With a combination of darting into rooms, running down hallways and linking himself from floor to floor, Cristo searched Potestas Tower for Stephen Potestas.

The top item on his list before he left Invernali was getting Stephen Potestas alone for interrogation. Stephen had looked at the router and knew who connected the assassins to it. 

And he lied and said he didn't see anything.

Desperate and rushed, Cristo ended up looking for Stephen in the last place he should have been expected to be in the middle of the work day: his own rooms.

Stephen was a scholar, an academic and researcher who should have been at the labs at the university, or at Constellation — at the very least if he was home he should have been in the library, the router lab, or his offices downstairs.

There wasn't any reason Cristo could see for him to be in his own apartments in the middle of the day and his source, the future Stephen Potestas himself, hadn't said anything about that.

Yet from the penthouse foyer Cristo began up the stairs and down the hall that led to Stephen's rooms and found himself stepping in Stephen Potestas's footsteps down the corridor. Cristo quickened his pace and stepped loudly enough to not surprise Stephen, clicking his shoes on the floor.

Stephen glanced over his shoulder as Cristo caught up and slowed so they could walk side by side. They passed more than one guest bedroom in silence.

As they neared the end of the hall, Cristo said, "I need to speak with you privately. Can I come in?"

Stephen flung the double doors to his apartment open and said, "Certainly," as he strode across the sitting room. Cristo followed him, waited for both doors to crash open against the frames and swing back, and he stopped them with his palms so they would close softly behind him. Stephen had come to a stop in front of the liquor cabinet where he was filling a glass.

"It's still morning," said Cristo.

"Is it?" said Stephen. "Want one? It's a blended malt from Olus."

"No, thank you. Maybe you shouldn't either," he said. Stephen didn't answer but took a small drink. He was looking out his window, and Cristo joined him to see the white metropolis outside, bursting with the vital signs of a society at its pinnacle. Unaware that a society at its pinnacle has no way to go but down.

Snow covered the downtown streets and the sun got on into the afternoon over the city.

After the pause Stephen had a question that shocked Cristo with its insight. "This is about Nova Aurelian, isn't it?" he asked.

Cristo resisted turning to look at him. No, he was here to ask about the router. Not Nova. But going two for two for unexpected clarity, Stephen answered the unasked question. "I saw the way you glared at her. You're suspicious. I was hoping you would leave me out of it, I don't really know what you think she has to do with anything, but she doesn't. She certainly doesn't have anything to do with whoever wants to murder the boss."

"Well, now, I never said she had anything to do with that," Cristo insisted, and let Stephen rush to reply.

"I know—" he choked out. He stuttered as he went on, "But why else would you be so suspicious of her?"

"I'm not suspicious of her, exactly. I just wanted to ask you a few questions." He really wasn't supposed to spend his precious minutes letting Nova distract him — but his will was weak when it came to her. "How long have you known Aurelian Dasilva?"

"How long have you?" Stephen snapped. "You're the stranger here. Why do you get to ask the questions?"

"I more mean how long has she been close to your family," said Cristo, cutting off the confrontation with more calm than Stephen deserved right now.

"Since we were kids. The Dasilvas and the Potestas family were always the most influential in Invernali—"

"But there is no Dasilva family," Cristo interrupted. It was rash to show his ignorance but he was annoyed at this hole in his intel.

"Well, no, not anymore, I guess there isn't," said Stephen.

"What happened to it?"

Stephen swallowed. He didn't object to the question, and he didn't challenge Cristo for his obvious lack of information, didn't ask where he was from that he didn't know the first thing about the powerful families of Invernali, but his voice was cold. "Nova's family was murdered. It was a slaughter, mass murder. Every last Dasilva, she was the only survivor. Her mother, father, four older sisters — she was the youngest. The whole extended family, the matriarch and patriarch, all killed in the dining room of Nova's childhood home. She played dead. I'm told the scene was horrific — she played dead, stayed there I believe for hours until the guardia came. They found her. My father took her in — he has all but adopted her."

"That doesn't strike you as the least bit consanguine? More than a coincidence?"

"Not even a little bit," said Stephen, who had been able to guess what Cristo implied. "It's well known why it happened — the patriarch, old Dasilva, was going under and he had some shady business dealings. It wasn't really a shock to anyone when he paid for what he was involved in."

"So there were arrests? The case was closed?"

"There were arrests — the pawns who pulled the triggers are behind bars. I'm sure the guardia would rather have the person who wrote the checks, but yes, the case has been closed. There's no doubt why it happened."

