The damned fool!
No wonder he had arranged to be late. There would be no arguing with him now, in front of the Outsiders, who believed they were getting the real things as hostages.
The damned fool! For the sake of an artifact!
Two darted into Lupo's office. "Cue up the meeting. Blessed pulled a fast one."
Provik did it, saw the artifact, cursed, called Cable Shike, Nyo Bofoku, and Tina. They were scattered everywhere, the former two sent out on business by Blessed. All three claimed ignorance. The Blessed Other, from the Fuerogomenga Gorge castle, said, "He wanted to get away. He wanted to spend more time with Midnight."
Lupo disconnected angrily. "That damned artifact. I knew she'd be trouble."
"What're you going to do?"
"What can I do? Live with it. Hope for the best. Too late to change it. The sneaky bastard."
Turtle glared at Midnight. She seated herself primly, undaunted. She was too happy. This madness brought her closer to what she wanted, Blessed all to herself. She did not comprehend what it meant to the House. And did not care.
And maybe the universe would be a better place if more people shared her priorities.
Turtle activated his star chart and presented a fifteen-minute outline of his strategy.
It was incredibly complex, would require every ship the Outsiders possessed, and battalions of Godspeakers, without whom it could not be coordinated. It would span the Sixth and Second Presidencies and nothing would be done the way it usually was. The first strike against Starbase would be made not by warships but by a flight of constructed projectiles with the mass of moderate asteroids. The battle fleet would approach from a direction the Guardships could not anticipate, after making a prolonged starspace crossing. The operation, once launched, would take ninety-six days to complete.
"Mr. Provik will distribute copies of the detailed proposal. It examines the operation at several levels of ambition. It proposes four result scenarios, including worst case, best case, median, and most probable. These were generated using data available through House Tregesser's intelligence services. You will find them promising."
It was a seductive report. Not that these men would need much seducing. They were desperate.
Provik distributed documents, insisting each visitor sign for his copy. Turtle explained that only thirty existed, one belonging to Provik, another to himself. Each was numbered. Its whereabouts had to be known at all times.
One found the silence unnerving. The Outsiders showed no more animation than robots. They accepted their documents, signed in a strange but perfect cursive, began reading.
Did the Ku suspect that Lupo possessed a thirty-first, unnumbered copy, to be used or not as he thought would best serve the House? He might. The bastard was too damned smart.
One settled beside Four, waited while the Outsiders read. She touched his hand. If they survived, it would be years before they would be with their family again.
For a while there was no sound but the rustle of pages or the soft clink of dinnerware at the sideboard. The Outsiders stayed away till their mummylike captain finished reading and helped himself to a spare lunch. He selected portions only from those dishes his hosts had sampled.
Suspicious old jerk! Wouldn't do him any good. Everything was spiked with just enough Jane to put everyone in a better mood.
When everyone had eaten the old man said, "There are critical data missing from this report."
One responded, "Operational details only. We can't give the thing away."
The mummy scowled at the Ku. "I note that some phases would be directed by yourself and your lieutenants."
"We have no doctrinal or political axes to grind. We have no personal ambitions or enemies to cause us to take false steps in order to make someone look bad. We have one enemy and one goal.
"You have no trained, competent commanders. You have men who carry out their orders. Your book on strategy contains two pages. Attack till the objective is achieved, no matter the cost. Defend to the last man. The Guardships love you. You get in line to be killed. Given the resources you commanded, I could have conquered Canon by now."
That got them.
That got One, too. The Ku was not given to exaggeration.
The mummy man glowered. "We will confer." He switched off the translator.
Lot of good that would do him.
Two told Lupo, "They're going to buy it. The Ku got them with a crack about how he could have conquered Canon with what they had."
"I wonder how."
"He did say Canon, not the Guardships."
"Any guess why they're being easy?"
"Desperation. And the notion that if the Ku comes through, they can get him to win their war."
Provik nodded. Kez Maefele had become a mythic character. "He won't win for them. He's decided the Guardships serve a useful purpose."
"And Blessed's little game?"
"We lay back and let T.W. front. And take a strong interest in guarding and educating Placidia. It's not likely we'll ever see Blessed again."
— 112 —
Cable Shike brought his aircar to ground beside Nyo's flitter. He had made good time but Nyo had done better. He hoped Nyo had himself under control.
It was coming together....
He forced himself to stroll through the castle. It was anyone's guess how many agents Provik had there. You couldn't find them all.
It was coming together perfectly.
Shike paid no attention to the opulence, handed down by Blessed's mother. He took it for granted. But ten years ago the setting would have paralyzed him.
He made the long climb to the viewing veranda where the walls met in a peak on the tip of a promontory overhanging the wildest section of Fuerogomenga Gorge.
Nyo was there already, attacking a platter of sandwiches.
Shike settled opposite him, back to the vertiginous view. ‘Trying to put on weight?" He grabbed a sandwich.
"I was too nervous to eat before."
"You need anything else, Cable?" Blessed asked.
"No."
Blessed dismissed a servant, one of the Ku's aliens. A hundred would be left behind.
"How are you?" Shike asked once the alien was out of earshot.
"Going through withdrawal."
Nyo said, "I plain don't understand what you're doing. You're legally the Chair. Why the rigamarole, sending Midnight off with your Other to fake everybody into thinking you ran away with your lover? I'm with you all the way. I always am. I'll do my part. But it helps when I understand. And this time I don't see the point."
Shike said, "Your reasoning eludes me, too." Though he had nudged Blessed along the path.
A thunderclap overrode Blessed's reply. The table danced. The castle shuddered and creaked. "Close," Bofoku said, glancing toward the parapet.
"It's active today," Blessed said. "Sunspots or something."
Shike forced himself to go to the edge, will in mortal combat with phobia. One such bolt often presaged a cannonade.
Fuerogomenga Gorge was four and a half kilometers deep here, and thirty wide. The bottom could not be seen. Cold air from the north flowed down into the moist air above a thousand hot springs and kept the canyon deeps veiled in mist. The region below the mist was known only through radar and infrared scan and unreliable remote telemetry.
Men had tried going down there. Most had turned back. Those who had kept going had not returned.
Sudden scatters of lightning shot between the ten thousand spires and buttes and islands which rose from the mist. Shike gripped the protective rail so tightly his knuckles popped. Six billion years of geologic history lay exposed down there, in those variegated layers. An eon and a quarter down, nearly two kilometers, there were what appeared to be artifacts left by an unimaginably ancient civilization. No one had yet recovered any of them, exciting as they were, though Blessed suggested that was because of House policy rather than any lack of ingenuity in providing safety for scientists and explorers.