This Day All Gods Die (45 page)

'discuss' this matter."

For a moment Hashi seemed more present. His tone sharpened. "Marc Vestabule has not named his concerns, but you know them as well as I do. Certainly Warden does." Then his abstraction distanced him again. "For that reason—

among

others—

he has complied with Vestabule's demand. He is duty-bound to stave off bloodshed and damage if he can. And he hopes to prevent the defensive from attacking you immediately. He has not spoken to us since he went aboard. His shuttle is in transit from Calm Horizons.

"When you receive Warden's orders, you must decide how—

or indeed whether—

to carry them out."

The suggestion of frailty in Hashi's voice increased.

"Even if the Amnioni's concerns are resolved to his satisfaction, I believe Warden will not be released. Calm Horizons will retain him in an attempt to ensure our compliance. Hence I consider him a hostage. I mention this so that you will comprehend all the consequences of refusing his instructions."

"I understand, Hashi," Min pronounced acidly. "Just because I'm ED doesn't mean I'm stupid."

Hashi ignored her retort. Still wanly, he continued, "In addition, you must decide how best to answer Holt Fasner's demands. In some sense, his importunity is justified. He owns the UMCP. Were it not for the War Powers provisions of our charter, he would be entitled to req every scrap of data we possess, and to treat with Calm Horizons himself. And even under conditions of war, he retains the power to fire Warden.

Doubtless he would cite 'malfeasance' to account for his action."

Morn and Davies both winced at the idea. Was Holt Fasner capable of firing Warden while the UMCP director was being held hostage? Despite the fact that Warden was risking his life to save millions of others? Apparently Hashi thought so.

However, Min heard Hashi's statement in other terms.

She cocked her head. "But he can't fire us, Hashi. Can he?"

"No." Hashi's reply suggested a grim satisfaction.

"Only the UMCP director can do that. The great worm must dispense with Warden and replace him. Until then we are secure."

Min permitted herself a thin sigh of relief.

"I might also say," Hashi went on, "that in my view it is open to question whether UMCPHQ would accept a replacement under these conditions. Our Warden has never inspired more loyalty here than he does at this moment."

Morn nodded in recognition. She might have felt that way herself.

"All right." Min straightened her shoulders. "I have the situation. I'll talk to Center in a minute." She paused to collect her thoughts, then pursued, "But you still haven't told me what your duties are."

"Ah, Min." Hashi's voice seemed to drift away from the speakers. He sounded almost unreachable as he asked, "Are you entirely certain that you wish me to answer you in the presence of Ensign Hyland and her cohorts?"

"Of course not," Min retorted. "I have no idea what you might tell me." Immediately, however, she corrected herself.

"Yes, I'm sure. They have a right to know what's at stake.

And I'm not exactly in command here. Ensign Hyland can shut me down if she doesn't like the way we treat her. I need her support."

Without transition Hashi's distant frailty disappeared.

"Then I will explain." His voice became a precise wheeze in the speakers, brisk and clear. Min must have given him the response he wanted: a kind of permission.

Morn had the frightening sense that her position was about to become even more difficult; that in his oblique way Hashi would put as much pressure on her as he could.

He began by saying, "Calm Horizons has come upon us at a complex time. As you might suppose, our estimable Governing Council is in emergency session as we speak. I believe President Len opened the proceedings—

oh, perhaps ten min-

utes ago. Thus events conspire to produce marvels of synchro-nicity.

"As you might further suppose, our newly anointed colleague, PR director Koina Hannish, attends the session. She has been charged to speak for Warden while he is otherwise occupied."

Morn started to ask what had happened to Godsen Frik; then bit the question down. She wasn't sure she wanted an answer. It was common knowledge that he'd worked for Holt Fasner.

"I venture to say, however," Hashi expounded, "that no supposition will prepare you for the nature of the mandate which Warden has given her."

Min listened in a state of coiled poise; but she didn't interrupt.

