Kresh looked around the room at all of them. Leving, Devray, Welton, Melloy, Beddle, Verick, Phrost, Caliban, Prospero. The humans among them looked edgy, upset, nervous. Even the two robots looked a bit ill at ease. As well they might. “Fredda, you’re here because I assumed you’d want to see the end of it. You’re in the clear. As for the rest of you,” he said, “I have a problem. A very simple problem, but one with no simple solution. And my simple problem is this: It has come to my attention that you’re all guilty.”
It took a full ten seconds of stunned silence before they started shouting their denials.
15
“ALL GUILTY OF different crimes,” Kresh said. “But guilty just the same. You were the one that did it, Cinta.”
Cinta Melloy looked startled. “Me? Are you out of your mind? I might have a little dirt under my nails, but I didn’t kill anyone.”
“No,” Kresh agreed, “you didn’t. But you were the one who gave me the clue I needed. “ And it did no harm at all to rattle you and everyone el. \”e in the room by saying it that way, Kresh thought.
“What clue was that?” said Cinta.
“At the fire,” Kresh replied. “You said something about not being invited, and showing up anyway. ”
“That’s your big clue?” Cinta asked.
“That’s my big clue.”
“I hardly see how those words are the basis for accusing anyone of murder,” Prospero said.
“Oh, you and Caliban don’t need to worry about murder charges either,” Kresh said. “You are here precisely because I no longer suspect you. You have cleared yourselves of all charges-aside from attempted blackmail-without anyone realizing it.”
“How so?” Caliban asked.
“By not connecting the term ‘Valhalla’ to a garbled rendition of its meaning, “ Kresh said
“Alvar-Governor Kresh-for stars’ sake stop playing games!” Fredda said. “Just tell us whatever it is you have to tell us.”
“Be patient, Fredda,” Kresh said. “We’ll get there. ” He turned to the robots. “Caliban, Prospero, you told Donald. Now tell me-and I would urge you not to hold anything back, if you value your survival. When you came here, to this office, to meet Grieg, what was your plan?”
“To threaten him with the simultaneous exposure of every scandal on this planet if he decided to exterminate the New Law robots,” Prospero said.
“And you made this threat?” Kresh asked,
“We did, couching it in the most polite terms possible, “ Prospero said. “However, he did not seem at all upset or perturbed by it. ”
“I would go further than that,” Caliban said. “He seemed rather amused by the idea, as if he didn’t for a moment think we would carry it out.”
“And would you have?” Kresh asked.
The two robots looked at each other, and then Caliban spoke. “We were to meet the next day and begin preparing our materials for release,” Caliban said. “Then we heard that Grieg was dead, and of course canceled the plan. ”
“How did you get your information. ” Fredda asked.
“Slowly,” Prospero said. “Gradually. The rustbacking network is full of tipsters and rumormongers. And there is an old axiom to the effect that those who would seek the truth should follow the money. We studied a great number of transactions, legal and otherwise. They taught us much.”
“Tell me some of what was in that material,” Kresh said. “No, better still, let me tell you. You had proof that Simcor
Beddle here was taking Settler money-perhaps without knowing that he was taking it. ”
“But I-” Beddle began.
“Quiet, Beddle,” Kresh said. “You’re not Governor yet. Right now you’ll speak when spoken to. ” He turned back to the robots. “You also had proof that Sero Phrost and Tonya Welton were in the smuggling business together. ” Another little stir of reaction, but Phrost and Welton both had the sense to keep quiet. “Proof that Tierlaw Verick’s bidding group had been bribing government officials. Verick was also linked to the rustbackers-along with half the planet, it seems to me, but I doubt you would divulge that little tidbit.”
“Now just a moment,” Verick protested. “I did no such-”
“Quiet, Verick. ” Kresh said. “And you also had proof that Commander Devray and Captain Melloy here were both in possession of proof of criminal acts in high places and were not acting upon that information.”
Devray and Melloy seemed about to protest, but Kresh cut them off. “Not a word, either of you,” he said, with enough steel in his voice to silence both of them. “Both of you did have such information, and both of you informed Governor Grieg of it. Justen, you told him about Tierlaw’s bribery, and, Cinta, you told him about Sero Phrost smuggling Settler hardware and passing the proceeds to the Ironheads. I’ve seen Grieg’s files. I know. Grieg didn’t do anything about the information, either, for the same reasons you both kept quiet.”
“And what reason would that be?” Phrost demanded, daring to speak.
“He was afraid that if he pulled on one thread, everything else would unravel, “ Kresh said. “ Arrest Sero Phrost, and Phrost would implicate Tonya Welton. Grieg needed Welton’s support. Grieg also knew the Spacer bid on the control system would probably collapse without Phrost. Arrest Verick, and Grieg knew he would lose the Settler bid on the system.”
Devray looked confused. “But wait a second. The robots just said that Grieg didn’t seem to care if they blew the lid off everything.”
“Exactly,” Kresh said. “Because, on the night he died, he knew it didn’t matter anymore. He had made his final decisions about the control system, and about the New Law robots. He was going to announce them the next day. What the robots were doing was threatening to sweep all his enemies out of the way, and threatening to do so at the exact moment he no longer needed to keep his enemies happy. “ Kresh turned toward the robots. “He couldn’t smear his opponents without making himself look very, very bad. But you two could. You were threatening him with the biggest favor of his political career.”
“It couldn’t all be good for him,” Melloy protested. “With that much mudslinging set loose, he would have gotten messed up a little himself. Someone would have tried to fight back.”
“Fight back at who? The robots?” Kresh asked. “They were the ones about to release the material, not Grieg. But even if you’re right-and you probably are-Grieg would have accepted any amount of damage to his prestige if it meant getting rid of Simcor Beddle.”
“And you are saying Grieg no longer cared because he had made his decisions,” Caliban said. “Might I ask what those decisions were, and if you intend to abide by them?”
“I do not wish to answer either of those questions, just at the moment,” Kresh said. “I have a rather cryptic note Grieg made to himself. I believe it contains his answer. But I don’t need to decipher the note. Tierlaw Verick here has done it for me.”
“He told you what Grieg had decided?” Fredda asked. “When? I never heard it.”
Tierlaw Verick opened his mouth to protest again, but then thought better of it.
“Good thinking, Verick,” Kresh said. “If I were you, I wouldn’t say one thing more.”
“But what did he say?” Fredda asked. “What did I miss?”
“You heard everything I did,” Kresh said. “And his reactions told me what Grieg’s decisions were. ”
“Then he was telling the truth,” Caliban said. “When he came out of Grieg’s office, he told Prospero and myself we were going to kingdom come. An archaic reference to the hereafter. He was telling us that Grieg had decided to destroy the New Law robots.”
“And that scared the hell out of you, and you went into Grieg full of bluff and bluster and threatened him before he even had a chance to tell you he intended to destroy you. ” Kresh shook his head. “A mistake. A very serious mistake on your part. ”