WarAvocat spent a work shift adrift there, then half another, till he thought he sensed something. Then he sent for Kez Maefele.
Security brought the baffled alien. The Ku's bewilderment only increased when they just deposited him. "WarAvocat?"
"I want to solicit a professional opinion."
"Military? Isn't that absurd?"
"Some things change more than others. I've located a suit Gemina says will do you. The fit will be odd but you'll be able to do everything you need to in it."
"You want me to go EVA?"
"We're going into near vacuum, but right here. The place is its own best explanation. If you will?" He indicated the suit he wanted the Ku to wear.
"It's been a long time, WarAvocat."
"I'm watching you."
The Ku fumbled some with unfamiliar closures but he made no mistakes. War Avocat led him into Hall of the Stars.
"You've always had this? No wonder you defeated us. We made do with paper charts and our own memories."
"The same system was on line. There's more detail now." WarAvocat moved them to the quadrant of interest. "This is the corner where we're playing. The Sixth Presidency. Chart my first. The red line is the krekelen's track. The green represents the course VII Gemina has made. They don't match. We don't want it obvious what we're doing. And the earlier we get there the better our chance of catching them on the stool. Chart my second."
Blue set off a globe seventy light years in diameter. "I believe, and Gemina and the Deified concur, that the krekelen started out somewhere in here. That's where we'll find whatever we're supposed to find. I'm not taking the chase any closer. There'll be alarms. I'd rather not give our adversary warning."
"You appear to be maneuvering against what you would do were you running your enemy's game."
"I always go against myself. I'm the trickiest WarAvocat I've ever met."
"Why am I here?"
"If he plans an ambush, he needs a place to set it. Chart my third." The blue faded. "I used my own requirements for a site. Chart my fourth." Most of the stellar information vanished.
"Three tag ends. None with anything to recommend it as more likely than the others. None have been explored. I've eliminated everything else."
"So now we come to me."
"Yes. You operated in this starspace. The Dire Radiant explored at least two of those tag ends. Could you use one to ambush a Guardship?"
WarAvocat wondered if he had bet wrong. Makarska Vis would make big noises if he had.
"There's nothing off the ends of the farther two. The nearest is the only choice."
"Why?"
"There is a lot of cold matter there. Some large enough for major basing. And the basing exists. We used that end space a long time. And it was used by the Go and pirates before us. I'd bet it's been used by pirates since."
"Any other reason for choosing that tag end?"
"It has a back door."
"Explain, please."
"A month of hard running in starspace takes you to the G. Witica—S. Satyrfaelia strand."
"Chart. Show me the strand." WarAvocat studied it carefully. "I should have seen that." Would he have? Probably. In time. "Thank you for your help, Kez Maefele."
"I did not help you, WarAvocat."
"I know. You did it for the same reason you tried to warn them on V. Rothica 4. Access, OpsAvocat. This is WarAvocat. I have the information I need. Take us to Starbase."
As he helped the Ku shed his suit he said, "I think I just gained another month on the bad guys."
— 35 —
Valerena pretended a calm she did not feel as she took her seat. The Directorate room was like many such in which the courts of power had convened through the ages. Quiet, large, comfortably furnished, overly warm. She, Blessed, Lupo, and his friend were last to arrive. Maserang and Worgemuth pretended she did not exist. Old Commodo Hvar looked confused.
Valerena was confused. Lupo had brought his friend into the room. They had assumed stations behind the refreshments bar. Never before had Lupo intruded here, let alone one of his people. Provik was not a Director.
Then, too, her father and his Other were both present. They occupied opposite ends of the room and were having a great time trying to out-Simon one another. There was no telling which was which.
Blessed slumped in his seat, the bored scion present only by compulsion.
Lupo made the Directors nervous. They knew he was. His presence was not reassuring.
"All right! Let's have a little order here!" one of the Simons bellowed. As though anyone was being rowdy.
"A little order! Knock off the farting around. We got desperate business."
Only Blessed continued his show of indifference.
Everyone knew a conspiracy against Simon Tregesser had been discovered. Names had gotten around. Enemies of the accused were eager for the bloodletting. Friends viewed the future with trepidation. Maserang and Worgemuth faced it in stark terror.
Neither Simon mentioned the matter.
They went off on a zany duet about insurrections on worlds belonging to the House. According to them the Tregesser fortune was being bled white. The House was being gutted. All because of a few incompetent managers.
"We are being destroyed! Devoured! We have to act now, today! We have to get those fools out of there! We have to put in managers of proven skill and decisiveness. I call for—No! I demand!—a vote removing the following near-traitors, before they do us more harm." He named six names. Valerena knew none of them. They could not be much. Eager to get to the blood feast, the Directors approved the dismissals immediately.
"In this extremity our proconsuls must be the best and most reliable." He nominated Valerena, Blessed, Maserang, Worgemuth, and two old men he had loved to hate since childhood. He demanded a vote confirming their appointments.
Blessed was not bored anymore. He sat rigidly upright. He stared at Lupo, who smiled at some private joke.
Her timing perfect, Provik's companion brought Valerena something aswirl with color in a tall, frosty glass. She said, "You owe Lupo a life."
Valerena looked at Provik. He nodded.
So. This was fetor from Lupo's brain. Clever. Cruel. Convince Simon that exile was a fate worse than death. She might have guessed.
And was it not more cruel? Was it not? To be marooned a thousand light years from home and the wellsprings of power and her own intricate systems of security? Lupo would make sure there was no way out.
Right around the table those smug, grinning bastards voted to throw her off Tregesser Prime.
What choice did they have?
Defeat had become a rout.
And the conquerer was not done exacting his revenge. "The times are desperate! There isn't a moment to waste! Voyagers await you, quivering to be on the Web and away! Hurry! Hurry now! The Voyagers await."
What a marvelous family and existence.
"I'm going," Valerena told Blessed. "But I won't let him harry me into a frazzled rush."
"Cover your home base, Mother. We won't be gone long. He won't last longer than it takes his Guardship to erase him."
The two Simons charged around, tried to drive everyone out of the room. "I thought this was supposed to be a Directorate meeting...."
"Mother! Even I know nothing gets settled here. Grandfather decides how the vote will go before he calls a meeting."
Valerena was thinking about her Others. In the tumult of a hasty move, some could get lost without being missed.
She smiled thinly. Then noted Blessed smiling his own smile.
What was that little wretch up to now?