The Iron Maiden (29 page)

“We, too, know the meaning of losses,” Hope said, and Spirit nodded, feeling the pain of what they had experienced in the refugee bubble.

“Madness”

“Two scorpions in a bottle,” Hope said.

Khukov smiled briefly. “Would that they were male and female!”

There was a period of silence. Then Hope changed the subject. “Shouldn't you be there, not here?” he asked.

“First I must negotiate a significant agreement, to show that I alone can defuse the crisis.”

“What do you need?”

“Your dance with the Premier of Ganymede is very pretty.”

“This would be more difficult at light-hours range.”

“Yet the game can be played with caution. I cannot say precisely what moves I will need to make, but if the madman responds only to me...”

Hope nodded. “And thereafter?”

“What would you have, Hope?”

Hope glanced at Spirit. “Disarmament,” she said.

Khukov looked at her, and for a moment she felt the eerie power of his understanding. He nodded. “Yet it must be gradual. First a hold, then failure to replace aging craft.”

“Agreed.”

They reached across the table and shook hands. Thus was the fate of the Solar System decided.

“I have a gift for you,” Khukov said after a moment.

“We did not come prepared for the exchange of gifts,” Hope protested.

It did not matter. Soon they separated, so that Khukov could make his way secretly back to his ranks and no one would know where he had been. In due course the shuttle docked at the flagship, and Spirit and Hope were ceremonially ushered aboard. They met formally with Khukov, under the cameras, using translators, he addressing them in Russian, Hope responding in Spanish.

Hope's words were reasonable, but there was a certain glimmer of madness in his expression, and Spirit cautioned him more than once, quietly, as if fearing that he was about to be set off. The Saturn officers present affected unconcern, but they noticed. Yet Hope responded fairly well to Admiral Khukov's direct attention; it was evident that Khukov had a superior touch. This was hardly surprising; it was that touch that had brought him to his present level of power--and would take him that one step beyond. Saturn was safer when his hand was at the helm, especially when dealing with the lunatic Tyrant. That was the point of this particular charade--and there was considerable truth in it.

Then came Khukov's little surprise. As they prepared to depart the flagship he held them one more moment. “Tyrant, allow me to present you with a token of my esteem for you,” he said in English.

A young girl, really a child of ten or eleven, approached. She held her left hand up. On the middle finger was a platinum ring, and mounted on the ring was a large amber gem. In fact, it was not merely the color of amber; it was amber itself.

Hope took the child's hand and peered at the amber. It was clear and finely formed, and deep inside it was embedded an insect--a termite. He smiled, taking this as a kind of little joke, for a termite was not a pretty bug. But Spirit perceived something else: this was no ordinary child. There was a curious vacuity about her, a lack of human emotion and expression. Had she been lobotomized? No, her reflexes seemed to be normal, merely uninvoked. Mind-wash? Possibly. Why had such a person been selected to bring the gift, instead of a pretty model? Spirit distrusted this, though she knew there was no threat to Hope.

She glanced at Khukov, and caught him looking at her. Again she felt that talent, so like Hope's own. It both intrigued and frightened her. This man was now a tacit ally--but what of the occasion when he was not? She smiled as if flirting, to cover her misgiving, and looked away.

“This is an interesting gift,” Hope said, glancing up at Khukov. “But it becomes the girl, and I would hesitate to take it from her.”

Khukov smiled. “No need, Tyrant.”

Spirit caught on. “The girl is the gift,” she murmured.

“The girl!”

“As you say, it would not be kind to take her treasure from her,” Khukov said. “I know you treat children well, Tyrant, and she is of your culture. You will find her interesting.”

Hope was evidently about to protest, but Spirit knew that would not be politic. “Thank you, Admiral Khukov,” she said firmly. “We shall see that she is properly treated. What is her name?”

“Amber,” he replied, and at that, the girl's eyes widened and her head lifted in recognition.

