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Oliver inhaled deeply and let it out quietly. Serihk was trying to make him indignant. He was trying to offend because he knew Oliver would react poorly. So Oliver wouldn’t.
Instead, he smiled and sat in the chair across from Serihk without being invited. “Good morning, Serihk. How are you?”
Serihk raised an eyebrow and set the tablet aside. He laced his long fingers together and leaned forward. “Good morning. I’m well. And you?”
“I’m feeling like we got off to a bad start.” Oliver leaned forward to mirror him. His usual instincts were to lean back, make distance, and lord over whomever he was speaking to, but he fought them. When he heard Harrison enter, Oliver shot him as genuine a smile as he could manage.
Serihk’s lips quirked up. “Is that so?”
“I think we want the same things.”
Oliver jerked back when Serihk barked out a laugh. The qesh untangled his hands and pressed his palms onto the surface of his desk. He stood up and loomed over Oliver, green stripes beginning to ripple up his throat. “I don’t. I think you want to exploit Southern Tava and everyone in it to enrich yourself and your family, and if you have to take control of the local government and undermine democracy and the rule of law to do it, then you will.”
Oliver pushed himself from his chair and opened his mouth to snap back but paused when Harrison stepped forward and placed a big hand on Serihk’s shoulder. He watched on in surprise as Serihk’s aggressive posture loosened and the green receded back below his collar. Then Harrison shot Oliver a stern but calm look.
“Both of you sit back down,” he said in his low voice with those rounded vowels. Serihk dropped back into his seat, and Oliver slowly descended as well until they were once again seated at the desk like civilized people.
Oliver took a breath and proceeded calmly, “There is nothing in my proposals that undermines democracy or the rule of law.”
“You are an unelected body attempting to control the running of a democratic state.”
“Through agreements with the properly elected officials.” Oliver raised a finger. “Officials whom the people have chosen to make agreements on their behalf.”
“Governor Tesh seems to feel you’re less making agreements and more making threats and bribes.” Serihk leaned back and lifted his chin challengingly.
He dropped it, though, when Harrison spoke from beside him. “I’d be more worried why this Governor Tesh feels threatened by money for education and healthcare.”
Oliver’s mouth dropped open in surprise at his sudden ally, but he jumped on the opportunity quickly. “Yes, exactly. His position isn’t in any way diminished by my proposals, quite the opposite.”
Serihk frowned. “Other than that you’ll own him.”
“I will not. My family will simply have a seat at the governing table.”
“A very large seat,” Harrison added, and Oliver shot him a look. Whose side was he on?
“Fine, yes,” Oliver agreed. “We will have a lot of power, but what Southern Tava gets in exchange is stability, jobs, infrastructure.”
Serihk scoffed. “Peace and prosperity? Is that right?”
“Yes, it is.” Oliver scowled. “You want to solve the refugee crisis in the surrounding system, I want to go home with a win for my family. We can find a compromise here, Emissary Serihk.”
“It was my terrible compromise that got us into this mess in the first place,” Serihk barked, red and orange flooding up his throat. “I won’t make the same mistake twice.”
Oliver gaped at him, and even Harrison stared before setting a hand on Serihk’s forearm. “Serihk—”
The door slid open with a hiss. Mal’ik and Patrick swept into the room, footsteps heavy on the soft carpet, with the klah’eel woman on their heels.
Mal’ik reached Oliver first and grabbed his upper arm with more force than he had that day in the courtyard when his scent cream had dripped off. “We need to go. Now.”
A familiar feeling of alarm shot up Oliver’s spine, and he obediently jumped to his feet. Bodyguards had been grabbing at him and telling him to move fast his entire life. He’d learned quickly when it was time to listen.
Serihk was also moving, on his feet and meeting the klah’eel woman halfway across the room. “What’s happening?”
“We need to get off the ship.” She grabbed him like Mal’ik had grabbed Oliver and then barked at Harrison. “Bryant, now!”
She dragged the qesh out into the hall, Harrison on her heels and Patrick and Mal’ik frog-marching Oliver after them. Oliver’s heart pounded in his chest. His breath came in short gasps, and he realized distantly that he was panicking. Which made him panic more because he knew how dangerous it was to panic.
He reached blindly for where Mal’ik was beside him and found the metal wrist of the hand holding his arm. He wrapped his fingers around it and held on, letting the cool metal ground him as they hurried to the exit.
