"I can't, Kissur. The people are waiting for me there."
"I beseech you, Shavash, don't do it. I ask you in the name of our friendship. It's not befitting for a Weian official to ape these stupid Earthmen and to take part in the elections."
Shavash giggled drunkenly.
"Is it your personal request?"
"No, I speak on the other's behalf."
Kissur didn't say "other person's". He never called the Emperor Varnazd a man. The Emperor was always a god in his eyes.
"Is he, in whose name you speak, afraid of me winning the elections?"
"You are not worthy of heading the country."
Everybody was listening to this dialog breathlessly; soon afterwards, it was to acquire the most fantastic details added to it. Both Kissur and Shavash were boozed up to the hilt and what a sober man has on his mind, a drunkard has on his tongue…
Shavash laughed.
"What would you offer me instead, Kissur?"
"Anything you wish. You wanted Iman. (The sovereign gave to Kissur a lot of land in the oil-rich areas of Iman). Would you like me to cut Yadan down?"
Shavash giggled louder. He swayed and grabbed Kissur's shoulder to avoid falling. Then, he missed a step and dropped on his knees. His lips touched Kissur's hand.
"Kissur… Give me Idari and I won't participate in the elections."
Everybody froze not comprehending yet what was happening. Kissur was the first one to react. His hands were next to Shavash's face, they suddenly locked together on their own and Kissur hit Shavash with his locked hands in the chin.
The vice minister sailed in a long arch through the air and landed with his back on the banquet table. Sauces and appetizers flew to the sides and priceless fifth dynasty china plates were smashed.
Kissur grabbed the object that was closest to him and it was a tall five candle chandelier in the shape of a burning rose on a bronze rod and rushed at Shavash roaring wildly. At this point, Bemish and Shavash's guards tackled him and if it had not been for them, Kissur would have certainly slaughtered the welcoming host. As it was, he had to limit himself to killing one guard and leaving another one disabled.
The next day Bemish came to Kissur's manor to beg forgiveness. Green with hangover, Kissur lay in a wide bed with a broken hand in a sling. Bemish had broken this hand yesterday.
Kissur's brother, Ashidan, and Khanadar the Dried Date sat at Kissur's feet and they weren't particularly welcoming towards Bemish.
"Son of a bitch," Kissur said out of his pillows. "I'll kill him anyway."
He meant Shavash.
"You were drunk," Bemish objected, "You will still make peace."
Kissur laughed hoarsely.
"Don't be an idiot, Kissur! Shavash is just a horny goat. He almost took Inis away from me! He sleeps with the wives of all his employees!"
"Exactly. He sleeps with everything that has a hole between its legs whether this hole is in the front or in the back, he never leaves the pubs, he drags his brat even to the negotiations with Galactic Bank and he dares to ask me to give him my wife!"
The elections for the first Weian parliament took place on the fifth of Shuyun, July, 17th by the interplanetary calendar. The overwhelming majority of the electorate — 67.5 % — voted for the party of the people's freedom, the ex-sect Following the Way.
The same day, the sovereign declared the results invalid and issued arrest warrants for Yadan and Ashinik, two best known leaders of the sect.
Yadan disappeared. Ashinik escaped to Earth. His arrival caused a huge sensation in the liberal media. He was a charming twenty two year old young man with perfect English, a year's working experience as a vice president in a large trans galactic company and a one year college experience in an elite business school. He totally didn't look like somebody accused by Weian authorities of terrorism, manipulation of people's minds, mass hypnosis and the literal understanding of the electoral campaign slogan "Earthmen are demons."
Two days after his escape, Ashinik gave a long interview on the seventh intergalactic TV channel. He explained all of the rumors attacking the party of the people's freedom in a very simple way. The officials had decided to run the elections hoping to obtain more power than they had before. When the people's party won the elections, the results were declared invalid and a huge incomparable libel campaign started against the party.
They asked Ashinik if his party was going to nationalize the foreign companies' property if it came to power.
"No," Ashinik answered, "but we were going to make businessmen and financiers of the Federation of Nineteen follow the Federation's laws."
As an example, Ashinik referred to Terence Bemish. Mr. Bemish had created one of the largest industrial companies on Weia and Ashinik had worked for him for a year. Terence Bemish bought eighteen million dollars worth of Ichar non-ferrous metals facility stocks in an hour after his friend Shavash had cleared this facility's sale to MetalUranium Company and a day before the deal went public. Terence Bemish made thirty million.
Terence Bemish bought twenty million worth of gold loan bonds after Shavash's close friend Oshin had announced that the payments on this loan's interest would possibly be postponed; this announcement dropped the bonds' prices by forty percent. Oshin was fired in a week, the bonds' value grew back to the same level and Terence Bemish made sixteen millions. In a week, Bemish hired Oshin as a manager of one of his funds.
"These actions resemble insider trading too much; they would cause legal proceedings to happen anywhere else in the world," Ashinik claimed.
"Clearly, Terence Bemish has bought securities knowing that their value would increase sharply. Persecution of these criminal activities doesn't threaten the market. On the opposite, it would guarantee equal opportunity for everyone. As for Assalah Company," Ashinik explained, "it hasn't only provided ships with landing opportunities; it also has allowed the ship owners to avoid paying import tariffs. A conveyor belt of export-import companies was created at the spaceport with every company's life time being two months. Accordingly to Weian regulations, a company should issue tax reports every two months and, if it exists less than that, it just doesn't pay any taxes. Of course, the local officials knew everything about it but they were browbeaten or bought off. The companies were used for two purposes. Mostly a successor company would fulfill its predecessor's obligations in full but sometimes, if Bemish or Shavash needed to punish somebody, the successor would not pay for the goods or, inversely, wouldn't deliver prepaid merchandise. It was not difficult since most freight didn't have accompanying documentation issued. That's why Assalah imports were thirty percent cheaper than imports via any other spaceport."
"Does it mean," a journalist inquired, "that having gained power you will collect all the tariffs in full?"
"No," the clever Havishem graduate answered, "quite the opposite, we will lower tariffs. We are against protectionism and limiting foreign trade. But I would like to stress that Yanik's government charged some companies and didn't charge the others. This is not protectionism of domestic industry. They favor some importers at the price paid by the others and this is even worse than protectionism."
The journalist inquired how conscientiously Assalah paid its taxes and Ashinik said that the year before last, Bemish had paid the taxes with the bonds of bankrupted Weian National Bank. The trick was that Bemish had bought the securities on Exchange at 7 % of their face value while the state budget accepted them at 100 % of their face value.
The last year they started experimenting issuing tax promissory notes on Weia. These promissory notes were securities based a company's debts to the treasury. Everybody knew that Bemish wouldn't pay anything on these promissory notes and they cost 3–4% of their face value. Bemish bought them at this price via dummy fronts and he didn't have to pay the taxes this year anymore. Bemish also acquired a lot of promissory notes of the companies that he had some designs for and the state helped him to exchange the notes into the stocks of these companies.