What's up? What're you doing these days?"
"Working in the shipyard. As if you didn't know."
Bel-Sidek did know. He kept track of those few of his men who had come homefrom Dak-es-Souetta. "What is it?"
"The younger men there, they bring me their problems. I had a beauty turn uptoday. You were the only one I could think of who could maybe help solve it.
And like a gift from Aram, here you are. I saw you, it was like a command fromthe gods."
"I don't follow."
"Wait till I explain. I don't know if you're connected or not, but you're theonly one I could think of who might know somebody involved with the Living."
Bel-Sidek did not respond.
"One of the guys-certainly not connected in any way-has convinced himself he knows the identity of a Qushmarrahan who was as guilty of treason during thewar as al-Akla. He kept it to himself. But now he's stumbled across somethingto make him think the traitor is in a high place in the Living. He fears thatonce in Herodian pay, always bought."
"Eh!" Bel-Sidek rolled it around in his mind, a small part of him hoping hewasn't sweating, blanching, or otherwise giving himself away. "Exactly what doyou want, Sergeant?"
"Mainly, I want to figure out if the guy is imagining things. He believes it, but people believe impossible things every day. I never heard of any traitorbut al-Akla. I sure as hell ain't heard of one that was as important as him inhow things came out."
"I know of no such man myself but that doesn't mean one didn't exist. Come.
I'll buy you a lunch while we let reason gnaw at this." Bel-Sidek suspected hehad given himself away but had a feeling the risk would be worthwhile.
"I won't name you any names, Colonel."
You will, my friend. You will if we want you to. He glanced at the man. Andmaybe you wouldn't. You were always a stubborn bastard.
"We'll set the hounds of reason loose first, eh?"
They went into a place that served good bheghase, a thick and spicy fish andvegetable soup into which the fish was introduced two minutes before serving.
It was an indulgence bel-Sidek allowed himself too seldom.
He savored a few mouthfuls before saying, "Granting that no names need benamed, I'll have to have a clue or two with which to work. Is your friend aveteran?"
"Who isn't?"
"A point. Not many. Dak-es-Souetta?"
"No."
"Ah. Now we're getting somewhere. A vet, but not of Dak-es-Souetta. Works in ashipyard. Must be a building tradesman. Most of those were in the fieldengineer outfits assigned to the Seven Towers. I presume he knows aboutwhatever because he saw it happen. If it happened." He looked at Billygoat.
"You fishing for an opinion?"
"Yes."
"He believes it, like I said. If he hadn't sounded like a man trying to carryan unbearable load I wouldn't be here."
"The Seven Towers. I'll have to research it. The Herodians had me in chains while that was happening."
"I can suggest what to look for."
"Uhm?"
"The Seven Towers were supposed to hold out long enough for the allies, thereserves, and the survivors of Dak-es-Souetta to assemble on the Plain ofChordan. But they didn't."
"Could one traitor have been the reason the strategy didn't work?"
Billygoat shrugged. "I was five men down the chain from you."
"I'll find out. I'll ask someone who was there. Thank you, Sergeant. Enjoy thebheghase." Bel-Sidek limped away hurriedly, headed for the Pellan merchantman.
Two of the men on his stevedore crew had fought at the Seven Towers. One had been an officer, amilitary engineer.
He rounded the two up. "Take an early lunch."
One man, bel-Pedra, depended entirely upon his income from stevedoring. "We'reliable to get fired." There were limits to the sacrifices you could ask.
"I'll take care of it."
"What's going on, sir?"
"I've just discovered that I need some background about the Seven Towers andwhat happened there. Something's come up where it could be important for me toknow. Malachi?"
Malachi was the man who had not yet spoken. He got off the bale where he hadbeen seated, settled on the battered timber decking of the pier. "You've beenthrough the pass, sir?"
"Never. We went out along the coast road."
"Yes. Demolishing the bridges behind you so the enemy, if victorious, had tocome to Qushmarrah through the hills."
"Do I detect a critical note?"
"Call it a disgruntled note, sir. For five generations that was the strategy.
But when it was put to the test it didn't work."
"It should have."
"In theory." Malachi used a finger to sketch an imaginary chart. "The roadruns into the pass heading due east but when it gets to the crest it elbowssixty degrees south. There are four towers on the outside of this curve, twoon either side of the summit. Three on the inside curve, with the middleperched on the crest. No names, just numbers, with the odds to the outside, evens in, counting from the far end. Number Four is the keystone piece. It'sthree times as big and defensible as the others.
"Note the angular relationships between the towers. When all seven are intactonly One and Seven have much of a shadow where they don't get supporting firefrom the other towers. That isn't big enough to exploit well. Four has noshadow at all.
"Interesting from your professional viewpoint, I'm sure," bel-Sidek said.
"What went wrong?"
"I don't know. We took away every option but reducing the towers in series."
"Sounds like the hard way."
"Hard, but the cheapest way for them. Also the slowest, which is why we wantedthem to do it that way. Their sappers and engineers were good, but we madethem pay dear to take One, Two, and Three. What happened later I don't know. Iwas in Three."
"Bel-Pedra?" bel-Sidek asked.
"I was in Five, sir. I don't think I can help much. They went after Four likelions for three days and didn't get nothing but bloody noses. Then the suncomes up on the fourth morning and there's the Herodian standard showing uptop and heralds down front telling us they'd make us rich if we'd just openup. We dumped the toilet pails on them and they went away. Five minutes laterwe were taking fire from the heavy engines on top of Four. Whatever happened, the guys there never had time to destroy those."
Bel-Sidek pursued that tale a little, not because he was interested butbecause he did not want his next question to sound especially important. Hegot the two men to discuss Herodian tactics in the assaults on the varioustowers. Then he asked Malachi, "Did they try to get Three to surrender beforethey attacked?"
"Oh, they tried that with everybody. A matter of form. They have some kind oflaw. They got the same answer every time, and they expected it."
"Uhm. Bel-Pedra, you'd better get back to work. Malachi, I have a chore foryou." He let bel-Pedra depart. "Go over to the new Herodian shipyard and findBhani Sytef. You want a list of all employees who were at the Seven Towers.
You want to know which tower they served in. He's supposed to know things likethat, but with so many working there I'd be astonished if he actually did.
Just get a list of those he does know about. If it isn't enough I'll get backto him."
Malachi rose. He looked puzzled. "What's going on?"
"I don't know. But the big boys are trying to connect some people up with someother people and the only lead they've got is that maybe these guys were allin the same outfit at the Seven Towers."
Bel-Sidek was well known to the Living in his quarter, but very few knew himto be khadifa of the waterfront. At every level he appeared as the agent ofthe men a step or two up the chain of command. There were risks. Bel-Sidekfelt having access to all his men all the time was worth those risks. Theharbor quarter was the busiest for the Living and needed the most directattention.