"Not at all. But this morning a man on the street-that slimy Naszif creatureof Hadribel's-told me that Sagdet was murdered during the night. By thieves, perhaps. His house had been stripped of everything of value. But the timingstrikes me as remarkable and the nature of the death as unusually similar toseveral that have been claimed as executions by the movement."
The old man did not respond for a long time. Bel-Sidek waited him out, halfhis mind listening for a change in the street noise. There would be no gettingout if Joab was up to some elaborate ploy meant to net them. If he was alertthere would be time to silence the General and maybe himself while they werebreaking down the door and rushing the bedroom.
Morbid thoughts. These days, always the morbid thoughts, always the flexingthe muscles in anticipation of the worst.
"There is an operation already begun, Khadifa, that could mean the triumph ofthe movement. Right now it is young and vulnerable, like a newly hatchedchick. It must be nurtured. Exposure, even inadvertent exposure, through theprivateering of some of our brethren, could bring on the destruction of theentire movement."
A blatant grab for his sense of the dramatic. Bel-Sidek allowed himself adeprecatory snort.
"We have been drifting underground for months, to give Fa'tad and Cado theidea we're fraying around the edges and starting to fall apart. Except in theHahr, where Ortbal Sagdet decided to go ripping off on adventures of his own."
Essentially true, bel-Sidek admitted to himself.
"This is a crucial time, Khadifa. Every minute of the next six months will becritical. Ortbal Sagdet was never much of an asset, and lately had become adeadly liability. He was trying to spread the infection."
He spread it to Salom Edgit, of course. "But to have him killed ..."
"Could make of him an asset in death. You analyze the situation, Khadifa.
Armed only with the knowledge you possess as khadifa of the harbor. You'revery good at analyses. When you arrive at a superior solution, please informme."
"You said he would be here tonight."
"I said the khadifa of the Hahr would be here. I said nothing about OrtbalSagdet. See what's happening out there. Then fix breakfast."
The old man closed his eyes. Bel-Sidek knew he had been dismissed.
Before he reached the street door bel-Sidek understood that there had been no options with Ortbal. Not if they wanted Sagdet's organization intact and tameand doing what it was supposed to do.
Sagdet's death, with its signature, ought to have a salutarily instructionaleffect throughout the organization.
Necessary or not politically, bel-Sidek did not like them slaying their own.
The Dartars appeared to be doing exactly what it looked like they were doing: invading the maze. He reported that.
The old man said, "Fa'tad is tugging on Cado's mustache again. He knows theyhave a new civil governor coming and Cado is all tied up getting ready forthat. So the Eagle gives him something big and completely meaningless to drivehim crazy while he can't do anything. And maybe on the side, he's up tosomething sneaky. I'd vex Cado some myself if I dared."
"I see." Bel-Sidek went to make breakfast. The old man was probably right.
Fa'tad spent a lot of energy aggravating Cado. But it had no meaning beyondthe fact that they had an unhappy marriage. They still slept in the same bed.
When breakfast was done and cleaned up he took another look into the street.
The Dartars were dragging prisoners out now. Amazing.
He reported the development and suggested that it might be wise for him tostay home.
The old man told him to get his butt out of the house and down to thewaterfront.
Zouki was awake but pretending otherwise. It was morning now. He was all criedout but was still so scared he was numb. All he could think of was his mother.
Some of the other kids were talking. He wanted to yell at them to shut up. Buthe just lay there, being as small as he could, somehow hoping no one wouldnotice him.
The others fell silent. He could not help opening his eyes to see what washappening.
The biggest man he'd ever seen was fumbling with the lock on the cage door.
Behind him were two women with a shelved cart about six feet long. The shelveswere burdened with deep, covered dishes. He smelled it then. Food. Hot food.
It smelled good. He was hungry.
He sat up without considering what he was doing. He looked around. Hissurroundings surprised him. They were not nearly as awful as he had imaginedlast night. By the light of day he 'saw that the cage was huge. The children, while spread out, were all near the entrance. The cage was at least a hundredfeet across and fifty feet high. There were all kinds of trees and bushes andstuff in it. And birds in the trees, up high, almost to where the sunlightcame in through giant windows.
Down lower, he saw the curious faces of several rock apes peeking out of thebushes. The apes were as big as some of the kids. Maybe they were hungry, too.
The giant man got the door open. He came inside, started pointing his fingeraround like he was counting kids. When he was satisfied he beckoned the women, who rolled the cart through the entrance. The big man stepped in behind toblock the exit.
The women began handing dishes to children. Zouki noted that no one went tothem. Also, no one refused to take one of the deep stoneware dishes, orwhatever they were. The little girl nearest him whispered shyly, "You have toeat. Or they'll make you."
Now there was another cart coming, this one managed by four men. Zoukiaccepted a dish from one of the women. It was square, a little over a foot toa side, five inches deep, and elaborately decorated in designs in royal blue.
It was warm. He raised the heavy cloth covering.
There was a cup of something brown. There were two very small bread loaves, what looked like honey, and some orange segments. He did not recognizeanything else, but it all looked good, smelled good, and had to be expensive, the kind of stuff they had at home only on the most important holy days.
He started eating.
He felt better immediately.
The men from the second cart carried a thing like a trunk into the cage andset it down beside another exactly like it. It sloshed. So did the other whenthe men picked it up to take it away. That one was a kind of giant chamberpot. Zouki had seen the other kids use it and had gone to urinate into ithimself once he knew. There was another like it thirty feet along.
The men came back to exchange that. Then they hauled in a taller case andexchanged it for its twin. This one contained fresh drinking water.
The women had finished passing out food. They stepped away from the childrenand waited. The four men got shovels and bags and went back into the foliage, apparently to clean up after the rock apes. None of the adults said a word.
Some of the children finished quickly. What they did then seemed to depend onthe child. Some took their dishes to the women, who scraped the remains oftheir meals onto one of several metal trays sitting atop their cart. When oneof those was full one of the men took it into the foliage for the rock apes.
He brought a dirty pan back.
Most of the children were not bold enough to approach the women. They just left their plates where they were and moved away. The men collected them forthe women.
The giant man never left the entrance.
The adults all went away.
Zouki spent a long time in a bubble of fear, homesickness, and longing for hismother. But curiosity about the apes slowly intruded upon his misery. Hefinally went to see what could be seen.
Before he got to the foliage the men and women appeared again, pushing cartsthat were not the same as those they had brought before. Once more the giantstood guard after the carts had come into the cage.
Each of the women selected a child that she led to a cart. The kids went docilely. The women stripped them naked and lifted them into the carts andbegan to wash and scrub them.
The carts were tubs on wheels. Part of them, anyway.