind, that the Executive Administrator of the Unity, to whom Ashauer reported, assuredly directly, was engaged in a struggle of some sort with the