His eyes were open in slits. They tracked Turtle without emotion or apparent interest.
"I have come."
Askenasry's response came from a machine, a laryngal whisper amplified. "You have taken your time." His words came in little rattle-tat bursts interspersed with soft coughing.
"I have come before."
"At my insistence. Refusing payment for a service."
The argument was ancient. Turtle refused the bait. Let the man fade into the darkness not understanding that he would have helped anyone that faraway night. The ancient did not need the strain of a clash of philosophical sabers. "I have come now."
"To collect? At last?"
"Yes."
"What is it? Passage? Credit? Documentation?"
"No. I want you to save some hotheaded young fools from the consequences of their foolishness. As I once saved other youngsters from their foolishness."
Askenasry stared the grey steel stare that had made him so intimidating in his prime.
"A krekelen came to Merod Schene. It carried the old whisper of rebellion. There were ears to hear it. And now there are hands to dabble at revolution."
"The krekelen were exterminated when I was a pup."
"A krekelen came. I saw it."
Askenasry did not argue. "Where is this fabulous monster now?"
"Aboard the Cholot Traveler Glorious Spent bound for P. Jaksonica 3. Cholot Varagona."
Disbelief faded to doubt in old grey eyes. "What do you want?"
"This time they call themselves the Concord. They have the usual plan for taking down the High City and making a punitive landing impossible by seizing the garrison arsenal. They are immune to reason. They do not believe in Guardships. I want you to whisper in the right ears. I want them forestalled till the Guardship comes."
"What Guardship?"
"The Guardship that will come after the krekelen tries landing on P. Jaksonica. Cholot Varagona lies under the Ban."
"This is all you require?"
"It is enough. Lives for lives."
"I have no power these days."
"People still listen when you speak, Lord."
"You would be surprised at their deafness."
"I doubt it. Your species' indifference to reason ceased to amaze me long before you were born. Let the garrison make a show of force. Let them round up known instigators. Let the boot rest heavily. Let it cause a howl. But stop the nonsense. So there will be a Merod Schene when the Guardship goes its way."
The old man did not respond. His eyes had closed. For a moment Turtle feared he had wasted his passion. He looked at the Troqwai, appealing....
The physician did not move. Turtle relaxed. The killer had not come. Otherwise the magician would have been plying his artifices. House Troqwai gave no quarter when it wrestled Death.
Lord Askenasry's eyes opened. He struggled after a smile. "I'll do what I can. To repay you, not because I give a damn what happens DownTown."
"I understood that before I came. Your motive is not important so long as you do the deed." Turtle offered a slight bow, added that little propitiating gesture of crossed fingers expected by the Troqwai, backed from the room.
The physician moved toward his charge as though floating. He bent to look into the old man's eyes.
Carla took Turtle to the carrier. Soldiers hustled him aboard. He saw nothing of the High City going home, either.
— 9 —
Tension chained knots of muscle across Third WatchMaster's shoulder and up the back of his neck. He lusted after another relaxant, dared not indulge. Another would turn him goofy.
It was the intimidating judicial formality of Hall of Decision. He hoped the inquestors would discover no reason to interrogate him.
Hall of Decision had been opened for the first time in decades. The Deified had come down from their screens and donned hologramatic guises.
Third WatchMaster shared the witness dock with the krekelen (wrung dry by I & I and passive as a potato), the soldier who had captured the beast, her battalion commander, several citizens of Cholot Varagona DownTown, Chief Timmerbach, Magnahs, and Director Otten. Facing them on a lone elevated throne was the avatar of the Deified Kole Marmigus, nominal master of VII Gemina. True power resided in the Dictats, enthroned at either side of Marmigus at a lower elevation. Marmigus's main function was to oversee the annual election of the pair who commanded the Guardship.
Significantly, one Dictat's throne was empty. Hanaver Strate had chosen to sit as WarAvocat, centering the rank of three thrones below those of the Dictats. He was unwilling to maintain a Dictat's objectivity.
Banks of thrones to the sides of the Hall were occupied by the Deified. This was the first Third WatchMaster had seen them all together.
So many! Hundreds upon hundreds.... But three millennia was time enough for countless deifications.
Third's gaze crossed that of the soldier who had captured the krekelen. She was tense and bewildered, out of her depth.
The ceremonials in honor of the tutelary ended. The Deified Kole Marmigus rose. "That's the folderol out of the way. Let's dispose of the cut and dried so we can get to the entertaining part."
Third WatchMaster was astonished. Marmigus alive had had a reputation for informality and irreverence, but in a formal inquiry dignity was mandatory.
"Up first, disposition of the krekelen. There is no ambiguity in the law. The damned things were judged useless. The only thing we can do is kill it. But WarAvocat has petitioned for a stay. He may be able to use it against those who loosed it. Anybody object? No? WarAvocat, you've got your pet."
Hanaver Strate was playing a strong hand these days, getting elected Dictat while he was still alive, getting this without demur from the contentious Deified.
"Next item. Disposition of the Cholot Traveler Glorious Spent. I and I and STASIS can't fabricate a case for detaining the vessel. Its Chief has asked that the quarantine be lifted."
Third WatchMaster snapped to attention, clicked his heels, shot a fist into the air.
"Commander Haget?" WarAvocat offered the recognition.
"Deified sirs. Stipulating that nothing concrete has been established, nevertheless I wish to insist that there is something very wrong aboard the Traveler."
Timmerbach cursed.
WarAvocat beamed down at Third WatchMaster.
Intuition had done him right.
Others looked at him like he was a treacherous shill for WarCrew.
Strate asked, "What disturbs you, Commander? The aliens?"
"Yes, sir."
"Isn't their documentation in order?"
"It's impeccable, what there is of it. But it's awfully thin."
"Exactly! Thank you, Commander." WarAvocat continued, but Third WatchMaster could not hear him. A pillow of silence had fallen upon the witness dock.
Timmerbach continued grumbling against fate in general and no one in particular.
WarAvocat appeared to be making an impassioned statement against resistance from the Deified. That made no sense. Arguments could be battled out in the electronic realm in picoseconds.
The truth struck him as a pair of shipboard security types entered the silence to fetter the krekelen. WarAvocat and Deified, krekelen and witnesses, all were part of a dramatization for slower biological minds. If any crew were watching.
"Sir?"
"Yes?" A sinking feeling. More security types had appeared.
"WarAvocat would like you to join him in his quarters. Will you accompany us, please?"
Third WatchMaster turned, marched, mind numb.
— 10 —
Simon Tregesser kicked his closed personal grav sled across Central Staff's vast Information Center, came to a hover behind Lupo Provik. He turned up the gain on his prosthetic eyes, still could not make out what interested his strategist. "Fresh data, Lupo?"