That set me back a little. "Play that one back," I told him. "'Broke security'?"
Barnard looked almost pityingly at me. "I expected better of you, Mr. Montgomery." And with that, he reached out to cancel the connection.
"Wait," I barked. "Just wait a tick, okay?" Barnard's face shifted into an expression of much put-upon patience, but at least he didn't hang up. "I'm not running a scam here," I told him as sincerely as I could. "I don't know what the frag you're talking about."
"I seriously doubt that."
"It's true, frag it all," I shouted back. 'Tell me what the frag you're talking about. Then, if I did 'break security,' I'll snivel and crawl and kiss your hoop at midday in downtown Kyoto, or whatever the hell you want. But at the moment I honestly don't know what the frag you're accusing me of."
Barnard gave a long-suffering sigh. 'The Ali'i, Mr. Montgomery," he said wearily. "Your meeting with the Ali'i. It was supposed to be confidential." He hesitated. "Or, at least, the fact that you were serving as my agent was supposed to be confidential.
"Yet what did you do? Virtually the moment you left the Iolani Palace, you started spreading the word that you were a corporate emissary, conveying personal messages from the Corporate Court to King Kamehameha V. Do you have any understanding of how damaging that has been?"
I shook my head. "Bulldrek, I did that!" I shot back. "Pure, unadulterated kanike, okay? I didn't tell anyone. Look somewhere else for your security leak, goddamn it."
Barnard's voice was deceptively quiet, and his expression had settled into a cold, emotionless mask. "But I did look elsewhere, Mr. Montgomery. With no success whatsoever. You are the only possible leak."
"Bulldrek I am!" I shouted again.
"If not you, then who?"
"What about Ho himself?"
"Ho?" Barnard laughed aloud at that. "That's the last thing Ho would leak. If the rival faction in the legislature plays their cards right-and there's no reason to expect that they won't-he stands to lose his throne… and possibly more. Try again, Mr. Montgomery, hmm?"
"Christ, I don't…" I pulled up in midbluster. Maybe I did know. "Do you know someone named Quentin Harlech?" I asked.
"The name doesn't mean anything to me."
"Then maybe you should run it through your 'puters and your databases and your legions of fragging informants, Barnard. I'd lay long odds that Harlech's the one who blew your op." Yes… as I spoke, I grew steadily more convinced that it had been the strange elf. After all, hadn't he as good as admitted that he'd blown my cover? I hadn't known what he was yapping about at the time, but now I thought I had it chipped.
Barnard's expression made it clear that he wasn't even a little convinced mat I was telling the truth. But at least he didn't seem to be quite so convinced I'd ratted him out.
"I'll run the name," he said slowly.
"While you're at it," I suggested, "why don't you tell me what the frag's going on here? Okay, so the word's out King Kam's talking to the megacorps. So what?"
Barnard sighed again, and shook his head. "Haven't you been paying any attention whatsoever to the political situation in the islands?"
"Like I told you before, I've had other things on my mind recently," I said dryly.
He didn't dignify that with a response. "Gordon Ho's position depends on a kind of balancing act, you might call it," he went on as if I hadn't even spoken. "The megacorporations on one hand, certain factions within his own government on the other."
"Na Kama'aina," I put in, just to show I wasn't totally brain-fried.
"Na Kama'aina, yes. If the Na Kama'aina faction can prove to the populace that their king is toadying to the megacorporations, the people will remove him from power. If, on the other hand, the corporations are dissatisfied with Ho's efforts to maintain a stable business climate, they will remove him from power."
I nodded: pineapple plutocrats all over again, neh? "So what's going on?"
"The former, of course," Barnard said flatiy. "Events have obviously been manipulated to stir up anticorporate sentiments-among the people as a whole, but more important among various militant groups…"
"ALOHA."
"Of course," he acknowledged. "You know, of course, that the assassination of Tokudaiji-san has been positioned as a corporate maneuver.
"And there have been other… provocative actions… as well."
I blinked at that. I hadn't heard of anything else, but then, as I'd told Barnard, I'd had other things on my mind of late, like dragons and high-velocity ordnance.
Barnard continued, "And now, your revelation that…"
"It wasn't me, frag it all!"
"It hardly matters," he pointed out coldly. "The revelation that the Ali'i has been enjoying private meetings with representatives of the megacorporations is damaging enough, regardless of its source."
"But hell, he's got to meet with megacorp reps sometimes," I pointed out.
"Of course. But it's the secrecy surrounding your actions that makes them appear so damaging. If Gordon Ho were truly acting in the best interest of his people-and not feathering his own nest through private concessions to the megacorporations-why would such secrecy be necessary?
"Consider the situation," Barnard went on. "How would you interpret a clandestine meeting between the head of your government and the personal representative of a senior megacorporate executive, hmm?"
Okay, frag it, I got the point. Sure enough, my paranoia would kick in, and I'd conclude the government muckamuck was cutting a private deal, and had his tongue firmly up the corp-rep's hoop. "So what kind of drek's coming down?"
"Just what you'd expect," Barnard said grimly. "Na Kama'aina spokespeople in the legislature are putting pressure on the Ali'i. Others are stirring up the populace against him."
"Any violence?"
"Not yet." There was a nasty tone of inevitability in his voice.
"What about ALOHA?"
"Policlub members are involved in the agitprop, as one would expect," Barnard explained. "So far, though, they seem to be keeping a low profile."
"But you don't expect that to last."
"No."
"And then what?"
Barnard shrugged, suddenly looking even older than he had the last time I'd seen him. He might as well have been withering away from some ugly wasting disease. (Frag, I found myself wondering, why do people go to the trouble of climbing the corporate ladder if it's going to harsh them out like this"!) "It depends, I suppose," he said quietly.
"On what?"
"On ALOHA's actions. On Gordon Ho's replacement, if his throne is actually usurped. The megacorporations don't take kindly to threats against their operations."
'They'll take over Hawai'i?"
Barnard nodded. "If forced to do so, yes, they will."
"So it all might come apart?" I leaned toward the screen. "Then get me the frag out of here, Barnard. This isn't my country. It's not my fight, and it's none of my fragging business, okay?"
"Unacceptable," he snapped instantly. "I need someone on-site to keep me informed on developments."
I pounded the table; the telecom jumped. "Frag you, Barnard!" I yelled. "You don't need me. You've got Christ knows how many spooks and stoolies and squeals and yaps and informants!"