“Come with us, Amber,” Spirit said gently. The girl did not change expression, but she stepped toward Spirit. Evidently she understood. Spirit was bemused by the odd gift, but also by her own reaction to Khukov. The man had perhaps inadvertently shown her his power; were she ever alone with him, he would be able to take her to bed, if he so chose, exactly as Hope could do with any woman who caught his fancy. There was no chance of that happening, but it made her feel uncomfortably vulnerable.

So they returned to the shuttle and to Jupiter, bringing the strange girl with them. The first thing they noted was that Amber was mute. She understood what was said and responded to it, but she did not speak.

They had the medical staff examine her and ascertained that she had no congenital or other inhibition; she could speak but simply did not.

Amber was older than she seemed. Without her birth record there was no certainty, but physically she was about thirteen, not eleven. She seemed younger because she had not yet developed. This did not seem to be any artificial retardation, just natural variation. Hopie had assumed the physical attributes of maturity by the age of twelve; other girls might delay until age fourteen. The intellectual and social attributes took longer to complete, but of course this could be a lifelong process. Amber was healthy, just a little slow, physically and mentally. Certainly she was no genius.

Why had Khukov given her to Hope? He surely had not done so frivolously. He had to have had excellent reason. They would have to discover that reason.

Spirit set Amber up with Hopie, who had a room with Robertico. Hopie was entitled to a room of her own, but she was generous in this respect; she shared. Robertico was devoted to her and slept quietly when she was near. Amber, though only two years younger than Hopie--possibly only one year--was so obviously better off with company that it seemed best to move her in. The two of them became like sisters, the one highly expressive, the other silent, and Robertico like a baby brother. This allowed Hope and Spirit to proceed with the Tyrant business with minimal distraction, knowing that the gift girl was well cared for.

Hopie found the riddle of Amber as intriguing as Spirit did. She talked with the girl, or rather to her, for Amber never responded in words. Hopie soon became a kind of translator for Amber, ascertaining her preferences and informing others. Amber liked Hispanic food and didn't care for sonic showers; she preferred to wash up with a damp cloth. She always wore the amber ring; the only time she became truly distressed was when the medics tried to remove it for examination. They had finally compromised by examining it on her hand, the radiation showing up her finger bones as well as the interior of the ring, and she had no objection. Hopie wanted to teach her to read, for she seemed not to know how, but Amber just stared blankly at the printed words. She was unable to relate to anything more technical than pictures.

Soon Admiral Khukov was confirmed as Chairman of the Council of Ministers of North Saturn. The result was immediately beneficial to both parties. Saturn abandoned its effort to corrupt Tanamo Base, and the Premier of Ganymede retained his power. Trade, originally limited to sugar, gradually broadened.

The mock invasion of Ganymede faded from the media, and no one seemed to question the fact that there were no actual dead from that war. Hope, and therefore Spirit, got on with the complicated business of governing North Jupiter.

There were intractable problems to handle, and no easy solutions. Every proposed reform led to immediate complications, requiring modifications elsewhere in a chain of effects that all too often completed devious circles and came back to knock down the original reforms. It had been easy to see the flaws of the old system, but it turned out to be difficult to fix them. Taxation was an example: nobody wanted to pay, but everyone wanted to receive governmental benefits such as law enforcement, retirement income, medical care, and bubble maintenance. The intangible strengths and weaknesses of the economy determined much of what was feasible, regardless of the competence of the proprietors.

The trick was to work out acceptable compromises. It didn't seem to matter whether the administration was liberal, conservative, or radical; the compromises had to be hammered out.

Spirit tackled the problems with a will. This was similar to the administration of a growing battalion in the Navy. This was her element. Hope was the front man, putting his face on the Tyrancy, handling the myriad people involved, but though he had a keen understanding of matters, his heart was not in the dull details. Spirit's heart was; they were not dull to her.

Still, there were special problems. There were attempts to assassinate Hope, some of them clever enough to get past Coral and the secret service. Most of them never came to his attention; Spirit handled them and left him innocent. But some could not be hidden, like the laser beam from a floodlight when he made a public address in Nyork. He had been delayed a few seconds by a trifle--a child had begged for the touch of his hand, and he had obliged--so had approached the lectern late. The very precision of the trap's timing defeated it. He was unharmed, but much aware of the nearness of death. This made him nervous, understandably.

