Before breaking contact, Jedrik had another point to make.
"You recall that in those final days, Broey increased the rations for his Human auxiliaries, his way of saying to them: 'You'll be turned out onto the Rim soon to tend for yourselves."'
"A Dosadi way of saying that."
"Correct. We always held that thought in reserve: that we should breed in such numbers that some would survive no matter what happened. We would thus begin producing species which could survive there without the city of Chu . . . or any other city designed solely to produce nonpoisonous foods."
"But there's always a bigger force waiting in the wings."
"Make sure Aritch understands that."
***
Choose containable violence when violence cannot be avoided. Better this than epidemic violence.
The senior attendant of the Courtarena, a squat and dignified Gowachin of the Assumptive Phylum, confronted McKie at the arena door with a confession:
"I have delayed informing you that some of your witnesses have been excluded by Prosecution challenge."
The attendant, whose name was Darak, gave a Gowachin shrug, waited.
McKie glanced beyond the attendant at the truncated oval of the arena entrance which framed a lower section of the audience seats. The seats were filled. He had expected some such challenge for this first morning session of the trial, saw Darak's words as a vital revelation. They were accepting his gambit. Darak had signaled a risky line of attack by those who guided Ceylang's performance. They expected McKie to protest. He glanced back at Aritch, who stood quietly submissive three steps behind his Legum. Aritch gave every appearance of having resigned himself to the arena's conditions.
"The forms must be obeyed."
Beneath that appearance lay the hoary traditions of Gowachin Law - The guilty are innocent. Governments always do evil. Legalists put their own interests first. Defense and prosecution are brother and sister. Suspect everything.
Aritch's Legum controlled the initial posture and McKie had chosen defense. It hadn't surprised him to be told that Ceylang would prosecute. McKie had countered by insisting that Broey sit on a judicial panel which would be limited to three members. This had caused a delay during which Bildoon had called McKie, probing for any betrayal. Bildoon's approach had been so obvious that McKie had at first suspected a feint within a feint.
"McKie, the Gowachin fear that you have a Caleban at your command. That's a force which they . . ."
"The more they fear the better."
McKie had stared back at the screen-framed face of Bildoon, observing the signs of strain. Jedrik was right: the non-Dosadi were very easy to read.
"But I'm told you left this Dosadi in spite of a Caleban contract which prohibited . . ."
"Let them worry. Good for them."
McKie watched Bildoon intently without betraying a single emotion. No doubt there were others monitoring this exchange. Let them begin to see what they faced. Puppet Bildoon was not about to uncover what those shadowy forces wanted. They had Bildoon here on Tandaloor, though, and this told McKie an essential fact. The PanSpechi chief of BuSab was being offered as bait. This was precisely the response McKie sought.
Bildoon had ended the call without achieving his purpose. McKie had nibbled only enough to insure that Bildoon would be offered again as bait. And the puppet masters still feared that McKie had a Caleban at his beck and call.
No doubt the puppet masters had tried to question their God Wall Caleban. McKie hid a smile, thinking how that conversation must have gone. The Caleban had only to quote the letter of the contract, and if the questioners became accusatory the Caleban would respond with anger, ending the exchange. And the Caleban's words would be so filled with terms subject to ambiguous translation that the puppet masters would never be certain of what they heard.
As he stared at the patiently waiting Darak, McKie saw that they had a problem, those shadowy figures behind Aritch. Laupuk had removed Mrreg from their councils and his advice would have been valuable now. McKie had deduced that the correct reference was "The Mrreg" and that Aritch headed the list of possible successors. Aritch might be Dosadi-trained but he was not Dosadi-born. There was a lesson in this that the entire ConSentiency would soon learn.
And Broey as a judge in this case remained an unchangeable fact. Broey was Dosadi-born. The Caleban contract had kept Broey on his poison planet, but it had not limited him to a Gowachin body. Broey knew what it was to be both Human and Gowachin. Broey knew about the Pcharkys and their use by those who'd held Dosadi in bondage. And Broey was now Gowachin. The forces opposing McKie dared not name another Gowachin judge. They must choose from the other species. They had an interesting quandary. And without a Caleban assistant, there were no more Pcharkys to be had on Dosadi. The most valuable coin the puppet masters had to offer was lost to them. They'd be desperate. Some of the older ones would be very desperate.
Footsteps sounded around the turn of the corridor behind Aritch. McKie glanced back, saw Ceylang come into view with her attendants. McKie counted no less than twenty leading Legums around her. They were out in force. Not only Gowachin pride and integrity, but their sacred view of Law stood at issue. And the desperate ones stood behind them, goading. McKie could almost see those shadowy figures in the shape of this entourage.
Ceylang, he saw, wore the black robes and white-striped hood of Legum Prosecutor, but she'd thrown back the hood to free her mandibles. McKie detected tension in her movements. She gave no sign of recognition, but McKie saw her through Dosadi eyes.
I frighten her. And she's right.
Turning to address the waiting attendant and speaking loudly to make sure that the approaching group heard, McKie said:
"Every law must be tested. I accept that you have given me formal announcement of a limit on my defense."
Darak, expecting outraged protest and a demand for a list of the excluded witnesses, showed obvious confusion.
"Formal announcement?"
Ceylang and entourage came to a stop behind Aritch.
McKie went on in the same loud voice:
"We stand here within the sphere of the Courtarena. All matters concerning a dispute in the arena are formal in this place."
The attendant glanced at Ceylang, seeking help. This response threatened him. Darak, hoping someday to be a High Magister, should now be recognizing his inadequacies. He would never make it in the politics of the Gowachin Phyla, especially not in the coming Dosadi age.
McKie explained as though to a neophyte:
"Information to be verified by my witnesses is known to me in its entirety. I will present the evidence myself."
Ceylang, having stooped to hear a low-voiced comment from one of her Gowachin advisors, showed surprise at this. She raised one of her ropey tendrils, called, "I protest. The Defense Legum cannot give . . ."
"How can you protest?" McKie interrupted. "We stand here before no judicial panel empowered to rule on any protest."
"I make formal protest!" Ceylang insisted, ignoring an advisor on her right who was tugging at her sleeve.
McKie permitted himself a cold smile.
"Very well. Then we must call Darak into the arena as witness, he being the only party present who is outside our dispute."
The edges of Aritch's jaws came down in a Gowachin grimace.
"At the end, I warned them not to go with the Wreave," he said. "They cannot say they came here unwarned."