Free Ambassador 4: Coming Home by Patty Jansen Page A

did things she hadn’t predicted.
    Sheydu predicted it because . . . she was just being Sheydu, more than twice Thayu’s age and three times the experience. One day I must ask her about all the places she had worked, but I suspected I wouldn’t like some of the answers.
    Thayu hadn’t guessed because looking for Federza was not a thing a Coldi person would do, since Federza was not in their loyalty networks. He was supposed to have his own loyalty networks. Except he didn’t. And I guessed in some sort of perverted way, he was in my loyalty network, if being a colleague could be called that.
    Marin Federza’s Trader office was in the old heritage four-storey building at the beginning of Market Street, a thick-walled, squat, cramped affair that you’d call ugly until you heard that the building was hundreds of years old and therefore, by Barresh standard, needed to be treated with reverence. Federza occupied one of the larger suites on the first floor. Because it was daytime, the metal gate at the bottom of the staircase was open and people walked in and out of the building.
    Some of them greeted us when we came up the stairs.
    The door to Federza’s office was closed, and remained so after Thayu’s knocking and jiggling of the handle.
    Thayu harrumphed. “So, he’s not home. Not that we’d thought any different. What’s the plan?” I thought she sounded belligerent and didn’t understand why. It was not like her to get upset about small things like failing to guess our destination. No doubt I’d find out what bugged her soon, but right now it wasn’t very helpful.
    “Reida broke into this office, remember? Last time I had to pick him up from the jail.”
    She shrugged. “I didn’t get all the sordid details.” There was definitely something bothering her.
    I addressed Sheydu. “Reida said he broke in to replace the bugs in this building that we lost, but he was working for Delegate Ayanu Azimi stealing documentation that Federza had been intending to give up to gamra .”
    “Is there a point to this?” Count on Sheydu to lose patience quickly. Damn it, everyone was in a foul mood.
    “Yes. While Reida was there, he placed new bugs.”
    Sheydu’s eyes widened. “They’re not ours. They’re Delegate Ayanu’s.”
    “I guess you want me to access them. I can’t. I need codes,” Thayu said.
    “I have the codes.”
    She turned sharply to me. “What? Why didn’t Reida give them to us?”
    “Because of his loyalties, and because of the attack on Federza and he didn’t want to be targeted as suspect. Because we went away soon after.” And because Federza wasn’t in anyone’s loyalty network and there was no need for them to know about bugs in Federza’s office. And also because it was Delegate Azimi’s bug network. “Anyway, Reida only gave me the code yesterday. And tell me what’s wrong, because everyone is snapping at me, and I’m just doing the best I can. This whole situation is fucked up, I know. This guy drives me crazy, and it’s not even safe coming home anymore because Xinanu might bite off my head. I don’t want any of you to start as well.”
    She sighed. “I’m sorry. We’re all stressed.” Nothing about what bothered her in particular. Too personal, I guessed, to be shared with Sheydu.
    I pulled out my reader and passed Thayu the code that Reida had given me yesterday, and she went up to the door with her reader.
    While Thayu did her thing, Sheydu and I stood a short distance back, pretending to wait for someone. We talked about the weather and the view from the balcony—into the back yards of the rich keihu families. Chatting with Sheydu was a hard job because she tended to give one-word replies, but fortunately I didn’t have to make conversation for very long, because Thayu came our way. “I’ve got the security camera recordings. They’re extremely short. Nothing happens.”
    “Nothing at all?” I couldn’t believe that.
    She shook her head. “But it’s