Yuen-Mong's Revenge (45 page)

 
     
The beaming face of the mayor was replaced by the scene in the Palo
night sky. Almost instantly, the noise level in the conference hall rose to
pitch level.

     
Atun went to the lectern, raising his arms, trying to call for silence. It
took several minutes. There was only a sliver of obscuration left on the
Palo moon. He noticed that several people were probing around the
equipment and Anouk with signal measuring devices, shaking their
heads.

     
"Participants, what you have seen is, as Yuen-mong Shen has said, the
first demonstration of instant space communication. HST signals to or
from Palo take about twelve standard hours. Instantcom has no delay."

 
     
The murmur that had persisted rose again in intensity.

     
"Please, have the courtesy to let me speak… You can have your laugh
afterward, but as Yuen-mong said, she will have the last laugh. Instantcom is the work of one of the foremost communication researchers the
galaxy has ever known, Dr. Takash Scardan, Yuen-mong Shen’s father.
He disappeared over twenty standard years ago on his way back to
Andromatis from Santori, where he had just supervised the extension of
the HST network to that mining planet. He was diverted to Aros, the
planet of no return, to investigate the mineral composition of its ring. The
only records of his instantcom work remained lost in a space ship that
was orbiting Aros during all these years. It was rediscovered by Yuen-mong Shen and myself when we managed to escape Aros a few months
ago, and we have now demonstrated its feasibility. The equipment is
completely portable and in time will be reduced in a size to little more
than a hand-held video interface connected to the helmet worn by a
medium who merges her or his mind with an equally equipped matched
medium somewhere in space — in a space ship in transit, a space station,
or on another planet. It is a process akin to telepathy that happens outside
the full awareness of the two mediums. That is all I’m willing to disclose
at this time, for obvious reasons, nor will I entertain any questions now.
Thank you for your forbearance."

 
     
In the uproar that followed, he went over to Anouk and helped her
finish packing the equipment. Ignoring the protests of the session chairman and other officials, they quickly left the stage by a side door to the
waiting transport vehicle, the same one that had picked them up at the
space port.

* * *

Chen Young did not attend the conference. He had attended many and
now left it to the younger members of his family to do their duty.
Although the telepathy sessions were known to be good entertainment,
he had not gone to any, not since his youth, when he enjoyed them as the
highlight of several conferences. Many presentations were intended to be
deliberate hoaxes. There was a spirit of competition who could come up
with the most implausible ideas and present them in a believable manner
that left many people in the audience confused and uncertain. And woe
to those who sincerely believed that their work on telepathy should be
taken seriously. They often ended up as the laughing stock of the
conference. But he had been too busy for idle fun of that sort while he
was actively leading UniCom in either the capacity of chairman or co-chairman. As he had gradually withdrawn from active involvement in the
day-to-day management of UniCom three years ago when his son became
chairman of the board, he had again begun following some of the proceedings via their broadcasts. So this year he made it a point to tune in on
the telepathy session.

     
After a supposedly humorous but actually boring introduction, the
cameras focused on the first speaker. The name sounded vaguely familiar
and then he recognized Atun Caruna and with him was a young woman
that he thought he had once seen at his grandson’s villa, although she was
in an elegant, stylish dress. Was Yuen-mong back? His son’s contacts on
Palo had never been able to trace Vishnu, except for two stays on its
moon after it had already departed from there.

     
When Yuen-mong’s face appeared on the screen, wearing a helmet,
he instantly knew that this was not the beginning of a hoax, but that she
was finally going to reveal her hand. He recognized the very distinctive
silhouettes of the mountains north of Cherni and admired her cool and
poise in response to the calls and laughter from the audience. Yes, she
would have the last laugh, and it would cost UniCom dearly. He found
it difficult to reconcile the many facets of her that he had learned to know
— her humility toward him, her warmth for Mai and Ming, both of whom
were very dear to him, her seemingly naive, almost juvenile response to
the Foundation Covenants and rules, the deep, lingering sorrow over her
parents’ death revealed in her song to their souls, and now this.

     
That was it! The missing pieces of the puzzle suddenly fell into place.
She blamed her parents’ death on UniCom. In her eyes all of them were
guilty, and this was her revenge, a revenge as ruthless as the way she had
dealt with his son’s inept people. She knew what it implied. Had she not
sold her shares to his son, even at a bargain price? The fool. He reached
for his comunit and called him. It took a long time before the call was
answered and his son’s ashen face appeared on the screen.

     
"The bitch, how could she do this to us," Ko Young spouted
immediately, "and there she boasted that she never lied; not telling us
that she had found the records of Scardan’s research in Vishnu’s system."

 
     
"Ranting won’t get you out of this. Pull yourself together, and she did
not lie. Did you ever ask her directly about it? … No, you only hinted and
she parried you cleverly. But that is of little importance now. Have you
already contacted Kim Deng?"

 
     
"No, but I will shortly."

 
     
"And what strategy do you have in mind?"

 
     
"We have to get hold of them and their equipment. Once we have that
we can declare it a hoax, the most elaborate ever concocted. I think that
will fit in well with her notoriety. Maybe we should even have her put
into seclusion and get rid of her lover and the girl. That should be no
problem."