He mentioned this to Spirit. "I am being channeled into the trap of inadequate feedback from the people.

Yet, if I don't isolate myself, sooner or later an assassin will catch me. What can I do?"

“I face the same problem myself,” she said. "I am now too public a figure to employ my male disguise.

There have been more attempts on our lives than I have bothered you with; we are all hostage to our position."

“There has to be an answer,” he said.

She quirked a smile. “Go to Q.”

It was perhaps a joke, but he took it seriously. He donned a disguise and went to see Reba Ward. She, like all women with whom he had contact, was smitten with him, if not actually in his orbit. She would help him, but he would have to pay her price, and that meant sex.

He returned seeming somewhat shaken, and the girls teased him unmercifully. “Did she teach you anything, Tyrant?” Coral inquired.

“Um.” He obviously preferred to avoid the subject.

“Are you limping, sir?” Shelia asked.

He straightened up. “Num.”

“I hear those older women can have a lot of experience,” Ebony put in.

“Um.” He actually seemed to be blushing.

The four women exchanged a meaningful glance. Reba had evidently worked him over well.

Now it was Spirit's turn. “Did she answer your question?”

He spread my hands. “She never spoke!”

They all laughed. Then Shelia tapped her armrest. “She sent a message, sir: There will be an alternate identity created for you.”

So he would have not a place but an identity in which to hide. That answer was obvious in retrospect.

But there was another problem he did not yet know about, and Spirit was not at all sure how it should be handled. It was the girl Amber. Hope, with marvelous insight, interviewed her and solved the riddle of her gemstone. It was a mechanism that put her into a spot trance state and changed the language she could fathom. She could understand more languages than most of the others had heard of, but speak only Spanish--when set in that mode. He tuned her to Spanish, and suddenly she was completely communicative. But much of her mystery remained, because she did not fully know her own nature, so could not answer all his questions. In the course of their first full dialogue, the subject of Hopie came up, and Amber naively confided that Hopie blamed herself for Hope's separation from Megan. He hastened to clarify that this was not the case, but had also to clarify that sleeping in the company of a grown person of the opposite gender had a different meaning than what Amber experienced sharing a room with Hopie and Robertico. He was open about his relationships with other women. Amber was silent, assimilating that.

Technically, Amber was a member of the class sometimes called idiot savants. Her brain was in effect miswired. The material was there but could not be properly applied to the ordinary concerns of normal folk. Her intelligence, in Spanish, was low-normal; in other languages, she was technically a moron. But she could remember a certain amount of what she heard. That made her extremely useful when Hope was dealing with other planets; he took her along as a nominal servant or clerk, and she picked up on comments that others assumed Hope did not understand.

Coincidentally, Roulette had a dialogue with Hopie, and educated her on the military and pirate way of love, and told her that the one person Hope truly loved was Hopie's mother. Spirit of course could not say anything; Hopie and the Solar System believed that Hope was her father, and her mother anonymous. That was only the half of it. But the two girls surely had an intense exchange of thoughts about romance, love, and sex soon thereafter.

And therein lay the mischief. Amber, as it turned out, was actually fourteen, and though her body was just developing, her emotion was running well ahead. She was already in Hope's orbit, and now he had educated her on the sexual nature of adult interactions. She was suddenly in love with him, and every contact with him intensified her emotion. This was independent of her talent with languages. Hope himself was oblivious; he thought of Amber as a child, and assumed that the intensity of her attention to his words was because of the difficulty she had mastering new concepts. He did not recognize total adoration. He could be quite stupid when his own emotion was engaged, and it was. Amber in certain key ways resembled Helse, and that blinded him. He thought he liked her as the friend of his daughter, and for her linguistic usefulness to him, and he did, but that was hardly the limit of it. The two were together often, and this further strengthened her devotion to him.