"Director Hannish," Hashi pronounced, "has been instructed to reveal that our Captain Thermopyle is not an escaped illegal—

as I personally assured the Council scant days ago, on Warden's direct orders—

but is rather a welded cyborg

sent to effect Billingate's destruction. By implication, of course, she must admit that Captain Thermopyle's success has motivated the acts of war committed by Calm Horizons."

Angus jerked up his head. "I'm damned," he murmured in astonishment. "He was serious. That fucker was serious."

Morn had no idea what he meant—

or why Warden might

have ordered Hashi to lie to the Council—

but she didn't ask.

Hashi wasn't done.

"Further," he continued, "she has been told to describe the manipulations by which passage of the Preempt Act was obtained."

Davies frowned confusion at Morn. He hadn't heard Angus explain the Preempt Act. Min's clenched attention, and Dolph's closed stare, revealed nothing. Angus glanced at them, then whispered to Davies, "I'll tell you later."

"Lastly," Hashi stated, "if corroborative evidence can be obtained, she has been authorized to accuse CEO Fasner of sending kazes against both the GCES and the UMCP."

Min's head jerked aside as if to avoid a blow—

an instinc-

tive reaction of which she seemed unaware. One hand clutched at her hip, groping for the gun she usually carried. Captain Ubikwe made a choking sound deep in his throat. In the distance Glessen muttered, "Fasner? That bastard?"

Kazes—

? Mutely Morn turned to Angus.

He shrugged. Apparently this was a subject he knew nothing about.

Only Patrice attended his board—

Patrice and Mikka. The

rest of the bridge crew stared at Min in shock or incredulity.

Tensely Min asked her pickup, "Is it true?"

"I believe so."

Past a veil of thrust static Hashi continued, "You will be unaware that there has been another attack. In addition to the kaze who threatened Captain Vertigus, and the one who slew poor Godsen, a third attempted detonation during a session of the Council, specifically during a session in which Captain Vertigus attempted—

and failed—

to obtain passage for a Bill

of Severance which would have relieved us of the Dragon's authority."

Min bit down questions while Hashi said, "Fortunately our casualties were slight—

and included none of the Mem-

bers. Unfortunately the good captain's Bill was defeated.

However—

again fortunately—

the kaze's earthly remains hint

at his origins.

"Hence our belief that these assaults derive from the great worm in his lair."

Grimly the DA director finished, "In essence, both Chief of Security Mandich and I have been assigned the same duties.

Each in our own province, we must do what we can to substantiate Director Hannish's accusation. Considering that the emergency session has already begun, the need for evidence is urgent. That is my work, Min, and I mean to do it."

"Good God, Hashi," Min breathed when he was done.

"He's going after Fasner. He's trying to bring the Dragon down."

"I drew the same conclusion," Hashi answered laconically.

Min might not have heard him. A moment later she added, "This will kill Warden. Even if he succeeds, it'll kill him."

Again Hashi's voice receded. Clearly he wanted to stop talking and get to work. "Perhaps that explains his willingness to hazard himself aboard Calm Horizons.''

Going after Fasner, Morn thought dumbly. She felt that she'd been stricken stupid. Trying to bring the Dragon down.

So much had happened—

there was so much she didn't know.

Authorized to accuse—

Kazes had attacked the GCES and the

UMCP? Sent by Fasner? Hashi said it was true, but it didn't make sense.

Why in the name of God—

?

Vector stood by the command station. Morn hadn't seen him move: she only realized he was there when he cleared his throat. His eyes shone a clear blue above his soft smile.

Quietly he remarked, "This might be an especially good time for the Council to hear what we have to say."

He knew no more than she did; had no more to go on. Yet he seemed to grasp the situation better than she did.

Was he right? Was Min? Was Warden Dios at last trying to clean up the UMCP?

She couldn't think of another explanation. It'll kill him.

He was willing to die in order to challenge the Dragon. Willing to be held hostage—

willing to risk mutation—

He'd sent this Koina Hannish to Earth to level charges against CEO Fasner. Then he'd put himself out of reach so that Fasner couldn't give him any more orders; force him to commit any more crimes.