 
     
"You have not learned anything, have you? Do you expect that she did
not foresee this possibility? Do you know where Caruna and the equipment are? Your people did not even know that he was back or would
present at the conference. Caruna left right after the presentation. He will
be out of your reach again and, if you catch him, all you will do is to
botch it up again. But the difference now is that, if anything happens to
any of them, the finger will be firmly pointed as UniCom. I predict that
UniCom will already be blamed for the previous two failed attacks. Once
the press has realized that this is no hoax, and that will be in eight hours,
she will become a hero superwoman. Don’t even think of touching her,
Caruna or the girl. We have to find a way to work with her. That may be
the only way to salvage what is left of UniCom."

 
     
"Why do you always defend her? She deceived you. She destroyed
your family’s heritage."

 
     
"I am not defending her. I only recognize that she has a superior mind,
a mind that we must harness for us, not fight. We are bound to lose. If
you finally get that into your thick head, then maybe we will get
somewhere. I told you that you would rue the day you bought her shares."

 
     
"Yes, she did it on purpose, and I am now in serious financial difficulties… Father, I will get back to you later. Kim Deng has just signaled."

 
     
Chen Young remained sitting, pondering, watching the conference
broadcast absentmindedly. The session had degenerated into chaos. The
session chairman’s repeated appeals were ignored. More and more people
were squeezing into the already packed hall. The announcer reported that
all other sessions had emptied out and that the committee was considering canceling the rest of the sessions for the day.
She never does anything
by half measure,
he mused idly. What will her next move be? Will she
set up her own company and will this spell the end of UniCom? With its
monopoly gone, its major source of revenue would dwindle, leaving little
or no profits. UniCom might as well get out of that business and put
whatever resources were left into its subsidiary activities, shrink to
twenty percent of its current size. The demise of the Young and Deng
dynasties, unless she could be brought inside.

* * *
 

Half an hour after Atun and Anouk exited from the conference hall, Miss
Blacey ushered them into Syd Twan’s office.

     
"Mr. Twan will be back shortly," she apologized. "Please make
yourself comfortable."

 
     
Atun set up the equipment once more and Anouk got ready, the
helmet in her lap. They would connect with Yuen-mong shortly, this time
in the presence of Syd Twan. When he entered the office, Atun noticed
that he was in a state of extreme agitation. He did not even greet them,
but immediately asked: "What has Yuen-mong done now? I just heard
that the UniCom conference has been thrown into chaos. The rest of the
afternoon sessions have been abandoned. The news broadcast said that
this was the most elaborate and most ingenious hoax ever presented at a
telepathy session." His face was one big question mark, as he looked at
Atun, then at Anouk’s helmet and the equipment.

     
"Mr. Twan, you’ll know in a moment. Anouk, are you ready?"

 
     
"What are you doing?" questioned Syd Twan.

     
"Hasn’t Yuen-mong told you that she would contact you around this
time and that she wanted us present?"

 
     
"Yes."

 
     
"Then let’s start. Anouk, signal when you have contact."

 
     
He turned on the equipment. A few seconds later, Yuen-mong’s face
appeared on the flat screen he directed toward Syd Twan. They could
hear her voice.

     
"Atun, Anouk, thanks, thanks. We did it… Syd, it’s really me."

 
     
Anouk turned to Syd.

     
"What you see is the way I see myself as I stand in front of a mirror,"
Yuen-mong continued. "And this is no hoax. It is communication over
space without delay. I’m still in Cherni on Palo and I will depart with a
planetary shuttle to Palo City in a few hours, when it’s daylight here, and
then will board the daily commercial liner to Androma.
I will
be there in
nine days."

 
     
It took Syd Twan a moment to recover. "So this is what you two were
up to. You realize you ruined UniCom? And the attacks on you were not
robbery, but attempts to stop you. Do you have no respect for your own
life? You could have been killed."

 
     
"I faced that possibility whenever I left my cave on Aros. But I didn’t
contact you to get a lecture."

 
     
"Sorry, Yuen-mong, that was not my intention. It was my deep concern for your welfare… I now understand why you wanted to get rid of
the UniCom shares. Indeed a very smart move and sufficiently ahead of
time that it could not be called insider trading."

 
     
"No, Syd, you do not understand. The reason for calling you is that I
want you to buy as many UniCom shares as you can get your hands on."

 
     
"But they will be worthless? Within a day or two their price will have
dropped to a few cents."

 
     
"That’s exactly the point. Once they’ve reached rock bottom and
before they start to recover, say when they are down to between 5 and 10
percent of their current value, I want you to buy as many as my liquid
assets allow you to, up to 51 percent."

 
     
"I see, you want to get control UniCom. But why? It will be a
worthless company. There are much better investments to increase your
wealth."

 
     
"Syd, I have my reasons, and I
cannot
reveal them to you now, nor is
more wealth my aim. So, please do what I ask you to, and do it in a way
so that nobody knows that you’re acting for me. Atun suggested that the
purchases be made by a dozen or so independent agents and that they
have clear and explicit instructions not to bid against each other."

 
     
"I see. You realize though that only the shares not held by the Young
and Deng families will be offered for sale and probably not even all of
those. So there is no chance of getting 51 percent."