"That's convenient," Cristo said. His tone was harsh. Stephen had no excuse for this level of stupidity — he was a genius.

Cristo hadn't come to Stephen to get to the bottom of what Nova was doing here, though, even if it was starting to sound like an impossibly detailed hoax involving decades of orchestration at this point. His curiosity battled against the time ticking away at his wrist and question after question occurred to him with problem after problem — but he couldn't ask any more. He needed to get back on track — so he changed subjects, but when he asked Stephen, "Who connected the assassins last night to the router?" the sputtering that came out of the boss's son's mouth told Cristo that it wasn't a change of subject at all.

"It wasn't — I didn't see who. I can't read the router, no one can—"

It was Cristo who took the position of arguing Nova's defence. "You're right, you can't read the router, because it wasn't her. Is that what you think you saw, Aurelian?" Stephen was shaking his head and struggling with his tongue.

"Listen, she was pretending she doesn't know me, we're old friends and we just had a little fight—" a lie he wished he didn't have to keep repeating and reminding everyone about but he needed it to persuade Stephen right now— "but she's the one who invited me here, and I know her very well. I'm not suspicious of her at all. No more than I'm suspicious of you. What's going on between me and her has nothing to do with these assassination attempts because she's not in any way involved."

Stephen put his rocks glass down on the window sill and turned to Cristo, sudden resolve hard in his eyes. "I can read it. I have never been wrong. I know how to read the router and I know that for some reason Nova connected the assassins to it." He let the words hang. Then he added, "I don't know why I'm telling you."

"There's no way," Cristo muttered, not looking away from Stephen in case he might miss any piece of the puzzle at all.

"She must have had a good reason. Or they threatened her. And they're still threatening her, otherwise she would tell us."

"What were you planning to do? Are you going to confront her or just go on like nothing happened?"

"I can't confront her. I hoped her motives would become clear as time goes on. She would never betray the boss. I would agree with you that it's impossible for her to be involved — but I know what I saw."

Cristo did believe he could read the router accurately. "There's no time to wait to see what happens. I would confront her myself but I have somewhere to be this afternoon." Several places to be. Constellation building and Claudia Solace's university and wherever Milana Nox was kept. Possibly the Liao residence again and possibly Casicaa again and possibly even Justin Marius's home. Tony Solari's place and back to Diana's. And then back to Potestas Tower for the evening soiree. A packed schedule, and apt to become more so. "If you have any leads, by all means follow them, but I need someone to find out for me why Nova helped the assassins and what else they might make her do. If you have nowhere else to start, you'll have to get answers straight from Nova."

Stephen was shaking his head. "My father has asked me to relieve the prison guard. It's at least a four hour shift. Maybe longer if no one relieves me."

"That's ridiculous," Cristo spat out. "Sorry, I just mean there has to be someone else who can do that. I'm sure there are more important things you could be doing."

"Not according to my father. Scribbling equations on walls to prove it's possible to glean information from the router and the implications that would have on the star connection — Yes, I know what he says about me to others. To the boss, that's of trivial importance. His security are working triple shifts. Besides, what's the harm in taking a day off? I have the rest of forever to prove my research."

"You don't have the rest of forever to find out if Nova's on the side of the assassins." It was becoming frustrating trying to communicate to these people the time sensitive nature of his investigation — they seemed to think they had all the time in the world. "Your father could be killed. And it's not just about him. A takeover of Constellation might sound trivial, but if you're so impressed by the implications that reading the router information would have on the connection, think about the implications of the whole company under the wrong leader. I don't understand how no one believes this is happening."

"No one believes you," Stephen said.

"So we understand each other. You understand how frustrating it can be to be sure of something but completely unable to convince others. I told your father I don't need him to believe me, I just need him to do what I asked — and I think he's going to listen. I need to ask the same of you. Do what I say, even if you don't believe me. Believe that if I'm right, you'll regret it if you don't. Find out what Nova is up to and why."

Stephen turned away from the window. He picked up his drink, which he had filled a second time. He took it with him. A link opened in the middle of the room. On the other side were three cells occupied by the boss's arrested assassins, who were reclining on cement beds, trapped behind bars. Stephen downed the rest of the drink in one. "The truth is," he said. "I'm just not sure I really want to know." As he strode into the detention level, he called back to Cristo, "Please show yourself out." The link closed behind him.

Cristo's watch said it was almost hora quarta. He had eight hours and at least twelve tasks to tick off his list. Adding another, and one so complex as unraveling Nova's betrayal, was impossible. He would just have to go forward blind, and trust nothing but fate that Nova wasn't going to stab all of Soliara in the back.