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"Perhaps you were arrested while visiting," said Drulović, speaking softly, her gaze sliding over to Aeka and Hokushin again. "It certainly wouldn't be the first time it occurred, I think. Recall what happened to Franz Hollinger some years past."

"I'll arrange for the dummy file," said Andrijana, resigned to permitting this strange arrangement in her facility. "It won't be good indefinitely - so please ensure that your mother makes it to Shintenchi soon." She looked at Drulović. "And I'm assuming you will not be speaking of this conversation."

"What is there to say?" Drulović turned her palm upward, then set her hand back against her abdomen, fingers curling tightly there. "You'll have my silence, for now. I've no need to cultivate unnecessary enemies or even base hostilities, Dr. Krstevska. I have plenty in store already."

"Your highness, I hope that you've been able to get what you came here for," Andrijana said. "As I said, this ..." She nodded around at her office. "This is unusual. I don't usually grant requests like this. But for a visiting dignitary - though I understand you're here unofficially - I'll of course do what I can. Mr. Hokushin, I'll arrange for the guards in the hall, outside the door, to take you into custody. They won't have heard our conversation here. I'll tell them I caught you and Ms. Drulović in cahoots. They'll take you both to the disciplinary unit."

"Oh, call it what it is," Drulović said, contemptuously. "You mean to say you intend us to go to solitary confinement." She remembered all too well the collective years she'd suffered in solitary confinement in one prison or another, each their own hell.