Or fire him.

Morn reeled inwardly. Gulfs gaped at her on all sides.

The sheer scale of the desperation which must have driven Warden to such extremes stunned her. He understood self-destruct as well as she did—

But what if he was wrong? What if Holt Fasner hadn't sent kazes?—

or if Hashi Lebwohl and Chief Mandich failed to find evidence? What then?

Then the UMC CEO might survive the challenge. And the only man in human space who could have opposed him would be gone.

Unless somebody intervened—

Unless somehow Morn did what Vector suggested.

Min had recovered faster than Morn could imagine. She was already in command of herself; prepared to make choices and take action. She may have been training for this crisis all her life.

"All right, Hashi," she told the pickup decisively. "Two more quick points, and I'll let you go.

"Can that defensive read our scan net?"

The DA director sighed in the distance. "Surely. This is Earth, not the frontier. The volume of traffic demands data which is both plainly and promptly accessible. Until now we have had no reason to encrypt the net."

"Then shut it down," Min ordered. "Our ships can get by with their own sensors."

"Calm Horizons also has sensors," Hashi observed.

"Just do it. The less help we give her the better."

"As you say," Hashi assented. "And the second point?"

"Tell Center to relay communications from Calm Horizons to me. Also anything from Fasner. And the emergency session. But keep it all tight-beamed. I don't want eavesdroppers.

"I'll talk to Center as soon as I sort out some of the confusion here."

Hashi was in a hurry to leave. "Farewell, Director Donner," he said at once. "Your orders will be obeyed." Despite his eagerness, however, he paused long enough to add, "I do not envy you your responsibilities."

Then an audible click silenced his pickup. The speakers were left with nothing but static and open space.

"Good-bye, Hashi," Min murmured into the void. "I'll talk to you again. If we both live long enough."

She set an example which Morn felt compelled to match.

Davies' wordless urgency required it: Vector's understanding and Mikka's prostration and Ciro's madness begged for it.

Captain Ubikwe and his people deserved it. Even Angus Thermopyle, welded and damned, had a right to it.

A better answer.

She couldn't imagine that Marc Vestabule would allow her time or space to address the Council.

Cray closed the speakers, and a new quiet filled the bridge. Everyone around the command station might have been waiting for Morn to speak.

She didn't look at any of them. Her eyes were fixed on the scan blip which represented Calm Horizons, where Warden Dios had gone to meet his doom.

"I think," she said softly, "we should try to rescue him."

There was no one else who could make the attempt, KOINA

With a war of one kind im-

pending hundreds of k over

her head, and a war of another directly in front of her, Koina Hannish entered the crowded chamber which Abrim Len had decided to use until the Council's formal meeting hall could be cleaned and refurbished.

This room was normally set aside for conferences with the planet's news dogs; but the communications gear and data terminals of the video networks had been commandeered, rerouted, and coded for the use of the Members and their aides.

The twenty-one voting Members and a restricted number of their aides and advisers clustered at the terminals they'd been assigned, studying UMCPHQ's downlink, while President Len scurried around the room like a frightened hare, fussily arranging people to suit some standard of precedence or common interest known only to himself. Perhaps, Koina thought, he kept himself busy in this way in order to avoid demands or special pleading; attempts to take over the agenda of the emergency session.

In any case no one seemed to pay much attention to him.

Most of the room was in the grip of a nascent hysteria which seethed from wall to wall independent of the President. The whole space reeked of visceral terrors like rank sweat.

At first it appeared that there was no place left for her.

Despite Len's restrictions, the chamber already held more people than it had been designed to accommodate. Then she spotted three vacant seats in a corner near the dais usually used by Members to address newsdogs. They didn't offer access to a terminal; but she didn't need one. She had two of her PR communications techs with her: one to concentrate on her private downlink, one to keep UMCPHQ informed of what happened here. Deputy Chief Ing and his guards could stand against the walls.

Unfortunately the empty seats were right beside those occupied by UMC First Executive Assistant Cleatus Fane and his staff. Apparently someone—