it, I'm not controlled."
"By whom?" Jazz asked.
"I don't know," Farl Baak insisted, and Hop tended to believe him. "That's what I'm trying to find out. But you work for him, I know that. You're part of the plot."
"And how do you know that?"
Baak was silent.
Jason again menaced the man, but this time Baak didn't try to retreat. "If you touch me, Worthing, I'll have a civil suit on you, and criminal complaints for assault and battery, and you know I can make it stick, I'm a Cabinet minister, dammit."
Suddenly Arran spoke up. "Don't be stupid, Farl. Tell him. He doesn't give a damn about your silly office."
Farl looked at her angrily, but it was hard to take him very seriously with his nose bleeding down to his chin. "There are some things I'm willing to endure a lot of pain for, Worthing," Baak said.
Jason studied the man, then nodded. "All right, Baak. You're not what I thought you were. Not a jackass, anyway." Jazz reached for the man, and Baak flinched. But this time Jason only helped him to the bed. Baak sighed in relief, and lay down, tipping his head back to stop the bleeding. "Once my nose starts bleeding it goes off and on for a week," Farl complained.
"Baak, it was stupid to try to kill me. I'm on your side."
"And what side is that, Worthing?"
"Somebody's trying to take over the government, all right. Well, I don't like it any better than you do."
Suddenly Noyock felt lost. What the hell was going on? Jazz hadn't been on Capitol in decades, hadn't talked to anyone out of Hop's earshot since he got back, and suddenly he seemed deeply into plots and counterplots in the top levels of government.
Baak sniffed, then sputtered blood. "Dammit, why did you have to be so rough?"
"Sorry."
"It isn't a plot to take over the government, Jazz, and you know it. Somebody's already taken over. For eight hundred years or so, I'm pretty sure. Some bastard has been giving orders to the Cabinet."
Jason looked at the man intently. "Who?" he asked.
"Like I told you, my friend, I don't know. Until recently I didn't even know I was controlled. But I was. The man works through intermediaries. Blackmail, bribery, playing off old friendships and enmities - "
"You're being blackmailed?" Jazz asked.
"Hardly. Everybody knows every possible scandal about me. Actually I was controlled more subtly. Through an intermediary."
"Who?"
"Arran, of course," Farl answered.
Hop had let go of her when Jazz let Farl lie down. Now she cursed softly and walked toward the bed. "'How can you say that, Farl, I've been with you since - "
"I didn't say you knew it, did I?" Baak waved her away. "Somebody keep the woman from interrupting. You know how it is, Jazz. You were born on Capitol. I came here from - well, it doesn't matter. Nowhere. There are certain social circles. Certain groups that dominate the lifeloops, that go to the same parties, that share all the interesting gossip. When I got to this somec level I began to think I belonged in those groups. But I was provincial, a boor. Utterly without manners. It was quite a coup when Arran let me into her life - the unlooped life - and started bringing me to parties, helping me learn what to do, what to say. For fifty wakings, now, I've listened to that group debate the great questions of the day - which is a laugh, since the great questions rarely come more than once in a century - and there was definitely an 'in' opinion and an 'out' opinion. I admit to you that I invariably voted with the ins. It got me a reputation for wisdom. Arran, here - she decides what the in opinion is to be."
"Ridiculous," Arran said. "I just think what I think."
"I traced it. I wish I could trace it further, but you were so obviously innocent of the plot that I didn't want to discover any - "
"Damn right I'm innocent," Arran interrupted.
"Jason, every single Cabinet minister is controlled some way or another. I didn't even discover it on my own. I was told. By a friend who shall remain nameless."
"You mean Shimon Rapth," Jazz said.
Forgetting his nose, Baak sat upright. "If you already know so damn much why did you come in and break my nose!"
"What did Rapth tell you, Farl?"
"Just what I told you. That the